Jackson CO #2

Date/Time: Wednesday, 6/23, 10:00am

Topic/Skill: Grammar, Group 1, simple present tense and vocab related to grammar

Teacher Presentation: The professor, Olivia James, had a google doc that she went through during the class that laid out the schedule for the class and all the activities that would be done during the day. She stuck to it but took her time explaining everything and was more than willing to take an extra second to make sure that every member of the class understood. She encouraged the students to speak and be confident. She made a really good analogy to the letter s being a snake that eats only 1 person at a time to help the students remember to put the s at the end of verbs in the third person singular of the simple present. 

Classroom management: The professor's classroom management was really fantastic. There were 6 students in the class, and she made sure to speak to all of them to keep them engaged the entire time. When explaining new words, she gave the definition and examples in English, then went to google translate and put the new words into both Spanish and Arabic for the students, who all spoke one of those languages. The biggest aspect of the class in my opinion was that she made sure every student understood and could correct their mistakes before moving on, even if it meant employing another student to help explain a term in the other student's native language to help them understand. 

Materials: The professor did not use a whole lot of materials, just google docs with the whiteboard and projector. 

Student Participation: The students were all active, engaged, and willing to learn. They all spoke in English unless instructed to do otherwise to help explain terms. Each student spoke up and contributed, which was nice to see. 

Feedback Provided: The feedback provided was quite entertaining. Professor James was quite loud and engaging, so when a student would make a speaking mistake, particularly leaving an s off a verb in the simple present, she would give a little yelp like it hurt. She would always laugh it off and kept every amount of criticism lighthearted and positive, helping students learn and not feel bad about mistakes. 

 

Lessons learned: I learned that making sure all students understand each new term presented is a very effective way of teaching grammar. Even if it means holding up the class for a second longer, keeping everyone on the same page, especially in a class that is this small and this new to grammar, keeping everyone up to date is a great way to do things.