Bianca CO #1

On Tuesday, March 4th, i had the opportunity of observing Alexandra Ramos Speaking class. at first, i didnt know what to expect from the class as a response to being observed. i had never been an observer and so i was a little skeptical of what to expect. the class i was observing was a group 2 class. At this level the students had some prior knowledge to the English language and could minimally articulate themselves.

I walked into the classroom a few minutes early to greet the teacher and let her know i would be observing her class and if she had a preference as to where i sat. she smiled and said sit anywhere!

shortly after, the room filled with around 15 students from all over the world. 2 new students had just transferred into the class from the foundations level. these students along with myself, went around and introduced ourselves. after the introductions and attendance was taken, ms. ramos recalled the previous lesson to engage the students interest in conversations with her and amongst each other.

the activity they were working on was the family tree and the parts of the family members. it seemed as though the first lesson was the basic names of family members: mom, dad, brother, sister, grandmother, grandfather, etc. the students were given a handout with an elementary sketch of a family tree. then the students were asked to use the new vocabulary to tell a story about how their parents met and how their grandparents met and what they do for a living. the stories were so captivating and ancient in a sense because i just imaged what their parents lives were like in their foreign countries.

todays lesson focused on more members of the family, such as: uncle, aunt, niece, nephew, step-parents, and in-laws. the students responded positively to the lesson and they seemed fully engaged in the conversation. their vocabulary was somewhat limited as they were still learning new vocabulary.

some common errors i noticed from the students was the lack of attention to the articles in a sentence such as: in, at, to, etc. Ms. Ramos tried to correct the students in their errors without belittling them. the students responded well to the task and seemed to enjoy the lesson.

the last activity was short self- assessment of the new vocabulary and the students were asked to create sentences joining the names of the family members, such as: "My aunt and uncle have a son, he is my cousin."
During this activity i offered my help and the students responded very nicely to me.

overall, i had a great experience in my first observation and look forward to observing other teachers for teaching tips and positive student engagement.

until next time...
B