David Sutton CO#1

On Tuesday Morning, March 4th, I observed an elementary level reading class of Ms. Candace Walters.  Class began right on time with Ms. Walters presenting the list of exercises she intended to cover for the hour.

Ms. Walters began the lesson by reviewing vowel pronunciation.  This exercise was conducted in the "repeat-after-me" fashion, whereby students pronounced each vowel in the exact manner as her.  Although the group repeated after her in unison, oftentimes she would single out a student to check for proper pronunciation.  In addition, she used one-word examples which best demonstrated each vowel, for example apple for "A."  In my opinion, this exercise is an excellent warm-up drill and really gets the class tuned up and focused for the rest of the lesson.

Next, Ms. Walters gave a pop-quiz.  The quiz challenged students to identify the correct word from a list of simple spelled words, with slightly different pronunciations, for example, rag, rig and rug.  She would pronounce one word and the students would select the correct word from the given list on the hand-out.  Simple enough for native speakers, but a real challenge for foreign language students. 

In the final exercise, Ms. Walters introduced her students to the reading technique SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite & Review), which teaches students how to approach and better understand a reading assignment.  After explaining the technique, she gave the students a reading assignment and had them apply the newly learned technique.  From my observation, this reading technique is very helpful but not easily mastered and requires continuous practice. 

In conclusion, observing Ms. Walters' class was an eye-opening experience.  In my opinion, she executed a well-prepared learning lesson and remained fully engaged and in control throughout the entire period, despite the occasional interruption and minor distraction.  Best of all, her exercises had a smooth transition from one to the next.  The only observation of note to me was that seven of her 12 students were from the same country and too often they attempted to speak in their native tongue to each another during exercises.  Fortunately Ms. Walters was vigilant and she managed to rein in this bad habit on each occasion.