Sarah CO#1

            Today I had the pleasure of observing Felicia Ciappetta's AE-LI Reading class. Ms. Ciappetta started things off as she apparently does every day, with some funky music to create a relaxed atmosphere for the students and wake everyone up. I'm not sure if this did the trick, but something she's doing is working--each one of her students is fully engaged and eager to learn. She directed the attention of the class to the agenda on the dry-erase board: 1. Bell ringer 2. Attendance 3. Main Idea & Supporting details (this was the focus of today's class). For the bell ringer, Felicia asked the students what "main idea" means, and what the two aspects of this reading-comp concept are (points which has evidently been introduced briefly in the previous session. She told them that they would have 3 minutes to discuss. While the roundtable talked amongst themselves, she recorded their attendance, not wasting any time. When three minutes had elapsed, she called on each person by name and gave everyone who volunteered their input (most of the class) a chance to speak. She allowed the students to build on one another's answers, reinforcing the salient points and providing positive feedback.

            The rest of the class proceeded in much the same manner: time being managed efficiently and expectations being clearly stated, with brief individual reading followed by partnered brainstorming (i.e. comparison of answers), punctuated by student-centered class discussion. One student, Ali, who I will be tutoring, is visually impaired and used an audio component on his laptop to listen to the text. Everyone’s needs were met. Only English was spoken in the class, and the students were encouraged to use full sentences—when they did not, they were simply asked to repeat themselves. When a grammatical error was made—usually leaving out a preposition or article or incorrectly using the singular/plural form of a noun—Ms. Ciappetta would cheerily interject, leading the student to their own self-correction rather than pointing out a mistake directly.