Francisco TO-1

I observed Jennfier's speaking class at 1pm on Tuesday. Jennifer seemed excited to have me observe the class and introduced me to her students. I decided to take post on the back left corner and observe the class with pen and paper ready. As I looked around the class, I could tell that most of the students are little older, perhaps in the the early twenties. The class began with a skit, two students gave a persuasive speech on whether or not the alcohol age should be lowered to eighteen. One student argued for it and another one against it. I listened to the student's points and became very interested on how they viewed American social issues from their perspective. The student arguing against the age being lowered gave a rather comical speech. He laughed in a non-understanding manner of how (when interviewing American students) American students said they rather drink at parties to have fun. In a laughing-manner the student said, " I do not understand how you have to drink to have fun." I found this statement intriguing and it reminded me how other cultures do not binge drink to extent that Americans do. He then mentioned how the decision to not drink alcohol at parties will limit the time "spent under the table." Jennifer asked what the student meant with this statement and he said it is the "blackout stage spent under the table because of too much alcohol at parties." Jennifer and I joined the laughter that arose from this statement. The class then took a vocabulary quiz, and I asked Jennifer if I could have a copy of the quiz. As she handed me the quiz, Jennider said "simplicity is the key" and laughed. I found this statement to be very wise and extremely true. The quiz contained words such as: secular, flood, arid, compromise, revenge, and humid. After the quiz, the students were then given two cards with different words focusing on vocabulary that was taught the day before. The students are to get with a partner and act out a skit with these flash cards. An example I saw is the sentence "apologize" on one word and "to a police officer" on another. As the students looked at their cards, they began to joke and laugh when they contemplated possible skits. I can tell that the students enjoy this class and appreciate Jennifer's teaching methods. Jennifer mentioned before she handed out the cards that if the students did not feel comfortable acting out a role (such as a man acting as a girl for the "girlfriend role") to switch cards, respectfully keeping in mind the student's cultural values. Before class was over and the students were dismissed, Jennifer mentioned that each student should pair up with someone from another country. I thoroughly enjoyed observing Jennifer's class and learned a great deal from her. I someday plan on using her skit idea which I believe is a perfect mix of class involvement, communicative teaching, and cultural awareness of different countries.