Whitney CO-1

I observed Felicia Ciappetta's Reading class, for students in the Group 3 level. I could sense immediately that Felicia has a good rapport with her students by how comfortable the class seemed and the way she greeted them individually.

She began by writing "Today's Agenda" on the board: "1) Attendance, 2) Context Clues, 3) Hamburgers." I thought it especially interesting that she included "attendance" as a part of the class agenda--that's something I wouldn't have thought of. I soon found out that attendance is taken online and is projected on the wall for the other students to watch. I've never seen attendance taken in this manner, and I especially like the way it almost involves the other students.

Reviewing yesterday's lesson (affixes/suffixes), Felicia left the class responsible for providing most of the information, and facilitated by asking for definitions and related examples. She then asked how affixes and suffixes could be useful or helpful. Here was her transition to today's lesson--by having students recognize that affixes and suffixes help us guess the meaning of unfamiliar words, she was able to introduce "context clues"--another useful method in comprehension.

She then provided hand-outs, read the directions aloud, and gave the students 10 minutes to read 3 paragraphs, with 5 words highlighted and corresponding questions (1 per word) at the bottom.

It was the silence that made me aware of Frank Sinatra in the background, and I wondered if the music had actually been playing the whole time.

After calling a "3 minutes left" reminder, she asked those still working to raise their hands. Only one student raised his hand, but I counted 2 more who seemed too concentrated to respond. This reminds me that it's important to ask and observe. We then reviewed the answers together--if no one had answered correctly, she had us look back and reread for context.

The 2nd handout we did not actually work on, except for the 3 "group-questions" which we answered and discussed at our tables, and then as a class. This was the "hamburger" section of class, and everyone was asked to share about the popularity (or unpopularity) of the fast-food burger in their home country. The multicultural aspect of the class made our discussion especially interesting, and students seemed eager to share and learn about each other.

Throughout the class, Felicia consistently called on her students by name--once as a way to circumvent distracted students (interrupting their conversation by asking them a question, consequently bringing them into the discussion). She also offered correction when students answered questions using the wrong word form or tense. She was especially direct about correcting their pronunciation of hamburger ("ham-what?"), perhaps because this was the theme of the lesson.

I really enjoyed observing Felicia's class today, and even met and talked with a few of the students: Kukit, Kevin, and Bushra (don't know the spelling). Felicia was extremely welcoming to me and another "observer" (a TESOL intern) and not only introduced us to the class but involved us in the discussions as well. I have so much to learn in regards to teaching, but I find my notes and observations from this class useful and insightful, and hope to establish the respectful and comfortable learning environment I experienced today.