Brittany CO 1

I observed a group 4 speaking class with Ryan Flemming. First, Ryan put the agenda on the overhead for the class to see and read through it: 1) We have a class observer, Brittany, and what’s the rule about class observation, he asked the students- “observing only teacher, not us,” said one student, to which Ryan said “only teacher?”- quickly self-correcting, the student replied “the teacher.” Immediately I see with this group, and in his style, Ryan uses the ‘what?’ approach, making a point that something was wrong and prompts students to fix it. Second on the agenda for class was to go over their presentation feedback in 2 sections, grammar and pronunciation. Ryan timed 3 minutes for students to review and correct their grammar errors (directions written on overhead). Ryan also explained that since transcribing all errors isn’t possible, that he’d capped it at 8 sentences for them all to rewrite. Then students were advised to work on pronunciation with a partner of a different native language to help with sounds some don’t normally hear or speak. After the 3 minutes of independent or group work, they were allowed to ask Ryan for help if needed, and I saw him move between tables helping both in groups, but also knowing which students need more individual attention, and giving it. One example of the kind of impromptu explaining Ryan thinks of is the word ‘climate,’ which gave a girl some trouble, and Ryan wrote on the board to say it like you would ‘climb it.’ I noticed he’s great at thinking on his toes and the students respond well to his friendly demeanor, but also respect his authority when he moves them into a new activity or needs them to focus on task.

The next class activity was 10-15 minutes of speech topics for 1 minute recordings by each student. The topics were familiar to the students from work earlier in the week, such as an in-class article about television, the positive and negative effects of judging people on physical appearance, or discussing the possible causes of why so many students could have gotten sick the previous week. Students had a few minutes to review any notes they had on a particular topic then left the room one at a time to record their response. During this time Ryan walked between tables and generally addressed any questions students had while preparing for their responses. It seems like this is a common class activity since students were organized in switching turns with the recorder and walking outside the room.

The last activity was speech acts: this week, basic complaints or requests written on cards and random chosen by pairs of students. One group had to act out a man knocking on his neighbor’s door to complain that his music was too loud, and could he please turn it down. This lead to a pretty funny cultural moment when after one attempt, Ryan said this student had taken too long getting to the main point on the request; to this the student replied that he had to be polite and talk to him before complaining because since he’s an American, he could get mad and have a gun and shoot him for being rude. We laughed and it was funny, but it made me hope that’s not truly the common perception these students have of Americans!

Overall Ryan seems very aware of his students’ needs and levels and is able to adjust personal attention to the level of class management he needs to be directing at any given time. Ryan seems to have the perfect balance of instructor and relatable friend on his side, and it seems the students really respond to him well.