Caity CO - 3

I observed Karin’s 9am group 2-A grammar class, and only 5 students were there to begin with, but a couple more trickled in a few minutes late. Karin said good morning to each student that had come late and introduced me. She made the students feel welcome, even though they had been late. Class started with a review of conjunctions and students gave definitions and examples to show their comprehension. Karin sat at the middle table with the students when they were making sentences. It was very student centered and the students did most of the explaining and talking, with Karin giving them the topic or first sentence. One student would start a sentence with a particular conjunction, and another student would have to finish it. I liked “She’s nice but narcissistic.” The main topic was adjective clauses and relative pronouns and Karin put the students into specific pairs and spread them out at each table, as they would be using a large sheet of paper and markers. Each group was assigned one of the topics and had to identify the rules for their grammar point, give examples, and make a poster to present to the class the next day. The two students at my table were both really nice, but had different priorities in which task to address first. The guy was from the Middle East and the woman was from South Korea. They were assigned who, whose, and whom and the woman wanted to decide the logistics of the presentation before they even started looking at the grammar. The guy didn’t care so much and just wanted to get the definitions and example out of the way and would just ‘wing’ the presentation. Perhaps they weren’t able to express their ideas too clearly to each other and the woman kept bringing up who would do what. The guy said it didn’t matter and for them to just work together now to have the material they need for the presentation. The woman would respond with asking who would make examples, etc. I could clearly see what was going on and their different though processes, and the guy just looked at me like, “you understand right? It’s not just me?” Karin was working with a student that didn’t have a partner, but set them on the task of creating examples so she could check the other student's progress and help clarify grammar rules and usage. The guy at my table was getting a lot done, but I could tell he wanted to discuss with his partner like the other students were doing, but the woman was more inclined to work individually within the group, and even then, she was not creating examples while her partner was writing the definitions and rules on the poster paper. It was definitely interesting from a cultural perspective and I wonder how their presentation turned out.