Emily CO #1

Date/Time: Thursday, 9 March 2017 at 11 AM

Topic/Skill: Reading with Andrew Wilson

My first classroom observation was a reading class with Andrew Wilson. I had a bit of trouble finding him as he was not in the right classroom and Claire and another member of the teaching staff kindly helped me track him down. When I finally found the classroom they were just beginning for the day. The teacher started with simply asking students what their plans were for the weekend and spring break and was generally trying to engage them with cultural references and questions. Once the students were settled the class began with a new vocabulary word, antonym, and the teacher asked the students to make an educated guess as to the word’s meaning by guessing what part of speech it was and reminding them of previous vocabulary they had learned with similar prefixes and suffixes. After their new vocabulary Andrew had students read aloud a section from the CIES Nole News March edition concerning humidity and the reasons students cannot open windows to let in the fresh air. He had many students read aloud, alternating narrators with each paragraph. When a student stumbled over a word or pronounced it incorrectly Andrew would kindly ask them to repeat the word until the pronounced it correctly or had them slowly sound the word out. After this group reading the students read, independently, a small section from their workbooks about the Erie Canal. Andrew encouraged them to highlight or underline any words or phrases that they had questions about, did not understand, or were important in understanding the main idea (the theme of that day’s lesson) of the text. After a few minutes students then had a group discussion answering comprehension questions about the text. After this students had an exam and I went to another classroom (unfortunately, I do not know who the teacher was or the level, but I believe they were a higher level) and joined in as the class read Rain Man and watched a brief clip from the movie. The teacher in that class read the text aloud and paused at moments to explain the American idioms or point out how important the changing tense of verbs were in certain scenes. On the whole, students seemed genuinely engaged and were attentive throughout both classes. It was interesting to note that both instructors spoke a bit more slowly than is probably usual and how integral their personal attitudes were in engaging the class.