Sabrina CO#3

Date/Time: March 22, 2017, 1pm-1:50pm

Instructor: Felicia Ciappetta, Group 4, Speaking Class, RM 304

The last class I observed was Felicia’s speaking for advanced speakers class. It was a very small number of students in the class. The class began with an overview of a project they were conducting. In the past few classes Felicia and her students have been discussing the American surveillance policies. In effect of those discussions, the class came up with a survey to ask other students around campus about their opinion on government surveillance. The class then proceeded to their new discussion. Felicia sat with her laptop at one table and she called me up to sit beside her. One of the students had homework to choose a current event topic and lead the discussion for the day. The young man began discussing the topic of the recent ban on electronic devices from middle eastern and some african countries. He introduced the topic and shared his view on the law and asked questions about what others thought. The discussion was engaging and everyone had something to say. At some points, a student would start talking about the topic but then stray off to another topic. But Felicia kept the conversation guided by occasionally inserting her thoughts and asking some more related questions. 

As the class continued with their discussion, Felicia showed me what she was typing on her laptop. She was making a list of the errors students were making in their speech. She had two lists of feedback. One list noted improvements students needed to make to keep the discussion lively, focused, and appropriate. Another list noted their “beautiful mistakes” aka grammar errors. 

I loved how seamlessly Felicia did this without the students feeling any discomfort. She did not correct them right away but kept the notes at hand to review with them in the next class. In the last ten minutes of class, Felicia had students work with their partner on the survey project and record the information they had gathered so far. 

It was very interesting for me to see Felicia teach this advanced level of speaking class. It was an engaging discussion where all the students participated because of the intense topic. I learned that its important to provide students with materials that will interest them to keep motivation going in a class.