Sharon CO #1

Date/Time: 11:00 AM - 11:50 AM, January 11th, 2022

Topic/Skill: Reading

Teacher Presentation: Dr. Patrick Kennell

Classroom Management: The class was generally quiet and did not need much management. Students needed encouragement to speak with each other during activities, but were otherwise respectful of the classroom and the instructor.

Materials: Projector and computer, textbook, FSU newspaper.

Student Participation: Students read a passage out of their textbook individually. After reading this, they were paired off with each other to discuss the passage. The instructor would regularly walk around the room, monitoring the discussions and answering questions when asked. Some students were more shy than others and needed help finding a partner but, in general, everyone was a little talkative. 

Feedback Provided: The instructor spent a lot of time emphasizing the importance of reading, and encouraging students to find something they can tolerate reading even if they don't necessarily like the activity. Specifically, he asked them to try reading the news of the United States so they could learn vocabulary, culture, and keep up with current events at the same time. Unfortunately, class-time had run out so class-wide feedback to students did not occur. Instead, they were told that they would continue this activity another time.

Lesson(s) on teaching you learned: The lesson I learned was a practical one that seems obvious in retrospect. Activities can, and sometimes should, be timed. Sometimes, because of the level of the students, they can take much longer than is anticipated to complete an activity or get stuck for the whole class. Timing activities ensures that there is time to go over the work, and help students identify why they got stuck or were slow so that next time they can complete their work with more fluency. Activities should also be culturally relevant not just to the country in which the students reside, but to their local geography. It may be more helpful, for example, for CIES students to learn what is immediately relevant to FSU's campus than it is to learn Californian slang.

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