My first classroom observation was Ramin's multicultural workshop. The room was full of CIES students and several TEFL students. Ramin took charge simply by speaking to the people in the room. He defined the goal as intercultural exchange between one American TEFL student and two or three CIES students. Groups formed quickly. The Ramin instructed each group to answer questions of each other about the home country of CIES students and the United States. In most groups, the first questions were directed to the American studdent. Then each group slipped into similar patterns. Students from Northeast Asia had questions about the Middle Eastern countries and Latin America and Chad in addition to questions about the United States. This is what made it work so well. No single country was getting peppered with questions. Answers would increase curiosity and that would drive follow-up questions. People listened carefully and politely before asking a follow-up question. Women from the Middle East often seemed just as curious about South Korea and China as they were of the United States. The groups were self-disciplined and easily monitored by Ramin by simply moving around the room to engage a group about this or that. Along the way, he was able to monitor the conversation of each group in a very unobtrusive way. From what I could see and hear, no one took offense at innocent questions that addressed core beliefs. Answers were never defensive, even when core beliefs were innocently and genuinely questioned. That observation convinced me to return to this workshop as a participating member. At that point, the CIES students became a gold mine of conversation partners.
My second observation was a speaking laboratory taught by Angel. It was in the computer room where students could listen to questions or statements in English at the same time through headphones. Then the students would respond through the microphone attached to the headphones. Then the students would record their actual replies in English. This is a really effective process and it requires a great deal of attention and tending to by the teacher. Angel introduced every exercise and explained his expectation is terms of speaking replies. He drew clear distinctions between practice and replies that would be reviewed. Angel remained vigilant and alert in order to spot difficulties as soon as they occurred. He was always right there to troubleshoot an equipment problem, a comprehension problem and even an unasked question that he could read in a students face and/or demeanor. He worked as hard during each exercise as his students did. He moved around the room to make himself easily available to his students.
My third observation was listening with Vicky on the final day. Since it was the last day, she made it clear that this day was game day and fun day based upon listening. She had listed 9 games on the board and gave clear instructions regarding each game as its number came up. The games were fast moving and often required physical responses to a verbal stimulus. Her energy, enthusiasm and good nature kept things moving and kept students involved. Vicky would give short modeling of how the game would go and what was expected. Potentially jaded students found themselves quite engaged in each game. That itself is a great accomplishment in the afternoon on the last day of class. Though she was able to tease and be playful with her students, the respect for her and attentiveness to her was shown by all students. Two games stand out for me. One was placing a student in a chair facing the class. Vicky would write a word on the board behind the student and the job of the class was to give clues until the student figured out the word. The one I will never forget is how she managed to get every student to do the Hokey-Pokey. First she demonstrated the various commands about body parts going into and out of the circle; then what it looked like to "shake it all about" and finally demonstrated the Hokey-Pokey. A couple of guys seemed reluctant, but by the second command, she had the entire class listening, obeying the action to be taken and then "do the hokey-pokey and you turn yourself around; that's what its all about." Great fun and every game required good listening skills. To say Vicky was deeply involved with her students and interacting would be a real understatement. The entire room interacted all of the time - always based on listening
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