Rebecca_CO#2

Classroom Observation #2 (15.01.20)

09:00 – 09:50 RM214

This Tuesday, I observed Leslie Wagner’s Group 1 grammar class. Some pre-class observations: unlike the desks in rooms on the third floor, the desks in this room are in two facing rows. This would be useful for a debate, I think. Also, students seemed oddly reluctant to be in class. By that, I mean more reluctant than the average college student to be awake at 9 AM.

Before class, Ms. Wagner wrote the agenda on the board.

Agenda:

·                 This week – Friday – Simple Past Quiz

·                 Return Quizzes

·                 Spelling Rules

·                 Ch 2 – Simple Past

Ø Pg 13

Ø Explain

Ø Practice

To begin class, Ms. Wagner asked students what they did over the weekend to introduce the context of using the simple past. Afterwards, she explained the weekly agenda and returned the students’ quizzes. They were required to turn them in at the end of the lesson, because one student still had to make up the quiz. The instructor also reminded students to study their mistakes.

Ms. Wagner’s speech is faster than what Ms. Ciappetta uses in the Foundations class, but it is still somewhat slow, and more articulated than natural speech.

Students took out a spelling rules sheet from the previous week to review how to change verbs into the present continuous tense, and Ms. Wagner modeled the rules with student participation on the board (There were a couple students texting).

On board:

·                 Fax --> Faxes --> faxing

·                 Visit -> visits  --> visiting

·                 Study --> studies  --> studying

·                 Cut  --> cuts  --> cutting

·                 Go  --> goes  --> going

After this exercise, the students moved on the chapter two of their textbook to learn the simple past tense. They were grouped into pairs to discuss two things they did the night before. They did not need to write these things down, but they needed to be prepared to share with the class. Ms. Wagner monitored while they worked and answered questions.

When the exercise was finished, Ms. Wagner performed error correction and went over irregular verbs in the simple past.

There was a final exercise in which students would have cards labeled “A” or “B.” Each card had a different action that the student would model, and their partner would have to identify what they did using the simple past tense.