Matthew Class Observation # 1

Tuesday, I met with Jerry at 9:00 AM for Intermediate (level 3) Grammar. I arrived with roughly half of the students there already at 855 while the others dragged in for the next 10 minutes. I was pleasantly surprised at the eagerness of a few students. If not for the clock on the wall, for the level of energy, 9 AM seemed about 230PM. Of course there are always a few students who, literally, just got out of bed and have one eye open.

Jerry entered the class on the dot of 9 and got the ball rolling. He handed back quizzes that the students took last week on connectors. It was clear that the class had dedicated ample time for the material on the quiz and he stressed the importance of being present in class to improve grades. It seems that most of the students had performed well. One student had a question on the connector "therefore" and watching Jerry explain the need for an action to occur before the word to be taken in context was entertaining. It seems that he knew how to connect with that student well.

The last 20 minutes or so of the class period was dedicated to what the students would like to learn for the the next three weeks. Jerry turned the power over to the students and they were allowed to tell him what they would be interested in learning, or re-learning. It seems that vocab for the TOEFL is a general need. Other topics of interest included phrasal verbs and adj clauses. Touching on phrases, Jerry liked to explain that the English language really like to use the word "up" in slang. At about 8 minutes left of class, Jerry assigned some vocab for independent learning. He reinforced the studying with having to utilize the vocab in a sentence and, if possible, use more than one new vocab in a sentence. This was presented as a mini challenge that might ignite the students to further their drive.

Overall, considering at 9AM, the class environment was jovial and exciting. The students seem interested when Jerry allows them to speak and get involved in the lesson. Cheers.