Catalina - Class Observation #2

I visited the highest level grammar class last week with Michelle. Her energy really surprised me for a 9.00am morning class. She immediately engaged the students in the class, introduced me and wrote down the agenda on the board. I really liked how she spoke very well of the students, commenting on their very high level. She kept a pretty fast pace when speaking yet still managed that everybody understood her. The day I was in she was giving them a model verbs quiz. The way she presented the quiz was very active; the students had to write down five modal verbs with their meaning and examples. The quiz was projected on the wall while she explained how to do it. This way of quizzing made them have to remember and apply their knowledge. I really liked how she let everyone begin the quiz, taking in account that there are faster students in the class, and then went individually to clear out the doubts with those that were having a tougher time with the quiz.

When the quiz time was over she presented an activity about articles. She gave each student a TIME Magazine text and they had to rewrite it taking the articles out, without leaving a space. Then the text would be passed to another student that had to try to figure out where the articles were missing. I think it was a very creative way of applying their knowledge on articles.

It was also surprising to me how in the same class there are some students with a much higher level. This makes them faster for the activities and quizzes. It was very interesting to see how Michelle balanced the group of students, keeping them all active during the class even though some were a lot faster than others. When the class ended she commented on how this class was very humbling for her, that the students were at such a high level she was having problems keeping them involved. Not as far as I could see…!