Class Observations I & II- Kristen Braun

The first class I got to sit in was in Speaking with Ross (which sounds actually like some sort of mellow 70's sitcom). He began the class preparing them for a quiz the following week, handing out worksheets to prepare the class for what would be on the test. The question they were to answer was "Which do you prefer reading books or watching movies." The students were to answer the questions on paper as they would speak it out loud. As they wrote, Ross walked around helping them structure and process their thoughts. Then he gave them an example of his own answer and asked for volunteers to present their thoughts.
After that he broke the class up into groups and gave out different scenes where a person needs to ask another for help. Before they were to write the skits he wrote a list of vocab on the board and went over different words with the class having them define the words they knew. These groups then prepared and acted out different skits where they had to ask their landlord for help because their toilet was broken.

Ross had a good rapport with his class, joking and serious when appropriate, he was well prepared and used his class time wisely.

The next week, I sat in on Marilyn's grammar class for lower/ intermediate students. The topic was modals must, might, should etc. Before the actual lesson began a student began talking about money being the key to power and countries with the most money had the most wealth/ power. Marilyn allowed for this conversation to go on giving her own input here and there. It was a nice way to start the class. The group seemed comfortable talking with her and each other in English.
She then went through the lesson as presented in the book and had students read out loud and answer the questions. Then they split up into pairs to write a Dear Abby letter to student who didn't know what they could do to to improve their English. I sat with two girls as they prepared their letter and one kept saying how she needed someone to write this letter to her. I asked her what she thinks she needs to do herself, what tips could she give herself?

Marilyn would help each group talking to them about what they thought and how they could incorporate "should" in their advice. She seemed to follow pretty close with the book in her lesson, but all the students were expected to participate and answer questions keeping the class lively and interactive.