Taylor Class Observation #2

Today I sat in on Ah Young Kim's intermediate speaking class. This was the liveliest group of students I have ever met! I came about 10 minutes early to class, and they all introduced themselves to me and I was bombarded with questions about American life and FSU. It was actually pretty funny. When Ah Yong Kim walked in she explained that because the student that was supposed to do an oral presentation did not show, she had to immediately change her lesson plan and further explained what the plan was for today. She also had me introduce myself to the class which was nice, because I did not feel like I was just sitting in the corner. We jumped right into the activity, watching a segment of "Groundhog Day." After the clip she had written some phases on the board and asked the students what they think they meant. If the students did not know, she would explain on expand on the idea. She then played the next scene that had some of the phrases she wrote on the board. This allowed the students to see them in context once more and she also reviewed them again so everyone would get a better understanding.

The second half of the lesson, Ah Young Kim divided her students into groups of three and asked them to write a dialog using all of the sayings she had taught them. She also asked me to be the judge on which group had the best dialog. As every group presented she would write their grammatical mistakes on the board and once they finished, ask students how they would need to correct it. She also asked me to make a comment or give feedback after every group. One of the most common mistakes was the use of "racking my brain" which, is a pretty hard phrase to fully understand. Eventually, I picked a winner and before I knew it, class was over.

I really enjoyed her class and hope that I will have a class as lively as hers. Also, I really like her teaching technique, she was very funny but focused and her students seemed to have learned something. Also, her style is very student centered, she basically just guides the students rather than dictate (as Snow mentioned). I really enjoyed sitting in on this class and suggest that if anyone wants to sit in on a speaking class, try hers!