Victoria - Class Observation 3

I observed Ramin's advanced speaking class. It was different from the other classes I've seen because the goal was speaking. They were working on their presentations and so they had a class discussion on pilgrimages. Students told about their own experiences and of places they knew about. We decided our "American" pilgrimages were more like people traveling to national parks all over the country. It was a really neat conversation, especially when students told about their own experiences. The one that stuck with me the most was Haifa's story about her 4 trips to Mecca. She says it is only required to go once but that people like it so much they return year after year. The way she felt when she was there sounded very relaxing and spiritual. I really liked how there are no differences between people during this time. No matter how rich or poor you are, everyone wears the same thing without anything flashy, like jewelry. Also, everyone sleeps in the same places, eats together and God hears their prayers the same. They know that they are heard the same way. I thought that was wonderful.

I sat with two students, one was Turkish named Bader ( I hope I spelled that correctly) and the other I think was Chinese, but I don't remember her name. They were handed back their error logs and went over them to find their mistakes. I was glad to see this method in action and I really liked it. The students I sat with went over their sentences and asked me when they did not know what they did wrong. I also helped them with their pronunciation, which the Chinese girl had more of a problem with. There was one sentence in particular that Bader wrote that I just could not correct. Ramin sat down with him and asked him what he was trying to say in this sentence. They concluded that his problem was not using enough background information to explain what he was trying to say. He needs to think in parts of a main idea. He needs to try not to bite off more than he can chew and start with smaller more manageable sentences and ideas. It was a wonderful class and most people were eager to speak.