Friday, December 31, 2010

Class Observation #1

I observed Ron's EL-HE Grammar class today. The first thing that struck me was how well he was received by his class. He had a great rapport and they obviously connected with him. He spoke very slowly and clearly. I noticed a few of the Saudi Arabian men were chattering while Ron was teaching. They were only speaking in Arabic. He said to the men " we aren't in the souk." I thought this was a bit courageous. However, I later met with Ron to ask him about his comment and he said he felt close enough to them to make that comment. It seemed those men did this type of thing a lot. In fact, one got up in the middle of class to go pray,which is part of the deal I assume. We need to be very considerate of others practices even if it interrupts the class and takes away from their learning. It is ultimately left to the student on what is most important as I now understand. I asked how he dealt with students who talk and interrupt a lot, he said he is just blunt honest with them. He tells them that others have paid a lot in time and money to be here to learn English and the need to respect that otherwise they can leave the room. I think I may have a more difficult time since I am a female and we are considered subordinate in their culture. It would be interesting viewing a female teacher with the same students. I guess I will need to wait to be in that situation to figure it out. I asked Ramin about this situation and how he would handle it, which I tended towards. His method was to be open and honest like Ron but on more of a peer to peer level. It is helpful to see different tactics and then mold your own. This was the first time I even thought about disciplinary issues, i guess I figured everyone would cooperate..duh dana. Just a few more good methods: he wrote objectives on board, he reiterated again and again to keep it simple and not think too much (I tend to do this,) he used cueing to help a bit with the quiz they took, he was focused and kept on track. He also told one student, who had a very laissez faire attitude, that he would no longer except his work b/c he now knew he was capable of writing a good sentence. He gained respect by being firm while simultaneously giving positive feedback.

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