Sam - Classroom Observation #1

On October 27th, I had the pleasure of sitting in on Marilyn Sohan's grammar class, lever AE-LI. She started by writing the date, the name of the class, and the Agenda for the day: Chapter 2, present perfect tense. She started by asking the students, "What is the present perfect tense used for?" She then got students to give examples and write them on the board.

One student wrote:

I've stayed Tallahassee since I got here.

"How does that sentence look to everyone?" Marilyn asked. There was a chorus of protest. "Fix it!" she cried. After the sentence was corrected, she challenged the student to make it longer and more complex.

The students had done some reading on the subject before the class so she could ask them to contribute to the discussion, which was great. Most of the students were engaged throughout, and Marilyn called on different people.

The students did their exercises in pairs and then wrote their answers on the board. Marilyn got students to explain the meaning of the sentences they had written.

Marilyn was relaxed, funny, and confident while teaching, and I think the students responded well to her. She also did a great job of waiting for the students' answers.