Bobby_CO_#1

Today I observed Ms. Leslie Wagner’s foundations speaking class. After calling role, Ms. Wagner immediately engaged the students in speech by asking them who could ask what my and Nicky’s names were. A few students asked us our names, and one of them even asked how old I was. Ms. Wagner had the students that asked us questions repeat our responses to check for accuracy and understanding. Today’s lesson focused on the simple present tense and the vocabulary of personal information. In review for an immanent quiz she had the students form pairs and conduct a seven question interview of one another. After the interview activity she picked on students to answer some of the questions from the list for the class. The incorrect sentences she copied on the board and asked the students how to correct it. She also corrected students verbally with explicit corrections, clarification requests, metalinguistic clues, and elicitation, which all seemed to work wonderfully. She also incorporated a game, which she demonstrated how to play, that asked students to describe images in spaces on a playing board. The students’ level of English sometimes required she give explicit answers and repeat the correct sentence with the students. She again reviewed responses with the class like she had done after the interview activity. The class was speaking increasingly in Arabic, which she addressed explaining that it would affect their participation grade. As sort of an aside she explained the rule behind using o’clock because many students were making mistakes with that. It was very interesting and informative to see most of the things we are studying in class actually put to use in real classroom situations. Ms. Wagner planned the lesson perfectly and one portion of the class flowed seamlessly into the next. It was also inspiring to witness the abstract principles we read about to have such a meaningful and effective outcome. It’s compelling to think that one day we will be in her position slowly tugging open the shutters in students’ minds to a window that looks out onto a new world of meaning.