Today was the last class before spring break. When the students come back, they're going to have a test on past tense verbs. On Wednesday, Katie put the students in pairs and had them write 2-3 minute speeches. (She changed it to an individual activity at the end--they weren't doing their own work.) So today, we spent the whole class period working on the speeches.
Katie and I walked around the room for almost the first hour, monitoring students. We helped them with pronunciation and grammar. The next hour, each student gave his or her speech. In between, Katie went over how the students were graded and had each person watch for one thing. We had a mini-discussion of strengths and weaknesses after each speaker.
I definitely saw improvement in the students I had monitored, which made me feel great. There were still areas where I was unsure about the effectiveness of my teaching, though. Katie and I had a short meeting after class, when I asked her if we had missed anyone as we checked students' work. There were two students who had more mistakes than the other seven. Katie said we might have, but she didn't grade them terribly hard. She keeps telling me that each teacher will have a different style. I think if I was teaching by myself, I would make a big effort to get to everyone so that grading would be fair.
During the meeting, Katie and I also talked about different forms of assessment. The students had done very well on the test they took on Monday. It was controlled practice. The speeches were much harder, though--she told the class that. I saw the difference between getting grammar and pronunciation right on a simple listening test and trying to actually talk like a native speaker.
We talked about how to find a balance between the needs of the outgoing Arab men (six students) and the others (one Arab woman, a Korean woman, and a Bhutanese man). The Arab woman is taking the class for the third time. She's very shy, but Katie said in class that she is a strong woman for going in front of the class to speak. The Korean woman is very serious and intrinsically motivated, but it can be hard to get her to write creative stories and speeches. The Bhutanese man is older than the college-bound students, and set an example today. He presented a story with a moral: selflessness. Afterward, the rest of the class sat in awe. They said the story was "beautiful." Katie used it as an example: "He doesn't just do this because he has to, it's because he loves it. You guys should do what you love."
It was really nice for me to witness a teachable moment. It's one of the things I want to focus on in my professional growth--thinking on my feet. I think Katie is really good at shaping the young Arabs as people in this culture, and I hope I do that someday, too. It must be a great motivator for them.
Katie and I walked around the room for almost the first hour, monitoring students. We helped them with pronunciation and grammar. The next hour, each student gave his or her speech. In between, Katie went over how the students were graded and had each person watch for one thing. We had a mini-discussion of strengths and weaknesses after each speaker.
I definitely saw improvement in the students I had monitored, which made me feel great. There were still areas where I was unsure about the effectiveness of my teaching, though. Katie and I had a short meeting after class, when I asked her if we had missed anyone as we checked students' work. There were two students who had more mistakes than the other seven. Katie said we might have, but she didn't grade them terribly hard. She keeps telling me that each teacher will have a different style. I think if I was teaching by myself, I would make a big effort to get to everyone so that grading would be fair.
During the meeting, Katie and I also talked about different forms of assessment. The students had done very well on the test they took on Monday. It was controlled practice. The speeches were much harder, though--she told the class that. I saw the difference between getting grammar and pronunciation right on a simple listening test and trying to actually talk like a native speaker.
We talked about how to find a balance between the needs of the outgoing Arab men (six students) and the others (one Arab woman, a Korean woman, and a Bhutanese man). The Arab woman is taking the class for the third time. She's very shy, but Katie said in class that she is a strong woman for going in front of the class to speak. The Korean woman is very serious and intrinsically motivated, but it can be hard to get her to write creative stories and speeches. The Bhutanese man is older than the college-bound students, and set an example today. He presented a story with a moral: selflessness. Afterward, the rest of the class sat in awe. They said the story was "beautiful." Katie used it as an example: "He doesn't just do this because he has to, it's because he loves it. You guys should do what you love."
It was really nice for me to witness a teachable moment. It's one of the things I want to focus on in my professional growth--thinking on my feet. I think Katie is really good at shaping the young Arabs as people in this culture, and I hope I do that someday, too. It must be a great motivator for them.
Sounds like a cool class!
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