Lauren CO#3

Vicki's G1 grammar lesson was very insightful.  Typically, native English speakers are not well versed in the rules of English grammar.  However, Vicki appears to be very knowledgeable.  She does a good job explaining and providing sufficient examples while engaging the beginner students. I feel it is pivotal especially for beginner level students.  Through examples the students are able to retain the foundation of the rule in order to later put the rule to use when writing or speaking to someone.  She speaks at an appropriate rate for the beginning level students.  She emphasizes the sounds in each word to articulate clear enough for the students to understand.  Similar to the lesson Ryan taught, her content is relevant and meaningful for the students. Vicki did a good job utilizing the board to help the students visualize patterns.  In my opinion, I feel Vicki did a great job demonstrating an effective grammar lesson for a beginner level course.

Lauren CP#6

Today was my last session with my conversational partner.  Our topics of conversation ranged from the food industry in America compared to how they deal with food issues in Turkey.  He was confused by the idea that our government provides us with food that is of very low quality and is proven harmful to us.  He mentioned how in Turkey, that while they have a couple of fast food chains, the majority of the food vendors actually care about the health of their residents and try to provide the best quality of food that they can.  My conversational partner and I talked more about the history of Turkey and old traditions he took part in when he lived there.  With my adult tutee, I was always interested in learning about his home country.  The same applies when talking to my conversational partner about his country.  I am amazed at how much they know about the history of their country as well as the different lives they lived growing up compared to mine. Although it was my last required session, my conversational partner and I agreed to keep meeting in order to help him practice his English speaking skills.

Lauren CO#2

During her G2 Reading class, Felicia was very enthusiastic when beginning the class.  Her lesson focused on pair work where she assigned one student the role of the teacher and the other student the role of the student.  The teachers used their textbooks to teach the lesson.  I have always found that teaching something to someone else helps me learn it more effectively.  I thought it was implemented successfully during Felicia’s class.  The students had to listen closely to the lesson because when the time came, they would have to answer questions presented by Felicia.  She utilized her resources well.  For instance, she wrote out the information as they discussed it.  The class worked together to provide her with the answers to the questions, but she also made sure to call on specific students to ensure participation.  Her rate of speech was level appropriate and she continuously checked the students comprehension making sure they were understanding the content of the lesson.

Lauren CO#1

After observing Ryan’s G4 Composition class, I noted several good points.  After reading the introduction of cause and effect, Ryan asked the students to define intention.  During the student’s explanation, they made an error that Ryan had him caught and had the student repeat what he said to correct his error.  The example Ryan used was meaningful to the students, which is proven to make learning more effective. He walked around and helped the students brainstorm together different effects of studying English in America. Once they reviewed the effects as a whole class, he asked them to create their own topic and come up with causes and effects for it. I noted that when Ryan was assisting the class with the first topic, he took about 10 minutes.  When the students had to come up with their own topic, he gave them only five minutes.  Although he shortened the time, it seemed reasonable because of the level the students are at.  Overall, Ryan did a great job engaging the students and providing meaningful examples to interest the students about cause and effect.