Milcia CO #1

On August 30 I observed Ms. Candace Warmka’s class. The class’s focus was on listening. Before class began Ms. Warmka caught up new students with handouts, textbooks, and various materials that they missed from the first day. When she was ready to start the class, she took roll and announced that there would be new students to which she transitioned into introductions. She even let me introduce myself to the class. She went over what they had done last class as a refresher and asked the students questions such as “How would you say that in past perfect?” She encouraged students to help when others were having trouble. She then wrote the agenda on the board while orally going over what the class was going to entail, thus sharing her expectations with the students.

The activity for this class started in a way I didn’t expect. For the most part of the class, she went over vocabulary on the board, asking students to define the word. She emphasized that the point of going over the words was not to use the words immediately but to recognize and understand them. After completing the list, she went back to the board where she set up a chart of what the students were to focus on when listening to an audio clip. Once the clip was over, she asked students to volunteer what they heard for each part they worked on. Students would emphasize the words they recalled from the previous vocabulary lesson.

I could tell that Ms. Warmka already developed a good rapport with her students as the classroom environment was friendly and inviting. She was very patient and respectful of her students. I thoroughly enjoyed her class.