Stephanie_CO#1

On Monday, May 11, I shadowed Ms. Leslie’s Group 2A grammar class. She began the class by greeting everyone and asking them individually what they did this past weekend. Ms. Leslie reviewed the homework by asking individuals to give answers and explaining everything as she went through each section. She would explain each answer very thoroughly as well as provide visual notes on the board to move along with each section (explanations/notes/examples). The lesson she taught was the use of “used to”. Ms. Leslie randomly selected students (or ask for volunteers) to provide examples using “used to”. She then assigned an in-class activity where students had to fill out a survey and practice the use of “used to” in question form. Then, she had the students get up and walk around the class and survey each student asking him/her one question each from their survey. They were not only able to practice their grammar, but their verbal and interpersonal skills – all which are extremely important in learning the English language. The last activity that Ms. Leslie did was assigning the students to find a partner and find five things that they “used to” have in common when they were younger, and five things they did not “use to” have in common when they were younger. Something that I really thought was interesting and respectful of her to do was really explain herself well and consider cultural differences. For example, one of the exercises that she wrote on the board was a dialogue: “I used to believe in Santa Claus as a child. Did you?” “Yes, I used to believe in Santa Claus, too”. Right after she read the dialogue to the class, she stopped and made sure everyone knew who Santa Claus is.  At first I thought it was silly, but then I saw some students raise their hands and look confused and then I realized that Santa Claus is obviously not the same in every language!  It probably would have slipped my mind to stop and clarify that to the class, but her stopping to explain that example made me realize that I need to be more self-aware. I really enjoyed watching Ms. Leslie teach, I think I learned a great deal about good teaching practices.