Erin - CO 3

This morning, I observed Karin's Advanced Elementary Grammar class. She started right as class time began and did not waste time or wait for late students. She was not overly peppy, but was still enthusiastic and very obviously interested in the welfare of the students. She immediately referenced the resources that she was using for the lesson, which was from Purdue Owl; this made me happy that she was introducing the students to such a reliable and useful writing resource even at the basic level, and also made me happy because I had not known that Purdue Owl had ESL resources. During class, she sat at the table with the students, which I feel made the class a little more student-centered, even though she had to speak for most of the class to explain the concept; I also thought it gave a more familiar feeling altogether, since grammar often feels like a very abstract and alien concept. The only time she was not sitting with them was when she walked around the room while they were doing worksheets, in order to be readily available to anyone with questions.
She demonstrated the tip that Ramin gave to Camille yesterday, when she assigned the students a worksheet to do and then turned around and began writing the agenda on the board; in addition to this, she clearly let the students know how much time they would be given to finish the task before they started.
I was particularly interested in this lesson because it was about gerunds and infinitives, and this is the topic I chose to model my first lesson plan around; I was curious to see how it would be taught from someone else's perspective. An idea I had never considered before was that students do not need to finish absolutely everything, especially if an activity is really dragging on, or if it is timed and in class. She stopped the students after the allotted time and let them know that it was alright if they did not finish, but that between doing some of the questions and going over them as a class, it is just important that they understand what is being taught. As they reviewed the worksheet together, she called on students in order to try to give everyone the same opportunity to speak; even if a student gave a wrong answer, she was very encouraging and thoroughly explained why their answer was incorrect.
While they were completing their worksheets, I took the time to look around the classroom itself; I noticed that there was not much there to distract the students. However, there were posters, showing useful phrases and questions that students might need to use in class, such as "How do you say ___?" or "What is the meaning of ___?"
Overall, it was a very nice class, considering it was at 9 am and about grammar. She thoroughly explained everything, and the students seemed to understand well. I enjoyed it a lot and feel as if I learned several useful approaches to teaching in my own future classroom.