Larry TP - 7

Kyla and I presented a Culture Class on Thursday from 3:00 pm to 3:50 pm. We had nine to ten students, who were most likely categorized as being in an advanced ESL group. As the main purpose of the class was to get them engaged in speaking skills, we initially encouraged them to ask us who were and why we were there instead of the usual class introduction. We told them and provided handouts explaining what we would be doing in the class. This covered an explanation of "culture" and how it might affect both teachers and students, a relevant vocabulary we encouraged them to use during any discussions, discussion topics, a quizz more designed to stoke discussion rather than evaluation, and a game designed to encourage them to discuss culture related topics. We broke them up into three small groups to review the definition of culture, discussion topics, and the vocabulary. Those three topics seemed to stimulate much discussion. Everyone seemed eager to provide their ideas and thoughts. Finally, Kyla explained her game, which entailed tossing a light beach type ball with cultural topics written all over it. Whoever caught the ball had to talk about a subject closest to his/her right thumb. Eneryone enjoyed the game, and it also stimulated considerable discussion. We corrected as needed and asked followup questions designed to stimulate even more discussion. I feel the students were fully engaged and thoroughly enjoyed the class. We might have provided more topics for discussion than was really needed, but I felt it was better to have more than less.