Suzanne-OB 2

Last week, I observed my second class at CIES - Jennifer's speaking class. It was quite an interesting and different experience this time around than the first time. For starters, the class was comprised of much lower level students (which was what I was aiming for in the first place) so the pace and fluency of the classroom time was affected greatly. The class I observed in particular - a speaking class - was laid out as a research/debate over vegetarianism - the pros and cons of being vegetarians. The class had to spend some time in the computer lab researching vegetarianism and pick a side, then use facts and opinions to argue for or against during the following class period. Jennifer made sure to insist on their finding of vocabulary words that they didn't already know and their writing them down for discussion later.

The class as a whole seemed to have a little trouble with the assignment. Many students asked Jennifer over and over what they were supposed to be looking for during research, though once they got into it, most seemed to be on the right track (as I noticed when I was looking over shoulders in the computer lab). The trouble seemed to be with the directions - though Jennifer explained them multiple times, perhaps a demonstration of how to use the internet and search engines to research, or a set of written directions, would've helped their understanding of what to do. When we got back to class, Jennifer asked students to bring up vocabulary that they didn't understand, and the conversation about vegetarianism turned rather medical. Terms like "kidney failure" and "dementia" were thrown around, and while I thought that her efforts to have students learning new vocabulary on their own were valiant, it seemed to be problematic in practice. Students just copied down any and all words they didn't already know and this made for an awkward, slightly irrelevant discussion. Lower level classes don't need to be talking about dementia and it seemed like a lot of students were tuning out because of a lack of interest. The discussion itself went smoothly - students felt comfortable in class and with Jennifer, enough to answer questions with ease and willingness. Jennifer made sure to repeat after each statement so that the entire class understood and urged them to form their own thoughts instead of simply reading the facts that they found. Again, though, some students seemed confused, and my thought was that a demonstration of how to formulate an argument would've served them all well.

I thought Jennifer handled herself well in a class that was definitely having some difficulties. I imagine it would be really difficult when lulls in the conversation occur or when students aren't understanding your directions. I think that the class would've gone a little smoother if Jennifer had written out the plan as well as dictated it orally, as well as demonstrated exactly what she wanted her students to do in terms of the debate.