Colleen CO #3

Date/Time: Thursday, May 18th 1:00 - 2:50 pm
Topic/Skill: Speaking 1A with Ryan Flemming


I shadowed Professor Ryan Flemming's speaking course. Immediately, I noticed the careful pace in which he spoke to the students to communicate. He reminded the class that presentations would take place today, and tried to ease their fears of speaking by emphasizing they could present from their seats or stand up, choosing the option that made them feel more comfortable. He also indicated to the class that he sent a sample presentation to them during lunch (audio included) allowing them to have a point of reference but not too far in advance to allow for copying the same presentation. The theme of the presentation was "My Hometown," and the presentation was to take 3 minutes. Students times varied between 7-3 minutes in actuality, and he was understanding of their varied paces. Professor Flemming spoke slowly and pulled up his notes which were typed out versions of what he was saying, pointing to the words as he said them. This helped students better understand. Using a random generator from the web, he created a sequence of presentations and told the class he would record them. The recordings would then become available on BlackBoard with additional questions he would provide. During their presentations he would nod and say "yeah" or "yes" to reaffirm the students, but did not actually correct them despite their wishes to be corrected. Seeing Professor Flemming's multiple means of communication and his quiet dynamic in the classroom was very informative. It reminded me that in a speaking class the students should be doing the speaking and reiterated the coach, not sage, teaching approach.