Keira CO #2

Keira CO #2

Date/Time: May 8th, 2017, 11:00-11:50 am

Topic/Skill: 3A Reading Comprehension

Teacher Presentation: The instructor for this class was Felicia Ciapetta, and before she did anything else, she had the class move outside to the patio area to take advantage of what a gorgeous day it was. There were a few new additions to the class, including myself, and she made sure to introduce us all before the lesson began. She began by posing a pre-reading question for the students to discuss in pairs, which was whether or not university education is really worth it, and if college is over-valued. Due to the way everyone was spread out around the patio, there was one student who was closer to the instructor and me than he was to any of his classmates, so we became his partners for the discussion. Our conversation started out at somewhat of a surface level, with statements like "I'd like to believe that college is worth it," but as time went on, we naturally progressed to a much more skeptical view of the entire system. This was, I believe, due to the amount of time the instructor had allotted for this opening discussion; there was only so much to be said on the surface level, and when the instructor still did not ask us to halt our discussions, we dove deeper and deeper into the topic and began discussing some very thought-provoking things. 

After this initial discussion, the instructor called everyone's attention, and there was a large group discussion about the same question, which gave everyone a chance to hear what the other groups had been discussing. After this, they read a short article from their text books pertaining to the topics the discussion question had raised. While they were doing this, the instructor told me about some of her teaching methods for this class. Once they had finished reading, the students then had to close their books or turn the page and summarize the main parts of the article to a partner for a few minutes. After this, students had to reread the first three paragraphs of the article and answer the discussion questions that went with them either alone or with a partner.

Classroom Management: It was evident from the way the students interacted with her that they all both liked and respected the instructor. She was very much an example of the Coach model of teaching, and acted as a conversation facilitator. She also kept me involved by talking to me while the students were reading, and explaining to me how the lessons are broken down individually, as well as how they fit together as a bigger picture and how the textbook itself is structured. The entire class period, she made me feel involved, welcome, and included.

Materials: Class textbook, students' notebooks and writing utensils

Student Participation: The table I was sitting at and the one closest to my table were the most engaged throughout the class, though each table did participate. The furthest table would sometimes break into their own conversations or remain fairly quiet, but the instructor would always pull them back into the main discussion. She was nice about keeping students on task, but would always steer them back to focus.

Feedback Provided: The instructor very much fit the Coach teaching model, and as such did more to facilitate what students were doing themselves than lecture at them or simply convey information to them. She was very reassuring, especially as students would preface their answers with statements such as "I don't know if I understand well, but..." When met with questions about what words in the reading meant, she would encourage students to try to use context clues to find the meaning on their own, but not without offering advice on how to use context clues.

Lesson(s) on Teaching You Learned: The instructor not only made her students feel more at ease, but she also made me feel comfortable in her class, too. While the students were reading, she made sure I understood what she was doing as well as why she was doing it, breaking the lesson down into the pre-reading, active reading, and post-reading sections for me. She was an excellent real-life example of the Coach model for teaching. She held students accountable for their part in their own learning. At the end of the lesson, when the students were answering the discussion questions, she told me that if they discovered they could not answer the questions, they would know that they needed to go back and look at something again.