Raleigh CO #3

Date/Time: 5/11/17 (2-2:50pm)
Topic/Skill: American slang
Teacher Presentation: Ryan Flemming
Classroom Management: The students worked alone except for during class discussion where they could ask questions.
Materials: computer, projector, whiteboard, marker, internet, powerpoint
Student Participation: answered comprehension questions
Feedback Provided: He explained how everything had been graded that he handed back and told everyone how the class did as a whole.

On Thursday, I also observed a group 3A listening class with Ryan Flemming. The students all seemed comfortable with him, but the class seemed a little bored. I don't know if it was like that just because it was the end of the day or what though because some of those students were just in Professor Ciappetta's class and seemed to be fine before. He opened up by asking them if they want to hear the good or bad news first, and they all wanted the bad news first. Apparently, they were supposed to have a vocab quiz, but Professor Flemming admitted that he had forgotten about it. Some of the students seemed happy because they said that they hadn't studied yet, but others didn't seem too thrilled because they just wanted to get it done. They also went over an old comprehension assignment. The comprehension assignment had them paraphrase sentences using different words than those that were in the sentences to begin. He had a lot of things planned for this class including a quiz on an old assignment. I didn't know exactly what the assignment was until I asked him about it after class. He said that he had them listen to an audio lecture about slang and how it is used. They were all supposed to take notes on this, so they were allowed to use their notes on the quiz. During the quiz, he allowed the students to ask him questions in order to clarify what he was asking of them. They seemed to struggle with some of the vocab that he used in his questions such as "cement" and "theme," so he explained those words to them. The students all seemed to work very hard even though they seemed a bit sleepy. I could tell that Professor Flemming is passionate about teaching his students and loves language learning in general. I got to talk to him a bit about it after class, and I could just feel his excitement. Overall, I think it was a helpful class for me to learn what students generally understand at that level. I wish that I had been there when they heard the lecture though so that I could've gotten a better idea of what was said.