Kaitlin CO #1

The first class I observed was Group 2A Listening. The teacher (Olivia, I believe) started off by telling the students that she would be telling them a story, but first she wanted to see how much they know about the American judicial system. She showed them how much they already knew about the concept and used word associations to help them. Olivia then explained that she was building their "schema," which she told them was prior knowledge plus new knowledge gained to understand something. She built their vocabulary to make it easier to understand her story about jury duty. I found that way she rationalized everything that she was doing was awesome and really engaged the students in what they were doing. She said adults learn visually to explain why she was drawing on the board, which, once again, engaged the students. After her story, she pointed out that English is a musical language- it almost sounds like we're singing when native speakers talk. The class was interesting and fun. I was very impressed. I also owe Olivia a big thank you for helping me corner my reluctant conversation partner, Turki.