Caitlin CO #3

Date/Time: January 14th, 2016 1:00-1:50pm

Topic/Skill: Speaking Level 1/ The History of Tallahassee and Timelines

Teacher Presentation: Teacher briefly introduced what a timeline was and how they are used to tell a history. She then passed out slips of paper with information about Tallahassee's history printed on them to each pair of students. The groups were meant to work together to understand the information and then the groups were rearranged for one member of each group to share their information with the other students. The instructor forgot to show a powerpoint with background knowledge at the beginning of class and had to go back to show the class to help them understand. Then the students returned to their small groups to share the information they had on their paper slips with each other. After a little bit, the teacher split the class in half and had them all try to figure out where on the timeline each piece of information was supposed to go. Then the students were supposed to go back to their original groups to also figure out where the information fell on the timeline shown on the powerpoint in the workbook. 

Classroom Management: This class was a complete mess... The students were on their phones and speaking amongst each other in their native languages. The teaching felt unorganized and I wasn't entirely sure what was going on at points in the class. The students also were confused and didn't remember what was on their slips of paper when they were supposed to share with the other groups. Not a lot of English speaking happened in class.

Materials: computer, powerpoint, projector, workbook pages, slips of paper with sentences about Tallahassee's history, whiteboard, dry-erase markers

Student Participation: The students were confused and not willing to participate. Often times they would not listen to the teacher and would use their own methods to try and figure out the correct answers.

Feedback Provided: There wasn't a whole lot of encouragement given to the students although the teacher did go around and answered any questions they had on vocabulary or sentence meaning. 

Lesson(s) on teaching you learned: This observation really taught me how important it is to be organized in the classroom. Without the powerpoint for laying the foundations of the lesson, the activity didn't make much sense. It would be a waste of both my time and the student's time if I did not appropriately plan and perform the lesson. I also wonder if my being in the classroom made the teacher nervous.