Melissa N. White CO#2: Reading

Date: Monday January 11th, 11-11:50 am
Teacher: Ramin
Topic/Skill: Reading for more advanced students
Classroom Management: Ramin clearly loves to teach, he is engaging and kind towards his students. I overheard one student say, "I love his class" about Ramin as he started to discuss the days agenda. He has good control of the class while still allowing them the freedom to guide discussions, and participate openly.
Materials used: Computer, articles printed out for each student, youtube for music played as students arrived
Student Participation: Ramin spent the beginning part of class reminding his students of what they can expect in the following week, he then segued into the assignment for the day by bringing up a topic of interest introduced by a student in the previous class (this was impressive to me and smart, if you pay attention to what the students like the class will be better because they are helping you build it). Some one must have expressed curiosity around health food so Ramin printed out a National Geographic article about the terms healthy, natural, and organic. It was a sophisticated article but he included a key with words he knew students may trip up on, as well as a questionnaire to test their level of understanding and a small list of 'post-reading activities' that they could try outside of the classroom. Students were very chatty with Ramin, very friendly with one another, happy to read and discuss the material and did not fail to ask questions either to Ramin or with one another about the material. 
Feedback provided: Ramin was supportive of individual comments, when a student would mispronounce he would correct it by repeating the word in his response to their comment, Ramin allowed for a lot of individual and group work about the article and would address questions if they came up organically.
Lessons I learned: It helps to be honest and personable with your students, if you are happy and engaged they will hopefully meet you there. It is very smart to be prepared for questions that may come up from the subject studied, or to provide them with the answers before they can ask them (like they key Ramin made for the article). Again, I thought it was a great idea to take something a student asked about previously and turn it into a classroom assignment.