The first thing that I took from that class, after observing it, was how the teacher developed a sort of sign language with her students. It was more than just body language. The students know how to interact with their teacher probably because it was learned in the very first class. I admire that because it not only builds, but also strengthens the student-teacher relationship. Another advantage of this sort of sign language is how much time is saved by using gestures instead of talking, and it also helps with not disrupting the flow of the class. Point – teacher!
What I also observed was the diction used by the teacher. The kids in her class respond really well to the manner of talking, as she is engaging, making jokes, and interacting with her students with an easy diction.
I commend her for constantly praising her students, I’ve already done my first hour of teaching and I find that praising students and using their ideas help them open up.
The teacher uses the Elicitation Approach to correct students! She pulls up an image on the board (for example: a picture of the beach) and has her students guess the answers, and the kids love getting it right. She quickly asks them to spell the words, integrating a pronunciation review activity. She also included a new word for them: skyscraper, and she explained the meaning of the word by dismantling it (sky – scraper). Good strategy. To make sure they’ve understood the word, she has them repeat and spell out the new word.
After the group activity, the teacher individually reviewed the students’ pronunciation. She encouraged the other students to listen to everyone’s pronunciation and even correct them when needed. Peer tutoring? I guess it works, but I’m not sure how I feel about students yelling in unison at one student’s mistake.
Overall, it was a great class. The flow was steady, the level of enthusiasm in that class could have broken the ceiling, and the activities were engaging!
The only minor thing that I thought was missing was that she didn’t ask the students if they had any questions during the class. Maybe they didn’t show any signs of confusion, or they have a sign language for that and no one used it, so she knew everything was clear.
