I sat in on Leslie Wagner’s Speaking Group 3A and she had me
introduce myself to the handful of students in this section. She started class by
going over the Agenda Notes, essentially the syllabus for the course. Ms.
Leslie reminded everyone of the Cultural Workshop the next day, and she had the
students discuss –in pairs– the discussion prompts. She encouraged the students
to not just think about the surface of the question, but rather, explore the
deeper cultural reflections and share a diverse range of traits that make up
one’s identity, including their goals, personality, family relationships, food-preferences,
habits, and life pursuits. I took the time to write out my own answers to these
questions to better prepare for the cultural workshop. For about 3 minutes of
writing answers, the class had about 3 minutes of discussion. Ms. Leslie took
notes and corrected spoken grammar mistakes and fielded questions about proper
phrasing.
Some
questions were more difficult than others, and when discussion slowed down, Ms.
Leslie came by to push them to think a little further and a little more
critically. She encouraged them to ask why? Do greetings change with gender?
Family role? She reminded them that they may have to explain what the issue is
if they have differing cultural expectations, and that some cultures have a
stronger ethnic identity than others. She of course modified her speech to be
clear and understandable, being careful not to use idioms or complex speech
patterns. Like Kyle, she was very kind and afforded everyone respect and received
it in return.
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