Katherine-CO#1

Today I went to my very first class observation and I learned so much more than I was expecting to! The class I observed was an advanced level reading class taught by Professor Flemming with the help of his intern, Min. Perhaps it was due to the class being at an advanced level, but the philosophy we have been learning in class that teachers should be more like coaches was fully demonstrated here. For the most part, this reading class was based on partner work. It made the class very interactive and I could see that all of the students were engaged and interested in the material because of this conversation/discussion component. Instead of focusing on the mechanics of the piece, the teacher facilitated discussion about the topics and encouraged students to express their opinions and thoughts with one another. The assigned reading was on bio-criminology so very interesting questions like nature vs nurture were open for debate. I learned about the SQ3R method of reading-survey question and the 3 R's (reading, reciting, review). The value of recitation was emphasized in the class as it serves like teaching someone else; the best way to learn something is to teach it. All of the students found value in this process and were eager to discuss it in class. The teacher and his intern would circulate during the discussions, offering help through context clues and "stirring the pot" with questions and points made by other groups with other groups. I liked how both the instructors would offer vocabulary definitions by showing the students how the word was working within the context of the article and through examples over giving a dictionary definition. Facilitating conversation seemed to be the main goal of the class and it seemed to be very effective with the students and created a comfortable, friendly learning environment.