Charlene, CO #1

I was able to observe Rebecca Turk's Group 1A grammar class today. I was the first person there, and the students came in one at a time and sat quietly. This was a quiet group. I noticed that everyone self-segregated by gender, with the women in the front row and the men in the second row.

When Ms. Turk came into the classroom, I went forward to introduce myself, and she came my way simultaneously. She set me at ease immediately.

Ms. Turk was extremely outgoing and upbeat, in spite of having a somewhat hoarse voice today. She explained to the class this was because of her allergies and the three singing performances she had done this past week. She spent several minutes asking the students about their weekend activities and was clearly interested. She moved back and forth between the white board and among the students constantly for the entire class. She was funny and direct. High energy does not begin to describe her style. The students soon "warmed up" and responded directly to her also.

For part of the class, Ms. Turk reviewed the syllabus and explained rules. Apparently, coming to class more than five minutes late results in being marked absent. Ms. Turk took great pains to explain the benefits of staying in class after a late arrival. She also offered to be available for
consultation should students have questions about American customs and culture-specific appropriate responses in their day-to-day lives.

She told students that she prefers that they "teach yourselves then come to class with questions," explaining this would result in their learning more quickly. To help students identify techniques for self-teaching, Ms. Turk led the class through a written exercise in goal-setting. Students set personal goals for English language learning, i.e. goals that would result in their learning something that would personally benefit them in their own lives. Some students seemed to be confused about the concept and seemed to me to be "trying to get the right answer." Ms.Turk spoke with these students asking them more questions about their daily routines and habits to help them clarify the reason for the exercise. They soon caught on.

The last part of the class was devoted to reviewing the simple present verb tenses. Students were paired with partners to discuss things they do everyday to practice speaking in this tense. Students appeared to be have good knowledge of simple present tense. Ms. Turk moved among the pairs listening and asking questions to help students self-correct errors.

Next, she discussed how to make and provided examples of verb charts to use in the self-study of all verb tenses. She asked student to use a verb chart to review the negative form of the simple present tense for homework, since at that point, we had run out of time for the class.

When class was over, Ms. Turk asked if I had any questions. I did not, but thanked her for letting me observe her. I told her I would like to observe her again with an even more advanced group, if I could. She said I could come back anytime.