Nicole Will CO#1

Date/Time: October 27; 1pm

Topic/Skill: Speaking Class w/ Kyle Kaminski

Teacher Presentation: The class began with a student presentation on the life of a friend he interviewed from his home country. Afterwards, Kyle had the class give feedback on the performance based on the specific rubric he uses to evaluate the presentations. When the students were hesitant to speak up, he prompted them with questions and called on specific students to get the conversation rolling. Next, he had the students look over a page in their class book and explain ways we can talk about the future. He wrapped up the class with small group discussions.

 

Classroom Management: Had to ask one student to put his phone away and did so by asking him if he thought playing with his phone would help him learn English. He held the class' attention well and called on students randomly to keep them all engaged and participating.

Materials: work book, white board/markers

Student Participation: Each student will give a presentation similar to the one I saw today. After each, the class as a whole is asked to provide feedback. Throughout the lesson, Kyle had students read from the book, asked questions to prompt discussion, and broke the class into two small groups at the end to talk about the "rules" of discussions in different situations.

Feedback Provided: Kyle gave only positive feedback on the student presentation and explained that he would provide constructive feedback one on one. This seemed to put the students at ease in regards to presenting in front of their peers. He did give "in the moment feedback" on pronunciations or grammar mistakes in student speech throughout the class in a very matter of fact way and had the class fix each error as a group.

Lesson(s) on teaching you learned: I learned more about creating a class culture. It seems Kyle has created a relaxed culture but one in which he has still earned a lot of respect. The students seemed at ease but he also made sure to tell them several times that he expected their best. He was a few minutes late and apologized when he entered the classroom saying he has high standards for them and wants to hold himself to those standards as well. He seemed to earn even more respect for holding himself accountable.