ESL Level 2

[Admin]

Post here any experiences you have observing Level 2 ESL class

[Admin]

I had my second observation today, I was with Miss Sotto, in a 2/3 Class. I am realizing now that because of it being a split class having the actual assigned topics under specific numbers this might be confusing... So if you want to post about a split class just choose any of the levels your class encompassed.

Today the class worked on sentence formation following SVO rules, with emphasis placed on distinguishing the Subject, Verb, and (Extra Information), this was followed by changing sentences into questions. The goal of the class was to enable the students in the class to be able to ask questions at the teacher/parent meetings for their children.

On thing I found especially cool about this, was the fact that, as Miss Sotto told me, she hadn't had much material on this topic, and had never attended a parent/teacher meeting. She needed to come up with this weeks information on her own, and find material she could use to assist them in learning how to acquire this knowledge. The reason I found this useful, was to bring to the attention the fact that it is about the goals and needs of the students in ESL, as compared to classes that are specific to a topic, or university classes that have the goals laid out before students even register in the course. The students told the teacher what they wanted to be able to do, and she created this new lesson, instead of doing whatever she may have had planned prior to being asked.

To introduce the topic Miss Sotto wrote on the board sentences, that were split into SVO categories, adding in elements as she went and with the classes help changed them into questions, with detail put on the smaller transitions that are difficult for more ESL students to obtain. She reviewed vocabulary that they had been working on over the week by asking the class what the words were, and assisting them through the answers until everyone was able to say the definitions aloud. As she went over the vocabulary, she would also slowly build sentences around them to assist in not only acquiring the specific vocabulary but also adding in some use of full sentence structures. After going over the changes of sentences into questions she gave the students a handout for them to complete individually where they had to change the incorrect questions into properly formed questions. After the students were finished she had them come up to her and she would tell them if they were right or wrong, but if they were wrong she wouldn't tell them how to fix it, just that they were wrong. She said this was to encourage students who were otherwise just passively jot things down, into actually trying and learning.

I thoroughly enjoyed observing this class, and it gave me ideas on how I may work with a class like this as well. For example, requesting that students formulate one question each day before class to ask, then correcting the way they ask the question and answering it. Just going through quickly with all the students questions before moving on to a topic. My hope would be for this to take no longer than 15 minutes, and perhaps get the students into the mindset of working on their English for the class.

One thing that surprised me about the class was that even after, not just speaking English my entire life but, taking four semesters of linguistics courses there are still rules that I didn't realize were there but just used unknowingly, for example when formulating sentences, the verb To Be is the only one that doesn't require the verb To Do when asking a question.

Again today I realized how proactive most of the students are when it comes to learning English, there were students up at the board assisting each other in sentence formation using both English and Arabic to try to further they understanding, before the teacher even came into the room. Once the teacher arrived one of the girls started asking her if her sentence was alright, and Miss Sotto went over the mistakes with the student until she was content. Today I did notice, however, that there certainly are some students are perhaps much more shy and don't speak often at all, which I understand would have to be dealt with in some way, as there are many more students very active in their learning, who are consistently shouting out the answers to questions and learning very fast. It must be difficult to really work with this dynamic and still make sure that everyone is learning.

A difference I noticed during this class, as compared to my previous class, was that Miss Sotto was a bit more strict when it came to cell phones in class, I am not certain whether or not when I teach one day if I will be or not, I suppose it will grow out of my own teaching experiences.

PS. After writing this post and looking at it posted, I think I may need to look into paraphrasing my thoughts a bit more, as I wouldn't even want to read my own post it is so long... #TipsForMyFutureSelf (/AnyoneEldeReadingThis)