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Ashley CO #1

The first class I observed was a Grammar Class on January 14th. This class was my first exposure to any of the CIES classes and I found it to be interesting as well as a reminder of how little I knew about how to teach english as a foreign language. The teacher, Ms. Sana McHarek, encouraged me to be interactive with the class and to walk around helping the students with class assignments when they needed it. Doing so forced me to not only be interactive, but also helped me to realize how much slower I needed to speak with the beginner students. It took me a second to adjust and realize how difficult it can be to depict the student's current level and then adjusting my speaking level to theirs. I started trying to help by recommending how to fix every error I saw on their practice worksheets, but then realized that this is not a good way to go about helping them productively, and should rather help them solely on the errors revolving around the lesson for that day. I found pointing out too many critiques at once was overwhelming, and it was better to take it one step at a time. While observing I took notes on several potential grammar activities and ways of teaching as well as interacting with the students.

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