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Jack CO #1


For my first class observation, I sat in on a level-two grammar class. I was incredibly nervous for some reason, but the teacher was very comforting and incorporated me into a lot of the activities to help me feel welcome. The students were practicing the simple past tense by describing a video they saw last class that was directed by an FSU film school alumn. First, the students described it to me as best they could, then the teacher showed the video again. I clarified what I did not get from the students’ explanation and we went over some essential vocab words, focusing on irregular past-tense conjugations. The students had a pretty good grasp of irregular past tense in isolation. When given the infinitive of a verb, they could give the irregular conjugation, but using the word in a sentence was a little more challenging. They had a more receptive command of irregular verbs than productive, but that receptive command was helping them when it came to the class exercises. I could tell that using the verbs in a sentence was much more effective in creating a productive command than just writing the words on a board.

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