On January 16, 2019, I completed my third classroom observation by observing Mr. Rio's Speaking 2 class. The students were working on a peer introduction project, so they were writing down information about their partner to later do a PowerPoint about them. For almost all of them, this would be the first time they present in front of anybody in English, so I imagine it can be daunting. I assume that most had already spoken to their partner the class before, because most just wrote for the class and only a couple of students asked each other a few things. The teacher put some light American pop-music in the background and walked around the classroom to see if any student needed help. This class was not as talkative as the other two classes, despite being the speaking class, but I understand because it is level 2 so they don't have the same confidence or proficiency as the students from the more advanced classes. Mr. Rios put on the board an example of a presentation outline, for example the intro, which includes the hook, intro sentence, and agenda with three points. They also have to include a body with the transitions, points, and details, and a conclusion. In different countries, presentation expectations may differ, so presenting the students with an outline of what is expected is a good way to introduce them to the American academic world and even business world, because presentation expectations are similar. For the second part of class, we went downstairs to the computer lab, and the students worked on their PowerPoints. Observing this class made me realize that speaking classes can incorporate the other facets of teaching English, because sometimes students do need to write and read out loud in order to make a speech.
My next tutoring session was with Turki. We met at the Starbucks on Tennessee Street, the usual spot, and started the session with a causal conversation about life and his short term English goals. Turki decided he didn't want to continue with the second session of CIES classes, and that he wanted to rather focus solely on passing the IELTS exam. He said he found the CIES classes to be helpful, but also distracting. He said he thinks he's gotten the most out of his classes and that it would be more productive for him to study on his own. Where I don't completely agree with his logic, it is his life and I trust his decision making. For this session he brought his own material that he wanted to focus on. This time it was a reading passage that I even found to be quite difficult, and I was once again impressed by his far reach in practice and ability. The reading passage was accompanied by a set of numerous comprehension questions that we reviewed and answered together. The qu...
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