Hayley CO #2

I observed Josh Valentine’s Listening class for Group 3. They quickly went over their homework assignment which was to watch a television show or music video and write some words that they had learned. For the words they learned they wrote a definition and a “way to remember” which was usually a picture or some other kind of mnemonic. He wrote all of the new words on the board along with their definitions. One of the words was unbearable and he asked a few students to share something they found unbearable which was giving the word context.

He mentioned that the day before they had discussed American stereotypes. In this class, we watched two interviews with two Americans and they were going to compare their interviews with the stereotypes they had learned the day before. The interviews were broken into segments that were about three or four minutes long. Before showing the videos Josh emphasized that note-taking skills were the most important part of this lesson. They needed to get the “who, what, where, when, and why” and not worry about understanding everything. The Introduction introduced Cintron from South Florida and Rebecca from Mississippi. After the video played he called on a few people to talk about what they wrote down and also any words that they didn’t understand. After this, he played the video again and after the second time more people were able to contribute because they were able to understand more the second time.

The next video described Cintron’s family and Rebecca’s hometown. Before watching this we went over some terms that may be unfamiliar such as melting pot and single mother. We also watched and discussed this video twice. The students felt comfortable in class as they were all talking to one-another, commenting, and asking questions. They also felt comfortable speaking with Josh because before and after class many of the students were chatting with him. I think this is important because they did not feel intimidated by him. He also did not correct any grammar mistakes, granted everyone’s grammar was good since it was a Group 3 class. The class was for listening and discussion and making constant corrections could hinder that.