Today I observed Felicia's level 2A grammar class. The lesson was on adverbs, and focused on how to use the different types as well as how to distinguish between them and adjectives. I got there about 5 minutes early, as did a few students. Felicia spent that time setting up her lesson and talking to students about their weekends.
When class started Felicia spent a minute writing the agenda and a "Bell Ringer" on the board. The Bell Ringer was a short partner exercise - they would explain to each other what an adverb is and use it in a few sentences.
Next they went over a handout on adverbs that they already had. Felicia read sentences aloud and made sure everybody understood. Then, in pairs, they answered some questions about identifying adverbs and adjectives. There were an odd number of students and so I was paired up with one. We had to identify adverbs and adjectives in sentences and explain why there were what they were. There was one difficult sentence ("Take it easy!") that I was given to explain. That was difficult because this is an expression that doesn't make too much sense when analyzed; "easy" modifies "take", but you have to know the expression in order to know what modifies what.
One of the last things they did was to break off into groups and come up with simple sentences; when they were done they had the other group use adverbs to improve the sentences. I was assigned to correct one of the group's sentences. I had trouble giving feedback on one of the sentences - something like "Anna is *sometimes* good at swimming" (the second group added the adverb) - because although it is grammatically correct, it's odd to say that someone is sometimes good at swimming. I explained my thought to the students, who understood, laughed, and said that maybe she is often sick.
The class seemed to go very quickly, which is definitely good for a grammar class. Felicia spoke very clearly, although she only reduced the speed of her speech a little bit.
When class started Felicia spent a minute writing the agenda and a "Bell Ringer" on the board. The Bell Ringer was a short partner exercise - they would explain to each other what an adverb is and use it in a few sentences.
Next they went over a handout on adverbs that they already had. Felicia read sentences aloud and made sure everybody understood. Then, in pairs, they answered some questions about identifying adverbs and adjectives. There were an odd number of students and so I was paired up with one. We had to identify adverbs and adjectives in sentences and explain why there were what they were. There was one difficult sentence ("Take it easy!") that I was given to explain. That was difficult because this is an expression that doesn't make too much sense when analyzed; "easy" modifies "take", but you have to know the expression in order to know what modifies what.
One of the last things they did was to break off into groups and come up with simple sentences; when they were done they had the other group use adverbs to improve the sentences. I was assigned to correct one of the group's sentences. I had trouble giving feedback on one of the sentences - something like "Anna is *sometimes* good at swimming" (the second group added the adverb) - because although it is grammatically correct, it's odd to say that someone is sometimes good at swimming. I explained my thought to the students, who understood, laughed, and said that maybe she is often sick.
The class seemed to go very quickly, which is definitely good for a grammar class. Felicia spoke very clearly, although she only reduced the speed of her speech a little bit.
No comments:
Post a Comment