Lila Mandela CO#3

Today I visited Ms. Victoria’s reading class. For a warm-up activity, we listened to and read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh. The recording had very slow reading and so within 10 minutes, we only read a few pages. After the reading, we took the time to go over any unfamiliar words and gave definitions and explanations of the words. After the reading and review, we transitioned into the group presentations. Three groups presented that day. The group’s members were to select a topic (ex. corporal punishment) and find two academic papers and one nonacademic paper to compare and contrast. The things they were to analyze included the length of the publications, the content, and the resources in the papers. I really liked the presentations because the topics opened my eyes to things I never once thought about. I never experienced corporal punishment in school but I never knew how extreme it could get in some countries. From another presentation I realized I never think about how sports are digitally saved for national broadcasts. I think that the presentations were a good way for the CIES students to display their public speaking skills and I think that they were done really well. Maybe I am wrong, but it must have taken a lot of courage, in addition to the hard work, to come to the USA, learn English, and then present a topic in their second language. I was thoroughly impressed by their work.