Mar 2, 2020 Mon
9:00-10:10 (70min observation)
10:10-10:40 (30min teaching)
Topic: Vancouver Art Gallery
** Moved to highest level class
Observation
· Roll call: 4 people were late
· One student said he saw 2 students not wanting to come to the classroom for some reason.
· Give out worksheet
· Going to CSB213 to meet other students to discuss
· Ask students to read the questions one by one
· 15min writing: ask students to write in double space (write in one line, leave the next line blank)
Content
· Down questions (down intonation): “What did you learn about Cindy Sherman’s life?”
· Students know etc. is from Latin!
· A lot of English words are from Latin.
· Students are very engaging, willing to speak up and shows motivation to learn.
· Fluent in reading, though have minor pronunciation errors.
· Ask them to do a reflective writing (feel free to write about how much they don’t like arts)
Objective
· Debrief their experience at the Vancouver gallery
· “Discuss” their opinion about the questions.
Reflection
Today is my first day to follow Randall to the highest-level class for observation. Due to some issues, Randall is placed to teach the highest-level class from this week on, and so luckily, I have to follow his schedule. I was very excited to observe and teach a higher-level class because I assume there will be more talking and discussion involved, making the class more student-centered. And it turned out just the way I expected it to be. The class went very well as the students were all very willing to speak and motivated to learn.
We joined another class today for a 30-min discussion about their field trip to the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the two classes mingled well. I took part in some of the groups’ discussion and find them all very engaging and happy to share their thoughts, even though they are not big fans of arts. I was surprised by how broad their vocabulary usage is, I heard people using words like “ambiguous”, “diligent”, and replying one another in casual tones like “Uh-huh, yeah definitely.” Someone even brought up the word “Caucasian” to correct the other student when he said “white people”. That was an optimal student-centered scenario. Students are learning from each other as they talk to each other, but not solely from the instructor.
I have learned quite some from the students today as well. During our last part of discussion, a student mentioned that the indigenous people in Saudi Arabia is well respected in their country because of their rich culture and high social status. This is the contrary of a lot of other cultures, which I find very fascinating. I enjoyed this class a lot and it seemed like the students enjoyed my presence a lot as well!