For my tenth hour of in-class observation, I sat in on ESAL 0370, an intermediate reading class. The classroom was set up with desks in groups of four spread around the room. The instructor began class by showing the students a brief video on the day’s topic. The topic of this class, in particular, was elderly people and specifically those over the age of 100. After watching the video, the students were given their reading assignment for the day and told the class’s objective was the pick out key components of the reading. After giving the students time to finish the reading, the teacher asked them various questions about it. The teacher asked direct questions from the reading as well as yes-no questions about the reading. Various language skills were incorporated throughout this lesson, the main one being reading however, the students speaking and listening skills were also incorporated through the use of videos and questions. The general atmosphere of the class was positive. Students seemed to find the video funny and enjoyed getting to speak about their own families and relatives who lived to be quite old. Students also seemed to enjoy researching their own countries and the live expectancies of people living there. I think the most helpful lesson I took away from this observation was how beneficial it could be to incorporate a personal aspect into lessons for the students.
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