Today, I had the opportunity to observe my first class. I observed group 3 grammar taught by professor Felicia Clappetta. Immediately I was impressed by her ability to effortlessly lead the class. I suppose when you have 15 years of teaching under your belt, the pressures and anxieties about commanding a classroom are replaced by experience and composure.
But I digress.
Her lecture focused on infinitives and how they are used. She began class with an exercise where the students had to solve the "beautiful mistakes" that professor Felicia put up on a projector. An example of which goes as follows: "They learned me a lot" where 'learned' is replaced by "taught". She put particular emphasis on the subject and its position in the sentence. The exercise was first done independently or in pairs and then discussed as a group, answering grammar questions as they came up. It was very student focused, only clues given by professor Clappetta - no overt answers. This methodology is in keeping with the student centered approach.
After the exercise (9:00-9:30), the professor moved on and gave the students 2 minutes to discuss with their partners as to what an infinitive is. After the time elapsed, she "muted" the more active students and called on a quiet student to define the term. Her response: "to + base form of a verb". Ex/ to run, to fly etc. Then the students opened their books and went over the assignments in the book (there were 2).
The remainder of the class focused on the exercises, students would answer the questions and the results were discussed aloud.
I found that engaging the students was effective in having a more active class room. By excluding some students who are perhaps frequent answerers, she forced more timid students to apply what they learned. This can be a detriment, but I believe that it was used appropriately. These are advanced students, so they had a basic idea of what an infinitive is, but the class helped to perfect their form.
I enjoyed my first class and now have a slightly better idea on how to teach a class
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