Shani CO #2

     On Thursday, I observed Jen Dickinson's Group 1 Reading class. At the beginning of class, she asked the students what they read the day before, which was a great way to subtly encourage them to read English texts outside of class. She then gave them a vocabulary list with words from the book Tom Sawyer, ranging from easy to slightly more difficult. She instructed the students to look up the definitions on their phone and write them down. Jen walked around the classroom to ensure that students were staying on task and made sure that they were writing in English and not their native language. Then, they were given a worksheet which contained a short passage and reading comprehension questions. Jen explained that she will grade the multiple choice comprehension questions but the free responses are just for practice. In addition to assessing reading comprehension skills, this worksheet is also used to test vocabulary. She then gave them 10 minutes to complete the worksheet and encouraged them to ask questions if they had any.  After the 10 minutes were up, Jen read the passage aloud for the auditory learners in the room (she said that sometimes students don't realize they know a word until it is said aloud). At certain points, she stopped to ask the class what certain words mean, which helped them stay engaged. They discussed what the words meant and related it to students's lives, which helped them create a context for the new words they were learning. Then, they went over the essay questions together (which are not graded). This class was a lot of independent work, which is understandable since creating group activities for Reading can be difficult. Professor Dickinson still managed to keep the class engaged by asking them questions.