Charlotte CO #2 Reading w/ Prof. James

 

Time/Date: January 14, 2026, 11-11:50a

Topic/Skill: Reading: "What is the Lunar New Year?"


    When I observed Professor James' Low-Intermediate Reading class, students were tasked with reading along with an article discussing the Lunar New Year.  The article is originally from a couple years previous, so the class had all altered their copies to reflect this year, which is the Year of the Horse.  

    Each student had been given their own copy of the Voices of America article so they could follow along as Professor James read.  The interesting part of most Voices of America articles is that they include bolded vocabulary that is later defined at the end of the article.  Though each article prepares vocabulary words at the end, Professor James repeatedly reminded students to highlight other words, while she was reading, that were unknown to them.  Professor James would use Britannica Dictionary and project it onto the whiteboard so she could discuss with the students the words they were unfamiliar with.  Using this resource, students were able to see the vocabulary used in other sentence examples and also view synonyms.  Despite the main focus on learning vocabulary, the topic of Lunar New Year also lent itself to discussing different cultural practices.  Students not only read about the typical Lunar New Year traditions throughout various Asian countries, but they also learned about the ancient stories that influence these modern traditions.  


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