Melina CO #3 = Reading with Prof. James

 Melina CO Blog Post #3 = Reading with Prof. James

Date/Time: January 13th, 2025, 11:00-11:50 am.

Topic/Skill: Reading, Low-Intermediate Level 

Teacher Presentation: The topic of Prof. James's recent reading-focused classes has been the major celebrations in the home countries of the students of the class. As such, she began the class with a video about Tet, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year celebration. During the video, which included text, Prof. James encouraged students to read off the information written, and pose questions to their Vietnamese classmate, Tam. Afterward, she guided a group reading of a passage about Tet and the significance of the Lunar New Year in Vietnam. 

Classroom Management: Prof. James started and stopped the Tet video at prime moments to allow for assessment and expansion from her students, encouraging them to read the  questions written in the video aloud (these questions were posed and answered in the video, but Prof. James paused it during the posing period so that students had the opportunity to learn from each other). Prof. James also read the article aloud to assist with student comprehension, noting difficult words and their definitions. 

Materials: Youtube video, Short article (printed)

Student Participation: The students watched the video regarding Tet, and asked Tam questions to expand upon the information included in the video, when prompted by Prof. James (in a level appropriate manner). Students also engaged in the group reading of the article describing Tet. 

Feedback Provided: Prof. James provided feedback for students verbally, kindly correcting their mispronunciations or misuse of words and phrases. 

Lesson(s) on teaching you learned: I learned the significance of the link between auditory and visual queues; I expected for a reading class to only include reading an article, but Prof. James helped set her students up for success by breaching the barrier on the subject with an introductory video, also using this video as a means for further practice. I was once again excited and honored to be a part of Prof. James's class!

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