February 20, 2004
Observation of Ms. Wineland's Freench 1 Class during A2
List of observed activities:
Ms. Wineland was checking homework as I
entered the room. 1 Ss had to leave the room to get her
paper, which she forgot. When Ss were all in class, Tr went over the HW
exercises and clarified spelling of words. The Ss were practicing conjugating
verbs and were learning how to match proper endings
with correct person & number of the subject. Ms.
Wineland had all Ss participate and speak in French. There was a sign on the
wall which had all conjugations of the verb posted as a visual aid for the Ss.
After the HW review was complete the Ss were told to
stand and go over all conjugations with matching body
motions as a memory tool.
Tr re-directed Ss attention to the list of
topics for the day and had them prepare to learn new verbs.
1 Ss shared news that she would be going to
DC to rally against child abuse and neglect-Tr expressed her approval that the
Ss was involved in this, then returned to the task at hand.
Tr called on some past familiarity with the
new words which Ss should recall from ordering food and Valentine's activities.
Ss vocalized pronunciations and Tr reviewed
meanings (I, you, we, etc.) Tr returned to book to do practice with new words.
Oral practice w/ exercise A was done by Ss
who used names of movie stars in place of names in book. Tr
uses this as a way to keep Ss interested in work.
Tr moved from new words back to prior
knowledge of au (to the) and reminded Ss of forthcoming quiz
and what words would be on it.
Tr went to get supplies for an activity and
Ss were told to turn in HW from the start of class.
Game was about
movement around the room to various words taped to the wall. Tr read sentences
and left a blank where the word should be-Ss had to get to the correct word for
a point.
My Reflections:
I am amazed at how quickly Ms. Wineland is
able to move between the various activities of the lesson.
With only 6 Ss in the class, she keeps the pace fast. All of the Ss were on task and reminders to stop talkingg were very minimal. She keeps everyone
thinking constantly about what she is saying, asking, or doing with the new
vocabulary. The variety of oral, written, and physical activities seems to be
very good! I'm sure
it is a great way to trigger Ss
memory of vocabulary. I think Ms. Wineland's Ss definitely learn a lot of French each day!
I was very impressed with Ms. Wineland's
ability to call on all Ss very often, and use French
directions frequently with all of them actually understanding what she was
saying. She definitely has everyone's attention all
of the time and makes sure everyone participates
equally!
I love Ms. Wineland's energy and enthusiasm
for her subject. It forces her Ss to pay attention to what
she is saying and doing. She models the content and activities for the class and reinforces new words witth repetition and frequent review w/o
making the content boring! Very impressive! In 45
minutes I saw a lot of learning taking place. Ms.
Wineland clearly does a lot of planning and preparation to keep the fast pace
in her class. She makes a schedule and sticks to it!
Observation by Shannon Davis, Engglish (9-12)