Justin Stevenson CO #1

On January 11th at 2 PM, I observed professor Kim's level 3 listening class. Prof. Kim used the Lecture Ready 3 textbook to teach Schema theory; listening; and note-taking, finishing with a discussion and a quiz. The teacher broke the class down into three periods: 25 minutes of building schema activities, a 10-minute lecture, and 15 minutes for comprehension questions. The teacher began the class by introducing schema theory, pausing to question the students' understanding of the topic, and to answer any questions. The class then worked in groups, using the text, to decide what they felt was most important when buying products; furthermore, they read an article about the effect the brain has on such decisions (i.e., do people typically make rational choices when buying products or not?) A tie-in video of the key concept of the day's lesson (schema theory) was then presented--a woman giving a speech about the interplay between our emotions and decision-making; the class took notes while listening and summarized its content. The class ended with a 15-question quiz on what was covered. The class's atmosphere was very relaxed, perhaps owing to the small class size. Students seemed comfortable answering questions aloud, and were provided with many follow-up questions to their answers (e.g., "why do you think brand names are important when purchasing items?").