Rachael CO#1

On Wednesday (1/25), I began my day full of classroom observations in Victoria Davis's Grammar 1A class. Immediately, the classroom had a very friendly vibe to it. Victoria took a quick roll-call and had the day's agenda written up on the board: Review Pronouns, Pronoun Quiz. She had a sheet where she checked off whether or not the students did the homework and then projected the worksheet she had assigned onto the whiteboard. The homework consisted of a moderately controlled exercise, having the students use subject, object, and possessive pronouns and possessive adjectives. Each of the four components of the worksheet had its own distinct category, so there was no mistaking which kind of word was to be used. In correcting the homework, she would usually call on volunteers to provide the answers, but would occasionally ask for a response from someone she hadn't heard from yet. Errors were very calmly addressed, emphasizing that mistakes are beautiful! There were lots of smiles and laughter.

One thing that stood out to me was when she used the word "letter," as in mail in a sample sentence. A few of the students seemed confused, thinking she meant letters of the alphabet! To teach this word, she looked up a picture of a letter in an envelope and the students immediately understood.

It was clear that the students felt free to ask questions, and the classroom had a very student-centered vibe. When students made it clear that she was having a difficult time with this sticky subject, she took the time to review it with the students by writing it out on the whiteboard, using student input to gauge how much the students understood and where exactly the difficulty lied.

At the end, she gave out a quiz on pronoun use. She felt that the students didn't have enough time to take it fully, so she ended up deciding that they could have a look at it, assess where they were having the most trouble, and then continue with it tomorrow.

Overall, I loved her teaching style. I always felt like the most growth for me happened in classrooms where there was free and open discussions! Victoria is very kind and lively, making the class very enjoyable!