Kersten CO #1

I observed Professor Ramin Yazdanpanah level 2A Reading class on Wednesday, January 18 from 11:00-11:30am. He introduced me to the class and asked his students if they had any questions for me. Afterwards, he began the class with D.E.A.R., an acronym for drop everything and read. He handed out a copy of FSView to every one of his students (and even proceeded to hand me one as well) and told his students to read the newspaper for 10 minutes. I thought this was a really good strategy for having the students improve their reading skills. In addition, he then asked the students to raise their hands and tell the class any vocabulary words that they did not understand while doing their reading. The words that the students did not understand were then added to a weekly vocabulary document that Professer Yazdanpanah had saved to his computer. In addition, he also clarified whether the vocabulary words were verbs, nouns, or adjectives. This is also an important part to include when teaching new vocabulary because some words can mean different things when the parts of speech they are used in changes.

After the DEAR period, the professor then went over the homework assigned previously. The assignment consisted of a reading passage that had questions on the back asking the students to define words that could be found within the specific reading passage. Many of the students had no problem defining the words after reading the passage, although some did try to find separate definitions online. While the professor didn’t discourage the use of online resources, he suggested that the students try to stick to the specific reading passage’s definition in order to pick up on the context in which they were used. He also paired them in groups to discuss to vocab and comprehension questions that were assigned previously. This group work helped to engage the students in the lesson. He also came over to where I was sitting and gave me some advice on teaching. He said post-reading helps motivate the students to find the details within the passage. All in all, I learned a great deal after observing this class and really loved the idea of DEAR in order to help students increase their reading and vocabulary skills.