Kersten CO #2

I observed Professor Sana McHarek’s level 2 reading class on Monday, January 23 from 11:00-11:30am. She started the class with going over the summaries her students wrote concerning the Great Depression. These summaries consisted of about one paragraph, which summarized an article they read in a previous class titled The Great Depression. She went around the room and asked the students if they had any questions about the comments she wrote on their summaries. I also walked around the room and some of the students received comments underlining a part of their summaries saying “why is this important” or “explain in more detail.” Giving the students these comments is helpful in order to improve their reading skills and encourage them to look at the details of the article more closely.

After she finished walking around the room, she handed out another article and had the students answer reading comprehension questions based off of the reading. I really liked how she had the students provide their answers to these questions. She handed out index cards that were folded in half, and each side had a letter on it: A, B, C, or D. She then went through the reading comprehension questions and had each student hold up their answers to the multiple choice questions with the side of the index card that corresponded with the desired answer the student wanted to answer with. Students would hold up their index cards without looking at other students’ answers. I thought this was a really cool idea to get the students involved and excited about answering questions.

After this activity, the teacher then wrote on the board the statement: “Using cell phones while driving is dangerous,” while asking the students to get in pairs and discuss whether they agree or disagree with this statement. Then she asked the students to read an article she handed out concerning the statement on the board. This was a good activity to get students involved and to practice their speaking and listening skills. She is a super nice teacher and answered any questions the students had for her really well.