I sat in and observed for the Advanced Oral Communications class, taught by Jack. The session was two hours long, in a virtual classroom, and the theme for the session was controversies – specifically, how to defend one’s opinion.
First hour:
I could see that Jack was doing his best to maximize the students’ speaking time, and to help students have a good understanding of the topics at hand. For example, the start of the class was a brainstorming session to find synonyms of the word, “banned”, followed up with three things that are banned in their country, and why they are banned. I found the order in which these tasks were laid out were very beneficial to the students’ learning. The students had a good understanding of the word “banned” before they started discussing the things that were banned in the country. I also noticed that Jack tried to keep the students talking by asking a lot of follow-up questions. In order to ask these questions, I think it required Jack to be very attentive and interested in what the students had to say.
Despite Jack’s efforts to open the discussions to the students, the students seemed reluctant to participate in them. Perhaps it was the controversial topics – the students may have been uncomfortable with some of the topics, and did not want to share their opinion. Maybe it was the virtual classroom that allowed students to virtually hide themselves. Or, knowing that they were being observed, they could have been nervous about our presence.
Second hour:
The second hour mainly focused on vocabulary relating to controversial journalism, and the presentation of opinions on a controversial case.
Similarly to the first hour, Jack explained new vocabulary in detail so that the students could understand them. Jack also, once again facilitated lots of time and opportunities for students to speak. He knew the vocabulary was difficult, and sympathized with the students. Although the students were struggling with the new words, I believe Jack’s admittance of these challenging words made it less intimidating to learn.
The students got better at opening up on the second half of the lesson, but they still seemed to be rather reserved. Some were able to present their controversial cases, as well as being the Devil’s advocate, but some did not seem to understand the objective of the exercise. Again, I believe the reasons were a combination of those said above in the first hour.
I think Jack had done all that he could do to help his students learn. The largest issue to the class was the lack of students’ responses, and their negligence was the only factor that was detrimental to their learning.