Ryan - CO #2 - Reading

Classroom Observation #2

Last Monday, I went to a Level 2 Reading class. Students had just begun reading Matilda by Roald Dahl. Ryan, the instructor, played the audiobook while students read from their physical copies. I think this did a lot to help students hear the pronunciation of words, and maybe improve their ablity to focus on content and comprehension rather than struggle over difficult curveball words. 

One thing Ryan did differently than in the first class I observed was his manner of correcting mistakes. Whereas in my first CO the instructor would ask, “Can you say that onnnnnne more time?”, Ryan employed what he called the “what?” method, which is essentially just going…”what?” when someone makes a mistake in their English production. While it’s certainly more blunt, it also is identical to what most English-speaking conversationalists would hear as a response if they uttered something as unclear.

Ryan paused the audio at many points to ask questions for comprehension checks, and to allow students to ask about vocabulary words. I think this makes good sense, as it also catches up anyone else in the class who may have fallen behind. He also used it to explore emotions and character motivations, which I think can do a lot to illuminate how writers use certain words in context to create feelings.

One thing I though was really cool was the passage from Matilda that they just happened to be reading the day I came to observe. A librarian is asking Matilda, who she came to know as a precocious young girl and voracious reader of intellectual books, about her home life. Her parents are revealed to be mean, unsupportive, selfish, and borderline childabusive (ok, I know we’ve all seen the movie, sorry for the recap). At the end of the section, I just thought it was such an appropriate analogue to why the CIES students should be reading these novels and practicing their reading skills in the first place. It seems to fitting that they got read about a girl who has gone far beyond her means to read, in order to experience a life fuller and richer than the one originally given to her. I hope the CIES students will continue reading and enriching their lives long after their English courses at CIES are over, and long after reading Matilda way back in a forgotten level 2 reading course.