As part of an assignment for my Spanish class I chose to go and observe a pre-school classroom for an hour and note the use of the children’s language and how the children interacted language wise with an adult.  The class that I chose to observe contained about 10 four-year-olds.  At the time that I chose to observe the children they were in a circle interacting with their teacher which I felt was perfect for observing how they express themselves while interacting in a group situation.

 At the beginning of the time that I was there to observe the children were interacting with their teacher by pointing out the names of different finger on their individual hands.  What I have noticed often with children this age is that they love to tell stories and I found that to be true in this classroom as well.  The teacher worked very well with the students who had a story to tell and she just listened attentively and then continued with the exercise.  The novice, or children, were very articulate in the way that they communicated with their teacher.  They spoke using complete sentences and the majority of the time with correct verb tenses.  I was very impressed.  The expert, the teacher, spoke at a slow pace I assume so that she can ensure that the children can understand her.  She was very articulate and used complete sentences while speaking with the children.

 As I observed the novice and the expert interacting in conversation, the expert always appeared interested and intrigued with what each and every child had to say.  I feel that this is important because it makes the child feel more comfortable about speaking to you.  If one of the students had a problem finishing a sentence or could not recall a word to use the teacher would politely help the child along by asking the child a question related to the conversation or if she know what the child was trying to say she would fill in the rest of the sentence.

 I did not notice many language errors in the classroom.  If a child did make an error while speaking the expert would not hastily correct the child but instead would wait for the child to finish then repeat the sentence that the novice said wrong correctly without causing the child embarrassment.  For example, if the child said, “Dad go to the store yesterday!”, the teacher would say, “Oh your Dad went to the store yesterday?”  I particularly favor this technique of language correction because it puts the correct format in the child’s head without causing unnecessary embarrassment.  I plan to implement this method in my classroom in the future as well as in my home with my own children.

 Overall I enjoyed observing this pre-school class and it makes me eager to get in and start molding children’s minds.  I can tell that real language learning is still taking place despite the fact that these children are four-years-old.  I plan to go and observe the children again sometime soon and possibly talk to them and see how their language skills are on a one to one basis.
 

 I chose to observe a Spanish 102 class for my second observation.  The teacher that I chose to observe was Dr. Tucker.  Dr. Tucker is a Spanish teacher who has been teaching Spanish for 35 years.  Most of the students in her classroom appeared to be taking the class as a requirement so not all were making much effort.  Dr. Tucker’s classroom was completely full and I feel that has an effect on the way that teacher is able to teach as well.

 Dr. Tucker started the class with a warm-up exercise reviewing the regular past tense verbs that they had been learning the previous week.  She reviewed the verbs by asking them what they had done last weekend requiring the students to answer her using the past tense.  When Dr. Tucker is working with the class she speaks slowly and pronounces each word thoroughly so that the students can understand and attempt to mimic the language.

 Dr. Tucker was very good with helping students along if they were having problems completing sentences.  Often the students just said the English word and Dr. Tucker told them what it was in Spanish and they repeated the sentence with the corrected Spanish word.  She also asked the students more questions about their response to her questions which requires them to form a complete sentence to answer her.  I feel that this is a great exercise that helps the student’s pronunciation.
 Of course there were times throughout the class when the students did not understand what the teacher was saying to them in Spanish.  When instances such as these occurred Dr. Tucker would act out what she was trying to convey to the students.  For example, she used the verb “vivir” and the students were not familiar with this word.  As a result Dr. Tucker acted as if she were dead and said “morir” and then acted alive and said “vivir” and the class understood.

 I noticed that some overcompensation took place during the review of past tense verbs,.  Some students would try to use the rules for regular verb conjugation with irregular verbs.  If this occurred Dr. Tucker would simply provide the students with the correct irregular verb conjugation and continued the exercise.

 I enjoyed observing Dr. Tucker’s class. She is very enthusiastic and I really felt welcome in her classroom.  I feel that her 35 years experience shows in her teaching yet I can still see that she has adopted new methods to combine with old methods to come up with successful teaching.

 I chose to go to the high school level in order to fulfill my third observation.  I was paired with a third level Spanish class at Prince Edward High School.  The teacher’s name was Ms. Landa.  I noticed with this observation that I began to notice things that took place in the classroom that I would never have noticed before.  However, through reading and lecture I have been able to take note of things that I need to adapt in my classroom as well as things that I do not need to bring into my classroom.
 Prince Edward High School is on block scheduling so each class lasted an hour and half.  I observed this particular class from the beginning until about an hour into the class.  Upon entering the classroom I was not aware of what level Spanish class I was observing but lter on I asked Ms. Landa.

 Before the students arrived Ms. Landa was playing a videotape of Spanish music videos with artists such as Enrique Igelsias and Gloria Estefan singing in Spanish.  I felt this was a good use of authentic materials even if it was only when the students entered the classroom.  Upon entering the classroom the students sat down and Ms. Landa began with a warm-up exercise, or what I assume she intended on being a warm-up exercise although it lasted for about twenty minutes.  The exercise consisted of Ms. Landa holding up a picture of someone famous in the Spanish speaking community and the students had to raise their hands and give a descriptive sentence.  For example, Ms. Landa would hold up a picture of Enrique Iglesias and ask where he was from or who his father was and the students would have to answer in a complete sentence.  I feel that this was a very useful exercise because it touches on both the communication and culture strands of the National Standards.

 In listening to the students answer the questions that Ms. Landa answered I also picked up that they were not utilizing the language as third year students should be.  I still could hear gender mistakes frequently in sentences spoken to the teacher with words that should be familiar to the students such as “la cosa”. “Cosa” is a first level Spanish word.  I did not feel that this was real communication going on between the teacher and the students although the teacher was asking questions and the teacher was answering them, there still was not concrete conversation between the two.  Ms. Landa did correct the students when there was a mistake made but the students did not repeat the corrected version which I feel is necessary to completely understand what you did wrong.

 I enjoyed observing this classroom and I took away a few good ideas that I can adapt and eventually use in my own language classroom.  I also used this as a chance to see how students need to interact in a language classroom so that I am ensuring that they are learning everything they need to know to communicate appropriately in the target language, which is the final goal.  I am grateful for teachers like Ms. Landa who are willing to open the doors of their classroom so that I am able to learn.