CO #1 Mark G

This morning I reluctantly rolled out of bed almost an hour after I had set my alarm to wake me up. Not because of any lack of interest to go sit-in a grammar class at 9am, but rather due to the fact that I had stayed up late the previous evening trying to survive the zombie apocalypse in a new game I recently had purchased (The Las of Us. really good!). Although sluggish at first, I quickly got dressed, ate some breakfast, brushed my teeth and was out the door on my bike!

I arrived on the fourth floor of the Eppes building about 15 minutes before class was supposed to start. I waited outside on the balcony and drank some coffee enjoying the view, watching the busy bodies move about their determined paths. I also saw my conversation partner Gilles walking in and said hello. When it was time for class I went to the room and to my surprise Gilles was there in the room! I went over and sat next to him, I also introduced myself to Vicky Ledbetter the instructor for the class.

As to what I observed from the class (which I think was a low-intermediate, (AE-LI) I was dumb not to ask), I found it overall very well run and I was able to learn a lot. To begin, Ms. Ledbetter engaged with the students even before class started, asking them what they had done over the weekend. This to me seemed like a good way to warm up their tongues. Another thing I had noticed was the agenda on the board, so I knew what everyone would be working on. That day she was teaching the past continuous tense. The students already seemed to have an o.k. grasp with the simple past tense, so most of them appeared to have understood the concept pretty quickly. She taught the information in an deductive fashion (I think? It is inductive if you ask the student to practice first without guidance?), reading dialogues first with the students (me included) using the target structure. She then explained formally how the tense was used (for continuous acts that are interrupted by another one) and then moved into an exercise using it. The whole time she moved about the room naturally, not staying static in one place and engaging the students. The exercise was to create sentences using this tense in a real life situation. An advantage of an exercise like this is that it is communicative, even though it is a writing exercise. She checked everyone's sentences and cleared up a distinction between a continuous act that is interrupted and two simultaneous acts...Afterwards Ms. Ledbetter asked everyone to go outside and  using now the present continuous write down 8 things they observed. Then afterwards with a partner, they had to tell the other person what they had seen in the past tense. This is a very good exercise, especially how she was able to extend her classroom and not be bound to the room!..Again, it was a well run class. I even had a chance to participate a little in class and look over someone's work and practice evaluating it myself. I'm looking forward to sit in on another class, perhaps speaking or composition. Signing off.