Date of Class: 10/29/13
Day of Class: Tuesday
PI: Jacob
SI: N/A
Assistants: N/A
Module: Maps & Addresses (oops!)
How Many Learners: 13
Score: 7 + 8 + 7 + 6 + 6 + 5 = 39
What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific):

Wow! Well, I made a mistake in not reading the modules email clearly enough, but it resulted in a pretty great class… maybe not ideal, but I’m certainly happy with it.

Big ups to Sheila for recommending that I use crayons to make a maze for people to navigate. I dictated and acted out the directions “go forward, turn left, turn right, stop” and laid out some crayons making arrows and a very simple series of turns throughout the library.

After demonstrating, I started walking through the maze myself, and I intended to have the Ss call out what I was doing. Instead they started to tell me what to do, which had some pretty hilarious results. Then, I had Ss direct each other through the maze, and with two higher level learners, I had the walker cover his eyes.

Then I reviewed some stuff from the previous week… I kind of wish I had laid the maze out at the end of the lesson, to end on a higher note, but I didn’t know how long setting up and getting people acclimated to the idea would take. Still, overall a pretty awesome class with lots of laughter.

Date of Class: 10/22/13
Day of Class: Tuesday
PI: Jacob
SI: N/A
Assistants: N/A
Module: Maps & Addresses
How Many Learners: 12
Score: 4 + 5 + 4 + 5 + 3 + 5 = 26

What happened: I will, in the future, put extra effort into planning these classes. It’s extra hard to inject energy into a room where half the class is exhausted coming from the Zumba class in the gym… and I don’t want to let that be an excuse for people not being motivated to learn. If I do my job right, that energy should just carry on through.

I didn’t do that tonight, though. My class wasn’t planned all that well, and it showed. I muddled through and got people engaging with materials and learning concepts, like addresses, location and directions, but the energy level was very mellow for the majority of the class.

Next time!

Date of Class: 10/15/13
Day of Class: Tuesday
PI: Jacob
SI: N/A
Assistants: N/A
Module: Maps & Addresses
How Many Learners: 12
Score: 5 + 7 + 7 + 6 + 4 + 5 = 34
What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific):

3 new people today! I had everyone say “Welcome, ____!” after they spelled their names.

I stepped out of my comfort zone a little bit, today. Fortunately I got there early, and as I was looking over my lesson plan, I ended up throwing most of it away! I had a flash inspiration that ended up being pretty fun, I think.

Half of the class came in a little after 6 because they were in the Zumba class, which I was impressed by… to do all that and come learn can’t be easy. But they did it!

I decided to dictate to everyone the cardinal directions. Then I had everyone point (after confirming for myself with Google Maps…) which way each direction was. After that, I had everyone stand up and form a line, and point to each direction in turn. I told them to turn around, and sure enough, when I had people try pointing to the same directions, there were some mistakes made. This caused a lot of laughter, and I think people enjoyed the activity overall.

Fun class! I really like this group of people.

Date of Class: 10/08/2013
Day of Class: Tuesday
PI: Jacob
SI: Brooke
Assistants:
Module: Maps & Addresses
How Many Learners: 16
Score: 6 + 5 + 4 + 4 + 6 + 5 = 30
What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific):

I had no idea what to expect out of the site, being new, and I was utterly shocked! Two people showed up 15 minutes early, and people kept trickling in in twos and threes until 15 minutes after class started.

We filled up 3 tables, and I had a difficult time managing them, I think. I was very conscious of the fact that I never really asked Brooke to do anything, but I was always unsure of what I should be asking her to do… I had her manage one table, but when we had three tables, we both bounced back and forth between a “home” table, where we originally were at, and a third table.

It was very obvious that the table I spent the most time at was made up of lower level learners, and as a result, I spent more time there than at the others, and it slowed the class down. So I need to work on being aware of who is higher and lower level in this new group, and sort them accordingly.

Everything else went pretty smoothly – or at least, I think I made it look pretty smooth. Being in a new space, with a lot of people, makes me very nervous! But when I develop a flow, and things are going well, it’s very enjoyable.

Date of Class: 11/20/13
Day of Class: Wed
PI: Julie
SI: Verenice
Assistants:n/a
Module: Talking with the Boss
How Many Learners: 5
Score: 33 (6, 6, 5, 6, 5, 5)
What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific):

My lesson plan included alphabet; yell & spell, dictation of various jobs (bank teller, construction worker, etc); What does a bus driver do?/a bus driver drives the bus. – I brought some pictures to pass around with this activity; Listen & Find w/a time off request form from my office; Listen & Do; and finally a quick round of choral response & dialogue “what do you do?/ I’m a bank teller”.

What I learned is that I overplanned for class and need to work on my transitions. I wasn’t as clear with students as I could have been when introducing the new activity (what does a bus driver do), and I could see some students were confused about what I was asking. Once I saw this, I took a step back and adjusted the activity and it went more smoothly. My final dialogue activity went much better using a technique Verenice uses by doing lots of choral response before going around the room. With a simplified dialogue they didn’t have to write it down, and did well after the oral practice.

Though there were stumbling moments, it was still a great class overall w/lots of laughing and multilevel engagement. The students were very engaged in helping eachother thoughout the class w/spelling and pronounciation.

Date of Class: 11/6/13
Day of Class: Wed, 6:15-7:30
PI: Julie
SI: Brooke
Assistants: Verenice
Module: Talking w/the boss
How Many Learners:7
Score: 46 (7,8,8,8,8,7)
What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific):

Class technically starts at 6:15, but we had some folks show up at 5:55, so I started them early with Alphabet Listen & Point. People continued to trickle in through Yell and Spell. In addition to having late comers spell their names, I asked the group for volunteers to test their name memory as a way to restate everyone’s names and help folks get to know each other.

My lesson plan focused on practicing:

Are you?/Yes I am, No I’m not; Do you?/Yes I do, No I don’t; Can I?/Yes you can or Yes please, No you can’t or No thank you.

I dictated vocab related to dialogues we then practiced. Are you busy? Are you the manager? Do you need anything? Do you work here? Can I help you? Can I take tomorrow off?. I planned 3 diaglogues for each question. Originally I’d planned to dictate the first one, and then just verbally model/practice the 2nd & 3rd before having folks go around the table. However, a few folks seemed confused on our 1st non-dictated dialogue, so I decided to dictate each dialogue going forward which proved successful.

Finally, to get folks moving around a bit and practicing “are you? I am, I’m not”, I had them stand up and I gave each person a slip of paper with an “are you” question, and an answer. They walked around the room asking their question. When asked a question, they gave the answer on the paper. This ended about 10 minutes before end of class, so I had them continue walking around using their “do you?” and “can I?” dialogues that we’d written earlier.

Overall a great class! Great energy in the room, lots of laughing and helping eachother :)

Date of Class:10/23/13
Day of Class:wed
PI:verenice
SI:julie
Assistants: marym
Module:at the doctor
How Many Learners:5
Score: 49
What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific): This was the first time I have been to walker elem. so it was exciting to experience a new location. class went well, the learners were having a fun time. I had two people helping out which worked out perfectly. I could have done a better job with the allphabet, at times I was saying them to fast that some students couldnt keep up. I wasnt aware of it until julie told me at the end, so that will definately be something that i am more carefull with next time.

Date of Class: December 10, 2013
Day of Class: Tuesday
PI: Lisa
SI:
Assistants:
Module: Happy Holidays
How Many Learners: 2
Score: N/A
What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific):
For a change of things, I had each student say the alphabet out and what I found that was interesting was that both learners chunk out the alphabet. For example, they both chunk together A through F. G through K, L through P, R through V, X, Y, Z; they both know the whole alphabet but when they finish A through F, they both have a little trouble with connecting that chunk to the G through K chunk, and so on. This was a interesting phenomenon to witness.
For class, we had a “12 Days of Christmas” scramble where each learner got random days of Christmas and what was given on (from the song). And we went through the whole song with each learner saying what gift they got from what day.
As a request from the last class, we went through “Oh, Come Ye All Faithful”, first as a document search, then line by line, making sure meaning was comprehended, then we sang the song.