Class Observation at Riverside Language Program (March, 13th, 2009)

Class Observation at Riverside Language Program
Date: March 13th, 2009 Time: 09:15~5:00

The observation program starts with an overview of the school that covers a range of topics including philosophy and methodology, student population, teacher training, counseling and auxiliary service, placement and progress testing, intake and retention, program design. After then, observers have an opportunity to visit two different classes, one in the morning after the orientation and one in the afternoon after lunch. Finally, one of the directors meets with observers again for a closing session where visitors are invited to reflect on the day’s experience and/or to ask questions about some aspect of the school.

I have observed ALI (American Language Institute) at NYU since February and Riverside language program was my first observation outside of NYU. It was very different from what I’ve observed at ALI in terms of student population, student background, course objectives, and teaching style; most are immigrants or refugees who need to learn English to survive in US so most courses are much focused on speaking and listening skills rather than writing and reading skills, and teaching styles are quite different accordingly.

From this observation, especially, I was much impressed by silent way of teaching. I did not know much about silent way of teaching and how it works in the classroom as well since I have never seen teachers using this method in actual classroom. However, I have clearly seen and learned how the teacher taught the class in a silent way and how it worked through this observation. I have also learned that when it comes to one’s learning, active interaction between students is as much important as the interaction with the teacher by seeing those students who were willing to help each other when some students asked about the meaning of words or when some cannot think of words they tried to say.

Furthermore, pre- and post- session was very helpful for me to understand the language program and to share reflection, thoughts, and experience with other observers about different class observation.

It was the very first but great experience since it gave me ‘real’ ideas about everything can be changed in the actual classroom depending on different learning environment so that I need to be well aware of that and best apply it to my future classroom.