JoAnn and Lori's Lessons

Today we had the priviledge of watching two great lessons, one taught by JoAnn and the other taught by Lori.

We first observed JoAnn's lesson in the morning at Paliengdapungsith High School. JoAnn warned us this was her quietest and least participatory class beforehand. However, we never would have believed it. JoAnn's lesson had the students interacting in a wide variety of activites, and the students did a great job. She had a similar lesson as some of the others, with a graphic organizer for students to write their name and then describe their favorite food, activity, sport, and animal. To prepare them for the lesson, she reviewed some vocabulary they had learned over the past lessons. Then she had them play a game where two students representing their teams had to give the proper sentence for the picture shown (i.e., My favorite food is fish). Once students finished their graphic organizers, they shared them with their neighbors, and then practiced them in pairs. She then had invidual students come up and share them with the practice. Her lesson was a great example of scaffolding, as each activity built on the next and prepared studnets for the individual presentations to the whole class.

Lori's lesson at Hadsamranwittaykom High School in the afternoon was equally energetic. She used the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" to help her students learn body parts. She had a great graphic on the board of a person with the body parts labeled. She had students practing using the vocabulary words with the frame "Where is your _________? This is my ___________." She did great game where she had the students in a circle. She would throw a ball to a student, and then ask them a question like, 'Where is your knee?" Students would have to answer "This is my knee' pointing to the correct body part. Once they got it right, they could throw the ball to another student and the game continued. Lori ended with a game with several picture cards on the floor for the various body parts she had taught them. As soon as she said the vocabulary word, the students dove to the floor to find the correct picture card. They clearly learned the words well and their laughter and energy showed how much they enjoyed the lesson.

Given this is the second week, it has been exciting to see how these and other lessons we've observed today have been builing on previously learned lessons. Students are going beyond just learning single words, and are beginning to be able to use them in sentences for real communicative purposes. Students are building up to culminating activities on their final day of teaching when students will pull together all they have learned in a single activity. From the progress we've seen so far, we are sure each of their students will do great.