Tues 9 Mar

We began OPP by attempting to write objectives for a reading comprehension exercise on page 96 of the textbook. The TTs came up with "Sts will create descriptions for mysterious situations", "Sts will relate mysterious situations with appropriate descriptions" and "Sts will exchange information about mysterious experiences". It seems to me that M and V are able to create fairly appropriate objectives for an activity, whereby C has difficulty not only finding what the objective might be but also knowing how to express it. This has been confirmed to me over time as well. I still also suspect she is severely distracted from concentrating properly.

I also asked the TTs what steps they took to prepare for a class. C begins with the grammar point and function, considers what vocab will be needed and how the sts can interact, and sometimes writes down notes for preparation. V basically follows the book without a lot of prior preparation. I might see if I can get him to prepare something from scratch so that he doesn't just depend on the book for everything. M was always given the material to teach and he hardly had to prepare anything, though he did adapt some activities. C didn't come until after 7pm as she was observing another teacher.

So in class today we began module 9 "Mysteries, problems, oddities" and they matched descriptions to the related stories/cases. The free writing was also related to this. We also watched a Weird Al Yankovic video called "Bob" which is full of palindromes. One student was able to pick up that the sentences were palindromes, which made for interesting viewing the next time round. They wrote down the ones they liked or remembered. I think I could exploit this video a little more if I had some more time - before watching the second time, to see which ones they remembered, or if they know of any other ones in English or Spanish. Then to take notes while watching a second time; and even to watch it a third time (it's not a difficult or irritating video to watch) and the sts can try to repeat as many as they can. After watching, I asked them to describe the video using some of the words we'd come across during the class.

One last st had to give his oral report; but he took much longer than he was supposed to, so we had about 25 minutes to check the first draft of their essays, then swap with a partner for feedback. I think this went quite well on the whole, although of course there were some sts who hadn't brought theirs, or who hadn't begun theirs, so couldn't swap with anyone. Still, for those who had, it was useful. I heard some good feedback being given. The final draft is due tomorrow.