Stan_CO1

On Tues 7/10 I observed Travis' listening class. I got there just in time (3 min late...sorry Ramin) for a review of a quiz the class took. I will note here that this was a unique class from my perspective, as it was a class of 8 or 9 Arabic men with ages ranging from early 20's to 30's. They all seemed to do well on the quiz, though one student in particular seemed a little disgruntle about his mark. There was a section of the quiz in which the student were given a map and they were told to give directions from point A to point B in 5 sentences or more. It is to my understanding that this student gave impeccable directions, but rightfully so, was marked off because the only punctuation he used was a "period" at the end of the paragraph (classic run on sentence). He had a hard time understanding the difference but Travis patiently and assertively explained to him the distinction. 


After the class went over the quiz, Travis gave me the opportunity to introduce myself to the class. It seems that typically he reserves time for the students to ask the classroom observer questions at the end of class, but the gentleman were so excited they started fire off questions right away. They seemed particularly interested in Chicago, since I am from the Chicagoland area.


When my brief intro and Q & A was finished,  I was able to sit in on the in class assignment. We were to read sentences with blanks and fill in the blanks using a word bank provided above. In this particular assignment "Lorena" was visiting a "produce market" so she could acquire some "locally grown organic produce!" (the universe is so grand isn't it : ) We all took turns reading the sentences and filling in the blanks, helping one another as needed. It was brilliant watching everyone work through the problems as a group. This assignment took up the remainder of the class, and the students were eager to head to "Tea Time" (or perhaps to just head home!