Name: Maria Camila Mejia

Class: Introduction to Linguistics

Date: 2/23/21
In-person Zoom class
Class subject: Designated English Language Development
Class level: 4th grade
Teacher’s name: Aileen Salmaggi
Amount of time in observation: 30 minutes
 
 Classroom Observation

         During the observation that I did, I was able to notice some learning strategies and I was able to
make some connections to the TESOL classwork.
 
While observing Mrs. Salmaggi I noticed two strategies that are connected to the current course
work. I noticed the strategy of effective lesson planning and strategies connected to the Social
Interactionist theory. 
 
When I entered the virtual classroom, Mrs. Salmaggi was sharing the objective for the day’s
lesson. She was going to read a science fiction story. Also, to connect to student’s background
knowledge, she showed pictures of science fiction books that students would already be familiar with.
She also asked them questions about what they already knew about science fiction. This allowed the
students to talk and to make connections to what they already know so that they would be more ready to
understand the story that she was going to read. Once she was done introducing the genre, she introduced
a story called “Return to Earth.” She asked the students to look at the text features (a strategy they’ve
been working on) to predict what they were going to read. She explained, “we need to get our brains
ready.” She gave the students some time to make predictions before she began reading the story. By Mrs.
Salmaggi engaging thinking with students’ background knowledge, she is using one of the strategies
discussed in one of the articles connected to the Introduction to Linguistics class. For example, In the
article “Strategies for Effective Lesson Planning” says, “Because you will have a diverse body of students
with different academic and personal experiences, they may already be familiar with the topic. That is
why you might start with a question or activity to gauge students’ knowledge of the subject or possibly,
their preconceived notions about it… Develop a creative introduction to the topic to stimulate interest and
encourage thinking.” Mrs. Salmaggi had a clear objective and developed an introduction to engage
thinking and develop background knowledge by asking students to make predictions about what they
thought the story might be about based on the text features.  
 
Before Mrs. Salmaggi began reading the story, she introduced the words “abandoned,”
“pollution,” and “fate.” As she introduced each word, she asked the students what they thought each word
meant and some students shared their ideas. After students shared their thinking, she showed them a
picture of each word and had all the students repeat each word after her. This particular strategy connects
to the current classwork in the Introduction to Linguistics class because it connects to the Social
Interactionist theory. By allowing the students to share their thinking and explain what they think each
word means she is allowing the students to interact with each other and learn from their peers. In the
article “Theories of Language Development in Children” says,
2.3 Social Interactionist theory
This theory is an approach to language acquisition that stresses the environment and the
context in which the language is being learned. It focuses on the pragmatics of language
rather than grammar, which should come later. In this approach, the beginning speaker
and the experienced speaker--be they child and adult or second-language learner and
fluent speaker--exist in a negotiated arrangement where feedback is always possible. The
 basic appeal of this approach is the importance it places on the home and the cultural
environment in early-childhood language acquisition. Language, according to this
theory, is not an innate ability. Rather, it develops in negotiating your environment.
Hence, vocabulary is bound by context or, alternatively, by the culture within which
speech is necessary and understandable.
 
Therefore, by allowing students to discuss the vocabulary, by giving them feedback through the
pictures of each word, and by teaching it in context in connection to what they are reading, she is using
the Social Interactionist theory.  
 
         As I continued to observe the lesson, I noticed Mrs. Salmaggi's classroom management. Once she
was done introducing the vocabulary. She told the students she wanted them to notice what the setting
was, who the characters are, what the problem is, and how they solve the problem. She continued to read
and checked for understanding as she read the story, she asked students questions and praised students
who used the vocabulary in their responses. Students were motivated and participated throughout the
reading as she asked questions. Mrs. Salmaggi was very enthusiastic as she read, she used a kind voice,
and acted excitedly when students participated. She stopped often to check students were understanding
the story, she encouraged participation. She modeled as she continued to use text features as she read the
text. She also clarified misunderstandings and parts of the text. She reached two parts of the text that had
jokes and clarified to the students why it was a joke. She asked a question and provided a sentence frame
for students to use. At one point, students seemed confused and she asked if they wanted her to read
again, she reread to clarify and the students began using the frames to answer the questions. Students
were supposed to answer the questions that she previewed at the beginning of the lesson. She gave
opportunities for all students to answer, when she noticed that one had not participated yet, she allowed
her to “start it” so the student only read the sentence frame and another student finished the frame. This
type of classroom management was inclusive and engaging.
 
         The only informal assessments that I observed during the lesson were the questions that Mrs.
Salmaggi asked throughout the reading to check for understanding of the text.  
 
         Something that stood out to me during this lesson, as a way to engage all students, was having
one student start the sentence frame and have another one finish it. This stood out because it is a strategy
that I have never tried in my teaching and because it showed me that Mrs. Salmaggi cares to hear from all
of her students in some way. So, she accommodated her expectations to allow every student to
participate.   
 
         The lesson that I observed was thirty minutes and it was an introduction to a story that students
will be working with throughout the week. Therefore, grammar and pronunciation were not taught
explicitly. But I did observe an implicit approach to grammar and pronunciation. Grammar was taught
implicitly through the sentence frames because they serve as an example of how answering a complete
sentence using correct grammar looks like. Mrs. Salmaggi provided an implicit approach to pronunciation
by having the students repeat each vocabulary word after her because they were able to hear how it
sounds and practice the pronunciation when repeating it.  
 
         In conclusion, I was able to observe some teaching strategies that I can learn from and also
connected to the current coursework in the Introduction to Linguistics class.
Sources
https://crlt.umich.edu/gsis/p2_5
http://www.kenpro.org/papers/theories-of-language-development-in-children.htm