The topic for today’s conversation club was food. Students answered the following questions:
- What is a common meal in your country?
- What are the ingredients?
- How is it prepared?
- How is the meal eaten?
These types of questions allowed students to get to know each other and to explain their culture. I watched and participated as students were able to facilitate a friendly discussion. The Conversation Club is done entirely online due to COVID. If universities were open and classes were back to normal, the conversation club would be conducted on campus.
The instructor provided the students with clear objectives. The topic of discussion was food. The instructor provided a PowerPoint presentation as well as a live video that allowed us to effectively understand the lesson objectives and the topic being discussed.
The teacher asked the students to create one dish with a selected list of ingredients. Students had to work together to present this dish to the teacher. Students then had to describe how to prepare the dish. This allowed students to interact with one another and it tested the student’s ability to understand the lesson objective. The instructor was actively engaged with the students learning, Professor Hilda, described different food items, writing each word and pronounced words several times to ensure all students understood what was being discussed.
Throughout the lesson, students were tested on their listening comprehension, reading skills, writing skills, speaking skills, and sentence formation. Participating in group work allowed students to formulate ideas to be presented to the instructor. Groupwork was a fun activity as students were able to work together to find appropriate answers when playing games.
I have learned a lot from this observation class. I would like to bring some of the games, the lesson plans, and the enthusiasm Professor Hilda has into my teaching classroom. I would like to lead a conversation-based lesson that focuses on group work, presentation, and communication.