Elaine CO #1

 This past week I observed Ryan Flemming's speaking class. The first thing that I immediately noticed was how dynamic and enthusiastic Ryan was with his students. He always kept up a motivational demeanor to keep his students engaged with their class discussions. During this speaking class, Ryan was going over the rubric and the expectations for a project that his students are going to complete. The project revolves around the introductory process that these international students usually experience when they meet a new person in America. The students usually talk about where they are from, what they are studying, and what they want to do in the future. I thought this was a clever project idea because it takes an indirect learning approach in which the students reflect on their own real life experiences and reiterate it orally. After Ryan was done going over the project expectations, he then began to ask the students to reiterate the main points he touched open throughout the class and the class before this one. One student got frustrated because he could not remember specific details, but Ryan did a great job at reassuring him that he was not trying to quiz them. Instead, Ryan wanted to make sure that the students understand the structure in which he orally presents his information in order for the students to resemble a similar speaking model for their presentations.