Klas Anglè, Nivo 3+4, 1h00-3h00, Amanda Rathbun

First, I introduced myself and took attendance.  My first goal of the class was to explain that I view our class as a community of learners - we will learn, speak, practice, and work hard together.  I explained that we will not laugh at each other when we speak English, just like they will not laugh at me as I try to speak Kreyol.  I said, "Nan angle klase nou, nou se yon kominote.  Nou pral konnen youn ak lòt. Nou pral travay anpil, pale angle anpil.  Nou pral praktik, praktik, praktik.  Muen vlay nou appran anpil angle.  Nan Etazini, pwofese yo appran yon fason diferan.  Mwen espere ou renmen komon pou mwen anseye.  Premyèman, nou ap prezante tèt nou.  Ki le li se viru ou, leve kanpe, di nom ou, eh di ki sa ou vle aprann angle. Ou kapob kopi tout bagay ke muen ekri.  Suple, leve men ou, si ou genyen kesyon yo."  Which means, "In this class, we are a community.  We will get to know each other.  We will work hard to speak English.  We will work hard and practice, practice, practice. In the United States, teachers teach differently.  I hope you like how I teach.  We will start by introducing ourselves.  When it is your turn, stand up, say your name, and say why you want to learn English.  You can copy anything that I write, or raise your hand if you have a question."

People in the class ranged in age from 16 to about 40.  Here are some of the reasons they said they would like to learn English:

-I want to be able to speak with all people.

-English is the language of business and trade.

-English is an international language.

-English is my life.

-I want to be a teacher.

-I like it.

To get to know one another, and to help me assess their knowledge and usage of English, we generated "getting to know you" questions in English that we could ask each other.  As we generated these questions, we discussed how people in the USA would ask them.  For example, one gentleman said, "What is your origin?"  I told him that in the US, people would ask, "Where are you from?" or "What is your nationality?"  Some of the questions that were asked were: Are you married? Do you have children? How many brothers and sisters do you have?  What is your job?  Are you Christian?  What do you like to do for fun?  After we generated the questions, I modeled how to answer them by providing information about myself.  Then each person asked a neighbor two questions, and afterward, shared their partners answers with the class.  I asked an older woman some of the questions.  "Are you married," I asked.  She responded, "I am not married.  I am a single woman."  When I shared this information, I asked who else was single and many of the young men raised their hands.  I told the woman that she could have her pick - which made everyone laugh and relax a bit!  Overall, people did a great job.  I assessed that they could work on verb tense and the usage of "to be."  In Kreyol, there really is not "to be" verb, so that it was it is particularly hard for them to correctly use it.  

Next, we practiced our pronunciation by playing "Telephone."  Someone thought of a sentence or a phrase in English, and then we whispered it into each other's ears, really working on articulation.  I told them their phrases must include the /r/ sound and the /th/ sound because those are particularly tricky for them.  This was fun and it also went well.  It forced everyone to participate, but it didn't put pressure on anyone to speak in front of the whole class. 

Then, we worked on our vocabulary.  I split the class of 22 into two teams.  Each team had to come up with a challenging verb for the other team to explain.  For example, team 1 said "swim," and team 2 had to discuss it, see if anyone knew what it meant, and then come to the front to explain it or act it out. Some of the verbs they came up with were: swim, cook, draw (a picture and draw attention), find out, flood, and wear.  It went really well!  In order to explain what "find out" meant, one woman said, "If you find out your boyfriend is with another woman." Haha!  Everyone laughed at her explanation, but she really showed that she understood the word!

Overall, I thought the class went well - of course I will analyze it and think about all the ways that I could have made it better, for effective, for efficient, more fun, more comprehensive.  For next class, I think I will focus on building vocabulary, using "to be," pronunciation certain sounds, and having people converse with each other with given topics.

If you have ideas as to what some conversation topics could be, please let me know!!!!