Vie Miller CO#2

My first class observation took places on Thursday at CIES from 1:00-1:50. I was in Olivia’s class (speech level three) and was happy to see my conversation partner Kubra there! Oliva began the class with a focusing activity--a comedic speech by a Chinese-Australian toastmaster--and then proceeded to dissect the speech with her class (“what was the message? What was the hook?” etc). The teacher made it clear that they needed to pay attention in order to construct good speeches of their own, and recommended that--if they really wanted to improve their skills--that they join a toastmasters group in Tallahassee or back home. Olivia did a great job underscoring the importance of speech as an everyday while taking care to make sure the students were not intimidated; she showed the students a video of a former student giving her end-of-semester speech, and I believe that some of the students were encouraged and relieved. She ended the class by asking students to choose a topic that they wanted to speak about. I think that giving students a chance to choose the topic will make the presentations more interesting for all parties involved.