TA #1 Dana

    I had not observed a class by Felicia before I asked her to become my mentor. She was teaching Composition however, and having heard that it was one of the most difficult subjects to teach, decided to throw myself in headfirst. I met up with Felicia for a quick discussion concerning my TEFL requirements as well as TA duties, and then I was set to sit in for class the coming Monday.

    Felicia teaches Composition 1, with this portion of the class being Composition 1 Part B. The students had learned during the first section of the class how to write basic sentences. Now they were working on compound sentences, which would later lead to paragraphs, and finally, a full-fledged four-paragraph essay.

     I took a seat and noticed that Felicia had written a “Bell Ringer,” on the board. A Bell Ringer is Felicia’s form of class warm up. Below it she placed her “Agenda,” stating in three simple bullets what we would be covering in class that day. For this particular class, the students were able to have fun with a Halloween story activity.

     Felicia had written the sentence, “One dark night I heard noises coming from my closet. I opened the closet door and…” Each student took out a sheet of paper and wrote as many compound sentences as they could in the span of three minutes and continued the story. After the three minutes were up, the students passed their papers to the person on their right. Three minutes more, and the next student added their own compound sentences to the new story. This continued until the original paper was returned to its owner. Felicia walked around the room performing error corrections and answered questions while the stories were being written.

     The stories of course turned out quite silly. The students laughed or shook their heads as they read the added sentences, thinking that their peers wrote such ridiculous details. I felt as though it was a fun activity that allowed the students to practice while learning from their peers. Next class, I would be correcting errors along with Felicia.