Catherine McFarlane Video

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Permalink Reply by Liane Czirjak on March 3, 2016 at 1:52pm

I noticed this too and had made notes on this as well. I was very surprised. In fact, there were a few other things that she did that we have been told not to. For example, she echoed her students during the lead-in stage when asking about her father. Since I've been dinged on this a few times, this was most poignant for me.
Overall I though the lesson was interesting in that she was effectively able to use only three model sentences for almost the duration of the lesson. This efficiency and consistent modelling/remodeling was inspiring for me - so much less prep work! Chris had touched on this last night during our debrief, but now we have proof that it actually does work in practice.

Permalink Reply by Isabelle Mignot on March 3, 2016 at 6:36pm

About the monitoring: I did notice how she inserted herself into partner work, but what I found interesting is that when she saw two students having different answers, she asked them to explain/justify their choice of answer to the other one (Ss talking about language). Also, it seems that during feedback, she didn't go over all sentences/questions, so she might have used monitoring to figure out which questions/sentences needed to be clarified.
About the TL clarification: I liked how she had the students figure out/practice analyzing the formula for different sentences.
About the pronunciation drilling: that was a great example of authentic/natural pronunciation, drilling in chunks and full sentence. I like how she used finger highlighting to model how words are combined (h disappears). We had a few examples done if class, but it was nice to see it modeled again in a different "classroom".

Permalink Reply by Levi Tran on March 20, 2016 at 10:00am

What I found helpful about Catherine's lesson was her monitoring positioning, CCQs, and finger highlighting. I found Catherine's method of monitoring to be interesting. Walking behind the students helps the students realize when she is observing them. When she is teaching the class as a whole, she is anchored. When she was eliciting her marker sentences, she used the same CCQs for each sentence. The seemed to connect all of her sentences together. Lastly, until this observation, I had never seen the finger highlighting technique utilized. I can now see how it would be helpful.
With regards to her error correction during monitoring, I can only assume that she must know her students well enough to be able to address their difficulties individually?

Permalink Reply by Elana Feder on March 27, 2016 at 5:17pm

I liked the way she made the students stay active. Having the students help her put the cards on the board was an great classroom management technique. I also liked the technique with counting words on her fingers.

Permalink Reply by Greg Genkin on March 28, 2016 at 4:40pm

I enjoyed her calm demeanor. And yes, the fancy British interior decor seemed to add to the effect in general. I wish we had room to walk behind the students when we monitor. I liked how she used a story about "My father had his wallet stolen." Whether it's true or not, it makes everything feel more personal. This is analageous to a competing theory in psychology that the patient should get to know and feel personal with their therapist