Dana CO #3

     On 1/15/20 at 10a.m. I observed a grammar class that is normally taught by Dr. Angel Rios.  Dr. Rios was absent so it was taught by Ryan instead. (active voice--Ryan taught the class instead)   He and I talked a little before the students arrived.   
     Ryan did a yeoman's job substitute-teaching the class.  He is very energetic and upbeat and the students seemed to like him. The class consisted of 8 students. The class was about the future continuous verb tense. At the beginning of class Ryan got the students thinking by asking them to write down, on one piece of paper, their favorite restaurant.  What teaching methodology did he employ there?
     This coming Monday is a holiday and there will be no classes at CIES.  He then wrote on the board 2 future time periods: 1. "this weekend." and 2. "Monday morning at 10 a.m."   He then instructed the students that he would speak some sentences and asked the students to raise 1 finger if he was referring to this weekend, and 2 fingers if he was referring to Monday morning at 10 a.m..

He spoke as follows:

I'm going to be eating a big breakfast.  2
I'm going to sleep a lot.  1
I'm going to be with my daughter. 2
I'm going to go shopping with my wife. 1
I'm gonna be shopping with my wife. 2
I'm going watch YouTube videos. 1
I'm going to take a walk outside. 1
I'm going to go to Orlando to visit my family.  1
I'm going to be making breakfast for my family.  2

     He explained the rule:  "I'm going to" suggests this weekend,  "I'm going to be"  suggests at a particular time in the future  .i.e. Monday morning at 10 a.m..  Ryan walked around to the different groups.  He listened and engaged them, coaching them about the proper  use of the future continuous tense.   He also reminded the class that gonna means going to (suggesting generally the weekend), gonna be means going to be (suggesting a particular time on Monday morning.

     The next class exercise involved a handout and writing complete sentences expressing events in the future.  The goal was to plan an event in the future.  Students had to write sentences containing normal activities, ridiculous activities and unrelated activities in different time-slots on the worksheet.  Students were given 10 minutes for the exercise.  Then, students were assigned a group and were moved around the room.  This was good because it appeared to me that one student was not communicating well with his original 3 member group.  The shuffle allowed him to work with other people. 
      Each student was asked to read their sentences and the other group members were asked to guess if it was a normal, a ridiculous or  an unrelated activity.  The teacher walked around the classroom and listened and wrote mistakes he heard on the white board.  He then called the class to attention and asked for their help in understanding some things he had heard but not understood. 
It seemed to me that the distinction between ridiculous and unrelated needed clarification.
He reminded the class about a quiz tomorrow.