Gale_CO#3

Gale Workman

CO#3

Sept. 4, 2014, 1-2 p.m.

Speaking

Debbie Caretta

Students worked, mostly in pairs, on Opinion Speeches, which will be debated orally in the next class. The students began this assignment during the previous class.

Ms. Caretta had previously distributed Opinion Speech Outline, which provided students with a template for organizing ideas and research. It’s a great handout that students used the in the previous class when they chose their topics. Apparently, there was a class discussion to identify appropriate topics, then each student selected the topic that interested him/her. The students were assigned to complete the first draft of their outlines prior to today’s class.

I was intrigued by the topics students identified: Should women be housewives? (Very popular with three students debating.) Should marijuana be legalized? Should children have smartphones? Should Tallahassee have an international airport? Should abortion be a choice?

Ms. Caretta assigned students to meet in pairs to discuss their Opinion Speech Outlines and ensure they were ready to debate on Friday. While students worked in pairs, Ms. Caretta circulated, listened, questioned and sometimes corrected students. I observed how students with many different native languages, practiced speaking English among themselves. Conversation was lively.

Ms. Caretta spent extra time with a blind student. She sat across from him and wrote on the Opinion Speech Outline to record his ideas and research as he dictated. She referred to the Outline to ask the student probing questions. He seemed to participate fully in the day’s lesson. His topic: Why CIES should not assign homework.

When Ms. Caretta circulated, she collected student errors, which she used to discuss what one student called “beautiful mistakes” at the very end of the class.