After having observed Mr. Wilson's advanced level reading class today I have gained a deeper appreciation for the essentiality of repetition and questioning, as it pertains to reading comprehension. I noticed that much of today's class emphasized the range of vocabulary and not so much the depth. I believe this is because of the temporal constraints, as I've noticed in my previous classroom observations. A salient moment which struck me as surprising was just how basic the questions had to be in order to gauge the comprehension of any passage that was read; e.g., going through the assigned book the class was reading, Nickel and Dimed, words such as shrug as well as the word rhythm were unfamiliar. This truly surprised me as I had anticipated a pace for the course that was far more accelerated and a general acquaintanceship with many more words. However, this experience has allowed me to begin to understand the maxim that that good teaching is focused on the development of the student, and not necessarily upon the content and lessons that are trying to be taught. Perhaps the single greatest thing that I have assessed so far from all my observations is that communication is truly the key to successful language acquisition, and to allow the student to manipulate and harness the tools educators provide.
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