{"id":567,"date":"2013-09-12T20:33:25","date_gmt":"2013-09-13T01:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/instructionadventures.wordpress.com\/?p=567"},"modified":"2013-09-12T20:33:25","modified_gmt":"2013-09-13T01:33:25","slug":"week-3-observation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apps.lib.ua.edu\/blogs\/instructionadventures\/2013\/09\/12\/week-3-observation\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 3: Observation"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week was my first week observing.* \u00a0Since the schedule this semester is awkwardly mapped, I was unable to view a first year writing course. \u00a0However, I did get to view Mark teach a Comm 123 course and Brett teach a Compass course, the latter of which I helped out with a bit.<\/p>\n

The first class I observed was Mark\u2019s Comm 123 session. \u00a0Comm 123 is a public speaking course required of most majors within the communication\u2019s school. \u00a0Of all the things worth mentioning about Mark\u2019s class, I think the most interesting was how he began. \u00a0Mark opened the class with two articles about texting and driving, one of which was from a scholarly journal and the other from a popular news source. \u00a0Mark had the students read the abstracts aloud and voice their opinions as to why each was labeled the way they were. \u00a0(For example, the students noted that the scholarly article was written with very technical language, while the popular article was written for an audience with a lower reading level.) \u00a0After dissecting the two pieces, Mark then asked the students which one would be a better source for their first speech topic. \u00a0Most of the students, as expected, answered with the scholarly journal. \u00a0Then Mark explained that, yes, while that does seem like the logical answer, for a public speaking class a scholarly journal is not necessarily appropriate, depending on the audience and topic. \u00a0I liked this for several reasons:<\/p>\n