Ahead of my observation Professor Silverman provided me with a lesson plan and with all ancillary materials. I must add that Professor Silverman authored all of the materials used during the class I observed. This clearly shows her level of dedication and commitment to be successful in teaching this type of conversation course.
According to the lesson plan, students were going to be introduced to the vocabulary of daily routines, they were going to be introduced to reflexive verbs, to the use of reflexive pronouns and to reciprocal expressions, review of the present tense and other basic vocabulary and adjectives. All of the goals of the lesson plan were met.
When I arrived, students were being introduced to the new reflexive verbs; this was done in a methodical and effective manner which gave a chance to the professor to review all conjugations of the present tense. The professor asked frequent questions. Students were asked to practice some particularly difficult expressions using choral repetition and new words were written out on the blackboard.
Following this activity, students viewed a brief video which followed a woman's nightly routine (the video had a soundtrack but no voice over). With the help of a projected text, students were able to recreate the narrative of the woman's nightly routine and to conjugate all relevant verbs (reflexive and non-reflexive). As a follow-up, students were divided into groups and interviewed each other about their habits, preferences and daily routines. The final activity of the hour was planned around a song by Jovanotti, "Mi fido di te." Dr. Silverman provided the lyrics of the song and students were able to identify and understand all of the reflexive expressions used in the lyrics.
Professor Silverman's students respond very well to her energy and sense of humor and participate actively in the activities she plans for them, by speaking competently, with no fear and in full sentences. The professor calls on all of her students and makes sure her entire class is engaged. Furthermore, she makes good use of the smart classroom that houses this IT122 class. Throughout the hour I observed, Professor Silverman gently corrected any of her students' imperfections in grammar or pronunciation. Students asked questions, appeared attentive and answered competently. I must add, however, that C-406 (with its huge fixed desks and awful acoustics) is not an appropriate environment to house a conversational foreign language class. It is to Professor Silverman's credit that she can make the best out of this unsuitable space.
I could see from the students' interaction with one another and with their instructor, that Professor Silverman has created a congenial learning environment where students are stimulated, interested and eager to learn.
Professor Silverman provided me in advance with a detailed lesson plan for this class session, outlining each of her pedagogical goals and the various methods to be employed for achieving them.
From the very outset of this lesson it was evident to me that her students were well accustomed to hearing and using the Italian language. They participated enthusiastically in all class activities.
The focus of the period of my observation was the use of the "passato prossimo". Professor Silverman provided the students with several activities reinforcing this grammatical concept. It was this variety of exercises that allowed for maintaining student enthusiasm throughout the hour. Each exercise was designed in such a way as to engage students individually, and in pairs, in understanding, and putting into practice the material they covered. The exercises were based on a Dolce & Gabbana ad campaign video. They were also accompanied by a power point presentation and handout materials. When students worked in pairs, the instructor went from pair to pair to assist them in coming up with appropriate responses.
Throughout this lesson, professor Silverman gave evidence of sound preparation and effective organizational skills. In addition,she has a very encouraging manner with her students. She was very patient and praised them all the time. They clearly enjoyed the instructor’s sense of humor.
This was an excellent class.
Spring 2013 – Pace University
What an enthusiastic class!
Professor Silverman was energetic and students were captivated by her charm and style of presentation. There was a wide variety of teaching methodologies and technologies used in this class (supersite, youtube, handouts, white board, group work, pronunciation exercises).
There was a very good class dynamic.
Professor Silverman varies her techniques in order to better reach all students. Handout was well organized.
Group assignment was practical and students worked hard in groups.
Learning objectives were outlined at the beginning of class.
Course materials were diverse and stimulating.
Video was very current and students seemed to relate well to it.
Spring 2012 - LaGuardia Community College
The lesson focused on adjective forms and gender agreement in Italian.
Dr. Silverman first went over a list of adjectives, some English cognates, some not, making clear what they meant by using gestures, and explaining the meaning in the Italian that the students had already picked up in the coruse. Rarely did she need to revert to English to get the meaning of the adjectives across.
Then Dr. Silverman had students describe themselves using some of the adjectives. Here she introduced the need for gender agreement, as male students needed to use the masculine form in describing themselves, female students, the feminine. From this initial exercise, they began to describe some common objects, this time getting gender formation from the form of the nouns. This was then extended to agreement in gender and number. The use of gender agreement, first based on sex and then based on noun form, was a clear way of getting this sometimes troubling aspect of Romance grammars across to the students.
Dr. Silverman used short video clips from movies and YouTube to give students opportunities to hear adjectives in authentic linguistic contexts.
Dr. Silverman also used the lesson on adjectives to review some words for rooms in a house and to reinforce the irregular present tense of the verb, preferire (to prefer), as students expressed their preferences for large and small houses, modern or traditional styles, etc.
Dr. Silverman is an energetic teacher, and this aspect of her style keeps students on their toes and engaged. Students clearly enjoyed the lesson, and there was definite evidence from their responses that they had learned to use adjectives in a way they had not been able to before the lesson began.
At the end of the class, Dr. Silverman gave the students a short written assignment to do at home to reinforce what they had practiced verbally in class.
Fall 2011 – LaGuardia Community College
Dr. Silverman did a wonderful job teaching two Italian verbs (andare and venire). As a true beginner of Italian, I was impressed by the way Dr. Silverman delivered her lesson. She used Italian most of the time and I was able to follow her even though I had no prior knowledge of Italian.
After putting the conjugation of each of the two irregular verbs on the board, Dr. Silverman explained the usage before moving on to the exercise in the textbook. It seemed that the students were very confident in their ability to follow her and complete the exercise in the book.
Then Dr. Silverman asked the students to describe a picture using what they had learned. The students also watched a very short video clip and did group work to reinforce their learning. The last part of the lesson required the students to watch and listen to a video clip which consisted of rap music with simple Italian words. After listening to the rap, the students were asked to fill in the blanks.
The activities that Dr. Silverman prepared were very interesting and engaging. They were all geared to help the students improve their communicative skills in Italian. She used communicative approach to teaching the lesson and engaged the students in collaborative learning. All the students tried their best to learn and practice. It was a very successful lesson.
Spring 2011 – LaGuardia Community College
Great pacing. Prof. Silverman reviewed each point after teaching and practicing it orally. She called for questions and comments frequently. She used the board to clarify and model sentences. Students listened to videos, responded to comprehension questions in small groups and placed responses on the board. They did an exercise in their textbook and listened to a song which employed the "futuro." A lot of material was covered, but the tone was light throughout.
This was a very engaging lesson, and the students were involved in it from start to finish. Prof. Silverman teaches in a very interactive manner, and everyone had to participate. For the most part, students worked well, sometimes competitively, in their small groups and they enjoyed the work they were doing. There was clear evidence of an ongoing, dynamic, learning culture in the class. Students were working with Italian and having fun. In fact, they felt comfortable enough to tease each other and make a few jokes in Italian - always a good sign in a language class.
Spring 2010 – LaGuardia Community College
The instructor was extremely lively throughout the lesson and the students appeared to enjoy it. Seventeen students were attending the class, which is an extremely high retention rate for a weekend class. In spite that the instructor primarily used Italian for instruction, the students seemed to understand the class instruction. I believe that the instructor carefully selected her vocabulary and grammar so that her instruction was accessible to her students. As for the students' learning, a variety of activities were employed in the lesson, including repeating the teacher's sentence, asking the students questions individually, picture-cue response, pair-work oral exercise, and textbook exercises. The instructor carefully delivered the exercises so that she could give challenging tasks to the high-proficient students while low-proficient students could have ample time to prepare for answering questions.