my last lesson in Vefa High School

         Hello everybody!
         I'd like to share my last English course experience with you. It was a course which aims to hone students four skills especially listening skills and socialize students through pair work.
         I started the course by asking the questions below:

•      Have you had any good or bad news from anyone?
•      When did it happen?
•    How did you feel when you heard it?

        I told the students they are going to hear a telephone conversation between an

American man and woman. I also told them to put their pens down and simply listen. When students are ready, I played the recording. I asked the students to call out all the names they could remember and wrote them on the board. I asked the questions below:

•          What is the relationship between Kevin and Anne?
•          Who is Dennis?
•          Who are Becky and Kate?

      I told the students she would going to play the recording again. Additionally, I explained they were supposed to note down what news Anne gave about Dennis, Becky and Kate. I also reminded them to note Kevin’s news. I wrote Dennis, Becky, Kate and Kevin on the board. After listening to the recording again, I wrote those people’s news under the names of name with the regard of the students’ answers. I asked students whether they could remember when each of these things had happened. When I couldn't hear answers I told the students she would play the recording once more and they were supposed to shout “Stop!” when they heard when each thing had happened. I played the recording, stopped whenever the students called out “Stop”. I handed out a worksheet including ‘True/False’ questions and gave time them to answer them. After that, I heard their answers.

        It was my last lesson and everything was great. I will miss so much these sweet students in Vefa high school!

        I hope you like my activities in this last course. Please, remember to comment on my blog. 

Sincere regards :)

my mini lesson

I would like to talk about my mini lesson. It was a follow up activity. I wanted to try something different I hope you like. 

Before starting, I hanged a material about twitter on the board in order to catch their attention. I can say that it was really effective because all the students looked at the board and they said “Twitter!” Then, I asked whether they have a Twitter account or not. Most of them replied as “Yes!” and all the students knew what the twitter is. I also explained what Twitter is and how it is used and mentioned about 140-letter limitation. I passed my main activity and wanted them to open a page I had determined before and read the narrative story silently. Actually, I recognized that they got confused because they couldn’t find out the relationship between Twitter and the narrative story. Whereas, that was the thing I had already planned so I felt good and went on. After reading silently, I asked one of the volunteers to read the story aloud and the rest stayed focused by the way. The narrative story was too boring both to read and listen to. It was about a group of young’s holiday experiences. I would like to summarize it in order to show the effect of my activity: While they are sitting down on the sand, some people are calling for help. It is for a girl who is about to get drowned. An ambulance comes and the girl is rescued. I asked them whether they like the story or not. They answered as “No.” I asked “Is the story exciting or ordinary?” They said “Ordinary.” This answer actually supported my activity and I went on. I said “Let’s try to do something different!” and I wanted them to close their eyes. I wanted them feel as if they were sitting down on the sand with their friends. Additionally, I wanted them feel as if it was holiday, everything was great, they were sunbathing and there was no homework. I made them think that a girl was calling for help and there was nobody to help her. They opened their eyes. I mentioned about hashtags used in Twitter environment. I add “I want you to write ‘What would you do if you were there?’ or ‘How would you feel if you were there?” in 140 letters. I added “Our hashtag is #iwould ” After all the students finished, I wanted volunteers to share their tweets with the whole class.

I have to say that the original activity was a writing activity but it was really commonplace so I asked myself “How can I make this writing activity more enjoyable?” I also wanted to take less time. Thus, writing tweet sounded me so cool and different. I believe that they had to think fast and produce some different solutions so the activity prompted critical thinking. The last grammar topic they had learnt was ‘If Clauses’. Thus, they could create sentences like “If I were there, I would…” easily and this activity provided retention of ‘If Clauses’. Besides, they comprehend the story implicitly. I believe that I conduct the class in a good way. I always spoke in English. Even when the students asked me something in Turkish, I answered in English. The tone of my voice was high enough and my sentences are understandable. I used colourful boardmarkers and my material could be seen even from back rows. I think this details are really important. The issue I was criticized by my teacher is about giving feedback. I accept it because after watching my video, I also noticed that my feedbacks were always short when I heard the tweets. I should have given feedback in more detailed way yet we had little time and that was a follow-up activity. Thus, I didn’t want to talk too much. Instead, I wanted to hear more ideas. Another criticism came from my friend about studying individually. He said I should have done group work. As I said him, I couldn’t have done group activity because of the specific reasons. I tried it before but it took too much time to make groups and I asked some of the students whether they like group works or studying individually. The answer was interesting. They said “Of course, individually.” I learnt that they feel more comfortable individually during writing activities. In order to make the activity more economic, I preferred an activity which every students can join individually. It was a follow-up activity and it took 13 minutes. In 13 minutes, we comprehend a narrative story, we activated our brains and produce different ideas in the structure “If Clauses” and we share our ideas. 

Problem Solving Task

The Third Week

I handed out some colourful cards which include some target vocabulary for warm-up. They acted out the words or drew some and their friends try to guess. The students had great fun while trying to convey the meanings of words without speaking. Additionally, this warm-up activity was really practical in terms of time and all the students stayed active during the activity.

I passed problem solving task activity. I explained the situation to the students and asked them to find a solution for the tourist. I divided the class into two groups as individuals and pairs. Each group was handed out a situation that reflects a problem about real life. I also gave the individuals the same situation. The pairs discussed the possible problems seen in the worksheet given by the teacher while individuals were studying on their own.After discussing and thinking of possible solutions, they wrote their solutions about the situation that they had deduced from their situations by using target vocabulary given. I collect papers. The students liked this task very much. They wrote so many interesting solutions. 

I handed out some worksheets which include the target vocabulary. They matched the words with the pictures representing their meanings. It was really an easy activity since the aim was just to provide recall of the target vocabulary. I collected worksheets. 

Jigsaw Task

      The Second Week

I said that they would play a game called “hangman”. I divided the class into five groups and each group chose one student for writing and the writer came to the board. She picked a word up from the box. This word was from target vocabulary. The student wrote blanks on the board according to the given word. The other members of the group tried to guess by saying a letter one by one. When the letter they had said does not belong to the word, the student drew a part of the man on the board. There were two words for each group to write and guess. At the end of the game, we clapped the winner group. I have to say that this activity took more time than I had planned. Since we didn’t have any time limitation, they used time freely. However, they had great fun during the activity and all the students were active and seemed to be excited.

I passed jigsaw task. I divided the class into two groups as individuals and pairs. I handed out some pictures and explained the task steps. The students examined the pictures given. They tried to put the pictures in their right rows. After this section, they wrote a paragraph telling the theme of the story by using target vocabulary given in a box. Half of the class studied on their own and the rest studied in pairs. I collected the students’ papers. Actually, I wanted the same people’s studying collaboratively and leaving the same students alone yet a lot of objections broke out. Some of the students said “I don’t want to do it myself, I want to study with my partner!” or some of them said “I prefer studying individually. Since I didn't want them to do the task reluctantly, I let them change their studying styles. As I thought, they were happier and more productive during the task.

I handed out some worksheets which include the target vocabulary. They matched the words with the pictures representing their meanings. It was really an easy activity since the aim was just to provide recall of the target vocabulary. I collected worksheets. 

Dictogloss Task

First week

I divided the classroom into pairs. I wanted one of the partners from each group to pick up a word from the box I had prepared before. These words had been chosen from target vocabulary and they became group names of them. These pairs were supposed to stand up when they heard their group names in the sentence which teacher said. I started to read the sentences and wait for them. I hoped the activity in high school would become as funny as in secondary school yet it didn’t. The student didn’t stand up immediately but I believe that they could understand the usages of target vocabulary implicitly.

I passed dictogloss task activity. I made them listen to a story from a native speaker by using smart board. I divided the class into two groups as individual and pairs. The students studying collaboratively noted down some key points together and individuals noted down on their own while listening to the text for the second and third times. The pairs discussed their key notes and tried to build up a text through interacting with each other while individuals were creating their texts on their own. This stage was good, there were a great deal of interaction between pairs. Individuals tried to talk to their friends yet I had to make them remember the instructions. After all the students finished, I collected their papers.

I handed out some worksheets which include the target vocabulary. They matched the words with the pictures representing their meanings. It was really an easy activity since the aim was just to provide recall of the target vocabulary. I collected worksheets. 

teaching vocabulary is an important issue

Hi everyone!
I have some news for you :) I and my friend are conducting a thesis in the field of ELT this year. Since we give importance on vocabulary teaching very much, we determined our research topic as "The Contribution of Collaborative and Individual Tasks to the Acqusition of L2 Vocabulary" I implemented the study on my student in Vefa High School. I would like to share the steps of the study with you! I hope you like. Follow my posts and see!

Sincere regards :)

observation again

 -the second week-

The teacher introduced grammar orally. She explained the rules with some examples. They were about “Passive Voice” and “Reported Speech”.

The teacher started a discussion about books and e-books. It was a speaking activity. The students explained their preferences and the reason. I liked the title of discussion.

Then, they passed the reading activity. The teacher asked “Who wants to read?” A volunteer read the text. She focused on unknown vocabulary. She gives their meanings in Turkish.

The students answered comprehension questions. When their answers are true, the teacher praised them by saying “very good, well done etc.”

At the end of class the teacher made them watch a video. The teacher and class spoke about it after watching.

the first week of the second term*

-The first week-

                I started with observing the teacher and class again.  Teacher checked students’ homework. Then, there was a speaking activity. During this activity, the teacher checked students’ pronunciations. She focused on fluency.

                While making exercises, the students talked to each other too much about something not related to the course. The teacher warned them and cut the exercise. She passed the listening activity. It is from Unit 8 ‘Planet Earth’. The students are supposed to fill in the blanks according to the text they listened to. The teacher controlled the class while they are filling in the blanks. The students asked when they saw an unknown word. The teacher explained these words in English. When they didn’t understand the explanations, she translated them.

coming back

Hi everybody!

It has been a long time since I didn’t share any post. There are a lot of things to write! I will share my all experience during the second term.

First of all I would like to say that as a trainee teacher I am supposed to be more active, teach something or make activities in this term. I has done a lot of things so far! I hope you like them. Don’t miss my posts.

                                                                                                                             Sincerely

                                                                                                                             Büşra

! (:

Let your students acquire a second language. They should be active participants in your classes. They should make some mistakes and learn through those mistakes.

YAAAAAY!

Hi everybody from a snowy day!

At the beginning of the course, the teacher said that she was very appreciated of the students’ marks. She gave homework from their grammar book for the semester break. Additionally, she wanted them to read their storybooks. She warned them about the difficulties they would face with in next semester. I think sometimes warning is good because students may  need to be aware of difficulties in order to regulate their studies.

They had learnt the terms related with “sport types”.  After teacher pronounced the words, she wanted the students to repeat. Then, it was listening activity time. They listened to the some features and tried to find out which sport it is. In all the activities, the students studied individually. In my opinion, they sometimes need to study cooperatively since they tend to speak. At the end of the course, they revise the simple past tense.

By the way, it was my last week in this class for this semester. My duty was to observe both the students and the teacher, take some notes and improve myself in the field of ELT. I believe that I did my best and gained different point of views thanks to this observation experience. See you next semester when I am more active in my teaching career. 

                                                                                                 Sincerely

Girls With Arachnophobia

      Hi!

      This post is about two weeks ago. At the beginning of the lesson there was a listening activity. After listening, the students read the text and they answered reading comprehension questions. They said their answers one by one. A student from the class mispronounced a word and his error was corrected by the teacher.  Then, the teacher focused on unknown words. As I said before, she gives importance on vocabulary. They had another listening activity.

      The teacher makes them watch a video about nurdles. After watching for the first time, the students want to watch it again. They are always enthusiastic about watching videos. They watched the video for the second time. Then, it was speaking activity time and they discuss the video.

They learnt the terms of “fearful” and “fearless”. There was a test in their textbooks which measured their fear rate. They answered and discussed how much they were fearful or fearless. It was really funny to watch them while they are discussing. Most of the girls confessed that they are afraid of spiders and boys claimed that they are fearful :) We can say that the students become more assertive when they find the topic interesting.

      They also learnt “Gerund / Infinitive”. Actually, the teacher had focused on four skills in previous courses but this time she also taught a grammar rule. She said they would have to memorize some verbs in order to determine whether it takes gerund or infinitive. The course was good but the students were a little bit tired.

Last Post Of November

        Hi again!

        This is a post about last Friday! At the beginning of the class there was a pre-listening activity. The students and teacher talked about the same theme with the listening activity. Then, it was time to listening. After listening, they answered some comprehension questions and did exercises.

During the class, the teacher focused on the verbs of “to get sunburnt/ to get suntan/ sunbathe...etc.”.  She wrote them on the board and explained them.  

        They listened to a dialogue. Then, they are supposed to write another one by working in pairs. They had ten minutes. After writing their dialogues, each group read aloud. Other students sometimes corrected their friends’ mistakes. It was good. Reading aloud was also good to check students’ pronunciations.

        After that, there was a reading activity. When they read the passage about extinction, the teacher and class discussed this topic. Then, the students answered comprehension questions.

        At the end of the course, “because of” were taught. The teacher wrote the structure on the board again and explained the difference between “because” and “because of”. She made some students in Turkish and wanted the students to translate them by using “because of”.

        Teacher handed out some worksheets as homework. 

                                                                                                           See you next week! :)

It was "Cool!" :)

        Hi!

        It is time to share the post of last week.  I had observed the same teacher and class until that day yet I attended a different class and I observed a different teacher for an hour last week. Firstly, I want to share my observations about both class and teacher. I have to say that neither class nor teacher was energetic. Voice of teacher was really low. Additionally, I noticed that there were a lot of students who hadn’t done their homework and teacher didn’t react as I expected. My attendance was just for an hour so I want to believe that she is not every time like that.

         It was exam week so I learnt that there would be no teacher for three hours in the class I observed every week if I didn’t stay. As a result, I preferred teaching for three hours :) It was my second performance as you know. I have to confess that it was a little bit tiring this time because they prepared themselves for being free so it takes a couple of minutes to catch their attention. Apart from this, it was great for me. We did some exercises and listening activities. We focused on pronunciation and students had great fun while trying to pronounce some words. Additionally, we learnt some expressions such as “Cool!”, “What a shame!”. I also wanted them to say these expressions in a realistic way. They tried to say negative statements in a sad manner and positive ones in a good mood. I liked their performances :)

Try To Understand Your Students' Needs

      This post is about last Friday!

It was a good lesson, in my opinion. I have observed the same class and teacher so far. As I said before, I like teaching style of the teacher. Last week, I noticed that she focused on unknown words very much. This is great!

At the beginning of the course, there was a listening activity. During the activity, students answered the listening questions. After listening activity, it was group work time. Teacher wanted them to work in pairs and write a dialog related to the topic of listening activity. All the groups read their dialogs and the teacher gave feedback immediately.

It was a block course. I felt that the student really got bored and they couldn’t focus on anything after an hour.  When they said to the teacher they wanted to have a break, she accepted their suggestion and gave a five minutes break. I liked this attitude very much because this acceptance means that she trusts them and understands their feelings. It was suitable for the situation. I believe that teachers sometimes evince their affections. However, this shouldn’t become a habit and I don’t think it will. When it is unnecessary, the teacher generally prefers catching their attention instead of giving break. That is all for last week. I hope this post is informative enough.
         We should keep in our mind that if we ignore our students' needs, it is likely to fail during teaching progress. We should let our students explain themselves and be assertive voluntarily in our courses. 

Last Post Of October

Hi everybody! Here is the last post of October!

At the beginning of the class, I noticed that students had learnt the structure of “should/shouldn’t” in previous lesson.  It was time to practice it in suitable situations. There were some specific situations and they were supposed to give some advice related to these situations. All the students create different sentences correctly. Then, teacher changed the activity and she wanted a student to make up a situation or a problem. After that, teacher wanted other students to give their friend some advice. When a student spoke, teacher gave him feedback instantly.  When a student made a mistake, she explained everything very well.

She gave different forms of vocabularies such as treat/treatment. She opened a picture by using smart board and she wanted them to make some comments. (speaking activity) She gave enough time to answer the questions. She wanted them to keep a vocabulary notebook and improve their own methods for learning new vocabularies. They learnt how to pronounce the word of “pound”.

At the end of the course, she gave information about the exam they would have. She said time would be two hours. In the first hour, they would be supposed to answer the questions related to “reading & understanding” part. Then, they would answer the questions related to listening part. Finally, they would pass writing part. 

"Got it!"

This post is from my third week. Actually, I want to give you some general information about the features of the students in the class prep B.

I have been together with them just for a couple of weeks but I have observed their attitudes towards English very carefully. They are really enthusiastic in classes. Most of them raise their hands when teacher wants them to do something. During reading activities, they want to read.  They like writing texts or dialogs and reading them aloud. Students generally don’t want to speak or comment on something in English classes. However, they are very assertive during speaking activities.

Underlying reasons for these students attitude is relevant with teacher’s teaching strategies and her manners. She always prompts him/her when a student talks about something. She ignores their simple pronunciation mistakes. If it is really necessary, she corrects him/her. She doesn’t sit all day. She has enough energy for her students. She walks around the class. She cares her students. She asks her grades one by one and gives feedback. She tries to keep them focused during the course.

Students are also aware of what is going on. They like the course, activities and style of their teacher. They like watching videos. They sometimes want to watch videos without subtitles. They find informal language interesting. I noticed that they use “Got it!” in their dialogs frequently :)  

Blogs

Reading ELT blogs will help us improve ourselves. I want to give you the list of some essential ELT blogs you should read:

http://burcuakyol.com/
http://cecilialemos.com/
http://efllecturer.blogspot.com.tr/
http://theteacherjames.blogspot.com.tr/
http://elt-resourceful.com/
http://vickyloras.wordpress.com/

First Interaction With Smartboard

Hello everyone from a cold day!

Due to my illness, I couldn’t share any post last week. I got flu and last week was terrible for me but don’t worry. I will have two nice posts for you to share :)

 Let’s talk about my second week at school. I went to the school at 10 o’clock. When I entered the room, my coordinator teacher seemed to be shocked. She had an accident on the way to school and she felt horrible. Our lesson was a block course. She said she wouldn’t be able to teach because shock effect was  going on. She asked me to teach instead of her until she feels better. Actually, it was my first performance at a high school but I didn’t feel nervous. On the contrary, I was happy since I had a chance. I took teacher’s book and went to the class. They had done homework at home, we answered the questions together. I listened to their writings. (They had written postcards at home). We made two listening activities.
        The most important thing for me on that day was my interaction with smartboard. It was great! I learnt how to use a smartboard. Its usage is really easy and any teacher can learn quickly. I always believe that the classes integreted to technology become more productive. I could clearly see the rise of their energy when I opened the smartborad. I thought a lot of things during the lesson. Smartboards can be useful also for young learners. I think every classroom should have a smartboard. Maybe one day teachers’ -like me- dreams will be real :) 

        

First Week, First Impressions

Hi everyone !

          It is time to share my first post about my school experience. When I saw the school for the first time a few weeks ago, I was impressed by this historic building very much. I wondered also the students of this school. Fortunately, I met with some students last Friday and I had a chance for observation. It was a prep class.

          The first thing I noticed is use of smartboard. Teacher uses smartboard effectively. The book of the class is “Solution (Oxford)” in the classroom. The level of the book is elementary. In my opinion, that book is really good. It gives importance on four skills deeply. Teacher opened the text in the book by using smartboard. Including technology into education is great! Students had already read text at home so teacher started with listening activity. She used smartboard for listening and speaking activities.  Although I was sitting at the back row, I could easily hear the voice. The words were very clear. Students listened to the record for two times. They answered the comprehension questions by rising their hands. When a student gave a wrong answer, teacher asked others to correct their friends. I liked this point very much because I believe that peer-correction is very effective in language learning. Speaking activities were completed in a good way. Students were very assertive in the class and spoke in English. I think the reason for this is teacher’s attitudes. Teacher ignored when she heard something in Turkish. Instead of humilating them, she encouraged students to speak in English. Classroom management was great. Teacher used the tone of her voice in order to keep students focused. Teacher said different meanings of words in order to make it clear or teach a new word. For instance, when she said “about”, she also gave the meaning of it as “approximately”. She provided different words.

          I also want to say something else: Teacher knows name of the students!  She calls them by their names so the students feel themselves important. I liked teaching style of her. I look forward to going there again. I will go on sharing about my experiences next week. See you soon ! :)