Peer Feedback 5

PEER FEEDBACK ON AYSUN ŞAHİN’S FIRST OFFICIAL

Aysun is such an active and motivating teacher that it is impossible in her lessons to be silent or not to participate. I did not attend her lesson, but watched it from the video, and I was really impressed. She uses her voice very well, manages the class perfectly. Moreover, she elicits answers from the students in a very effective way. I can say that her lesson was excellent.

What attracted my attention first was the use of the blackboard. I like the teachers who are uses it very well, and Aysun used it very effectively. She used the visuals, there was a listening activity and she provided the students with different kinds of materials as much as possible.

Aysun role-played a dialogue with her peer, and it was a good idea because it was obvious that studetns enjoyed watching it from the behaviors of the students. It was also effective in that students saw an example of the activity they were supposed to do later, and it made the task manageable  for the students.

The only weakness or the minor problem in the lesson as far as I observed was that there was much teacher talk. Instead of talking, and trying to explain everything, it is better to make the students speak. However, I also know that students do not like speaking at all, so I do not know what can be done. Forcing them will make the situation worse and worse, so we can say that teacher talk is better in such situations.    

Overall, Aysun will be a great teacher as long as she keeps her enthusiasm. What I suggest for her is that she should not talk much. Her activities are various and engaging, and she is very good at classroom management. It is a very successful lesson.         

Peer Feedback 4

PEER FEEDBACK ON AYŞENUR GÖKÇETİN’S SECOND OFFICIAL

Ayşenur’s second official was with the ninth graders, and the lesson is a perfect example of literature classes. She has such a positive relationship with the students that when I watched the video, I was convinced that Ayşenur is very good at communicating with the students.  As far as I observed from the video, she started the lesson with a concept map in order to introduce the topic; I think the students enjoyed it because they participated to the activity.

Showing some pictures and making the students guess what kind of a poem they were expecting was a good idea (I used this technique in my own lessons too) in that it helped the students to activate their schemata about the topic and enhanced students’ interest. What interested me most is that when she saw classroom management problem because some students were talking, she had a break in the lesson, and she started talking to these students. I do not know whether I can do such a thing, but I observed from the video that it was a great idea to behave that way because students started to listen to the teacher. I think having good relationship with the high school students depends on how the teacher empathizes with the students, and how she is knowledgeable about the topics students are interested in.

Although Ayşenur was good generally in her lesson; in my opinion, there is something that she should improve. She should use her voice more effectively because the students’ attention is attracted with the teachers’ louder voice. Therefore, she should think about it.

All in all, I enjoyed watching her lesson. I think that Ayşenur knows how to communicate with the students, which helps the teacher to conduct her lesson more effectively.

Peer Feedback 3

PEER FEEDBACK ON BETÜL ERBAŞI’S SECOND OFFICIAL

I watched the videos of Betül’s second official, and it is not so easy to understand what is happening in the class from the videos because it is not the same as we observe it in the class. I did not see the students on the video, but from the noise, I think the students were difficult to deal with. I saw some of them walking around. The students in the class must be very active because they are third graders, and they need action.

When I paid attention to Betül’s speech and the way she behaves in the class, I noticed that she is a very enthusiastic teacher. Enthusiasm is of great importance for me. Moreover, Betül is very patient with such noisy students, and this shows that she can stand even the hardest students in the class. Therefore, I think that Betül tried to manage the class in a calm way. Furthermore, Betül was very good at giving the instructions, and the activities she used were very engaging. Therefore, it was a very interactive lesson.

Although Betül looks very calm, she tries to manage the class using different techniques. As we are not real teachers of these students, the presence of the classroom management problems is of high possibility. However, we do not want any problems in our classes, so we try our best. What Betül did in the class is the same. She tried to make the students raise their hands before they start speaking because in most times she reminds the students of this rule. I loved the technique counting down from ten to zero, and I think it is very effective with young learners, but its effectiveness changes according to mood of the students.

            Apart from the classroom management problems, I think Betül’s lesson was successful. I believe that the classroom management problems were not due to Betül, but the students themselves. If the students had been managed effectively, the lesson would have been much more efficient. Overall, Betül’s lesson is an excellent example of good teaching.

Peer Feedback 2

PEER FEEDBACK ON HÜSEYİN AKSU’S FIRST OFFICIAL

            I was Hüseyin’s peer in his first official lesson. The students were sixth graders and there were only seven students in the class, so it was a very silent lesson. It was a literature class, and the students had read one of the stories of Leo Tolstoy, and Hüseyin’s lesson was based on this story. Overall the objectives of the lesson were met, but there were some weaknesses in the lesson.

Hüseyin integrated the technology into his lesson as much as possible, which engaged the students. The competition was a good idea with such a small-numbered class because in the competitions generally there might be a chaos, but with few students it functions better.

The last activity in the lesson was writing an epitaph, and it motivated the students very much. They loved the epitaph activity; I think I will use it in the future too. However, at the end of this activity, students were supposed to choose the best epitaph, and they did not remember the epitaphs their friends wrote. So there could have been some changes in the process of this activity.

As for another weakness of Hüseyin’s lesson, as there were only seven students in the class, they were very silent. I think in the classes where there are few students the teacher should make the class more active because silent students may end up with sleeping in the middle of the lesson. Therefore, the only suggestion I would make for Hüseyin is that he should use more action in the lessons. Moreover, he should show his enthusiasm to the students.

Hüseyin managed the class very well; he was like a teacher, not a teacher trainee.  I think the activities Hüseyin used were very effective because all the students participated. Overall, it was a successful lesson.

Peer Feedback 1

PEER FEEDBACK ON TUĞÇE AYDEMİR’S FIRST OFFICIAL

            I was Tuğçe’s peer in her first official. I think it was overall a successful lesson and I really enjoyed watching it, but there are some points Tuğçe should consider in her lessons. I will evaluate the lesson, give some feedback and will comment on how it could have been better.

            The lesson was done in the first graders’ class, so it was a very challenging situation for the teacher trainee because the first graders are very young and sensitive. She started the lesson showing the feelings by using her facial expressions. It was very effective because the students had the chance to see a real example in life (the teacher’s expressions) instead of learning it just looking at the pictures on their books. Students learnt the feelings quickly, which helped the lesson go on as planned. She showed the feelings in a perfect way; I think she can make use of this feature more and more in her lessons.

            Tuğçe knew all the students’ names, and she called on every student so she gave almost equal opportunity to speak in the class. I think as the teacher knew the students’ names, the students were more alert. So it helped Tuğçe to manage the class well.

            There were some weaknesses in the lesson. For example, in the last activity Tuğçe let the students choose their friends and it took much time. It could have been better if she chose them herself. If she had done so, she could increase the number of the activities because she would have had time to do another activity. One more thing I want to emphasize is that some of the students were lost in the last activity, some of them were walking around, and some of them were resting putting their heads on the desk. Therefore, being a bit rigid works with young learners.

            Overall, it was a successful lesson, and it was effective enough to meet its objectives. Except for the weaknesses, Tuğçe handled it well.

Self Evaluation 2

SELF EVALUATION 2

            I did my training in a private school, and my last and favorite official was done in high school with ninth graders. Although I started observing this class this semester, I got used to them easily and loved them very much. They had covered all the grammar topics, so the teacher let me to choose the topic of my own lesson; therefore, I chose modals and prepared the activities accordingly.

            I would have my lesson the day after they had taken their last English exam, so I was afraid that the students would not listen to me at all. My cooperating teacher told me this too. So I tried to choose the topic as interesting as possible, and I think I achieved this because to my surprise, the students participated in the lesson, and enjoyed doing the activities. I think what worked here was the choice of the activities because the students found the activities engaging.

            Firstly I will talk about my strengths. I started the lesson with a physical activity which was breathe in and out. Students loved that activity. The reason why I chose such an activity was to attract their attention, and it really worked. Then I made a concept map of holiday and the goods they should take when they are going on a holiday. As most of these students go on a holiday every summer, they had lots of examples to say, and I was happy to choose a topic which was related to their real life.

            The thing which attracted my attention while I was watching my video was the difference between my first unofficial and the last official. In my first unofficial I did not touch the black board, but in this official I spent most of my time writing words and sentences on the board. What changed my behavior was the comments I took from my cooperating teachers after my lessons because in first lessons I kept saying that I should have used the blackboard frequently because students learn more when they see it on the board. Therefore, I made use of the blackboard as much as possible, and I saw that my cooperating teachers were right because as the proverb says, words fly away, writings remain.

            Another strength of my lesson was that the students loved the last activity. In the last activity I told them that they were alone on an island and they wanted to found their own republic. They would prepare a poster, and in the poster they were supposed to find a name for their republic, to draw a flag of their own republic and write the rules of the republic. I walked around while the students were preparing the posters and observed that they enjoyed doing that. In the end, I made them stick their posters on the board and called on a student, asked him to choose a poster from the board and present it to the class so that they would guess whose poster it was. This activity activated the students very much, and I have learnt in this lesson that student like the activities in which they can use their creativity.

            Overall, I did not see and weakness in this lesson because it went as I planned, and it was a successful lesson I think. As my cooperating teacher said, I prepared the lesson well and met the objectives of the lesson. What I suggest for my friends is that they should choose the topics which are related to students’ own lives in order to provide student participation.

Self-Evaluation 1

SELF EVALUATION 1

            My second official was done in a seventh graders’ class. There were eight students in the class, and it was a grammar lesson. My topic was reported speech, the students knew reported speech from the previous years, but they had not seen it this year yet. Therefore, I would make an introduction to the topic. As the topic would be introduced to the students for the first time, I thought that it would be a difficult lesson for me to cope with. However, it did not turn out to be so; I think it was a successful lesson because it met the objectives I put.

The lesson was not how I wanted it to be because I had to include what my cooperating teacher told me to do. For instance, she gave me some materials to use during the presentation. I had to obey that because after the day of my official presentation, the class would have an exam which would include the topic I would cover in the class. She gave me the slides and told me to use them while presenting Reported Speech. Therefore, I used about five minutes of the lesson to present the slides to the students, which really bored me because I do not like teaching the students in an explicit way. However, I tried to do my lesson as enjoyable and interactive as possible by adding some activities to the lesson. 

My most significant strength was that I am looking forward to becoming a teacher, and when I have the chance to have the control of the class, I make use of it as much as possible. Therefore, I forget about the cooperating teacher and my peer, I only see the students, and I do not feel any anxiety. This happened again in this official, and thanks to this attitude of me, neither the students nor I felt ourselves as an outsider. I love the students, so it was not difficult for me to create a welcoming atmosphere in the class.

My another strength was that I started the lesson with a game, which was “Chinese whisper”. I got the first student in the first row to find a sentence and whisper it to the friend next to him. Then, I asked the last student what his friend told him. This activity attracted the students very much and helped me to have a good rapport with the students at the beginning of the lesson. My cooperating teacher commented on this warm-up activity, and she said she found it very effective to make a beginning to the reported speech.

            I think the only weakness of my lesson was presenting the topic from the powerpoint. Although it was not my option, I had to do that for the sake of both the teacher and the students. I do not know whether I could do something different instead of presenting it. I made some students read it loudly in order to change the monotony of the lecture part, but I was not happy with that too.

            What I have learnt from this official and what I suggest for my friends is that teachers should not just present the topic, but make them learn implicitly because students enjoy this kind of learning.

            Overall, I managed the class well, created positive relationship with the students, and tried to motivate the students using engaging activities. It was an interactive and successful lesson. I loved it, so did the students.

Personal Learning Diary

PERSONAL LEARNING DIARY

         Technology has become indispensible for the people in today’s world due to its practicality and time-saving features. It is broadly used in language classes; furthermore, the use of blogs, web 2.0 and wikispaces by teachers and students increases day by day. We, as Fled 416 and 412 students, use blogs in order to develop ourselves professionally. I first started using a blog this semester as a requirement for my training courses, and I have some positive impressions and one suggestion about it.

To begin with, I see the blog as a diary in which I can save my materials, experiences, lesson plans, videos, and other important things for the future use. When I become a teacher, I think I will turn back to my blog, and will make use of it. In the beginning, I was afraid of using blog because I did not see myself as efficient as to use it. However, as time passed, I got used to using it and loved spending time on it; I enjoyed designing it. If I am doing something, I want to see a product in the end; and the blog has showed my products as I uploaded my videos, journals, reflection papers, and lesson plans. Therefore, using a blog affected my mood in a positive way. Moreover, my fear of not being able to use the blog disappeared when I made an effort to open my blog and publish something every day in order to learn how to use it.

Secondly, blogs are easy to reach so we can check what our friends are doing on their own blogs; thus, it saves time. Our friends can write comments about our lessons, so we can get much more feedback from them thanks to easy access to our blogs.

I have a suggestion about using blogs; it could have been better if we had been taught to use blogs at the beginning of this year. I think, we teacher trainees had difficulties in getting used to our practicum schools, in what to do and how to do. We had a school training course, but it was not sufficient for us because we did not have any opportunities to share our experiences with the friends. Therefore, using blogs would have been better if we had started using it in the first semester.

To sum up, using blogs motivated me, and enhanced my enthusiasm as a prospective teacher. I will not waste time looking at the books for the materials to use in the class, but access to the internet and open my blog. Having experienced its benefits, I will continue using it; and if the conditions are suitable, I am sure that I will make my students use blogs, wikis, and web 2.0 in order to see their progress.

Professional Development Activity

REFLECTION ON KEN WILSON’S SPEECH

            Motivation is one of the most significant issues to be considered in language classes because it opens the way to students’ world. Ken Wilson made his speech about motivation, and how teachers can make use of it by presenting several crucial points about the topic. I loved his speech because I was also motivated very much as a prospective teacher while listening to him.

            Ken Wilson started talking about the six motivational factors, and he emphasized that the most important factor is the enthusiasm of the teacher. I certainly agree with him in that teachers’ attitudes towards the students and the lesson really affect students. I always think about this issue, and come to the conclusion that if a teacher lacks enthusiasm, that teacher should give up teaching because he/she will be of no use to not only himself/herself, but also to his/her students. Students want to see enthusiastic and active teachers; in addition, it is of high importance for the students to be activated by their teachers.

            Secondly, what Ken Wilson made us consider is the strategies which can be used to in order to motivate students. According to Wilson’s speech, the first thing we should do before we start the lesson is to make our students curious about the topic. Making students curious about the subject matter can be realized with the use of visuals, asking them questions, and choosing the topic from students’ interest areas. I think if students are interested in the topic, teachers can do whatever they want in order to meet the objectives of the lesson. Therefore, teachers should be very careful when they are deciding on a topic.

            Some of the other significant points Wilson stated are that students should be challenged, given responsibility and allowed to use technology. The task we give students should be not too difficult and not too easy, but it should be challenging so that the students will make an effort and use their higher order thinking skills in order to achieve that task. Moreover, students will feel success and their self confidence will enhance when they are successful; thus, challenge is one of the indispensable things in language classes.

As for the use of technology, nowadays the life is difficult without it. I think we will not be able to use technology in every part of Turkey; especially southern and eastern of it, but the people living in the developed parts of Turkey are used to making use of it, so it may be very beneficial to use technology for the students living there. When those students are allowed to use technology, motivation will be provided for them.

All in all, Ken Wilson reminded us of the necessity of motivation and the ways of achieving it in our classes. As prospective teachers, we should always think about the students and empathize with them. The more motivation our students have, the more fruitful our lessons will be.

Journal 4

This is my fourth journal and it is about disruptive behaviors of students during the lesson, and in this journal I tried to explain what kind of attitudes we should have in such situations based on my observations and experiences in my practicum school so that I can come back to this journal and see which methods I can use when I become a teacher.

DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIORS AND SOLUTIONS

            Students are sometimes difficult to deal with, and they do not avoid displaying disruptive behaviors. As prospective teachers, it is our duty to find the ways of hindering such behaviors. However, it is not that easy because in my practicum school, teachers know what to do when a student is behaving in an undesired way, but the result is not always what teachers want. Whether they work or not, I want to tell you the techniques my cooperating teachers use and I used during my presentations.

            In the first place, when the teacher saw a student who was not listening to her or was speaking to others, what she used first was eye-contact. In the situations when eye contact was useless, she moved close to that student. It was very effective because the student could not dare to speak near his teacher. In another class, the teacher gave the student who was misbehaving an errand to do; for instance, and she made him clean the board, write a sentence on the board or turn on the projector. I observed that these kinds of errands made the student happy and self-confident, and interestingly, this technique created more positive student-teacher relationship. Moreover, teachers often tried to involve these students in the lesson by calling on their names, asking them questions about the text they were reading or do an exercise. These were what I learned from the cooperating teachers, and I want to continue with my own experiences I had during my official and unofficial presentations.

As teacher trainees, I think we confronted with more disruptive behaviors than the teachers working in the school because students knew that we were not their teachers. Therefore, we had difficulties in managing the class due to disruptive students in the class. In my second official (it was seventh graders’ class), one of the students finished his work much more early than his friends, and he began bothering his friends. I could not know what to do in such a situation, and then I thought that giving extra work to that student would work. I told that student he was successful so he finished his work early, and he could add some more things to his work. I think he loved my communication with him, so he turned back to his work. My other experience was with the ninth graders, who were teenagers so it was much more difficult to make them participate the lesson and do what you told them to do. It was my last presentation in the practicum school, so I was upset because I loved the teachers and the students and I felt as if I had been a teacher at that school. Thus, I was more relaxed with these feelings, and I was not anxious at all. In one of the activities I wanted students to make a poster and gave the instructions, but I saw that students are talking to each other. Then I chose one of those students, and asked him what I said and what they were supposed to do in the activity. He tried to explain, and I helped him in order not to humiliate him. It was effective because students stopped talking with each other and concentrated on the activity. Again in this class, students wrote sentences and I wanted them to tell their sentences to the class one by one. While one of the students was reading his sentence, others did not listen to him so I called on a student and asked him what his friend said.

These are some of the techniques I experienced during my training. I am sure that there are a lot more, but time will show them to use in the future and we will learn as we are experiencing them.

Journal 3

This is my third journal about the questions “How can you increase your classroom management abilities?”, “Can you communicate with the students effectively?”, and “Why is it so important to have good rapport with students?”

HOW SHOULD WE MANAGE THE CLASS?

         Teachers are always with students at schools, so interaction with students is inevitable. As prospective teachers, we should pay much attention to this issue because how we interact with students has great effects in our teaching. Being always with the same students might cause the relationship between teachers and the students to be too free and easy after a while. Classroom management is one area in which students, teachers, classroom environment, materials in the class are all included. Therefore, teachers may have difficulties in managing the class due to lack of control.

            What makes the classroom management difficult? I will try to give an answer to this question by giving examples from my training school experiences. In my training school; for instance, some teachers are very good at managing the class while some others cannot achieve it even for only five minutes. Considering the difference between these two types of teachers, it is of high importance for us to find classroom management methods. One of the teachers I observed was a native speaker, and there are a lot to say about classroom management in her lessons. First of all, both the teacher and the students did not listen to each other, they shouted at each other and the students did not respect to the teacher. When I first saw this situation I was shocked, and I thought whether they had a lesson or not. Before I observed that class, I had always thought that native speakers were better at classroom management than non-native teachers, but it is not actually so. In non-native teachers’ classes students obeyed the rules, listened to their teachers, and did what their teacher asked them to do.

            As for the classroom management in my official and unofficial presentations, it looked difficult to achieve at the beginning of the year. However, as I experienced the feeling of becoming a teacher, I became happier and more self-confident. I think I reflected my feelings to students, and we established a warm, personal relationship with the students. Therefore, we can say that it is crucial to make the students feel that we are really caring for them. If we can give the students this impression, there will be no problems at all. Students need to be cared and loved; therefore, everything is up to us.

Journal 2

This is my second journal about the necessity of enthusiasm to become a teacher. It shows my philosophy of teaching. Enjoy reading it!

ENTHUSIASM OR KNOWLEDGE?

An anecdote from my own life: I used to sleep in every History lesson in primary, secondary and high schools. The topics did not interest me, I was not curious about what had happened in our history. Therefore, I had had almost no knowledge about the history until I attended university and took History lessons. In the university something changed, but what was that? Was the change due to my age, the type of school, or the teachers? Yes, my age changed, school changed, and the teachers changed. But which one of these factors effected mu more than the others? Let me answer this question after I have written my journal. My answer will be at the end of the journal.

Teaching is a demanding job; it requires teachers to sacrifice in order to reach their teaching goals. As human beings, we have different characteristic features, moods and personalities. Therefore, it is of great importance for everybody to choose the professions they are good at. Teaching is one of these professions people should be very careful about to choose because it affects the future of the world because I am in the opinion that teachers shape the students they teach. As a result, teachers should be enthusiastic to teach so that their students are enthusiastic to learn.

The lessons I observed in the training school taught me a lot. Teachers were enthusiastic, so the lessons were effective or vice versa. In two lessons in the training school I paid much attention to this issue. When compared these two lessons, we easily see that the difference between them is very obvious. The first lesson was 4^th graders’, the latter was 9^th graders. I do not know exactly whether the age factor effected caused the difference between the atmospheres of these two classes, but I think teachers are the most important factor influencing the moods of the students. The teacher of the 4^th graders was energetic, kind to the students, helped them always, gave examples related to her students’ lives; mainly, she did almost everything necessary for the students to learn. As for the teacher of the 9^th grade students, she started the lesson in a normal mood which made the students unwilling for the lesson. The teacher is very knowledgeable in her area; nevertheless, knowledge is sometimes insufficient. As a consequence, we should be very careful about our way of teaching. Although we know what to teach, if we are not efficient in how to teach, we will not be successful in teaching. Then the question: “what should we do in order to be and feel enthusiastic?” comes to our minds. My answer to this question is that we should look enthusiastic to students even if we are not. We are like mirrors, if students see us excited and enthusiastic, our feelings will pass to them.

As for the abstract from my own life, I think you have found the answer, but I want to talk about some important points which might be useful for the prospective teachers. I do not know whether it is a coincidence or not, but all the teachers I had in primary, secondary and high schools spoke slowly and they did not use their voice effectively. Thus, I had difficulty hearing and understanding them. Secondly, they did not make the topic interesting; they just told us what the books said. The only way they used was lecturing, and this really bored me so I could not learn anything from the lessons. So, if you want to be a successful teacher, make your lessons as interesting as possible, and make yourself as enthusiastic and motivating as possible.

Reaction Paper on a Fled Article

ARE YOU NEW?

After a four year of training, being an idealist teacher, loved by their students, having no classroom management problems at all or knowing how to deal with those problems are some of the things most novice teachers expect. Therefore, they begin their profession with energy and enthusiasm. Nevertheless, those beginning teachers are vulnerable to the problems they encounter in their first year of experience. In the article “From heaven to reality through crisis: novice teachers as migrants”, Naama Sabar (2004) presents the difficulties novice teachers have by showing the similarities between the immigrants who go to another country to work and live and the student teachers who start teaching after training. The article is crucial for the student teachers because it helps them to foresee their future as teachers; furthermore, it protects them from the influence of their disappointment in real school life.

First of all, Sabar (2004) points out in the article that novice teachers are strangers in the school. Having read the article, I strongly agreed with it, and I thought that getting used to the school, adopting its rules, adapting myself to it will take some time and effort. Even though we are taught theoretical knowledge in teacher education institutions; however, we cannot internalize it immediately. Therefore, we still lack some qualifications which are indispensible for our teaching profession. I am in the opinion that it is of great importance to provide students teachers with more and more practice before they enter real school life. Nonetheless, it is inadequate to give students the chance to practice only in their last year at universities in Turkey. Thus, student teachers should be allowed to discover more about their future professions.

Another significant point the article highlights is that knowledge novice teachers have does not suit to the daily life in school. Some novice teachers lose their self confidence due to the gap between the school reality and teacher training. As a result, they might feel unsuccessful in managing the class, insufficient and uninteresting for the students. I think this thought is enough for them to collapse psychologically.

Moreover, it is clear from the excerpts of the teachers participated in the research that they began with high expectations, and then they crash, and finally they get their strength and climb up again. In my opinion, it is of crucial importance to start real teaching with lower expectations because the more expectations a person has, the higher he/she will experience disappointment because they will have great difficulty in finding what they expected.

            One more thing to be considered in the article is that mentors and cooperating teachers play a great role in cultivating student teachers. For instance, in some universities in our country the effect of this cooperation is obvious during training program. If student teachers come across some problems in school, they have the chance to share these problems with their mentors; as a result, their burden gets lighter and lighter.

To sum up, as future teachers, there are a lot of problems, difficulties waiting us. I am in the opinion that trying to get prepared for such negative situations is inadequate to some extent. The reason for this is that no matter how prepared we get, there will be other unexpected problems which no one else has experienced so far. Moreover, we should not disregard the role of problems and mistakes because most people learn through them. Therefore, mistakes are inevitable, and we should try to keep our patience during the first challenging experience year.

References

Sabar, N. (2004). From heave to reality through crisis: novice teachers as migrants. Teaching and Teaching Education, 20 (2004) 145-161.

Ken Wilson's website

       Hi again! Dou you know the person in the picture? If you don't, I will help you to learn; he is "Ken Wilson". I certainly advise you to visit his website because he is a genius in his area. I had the chance to see him in the "Third ELT Stundents Conference". while listening to his speech, I was impressed. So I wondered about him and searched him. There are a lot to say about him, but my time is limited. I'm writing the link of his website below so that you can know him better. 

       

http://kenwilsonelt.wordpress.com/about/

official 3

This was my last presentation, students were ninth graders, and their level was pre-intermediate. There were thirteen students in the class, the topic of my lesson was modals, especially the use of can, could, should, must, would and the negative forms of them. Students had learnt it before, so it was like a practice lesson. I started the lesson with a warm-up activity because I wanted to have their attention at the beginning of the lesson so that they would participate during the lesson. The activity was breathe in and breathe out, it also helped me to create a good rapport with the students before I started the lesson. The students refreshed themselves with the warm-up activity, and I started lesson with a concept map of "holiday and the things they take when they go on a holiday". Then I got them to write what they should take in case of emergency, and I wrote the words students said on the board. After this pre-activity, I made the students watch two short videos about plane crush and getting lost on an island. I told them they were on that plane and they were alone on the island, so I asked the students what they should (not), could(not), would(not), etc. They all wrote sentences and I wrote some of them on the board. As for my post activity, I told the students they would found their own republic on the island, and would prepare a poster for which they should find a name for the republic, draw a flag, and state their rules they set for the republic. They prepared the posters and sticked them on the board. Then I chose a student, he came to the board and chose a poster, read it and the other students tried to find whose poster it was. and the rest of the lesson went on so.

Lesson plan for official 3

ACTIVITY       & AIDS	INTERACTION	PROCEDURE	STUDENTS	COMMENTS	TIME
Warm-up Physical Exercises	T®C	T greets the students and asks how they are feeling on that hot day. T asks students to stand up and do some physical exercises. T tells them to breathe in and breathe out using modals.	Ss give response to the teacher. Students stand up, breathe in and breathe out to be more energetic.	This will make the students engaged in the lesson. Students will feel more energetic and refreshed. In addition, students will be motivated for the lesson.	2 Min
Pre-activity Activating Schema Concept Map Blackboard	T®C T®C	T asks students what comes to their minds when he/she says “holiday” and makes a concept map with students’ answers. She asks the students what they should take with them when they go on a holiday and makes a list of them on the board. Then asks them what they must take in cases of emergency. While writing the words on the board, teacher makes sentences with modals so that students will have an impression about how they can use modals. She elicits most of the words from the students and adds some things if necessary.	Ss tell the words which come to their minds. Ss give answers to the T’ question. Ss listen to the teacher, and see how he/she makes sentences with the words they told. Ss think of other words which they did not think.	This activity will help the students to get the gist of the topic. This will increase the Ss’ higher order thinking skills. Moreover, with the sentences of the teacher, Ss will be able to recognize the situations in which they can use modals. If the teacher adds some words, Ss will see how the teacher is knowledgeable in this area.	6 min
Main Activity Videos Pen and paper Blackboard	T®C S ®S	T makes Ss watch two videos which are about a plane crash and getting lost on an island. T tells Ss that getting lost on an island is an emergency situation. T distributes a paper which is about “first things to do in any emergency” and makes Ss read it. T asks students to be pairs and add three things to do on the island in order to survive using “should, shouldn’t, may, can, must, mustn’t and don’t have to” and read out their sentences. T writes some of their answers on the board, and correct if necessary.	Students watch the videos and try to understand what happens in the videos. Ss read the sheet and try to understand it. Students work in pairs, read out their sentences, and they correct their friends’ mistakes if necessary.	The videos will increase the interest of the students and give an idea about the theme of the lesson. This activity will help the Ss to see the target language in a written form, so it is helpful in terms of visual mind. This will improve their writing and communication skills.	15 min
Post Activity Making a Poster Colorful pens & Papers	T®C S¬®S	T tells students that they are alone on the island and they will found their own republic.  T wants the Ss to prepare a poster about their imaginary republic. T asks Ss to find a name, draw a flag for their republic and write the rules, necessities and availabilities using “ should, shouldn’t, may, can, must, mustn’t and don’t have to”. T asks Ss to present it in the class. Students come to the board, choose a poster and read it to the class. And the other students make guesses about whose poster it is.	Each student will find a name for their republic, draw a flag and write the rules. Then the Ss declare their rules to the public which is actually their class.	This will help them use their creativity and higher order thinking skills. Moreover, students will enjoy the lesson while both presenting their posters and listening to their friends’	17 min
Extra activity Board	T®C	T draws a baby on the board and asks Ss what this baby should(not), could(not), can(not), must(not), (don’t)  have to in order to be a good person. Teacher gets answers and makes one student write the sentences on the board.	Students listen to the teacher and make sentences related to the context.	This activity will increase Ss’ knowledge about modals. Students will like it because it is like giving advice to a baby, and teenagers like these kind of things.