official video 1

official 1 from Aslı Köşger on Vimeo.

This was a fourth graders' class, and there were twenty students in the class. These students were on  intermediate level; in addition, they were very enthusiastic to tearn. The grammar point I tried to introduce to the students was the simple past tense and the past continous. furthermore, I tried to teach the students the difference between "while & when" while combining two sentences. what I wanted most was to make students practice a lot in a communicating way in the class. I enjoyed the lesson very much, and I felt as if I were their real teacher.
at the beginning of the lesson I showed some pictures about the main character of the story I would use. Then I distributed the story to the students and asked them to read it individually. After they have finished reading it, I asked some comprehension questions about the story. After that, I made groups of four, and gave each group a situation. I wanted them to make sentences using "when & while" and prepare a role-play using these situations. After this role-play activity, as the post activity I used two boxes in which there were sentences. I called on two students, asked them to choose a sentence from the boxes and show the sentence with their actions so that the class would guess what they were doing or what they did. they were supposed to make sentences with "when&while". this was my last activity, but there were three minutes left; therefore, as an extra activity,  I made them listen to a song which was about the actions. Students enjoyed these last activities, and the lesson finished.

Lesson plan for official 1

Pre-Activity: Reading the story “A Terrifying Experience”

Procedure: Teacher shows the pictures on the slides to the students, and wants students to talk about the pictures and guess what was happening in the pictures.T distributes the papers to the students and asks them to read the story.

Main activity: Writing the story from the view of John’s friends’ and dramatizing it

Procedure: T makes groups of five.T tells the students they are John’s friends on the shore, and asks them to write the experience from their points of view. Ss come to the board group by group and act it out.

Ss choose the group which acted their roles best.

Post activity: Choosing paper from the boxes and acting it out

Procedure: T chooses two students and asks each of them to choose a paper from the boxes.

Ss read the sentences on the papers they have chosen and act it out at the same time so that their friends can guess what they were doing using “when & while”.

Extra activity: Listening to a song and dancing

Procedure: T and the Ss listen to the music and Ss dance. T sometimes stops the song and asks the students questions about the actions they were doing.

ACTIVITY       & AIDS	INTERACTION	PROCEDURE	STUDENTS	COMMENTS	TIME
Pre-activity Reading the “A Terrifying Experience” Pictures on the slides A sheet of paper	T®C C®T	Teacher shows the pictures of a boy (JOHN) by using slides, and wants students to talk about the pictures and guess what was happening in the pictures. T distributes the papers to the student and asks them to read the story.	Ss look at the pictures on the board. Ss individually read the story. Ss answer the comprehension questions about the text.	Showing the pictures will activate Ss’ schemata about the story, and the Ss will have an idea about the story. This will improve their reading, comprehension and speaking skills.	5 min
Main Activity Writing the story from an outsider’s point of view and dramatizing it Pen Paper	T®C S ®S	T makes groups of five. T tells the students they were the outsiders who witnessed John’s incident, and asks what they were doing when John was drowning. T asks the groups to come to the board one by one and act their actions out. Ss choose the group which acted their roles best.	Students work in groups and listen to the T’s explanation. Ss write their plays in groups. Groups come to the stage and act their performances. The other groups watch them.	This activity will be effective in that the students like drama. Moreover, the students will be able to learn how to use the target form in a context. Students will improve their listening skills by listening to the other groups.	25 min
Post Activity Choosing a paper from the boxes and acting it out Flash cards	S®S  T®C S®T	The teacher uses two boxes in which there are sentences which show action, and calls on two students in the class. The students come; either of them chooses a sentence from the box and show the sentences by using their body language at the same time. The other students in the class try to guess what their friends were doing or did, and make sentences using “while & when”.	Ss read the sentences on the papers they have chosen and act it out at the same time so that their friends can guess what they were doing using “when & while”.	This activity will activate these Ss because guessing their friends’ actions is an enjoyable process. Moreover, this activity is a perfect opportunity for the students to practice “when & while”	10 min
Extra Activity Listening to a song and dancing song	T®C S®S	If there remains some time, the teacher makes the students listen to a song and dance. The name of the song is ‘freeze song” and there are lots of “stops” in the song. When the singer says stop, the teacher stops the song and asks the students what they were doing when the singer said “stop”. T and the Ss listen to the music and Ss dance. T sometimes stops the song and asks the students questions about the actions they were doing.	Ss listen to the T, their friend and make sentences one by one.	This will really make the Ss have fun because this class likes dancing very much. In addition, ending the lesson with a song will motivate the students.

other teachers' experiences

For those who want to be a teacher, there are a lot of different events other teachers experienced. one way of handling the difficulties as novice teachers is to search other teachers. In other words, what did they experience, how did they deal with problems, what do they advise, these are significant  problems to be considered. while thinking about these, I came across a very interesting event; and I want to share it with you because it may be very useful for our future life.  here is the link :

My Best Teaching Experience

Journal 1

This is my first journal and it is about pair work and group work, and whether they worked in one of the classes I observed in my tarining school.

PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK

 Pair and group work is inevitable in some lessons, and English courses are one of these lessons because teaching a foreign language is not like teaching numbers, algebra, physics and chemistry. It is not as clean-cut as mathematics, and it is not like getting concrete results from numbers. It is more demanding and quite different from the others in that it requires more sociability in the classroom. Learning English is not just memorizing the rules as in the positive sciences, but communicating and cooperating with others in the target language. One way of conveying this aim in the classroom is making students groups and pairs during the activities.

Students need to discuss between themselves in order to learn. There was an excellent example for pair works at my practicum school because the teacher paired her prep students up every day and every hour of the school. She emphasized the point that working in pairs gave students the chance to check their pair’s work, correct their mistakes and evaluate them. Nevertheless, pair work is not as always effective because some students may not be in good relations; therefore, it can be dangerous or useless to make two disagreeing students pair or putting them into the same group. Teachers may not be aware of this kind of situations, or they may ignore it. In such cases, the result is a predictable one: there is no discussion between these students at all; therefore, there is no production in the end.

 Another significant qpoint to think about is whether the students really speak English in the groups or not. Most teachers make groups in order to make their students communicate in English in the group. However, it generally turns out to be that students do not bother to speak English because there is a language they are all competent in. Thus, as long as there is not an impulse for the students to speak English except the teacher’s warning, students do not speak English in the groups.

 Although group work has some shortcomings, its advantages cannot be underestimated. Being in a group gives the students the feeling of belongingness; in addition, it enhances students’ self efficacy and self confidence because in the groups they become more successful than working individually. Moreover, working in groups creates positive peer relationships. However, it is difficult to implement the group work; thus, the groups should be arranged very carefully.

As for my lessons in the practicum school, I also used both group and pair works in my activities because I wanted students to interact and enjoy the lesson. In my opinion, instead of a very silent class, students should have fun together. So integrating fun and joy into the group work is of crucial importance in order to make the students participate the lesson.

All in all, even though monitoring group works is a very demanding process, making use of it will increase the quality of the lesson. As a result, pair work and group work will reach their goal with more time and effort.

Lesson Plan for Unofficial 3 ( 9th Graders)

ACTIVITY       & AIDS	INTERACTION	PROCEDURE	STUDENTS	COMMENTS	TIME
Warm-up Chinese whisper	T®C S®S	T shows the first student in the row a sentence which is a wish clause, and wants that student to whisper that sentence to the other friend in the row. The sentence is “I wish you were a fish in my dish” After Ss have finished, the T asks the last S in the row what the sentence is. After the T elicited the answer, she writes the correct answer on the board.	The first student S whispers the sentence to the other friend’s ear, and he/she tells the sentence to the other.	T wants to warm the class up because both the T and the Ss are new to each other, so this activity will warm the atmosphere. T wants students to have fun at the beginning of the lesson T wants to get Ss to think of the form of the real grammatical sentence.	4 Min
Pre-activity Reading Pictures about the story & letter	T®C C®T	T shows a picture of a sad girl (Maria) and asks questions about her and her mood, and what might have happened. T distributes the letter of the girl shown in the picture and asks Ss to read and underline the forms which show wishes of the girl	Students give answers about the mood of the girl. Ss read the letter and try to understand it. Ss underline the forms which express unreal situations.	T wants to get Ss’ attention by showing the picture. T wants Ss to be exposed to the forms of “wish clauses”. Teacher wants Ss to be aware of “wish structures”	6 min
Main Activity Writing & Reading & Listening Papers Pens Board	T®C S ®S	T asks students to form groups of three. T asks students to write an advice letter in groups and read it to the class. T asks about the Ss’ wishes in life, and asks Ss to write one wish they want most in their lives and stick it on the wish tree which is projected on the board. T asks Ss to choose one wish from the board and read it to the class so that the Ss can guess who she/he is.	Ss work in groups. Ss are expected to write a letter to Maria using “conditionals”. Ss will use “wish structures” while writing their wishes and they will stick it on the wish tree. Ss will try to guess their friends through their wishes.	T wants students to collaborate and to communicate. T wants Ss to analyze the sentences given in the letter and write them in a different form (in conditional form) T wants to get Ss to be engaged and have fun. T wants Ss to learn more about each other by learning their wishes in life.	25 min
Post Activity Listening & Speaking	S®S  T®C	T asks students to form a chain of wishes game. T starts the game by saying the first unreal conditional sentence, and chooses a student to continue. T ends the class by giving a brief summary of what has been done during the class, and says goodbye to the Ss.	First S adds a sentence to the T’s sentence, and the game goes on like that. Ss listen to the T and say goodbye to the T	Ss will enjoy the lesson by playing this game, and this will change their attitude towards the “wish clauses”. Ss will learn by entertaining.	5 min