25 Mayıs 2012 Cuma

how to teach English in a kindergarten



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwCwj21MdlY

Teaching young learners is a very difficult process because their attention is very limited so we have to use interesting games for them. always playing games with them may be tiring for us, but there is no other way of getting their attention on us. this video is a real example of what I am trying to tell. 

24 Mayıs 2012 Perşembe

Official 2



The lesson was arranged for seventh graders and there were eight students in the class. It was a Language Development class, so my activities were based on grammar. The topic was "Reported Statements", and I made an opening to the topic so 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 to it 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 class. She gave my the slides and told me to use them while presenting Reported Speech. Therefore, I used about five minutes to present the slides to the students. However, I wanted the lesson to be enjoyable for the students; as a result, I used some activities students had fun doing them. Below you an see my lesson plan for this second official.

Lesson plan for Official 2


ACTIVITY       & AIDS
INTERACTION
PROCEDURE
STUDENTS
COMMENTS
TIME

Warm-up

Chinese whispers



T®C


S¨S


T greets the students and makes a daily task asking about their day or feelings etc.

T gives a sentence to one student and asks him/her to whisper that sentence to the student next to him/her. The student who hears the sentence will whisper it to the others one.

Students listen to the T and respond to him/her.

Students listen to their friends and whisper the sentence to other students.





This will warm the students up and have an enjoyable impression of the lesson.



3
Min

Pre-activity



Hardcopies of the text




T®C




T®C



T introduces the characters of the main text to be used in the lesson and briefly narrates their story.


T hands out copies of the dialogue of the son, father and mother, and makes two of the students read it loudly.


T asks questions about the text and checks students’ comprehension.



Students listen to the main story.



Students individually read the text, and two students perform it.

Students answer the questions about the text.

This will attract the students’ attention. T has the advantage of being able to talk to them in language they can understand and to monitor their understanding on the spot. Also T makes students familiar with the target form.

This will help students easily get the gist of the text, improve their reading skill and recognize the target form.


This will improve their comprehension and speaking skills.







6
min

Main
Activity



Slides


Pen and paper


Blackboard

T®C







S ®S







T briefly explains the target form based on its meaning and function with the help of slides.


T hands out copies of practice papers related to the text, and asks the students to reconstruct the sentences by using the target form.

T asks students to read out their sentences, then to write their answers on the board, and correct their friends’ mistakes.

Students listen to the T’s explanation.


Students transform, and then reconstruct the sentences.

Students read out their answers and write them on the board.

This will reduce the chance of incidental learning and unnoticing the form.


This will help them apply the target form to new sentences.



This will improve their speaking and writing skills.







15
min



Post
Activity

Guessing game
“who is he/she?”

Box  



S¨S



 T¬®C


Teacher asks students to write a secret about themselves. The secret should be only one sentence. Then the students put these sentences into a box. Then students select a sentence one by one and report the secret of a student to the class using reported speech structure.


Each student will write a secret about themselves and put it into the box. They will try to guess who that person is.

This will help them learn to work collaboratively, develop their speaking skills and have high motivation. Again this will help them apply the target form to new situations. This will make students have fun, improve their speaking skills, participate with a feeling of competition and get used to group work. They will produce sentences by using the target form.




15
min


Ending


T®C

T makes a summary of the whole lesson and gives a homework related to the target form by providing an example.


Students listen to the teacher and note down their homework

This will help them internalize, personalize the target form and remember the target form in a longer period.

1
min


14 Mayıs 2012 Pazartesi

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.

13 Mayıs 2012 Pazar

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.