Self Evaluation

Official 2

It was my second official presentation. It was with first graders and the topic was toys. The lesson was supposed to be a revision ; they have already learnt toys.  I tried to use basicly technology in my lesson and I prepared 4 powerpoint slides. They are young learners, so they want to see things on board, otherwise they lose their attention very easily. I started with pictures and asked questions based on that. Which toy is this? What color is it? etc.  Students love colorful things and I prepared my lesson acording to that. This part was to remember toys names and it had nothing to do with their properties. Then I showed them another power point slides and it was a game. There were two sentences about one picture projected on the board. Two students are standing in front of board without looking at the picture and when I told them to look, they run and touch the correct sentence about that particular picture. There are two sentences, but one is wrong one is correct. The sentences can be about number of the toy or the color or the size of it. I change the properties of them in order to trigger their discrimination skills. This activity could have been done bette,because I tried to do it like a pair work, but it did not work. One student mah have the correct answer while the other do not have.And when she see her friend going on the sentence, she immediately follows her peer without thinking. This caused a little problem for me; I could not think of this potential problem. Apart from that, I did not experience any problem about that activity. When we want to look at the next activity, we work on a wroksheet and it teaches has/have got. Students have some problems in where to use has or have got. They cannot discriminate between the two and I tried to explain when we have to use has or have got. More or less, I think, they understand. I tried to explain it clearly and simply as much as I could. Then the last activity was again a game and I think it was the most enyoyable one. I showed them puzzled words on the board and asked them which toy it was. They easily fixed words and found the toy and heard the applause in power point and loved it. Actually, Miss Cansu- the real teacher- recommeded me to add such an effect because she said they love it a lot. So, I did and it worked. Lastly, I made them listen to a song. They wanted to dance with it. It was like a present for them and signals the final. Overall, I am happy with that class. They did not cause me trouble and I did not have problems with classroom management. They sat still, but if I had not prepared that many activities, they would have been probably got bored and would not follow the instructions. With young learners, I believe that I should have so much options in my hand so that if one does not work, I can use a another one.

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Official 3

It was my last official presentation and it was with preparatory class. They were in high school. The class has 8 students and they are pre-intermediate. I was going to teach “Passive Voice” to them and the structure was very new and unknown for them. I thought that they knew the structure more or less from secondary school, but when I started teaching, I realized that they knew nothing. I arranged lesson plan in consideration to that point, but it was a huge mistake for me. I prepared an introduction part that explains when and we use passive voice in English and how to form it. I started the lesson with questions to prompt them. I asked them : Do we a correspondence to passive voice in Turkish? And they did not even know that. Then I asked whether they had heard “edilgen yapı” in Turkish, only a few of them could answer it. At that point, I realized that things would not go as I had designed and yes, this was the case.  Anyway, I gave them a worksheet which explains the structure simply but perfectly and we went over it. However, that explanation was not very effective, because they could not catch the point. At that point, I thought the whole lesson would be on explaining the structure itself and all of the activities that I had prepared would be lost. I look at the teacher, who was observing me and smiling at me, and then I shook myself and changed my style and gave more examples fot them to understand the structure more easily. I told them that they could feel relaxed and we were learnining together , we could make mistakes and said to them when they did not understand, they should feel free to ask me because the topic was very new to us,so it was very normal at that point to make mistakes.Then they felt relaxed a little bit and more participation occured. They told their opinions and where they had problems. Now, things were going better. Here, I was happy to overcome that obstacle, because students did not get the point but not because they did not pay attention maybe because of the way I presented the structure. At that point what was best thing to do, was to change my way and try a new technique to explain it and see whether it worked or not. I did it and it worked. I provided more examples and asked more questions and adviced to form sentences together as a whole class. I realised that we lost about 8 to 10 minutes more on explanation part, but it was not important. The aim of the lesson was to make them learn the structure and form sentences by using passive voice and I accomplished my goal. After I was sure that they got it more or less, I moved onto exercise part to reinforce what they had got. I continued with a very easy exercise to make them relaxed and confident about topic. I used power point slide and sentences came and we formed passive sentences together. I looked at their eyes to see whether they were okey with it or not and almost all of them got it and seemed happy. Then, I gave a worksheet about famous people. They were supposed to change active sentences into passive. While they were doing it, I moved in the class to see whether they had any trouble and because the class has only 8 students, I myself corrected their little mistakes and made explanations, gave feedback why it was incorrect. I think, this was the most effective part for me and also maybe for them, because providing feedback to each and every student was beneficial for their progress. What I learnt from this lesson is that classroom environment is always dynamic and you may be forced to depart from lesson plan and change things according to your students. As a teacher, you have to be fast, creative, and intelligent so that you can wave a magic wand. J

Peer Feedback

 Betül

She focused on sea animals in her lesson. Students are 3rd grade and the class is crowded and active too much. She started with a power point slide to make students familiar with sea animals and the slides were very colorful and attractive. It immediately caught their attention and also mine. It was a very effective introduction, I guess. Students were ready to start and learn. Materials that she prepared herself were well-designed and organized. That introduction part was very integrative and she engaged all students to process and by repeating animal names aloud, she did a good job. Then comes the informatioın gap activity. Students understand the instructions,because she explained them clearly and slowly, but somehow they tended to look at their partners’ paper to complete missing information. Fourtunately, Betül took the control and immediately warned them and prevent them from cheating. J To observe each and every student is a very tough thing for a teacher and I think, during the lesson, Betül was very active and managed the class very well. The activities were appropriate for their level and classrom size, but maybe the information gap activity may be a little bit difficult for them. The reason for that might be because they are not familiar with this type of activity. ( I don’t know their background so much, by the way) Last activity was to create an aquarium, as far as I can remember and that activity was more like a wrap-up and use what they learnt during the lesson. Based on my observations, they liked it because kids love to create, design things. At those ages, this type of activities could be very effective and engaging for them. Overall, I congralute Betül for doing a good job. Her lesson was effective and students learnt sea animals and made enough practice about it, so she accomplished her goals.

Elif

Elif taught first graders and the topic was toys. The class were very active and students were energetic and ready to blow up J She prepared such kind of activities that they discharged all their energy and no problems occured. She started with a game and it was very enjoyable for their age. There were toys’ pictures on the board, very colorful and attractive. She asked students to stand up and find the toy that she said and touch it. They loved it! One student came to board, she told the toy and she/he looked around, found it and touched it. The activity had movement in it, so students moved around, gave out energy and relaxed. They did not sit still, which is good.  This activity warmed them up. Then comes the matching activity. Students matched pictures with toys on the board. It was a good revision activity. Maybe, here she could have given them a worksheet,the same as the one on board, and while she was matching on the board, students could also do the same on their own worksheet. This could have been added to lesson plan. Overall, they enjoyed this activity and it served its purpose. Last activity was a very creative one. They were asked to write their favourite toys and draw a picture of it. Their thinking skills were triggerred and they were asked to write a complete sentence. I liked the last activity most and to evaluate the lesson, what I can say is they practiced toys and did different exercises, which was good to develop their skills in different aspects.

 Ümmü

She did a poetry class and she used the star diagram, which immediately catches my attention. The lesson was with 9th graders, which I am afraid of most, but she managed it very well. She built up such kind of a relationship with them that they saw her like a real teacher. She designed the activities very well and she integrated technology in her class very effectively. She knows her learners’ profile and what they are accustomed to and that’s how she shaped her lesson. By using star diagram, she made them see the overall picture and then examine the poem deeply, in detail. She showed them how to work step by step,so they understood each and every step because it was clear for them. For the star diagram, she divided the poet into subtopics (5 topics) and asked them to think and write what they can find about these topics. It is both creative and controlled activity. You give space for them to create and also by giving them the heading, you put a limit to them, which must be the case in teaching. Ümmü here is a model for a being a guide and by prompting, she shows us how to be a teacher but not by taking all control over them, instead by showing them the way that they are better to follow. For classroom management, I can see no problem. As I mentioned above, she built a good relationship with them. they respected her and did she as well.  During the whole lesson, she did not let them  lose their attention and integrate them to class discussions. Congratulations! J

       Sema

Sema started with  a gap filing activity. How enjoyable it seems! She used her voice so effectively and her gestures, as well. The activity could be done veryy boring as usual, but she made it like a game and students are very eager to give an answer when she stops and waits for it. She is standing in front of the board and readging the passage and without saying anything, when she stops,students know what is to be expected. I am amazed by such kind of synchroneity. She catches student attention by making her voice up and down. When she moves onto vocabulary practice, she told a sentence and stop it in middle and asked which word that was, students get excited and tried to guess.  She used contextualization here and it was very effective to teach and practice vocabulary. This type of tecahing strategy makes it easier for students ro remember and learn vocabulary. They do not memorise it, instead they hear words in context like in real life. Overall, it was an enyoyable and effective lesson for students, as far as I can see. They actively participate to class discussions and I do not think that they can find any moment to get bored. You can work  with learners at those ages, Sema. I’m sure that they will adore you, as you love them and love teaching.

      Ali

Ali knows how to teach and whom to teach what. He gave too much effort to pepare his lesson and I want to say thank you to him for making a great effort to be good teacher. He prepared photos to make his lesson contextualized and his activity are all bound to each other. Here, he is working with young learners, and he did everything to catch their attention and focus on the activities. At those ages,students’attention span is very short and they can easily lose their attention and focus on things around them in class. He is asking prompting questions. Ali is active during the lesson as much as his students. He is maybe much far energetic than they are. In addition to these, I want to mention the strategies that he used before he started the lesson : He showed them some shaped, I mean he drawed them on board and explained what they meant. This was a very effective technique for classroom management. You took action before the war started. Students know what to expect from the lesson and bahave accordingly. He spoke clearly but maybe a little fast. His voice was audible and this is very important for a teacher. His lesson was very visual and attention-catching. He used his own pictures and this was very authentic. Students were amazed to see their teacher projected on the board. This idea was very creative and interesting. Ali prepared his own material. As being prospective teachers, I myself always look for readymade materials, but when I watched his teaching, I was suprised and thought why not? Sometimes it is too difficult to find the appropriate material for your learners’ profile and age. Therefore, in those cases, we can take initiative and create our own materials. He was kind to students and asked them to things politely. He respected them and I’m sure that this makes students feel comfortable in class. As a conclusion, I can say that it was very well-designed and well-organized, and effective lesson plan and teaching. 

Journal Entries

Journal Entry 1

Here, under this topic, I will talk about my overall teaching ability in practicum. First of all, I should admit that I love teaching a lot, because I love students, kids and that’s why I want to be with them. I observed almost eight different classes in practicum and too many different individuals. They were not kids but individuals. When I stepped into class, I opened up my ears, my eyes and woke up, said “Hi” and at that moment was ready to learn and teach. I worked with sixth graders and was supposed to teach endangered animals. I used pictures and power point to make them see animals clearly and understand the points easily. I generally focused on reading and making exercise because the topic was very new to them. It was an introduction to animals. I first started with a question: “What does endangered animal mean?” in order to focus their attention on the topic and that particular vocabulary because the whole lesson was about that. The class got excited and some of them were curious about it. Then I showed them pictures and we played a game with 5 different pictures of animals. They liked it and got ready to take initiative to start the lesson. I gave them a reading passage and read it together. The passage explains why some animals are endangered or become extinct. I tried to focus on these two words. The, I asked questions to test their understanding and what I saw was that they did not understand the passage at all and we had some problems. In this case, I tried to ask questions based on the explations in the passage to trigger them, but at the same time I provided scaffolding and we answered questions together; I made further explanations. Then we moved into exercises to get things right and to have more clear knowledge. Overall, anything unusual did not occur and I did nor depart from lesson plan. Time was enough and everything went smoothly except my feedback. I was, let’s say, to harsh while giving feedback to students. For example, when they said something incorrect, I immediately said : “No”. This type of teacher behavior makes students scare and unwilling to participate to class discussions another time. I should have been softer and understable. I was expecting too much and I thought that they would understand everything when I first told them, but no. This is impossible. However, more or less they learnt and I was happy to see it.  Apart from these, I was kind to them and gave enough time to answer my questions and think about them. I would maybe put more enjoyable things to lesson plan if I had had a chance to change it. They were a little bit sleepy, so I could do something to wake them up. Although worksheets were full of animal pictures and just had short answers, we could have kinesthetic activities. They are in middle: not young and not adult learners, so it is difficult to manage them. Lastly, I think it was an effective lesson for me; at least I’ve learnt how to give feedback!

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Journal Entry 2

In this entry, I will talk about my third official presentation.  It was with prep class. I was supposed to make an introduction to passive voice. They did not have any knowledge about that particular grammar structure. I departed from lesson plan, because things did not go as I thought. Firstly, I started the lesson with some questions to warm them up about the topic. Whether they know it or not, I tried to make them to motivate them to learn it, because we have it in our native tongue. Then starts the lesson and I gave them a worksheet which simply explains the structure. We went over it and ı saw that they did not understand it very much. Then I tried to explain it one more time and some of them seemed to got it while others were still in doubt. Then, I went over the exercises, which were very simple. There were some sentences on the board projected and it was very visual. Clues were given and they were supported with enough knowledge. However, somehow, it was not clear to some of them, and they started to be afraid of making mistake. I saw it and took everything from the beginning and explained things in a different way this time. Then, they got it and we continued. If I had a chance to do it again, I would definetely took more time for explanation part. I thought that it was too easy for them and went over it quickly, but no, that wasn’t the case.  We lost time on it, so I could not do my last activity, which is “information gap activity”. However, fourtunately, at the end, they learnt it and I did not realise how time went by. It was too fast and I thought I could not catch up with anything. I did. They learnt the structure and I was happy.  What I learnt was I should have known my learners more. I thought their profile was higher and they could understand it due to both their age and knowledge. So, maybe explanation part could be more effective.  I took each and every minute to teach them but all of them. It was very important for me. What I liked most in class that they were clear and told me when they did not understand something. I said at the very beginning : “you can ask me whenever you have a problem or are not clear”. I think this worked. Students feel comfortable when teachers help them and feel free to contact with them. They need you and your benignity, otherwise they can’t stand on their own. You will not be the authority but a guide standing next to them. That’s what I did with that class.

Video Upload

This is my second official presentation. It was with first graders. We were practising toys. They have already learnt "toys", and that lecture was more like a revision. Working with young learners was tough but enjoyable. You have to talk slowly and clearly. I was having difficulty in giving instructions, but fortunately, they understood what we would do. I recommend you to work with them at least one time in your life. You will learn a lot :) It was difficult to upload video. That is why I am late. Anyway, thanks for watching.