# data[].attributes.body
In my district the most and common problem is the fact that teachers avoid assessing speaking. Large class sizes, students’ low levels of English, and lack of interest and confidence in speaking are listed among the reasons. I think if some strategies are not sought to assess a skill, effort to teach it is not considered worthy either. In theory self/peer assessment can solve many problems in my area such as helping the student gain self-regulation skills, and giving them a reason and goal for speaking and/engaging in English in and outside the classroom, however, first all the teachers in the district must reach a common understanding about the importance of teaching and assessing speaking, agree on the strategy and decide to implement it as a common goal.

When it comes to the second reflection task, I think sharing the common problems and searching for strategies to solve the problems, and learning by searching, sharing, reading articles and doing some small action research would be best way to develop professionally and gain empowerment.  According to experiences, have demonstrated that national and local authorities’ involvement and monitoring the process is critical for the success of the process. When the ones who resist improvement is more than the ones who embrace it, the majority wins.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
We made an activity with the highlighted vocabulary given in two texts with my group for 11th Grades. 

# data[].attributes.body
We had a look at  grammar using two approaches text- based, and PPP. I think I prefer text-based approach to grammar teaching over PPP because in this approach Ss discover the language structure on their own and the appraoch allows the teacher to integrate the grammatical structure in the four language skills. The approach seems more suitable for my teaching context too. The importance of lead-in (setting the context-giving the student a purpose doing the activity is stressed once again. And then differentiation and digitalisation should not be forgotten. Setting the context, exposing the student to the grammatical structure, focus on language (meaning, form and pronunciation), controlled practice and freer practice are the stages of teaching grammar. Although Text-based and PPP is based on different approaches to teaching in general; inductive, and deductive respectively, stages overlap to some extent.
We also had a look at  some tips about teaching vocabulary. Not teaching isolated words, teaching words in chunks, using a context, categorising vocabulary. I must add that the student must be taught not only the meaning of the word, but also its form, spelling, register, collocation, and have a chance to use the word realting to herself and her real life.
One more day in the course, Erzurum was finished learning new things, sharing the other groups works given in the lesson, recycling some already known ones, and feeling tired but lucky to meet my colleagues, Liz and Öykü :)

# data[].attributes.body
Today we made Writing Session. We had some ideas about writing as a group. I like first draft and second draft and final feed back. Firstly the student discuss about the topic as a group and then change their groups , share the idea with them and then turn back to their group and share their experiences with their other groups. And write the final product.

We had a look at snack writing, process writing and product writing. In snack writing the students don’t afraid of writing.

As a group we did the writing skill of two texts about disabled but successful people. First of all we made brainstorming of the topic, found disabled but famous people. Write few vocabulary about these people and wait for them to understand what these vocabulary refer to and write short sentences as a 1st draft, as a 2nd draft want them to compare and as a final draft, product, write a meaningful paragraph.

I think my colleagues would be most interested in speaking and reading skills rather than writing in PDC meeting. But in my opinion we shall also focus on writing we can evaluate them not only with speaking but also writing.

# data[].attributes.body
Today in the course, we focused on speaking, and started with some sample problems we are likely to face during our teaching. We in groups of three thought about their possible reasons and came up with solutions to them. One problem I face in the lesson is my students’ unwillingness to talk. The videos we watched about speaking pointed out to the preparation time, providing a clear outline for the speaking activity, set phrases and repeating the activity in different ways and different partners among the possible solutions. We once again realised the importance of building confidence in the student for the speaking activity, and this confidence can be built through modelling the activity with one student before asking the others do the activity. In addition to this, the grammatical structures and lexical items and the students’ familiarity with these structures must be taken into consideration in the planning phase by the teacher.
We prepared a teaching topic via clarisketch and downloaded to Canva and presented with our group.
With the help of the  new applications we maximase the opportunities of practicing speaking, and prepared a video of the topic”festival” we researched and made a paper slide and take a video, we draw and write and also speak about the pictures on the papers, really enjoyed the activity and also took a video via Flipgrid application our hero/heroine. We have a limited time to think about, and take video, of course We also took notes before taking the video, actually in addition to speaking skill, writing also done. Taking notes before speaking makes you feel confident, increase the confidence because, “ Effective communication  is 20 % what you know and 80% what you feel about what you know” :)

# data[].attributes.body
Today’s question for reflection is to adapt a reading activity in the coursebook of grade 9. I would like to adapt the pre-reading activty of the text informal e-mail on page 22 in our PDC book. The question “ what do people share via e-mail?” does not seem to be engaging for the students as pre-reading activity. Instead of this question I prefer to put a picture of a son who is studying abroad and a mother who is at home, and asking my students questions about the pictures I prefer to make the content of the text much clearer and attractive for my students.

As for the useful tips I take from today’s lesson, the first one of them is the importance of lead-in activities; they must be as attractive as a bait for a fish. The second one is the integration of technology in the post reading part for productive skills such as speaking and writing. News in levels, chatterpix, clarisketch or Voki can be used to make the student to use the target language for communicative purposes. In the picture above, our team is seen introducing the website News in Levels.

We compared the application Learning Grade and web site www.blog.cambly.com as a group. I use this reading web site in my classes which has short reading texts which motivate the students when they understand easily. When they understand, they find it more enjoyable. Also we learned different r reading applications and web sites about reading skill.

# data[].attributes.body
Today’s session were about the skill listening. First, we reflected on the problems we face in the lessons and within groups we produced solutions to these problems. Next, we categoriesed the problems into three groıups using a Venn diagram; teacher management in the class, nature of the listening text and planning decisons. After that, we discussed the advantages and disadvantages of concocted listening materials in the coursebook and authentic materials. I realise that the listening materials in the coursebook not challenging enough for most of the students in my grade 9 classes.

However, the same students find authentic materials too challenging. To make my students feel successful, I prefer to use artifical listening materials in most of my classes. I believe that when they did not feel self-confident they make block thmeselves, and it may become much more difficult for me to teach listening in the future. Our topic is  to use authentic listening material as a supplementary material for the ones whose level is high, and feel much more motivated towards English. When I use authentic materials with the low level students I make the task much easier.

At the end of the lesson , the one that I liked the most is,  being groups from Class Dojo and ger interact with the other mates and at the end make  a poster about it. We presented one by onas a team. I enjoyed to present it as a group other wise one spoke person is not ok.

Listening session of today is appropriate, for me , while watching the video, writing the meaning orf the vocabulary and making sentences while listening and also while listening seeing the multiple choice items is much easier than only listening without any vision.