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Well done Banu some very significant thought here and thank you for sharing your own personal experience too √√ 👍👏 Good with your PDC's Simon

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What do you consider the greatest benefit of being in a Professional Development Community for teachers of English in your local context?

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What do you consider the greatest benefit of being in a Professional Development Community for teachers of English in your local context?

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The greatest benefit is being among the peers and having a support group as they are the ones who are experiencing the same problems. Also being part of a nationwide network and working together to refresh the knowledge of  language will have positive impacts on teachers, students and schools.
2. How do you expect the PDC sessions in the programme would help you deal with possible problems about planning and conducting PDCs in your teaching context?
For example, in today’s session we talked about how to build relationships with the participants of our local area . We shared some dos like; setting the right tone, making eye contact, using the names, being encouraging and positive. And some don’ts like confronting the person, taking it too personal,  allowing the disruptive person to take others’ time. Setting the rules and sticking to them throughout the session is vital, some reminding  can be done if necessary .

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Good to read you were able to take away a useful aspects of giving feedback... be interesting to see how your changed approach of delayed feedback works in the classroom.

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Good to see you thinking about setting the right atmosphere in your groups as this is key to sharing in a PDC. Establishing a haven for collaboration

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Has your view of assessment changed? How?

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Has your view of assessment changed? How?

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Firstly it is a topic that has to be taken very seriously and teachers should have a helping department in their local areas. To be honest, my wiev in terms of preparing tests for young learners has not changed. As I attended several trainings  about measurement and evaluation I was trying to do my best while developing tests for young learners following those main guidelines.
However,  what opened my eyes in this session, thanks to my trainers :) was about how to give feedback. Immediate correction, it does not matter how gentle you are, may not be suitable for young learners. A delayed one is preferable and more meaningful.

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1. Are there any tips or techniques from the sessions today that you could use manage your PDCs positively?                       

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1. Are there any tips or techniques from the sessions today that you could use manage your PDCs positively?                       

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2. Are there any other elements of classroom management in your PDCs that you will have to think about  ( managing feedback for example)
1. I would definitely use stirrer/settler activities in my PDCs. But first I have to keep in my mind that if the room I will be doing session is appropriate for this. If it is, TPR, songs, chants can be  done. I would use surveys  ‘ Find someone who….? or ‘ Have you ever…? which are good for getting to know each other.
2. I think the very first thing would be setting the tone to create a friendly atmosphere. If we get off on the right foot, the teachers will be more willing to share experiences and work together to find solutions to their problems. Also while doing their tasks, monitoring them without making them uncomfortable is another aspect that I would keep in mind. Another issue would be how to respond to them while they are sharing ideas. Sometimes they may not understand the task and come up with things that do not make sense at all.

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You can use many ideas focusing in phonics and also it would be great to choose phonology awareness as a subtopic in one of your PDCs.

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Good to read about your own enthusiasm around shared reading and the importance of storytelling. I feel that you you yourself enjoy this too and this really helps with getting the children to do so as well. √√√ Simon

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Do you think Shared Reading is a suitable procedure to use with L2 children? Why/why not?    

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Do you think Shared Reading is a suitable procedure to use with L2 children? Why/why not?    

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I think shared reading is a wonderful procedure for them as it makes reading process enjoyable and meaningful. It builds language skills and improves vocabulary.  For me, it creates an atmosphere of equality as even the weaker students can follow the story and do the needed tasks by imitating their peers. Regardless of their levels, it gives a chance to them to enjoy a reading experience together. Also taking part actively in the reading  journey enables them to be the characters of the story which helps to internalize the process.

Some experts think using phonics is essential. They recommend a systematic approach.
Some experts say phonics is a complete waste of time- English spelling is not regular, and phonics just confuses young children. Children can learn by seeing words and remembering them.
Some experts think using phonics sometimes is useful - a little bit of phonics quite often and thinking especially about problem sounds . What do you think? Which opinion do you agree with most? Why?
I’m in favour of using phonics, but not necessarily on an academic level. As the focus is on the sound, various examples can be shown to them for eliciting . For example, common letter clusters in English e.g. ‘sh’ / ‘ph’ / ‘ch’
It improves vocabulary and language development. When  they come across a new word they are not familiar with they can sound it more easily using their knowledge.

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Some nice thoughts here , think about the "how" and "what" you would do in order to make changes to dialogues. How could you help teachers in the pDC with concrete ideas ? The idea of chunking is good and getting teachers to scaffold the work. Simon

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What needs to be adapted most in your coursebooks to help children improve their oral skills?

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What needs to be adapted most in your coursebooks to help children improve their oral skills?

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Firstly, the effectiveness of dialogues should be improved. They are sometimes not child-friendly and lacking in meaning and social context.

How can PDCs help you with that?
As working together as a group, different ideas will come up. With the help of these ideas, they will build confidence which leads to better learning outcomes. As they are the ones experiencing the same problems, they will not feel isolated . Being understood and supported by peers will minimize the
stress on them.
Is it possible to match the stages of this session with the stages of the PDC cycle?
Yes, this might be;
Warm-up: making inner outer circles asking each other about their top 5 traits
Review: talking about the previous session
Engage and Share: sequencing the stages of creating a context
Then preparing a lesson plan and putting it on a poster
Reflect/Evaluate: presenting the lesson plans to the participants
Closing remarks: giving opinions about the plans, adding notes.

What changes would you make if you were working with teachers from your PDC on using dialogues more effectively in the primary classroom?
Making them more meaningful and child-friendly would be my first job to do. Adding social context would be the second , and thirdly I would suggest using more useful phrases and language chunks lacking in the present curriculum.

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Thank you for your comments. I agree with your thoughts on the characteristics of young learners. Their attention span is short , they have different needs, interests it is quite hard to engage them during the lesson if we can't discover and try ideas to change the way we teach, or make necessary adaptations in coursebook actiities.

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Have your ideas about teaching young learners changed in any way? If so, how?

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Have your ideas about teaching young learners changed in any way? If so, how?

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Actually it did in a positive way and gave a new perspective. As we are the trainees of this programme now we can empathize with them. Even as an adults we have difficulty with sitting, listening, following the instructions and doing tasks. Young learners are restless and energetic so we should vary our lessons with TPR activities which enable them to participate and enjoy themselves through the learning process. As they have limited attention spams we should keep the activities short. Excitement is necessary in but in order to maintain classroom management balancing the stirrer/settler activities is also vital.