Koray Bozkurt's Learning Journal by Koray Bozkurt https://padlet.com/koray67/kym2oe1hay01zjig en-us 2022-08-19 09:24:13 UTC 2025-12-01 15:26:16 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/png/1f4d2.png Reflection Questions koray67 https://padlet.com/koray67/kym2oe1hay01zjig/wish/2266082609 1. In our textbooks, there are lots of materials for listening suitable for students' levels and they are prepared by Minister of Education. In that way, textbooks include the target vocabulary and grammar patterns to learn throughout the year. The speakers in these listening texts speak slowly and accordingly so that students can understand them well. The nature of the listening text is generally appropriate for the target levels. Moreover, we have pre-printed materials as teachers so we don’t need to prepare anything. It is not much time-consuming, economical etc. On the other hand, most of listening texts in the textbooks don’t include natural language that is spoken outside. And also, they don’t prepare students for real-life situations. According to the fact that we listen to speak, we need authentic listening materials, too. We can create contexts or situations to expose them authentic listening texts. With the help of authentic texts, they will have a  chance to hear different people who have different accents.  

To sum up, I would use the combination of two. It would be better to mingle up the texts for students. I would have them learn the target vocabulary and grammar patterns by textbooks. With the help of authentic texts, they would be ready in real life situations. 
2. We had a active listening activity today. We asked some private questions to the person in front of the board. I would use with my students but I would restrict the language they are supposed to use. For example, you can use only questions starting with "Can". etc

]]> 2022-08-20 09:21:21 UTC https://padlet.com/koray67/kym2oe1hay01zjig/wish/2266082609 Reflection on Speaking koray67 https://padlet.com/koray67/kym2oe1hay01zjig/wish/2266556032 In my opinion, there are several problems related to teaching speaking in the district where I work. One of the problems is that my students don’t feel confident when they speak. They are scared of making mistakes and being mocked by their classmates. Weaker students especially don’t want to be under spotlight if there is a speaking activity so they behave so hesitantly. In today’s session, I learned how to use flipgrid related with speaking. By using flipgrid, I can send a speaking task to my students so even shy ones may have a chance to speak because they will do the activity anywhere they want. They will feel comfortable. They will produce something by themselves. By that way, their self-confidence will also increase. Students need technology to use this app. If one of my students doesn’t have access to technology, I can give mine or they can work in pairs or groups. 
 
It can sometimes be very hard to give feedback to all students at the same time. The other thing that I learnt from this session, students can be recorded while they are making speaking activity within in a group or pairs. I can watch it later at home and take some notes of mistakes that students have made. On the following day, I can prepare an activity to help them see their mistakes while they are speaking. I believe the suggestions I got today will work out very well for me.
]]> 2022-08-21 14:34:57 UTC https://padlet.com/koray67/kym2oe1hay01zjig/wish/2266556032 Reflection on Reading koray67 https://padlet.com/koray67/kym2oe1hay01zjig/wish/2267505563 When I give my students a reading text or they have to read a text on their coursebooks, most of my students think that they need to know every word in those texts. They use their dictionaries a lot even if I say, “you don’t need to know all the words”. I think they feel more comfortable like that. So most of our class time is used for only reading the text and we don’t have enough time for the following activities. Today we learnt a new method named “flipped classroom/learning”. With this method, students do the reading work and other while-reading activities at home. In this way, we can give all students to learn at their own pace. As you know, stronger students need less time than weaker students. When they come back to school, we can use the class time to produce a real work, practice further or answer the questions they have in their minds. What if the learners don’t do the work outside of class? There is a solution in the book. Nevertheless, this solution didn’t convince me a lot. If most of the students didn’t do the work, how would I move to next stage? In flipped classroom, it’s the learner who has to take the responsibility. As you know, our students are not very responsible. How will I convince them that this will work out better for all of us? I

We played it today and I saw it in one of the presentations. Run and circle game is very entertaining and can be played for reviewing or teaching new vocabulary.

]]> 2022-08-22 14:53:16 UTC https://padlet.com/koray67/kym2oe1hay01zjig/wish/2267505563 Reflection on writing koray67 https://padlet.com/koray67/kym2oe1hay01zjig/wish/2268992435 In today's session, the idea that I found most useful was that we as a group of three went outside and tried to add a colloborative writing activity to seven different exercises from our own coursebooks. Different ideas and activities were shared and I said " why did it never come to my mind?" Sometimes teachers cannot find solutions on their own so they may have to skip or ignore some of the writing activities. From today's session, I  collected some great ideas to my portpolifo. Also I feel more confident to have my students do writing activities. I used to check my students' writing activities and write lots of notes on them. Next time, after I teach my students what codes mean, I can use these codes. 
In the district where I have been teaching, I guess most of the  teachers are product oriented. They wanted to see a final writing product and they give writing activities as a homework. We give the emphasize on product. What about the process? In terms of process writing, students can produce more ideas and while doing this, communication is a must. Speaking skills will also be developed. When I go back to my district, I will be very pleased to convey what I have learnt so far. And together more ideas might be generated or more problems might be solved.]]> 2022-08-23 16:27:41 UTC https://padlet.com/koray67/kym2oe1hay01zjig/wish/2268992435 Reflection on Grammar koray67 https://padlet.com/koray67/kym2oe1hay01zjig/wish/2270210005 When I learnt the approaches about how to teach grammar, I always believed that Guided Discovery was far better than P.P.P and tried hard to prepare lesson plans including the elements of Guided Discovery. Today’s session helped me to realize both methods have pros and cons, so taking the topic or grammar to be taught into consideration, both methods have some techniques that can be useful for my context. 

When planning grammar lessons, I try to make sure both controlled and free activities should be included. Both weaker and stronger students are able to cope with controlled activities. In order to help weaker students to do free activities, I am going to differentiate the activities for them. 

The digital element we learned today was Loom that is used for presenting the new structure by recording the screen. To be honest, I did not like it much. If I present the new form in the target language, not all of my students will understand it. If I present it in mother language, what is the point here? I prefer using flipped classroom such as assigning my students to read a text and to do activities related with the activity. 

When it comes to my colleagues, I am certain that most of them are inclined to use PPP version of teaching grammar. It is not difficult to guess that people feels like they have all the control. So teachers do. Making them discussing the differences between Guided D. or PPP may help them realize students do better by discovering the rules.  There are always various ways to achieve what we want. Important thing here is the choosing the right way for our own context. If my colleagues start to ask questions about their way of teaching grammar, then I will count as If I did my part.

]]> 2022-08-24 14:57:48 UTC https://padlet.com/koray67/kym2oe1hay01zjig/wish/2270210005 Reflection on Vocabulary koray67 https://padlet.com/koray67/kym2oe1hay01zjig/wish/2270467348 There are plenty of vocabulary activities in our textbooks and I prepare activities related with my students’ needs. But I am not an expert about it and haven’t taken a special course on preparing these kinds of things. The most effective vocabulary teaching suggestion was vocabulary instruction tips for me today. As I mentioned above, it needs some proficiency. Next time, I will keep these tips in mind. Sometimes, different vocabulary activities may share the same aim that I can’t notice. So now I have a checklist to evaluate my own vocabulary activities. Besides, this checklist may help me to enrich the activities on our textbooks with small changes.

I  have never used vocabulary textbooks in my classroom so far. I think It might be good for students keep all new words or lexical items in an organised way. So they can know where to find when they need. In today’s session, it was said that teaching words in context would be effective. Students can also copy the context or create their own contexts when they writing the new words in their notebooks. Todays’ 7th tip for vocabulary instruction was that “ Learners need to know more than the meaning of a new word to be able to use it.” From this point of view, vocabulary notebooks may include translations, definitions, example sentences, visuals they draw and collocations.

]]> 2022-08-24 18:29:50 UTC https://padlet.com/koray67/kym2oe1hay01zjig/wish/2270467348 Reflection on Assessment koray67 https://padlet.com/koray67/kym2oe1hay01zjig/wish/2271907506 When I think about the assessment in my local area, the biggest and most problem I generally come across is that teachers evaluate students’ learning in a summative way. Teachers’ main point when assessing is to mark students’ papers to ensure them to pass to the next grade. We assess students’ performance at the end of unit or term by using tests, quizzes etc. We don’t focus on what students have learned so far or how they can improve in the future with the feedback teachers provide. Besides, our students’ motivation is to get the highest or the point they need. They don’t pay attention to to what extent they have learnt. They focus on numbers, their mistakes or true answer but don’t examine why they did it right or wrong. Therefore, both students and teachers miss the point of assessing, which is a critical aspect of teaching and learning process. Teachers generally use summative assessment because most of them were evaluated in this way. They are easier to apply and can be marked more objectively. In addition, the education system requires teachers to do it in this way.

I don’t think peer/self-assessment could solve these problems. First, teachers have to brief students about these types of assessment. This can increase a teacher’s workload. There is a risk with respect to reliability of grades. Friendships may influence the assessment. If students don’t know whose papers they are assessing, they might be fairer. Students can be reluctant to make judgements regarding their peers.  

]]> 2022-08-25 20:31:44 UTC https://padlet.com/koray67/kym2oe1hay01zjig/wish/2271907506 REFLECTION ON PDCs koray67 https://padlet.com/koray67/kym2oe1hay01zjig/wish/2271924943 PDCs allows all teachers or me opportunities to directly improve teaching and learning. I couldn’t have found another way to share good practices or brainstorm innovative ways to improve students’ learning aside from PDC. In addition, I had a unique chance to reflect on my own instructional practices in the classroom. I think this was the greatest benefit. 

I strongly believe that PDCS will build stronger relationships between the participants. This will provide more collaboration. Collaboration in our local area will allow teachers to share and learn from each other. They will share their ideas and best practices. With the help of best practices, participants will be able to enhance their teaching and adjust practice. 

When we plan or conduct PDCs in our teaching context, we may encounter some problems. PDC sessions in the programme showed us what a PDC looks like. We had a chance to see what kind of problems we would go through during a session beforehand. In this way, we can think over these problems and figure out some possible solutions to them.  

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