Reflection by Tuğba TIKAN

tugbatikan1 — 2022-09-02 16:32:21 UTC

We started the day with an amazing energizer as a warm-up activity. I notice that each day we take part in warm up activities which I ignore the importance of these kind of activities. Right now I am fully aware of the importance of these activities. Because you feel ready for the lesson at the end of the activities. They have boosted my inner motivation, too. Considering one of the given questions I would prefer using authentic listening materials such as interviews, podcasts, conversations. Because these materials expose the learners to the real language. They are more characterised by natural and spontaneous language that varies from one speaker to the other. We can also take background noise into account which creates more real atmosphere. They also tend to have content that is more current and as such relevant to the students. They contain more recent information than activities in coursebooks. For the next question about developing active listening activities, thanks to active listening students are totally engaged in and attentive to what the speaker is saying. But the challenge here is to find the topic that will attract them. I may not have the chance to change the track but I can differentiate it. I can expand or eliminate some parts. I can finish the listening part with open ended questions which expect the students to put themselves into someone’s shoes.

tugbatikan1 — 2022-09-03 20:24:24 UTC

The most common problem I face in my classes is feeling uncomfortable while speaking in front of the class or amongst their friends. While speaking they have fear of making mistakes and being judged about their accuracy and fluency.
Even though the problems may sound challenging, it is good to know to have lots of choices to cope with them. We have learned lots of apps and related principles to improve speaking skills for both stronger and weaker students. For speaking principles, I have learned that preparation, giving enough time to the learners, setting words or phrases, and outlining the structure are the key elements. Also, involving more than one sense makes speaking more efficient. For example, preparing a dialogue helps them enhance their listening, reading, and speaking skills at the same time. Integrating skills for speaking is a good way to put focus on them equally well. The most important part of the session today is learning a variety of applications. All of them are applicable and accessible. Especially for learners with speaking anxiety, I can teach them how to use Chatterpix, Voki, Flip, and Clarisketch. In this way, they can have the chance to hide behind someone to practice speaking with these apps until they feel confident and comfortable.
Sometimes we may have problems with technology. For this reason, we should have plan B. We can use Paper Slide to make the most of it. It is also an engaging and demanding way that the learners get the benefit. They set all steps, plan everything and execute it.

tugbatikan1 — 2022-09-04 21:05:37 UTC

Question 1: Reading task from TeenWise/ Grade 9/ Theme 4 - Human in Nature/ P. 52&54

I keep part 1 matching pictures with natural disasters the same. Because it is both relevant to the topic and applicable for weaker students, too. I extract part 2 from the book and add a different part for stronger students. For the part that I add the learners are expected to answer this question: Among the natural disasters above which one have you experienced before? If so, tell us in detail. I keep part 3 the same and tell the students to answer the questions individually and later pair check. In this way, learners with mixed ability can work collaboratively. I keep part 4: (True or False) the same for weaker learners and add extra instruction for stronger learners as correct the false ones. For part 5 I keep the definitions the same, but I tone the highlighted words such as sudden/slow/much/less down. I change it into filling the gaps with highlighted words in the interviews. I extract parts 6 and 7 from the book. I have changed part 8 into creating an interview about natural disasters in Turkey and performing it.

Question 2: They have learned that teaching all the vocabulary in the text doesn't help learners. Teaching key words or blocking vocabulary is the most useful way to help learners predict content. It activates their background knowledge. My colleagues should follow the steps such as pre-reading, gist task, detailed task, and post reading. If it is necessary, they can differentiate the tasks.

tugbatikan1 — 2022-09-05 20:16:20 UTC

Question 1: Snack writing would be the most useful idea in my local context. Thanks to snack writing learners can write freely and fluently without worrying about errors. It's much more than fun. We can arrange this approach as WhatsApp group writing and texting with the phone on a specific topic or questions. We grab their attention with social media, in this way. We address their interest. They can write comments on them which lead the learners to work collaboratively. Digitization is also important factor we should take into account while writing. We can elaborate the writing skill depending on the contexts.
Question 2: My colleagues would be most interested in exploring snack writing and digitization. They would be glad with following the digital word and trying to experience new things. Giving a writing task, monitoring and giving feedback is time-consuming. So, with writing approaches such as process, product, and snack they can decrease the burden on themselves. Especially with self and peer correction which is a snack writing, they can manage the activity properly.

tugbatikan1 — 2022-09-06 20:00:54 UTC

For each grammar topic, we should focus on essential meaning of the structure supported by ICQ. Planning essential meaning should be neat. Based on the level of the learners we should choose the correct activity ranging from controlled activities to freer activities. Depending on learning outcomes we should decide on explicit or implicit grammar. Implicit grammar may sometimes be more useful. In this way, we focus on using the language. But it may change depending on the level of the learners. Differentiation and digitalization make the structure more memorable and meaningful. We should present the structure of the target language in a context.
To teach vocabulary we can make use of some tips: teaching words in a context that makes it more meaningful, personalising and using a word in a silly way makes it more memorable, teaching words as collocations helps learners retrieve the other word easily. We shouldn’t overload vocabulary. We should teach a few words in the same category.