#7th Week (19.12.14)

Hello :)

Here is my 7th week observations..

 Today, 3E class studied adjectives. In the course book, 6 adjectives are taught (tired, happy,surprised, angry, sad and energetic) but Mrs Ergür wrote 15 adjectives on the board and tried to teach. I was shocked really. They are only 8 years old. We can teach them only 5-7 at most 10 words in a lesson. I don't understand how she escaped it. Mrs. Ergür gave a writing homework for 5 times and said "we never write during this unit anymore, don't worry!" It was wrong, in my opinion, a teacher needs to be patient to teach in time. We should identify our students' language and cognitive level when making lesson plans.

There was a coloring activity that practice the related adjectives in student book. Teacher read the sentences like " there is a tall boy in the park. Color him green. Small ball is orange. Color the big ball purple." It was a good exercise to practice. Young learners like coloring and cutting as we know. The students who don't have books were realized ten minutes later. The class size was 32 and it is not too hard to distinguish in the begining of lesson that.

That's all to share!

Thanks

<3

#6th Week ( 12.12.14)

Hello :)

I am going to share with you my opinions teaching English to young learners through my observations in practicum.

Classroom management is very difficult when you study with young learners as i observed. They have very short attention span and they cannot concentrate for a long time and they get bored easily in traditional teaching methods. A teacher who works with YLs should be innovator and use student-centered method. 

Teacher should keep exercises fun and short because these students have short attention spans and are easily distracted. We should teach students how to behave in a classroom by asking them to be quiet while you are talking and raise their hands if they have questions or want to answer a question. This may not be directly related to ESL but it is important that students learn good behavior. It would help to managing the classroom.

We need to teach them to respond to basic classroom English phrases such as “Please sit down.” because these are expressions that they will hear repeatedly throughout their learning. In this stage, we can use Total Physical Response for teaching expressions. 

 For students at this age, we are responsible not only for starting to teach them English, but also for preparing them for their next level of education. Students will perform better in their classes if they behave well and have a good understanding of basic principles.

That's all.!

Thank you

<3

#5th Week - 05.12.14

Hello :) 

Here is my 5th week experiences..

As I learnt in the school and observed during practicum, being active and mobile during lessons is really important for young learners. They are very energetic and need to move. Almost every student cannot sit their desks for 40 minutes ever. Everyone stand up, go to the near garbage can or just stand on their feet next to the desk during lesson at least twice. My mentor doesn't care this situation and doesn't use any activity that provide mobility. 

It is important to make our lessons relaxed and fun. YL Students will be learning very basic material but we can design creative lessons that get students moving around and speaking with one another. Young learners are generally very enthusiastic about songs, especially if they can sing along, and active games.

That's all to say.

Thanks

<3

#4th Week - 28.11.14

Hello :)

It's my 4th week in practicum. I get used to my classes and students. Now, I will share with you my experiences at 4A class. 

When the lesson began, teacher asked to students what they learnt last class and then she controlled the project about "like\dislike". Students prepared a cardboard by pasting some pictures and writing what they like or do not like. Students presented their project papers in front of the class. Teacher checked mistakes and misspelling and corrected them. 

Today, students learnt a new conjuction "but". Teacher gave some sentences like " I like playing football, but I don't like reading comics." and wanted students to guess the meaning of it. It was a good way to teach conjuction to young learners, in my opinion.

Mrs. Ergür warned verbally the students who were talking with their friends during the lesson.

That is all to share with you.

Thanks

See you

<3