AYTEN PARİN / REPORT WEEK 7-8

           CLASSROOM CONTEXT AND LANGUAGE TASKS

 School:  Petrol Ofisi Primary School

TASK 1

           This week, I am supposed to observe the positive and negative factors of the classroom, the activities, the teacher and the students that help create conditions for effective learning.

             As beginning to make the classroom clear, the color of the classroom walls is light and it is lightened enough but quite dirty. The rows are arranged to sit in pairs and classic sitting order. The classroom is wide enough for them to be comfortable. There are bookcases which are required to make students gain reading habit but they are not very functional. There is a heater,  panels on the wall but the papers on them are not renewed. Also as they stand behind the students, they don’t take students’ attention. The blackboard is old- fashioned. There are some missing which are particularly necessary for English lesson. Such as; computer, projector, type recorder, etc.…   As I especially come across mealtime, the classroom smells bad. As for the activities, the activities in the book are usually made and they continue in the same way. But sometimes at the end of the lesson, the activities are performed in different ways with games, group work or something drawing. In such activities, students both learn and have fun, feel relaxed.  Also using visual things, body language and mime in the activities are required. The teacher sometimes uses them and when he includes them in the activities, he becomes more affective on teaching. The repetition is necessary and important but as the lesson usually continues with mechanic repetitions, it can be boring for YLs. Because they have a very short span and they can be distracted with ease. The students  whom I observe  are usually talking with each other or dealing with other things. Some  can’t follow the lesson for a long time. They are especially  eager in the the activities which provide them to use their creativity. The majority are not worry to make mistake. They are comfortable. The teacher give feedback but doesn’t care enough to make them correct when they repeat the same mistakes. 

      Lastly what I would like to learn from my mentor to incorporate into my own teaching is using his voice quality effectively to create a good atmosphere.    

TASK 2

            This week, my observation is on the activities the teacher makes use of in the class and decide on the type of the activity ( spoken or written) and whether it is accuracy or fluency oriented.

The first activity is color and trace which is accuracy oriented and a written activity because student learn how to write the words. They learn the difference between the spelling and pronunciation of the word. Also as they paint the image of the word, they both have fun and use their creativity.  The next activity is listen and act out. There are images about the words. After the teacher say the word referring to its image, the students repeat after him. As the student learn the correct pronunciation of the word, it is accuracy oriented and spoken activity.  Their other activity is trace and match.  They practice writing the word tracing it and match the words with their pictorial short expressions. As this activity improves their writing skill and help them to learn the correct spelling of the word, it is accuracy oriented and written activity. Also they learn the most appropriate statement to the word matching. The other one is sing a song which is required to say the statements fluently. There are short expressions and their images. The teacher say line by line showing the images of the words on the book and after they listen to the teacher carefully they repeat after him. So It is fluency oriented and a spoken activity. It offers pronunciation of the word. As they say it out loud, they may have fun a lot and also the appropriate images about the expressions help them to remember easier. But I don’t think they are aware whether it is a song, chant or just an expression. Because there is no melody in saying. So they may not remember. At the end of the lesson, the teacher usually make an activity which is called ‘who spoke’.   A student comes to the board and the teacher tells him/her to turn back to the class. His/her friend say something and the student on the board try to guess who said. They are not focus on the accuracy of the sayings. So it is fluency oriented and as they learn how to say something in TL in real life, it is a spoken activity. This is the one they like the most. They are motivated and eager through this game.