week 4

ERROR CORRECTION

Generally, the teacher uses unmarked recasts feedback type while correcting students’ errors, that is, she does not highlight or mark the correct version of the errors. However, students have ability to catch or comprehend the corrections. In my opinion, the teacher knows that her students will get the idea and also she does not want her students’ get shamed because of their errors. Moreover, during the pair work which was making a dialogue, two girls was reading their dialogue in front of the class and one girl made a mistake (I am run away) but the teacher did not correct the error. I think, the teacher did not hear it or did not want to make her embarrassed as she was a shy student and not willing to come in front of the class. If I were the teacher of that class, I also would not correct it in front of the class but I would take a note and say her after the lesson. 

DEALING WITH DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR

I was impressed by my mentor teacher’s action and students’ performance especially a girl’s. Again, it happened during a pair work which was making a dialogue. The teacher selected students randomly to present their work in front of the class. First, two boys (who were playing with empty bottle and throwing it into the dustbin during my first week observation) read their dialogue. Then, two girls began to reading theirs but those two boys who did a few minutes ago made fun of the girls by making strange voices. The teacher stopped the girls and said them to wait on the hall and she asked to the boys what were they doing or why were they doing it. Also, she said to all students to respect each other. Then, she said to those boys ‘You know what to say when the girls come in’ and she called the girls. They came in and finished their dialogue and sat down in that time those two boys said ‘I am sorry’ and the shiest girl said ‘Thank you’. I said to me that if I were that girl I would not say thank you but only I would say okay. In short, the mentor teacher was successful in dealing with disruptive students’ behavior. Particularly, I liked the idea of making girls leave the class and saying the boys what they have done and also saying them that they should apologize for their misbehavior. I will try to use this strategy when I will have to deal with disruptive behaviors in my own classes.     

L1 & L2 USE IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

My mentor teacher generally, does not use L1 during the lesson but she uses it when she warns students. I mean, when there has misbehavior the teacher warns the students in Turkish and I think it is effective. Using L2 to warning, in my opinion, is not effective as it seems too polite to the students. I think that I will also use L1 in my prospective teaching when it is necessary.In conclusion, this week’s observation was effective as I have learned new things related to classroom managing or other things. Besides, I was impressed in my mentor teacher’s problem solution, that is, a voice of the smart board or computer was low and while listening activity students could hear it, and she tried to solve it but she could not. Then, she read the passage within two different voices one was a girl’s and the other was a boy’s voice. Moreover, she had asked me to prepare a small activity about 5-10 minutes related to ‘some’, ‘any’, ‘a lot of’, and ‘no’. I went there with dies and papers and make them play a game which was making sentences by using the words (some and any). They enjoyed and after that game one girl came and said ‘I liked it very much’. I was happy and my mentor teacher said that it was good and each week it will be nice if you prepare something like that and also you will have practice.