What a Pity for a Kitty to Live in a Big City!

This blog consists of my experiences from another classroom, another teacher in Bahçelievler Anatolian High School.

Before the lesson started, the teacher -Melek- talked to us -Ezgi and me- about the topic of the lesson. She warned us that the lesson would be boring because she would teach grammar (articles).

Then, she started the lesson with giving instruction about the topic. (Today we are going to learn "articles".)

The teacher wanted the students to look at the picture on the book and said: "What can you see in the picture? (I think one of the best activity for warm up part, looking at a picture and asking what they see -like a brainstorm activity)

The class discussed the picture from Turkey -there are also authentic items in the book-. After discussing the teacher asked them to read the passage related to the picture and she warned: "While reading, please take care of the 'articles'!". (Skimming and scanning skills are given indirectly.)

The teacher gave the explanations of some unknown words and stressed on some articles. She asked a question about the text: "Have you ever been in Bodrum?" and picked out some students randomly to answer it. After answering she sustained the dialogue by asking; "Why?, When did you go there?, with your family?"

Rules of articles were taught with different examples. When doing the exercises from the book, the teacher explained unknown words by giving clues, opposite meaning of the words and using body language. (Using different techniques for explanations catch the students' attention.)

For a moment, the class talked about "what's the matter of billboards". Two students wanted to talk in Turkish (they said that they did not feel comfortable otherwise) and the teacher allowed that. (During the break we talked to teacher about the importance of feeling relax in the classroom. She said that if she didn't allow them to speak in Turkish, then they would never want to participate. I think she is absolutely right.)

"Do you like the big cities?" was the last subject of the lesson. The students gave their opinions about this topic in last ten minutes of the lesson. Teacher changed the question "If you have a chance, where would you live?" and she talked about her own ideas for this question to attract the students. (She provides reality, authenticity for the students.)  

She finished the lesson with a funny rhyme.

What a pity for a kitty to live in a big city!

See you soon!

21.11.2014