Sunday, June 13, 2010



In my video, the teacher teaches some vocabulary items to the students, now I will analyze the video according to Gagne’s nine events of instruction step by step.

1. Gain Attention: The teacher gains attention by saying they will do a discussion something they used to, and adds that she is expecting an excellent lesson from them. Then she uses a power point to ask her questions which is a visual stimulus for students.

2. Inform learners of objectives: She is very clear in conveying the objectives. She says that she will explain the meanings of some words in a poem, so at the end of this lesson they will improve their vocabulary. Besides by doing discussion about the poem, they will be able to reinforce their speaking and analyzing skills.

3. Stimulate recall of prior learning: As the poem’s name is “mirror”, she asks some questions about mirror like “What is the significance of mirrors?” By asking these questions, she associates their previous concepts or experience. Besides, she asks about Socratic discussion to the students and after getting the answers like form, language, imagery etc., she adds that they will look for all of those criteria in writing their paragraphs.

4. Present the stimulus: She displays content in an organized way. After asking some warming questions and discussion techniques, she wants them to write a short paragraph link to “mirror” using the given unknown vocabularies, then assess themselves in pairs. She distributes them the handouts and says the time limitation too. She clearly explains what they are going to do.

5. Provide learning guidance: She helps them when they are talking about the issue and make comments about it. She explains the words which may be unknown to the students. Also when she gives them writing task, she says she will go around the class to see what they are focusing on.

6. Elicit Performance: After they finished their writing and discussion, and pair assessment, she asks students what they learn from Socratic discussion. Then, while students are giving their answers, she writes them on the board. By doing this, students are able to see what they have gained from the lesson and discussion.

7. Provide feedback: I think she gives an immediate feedback to student’s answer by always saying “good, excellent, well done etc.” This provides students to confide in themselves and motivate to speak.

8. Assessing performance: After students finished their discussion, she evaluates the students’ performance by saying “You have been absolutely fantastic and you infer the poem’s meaning beautifully, very well done” By uttering these praises, she makes them to feel their accomplishment.

9. Enhance retention and transfer: Just before finishing the lesson, she gives students an assignment. Students have to write a detailed analysis of the poem “mirror”. This assignment aims to transfer the listening skills and reading techniques into a written assignment.

I think, her teaching lesson is a good example, because the teacher integrates all the skills in a lesson, which is a great thing. She is effective in fulfilling the aim of the lesson. She delivers the objectives of the lesson clearly, encourages students, and gives enough feedback and guidance to students. I think the teacher is successful in employing the Gagne’s nine events of instruction. I see how effective these techniques are in the classroom, and I liked the lesson.

Group blog addresses

Dear FLE 200 Section04 members,
Below are the grup blog addresses that Section 04 members have prepared:
1. http://learningstylesandstrategies.blogspot.com (Tuğba Yıldız, Sema Yıldız,Songül Taş,Rabia Sönmez)
2. http://personalityfactorsfle200.blogspot.com (Belgin Şahin, Beyza Tezcan, Eda Türkcan, Zehra Savran)
3. http://socioculturalfactors2010.wordpress.com/about/ (Aslıgül Tüzen, Yasemin Türkaslan, Özlem Yıldız, Seda Yiğit)
4. http://personalityfactors.blogspot.com (Derya Yılmaz, Gamze Şahin,Kübra Yardım, Kübra Şahinoğlu)5. http://personal-factors.blogspot.com (Duygu Yazıcı, Hilal Yönet, Ceren Taşatan, Ayşen Sağdıç)
6.http://socioculturalfactors.blogspot.com (Sibel Tosun, Emine Uçar, Hatice Yurtman)
7. http://communicativelanguagelearning.wordpress.com (Osman Ulutaş, Zöhregül Durddyeva, Mesut)
8. http://nlpandmi.blogspot.com (Olcay Türk, Salih Demir,Canan Yurdakul, Şeyma Öztürk)
9.http://fle200-s-o-b-e.blogspot.com/
(Sevil ÖZKAN-Ebru TOMBALAK-Özge MAVİŞ-Buket TANYERİ)








Note: Due to my unexpected health problems,I could not post the group blog addresses earlier.I am sorry about that. The deadline for comment submission is June 16 (Midnight)

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Lesson plan self evaluation (to be done individually)

SELF-EVALUATION OF LESSON PLANS
You need to report on the difficulties that you have had during the process of lesson plan preparation, the limitations that you have felt during the preparation of the lesson plan, the points that you would like to change about your plan, the benefits that you think you have gained out of the lesson planning process.

Gagne's nine events of instruction


GAIN ATTENTION: the teachers have the students attention by saying " now we will play a game". And games are always percieved as enjoyable and not didactic. Also, that she will give chocolates to the winners motivates students very much.

IDENTIFY OBJECTIVE\INFORMING LEARNERS OF THE OBJECTIVE:She explained and clarified what the students will do in detail.

RECALL PRIOR LEARNING\STIMULATING RECALL OF PRIOR LEARNING: She has thought the topic beforehand, so she gives an example and says in which stiuation the students use them(for comparison).

PRESENT THE SITIMULUS: As she didn't introduce a new topic she didn't present the new content.

PROVIDING LEARNER GUIDANCE: In order to avoid misunderstandings, she showed how the game would work herself at first. When the students are shown how to do it, they will feel more comfortable.

ELICITING PERFORMANCE: after the game finished, the teacher wanted the students to use the things that they had written on the board in a sentence.

PROVIDING FEEDBACK: When a student makes a mistake whle forming sentence she corrects it immediately, and the student repeats after her.

ASSESSING PERFORMANCE: she doesn't apply a test or something like that, but she uses some words and phrases such as "good job" and "good!"

ENHANCE RETENTION\ TRANSFER: as the students made practice and us them in sentences, they get comprehensible input and that will help them to acquire the rule.

I think she is a qualified teacher and when the students have fun, she has fun: this is very important for a teacher. she knows what she is doing.

Monday, June 7, 2010

SELF-EVALUATION FOR BLOG OWNERS

SELF–EVALUATION FOR BLOG OWNERS

1.Explain the steps you went through during the preparation stage of your own blog (i.e., how you set up the blog, how you chose the layout and the group name, how you collaborated within the group, how you decided on the job division, your selection criteria for the relevant materials that you put in your blog, the sources of the blog materials, any difficulties (i.e., technical difficulties, etc) that you experienced while preparing your blog, the length of blog preparation)
2.Reflect on the blog preparation experience as a group ( mention your feelings about the group work experience, the effectiveness of the group work, how effective you think the blog preparation experience is for you, the benefits that you think you have made by preparing the blog, the things that you have learned through the blog preparation experience, the aspects that you like about your own blog, the aspects that you would like to change about your blog) .
3.Choose the interesting comments that you have obtained in relation to the the entries in your blog (including the comments on the video extract and the discussion questions) and explain why you find them interesting.

EVALUATION QUESTIONS FOR BLOG READERS

EVALUATION FOR BLOG READERS

1.Choose any TWO GROUP BLOGS that you liked and comment on them (on all the parts on the blog: Reading materials (articles and/or different extracts of information, discussion questions, pictures, videos, the group blog video and the questionnaire/poll). For each blog, you need to choose ONE FROM EVERY PART (e.g., one reading material, one discussion question, picture(s), one video, the group blog video and the questionnaire/poll). Give the rationale for your choice as well(i.e., why do you think so).
YOU NEED TO GO TO THE GROUP BLOGS AND MAKE YOUR COMMENTS ON THESE BLOGS WITHIN THE BLOGS THAT YOU HAVE CHOSEN INDIVIDUALLY.
2. Evaluate the group blogs that you have chosen according to the following criteria.
(TO BE DONE ON THE CLASS BLOG INDIVIDUALLY)

1= Strongly agree 2= Agree 3= Neutral 4= Disagree 5= Strongly disagree



Put an X next to each of the options that you prefer (Please specify which group blog you are referring to when evaluating)



Features:

I. Pictures:

a) Interesting:

1= strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



b) Well-prepared

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



c) Useful

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



d) Informative

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



II. Questionnaire / Survey (If available)

a) Interesting:

1= strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



b) Well-prepared

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



c) Useful

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



d) Informative

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



III. Articles

a) Interesting:

1= strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



b) Well-prepared

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



c) Useful

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



d) Informative

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree











IV. Discussion Questions



a) Interesting:

1= strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



b) Well-prepared

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



c) Useful

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



d) Informative

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree





V. Videos



a) Interesting:

1= strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



b) Well-prepared

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



c) Useful

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



d) Informative

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



VI. Useful Links



a) Interesting:

1= strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



b) Well-prepared

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



c) Useful

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



d) Informative

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree

VI. Group blog preparation video
a) Interesting:

1= strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



b) Well-prepared

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



c) Useful

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree



d) Informative

1 = strongly agree 2= agree 3= neutral 4= disagree 5= strongly disagree

GENERAL QUESTIONS ABOUT THE GROUP BLOGS
1.What did you find interesting about the blogs that you have chosen? Why?
2. What did you find informative about the blogs that you have chosen to comment on? Why?
3. What did you find useful about the blogs that you have chosen? Why?
3. Was there anything that you did not understand about the blogs that you have chosen to comment on and needed further clarification /explanation? If so, what was that?

4. What would you like to change about the blogs that you have chosen to comment on? Why?

5. What did you like best about the blogs that you have chosen to comment on?

6. Specify something useful to you that you learnt from the blogs that you have chosen to comment on and did not know until you read the blogs, and specify in what ways you find that piece of information useful

7. By referring to the group videos that the group owners made, how similar and how different their blog preparation experience is as compared to you?

LESSON PLAN EVALUATION

You also need to examine TWO of the lesson plans submitted by other groups and evaluate it from the following aspects:
a) the appropriacy of the lesson plan format (for the teacher and for the observer)

b) the relevance of the objectives for the teacher/learner activities (Are the objectives stated in the lesson plan well-formed ? /Do the objectives in the lesson plan cover all the activities?)

b) clarity concerning the descriptions of teacher and student activities (can a teacher or an observer follow the teacher and student activities by looking at the plan?)

c) Variety (does the lesson plan include a variety of activities with different interaction patterns, and in different teaching modes (i.e., the pair/group work, individual activities)

d) smooth transition between activities (whether there is a link between the activities)

e) timings ( Are they clear? Do you ‘believe’ them? Do you think they are realistic? )

f) who does what? (Do you approve of the patterns of interaction?)

g) What do you think of the effectiveness of the closure part (the follow-up task and the assessment of learning)?
h) Is it a good plan? (i.e., what would you a) leave out? b) add to? c) bring in? or d) change completely?
i) Do you find their rationale realistic/ In what ways?
j) Is the learners' previous knowledge specified clearly?
k) Are the unexpected problems and their solutions adequately specified? In what ways?