Z'report

  Hello darlings! How have you been? As you know, we have finished the first module of our training program. The theory part is over and now it is time to create a website and apply what we have learned. We had several meetings with our group members this week. Firstly, we decided on our main topic for the website easily. We were just not sure about our implication. We agreed on working on English as a Global Language since all of us were interested in this topic and it was one of the main issues we focused on during the training program. It’s a contemporary topic and it indicates the main features of English in 21st century that’s why wanted to extend our knowledge and work on it.  We will present our topic from general to specific. So, English as a Global Language is our umbrella term. We will search the ELT practices all over the world and in Turkey context. We will explain Standard English and the effects of teaching standard English both all over the world and in Turkey. After poi

  Welcome again! After the final session of our teacher training, we designed an activity under the title of ‘Global English’ as team ELT Z. For the process of preparation, we met on Zoom at 2pm and had approximately two hours of meeting to brainstorm, exchange ideas and distribute the duties. We wanted to use what we learned during the sessions of teacher training while trying to maintain World Englishes as the main focus. After sharing various precious ideas and placing most of our thoughts on the project, we decided to benefit from Lino.it and IDEA: International Dialects of English Archive as the materials we learned through the teacher training sessions. Here comes our activity below, take care! XOXO,  Team ELT Z   Global English Activity of “ELT Z” Designed by: Bilge Güral, Zeynep Ahsen Karasoy, Öken Demir, Zeynep Çetintaş Classroom setting: 20 students  Level: B2+/C1  Skills: Speaking, Listening *It is assumed that the students are being taught ‘British English’  Activity *It

     Hi folks! How have you been? Today, I'll be sharing my reflections on Week 6, which was the last session of our first module. I still remember our first meeting in this training program. I have always been eager to attend to the meetings and been looking forward to get in discussions. The team was full of bright ideas and I was always learning something new or extending my ideas. I also sincerely thank our dear instructor Melda Yılmaz. It was a very well-structured program: each activity, each detail was created and selected on purpose. I have learned a lot in this process. Now, it is time to apply what I have learned.     In this session, we basically talked about EIL (English as an International Language). We based our discussions on Aya Matsuda's Teaching Materials in EIL (I highly suggest you to read it to learn about material evaluation) The main aim of EIL is to prepare the learners to use English in order to become a part of globalized world.     The key point of th

     RING RING! It is time to learn some multimedia tools for language teaching in the classroom today. In this productive session; we focused on media literacy which, basically, means the ability to use digital media tools and we, later shared some useful multimedia tools as groups. I will explain you how each works and here is the list:  -  edpuzzle.com  : This one is one of my favorites. When we assign our students to watch a video and ask them some questions before the class, we cannot be sure if they really watch and understand the content. However, Edpuzzle enables learners to engage with the video and content. You can check their comprehension and provide them practice critical thinking skills by adding either open-ended or multiple choice questions and adding notes in the video. You can block skipping in the video so that you can be sure if they watch the full video. It will help your students interact with the content. You can add videos from websites and crop them if you wish

      Hi there! Welcome back to my blog! I will be sharing my reflections on Week 4 of our training program. It was an enjoyable session since we were familiar with the topic so that we had long discussions.     In this session, we focused on the integration of technology into language teaching with benefits and drawbacks and information and communication technology (ICT) skills. Firstly, we worked in groups and discussed on reflection questions. We divided the roles as soon as we met in breakout rooms in Zoom, thus, we had no problem with time management and other stuff. With the help of  ICT , we introduce, reinforce, extend, enrich and assess students' mastery of new concepts in a natural way. It is natural since most of our students will be digital natives who grow up using technology. Teachers need some skills and knowledge to achieve implementing ICT, which are technological, pedagogical and content knowledge, which is called as TPACK. I also think that teachers should have c

                   1.       Introduction The internet has been the best investment in the globalized world over the last century.   People have a chance to get connected with each only by a click and we have seen how important it is over the last year. Due to the global pandemic situation, online education has been popular for being accessible any time and has attracted students with its schedule-friendly format options. People have started working and studying online either synchronously or asynchronously. Internet makes it possible to access plenty of information and facilitates many tools for creating any kind of material which helps to renovate the way of creating materials (Pardede, 2012) and online learning environments provide flexibility and offer students personalized learning opportunities (Lorenzo & Ittelson, 2005) Asynchronous learning can be defined as the method learners get the information and review it at different times, not in person or live on video conferenc

      Hello everybody! Welcome back to my blog :) I'll be sharing my reflections on Week 3 of our training program. This session was very enlightening for me cuz I have learned so many things on a topic which I had not been very familiar with.      In this session, we have learned and discussed about digital literacy, digital safety and copyright & licencing issues. Digital Literacy is an umbrella term that includes ICT and media literacy skills which require digital tool knowledge, critical thinking skills and social engagement. So, a digital literate person is adaptable, creative, confident, collaborative and a critical thinker. We, as teachers, should be aware of our skills and our students' so that we can encourage them to engage in activities. Students use digital tools for fun and entertainment that's why we should guide them to use the tools in a diverse and creative way. It is important to have digital information since teachers should be updated with the new i

      Hi there! Hope you enjoy your week. Today, I'll be sharing my reflections of the second week. It was a really enjoyable one as we had lots of group work included. So, let's get started!     Before we had the session, we had some pre-tasks to do. Firstly, we had to read a chapter from Galloway & Rose (2015) and answer the reflection questions. It was basically about English Language Teaching in a global scale and nativeness of English teachers. After I read thechapter, I realized both native and non-native speakers have their own advantages and being native does not make a person more proficient in the language education. As the writers mentioned, professional qualities are more important than nationality. Secondly, we had to  check the website called 'IDEA: International Dialects of English Archive' ' which includes a world map of all countries with speakers of different dialects. It helps us obtain the scope of World Englishes and recognize  the varieties

      Hello everybody! How have you been? I have been busy with work during summer that's why I couldn't write anything here for a few months. Nowadays, I have an online course named '21st Century Skills Training and Project-Based Learning' carried out by Melda YILMAZ  and Assist. Prof. Dilek INAL . It is a training program that aims to cultivate prospective teachers on 21st century skills. It is critical to have skills such as critical thinking, media literacy, information literacy in the globalizing world. Thanks to this program, we are going to focus on different skills each week on the first module, for the second module, we will work in groups and eventually, we will create a website. I am super excited about the process. I think I have a lot to learn. Don't worry I will be sharing all my experiences with you.         Before we had our first session, we had CCTDI (California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory) to measure our critical thinking skills and d

         Hi folks! Today I'm going to share a very easy and fun activity for young learners. Identifying  shapes   is one of the first concepts that kids  learn . They distinguish among the different shapes  and categorize items according to t heir shapes. They find sha pes in  everyday items. So I prepared an authentic activity for shapes.  At the end  of this activity, s tudents will be able to recognize the characteristics of shapes and will be able to talk about the shapes of things.        Pair Work:     Students work in pairs. Give each pair  four pages including different shapes: circle, triangle, rectangle, square a nd lots of little object pictures mixed in a box. Cut those pictures before hand. Give your students very clear instructions that students are supposed to put those objects in the correct shape. Do no t forget to exemplify the activity on the board. For instance, ask “What shape is the orange?” Students answer “Circle!”. Then, put the orange flashcard in the big

     Hello everyone! Today, I'm going to share an information gap activity which you can apply with your young learners. Information gap activities are very useful for speaking. Students need to interact with their partners in order to get the information of missing elements in their paper, or in their image. By collaborating, they complete a task together. At the end of this activity, students will be able to recognize the names of the parts of a house and they will be able to ask and tell about the location of things in a house.          All you need to get for the activity are:         Pictures, scissors, glue stick          Give your students  two different pictures of a living room with different missing elements. Students work in pairs. They find out those objects’ places by asking their partners: “Where is the clock?”, “Where’s the phone?” and they answer, “It’s on the wall, next to the pictures”, “It’s on the chest, in front of the window…” Students cut out the little

     “THE NECKLACE” AND “THE HAND-PUPPET” COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS         “How strangeness enters our lives” A woman with no expectations from life, feeling isolated from her family, her home, even from her own body goes through a psychological crisis after the morning her daughter shows up with a scary hand-puppet in the story of ‘the Hand-Puppet’. On the other side, there is another pretty and charming woman in the story of ‘the Necklace’ unsatisfied with her life, considers she deserves a better, luxurious life. She suffers the consequences of her obsession with looking wealthy and attractive when she loses the necklace which she borrows from her neighbor. Two different short stories which I expected to be children’s story because of their names have shocked me with their endings and psychological analysis. The use of complex words and going deep in characters’ minds shows that Guy de Maupassant and Joyce Carol Oates expect the implied readers are mature audiences of average intelligen