Self evaluation of descriptors from EPOSTL

1. I can assess how I might use the resources available in my school (OHP, computers, library).

After the first three weeks of orientation and observing classes, I became fully aware of the resources that are available in my school. Apart from the whiteboard, there is also a projector that can be connected to a laptop. I can borrow a laptop with speakers or a CD player from the school’s computer lab. I can also visit the library and study my notes, prepare my lessons or correct the students’ homework.

2. I can recognize the organizational constraints and resource limitations existent at my school and adapt my teaching accordingly.

After spending three weeks in the school, I am able to understand that resources can be limited and that this cannot stop one successful teacher from teaching his students accordingly.  In the classroom, there was a whiteboard and a projector. No interactive whiteboard was available to conduct activities that require ICT. In order to do these kinds of activities, the teacher should check if a laptop with an internet connection is available at the computer lab. It would be wiser to “reserve” a laptop one day before the projection though. Cd players for the listening activities must be taken from the computer lab, too.

Class: 1^st Gymnasium

Class size: 14 students

Age: 13 years old

Learners’ level: B1+ Level

Duration: 15 minutes

Topic: Sports

Objective:

• To practice vocabulary

This activity was designed in order to help students understand which verbs (go, play, do) collocate with the different sports. At first, the students are introduced to examples and then, they are given 5 minutes to correct the wrong sentences in pairs. After that, the activity is corrected orally.

1. I can evaluate and select a variety of activities which help learners to learn vocabulary.

When I designed the first activity for my B1+ learners, I decided to include an error correction exercise. After teaching them which verb collocates with each sport, I gave them sentences about sports that are both correct and wrong. I chose this type of exercise because I believe it can help my students understand that three different verbs are used with different categories of sports. Gap filling or multiple choice exercises could also be used, but providing wrong sentences can give them the opportunity to understand these common mistakes and avoid them in the future.

2. I can evaluate and select tasks which help learners to use new vocabulary in oral and written contexts.

While I was designing the activity, I had in mind that I should explain the reason we use three different verbs for sports and provide examples. Then, the students are asked to correct the mistakes in some sentences. These sentences were chosen in order to help my students comprehend how to speak about their favorite sports both in written and in oral context. I used fifteen sentences to make sure that they can fully distinguish when to use the three verbs.

3. I can introduce a grammatical item and help learners to practise it through meaningful contexts and appropriate texts. Grammar

Even though this is a vocabulary exercise, as a language teacher, I decided to remind my students about tenses and time expressions. As they were correcting the mistakes in the sentences, I pointed out that, for instance, present perfect is used in example number 13 because of the word “ever” and that we use “used to” to talk about past habits in the eleventh example. Consequently, I feel confident about introducing a grammatical item while doing vocabulary or speaking exercises and help my learners practice several English language features at the same time.

Class: 1^st Gymnasium

Class size: 14 students

Age: 13 years old

Learners’ level: B1+ Level

Duration: 20 minutes

Topic: Travel

Objectives:

• To practice speaking
• To practice grammar
• To raise cultural awareness

The students are asked to use the second conditional and speak about where they would like to spend their dream holidays. They are given some pictures to get ideas and then each student must speak for one or two minutes about where they would like to travel and what they would do there if they could afford it.

1. I can evaluate and select a variety of texts, source materials and activities which awaken learners’ interest in and help them to develop their knowledge and understanding of their own and the other language culture (cultural facts, events, attitudes and identity etc.).

In order to arouse the students’ interest about the speaking activity, I included some photographs below the speaking questions. These photographs show some well-known landmarks that belong to different countries. They were chosen in order to help students remember about amazing places that a tourist can visit all around the world. I did not provide the names of the landmarks, so that students can try to remember them, guess them, or ask me what place or sight it is shown in the picture. A discussion can also be made on famous landmarks around the world and other places that were not included as photographs in the handout.

2. I can introduce a grammatical item and help learners to practise it through meaningful contexts and appropriate texts.

In this activity it is evident that I introduced the second conditional to my learners. They were already familiar with the conditionals, but I wanted to explain it to them again and make sure that all the students have the required knowledge before doing the speaking activity. Eventually, the students managed to practice the second conditional, by providing their own original examples about travelling to a foreign place.

3. I can evaluate and select grammatical exercises and activities, which support learning and encourage oral and written communication.

I am able to evaluate and design appropriate grammatical exercises for my students and engage them into oral and written communication. In this activity, I actually gave them the if clause “If I could afford it” and then they completed the main clause by following the grammatical structure. The students created the main clause by using their own imagination either in a written task or, in this particular case, in a speaking task.

4. I can create a supportive atmosphere that invites learners to take part in speaking activities.

After teaching this activity in the school, I feel confident about motivating my students to engage in speaking activities and to be active speakers. The activity involved talking about the pupils’ favorite places and landmarks around the world. In my opinion, all speaking tasks must appeal to students and immediately drew their attention. For this reason, I chose to have a discussion on travelling and famous places that intrigue teenage learners. Moreover, I support my learners and especially those that do not feel confident when speaking in English by providing them useful ideas and expressions to begin or continue their talk.

5. I can evaluate and select a variety of materials to stimulate speaking activities (visual aids, texts, authentic materials etc.).

When I design my speaking activities, I take into consideration the fact that students are more likely to participate in an oral activity if they are interested in the materials that they are using at that specific moment. This is why I use videos or vivid pictures to motivate learners to participate in the speaking task. These kinds of materials can help students think of new ideas and express their opinion on different matters. In the activity that I taught, I included stunning photographs of famous places around the world. The students received a small aid when they looked at the photographs as they gave them the possibility to think and prepare what to say.

Class: 1^st Gymnasium

Class size: 14 students

Age: 13 years old

Learners’ level: B1+ Level

Duration: 30 minutes

Topic: Water shortage

Objectives:

• To practice speaking
• To practice reading

The topic of this activity is water shortage in a city of Syria. The students must, first of all, look at the picture which is projected on the board and answer some questions. Parts of the picture are hidden, but as they answer questions correctly, the hidden parts unlock and in the end, the whole picture is discussed. After that, they do they have to read the text and answer the reading questions.

1. I can evaluate and select a range of meaningful speaking and interactional activities to develop fluency (discussion, role play, problem solving etc.).

In order for my students to become fluent speakers, I can choose the most appropriate speaking and interactional activities for them to take part in. I can give them roles and pretend to be someone else so that they can have a discussion in a specific context, or I can allow them to be themselves and express their actual opinions on an issue and have a conversation. The third week’s activity gave them the possibility them to describe a picture and then discuss the important matter of water shortage in the classroom.

2. I can evaluate and select a variety of materials to stimulate speaking activities (visual aids, texts, authentic materials etc.).

I can decide on the types of materials that meet the needs of my students and motivate them to do speaking activities. The kinds of materials may differ, as I can choose to use videos, pictures, audios, articles or even whole movies and books. In this particular activity, I provided a picture to my students that sparked their interest in learning more about the topic which the picture concerns. Therefore, they kept on raising their hands trying to express their view and learn more about water shortage in poor countries.

3. I can help learners to use communication strategies (asking for clarification, comprehension checks etc.) and compensation strategies (paraphrasing, simplification etc) when engaging in spoken interaction.

The students were unfamiliar with the type of the speaking activity that I taught so I have to admit that they asked for clarifications several times. I encouraged them to do that and willingly offered my aid to them in order to comprehend what they are asked to answer or speak about. I can also reassure them that it is not a shame to ask me a lot of questions or ask me to paraphrase a question if they cannot understand it.

4. I can select texts appropriate to the needs, interests and language level of the learners.

When selecting texts for my students to read, first of all, I check whether is appropriate for young learners. I do not use texts with political, violent or harsh content. However, I try to find text that appeal to their interests and can help them acquire global awareness. Of course, texts are chosen based on their language needs. For instance, I will find a text that has got a lot of passive voice in it for students that know the passive voice, but would not do that for students that have not been introduced to this grammatical item yet. As for the language level of the text, I always check the level of its words in the English Vocabulary Profile website, so that they are the same as the classroom’s level of English. If I find a couple of words that are of higher level, I include them on the bottom of the text with their meaning or their synonym.

5. I can select and use ICT materials and activities in the classroom which are appropriate for my learners.

If I decide to use ICT materials when designing an activity for my learners, I am really careful in order not to expose them to any threat. I always choose safe applications and websites that are appropriate for teenage students.  These materials must be both friendly and entertaining. This means that students can learn through playing educational games, but the focus should always be on learning and not on the plain amusement of the learners. What is more, the ICT materials have to be user-friendly and not complicated, which means that students must figure out easily how to use them. In this week’s activity I used the teachunicef website to show a non-complete picture to the students. There were some black - hidden parts in it and students had to answer speaking questions correctly, so that I could click on the hidden parts and reveal the whole picture. The activity was really interesting and attracted even the most hyperactive learners.

6. I can guide learners to use the Internet for information retrieval.

When I use an ICT material, I always prompt my learners to use the internet to use that material, too, or search for more information about it. Teenage students are always keen on technological material whether they are used in the classroom or not. For this reason, I provide links of website, blogs, or videos where they can learn more things about a specific topic; I always check whether the links I provide are safe. In this activity’s handout, I provided the link of the picture which I used to do the speaking activity. I encouraged them to go to the teachunicef website, find more information about water shortage in poor countries and explore other humanitarian issues in order to raise their awareness.

Class: 1^st Gymnasium

Class size: 14 students

Age: 13 years old

Learners’ level: B1+ Level

Duration: 25 minutes

Topic:  English language

Objectives: 

• To practice listening
• To practice speaking

In this activity, students watch a video on TED-Ed about the history of plurals in English without subtitles. Then they answer some questions about the video. After that, they watch another video about the evolution of English with subtitles and later, have a discussion about the difficulty of English compared to other languages.

1. I can provide a range of pre-listening activities which help learners to orientate themselves to a text.

Pre listening activities aim to generate interest and build the learners’ confidence. Motivating students is a key task for me. Introducing the topic and allowing them to have a pair-work discussion about it can make them more willing to listen. Additionally, students that have limited knowledge on a specific topic can be helped, if I provide a quiz or a related text before the listening task. In the fourth week’s activity, I introduced the topic of the video orally to the students, revealed the title and allowed 2-3 minutes to my students to work in pairs and predict what they are going to hear. Then they had to feedback their ideas to me and I wrote them on the board. That way, we were able to check whether they had guessed correctly after we watched the video.

2. I can encourage learners to use their knowledge of a topic and their expectations about a text when listening.

I always introduce the topic before the listening task so that they can have an overall idea what they are going to listen to. However hard a listening task may be, I motivate my learners to respond to the listening task according to what they already know. I always mention that listening is not always about understanding the exact words of the speaker but realizing what he actually means. After watching the videos, the students answered some questions that were projected on the board. We also discussed what they understood by watching the two videos and I really tried to make all students talk even if they had to make a guess based upon their previous knowledge.

3. I can design ICT materials and activities appropriate for my learners.

When I design ICT materials and activities I always check if I have the suitable knowledge to create something that will intrigue my students and will not make them feel bored. As I love applying technology into my teaching method, I can create interactive ICT activities that keep my students attention to the projection until the activity finishes. It is a fact that students love visual and audio material, so I always try to include them in ICT activities. However, I am careful to design activities that appeal to their age, level of English and needs. Safety is also important, as the ICT activities should not upload photographs of the students or allow communication with unknown people on the internet. In this activity, I created a multiple choice exercise to follow the first video. The students raised their hands to answer either a, b, c or d. If they chose the correct answer, the answer turned to green, if not, it turned to red. What really impressed the students is that I could click “Show hint” and it redirected you to the exact part of the video where the answer is stated.

4. I can guide learners to use the Internet for information retrieval.

I always encourage my pupils to visit the website or download an application I have used in the classroom. I consider this important as they have the possibility to have a revision on what was done in the lesson and also practice a little bit more. After teaching this week’s activity, I told them they could visit TED-Ed (I provided a link) and find more information about the evolution of the English language as other videos, articles or even discussions with other students are offered in this website.

5. I can create a supportive atmosphere that invites learners to take part in speaking activities.

Before beginning a speaking activity, I always make sure that there is a positive classroom atmosphere that enables my students to take part in speaking activities. I try as far as possible to convey my passion and enthusiasm for the lesson and reassure my learners that there is no other place I would rather be. I also encourage high performance as I motivate my students to take risks and begin speaking even if they think that what they say is wrong. ICT materials are important, too, as they attract the students’ interest most of the times. After watching the video, my learners were really enthusiastic and they participated actively in speaking. Introducing familiar topics can really help students talk about it as they feel more confident. When referred to another foreign language that they learn, like French or German, the students were able to easily discuss about it.