Yeşim TUFAN

ELE 403 Practice Teaching I

Task I

The Reflection Paper Of My Practicum

30th of October, 2019

The school of my practicum is “Bahcelievler Deneme Anatolian High School”. The
English teacher of the classroom that I am responsible for the practicum is Bilge Ozden who
has been working for more than 30 years. Before the practicum did not start, we had met the
teacher. I saw that she wants us to have good experiences, so I think she is always ready to
help us in every professional way to make us better if we are willing to experience this
process. Also, we had a chance to meet some teachers and I think they are very sincere and
sympathetic. The classes I have observed and experienced are 9th grades that are 9-E and 9-C.
Their level is A1. I was so excited and happy because I have an extra chance to observe high
school students well because of a program I have worked as a volunteer teacher and this
practicum. This reflection paper will reflect three weeks of my observation and experiences in
my practicum.

In the first week, Mrs. Ozden was sick, so she requested us to give the lessons for the
first week and she shared the student book that is an external book with us before the lesson. I
was excited because this was the first day of my practicum. I thought I needed to meet the
students and get ideas about them at least for the first week. After meeting the students in 9-E,
we started the lesson, but there was a problem. In the lesson, Mrs. Ozden wanted us to use the
coursebook given by the Ministry of National Education, but she did not share it with us and I
thought I would use the external book she shared with us. I was panicked because I was not
prepared for the coursebook and this was already the first week. Also, she said there is a
problem in the sound system of the smart board, so they can not make the listening activities
in the coursebook. In this situation, I had to create
some alternatives instead of listening activities and
this also made me more excited and panicked, but I
created extra activities instead of listening
activities. Also, in the class of 9-E, the

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management of the class was so difficult because everybody talked to each other and I saw
there was a lack of motivation. In the class of 9-C, I used the external book and I was already
prepared for this book. I performed better at 9-C than 9-E. The management of the class was a
little easier in 9-C than 9-E, but the size of the class in 9-C was more than 9-E. Moreover,
before I observed the students, I had thought the level of them was A2. After my observation,
I was surprised because I saw the level of the students in both classes is A1. After the lessons,
Mrs. Ozden gave feedback to us about adjusting our voice tone and I paid attention to this
feedback. At the end of the day, I knew there was the fact that it was the first week, but I
thought this was a great experience for me because I had a chance to observe the students
throughout my experience instead of observing them by sitting in the back.

In the second week, Mrs. Ozden gave the lesson and we observed her and the students.
I saw the students were not very motivated. They did not want to listen to the lesson and some
of the students slept in the lesson. I was curious about whether the attitudes of them I
observed in the English lesson are only for this lesson or not. I have tried to find an answer to
this curiosity. For example, during the break time, I asked a student why he did not listen to
the lesson. I said nowadays, English language school is compulsory in almost all departments
and English is a global language that is very important to know. He said he would want to
learn English at ELS instead of learning English in high school. I was very surprised because
of his answer. I thought there is the fact that they need to be motivated about learning English.
Moreover, Mrs. Ozden said they are bad and perky to them and she rarely praised the
students. However, I think that if a teacher has negative ideas about the students, he/she
should try to make them better by encouraging and believing them and he/she should not say
these negative ideas to them. One of the ways of making the students motivated is to praise
them by saying “well done, thank you” etc at the end of their contribution (Cabal, 2017).
Besides, I saw Mrs.Ozden only used the book in almost all lessons by using the smart board
and she sometimes used the board to write sentences or questions based on the target
grammar. Also, she did not make any peer or group activity and I think it makes the students
bored because there is no interaction with each other. Teachers should enable the students to
work together, so the students who interact with each other will be motivated (Teach Though
Staff, 2017). I think she should prepare different materials and make different activities and
make peer or group activities because the students need these kinds of things. Besides, I
thought the management of the class was difficult for me in these classes at the end of the first
week in my practicum, but at the end of the second week in my practicum, I observed it is

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also difficult for Mrs. Ozden. She spent most of the time by warning them about being quiet
and listening to the lesson.

In the third week, I and my friend asked Mrs. Ozden for giving the lesson together for
2 hours. She accepted this request because she wants us to experience more and she is
satisfied with our willingness. I wanted to change something to make the students motivated.
We said we would make the activities in the external book in the first hour and the half of the
second hour and play a game in half of the second hour. They were very curious about what
they would play because I observed their English teacher did not make any activity like a
drama or game, so they were more willing. This made classroom management easier. The
goal of building excitement for the target content that is one of the classroom management
techniques is to immediately interest students in your agenda and thereby dissuade
misbehavior (Guido, 2018). About the game, I thought we did not know each other well and
the target grammar was based on “to be”. In the game, the
students wrote a question they want to learn about us by
using “to be (am, is, are)” in peers. They did not write
their names. We collected the papers and made them
mixed. We read the questions loudly and answered them.
In this way, they practiced the structure of "to be" and
they had an opportunity to learn about us. It was very fun.
In addition to that, because of the given feedback to us by
Mrs. Ozden, I tried to adjust my voice tone well.

In conclusion, the important thing I observed was based on the lack of motivation and
the lack of classroom management and the lack of different activities from the coursebook
like games. I think that if there are more different activities from the books, the students’
motivation will be higher because when we made different activities like games, they were
more willing and motivated. Also, I think that if the students’ motivation is higher, the
management of the class will be easier. Some points made me surprised and I think these
points need to change. For example, I will continue to use the coursebook and the external
book, but I will change some activities or some parts of the activities. In addition to that, I
think the students should not sit on the desk throughout all lessons and they are energetic, so I
want them to spend their energy in an activity like a game, a drama, etc. Moreover, before my
practicum, I had thought the classroom management is easier in high schools than elementary
schools. However, through my observation, I think classroom management is also difficult in

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high schools, especially in 9th grades. In my first practicum week, I was worried about this
issue. However, in the third week of my practicum, I was better in the management of the
class. I observed that if some points like making extra activities, changing the activities on the
books, etc change, this will reflect on classroom management positively.

References
 Cabal, C. (2017). How To Keep Your Students Motivated. Retrieved from;
https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/how-keep-your-students-motivated
 Guido, M. (2019). 20 Classroom Management Strategies and Techniques. Retrieved
from;
https://www.prodigygame.com/blog/classroom-management-strategies/
 Teach Though Staff. (2017). 21 Simple Ideas To Improve Student Motivation.
Retrieved from;
https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/21-simple-ideas-to-improve-student-
motivatio/