1.

Practicing the techniques, which were offered by Simon, I worked with the

same children all the time. They are students of the 5

th

form, of about 11-12 years old.

The students in my class are, on the whole, of the same level. But still there are

some active boys and girls (3 or 4) who dominate the others and 2 weak girls, who

have lack of knowledge and are not motivated at the same time. Besides, there’s a mix

of personalities in the class with different tempo, motives, even social and cultural

background. Below, there’s a short description of each student in my class:

Student

Level

Vocab

Grammar

Reading

Listening

Writing

Speaking

Alex-

very

active,

emotional

Elementary

Knows a lot

of words

almost in

every

sphere

Good:

Possessive

case,

comparison

of

adjectives;

Weak: all

Tenses

OK

OK

Lots of

mistakes,

he

doesn’t

think that

writing is

important

Likes

speaking a

lot,

interrupting

others but

makes

many

grammar

mistakes

Masha-

open and

friendly,

but not

serious

Elementary

Good:

appearance,

pets, family

Weak:

Diseases,

London

Sightseeings

Weak

Good reading

with the

understanding

Very

difficult to

understand

CD

Many

mistakes

Ability to

speak

depends on

her mood

Dasha B.-

calm,

modest

Elementary

Good: food,

clothes, pets

Weak:

diseases,

appearance

Good:

simple

tenses

Weak:

pronouns,

article

Good reading

with the

understanding

50/50

Not very

many

mistakes

She is

afraid of

speaking

Tanya –

active,

eager to

have

good

marks

Elementary

Everything

is good

Grammar

is not her

cup of tea

Good reading

with the

understanding

Can hear

her

classmates

and

teacher:

CD is not

always

good, but

on the

whole OK

Not very

many

mistakes

Talks about

everything

but not

much (~2

sentences)

Kate –

rather

strange,

canny

Beginner

She learns

words only

from the

topics she

likes (pets,

food,

clothes)

Rather

weak,

excepting

comparison

of

adjectives

Good reading

without

understanding

Not very

good

Many

mistakes

She doesn’t

like

speaking,

prefers

drawing

Kirill-

Elementary

OK

Brilliant at

Good reading

Not very

Rather

Speaks

smart,

energetic

some items

and OK at

others

with the

understanding

good

well

only if he is

ready to the

lesson

perfectly

well

Masha

K.-

joyful,

attentive,

smart

Intermediate

Brilliant

Brilliant

Brilliant

Brilliant

Brilliant

Brilliant

Irina- not

always

serious,

energetic,

cheerful

Elementary

Good:

family,

food,

appearance

Weak:

places,

directions

Theory –

OK,

practice -

mistakes

Good reading

with the

understanding

Sometimes

it’s

difficult to

understand

CD

Many

mistakes:

she isn’t

attentive

Adores

speaking,

but makes

a lot of

mistakes

2.

My last lesson in this group included the role-play and everything was all

right. All the children were interested in the activities, but nevertheless very useful tips

were given to me by Simon, when we discussed mixed ability groups and which I

use to make my children work as well as possible. For example, I prepare more difficult

tasks for stronger pupils and work individually with Kate and Tanya. During the lesson I

am ready to vary tasks and forms of work (T-Class, Pair work where I combine weak and

strong students) so that everybody, even shy students, can get involved into the work.

One more useful tip suggested by Simon for children who are not interested in this

or that topic: The teacher has to try to make all the topics interesting.

For example, if

Kate in my group doesn’t like

topic “London”, but likes

“Birthday”, why not to ask her to tell how she will celebrate her birthday in London and so

on : what will she buy, what will she cook? Where will she go?

It’s a very good idea and I will definitely use it in my practice.

Now I’d like to show the parts of the lessons, given by me with the comments on

the tutorial, the peers and my own.

1.

Presenting and Clarifying Language.

Clarifying the meaning of 2 structures, I used 3 ways: a cline, a timeline and ccqs. I

think, it was rather clear to the students and I didn’t have to use Russian at the

lesson, because these 3 techniques were of great help.

In my opinion ccqs were really pinpointing at the lesson and all my students liked

them. In my opinion they do help to underline and remember the differences

between the structers and they are clear even to slow-thinkers, who are in my

group.

I was also given a good advice from the tutorial to try to make a context for

introducing

a

language

item

more

personalized,

relating

to

my

or

my

schoolchildren experience.

2.Implementing Methodology.

Teacher: Look at the picture and try to guess what is the topic of our lesson?

(the picture of the city is on the blackboard)

Students: My city!

T: That’s right! Please, name the things in the picture. Now listen to the recording and read the

text.

Students listen and read.

T: Good, now name the things in the picture, using sentences.

Ss: pronounce sentences (there are some mistakes).

T: switches on the recording again, this time pausing after each sentence that describes the city,

and asks Ss to point to the things in the picture.

T highlights that If you want to describe a position of 1 thing, use there is or there’s, but if you

describe 2 and more things – use there are and remember, that there’s no short form for this

phenomena (T writes it on the blackboard).

T: Now look back at the text and correct your initial versions if you find the mistake.

T:Now work in pairs, completing the text about the room (SS know the vocabulary):

There are six rooms in Micky’s house. Micky’s bedroom is next to the bathroom.

_____________ a bed with a small table in his bedroom. __________ one big bed in his

mum and dad’s bedroom. _________ a big table in the dining room with six chairs.

__________ a big picture on the wall.

In the sitting room _________ three pictures, a sofa and two chairs. In the kitchen

__________ four chairs and a small table.

T checks Ss’ answers by asking individuals to read out the complete sentences.

T: Now work in pairs and try to describe either the city of your dreams or the room of your

dreams using there is or there are. You may draw it in your copybooks.

On the whole I liked how it practically was. The lesson was rather interesting,

All the students were involved into work, but my tutorial said that the order of

TTT was a bit different .

I fully agree, that I actually showed them the right version (my model text).

But in a TTT approach one should not expose the model in the beginning. Besides,

I asked them to produce the sentences without a written aid, but I prepared only

one controlled practice exercise.

It was not enough, especially for Kate and Tanya, and I felt it during our next

lesson, they made a lot of mistakes and it was my fault, because of my miner

misunderstanding of the TTT procedure I mixed a bit the idea of the approach.

Now I know that to ensure less mistakes in the task I need to provide more

controlled practice tasks, especially in the group with mixed abilities students.

3.Creating a student-centred classroom.

This lesson introduces the past simple of regular verbs in the context of a student’s real

experience (the page is taken from the textbook where SS have to discuss the opportunities of

taking their course in another country).

Stage

Stage Aims

Time

Procedure

Interaction

patten

Thinking

2`

3`

T writes It changed my life on

the board and tells Ss it’s the

title of the lesson.

T writes Joanna, Gdansk,

Romes and tells them these are

the names of people (Joanna)

and places in the story.

T elicits ideas from the class to

what the lesson might be about

T-Cl

T-Cl

Clarifying

language

using

Guided

Discovery

Ss work on their own to

get the information.T deals

with any vocabulary

problems of Ss

T deals with the

pronunciation of the –ed

ending in regular verbs

1`

3

Ss read the information (1a)

T finds out vocabulary

problems, e.g. foreign.

T asks Ss to highlight the

pronunciation of {t} or {d}

or {id} in the words (2a).

The meaning of the grammar

structure was clarified at

the previous lesson.

S

T-Cl

Controlled

Practice 1

This gives Ss practice in

using Past and Present

Simple understand the

situation deeper. Revising

some words.

Understanding the form of

regular verbs

5`

2`



T and then in pairs ask

questions about the

information:

Where is Joanna from?(Gdansk)

Where did she go?(Rome)

When did she go? (last

September)

T, S-S

S-S

1`

3`

5`

3

Ss focus on picture 1 and

ask Where’s Joanna? (in a taxi).

Then repeat the questions 2 and

8/



T focuses on the

sentences below the

pictures and establish

that they are all in the

past simple and regular.



Ss try to match pictures

1-8 to the sentences. T

monitors and helps.



CD once for students to

listen and check their

answers by asking

individual Ss to read out

the sentences in order



T focuses on the

instructions and elicits

the past simple of the

first example (5.14c),

help (helped).



Then Ss continue doing

this task individually.

Then write their variants

on the board one by one.

T-Cl

S

S-S pair

check

T-Cl, S

T-Cl, S

Controlled

Practice 2

T gives further and more

realistic practice to

SS(freer practice)

8-

10`



Ss, using the same

words, create the

situations about their

own past



Final discussion: the

groups share their ideas

Gr, S-S

T-Cl

This lesson was very good, both children and me liked it though

from the

methological point of view it was far from being ideal.

In

my

plan

there

were

a

lot

of

mistakes:

I

mixed

controlled

practice

with

comprehension check of the introduction and predicting the further context and

controlled practice with freer practice.

There were a lot of remarks of the tutorial, but the main advice of her was the

following:



Not to jump into freer activities too quickly, drill the target language as

much as possible with the help of 2-3 controlled practice activities. If the

textbook suggests only one controlled practice task, just add them.

I fully agree with this comment because it is a key to a successful productive

practice of my students.

That was why during my lesson in the 5

th

B I suggested my SS some

additional exercises, which my tutorial recommended me to use:

-

I called 2 students to the board where –d-, -t-, -id- were written in three

columns. I gave them a regular verb in English, they had to point to the

right column and pronounce the verb correctly and so on.

As a result the lesson was more successful than in the 5

th

A, though Ss

there are more prepared and motivated ones.

Task 2. Role –play.

Look at the card below:

Customer

These are the things you’d like to have in your

room:

TV

Extra pillows

At least 4 towels

Remote control

Clock

Wake-up-call

Breakfast included

Pens

Yard view

About 100 dollars per night

King-size bed

bath

Receptionist

This what you’ve got, don’t forget to be polite:

No clock

Single bed

150 dollars

Breakfast isn’t included, but there’s an

opportunity to buy it

Street view

shower

Ss have already studied the topic “Hotel”

Stage

Aims

Time

Procedure

Interaction

patten

Role-

play:

freer

practice

of

functional

language

and lexis

Motivating practice in

real life situation

10`

10`

3`

3`

5`

T gives Ss role cads. Ss divide into

2 groups. In groups they discuss

the language they need for the

performance. T can monitor and

support.

Demonstration: T takes the role of

the receptionist and being at the

one side of the class (using the

phone) answers the questions of

the strongest S(who is the customer

and wants to book a room). After T

praises the S and gives feedback on

TL and how to improve.

Ss now do the role play.

2 strongest Ss perform the play in

T-Cl, Gr

T-S

S-S

S-S – Cl

S-S – Cl

T-Cl

6`

front of the class. T gives advice.

T choose (without watching) 2

cards with the names of Ss and

they perform the role-play. T gives

FB on language for all the class

and praises.

Ss watch the video “Booking a

room” and compare their own

dialogues with this one.

Gr, S, S-S

The role-play was alright, I used the model, offered by the lecturer, as an example.

I

kept

to the recommended interaction patterns and prepared my

Ss to this

activity quite well.