Sedef: Reflection_4

Positive Sides: The focus of today's lesson was ordering in a restaurant. It was an appropriate function to make Ss communicate with each other. First I conveyed the meaning of some words and phrases such as to order, bill, menu, dish, tip, waiter/waitress. I intended to make them watch a video including two customers and a customer, and they were ordering. However, unfortunately because of a technical problem we couldn't watch that. ınstead I built the context in the classroom and by asking Qs to the Ss and eliciting their answers, we composed a dialogue and wrote it on the board. then I focused on how we order, ask for the menu and the bill in a restaurant. having a model conversation in our book was also great to make them expose to one more example. they completed the dialogue with the words in the box. Next I wanted them to practice the conversation in pairs paying attention to the intonation. They were content with the task by exaggerating the intonation. In the next lesson, after we went over the menus given in the coursebook (starter-main course-today's special-dessert), I formed groups of 5 and delivered them some colorful papers in order for them to prepare their own menus. The task motivated them and they had fun while writing some Turkish food on their menus (Turkish Kebap, Ayran... :). Then, I wanted them to role-play at stage using their own menus. they ordered some food or drinks; they complained that the food was expensive; they refused to give a tip or even they couldn't pay the bill and asked to the waiter whether they could wash the dishes or not :)

Negative Sides: I was dissappointed because of the problem with video as it would be really illustrative. I don't know if I could be successful or not only trying to illustrate it on my own. Although there seems to be no problem based on the students' responds, I'm just not satisfied simply because it didn't go on the way that I planned. One other negative side of today is this issue: I make groups and specify the time; OK there is no problem with that. However, the students don't stop as soon as the time is up. For example, if a group couldn't finish the task on time, they tend not to listen to the other groups' performance on the stage and to go on dealing with their own task. It takes some time to attract all the students' attention to the group acting. I don't know how to make them engage in the lesson as soon as the time is up. I appreciate your comments and suggestions. Thanks in advance.

Sedef KONUK