PRACTICE REPORT

In Vilnius Radvilų Gymnasium we were seven members of practice group: Evelina Brusokaitė, Raimonda Vilkaitytė, Sandra Purvaneckaitė,Tomas Jelisejev, Neringa Telksnytė, Ingrida Karpuškaitė and Agnė Radionovaitė. We had four practice teachers: Ramunėlė Šiaulianskienė, Vilija Ramonienė, Vaida Galkontaitė and Dalius Vyšniauskas. We had from the 1^st to 4^th gymnasium classes (1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e, 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d, 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d, 3e, 4c (b level)). All trainees had from 9 to 12 lessons a week. During our teaching practice we were working from Solutions, Enterprise and First Certificate Expert books. New technologies were also implied in the lessons such as a record - player, computers, projectors, the internet and so on.

 Regarding the fact that our school was gymnasium, the proficiency of students was expected to be more or less advanced. We all had different classes (from 1^st to 4^th gymnasium classes). The level differed in every class. For example, Neringa and Ingrida had 4^th class students but the level was low. Students were in level B and the general level of proficiency was quite poor. In contrast, the class 1a was a very strong one. The students` general level was not intermediate but remained an advanced one. The majority of students mastered the target language in all spheres (reading, writing, listening, speaking).Therefore, the level of proficiency different in every class. Besides the general level, the level differed within the class as well. There were students who could even hardly read, and there were students whose English was fluent and perfect within the same class. So, it was difficult to draw the general level of proficiency in Radvilų gymnasium.

 We have decided that one of the main linguistic aims is to enable students to acquire basic language skills (speaking, reading, listening and writing). We tried to realise every aspect and make the lessons various and interesting. Another aim is to pay more attention to the English language usage than concentrating on the native language. We tried to speak in English as much as it was possible, for instance, in teaching activities we used only English language and encouraged students to use it as well, but when we were explaining grammar rules, so we explained it in English and then provided the explanation in the native language.

On the subject of class organization, so we had to plan carefully our lessons in order to run a smooth classroom. Also, we had to prepare extra handouts and think how to present them clearly and interesting because students pay attention to the instructions. It was important to present teaching procedures so that it would be clear to students what our requirements were. We set the ordinary rules to students, for example, when the lesson start students have to be in their seats ready to work or to show their homework so that we can mark. The aids that we used were visual (blackboard, handouts) and audio-aids.

We think that the most successful in our teaching were handouts (or additional activities). We provided various activities that were new to students. We frequently started our lessons with warming-up activities which were evaluated by students as interesting. Learners were engaged by these activities. Sometimes we felt that working in groups were not successful as we expected because not all the students were motivated to work, even if they were asked to join their group. 

English teachers in Vilnius Radvilų gymnasium teach from two different books: „First Certificate Expert“, “Enterprise” and „Solutions“. First book is upper- intermediate level, the second one - intermediate and the last one- intermediate.

“First Certificate Expert”

This book deals with all of the four skills.

It consists of all three stages of teaching: The Activating stage involves preparing for new learning (an introductory stage). The Acquiring stage develops new learning (the critical stage). The Applying stage involves deepening what was learned by engaging students in complex tasks at a later time.

Forth formers in B level are also taught from this book. In this case this book seems to be inappropriate and too difficult. Teacher has to adapt the material for every single lesson.

For stronger students this book is appropriate. However, additional materials are often needed (grammar rules or activities).

“Solutions”

This book deals with all of the four skills and consists of all three stages of teaching.

This book is clear and appropriate for students. Variety of activities helps students to learn English language in a fun way.

During our pedagogical practice we had a chance to see what personal qualities we have in order to be good teachers, but also we find out which fields of skill in teaching we need to strengthen too. First of all, we need to be better at explaining things, because sometimes it was quite difficult to explain clearly grammar rules and some instructions to the students. Second, we have to be better managers of time, because time is very precious thing during the lesson and a good teacher has to know how to use it wisely. And one more quality which we want to strengthen in order to handle teaching is to be more patient: always patiently explain unknown things and never scream or yell at the students even though they try to provoke your emotions. 

Finally, after the review of the whole teaching practice, we offer our pieces of advice to the English Department. Even though, we are already in the fourth course, we were scared to appear in front of the class for the first time. We think that the practice itself should start from the first course in order to see what the matter is “working at school”. We think that to the majority of us it would help to understand if we want to be teachers or not. Speaking about the knowledge of English grammar and other technical things, for example, how to teach, we were satisfied; however we lacked knowledge about the classroom management (we needed to discuss more real-life situations which happen at a school). Also, we think we have to do too many paper-works. It is more useful to prepare for the lessons than to write reports.

All of us are satisfied with the mentors we had. They contributed to our good results, shared with us their experiences and helped us to prepare for the lessons.

10 OBSERVED LESSONS

Class: 1e

Subject: English                                                                                                                                                                         Date: 2011 – 01 - 10

Teacher: Vilija Ramonienė

Topic: Unknown white male

Aim: To develop reading skills, to develop text comprehension skills

Type: independent work

Methods: exercises

Materials: Solutions (course book)

Stages and timing	Teacher activity	Students activity	comments
Warm-up 1min	Says hello.Checks attendance, asks how they are today.	Answer to teacher‘s questions
Pre-reading 5min	Makes a lead-in by asking questions	Discuss
Reading 10min	Asks to read the text and translate sentences	Read and translate
After – Reading 15min	Asks to do tasks related with the text: 1)True/False 2) To write sentences about the text in the correct order 3) Match words with their equivalents according to the text 4) Write a correct preposition in the sentence After every exercise discuss the essence of the exercise and explains what to do next.	Do the tasks individually, check answers	The teacher walks round the classroom, checks if everybody understands the task. Students who made no mistakes receive pluses for the class work. A teacher always praises students for the good answer.
Presentation 5min	Asks students to read the rules on prepositions and to translate them.	Read and translate the rules
Practise 5min	Asks to do the vocabulary builder from the back of the book. Students have to write the correct preposition.	Work individually. Check the answers	A teacher corrects the pronunciation and mistakes
Finishing the lesson 3min	Stresses on what has been learnt today.  Sets the homework	Write down  homework
Farewell1min	Says goodbye	Say Goodbye

Class: 1a

Subject: English                                                                                                                                                                  Date: 2011 – 01 - 10

Teacher: Vilija Ramonienė

Topic: Unknown white male

Aim: To develop text comprehension skills, reading skills

Type: independent work

Methods: exercises, brainstorming, discussion

Materials: Solutions (course book)

Stages and timing	Teacher activity	Student activity	comments
Warm-up 1min	Says hello. Checks attendance, asks how they are today.	Answer to teacher‘s questions
Pre-reading 5min	Asks about memory warm – up exercises. Asks what they know about memory	Discuss, their opinion
Reading 5 min	Asks students to look through the text	Read  individually
After – Reading 10min	Asks to do tasks related with the text: 1)True/False 2) To write sentences about the text in the correct order 3) Match words with their equivalents according to the text 4) Write a correct preposition in the sentence After every exercise discuss the essence of the exercise and explains what to do next.	Do the tasks individually, check the answers	.
Presentation 5min	Asks students to read the rules on prepositions and to translate them.	Read and translate the rules.
Practice 10min	1) Asks to do the vocabulary builder from the back of the book. To write the correct preposition in the sentences according to the rules they have read. 2) Asks to make sentences about themselves using words with prepositions 3) Workbooks. Choose the correct preposition.	Work individually. Check the answers
Finishing the lesson 3min	Stresses on what has been learnt today.  Sets the homework.	Put down their homework
Farewell1min	Says goodbye.	Say Goodbye	Students who made no mistakes and were active get pluses

Class: 1c

Subject: Mathematics                                                                                                                                                          Date: 2011 – 01 - 10

Teacher: Stasė Glėbienė

Topic: Lygčių sistemos sprendimas sudėties būdu

Aim: To revise and to consolidate the knowledge of equation systems

Type: independent work

Methods: exercises

Materials: blackboard, student books and workbooks „Matematika 9kl.“

Stages and timing	Teacher activity	Student activity	comments
Warm-up 1min	Says hello Checks attendance, asks how they are today.	Answer to the teacher‘s questions
Revision 5min	Asks what was the last lesson`s topic	Discuss
Revision 5 min	Checking homework. Asks students to read the answers.	Read the answers
Revision 10min	Asks students to the blackboard to do several exercises	Several students go to the blackboard and do the tasks
Presentation 5min	Presents the new topic “Sąlyginių užduočių sprendimas“. Speaks on the rules, difficult cases of the topic	Listen, write down important things
Practice 10min	Asks students to go to the blackboard and to do some exercises.	One by one student goes to the blackboard and does the exercises. If the students come across difficulties, the classmates help him/her	A teacher explains unclear cases if classmates could not help
Practice 8min	Asks students to do two exercises	Work individually
Farewell 1min	Sets homework. Says goodbye	Write down homework

Class: 2a

Subject: English                                                                                                                                                                         Date: 2011 – 01 - 11

Teacher: Vilija Ramonienė

Topic: letter writing

Aim: to memorize the differences between formal and informal letter, to practice writing letters

Type: independent work, group work

Methods: exercises, listening, class work

Materials: Enterprise 4 intermediate students book, workbook, cd-player

Stages and timing	Teacher activity	Student activity	comments
Warm-up 1min	Says goodbye, checks attendance	Answer to the teacher‘s questions
Checking homework 5min	Asks to open homework, checks them, corrects mistakes if any	Read homework. Corrects the mistakes	Stresses on the most difficult cases
Practice 5 min	Asks to read advertisements and to decide which letter goes with each advertisement.	Read individually, check the answers
Revision 5min	Asks to revise the material about formal letter writing	Discuss orally
Practice 5min	Asks to read an example of a formal letter and to decide is it a good or a bad letter according to all the things that a good formal letter has to have	Read a letter out loud and discuss
Listening 10min	Asks to listen to the letter and do the listening comprehension tasks	Listen. Do the tasks individually. Check the answers	Who made no mistakes, got a plus
Practice 5min	Asks to read more letter examples and to decide is it a formal or informal letter	Work individually, check the answers
Practice/group work 8min	Distributes the students into groups and asks to write a short letter according to an advertisement	Work in groups
Farewell 1min	Sets homework. Says goodbye.	Put down their homework

Class: 2d

Subject: English                                                                                                                                                                         Date: 2011 – 01 - 11

Teacher: Vilija Ramonienė

Topic: letter writing

Aim:  to memorize the differences between formal and informal letter, to practice writing letters

Type: independent work, test

Methods: exercises, listening

Materials: Enterprise 4 intermediate students book, workbook, cd-player.

Stages and timing	Teacher activity	Student activity	comments
Warm-up 4min	Says hallo, checks attendance. Remains about the spelling test and gives some time to revise the words	Say hallo, revise the words
Spelling Test 10min	Dictates the words in Lithuanian. Says that students have about 10 minutes	Put down the words in Lithuanian, translate them
Checking homework 5 min	Asks to show homework and to read them out loud	Check homework. Read them one by one, correct mistakes	Helps if students come across mispronunciation
Presentation 5min	Presents the new topic. Asks to read advertisements out loud, asks to translate unknown words	Read advertisements one by one out loud.
Practice 10min	The teacher comments on each letter (formal/informal). Stresses what is typical for each type. Asks to read some letters and analyze them	Listen to the teacher, discuss
Listening 10min	Asks to listen to the letter and then do the listening comprehension tasks	Listen. Do the tasks individually
Farewell1min	Sets homework. Says goodbye	Write down homework	Students who were active and made no mistakes in the listening tasks, get pluses

Class:  1c

Subject: English                                                                                                                                                              Date: 2011 – 01 - 11

Teacher: Dalius Vyšniauskas

Topic: family, relationship

Aim: To develop speaking skills, the usage of form ‘used to’

Type: the revision of old material and the acquaintance of new material

Methods: independent work, demonstration

Materials: Solutions (course book), cd- player, blackboard

Stages and timing	Teacher activity	Student activity	comments
Warm-up 3min	Says hello, checks attendance. Asks what date is today and asks one student to write in on the board. Revises all months	Say hello, one students goes to the blackboard to write down the date
Presentation 10min	Presents today`s lesson topic (family, relations). Asks if the students have grandparents and how old they are. Asks to open the books and follow the listening task	Answer the teacher`s questions
Listening 15 min	Plays a cd. Asks to do the listening comprehension tasks	Listen, do the exercises
Presentation 10min	Revise the form ‘used to’ asks to find in the dialogue. And asks to do one exercises with new form	Search for the form, do the exercise
Finishing 5min	Asks to open homework. Corrects mistakes, if any	One by one read the answers
Farewell 2min	Wishes a good day, says goodbye	Goodbye

Class: 3b (b level)

Subject: English                                                                                                                                                              Date: 2011 – 01 - 12

Teacher: Vaida Bivainyte

Topic: Past Tenses

Aim: To develop the ability to recognize past tenses, revise them

Type: revision

Methods: Group work, demonstration

Materials: First Certificate Expert, blackboard

Stages and timing	Teacher activity	Student activity	comments
Warm-up 3min	Says hello. Check the attendance. Explains what the lesson is going to be like	Answer to the teacher‘s questions
Revision 10min	Divides the students into groups, gives a past tense to each group and asks to write everything about that tense (form, usage etc.)	Work in groups	The teacher works round the class and looks if someone needs help
Presentation 17 min	Asks students to the blackboard, to present their tenses	Each group presents the tense they have received	The teacher corrects some mistakes
Practice 10min	Asks to do activities related with past tenses. 1) Asks to read the story and to underline the correct past tense 2) Asks to write the correct past tense in the gaps	1) Students read the story one by one and mark the correct tense. They explain their choice 2) Work individually, check the answers
Finishing 3min	Stresses that the revision is over and talks about the coming test. Gives examples what to expect in the test	Listen. Put something down
Farewell 2min	Wishes a good day, says goodbye	Goodbye

Class: 3e

Subject: English                                                                                                                                                                     Date: 2011 – 01 – 12

Teacher: Vaida Galkontaitė

Topic: Revision “Past Tenses”

Aim: To revise past tenses, to prepare for the test

Type: individual work

Methods: exercises, oral practice

Materials: First Certificate Expert, blackboard.

Stages and timing	Teacher activity	Student activity	comments
Warm-up 2 min	Says hello, checks attendance	Say hello
Checking homework 10min	Asks students to read their homework out loud. Comments on the difficult issues, explains certain rules.	Check the answers, asks unclear cases	Students who want to receive pluses are the volunteers in reading homework
Presentation 5 min	Explains some cases of past tenses on the board	Students discuss, follow the teacher	A teacher explains some rules in Lithuanian
Practice 10min	Asks to do several exercises from workbook	Do the task all together. Students read lines one by one. Correct each other, discuss	The teacher asks to speak in English during the lesson
Presentation 5min	Stresses on the most difficult cases	Listen. Note down something
Practice 10min	Asks to do activities in order to consolidate the knowledge (from workbooks)	Work individually, check the answers
Farewell 3min	Explain homework, remind about the test	Note down homework, say goodbye

Class: 1e

Subject: English                                                                                                                                                                     Date: 2011 – 01 – 12

Teacher: Ramunėlė Šaulianskienė

Topic: revision of module

Aim: To revise past tenses, to prepare for the test, to develop listening/reading skiils

Type: individual work

Methods: exercises, oral practice

Materials: Solutions (course book)

Stages and timing	Teacher activity	Student activity	comments
Warm-up 2 min	Says hello, checks attendance	Say hello
Checking homework/ setting homework 10min	Asks to show homework, walks round the class and looks at homework. Then asks to read them aloud. Sets homework	Check the answers, asks unclear cases, put down homework	The teacher corrects pronunciation mistakes
Practice 5 min	Asks to open the book and describe the person in the picture	Discuss
Practice/ reading 10min	Asks to read a letter and then do the reading comprehension task (true/false)	Work individually, check the answers
Practice/ pre-listening 5min	Asks to look through the text and see if all words are known, translates some of them	Ask the unknown words
Practice/listening 10min	Put a cd. Explains the listening comprehension task	Listen carefully, do the exercise
Farewell 3min	Say goodbye, remind about the test

Class: 1a

Subject: geography                                                                                                                                                                    Date: 2011 – 01 – 12

Teacher: Ribakauskas

Topic: lakes in Lithuania

Aim: to get familiar with Lithuanian lakes

Type: Group work

Methods: presentation, demonstration

Materials: blackboard, computers, slides, posters

Stages and timing	Teacher activity	Student activity	comments
Warm-up 2 min	Says hello, checks attendance	Say hello
Introduction 2 min	Speaks on presentations and their topics. Asks the students to take floor and listen to the presentations
Presentations 38 min	There were 4 groups, each talking about different lake in Lithuania. After presentation, the teacher comments, evaluates	Students present. Other classmates comment, praise	Some students bought computers, prepared interesting slides
Farewell 3min	Say goodbye, gives general overview on presentations