Name: Zsófia Fleischer
Class: Angol Szakmódszertani Kísérő Szeminárium
Teacher: Zsuzsanna Gergely
MA in TEFL
I. Task 5: Collect 20 useful items of classroom English on
one page
Motto: „Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.’
Mother Theresa
1. Could you give out these papers,
please.
2. Take one between two, please.
3. You will have to share.
4. Would you pass the list round,
please.
5. Will you collect the homework,
please, [name]?
6. Pass your papers/homework/tests/
up to the front, please.
7. Whose turn is it?
8. Take out your books and turn to
page [number].
9. Don’t write anything down, yet.
Just listen carefully.
10. If you don’ t understand, ask me.
11. Swap/exchange papers with your
neighbour.
12. Concentrate on what you are doing.
13. Cross it out neatly, and write it
again.
14. Leave a margin.
15. Can I have a volunteer?
16. What’s the English word for
[Hungarian word]?
17. Have a go! Have another try!
18. That’s much better You are really
improving.
19. I’m really impressed. I knew you
could do it.
20. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll do
better next time.
(+ Don’t pretend you can’t speak
English I know you can.
+I’m not going to accept behaviour
like that.
+Do your own work. Don’t copy.
No cheating.
+I want you to stay behind after the
lesson.
+Wow, you catch on fast!
+Excellent. You did so well.
+Very good! You are a quick
learner!
+That was a tough one, and you got
it!
+You remembered that from
yesterday! Great!
+I can tell that you tried hard to
figure that out.
+Just last week you could not have
done that!
+Excellent! Top! Perfect! Brilliant!
Fantastic! Stunning! Awesome!
Marvelous
 II. Task 7: Design 6 home assignments students would do
with pleasure. Two pages: tasks + reflections

It was during my teaching practice that I integrated literature — Roald Dahl’s short
stories — into the English classroom of 16 eleventh grader students at Eötvös József
Gimnázium, Budapest. Students read a short story per week, and we did all sorts of exercises
touching on all the four skills in classes twice a week. We had twelve “literature classes” all
together. Students were asked to write two 200-word and two 300-word and three 100-150
word essays as part of a test in class over the course of the six weeks. Several essay topics
were given to choose from every occasion, since one cannot really write about an idea he or
she is not interested in. This is the main reason I have presented more than six essay questions
in Appendix – A, where the questions are listed after the titles of the short stories.
At around the end of the six weeks, when I felt that the students were a bit tired,
optional essays were set for the ones who were hard-working enough to write an extra, a non-
compulsory essay. In setting the essay questions I had the goal of making them interesting and
thought-provoking. All the students handed in their first essay on time, and there were two
students handing in their second essay after the deadline. There was no penalty for the latter.
They came up with amazing essays full of original thoughts and ideas. It happened more than
once that someone interpreted the short story in a totally different way from my understanding
shedding light on another aspect of the story.
It is not an easy task to write a literary essay about a short story in eleventh grade. It is
usually university students specializing in English who write essays about novels. My mentor
teacher warned me after the second essay that the word limit I set is too high, they are not
supposed to write this long essays in a language exam on their level. The students also
complained about having to write too much. This is why I reduced the word limit to 100-150
words in the essays that were part of the test. While my mentor teacher found that the number
of words the students were supposed to write is too high, she stated that there was always
enough time given for the students to write these compositions. When I asked her about how
to improve this practice, she told that I should have taught the class how to write an essay.
This did come to my mind at around the third week, but I quickly waved this thought away
since I set a strict schedule I wanted to keep to. In retrospect, this was a mistake.
 As regards students’ opinion, there was a questionnaire administered. A general
impression gained from it is that most of them had a high opinion of them. Only a third of
them considered them another laborious task to fulfill. Most of them found them useful,
enjoyable and interesting as the below pie chart shows. The greatest difficulty for most of
them in writing these papers was a lack of time. For some of them putting their ideas into
English was also a problematic part.

What was the greatest difficulty for you in writing the essays?

Finding time for writing my essay

Formulating my essay in English
Making it long enough
Finding a topic
They were not difficult

Figure 1. What was the greatest difficulty for you in writing the essays.
The above experiences and answers helped me discover that everything should be
introduced, including the art of writing an essay. Before asking students to write essays
showing them how to write a good essay is of a crucial importance. Though the essays they
wrote were really excellent in my view, they might have felt more in security had they known
how exactly they were supposed to write. Another thing I learnt is that to ask a 300-word
essay from a high-school student is too much, on the grounds that they were not specializing
in English and had other subjects to deal with. Setting a lower minimum level would not
hinder the „writer-types” writing more than required.
Now let us consider first the mistake of asking students to write essays without
teaching them how to do so. It is worth stating that if a teacher would like to develop the
writing skill of students, he or she needs to provide them with support. Instruction does
matter, but learning to write well is a lifetime process, it needs a great deal of practice as well
(National Council of Teachers of English, 2014). What was missing during the practice was
in-class instruction. Second, recompensing my ignorance of the level students were supposed
to write at an upper-intermediate level, let us have a look at CEFR’s (Common European
Framework of Reference) description. At an upper-intermediate (B2) level students are
expected to write clear, detailed texts on a wide range of subjects related to their interests.
They have an adequate command of language for reasoning for or against a given point of
view, can write letters, reports and essays as well. What is more, they have “a sufficient range
of language to be able to give clear descriptions, express viewpoints on most general topics
without much conspicuous searching for words, using some complex sentence forms to do
so”(Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, p.27). They also show “a
relatively high degree of grammatical control”. What is more, they “do not make errors which
cause misunderstandings, and can correct most of their mistakes” (Common European
Framework of Reference for Languages, p.27).
To sum up, having students write essays is a useful practice, but a teacher has to teach
his or her students how to write an essay. A teacher also has to be aware of the requirements
of the level the students are supposed to write, otherwise he or she will met difficulties while
trying to score the students’ essays. He are she also has to make sure that the word limit for
the essays is not too high, and students have enough time for writing them.
Appendix – A - Essay questions to choose from
Taste by Roald Dahl:
Analyis and discussion- Choose one from the questions below and answer it in 200 words on
a separate sheet of paper.

1. What do you think about the way Mike treats his wife and daughter?
2. Imagine if you were his daughter, how would you feel about the bet?
3. Who is the „baddie” or the worst person in the story? Mike or Richard? Explain your
answer.
4. Imagine the last paragraph of the story. What happens next? Write it down.

Mrs Bixby and the Colonel’s Coat by Roald Dahl:

Choose three questions and write your answers on a separate sheet of paper in 300 words.
5. Why do you think Mrs Bixby preferred the Colonel to her husband?
6. What do you think the problem was between Mr and Mrs Bixby?
7. When did you started to suspect that Mr. Bixby had a lover too?
8. Do you remember the last time you got something and was as happy as Mrs Bixby
after she unwrapped the present she got from the colonel? What was it and how did it
feel?
9. How did the coat changed the perception of her own personality? Have you ever
experienced something similar?
10. Do you think that the Colonel really wanted to torture her when he gave her the coat?
11. Why do you think the Colonel wanted to break up with her?
12. Would you ever go to a pawnbroker? How do you feel about it?
13. How many children do you think Mr and Mrs Bixby had?
14. What do you think about Mrs and Mr Bixby’s behaviour?
15. What would you have done in Mrs. Bixby’s place?
16. How do you think they could mend their marriage?
17. How do you think the story continues?
The Sound Machine & The way up to Heaven by Roald Dahl

Choose from one from the below questions and answer it in 200 words.
18. To what extent can Klausner in 'The Sound Machine' be considered mad?
19. How do you think dr. Scott handled "the situation"?
20. Do you sympathise or not with Mrs Foster from 'The Way up to Heaven'?
21. If you analyse the story of 'The Way up to Heaven' in terms of Heaven and Hell, what
can you comment on the characters?

Taste, A Dip in the Pool/Swim, Mrs Bixby and the Colonel’s Coat

Choose two from the below questions and answer them in 100 words each.
22. What do you think about the way Mike treats his wife and daughter?
23. Who is the „baddie” or the worst person in the story? Mike or Richard? Explain your
answer.
24. Identify two main themes in 'Dip in the Pool' and explain your answer.
25. What kind of character Mr Botibol is?
26. Why do you think Mrs Bixby preferred the Colonel to her husband?
27. How did the coat change the perception of her own personality? Have you ever
experienced something similar?
III. Task 6: 4 authentic visuals and 4 tasks to go with them.
Tasks + reflections.

The four authentic visuals (see in Appendix – B) are four posters I made during my
teaching practice while integrating literature in the language classroom of eleventh grader
students for six weeks at Eötvös József Gimnázium, Budapest. The posters were made in
connection with a short story, The Way up to Heaven by Roald Dahl.
It is necessary to say that during the first three weeks the students participated happily
in most of the activities set up, and even my mentor teacher told in connection with some
students who are not used to work in an enthusiastic way, that they did work. I was delighted
to hear it. But it was also during the fourth week that after having experienced some discipline
problems, and before putting discipline as my top priority, I decided to work even harder and
present the students with a really exciting class. This was my strategy to “tame” the students.
This was the main reason for which I made huge posters representing the major
themes—oppression, love, family, aging— of The Way up to Heaven by Roald Dahl. The plan
was to fix the posters to some tables and have the students go from one table to the other and
discuss their views on the given themes. It did not work. The students preferred not moving,
so the posters “moved” instead of them. It was not a huge problem, but they did not really do
the group work. They showed no enthusiasm in discussing the themes. This experience
discouraged me from investing “too much” energy into setting up a group-work activity for
the next two classes.
When I talked about this incident with my mentor teacher she told me that making
them enthusiastic is of a great importance, though it is not easy sometimes. They are used to
frontal way of teaching, but in the English classes we sometimes we over-entertain them,
sometimes they only need calmness.
In conclusion, it is not easy to find the way between being a kind, cheerful and
approachable teacher who presents the students with interesting authentic visuals, sets up
many opportunities for speaking but who manages at the same time to motivate them to
participate in the activities, and who is in control.
Appendix – B – 4 Authentic visuals
 IV. Task 2: Design one lesson of 45 mins on two pages:
lesson plan + notes on them

The class that is going to be described here was the penultimate one I spent with
teaching the upper-intermediate class of eleventh graders at Eötvös József Gimnázium,
Budapest during my teaching practice. During the past six weeks the students were working
hard reading five short stories by Dahl— Taste, A Dip in the Pool, Mrs Bixby and the
Colonel’s Coat, The Way up to Heaven and The Sound Machine —at home, writing essays,
and doing oral and written exercises in class. The main aims, expected results and potential
difficulties can be seen in the lesson plan (see Appendix – C).
Regarding the structure of the class, the first some minutes were devoted to
enumerating the titles of the short stories the class read. Then, a survey was planned and
implemented to find out the most popular short story amongst students. It was followed by
eliciting the main characters from each of the stories. Later students had some time for
individual work and gather as many adjectives they could so as to describe a character from
the most popular short story among the students. This was intended to scaffold the next
activity, in which students worked in pairs of four, and talked about the character they
previously collected adjectives about. Each student had to talk for a minute — the end of the
minute was marked by me —, and was not allowed to repeat any information that had been
previously told. This activity was followed by poem writing: the students choose a character
in pairs and wrote a one-verse poem about him or her, after having been introduced to the art
of writing a verse. The pairs reported their verses to the whole class at the end of the activity.
It was followed by a practice of creative story-telling. In doing so, the students were first
given the opportunity to choose a picture and decide upon a short story they could link it to.
Second, they had some minutes to write down a sketch of it. Then, the class gathered in a
circle, and everyone told his or her new ending to the chosen story with the chosen picture.
Finally, the two out of the total three in-built narrators narrated the short story while some
chosen classmates acted out the events making use of puppets.
As for the role I intended to take, I was resolved to be a facilitator or a guide who
encourages students to speak as much as possible during the many pair and group work
activities. I wanted to create a learner centered class, where the teacher sets up the activities
and monitors the students in a friendly environment, since I believe that students can peer
correct. There was a focus on fluency instead of accuracy in line with the principles of
communicative approach. I believe that it is through communication that one learns to
communicate, this is why I wished for reducing the teacher talking time (TTT) to a minimum
and tried to maximize the student talking time (STT). There was an emphasis on the use of
productive skills, mainly speaking. The skill of writing was used in some occasions as a help
in preparation for speaking. I believed that if I am kind, enthusiastic and encouraging, the
students will happily participate in the activities, so I tried to be like that. The class went well.
The students participated willingly. The class contained many creative stages in which the
students had the opportunity to improve their fluency and practice speaking in general. The
material was authentic, and the atmosphere was low filtered. Students had the chance to work
in pairs and groups which has hopefully contributed to their relationships with each others. In
other words, learning groups were established.
Appendix-C
Lesson plan
Mentor teacher: Fehérváriné Párkányi
Magdolna
Teacher: Fleischer Zsófia
Main aims:
Expected results:
Possible problems:
Strategy for overcoming
the possible difficulties:
Date: 19th October
Class: 11. C, D, F
School: Eötvös József Gimnázium
Duration: 45 minutes
Group profile: 16 students, level: B1-B2, 4
English classes a week
Having an interactive consolidation class in a playful form
Content aims: performing exercises touching on all the short stories the class has
read during a six-week period
Language aims: improving speaking skills
Presenting the students with a playful class that gives them the pleasant feeling
of achievement by performing exercises touching on all the short stories they
have read. Finishing the teaching practice on a positive note.
Roald Dahl:Taste
Roald Dahl: A Dip in the Pool
Roald Dahl: Mrs Bixby and the Colonel’s Coat
Roald Dah: The Way up to Heaven
Roald Dahl: The Sound Machine
Students’ reluctance to participate happily in the activities
Being in a cheerful mood that encourages student participation

Time Stage Procedure Aims Interaction Necess

ary
materi
al
1’ Introduction of the Teacher (T) introduces the plan of the Giving a sense of T to Ss -
plan class to the students (Ss) security to Ss
5’ Eliciting the titles T asks some volunteers who take a Eliciting in a playful T to Ss
of the short stories card with a one of the read short stories form the titles of the Ss to Ss Titles
& ranking them in title on it, and who get the others find short stories we read of the
order of out the title by telling information Individual short
preference& about the short story without stories
explaining mentioning its title. (activity) Whole class on
preferences discussion cards
The student (S) who finds out what the
title of the given short story is writes it T to Ss
on the boards
 T asks students the question of
‘Which one did you like the Showing which Whole class
most?’Then she has the Ss vote for the short story was the discussion
Ranking the short short story they found the best most popular
stories amongst the Ss
T calculates the results at the board
Making some Ss
Eliciting word the reason for
explanation for T gets some Ss explain why they liked which the enjoyed a
preferring one short the given short story the most. short story more
story over the others than the others
2’+2’+ Eliciting the T asks the Ss: making passive Whole class -
4’ characters of each ‘Who are the main characters in these vocabulary discussion
short story short stories?’ knowledge active,

A volunteer S writes the answers on

Collecting the board
adjectives for individual
describing a Ss collect adjectives that can be used to work
character from the describe a character from the most
most popular short popular short story alone
story

Students describe Group work in groups of four: Group work in

the given Ss are talking about a given character groups of four
character in for a minute. The one sitting next to
groups them will continue what they were oral fluency
talking about, but they cannot repeat improvement
what the others were saying.
5’ Poem writing Ss write a four –line poem about their Artistic skills Group-work -
favourite character development, in groups of
Creative writing, four
8’ Creative story T gets the Ss to choose a picture and Putting creativity Individual Pictures
telling connect it to one of the short stories the and language skills work
class has read. Ss make new endings to at active use
the stories alone in written form. Whole class
discussion
The whole class sits down in a circle,
and Ss present their new ending and
their picture to their classmates
15’ Retelling a story- The three built-in narrators tell the Improving Group-work, Puppets
Theatre story they were previously assigned to, presentation and the Whole
while some other Ss act out the story theatrical skills class
with puppets discussion
 V. Task 4: List 4 management problems you have
observed or experienced. Suggest techniques for solving
them (two pages: one with short description of problem +
one with suggested solutions.)
In the next some paragraphs I am going to describe some management problems I
have faced this year and the strategies I used to cope with these. Some strategies worked,
some did not. I am going to invent alternative solutions for the cases I did not really manage
to handle.
For a start, it happened at the beginning of my teaching practice at Eötvös József
Gimnázium, Budapest that in the middle of a 90-minute-long class some students got
supposedly tired and started to chit-chat loudly about something unrelated to the class. It
reminded me to the fact that a 90 minute-long class might be too long for a seventeen-year-
old teenager to focus intently on. This is why I joined the conversation to the surprise of
students. It seemed to have been a good strategy then, because after having discussed the topic
in two minutes, the class went back to normal, and I we could proceed on with the material. In
retrospect, though, I do not think that it was the best way to handle the situation. It showed
students that they can disrupt the class if they want. I could have come up with a game instead
of joining the converstation. This way I would have remained in control all the time.
Another discipline problem I faced during my teaching practice in the same class was
in connection with an eleventh-grader boy who started to turn his back to me, speak to the
others and laugh nervously. Since it happened twice, it made me angry, so in the middle of the
class, when everyone was working in pairs, I went up to him and told him that I was not going
to accept that kind of behaviour. It seemed to have its effect then, he started to behave and be
polite towards me, but it did not last too long. My mentor teacher told me that his
disrespectful behaviour might orginate from his young age, which pushes him to win the
attention of the other classmates. I do believe that it also meant that he did not like me, which
is totally fine, as long as he behaved in class. I tried to show that I like him, because I believed
that if I liked him he would like me as well,but it was not a total success, though the situation
did improve.
The third discipline problem I am going to write about took place in one of my adult
“Diplomamentő” groups, where a 30 year-old male student did not write down anything, was
joking all the time and distracted the class. This was one of my favourite students at that time,
and I soon discovered the reason for his misbehaviour. I think that he had difficulty in
accepting my leading role in the class, regarding that I am female and younger than he was. I
was speaking quite loudly, because anouther student in the group was hard of hearing. (She
asked me after the first class to speak up.) This is why I was speaking as loud as a military
commender, which, I believe was irritating this student. I totally understood his reaction, so I
soon softened my voice and started to speak softly and calmly. It had an immediate effect on
this student and on the class as a whole. Everyone started to work in a calm and peaceful way.
It reminded me that the class refelects the teacher’s mood. If a teacher is nervous and loud, the
students are also likely to become anxious and resounding. But if a teacher is in a cheerful
mood and treats everyone as his or her equal, the students will appreciate it.
The last discipline problem I am going to write about took place in an adult group of
six students, learning French. Here a female student, 33, took the role of the teacher and tried
to help a quite arrogantly one of her classmates in understanding a difficult grammatical rule.
Her intentions were good, but she did not manage to articulate her thoughts in an acceptable
way, which made the other student nervous, and put him into a feeling of discomfort. Since
she did not stop explaining the rules to her classmate, I told her — trying to say it as nice as I
could — that I thank her for her help, but I was the teacher, and I was going to clarify the
rules to the other student. There was no problem about it fortunately, since I talked about it
with the female student after the class. Nobody was vexed in the end, which was great.