Tuesday, February 21, 2017


Rewrite the following sentences using the words given in brackets.
1.Berkay is handsome. His brother is handsome, too. ( Both )
2. Bilgesu isn’t lazy. Likewise, Ozan isn’t lazy. (Neither..nor)
3. Hasan loves Rock Music. Irem loves rock music, too. (Similarly)
4. METU students get well-paid jobs after graduation. Similarly, ITU students  get jobs with a good salary. (both)
5. My daughter doesn’t like onion. Likewise, my son doesn’t like it. (neither …nor)
6. Selin doesn’t have siblings. Also, Yagmur doesn’t have any brothers or sisters. (both)
7.Beril  studies hard for the exam. Her close friends also study hard  for the exam .(Likewise)
8.Anil doesn’t sleep well at nights. Unfortunately, his roommates have the same problem. (Neither…nor)
9.  Bengu and Tugce haven’t submitted their assignments yet. Similarly, Ikbal hasn’t submitted her assignment.(neither …nor)
10. Alp doesn’t like jokes. Yavuz  doesn’t like jokes, too.(both)


Both...and/ neither...nor/ likewise 1

Rewrite the following sentences using the structures given.

1-Neither my parents nor my sister has been to Cyprus.
2-Both Marry and her sisters don’t like to go to parties.
3-Tina wants to study abroad. Similarly, her brother is planning to study abroad.
4- Khalid doesn’t apply for the job. His friends don’t apply for the job, too.
(neither …nor)
5-Selin doesn’t like cooking. Her friends don’t like, either.
6- My friend has lived in France for years. I also lived there for many years.


Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Forming questions: object questions

Forming qustions in general and forming object questions in particular  is one of the most challenging points for beginner students. The following hand-out is one of the materials I use for my students. I hope it helps!

Ask questions for the underlined parts.

1.       Marry and Jane  don’t go shopping once a week.
2.       Marry cleans the house.
3.       Jane doesn’t clean the house.
4.       Marry cleans the house.
5.       Jane  doesn’t clean the house.
6.       Marry and Jane invite  some friends to their home.
7.       Marry and Jane  went shopping.
8.       Mary and Jane  didn’t go shopping
9.       Mary and Jane wash   the dishes every day
10.   Mary and Jane wash   the dishes every day.
11.   Marry and Jane washed the dishes.
12.   Mary and Jane  didn’t  wash  the dishes.
13.   Mary and Jane  are washing  the dishes now.
14.   Mary and Jane  aren’t washing the dishes now.
15.   Mary and Jane are  washing    the dishes now
16.   Marry  should see a doctor.
17.   Marry shouldn’t see a doctor.
18.   Marry should see  a doctor.
19.   Jane  can speak Turkish.
20.   Jane can’t speak Turkish.
21.   Jane  can speak   Turkish.
22.   Jane can’t speak Turkish.
23.   Jane  can feed   her sister’s baby.
A-Write questions for the underlined parts.
Yes. EFL students have to finish a short story  and write a  journal  entry  for the litreture lesson  every week.





I    must visit  my grandparents  because I haven’t seen them  for two weeks.




 Students have to  have a bachelor's degree in  Law   to be  a lawyer or judge.



Crime scene analysts    have to wear rubber  gloves    because they mustn’t damage any of the evidence.



B-Write questions for the given answers.
In order to be a forensic  scientist,you have to study chemistry or biology.
Officers  have to wait twenty days to get a DNA results.
Investigators have to take very careful notes because the scientists in the lab have to know exactly where all the evidence has com from.
Yes. You must turn your mobile phones off in the lab.
No.A DNA expert doesn’t have to know about the guns.
Forensic scientists  have to collect evldences  such as fingerprints and hairs to identfy who has committed a crime.
Scientists  have to know to use scientific equipment very well.

How to make reading more fun?

I think all teachers have some reading texts that are dreadfully boring but have to be covered during lesson hours.This post is about how I dealt with one of those texts (Off Line Reading 1,Unit 4,text 2 -Seaweeds) in order to make it less boring and even more engaging.

  • In this activity students worked in groups and  used pod-boards (portable boards). 
  • First of all, each group  was given only one paragraph of the text and asked  to read and take notes the key words that tell them what the paragraph is about and other important information.
  • Group members discussed and decided which points to include in their work.
  • Using their notes and imagination, they pictured the text:)
  • Finally, each group, introduced their masterpiece 😍 and summarized the assigned paragraph  to the class.
  • At the end of the lesson, students chose the best one!!! 

A colloborative writing experience

Today, I would like to write  about a collaborative writing activity that I believe worked very well for my class and you may also find it beneficial for yours.

When  students are together, they are much more productive in terms of generating ideas and ,of course, it means the whole writing procedure is more fun and less stressful for both teachers and students.I used portable boards for this activity. Our school has provided us with them, but of course simple cardboard or papers could be sufficient.

This activity takes more or less  one lesson for my class , which is 50 minutes, but if you're doing this for the first time,it may take more than 50 minutes,Once students get used to the activity, you may allocate less time.I  have divided the activity into three stages in order to explain it better.Let's have a look!

THE FIRST STAGE: (10 minutes)

1-My students worked  in groups of four.Each group chose a topic to write about.

2-They used a portable board.First of all  they brainstormed either using mind map or listing methods which were taught beforehand  in previous lessons.

 3-Coming up with some ideas, I asked them to choose only three of them that could be supported better and more easily. 

4- After picking up the best ideas  to be used in their actual writing,students  prepared  a quick outline and here they roughly decided how to support  their major ideas.

5- Before moving to the next stage, each group chose  the student who will write the paragraph behalf  of the group.

THE SECOND STAGE: (20 minutes)

At this stage, students improved their outline.They were asked to use a variety of the linkers and grammatical structures that had been provided in the previous  input sessions.I monitored the groups and checked whether they were on the right track or not. 

THE THIRD STAGE : ( 15 minutes)

This was the stage where each group read each other's paragraph  and gave feedback. Completing the writing procedure, students exhibited their boards and  walked around to see their peers' work. Later, I chose one of them and put it somewhere  where all students could easily see.Then, we went through each one elaborating the topic and concluding  sentences, major and minor supporting details.Here it was very nice to see that students were actively engaged in the feedback session.