Language, the most important invention in the history of humanity, is the essential element in the establishment of society and culture, advancement of science and development of today’s civilizations.
Language not only enables communication among people, but also is the very element that makes a nation out of groups of people. The individuals that constitute a nation share cultural values through language. The mother tongue also guides the future of new generations, this is why independent states include first and foremost regulations about their mother tongues in their constitutions; only a national language can meaningfully connect the individuals within a nation.
In addition to enabling communication within a society and carrying culture across, the mother tongue is also essential on an individual level as it enables people to express their thoughts and deepest feelings, make sense of life and join social life as an independent individual.
The overall goal of the Turkish department is to equip students with the habits and language skills in comprehension and expression, foster a mother tongue consciousness by enabling them to use Turkish meticulously.
To this end, we work towards developing our students’ skills to use the Turkish language deliberately and effectively, foster a love for language and literature by exposing our students to prominent and distinguished works of art in Turkish. It is common knowledge that reading books is the essential way to develop language skills. A glance through our selection of literary works demonstrates that while they are works of high literary value and they are also easy to read and comprehend. They are also works focusing on universal values, which will contribute to students’ philosophical and psychological development, allowing and encouraging questioning.
In grades 5-8, Turkish classes are structured with a student-centered approach, around text analysis activities to develop complex and multidimensional skills in “listening”, “speaking”, “reading”, “writing” and “grammar”. Students are expected to form connections across texts with respect to the theme or ideas (pointing out similarities or differences). At the initial stage, writing activities begin with paragraph writing exercises. In the following stages, we transition from the paragraph into a whole text. Students write news articles, short stories, petitions, letters, poems, fables and fairy tales. We do written and oral activities to interpret images. We focus on the text and thesis statements in writing. While studying a literary work, students are expected to develop the habit of making comparisons with other works studied in terms of theme and main idea. By including works of arts such as theater plays, films, magazines and exhibitions in the classes, we support students’ cultural development. In reading hours, we perform exercises in reading aloud, accentuation and intonation; we employ fast and effective reading techniques.
Fast Reading Techniques, which was implemented in the 8th grade this year, is a training program with effective and comprehensive results. Simply increasing reading speed has limited benefits; however this program first expands the angle of vision with eye exercises on focus and attention, then improves students’ reading comprehension. As a result of these activities, once the angle of vision, focus, attention and comprehension are at the desired levels, the program also shortens the time for applying these skills. Commanding a wider area within a shorter time and improvements in visual and spatial perception are numerically measurable by the end of the 21-week program. The measured outcomes can be reported on a weekly or daily basis throughout the program, which is widely enjoyed by the students.
Furthermore, for 8th grade students, we organize after-school exam preparation sessions every Friday, individual and group study sessions during the week, subject-specific study sessions as determined by the teachers based on the results of weekly subject overview tests, and pre-planned progress monitoring exams.
Department Events
Book Week
Author Events
Field trips planned for different grade levels
Language not only enables communication among people, but also is the very element that makes a nation out of groups of people. The individuals that constitute a nation share cultural values through language. The mother tongue also guides the future of new generations, this is why independent states include first and foremost regulations about their mother tongues in their constitutions; only a national language can meaningfully connect the individuals within a nation.
In addition to enabling communication within a society and carrying culture across, the mother tongue is also essential on an individual level as it enables people to express their thoughts and deepest feelings, make sense of life and join social life as an independent individual.
The overall goal of the Turkish department is to equip students with the habits and language skills in comprehension and expression, foster a mother tongue consciousness by enabling them to use Turkish meticulously.
To this end, we work towards developing our students’ skills to use the Turkish language deliberately and effectively, foster a love for language and literature by exposing our students to prominent and distinguished works of art in Turkish. It is common knowledge that reading books is the essential way to develop language skills. A glance through our selection of literary works demonstrates that while they are works of high literary value and they are also easy to read and comprehend. They are also works focusing on universal values, which will contribute to students’ philosophical and psychological development, allowing and encouraging questioning.
In grades 5-8, Turkish classes are structured with a student-centered approach, around text analysis activities to develop complex and multidimensional skills in “listening”, “speaking”, “reading”, “writing” and “grammar”. Students are expected to form connections across texts with respect to the theme or ideas (pointing out similarities or differences). At the initial stage, writing activities begin with paragraph writing exercises. In the following stages, we transition from the paragraph into a whole text. Students write news articles, short stories, petitions, letters, poems, fables and fairy tales. We do written and oral activities to interpret images. We focus on the text and thesis statements in writing. While studying a literary work, students are expected to develop the habit of making comparisons with other works studied in terms of theme and main idea. By including works of arts such as theater plays, films, magazines and exhibitions in the classes, we support students’ cultural development. In reading hours, we perform exercises in reading aloud, accentuation and intonation; we employ fast and effective reading techniques.
Fast Reading Techniques, which was implemented in the 8th grade this year, is a training program with effective and comprehensive results. Simply increasing reading speed has limited benefits; however this program first expands the angle of vision with eye exercises on focus and attention, then improves students’ reading comprehension. As a result of these activities, once the angle of vision, focus, attention and comprehension are at the desired levels, the program also shortens the time for applying these skills. Commanding a wider area within a shorter time and improvements in visual and spatial perception are numerically measurable by the end of the 21-week program. The measured outcomes can be reported on a weekly or daily basis throughout the program, which is widely enjoyed by the students.
Furthermore, for 8th grade students, we organize after-school exam preparation sessions every Friday, individual and group study sessions during the week, subject-specific study sessions as determined by the teachers based on the results of weekly subject overview tests, and pre-planned progress monitoring exams.
Department Events
Book Week
Author Events
Field trips planned for different grade levels