The lesson which reaped the most satisfying results was probably the one whereby I used a game to teach the students vocabulary. In my practicum school, explicit teaching of vocabulary ( in the form of vocabulary lists) was made compulsory. However, my class was the weakest English class in the entire school and consisted of mainly international students. Many of them had problems with even expressing themselves in simple English and were actively using English-Chinese electronic dictionaries to understand my instructions. Thus, imagine my horror when I saw the vocabulary list on sentences related to a fire, which consisted of a whole chunk of difficult words all clumped together! Thus, I decided to chop up the list into two parts, teaching part one in lesson one and the remaining words in the second lesson. I shall focus on lesson one in this posting.
For lesson one, I played a short video clip from "Heroes" whereby the cheerleader enters the scene of a fire to save some people. I got the students to take note of the different things they saw from the outside of the scene and within the burning building itself. Then, I did a word splash and got them to come up with some words related to a fire. After that, I gave them the list and did a quick run-through. In my edited version of the vocabulary list, I divided the list of sentences according to their different perspectives-- what one would see from the outside and from the inside of a burning building would obviously be different. I did NOT provide detailed explanation of the phrases at this stage as it would be too dry. Also, understanding the lengthy explanations itself would constitute a problem for many of my students.
After giving the students some time to look through the list, I did a modified win-lose-or-draw game whereby I flashed pictures of the various scenes and got the students to identify the main sentence/phrase that best described the picture. The pictures were direct illustrations of the terms and were thus rather easy to identify. For example, one of the sentences was "Shrouded in a blanket, I crouched down to avoid the toxic smoke." Though the students may not understand the meaning of the word "shrouded", many of them at least were able to identify the blanket and the smoke, thus identifying the right sentence. This was a competitive group activity, and the students got quite excited and even the weaker ones tried to participate. The use of visuals also made it easier for the weak students to understand the meaning of the phrases. For additional incentive, groups which identified the relevant sentence/sentence were also given a bonus activity, whereby they had to attempt to define the difficult word in the sentence to earn extra points. Thus, the students also tried to infer and guess the meaning of the individual difficult words.
Finally, for the second part of the lesson, I made the groups produce a one-paragraph personal recount from various perspectives-- such as the perspective of a passer-by, a victim and a fireman etc. To make it easier, I gave them actual scenarios to work with. They had to select at least 2 RELEVANT sentences and phrases to use in their paragraphs according to their perspectives. I modelled an example using the perspective of the cheerleader they saw in the video clip before they started working on it.
On the whole, the work that I received was quite promising, as the students were able to select and use the phrases and sentences in the vocabulary list appropriately, thus demonstrating understanding of the terms. They also seemed to recall the definitions when I tested them during the next lesson, whereby I taught the second part of the vocabulary list through role-play etc.
--Mandy
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Cat's very delayed response to her TP exp
1. Your overall response to the TP experience
In all honesty, this post took so long to come because I really don't know what to say about my TP experience. I cannot even tell a casual acquaintance simply if it was 'good' or 'bad'. It was tempting to skip this reflection completely (even at the expense of incurring some unpleasant consequences) because I did not want to confront the TP experience. I am afraid I am holding a can of worms and I am not sure I want to open it.
Let me comment generally on the school. Discipline and school culture wise, I got lucky, considering the repute of the schools in the region. The school has a very supportive discipline system in place and the principal takes it upon herself to come down very hard on wayward students. This puts in place a very rigorous school culture where both staff and students are expected to put in their 200% once they are in the school.
Doesn't it sound good? Yes. This attitude was one of the most attractive things about the school. I like the fact that teachers are explicitly accountable. In addition, nothing less than their best efforts was demanded of the students. It was great.
However, there is something wrong with the picture. There is something gnawing at me but up till now, I cannot pinpoint what it is that I am uncomfortable with. Hence, I report everyday for work, I put in my bestest efforts, I try to stay afloat and alive, and I don't think about how I really feel about the school.
I did/do not think about what "was not in my job scope" or how I expected the people to behave towards me. Therefore, I have no complaints about insane workload (because I don't know if they are REALLY EXTRA WORK) or unfriendly staff (it's expected)... etc. As far as I was concerned, I was there to learn. I was also the lowest rookie. So what can I really say? I accept everything that was thrown at me (yes, even the undiplomatic lecture I had) and I take down the good things I want to learn. If something was questionable or appears ineffective, I find ways not to do it in my classes and keep a lookout for opportunities to surface it to people who can do something about it.
So you ask me what is my overall response to my TP experience and my reply is that, "It was ok." What else can I say? It was not fantastically drop-jaw inspiring, neither was it drop-jaw I-Cannot-Believe-This-Is-What-I'm-In-For terrible. Boring, lor? I don't know, honestly. It is possible that I am being apathetic about the whole experience. Very tiring to be upset, right? :P
2. What are some learning points/ `growing’ points which you have taken away from all these encounters/ experiences, good and not so good?
Growing points. Learning points. Mmm.
I learnt that you are your own best bet, besides mr God. It was not that my CTs were unfriendly, critical, unhelpful people--no. They were actually quite good coaches and gave me room to explore and learn. They were encouraging but not overebearing... etc. etc.
I say that you are your own best bet because during this TP, I really feel that sometimes, no matter how much help you ask for or how much advice you listen to, at the end of the day You are still the Teacher, in charge of Your Lesson, with Your students. So often, at the end of the day, the most useful and helpful thing to do is just to sit down quietly and really listen to Yourself. What do you want to do? What are you really hoping to achieve with these kids? What do they really need to learn? Will all the fancy KWLPBLSCAMPERJigsawGroups really help them to learn what you want them to learn?
This TP has taught me to be more confident in my abilities as a teacher and orchestrator. I wrote lesson plans for every lesson that I taught for the whole 10 weeks. It was very gruelling, but it was very good. Lesson plans are not a chore when you are truly honest with yourself about what you want to do with the lesson. The fancy strategies and labels will only hinder and obscure your purpose if you don't know what you really want to do. It was very discouraging when you see/hear trainees throwing labels into their lesson plans and concocting up a storm because at the end of the day, have their students really gained anything? Have they gained anything for themselves as teachers?
Hai. Learning points. What have I learnt. Teaching is a tough profession. It demands so much from a person as a person. To run this race well, it is so important to surround yourself with like-minded and motivated runners. It is important to have a support circle of peers who will cheer and encourage you when you are not sure why you should not just throw in the towel already. It is important, lah :P, and I can only hope we will each find this circle of people to come alongside us as we run the tough first years ahead.
Cheers. :)
In all honesty, this post took so long to come because I really don't know what to say about my TP experience. I cannot even tell a casual acquaintance simply if it was 'good' or 'bad'. It was tempting to skip this reflection completely (even at the expense of incurring some unpleasant consequences) because I did not want to confront the TP experience. I am afraid I am holding a can of worms and I am not sure I want to open it.
Let me comment generally on the school. Discipline and school culture wise, I got lucky, considering the repute of the schools in the region. The school has a very supportive discipline system in place and the principal takes it upon herself to come down very hard on wayward students. This puts in place a very rigorous school culture where both staff and students are expected to put in their 200% once they are in the school.
Doesn't it sound good? Yes. This attitude was one of the most attractive things about the school. I like the fact that teachers are explicitly accountable. In addition, nothing less than their best efforts was demanded of the students. It was great.
However, there is something wrong with the picture. There is something gnawing at me but up till now, I cannot pinpoint what it is that I am uncomfortable with. Hence, I report everyday for work, I put in my bestest efforts, I try to stay afloat and alive, and I don't think about how I really feel about the school.
I did/do not think about what "was not in my job scope" or how I expected the people to behave towards me. Therefore, I have no complaints about insane workload (because I don't know if they are REALLY EXTRA WORK) or unfriendly staff (it's expected)... etc. As far as I was concerned, I was there to learn. I was also the lowest rookie. So what can I really say? I accept everything that was thrown at me (yes, even the undiplomatic lecture I had) and I take down the good things I want to learn. If something was questionable or appears ineffective, I find ways not to do it in my classes and keep a lookout for opportunities to surface it to people who can do something about it.
So you ask me what is my overall response to my TP experience and my reply is that, "It was ok." What else can I say? It was not fantastically drop-jaw inspiring, neither was it drop-jaw I-Cannot-Believe-This-Is-What-I'm-In-For terrible. Boring, lor? I don't know, honestly. It is possible that I am being apathetic about the whole experience. Very tiring to be upset, right? :P
2. What are some learning points/ `growing’ points which you have taken away from all these encounters/ experiences, good and not so good?
Growing points. Learning points. Mmm.
I learnt that you are your own best bet, besides mr God. It was not that my CTs were unfriendly, critical, unhelpful people--no. They were actually quite good coaches and gave me room to explore and learn. They were encouraging but not overebearing... etc. etc.
I say that you are your own best bet because during this TP, I really feel that sometimes, no matter how much help you ask for or how much advice you listen to, at the end of the day You are still the Teacher, in charge of Your Lesson, with Your students. So often, at the end of the day, the most useful and helpful thing to do is just to sit down quietly and really listen to Yourself. What do you want to do? What are you really hoping to achieve with these kids? What do they really need to learn? Will all the fancy KWLPBLSCAMPERJigsawGroups really help them to learn what you want them to learn?
This TP has taught me to be more confident in my abilities as a teacher and orchestrator. I wrote lesson plans for every lesson that I taught for the whole 10 weeks. It was very gruelling, but it was very good. Lesson plans are not a chore when you are truly honest with yourself about what you want to do with the lesson. The fancy strategies and labels will only hinder and obscure your purpose if you don't know what you really want to do. It was very discouraging when you see/hear trainees throwing labels into their lesson plans and concocting up a storm because at the end of the day, have their students really gained anything? Have they gained anything for themselves as teachers?
Hai. Learning points. What have I learnt. Teaching is a tough profession. It demands so much from a person as a person. To run this race well, it is so important to surround yourself with like-minded and motivated runners. It is important to have a support circle of peers who will cheer and encourage you when you are not sure why you should not just throw in the towel already. It is important, lah :P, and I can only hope we will each find this circle of people to come alongside us as we run the tough first years ahead.
Cheers. :)
My best lesson- Lynette
I consider this lesson one of the better ones not because it was anything fancy or elaborate, but because it was a fruitful lesson which resulted in the students' learning. Although I did not really have to follow a very rigid scheme of work, everything had to be geared towards preparing students for the exams. This lesson was on writing an introduction of a narrative. After having read and marked the students' essays, it was clear that the students needed to adopt more varied approches to writing an introductory paragraph as many were still using the primary school cliche of "Ring, the telephone rang..."
These students are Secondary Two, Express stream. Mixed ability with about three relatively good writers and three international students who are very weak in the language. The students are well-behaved, they generally do whatever they are told, however they are not very expressive.
In this lesson, the students had to identify the different types of introductions for narrative essays (beginning the story with eg. speech and dialogue, action, flashback, a quotation/proverb, background information). The next objective was that that they had to write an introductory paragraph using an assigned type of introduction in groups of four. The entire class was given the same title.
Basically, I started the lesson with a few movie clips which featured different types of introductions and asked the class to comment on how the movie began and its effect on viewers. I then linked it to writing the introductions of their essays. I gave the class a handout which consisted of different introductory paragraphs and asked them to match which introduction corresponded with which type of introduction. Explicit explanation then followed. After that, students had to work in groups to write an introductory paragraph with the assigned type of introduction that had been covered earlier. As there were two groups working on each type of introduction, the sharing session was fruitful as the class could hear all the five types of introductions and could also compare their introduction with the other group that was assigned the same type. The work produced by each group was very commendable and they were visibly proud of their introductions in their presentations.
Personally, I learnt that many students actually appreciate the lesson when it is geared towards examination skills and knowledge. I tried fun games and activities in previous lessons but I realised that the more proficient students actually got bored in those lessons because they could have felt under-challenged, or perhaps they simply preferred something more exam-focused and less 'fluffy'. It helped me realise that I had to know and understand the different learning styles and preferences of the different classes. It was also important that I did not give the entire class exactly the same activity because most students tend to get restless after listening to presentations with similar content.
These students are Secondary Two, Express stream. Mixed ability with about three relatively good writers and three international students who are very weak in the language. The students are well-behaved, they generally do whatever they are told, however they are not very expressive.
In this lesson, the students had to identify the different types of introductions for narrative essays (beginning the story with eg. speech and dialogue, action, flashback, a quotation/proverb, background information). The next objective was that that they had to write an introductory paragraph using an assigned type of introduction in groups of four. The entire class was given the same title.
Basically, I started the lesson with a few movie clips which featured different types of introductions and asked the class to comment on how the movie began and its effect on viewers. I then linked it to writing the introductions of their essays. I gave the class a handout which consisted of different introductory paragraphs and asked them to match which introduction corresponded with which type of introduction. Explicit explanation then followed. After that, students had to work in groups to write an introductory paragraph with the assigned type of introduction that had been covered earlier. As there were two groups working on each type of introduction, the sharing session was fruitful as the class could hear all the five types of introductions and could also compare their introduction with the other group that was assigned the same type. The work produced by each group was very commendable and they were visibly proud of their introductions in their presentations.
Personally, I learnt that many students actually appreciate the lesson when it is geared towards examination skills and knowledge. I tried fun games and activities in previous lessons but I realised that the more proficient students actually got bored in those lessons because they could have felt under-challenged, or perhaps they simply preferred something more exam-focused and less 'fluffy'. It helped me realise that I had to know and understand the different learning styles and preferences of the different classes. It was also important that I did not give the entire class exactly the same activity because most students tend to get restless after listening to presentations with similar content.
I was only assigned 1 EL class to teach during TP and I don’t know if it was a good or a bad thing that I had been assigned a banded class consisting of 3E1 and 3E2 – the 2 supposedly top classes in the Sec 3 Express cohort. On the whole, it meant that the pupils were better behaved and I did not have to deal with too many disciplinary problems but that having been said, I found that the students were too placid in class because they were simply uninterested in English classes. To be more specific, I think it was more to do with the fact that they did not like the way that English was ‘normally’ taught in schools – that which goes along the “CompoCompreCompoCompre” lines.
At my TP school, I had to follow a rather tight scheme of work and as my English periods were always scheduled for the periods right after recess, I never ever had the full 1 hour to carry out my lesson, which greatly limited my efforts to plan for and incorporate and “fun” activities to bait the students into not looking like they were attending the obligatory church service every Sunday.
I did however, have at least one success story. When we were done rushing through the syllabus, I had to prepare the students for the coming mid-year examinations and I decided to revise the skills of summary writing with them.
I did it in the form of a game. Basically, the students had to pair themselves up as A and B, and A would recount an interesting incident which happened to them. They were to make the recount as detailed as possible. B would listen and take note (mentally, not on paper). At the end of it, all the Bs would have to find another A (that is, someone who was not their partner. To facilitate movement, the Bs in each pair simply traded places with their next nearest pair of neighbours sitting next to them.) and retell the incident to their new partner as if they were they one who experienced the interesting incident.
1) They were to only pick out the main highlights of the incident and were also encouraged to
2) recount the incident in their own words.
The kids all had great fun during this activity and more importantly, I got them to realise and put into practice the skills and strategies of effective summary writing.
I thought that it was successful because
1: It was something new and unexpected for them and
2: It was heavily learner centred.
I find that it always helps to involve the students’ personal lives in their lessons. Of course, a lesson must not only be just fun and no learning point. At the end of the activity, I asked the students for their feedback and some of the Bs answered that they found it troublesome to have to remember the main highlights in the first recount they heard. I told them that it was precisely this skill they have to master to write a good summary and I saw more than a few faces light up in understanding. Too often, teachers just tell students, “pick out the main points, THE MAIN POINTS.” And the students would have no clue as to what constitutes a “main point”. I thought that through this game, the students came to understand how to distinguish between the important details and what they can leave out that will still make the recount understandable.
I guess one approach to garnering student interest and to facilitate understanding would be to make the activities actually relevant to the students, as well as to make them understand exactly how the activity would help them to develop skills which they can apply. With my students, I find that the attitude towards learning is always vastly more positive if they know that there is a practical reason for doing that they are doing in class. That being said, this bunch of kids ARE the supposedly best in the Sec 3 cohort and I do not as of yet, know if the same approach can be used with an NA class.
Sheena
At my TP school, I had to follow a rather tight scheme of work and as my English periods were always scheduled for the periods right after recess, I never ever had the full 1 hour to carry out my lesson, which greatly limited my efforts to plan for and incorporate and “fun” activities to bait the students into not looking like they were attending the obligatory church service every Sunday.
I did however, have at least one success story. When we were done rushing through the syllabus, I had to prepare the students for the coming mid-year examinations and I decided to revise the skills of summary writing with them.
I did it in the form of a game. Basically, the students had to pair themselves up as A and B, and A would recount an interesting incident which happened to them. They were to make the recount as detailed as possible. B would listen and take note (mentally, not on paper). At the end of it, all the Bs would have to find another A (that is, someone who was not their partner. To facilitate movement, the Bs in each pair simply traded places with their next nearest pair of neighbours sitting next to them.) and retell the incident to their new partner as if they were they one who experienced the interesting incident.
1) They were to only pick out the main highlights of the incident and were also encouraged to
2) recount the incident in their own words.
The kids all had great fun during this activity and more importantly, I got them to realise and put into practice the skills and strategies of effective summary writing.
I thought that it was successful because
1: It was something new and unexpected for them and
2: It was heavily learner centred.
I find that it always helps to involve the students’ personal lives in their lessons. Of course, a lesson must not only be just fun and no learning point. At the end of the activity, I asked the students for their feedback and some of the Bs answered that they found it troublesome to have to remember the main highlights in the first recount they heard. I told them that it was precisely this skill they have to master to write a good summary and I saw more than a few faces light up in understanding. Too often, teachers just tell students, “pick out the main points, THE MAIN POINTS.” And the students would have no clue as to what constitutes a “main point”. I thought that through this game, the students came to understand how to distinguish between the important details and what they can leave out that will still make the recount understandable.
I guess one approach to garnering student interest and to facilitate understanding would be to make the activities actually relevant to the students, as well as to make them understand exactly how the activity would help them to develop skills which they can apply. With my students, I find that the attitude towards learning is always vastly more positive if they know that there is a practical reason for doing that they are doing in class. That being said, this bunch of kids ARE the supposedly best in the Sec 3 cohort and I do not as of yet, know if the same approach can be used with an NA class.
Sheena
Monday, May 19, 2008
Being Prepared in the Groovy Woods (that said, Cas is the scout... not me)
Q2)
I think it’s really quite difficult for EL teaching to take place with class sizes of >40. For that matter, anything > 25 is ridiculous. The situation, as many have described, can be dire. Let’s take the worst case scenario of >40 students, who are weak (probably ESL or EFL). It is practically impossible to have a homogenous group of students in any one class. As such, the engagement of learners will have to be done in such a way where all students are engaged and gain something out of lessons. Part of the motivation comes in the fact where students are constantly frustrated by their own lack of progress as well as other students who may function as distracters as well.
I have to say that I was extremely lucky at TP. I was only assigned 1 EL class, 2E1 – the “best” class in the stream. There was a resource package from which I had to teach from, and supplement with my own (or colleagues’) material, should I choose to. Motivating the students was not a problem. They knew clearly what was supposed to be covered as the resource package (which replaces a textbook) states clearly. The activities are scaffolded, i.e. the structure of a formal letter; practice writing the format of the letter; address format; salutation format, etc. So I really just needed to deliver a lesson. Scaffolding was well thought out in the design of the package and the activities are manageable for most students. Occasionally a question or two comes up, or I spot an error as I walk around the class to monitor the students’ work and clarify it with the class as a whole.
I find that students, when given advance notice of activities (through subtle means such as resource packages), put up no resistance when the lessons occur. They know that they need to do what they need to do and they just do it. Resistance is, after all, futile. But scaffolding and advance notice does help them prepare psychologically for the lessons and material contents / grammar which is going to be covered. At the same time, the more industrious ones would read ahead and can help clarify doubts of the rest of the class if they have understood concepts/definitions etc which are taught/going to be taught and this helps with lesson progression.
While not all schools have resource packages in lieu of textbooks, I guess the main learning point of the matter is to adequately prepare your students in advance of lesson in any way possible, and when the lesson is to occur, they know the mindset they are supposed to adopt (i.e. letter writing or free writing or reported speech etc) and learn or at least try to.
I think it’s really quite difficult for EL teaching to take place with class sizes of >40. For that matter, anything > 25 is ridiculous. The situation, as many have described, can be dire. Let’s take the worst case scenario of >40 students, who are weak (probably ESL or EFL). It is practically impossible to have a homogenous group of students in any one class. As such, the engagement of learners will have to be done in such a way where all students are engaged and gain something out of lessons. Part of the motivation comes in the fact where students are constantly frustrated by their own lack of progress as well as other students who may function as distracters as well.
I have to say that I was extremely lucky at TP. I was only assigned 1 EL class, 2E1 – the “best” class in the stream. There was a resource package from which I had to teach from, and supplement with my own (or colleagues’) material, should I choose to. Motivating the students was not a problem. They knew clearly what was supposed to be covered as the resource package (which replaces a textbook) states clearly. The activities are scaffolded, i.e. the structure of a formal letter; practice writing the format of the letter; address format; salutation format, etc. So I really just needed to deliver a lesson. Scaffolding was well thought out in the design of the package and the activities are manageable for most students. Occasionally a question or two comes up, or I spot an error as I walk around the class to monitor the students’ work and clarify it with the class as a whole.
I find that students, when given advance notice of activities (through subtle means such as resource packages), put up no resistance when the lessons occur. They know that they need to do what they need to do and they just do it. Resistance is, after all, futile. But scaffolding and advance notice does help them prepare psychologically for the lessons and material contents / grammar which is going to be covered. At the same time, the more industrious ones would read ahead and can help clarify doubts of the rest of the class if they have understood concepts/definitions etc which are taught/going to be taught and this helps with lesson progression.
While not all schools have resource packages in lieu of textbooks, I guess the main learning point of the matter is to adequately prepare your students in advance of lesson in any way possible, and when the lesson is to occur, they know the mindset they are supposed to adopt (i.e. letter writing or free writing or reported speech etc) and learn or at least try to.
- ACLHL
Best Lesson -- catharine
About the Lesson:
The best lesson I conducted during Practicum was a vocabulary lesson. The vocabulary lesson was part of the descriptive writing unit that I was teaching. Prior to the vocab lesson, students have already been taught the structure and grammar features of descriptive writing. They have also done some brainstorming on the person they are going to write about. This lesson is a 2-period lesson (35min/period).
Brief Profile of Student:
Students are from a mid-range Sec 2 express class. They are generally quite weak in language, with the exception of a few students who consistently write well. As a whole, the students in this class tend to do better in Paper 1 than Paper 2.
Purpose of Lesson:
The objective was very simple. I wanted to introduce new, specific, descriptive vocabulary to the students to help them in their descriptive writing assignment.
The What and How:
Basically, the whole lesson was a vocabulary game. Students were divided into groups of 4. Everyone was present, so there were 10 groups. Each group had the following materials:
+ A pack of new vocabulary (printed on coloured paper and cut into individual strips of words)
+ Dictionary
+ Coloured plate
+ Makeshift whiteboard
+ Whiteboard marker
From the powerpoint, students would then choose their question and attempt to answer the question. They may use the dictionary to help them. [[Rem: Purpose was to get them to learn new vocabulary, so this creates incentive for the majority to keep flipping the dictionary.]]
I also had a cool 12-sided die that groups with the correct can roll to get points. The group with the highest points at the end wins, of course.
Best Practices: Successful Skills and Strategies
1. Lots of different stimulus (refer to list of things the groups got)
This worked because there were so many different things they could be doing, so everyone could play a part in the game and everyone can be engaged simultaneously.
2. Unpredictability
There were two ways to answer each question because each question was either a open-to-all, where all groups will answer and all groups with the correct answer will get the points, or a up-for-grabs, where groups have to compete to answer the question.
The die added extra unpredictability because students did not know how many points they will get, even if they got the answer right. Also, there was a [SWAP] option on the die, so groups would also aim swap with the leading group.
3. Inductive Teaching
By constantly checking the dictionary and trying to remember as many meanings as possible, students are indirectly learning many new vocabulary. For each question, I had accompanying visuals so students can see what each word actually refers to. I was extremely pleased to see ALL the groups furiously engaged, ha ha.
What They Learnt & How I Knew:
Lots of new vocabulary. I did a quick semantic map the next lesson and the students were able to throw out many words from the game. I was quite surprised, actually. I also knew they had retained at least some of the words because they used them in the descriptive assignment.
What I Learnt:
This lesson took tonnes of preparation and brain-cracking but I felt that it was worth it because there was so much learning during the lesson. I could have never made those students learn what they learnt in that lesson via teacher-talk or worksheets. From this lesson, I was really amazed at how much learning could take place with rigourus planning from the teacher. Some of the best practices that I took away from this lesson are:
+ Always have the element of unpredictability. This really ups the energy and engagement level.
+ Inductive approach. This has the potential to increase learning exponentially, depending on what we are teaching.
+ Scaffold their learning. Link new vocabullary to what they are familiar with. It was also important to tie the lesson back to the text-type and how it fits in with their writing assignment.
The best lesson I conducted during Practicum was a vocabulary lesson. The vocabulary lesson was part of the descriptive writing unit that I was teaching. Prior to the vocab lesson, students have already been taught the structure and grammar features of descriptive writing. They have also done some brainstorming on the person they are going to write about. This lesson is a 2-period lesson (35min/period).
Brief Profile of Student:
Students are from a mid-range Sec 2 express class. They are generally quite weak in language, with the exception of a few students who consistently write well. As a whole, the students in this class tend to do better in Paper 1 than Paper 2.
Purpose of Lesson:
The objective was very simple. I wanted to introduce new, specific, descriptive vocabulary to the students to help them in their descriptive writing assignment.
The What and How:
Basically, the whole lesson was a vocabulary game. Students were divided into groups of 4. Everyone was present, so there were 10 groups. Each group had the following materials:
+ A pack of new vocabulary (printed on coloured paper and cut into individual strips of words)
+ Dictionary
+ Coloured plate
+ Makeshift whiteboard
+ Whiteboard marker
From the powerpoint, students would then choose their question and attempt to answer the question. They may use the dictionary to help them. [[Rem: Purpose was to get them to learn new vocabulary, so this creates incentive for the majority to keep flipping the dictionary.]]
I also had a cool 12-sided die that groups with the correct can roll to get points. The group with the highest points at the end wins, of course.
Best Practices: Successful Skills and Strategies
1. Lots of different stimulus (refer to list of things the groups got)
This worked because there were so many different things they could be doing, so everyone could play a part in the game and everyone can be engaged simultaneously.
2. Unpredictability
There were two ways to answer each question because each question was either a open-to-all, where all groups will answer and all groups with the correct answer will get the points, or a up-for-grabs, where groups have to compete to answer the question.
The die added extra unpredictability because students did not know how many points they will get, even if they got the answer right. Also, there was a [SWAP] option on the die, so groups would also aim swap with the leading group.
3. Inductive Teaching
By constantly checking the dictionary and trying to remember as many meanings as possible, students are indirectly learning many new vocabulary. For each question, I had accompanying visuals so students can see what each word actually refers to. I was extremely pleased to see ALL the groups furiously engaged, ha ha.
What They Learnt & How I Knew:
Lots of new vocabulary. I did a quick semantic map the next lesson and the students were able to throw out many words from the game. I was quite surprised, actually. I also knew they had retained at least some of the words because they used them in the descriptive assignment.
What I Learnt:
This lesson took tonnes of preparation and brain-cracking but I felt that it was worth it because there was so much learning during the lesson. I could have never made those students learn what they learnt in that lesson via teacher-talk or worksheets. From this lesson, I was really amazed at how much learning could take place with rigourus planning from the teacher. Some of the best practices that I took away from this lesson are:
+ Always have the element of unpredictability. This really ups the energy and engagement level.
+ Inductive approach. This has the potential to increase learning exponentially, depending on what we are teaching.
+ Scaffold their learning. Link new vocabullary to what they are familiar with. It was also important to tie the lesson back to the text-type and how it fits in with their writing assignment.
A good lesson - Charmaine
This was a lesson that I conducted with my top express class. In terms of language proficiency, this class had very varied abilities as 1/3 of it consisted of international students. The main aim of this lesson was to help my students acquire sensitivity to purpose and context, rather than simply memorizing relevant features of each text-type. This class had been accustomed to the “compo-compre” style of English teaching, and my attempts to incorporate higher-order thinking skills into lessons had been greeted with confusion when they weren’t directly related to grades and examinations. In this lesson, I made awareness of purpose and context a priority in assessment and helped students concretize this concept through a worksheet with guided questions, the provision of sample brochures, and a set of rubrics for assessing their own informative brochure that explicitly stated what it meant to have “an awareness of purpose and context”.
Prior Knowledge:
1. Students have basic knowledge of the features of the information brochure.
2. Students have looked at samples of informative brochures and identified the purpose, audience, and key features of the informative brochure in each sample.
General Objectives/ Learning Outcomes:
This lesson helps students consolidate their knowledge of the features of the informative brochure, and helps them begin the first stage of drafting their informative brochures (topic, purpose, audience). Thus, by the end of the lesson,
• Students should be aware of the functions of the key features of the informative brochure
• Students should demonstrate this awareness through their ability to select features of the informative brochure that match the purpose and audience of the brochures they will be creating.
Specific Instructional Objectives:
1. Students fill in a worksheet on the functions of the key features in the informative brochure.
2. In groups, students fill in a planning template for their informative brochure assignment.
Skills and strategies applied in this lesson:
• Scaffolding and process-writing – the class was accustomed to writing timed essays and handing them in at the end of the period. The process of drafting usually consisted a worksheet with a table or chart helping them plan their points. For this assignment, I emphasized the collaborative nature of planning by having them look at samples in groups and decide on what worked and what didn’t work for that particular brochure’s purpose and audience. Following this, students were to go home and fill in a planning template (worksheet) with the points they had brainstormed for their own brochure. During the next lesson which was reading period, I conferenced with groups of three students at a time to check on their progress and help them out with questions. This gave students an opportunity to clarify doubts about my expectations for the assignment. I always began these mini-conferences by directing students’ attention to the set of rubrics and asking them to rate their work first before I gave any comments. I did this so that students would recognize that they had the ability to do self-assessments without always relying on the teacher for the “right answer”.
What students learnt:
I could assess how well students understood how purpose and context affected content through the planning templates that were graded alongside their own informative brochures that they had researched, designed and created. I could match what students had told me about their target audience (e.g. young teenagers, trendy, love for music) with the design and content of their brochures (e.g. bright colours or all-black, information about handphones that can play music etc.) They also had the chance to apply their knowledge of the features of the brochure (e.g. bulleted points, subheadings), using them to organize information in their own brochures.
Best practices in teaching:
• Always give a set of rubrics for major assignments. I have found that even though this takes a bit of effort, it increases the quality of student work immensely as students know exactly what makes a good piece of work and can aim to produce it.
• This empowers students to do self-assessment as well because they can measure how well they are doing at every stage.
• Creating rubrics may seem difficult and daunting but I think it gets better with practice. It makes grading assignments MUCH MUCH easier, and you get an idea of how to refine your rubrics once you go through one round of marking.
• Include the planning process in assessment. This helps students know that every stage of planning is important – they won’t believe you saying it’s important unless it is assessed (I think this applies to most students in our Singaporean context).
Prior Knowledge:
1. Students have basic knowledge of the features of the information brochure.
2. Students have looked at samples of informative brochures and identified the purpose, audience, and key features of the informative brochure in each sample.
General Objectives/ Learning Outcomes:
This lesson helps students consolidate their knowledge of the features of the informative brochure, and helps them begin the first stage of drafting their informative brochures (topic, purpose, audience). Thus, by the end of the lesson,
• Students should be aware of the functions of the key features of the informative brochure
• Students should demonstrate this awareness through their ability to select features of the informative brochure that match the purpose and audience of the brochures they will be creating.
Specific Instructional Objectives:
1. Students fill in a worksheet on the functions of the key features in the informative brochure.
2. In groups, students fill in a planning template for their informative brochure assignment.
Skills and strategies applied in this lesson:
• Scaffolding and process-writing – the class was accustomed to writing timed essays and handing them in at the end of the period. The process of drafting usually consisted a worksheet with a table or chart helping them plan their points. For this assignment, I emphasized the collaborative nature of planning by having them look at samples in groups and decide on what worked and what didn’t work for that particular brochure’s purpose and audience. Following this, students were to go home and fill in a planning template (worksheet) with the points they had brainstormed for their own brochure. During the next lesson which was reading period, I conferenced with groups of three students at a time to check on their progress and help them out with questions. This gave students an opportunity to clarify doubts about my expectations for the assignment. I always began these mini-conferences by directing students’ attention to the set of rubrics and asking them to rate their work first before I gave any comments. I did this so that students would recognize that they had the ability to do self-assessments without always relying on the teacher for the “right answer”.
What students learnt:
I could assess how well students understood how purpose and context affected content through the planning templates that were graded alongside their own informative brochures that they had researched, designed and created. I could match what students had told me about their target audience (e.g. young teenagers, trendy, love for music) with the design and content of their brochures (e.g. bright colours or all-black, information about handphones that can play music etc.) They also had the chance to apply their knowledge of the features of the brochure (e.g. bulleted points, subheadings), using them to organize information in their own brochures.
Best practices in teaching:
• Always give a set of rubrics for major assignments. I have found that even though this takes a bit of effort, it increases the quality of student work immensely as students know exactly what makes a good piece of work and can aim to produce it.
• This empowers students to do self-assessment as well because they can measure how well they are doing at every stage.
• Creating rubrics may seem difficult and daunting but I think it gets better with practice. It makes grading assignments MUCH MUCH easier, and you get an idea of how to refine your rubrics once you go through one round of marking.
• Include the planning process in assessment. This helps students know that every stage of planning is important – they won’t believe you saying it’s important unless it is assessed (I think this applies to most students in our Singaporean context).
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