Nirmal Kaur

Task 1:
One of the lessons that went well with my Form 1 class in the year 2008 was on the short story “How Dalat Got Its Name”. It was a simple lesson on plot, the purpose being to familiarise students with the events in the story. The lesson was started off by asking a few questions about the story such as the names of the characters, their relationship with each other, the setting of the story, etc. Then, the class was divided into groups of 6 and each group was given a jumbled up set of sentences. The students in the groups had to sequence themselves in a line according to the plot in the story. Later I conducted a quiz on plot among the 6 groups. The quiz comprised multiple choice questions and true false statements. Finally the students had to answer comprehension questions on plot based on two excerpts.

a) The idea of the students sequencing themselves in a line was from a course that I attended a long time ago.

b) This lesson was different from other lessons involving the sequencing of events because here the students had to move about in the group to make sure they were standing at the right place in the line.

c) The lesson was a success because it involved movement, instead of the normal ‘sitting in a group’ activity.

d) Students are excited and co-operative to carry out activities involving movement as most of the time they would be at their desks.

e) To improve this lesson, it would be better if the sequencing part of the lesson be done in an open area because students require space. The tables and chairs in the classroom are a hindrance to their movement.

f) As usual, I sometimes casually share my ideas with another colleague but can’t remember whether I did so for this lesson or not.


Task 2 :One of the lessons that went well but was a bit challenging with my Form 1 class in the year 2008 was on the poem “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”. It was a concluding lesson that was conducted in the Multimedia Lab. I started off the lesson with questions about the poem to refresh the students' memory of it. Some of the questions were:-
(i) what type of house the poet chose to live in
(ii) the location and description of the house
(iii) what he would do for a living
(iv) the poet’s reasons for choosing that particular type of life

Then, I instructed the students to close their eyes and to imagine the type of house that they wanted to live in, its location, what it looked like and what surrounded the house. A few students were asked to describe their imagination to the class using the future tense. They came up with fantastic imaginary houses such as a treehouse in the middle of an island. Then, came the interesting part of the lesson where the students had to work in pairs and browse the internet to look for the image of a type of house that they would like to live in. They were told to copy and paste the image into a word document and then to type out their description using the future tense based on the guided questions. At the end of the lesson, the students had to send in their entries as attachment via e-mail to the teacher. Some students did not know how to do that. So I asked those students who knew how to do it (there were some) to teach their friends. The best entries were displayed on the class notice board.

a) I got the guided questions for this lesson from a workbook which I further adapted and the ICT part was an idea of my own that struck my mind as I was relaxing.
b) This lesson was different from other lessons because it was an integration of language and ICT.
c) The use of ICT made the lesson fun and enjoyable but it was challenging. I had actually overestimated the students' ability in using e-mails. The lesson was challenging because some students did not have an e-mail account and neither knew how to create one. Some had an account but didn’t know how to send attachments via e-mails. Although I instructed those who knew how to do it, they were only willing to do after they had finished their work (which I can well understand - the time constraint they had in the lab). So, I had to stop the students halfway during the lesson and teach that aspect of it. Because the students were already engrossed in their work (showing their keen interest) some were not attentive enough and later asked again and so I was practically tired walking around the class giving the steps at the pace they were working. Besides, some computers had technical problems which I was unable to solve and students had to wait for their turn or attempt the task after school. After school meant less guidance for them from the technical aspect.
d) Students are able to learn a language item better through activities which interest them. Here, their interest was on the use of computers and ICT. They were very happy to have that hands on experience to do their work using ICT and I actually got entries from almost all of them. When students find that we share their interests, the product is better.
e) To improve the lesson, I suppose I should have one session with the students on creating e-mail accounts and sending attachments. That would have made me less tired! I could also put up all the descriptions on the class notice board and ask the students to evaluate their friends’ work, instead of me alone.

f) I did casually talk about the activity involving the use of ICT with two or three colleagues.

That’s my experience. Do comment.

How to put diagrams in your entry?

Hi everybody,

I think it is good to share this stuff with all of you - just in case you need to put any diagram(s) in your entry as an illustration to your presentation/discussion.

STEPS:
1. Draw your diagram(s) in PowerPoint file
2. View the slide
3. Printscreen the slide view (find for PrtSc/PrintScreen on one of your keyboard buttons -> Press the button
4. Open Paint program (if you do not know how to open it - click Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Paint
5. Paste the prinstscreen of your slide show in Paint
6. Save it as JPEG (File -> Save As -> name the file (File name) -> Save as type: JPEG -> Save
7. Go to your blog -> New Post (or Edit Post, if you have already posted your entry but you want to add some diagrams -> click Add image icon (third icon from right)
8. A new window (Blogger - Upload image) will appear
9. Click Browse - find the file that you saved from Paint -> click Upload Image
10. Once it's done, the picture will be appeared in your posting box - you can easily drag the picture to the place you want it to be or alternatively you can cut the picture and paste it between paragraphs.
11. If you are satisfied with it, as usual click Publish Post.

Below is the example of a 'diagram' which I created using the steps above:



NB: Apart from using Paint, you can also use another application like Photoshop etc, however I choose to use Paint in this example - considering that some of you might not have Photoshop installed in their PC/notebook.

Christina - First response to tasks 1 and 2

Task 1. Describe one of your lessons that went very well. For this lesson, explain what you were teaching, how you were teaching and how you knew it went well. In your description of your lesson consider the following:
a. Where did your ideas for this lesson come from?
b. How was this different from other lessons?
c. What do you think made the lesson successful?
d. Did you learn anything from the experience?
e. If you want to improve this lesson how would you do it?f. Have you shared your experience with anyone else?
One of the lessons I can remember from year 2008 is a lesson conducted quite early in the year. It was a Form 3 lesson. The subject of study was Tun Abdul Razak but I brought in elements from the USA history as well, specifically Martin Luther King, and another famous person, Nelson Mandela. How I planned the lesson was basically by looking at what we were supposed to cover. It was a lesson that was different because I decided not to focus too much on language content but on historical significance and using material that was available elsewhere (internet). I would say the lesson was successful because we moved away from convention whereby language was of the utmost importance. Instead, we looked at information on the persons as found in other media, ie. the internet. We also looked at something that WAS language-based, and that was Martin Luther King's famous speech that contained "I have a dream". We studied that part of the speech for its language content, how certain things are expressed in poetic language. The main thing I learned from the lesson (actually a series of lessons) is that we have to move away from just focusing on language content. There is a need to draw the students' interest in matters that we are supposed to teach and by focusing on other things such as historical significance (or scientific discovery, or impact of certain rock bands, even), we show that we respect the students' interests. When the students find that we share their interests, they have a new respect for our interests and the things we try to teach them.
To improve this lesson, I would probably be a lot more organised. Instead of just asking the students to look for information on Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, I would ask them to tell me why they would want a leader like them. I would prepare more sign post questions to lead them to where I want them to be. And yes, I have shared about the lesson with a colleague who was teaching the same topic but in a different manner.

Task 2 All teachers experience challenges. Could you describe one that was very challenging. Where did your ideas for this lesson come from?
a. Where did your ideas for this lesson come from?
b. How was this different from other lessons?
c. What do you think made the lesson challenging?
d. Did you learn anything from the experience?
e. If you want to improve this lesson how would you do it?
f. Have you shared your experience with anyone else?
One of the challenges I find in teaching is trying to NOT prepare a one-size fits all kind of lesson. Come what may, our students have varying levels of proficiency and face different problems in language learning. One of the lessons I had which was challenging to implement was one on famous persons. I asked the students to get into groups of 4 and each group is given the name of a famous person (an entertainer). They were to pretend (as a group) to be that person and prepare for an interview by journalists in a press conference. The journalists are actually members from another group. So each group was interviewed as a famous person, and also became journalists. The challenge was actually to get the students to speak up. Some students did find it difficult to ask questions (esp in a polite manner), and to answer (politely). They tended to get carried away with the role-playing. I got the idea from the students themselves as they were often sharing gossips about artistes. It was challenging because I have to discover the artistes that interested them and they knew about. And it was different because the lesson was going to be all speaking and listening and no writing. I learned later that I should have included writing as an enrichment task - ie. write a short paragraph about the interview they conducted. It was a very noisy lesson and things were getting slightly out of control and I would plan my lesson a little differently so that it would be less noisy. I did share with a colleague .... and got some feedback from her.
That's about it. It has been a long response. Do comment. Thanks.

greetings

Hi everyone,
Time is just flying! It seems as if we just had the workshop...only to realise it's been 2 weeks now! How are things going? Remember, your blog entry should be in by 8 December. Have fun!