TASK 1 -
One of the lessons went well was a lesson I had with form 3 students. The topic was about
people and it was a lesson (to enhance writing) on describing people appearances .Using power point, (actually i wanted to use flash...but it's so time consuming!)I started off with showing them their very own snapshots that i had taken earlier during my classes. I got them to describe about their own appearances. They responded well to the pictures shown as it were their very own. They had a good time laughing and at the same time describing at those candid shots i took. The describing went on and on for quite some time as they were describing from head to toe. Without realising, they have successfully described using adjectives. I wrote all the adjectives mentioned on the board. The final few photos were superimposed. I did some editing with adobe photoshop to make them look slightly older, darker, with long hair etc. They were simply in 'stitches'! Next, i got them to create a sentence using those adjective and I also got them to expand those sentences. Here's an example
Jane is beautiful.Jane is a beautiful lady.Jane is a beatiful lady with long hair.Jane is a beautiful lady with long black hair.Jane is a beautiful lady with long black hair and green hazel eyes.
What made the lesson successful was because the pictures used were theirs and their friends.
I learned that students learned much better when they are exposed to technology. Using
computer, lcd, teaching softwares are a must in classrooms today but its totally different
when you manage to inject a teeny weeny creativity of your own to all those gadgets to come
up with something original and refreshing. I wouldn't say that it had much difference compared to other lessons as i have always tried to incorporate IT elements when i teach. What made the lesson successful was the response that i had gotten from the students. They
successfully came up with interesting decription of people using sentence expansion
technique. Not only that, as sentence expansion maintains the same structure of sentence,
they kinda memorized it at the same time too. I certainly have shared this sentence
expansion activity with my collegues and it worked wonders!! May be you could try it too and tell me about it.
TASK 2
It was a challenging lesson as i was teaching a group of good students ( a little demanding one
-as they always look for something exciting) and because i have to spend some time
editing photo shots, it's still kinda new to me.
The ideas for this lesson came from a friend of mine who is a teacher in another residential
school.I thought it was worth a try and indeed it worked wonders for my students as now they
have become more creative and expressive whenever they write their essays. There is
something I learnt from this particular lesson and that was to always inject our lessons
with something they are closely related with..n nowadays they are entwined with technology!
Friday, January 30, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
Task 1 :
a) One of the lessons that went well was a lesson i had with the form 2 students in 2007. The topic was The Phantom Of The Opera ( Plot ). I started the lesson with a 5- 8 minutes quiz about the novel to check on the students' undertstanding of the novel. Next, i put them into groups and asked them to choose a leader and a secretary. In this lessson, students were required to produce a poster to promote the novel. Guidelines and samples were given to the students to keep them into the right track. At the end of the lesson, students were required to put up their posters on the wall so that everyone would be able to look at each other's product. Marks were given and the group with the highest marks was given a present as a token of appreciation for their good efforts. I got the idea for this lesson from a discussion that i did with a friend of mine.
b) This lesson was different from other lessons as the lesson was an integration of English and Art subjects.
c) The integrations between Art and English subjects made the lesson fun and enjoyable. Students were able to use their creativity to produce attractive posters. Students who were good in art could come up with interesting drawings and those who were good in language would be able to describe the novel interestingly.
d) I learned that having a leader for each group is very important as the leader could help the teacher in class control. The leader could also help the teacher in making sure that all group members participated in the group discussions. Besides that, i also learned that guidelines and samples must be given to the students so that students have a clear idea on what they were suppose to come out with.
e) To improve the lesson, i supposed i could ask the students to evaluate their own works. I could ask the students in the class or students from the other classes to vote on the best poster. This could encourage good competitions among the students. I did share this lesson with a colleague of mine. She did the same lesson with her students and it was as succesfull as mine was.
Task 2 :
a) One of the lessons that i felt was challenging was a lesson i had with the form 2 students last year. The topic was People and Social Issues. ( Day In Day Out ). In this lesson, students were required to produce an itinerary of a place that they would like to visit. I got the idea for this particular lesson from the form 2 textbook. I did some alterations to the lesson to make it more interesting.
b) This lesson was different from other lessons as students were required to use the Publisher programme to produce an itinerary. As students were not familiar with Publisher programme, I had to teach the students on how to use the programme before the students proceed with the task.
c) The lesson was challenging as i had to make sure that the students were confident enough to use the programme before giving them the task.
d) I learned that I had to be knowledgeable and confident in using Publisher in order to use the programme to teach. This is because during the lesson, students tend to ask many questions regarding the programme. Besides, there would be many technical difficulties that I had to solve.
e) To improve the lesson, I would need to give a sample of the product that the students need to come up with. As for the weaker students, helping words or step by step guidance would be helpful for them.
f) I had indeed share the experience with other teachers in a workshop that i had to conduct in the school.
a) One of the lessons that went well was a lesson i had with the form 2 students in 2007. The topic was The Phantom Of The Opera ( Plot ). I started the lesson with a 5- 8 minutes quiz about the novel to check on the students' undertstanding of the novel. Next, i put them into groups and asked them to choose a leader and a secretary. In this lessson, students were required to produce a poster to promote the novel. Guidelines and samples were given to the students to keep them into the right track. At the end of the lesson, students were required to put up their posters on the wall so that everyone would be able to look at each other's product. Marks were given and the group with the highest marks was given a present as a token of appreciation for their good efforts. I got the idea for this lesson from a discussion that i did with a friend of mine.
b) This lesson was different from other lessons as the lesson was an integration of English and Art subjects.
c) The integrations between Art and English subjects made the lesson fun and enjoyable. Students were able to use their creativity to produce attractive posters. Students who were good in art could come up with interesting drawings and those who were good in language would be able to describe the novel interestingly.
d) I learned that having a leader for each group is very important as the leader could help the teacher in class control. The leader could also help the teacher in making sure that all group members participated in the group discussions. Besides that, i also learned that guidelines and samples must be given to the students so that students have a clear idea on what they were suppose to come out with.
e) To improve the lesson, i supposed i could ask the students to evaluate their own works. I could ask the students in the class or students from the other classes to vote on the best poster. This could encourage good competitions among the students. I did share this lesson with a colleague of mine. She did the same lesson with her students and it was as succesfull as mine was.
Task 2 :
a) One of the lessons that i felt was challenging was a lesson i had with the form 2 students last year. The topic was People and Social Issues. ( Day In Day Out ). In this lesson, students were required to produce an itinerary of a place that they would like to visit. I got the idea for this particular lesson from the form 2 textbook. I did some alterations to the lesson to make it more interesting.
b) This lesson was different from other lessons as students were required to use the Publisher programme to produce an itinerary. As students were not familiar with Publisher programme, I had to teach the students on how to use the programme before the students proceed with the task.
c) The lesson was challenging as i had to make sure that the students were confident enough to use the programme before giving them the task.
d) I learned that I had to be knowledgeable and confident in using Publisher in order to use the programme to teach. This is because during the lesson, students tend to ask many questions regarding the programme. Besides, there would be many technical difficulties that I had to solve.
e) To improve the lesson, I would need to give a sample of the product that the students need to come up with. As for the weaker students, helping words or step by step guidance would be helpful for them.
f) I had indeed share the experience with other teachers in a workshop that i had to conduct in the school.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Task 1 and 2 by Siti Faridah
A lesson that went well:
One of the lessons that I would do whenever I teach a Form 2 class is one on giving instructions, to be exact, writing instructions for a recipe. Most of my students would really enjoyed this lesson, except for when they felt misplaced in the group. In this lesson ( 80 minutes lesson/ double period), students were to write the instructions for making a drink (for weak students) or a dish (for good and average students). Students were also required to use sequence connectors in the instructions, so they were exposed to some sequence connectors first. Then, they discuss on one simple recipe to write on and start writing the instructions into maximum of 6 steps. Students were also required to make illustrations(on mahjong paper) for their instructions, which means there will be 6 illustrations for the 6 steps. I haven't tried this using the IT yet, don't know how to. The students would normally have to complete the illustrations at home after the lesson and present on the next lesson in class. The students' presentation can be used for their oral assessment. I got this lesson from one of my TESL coursemates when we were doing practical teaching back in 1989. But she was doing it differently which I couldn't recall anymore as I have been doing a lot of changes to it. I believe the lesson was successful because the students enjoyed it and the end-product was really creative. Oh...I even gave prizes to the best and creative illustrations or presentations. The students did take a long time to decide on the recipe and made a lot noise, so sometimes I brought my students outside to the canteen or the school hall. I had shared this experience with other teachers, some like it and said they would try it in their class but there were also some who just could not bear the noise. By the way, I would go around the class to make sure they were using EL when discussing. But, of course, there were some 'mother tongue' interactions heard especially when I turned my back from them. I would like to try this using the IT next time but I've no idea on how to make the students draw the illustrations using the computer.
Task 2 - A challenging lesson:
One lesson that I found challenging is when I asked students (in a group of 3) to interview a teacher of their own choice in the staffroom to gather information about him/her so that students could write an essay about the person. Originally, I got the idea from a Bahasa Melayu teacher teaching a Form 1 class on writing a short paragraph on a teacher without revealing the name and at the end of the lesson students from other groups had to guess who the teacher was. I had made some alterations to the lesson by making them draw an illustration of the teacher. But last year, I made another alteration to the lesson by making them interview a teacher first. I brainstormed some simple questions that the students could use before they started interviewing the teachers. The lesson became challenging when some teachers refused to be interviewed (eventhough I've told them earlier) and some students were a bit late in starting their task. This is probably due to their inconfidence in spoken English. From this lesson I've learned that for those who are not fluent in the EL, they need to have a warming up session first before they are being 'put into' a real conversation. Thus, in the future, for the teachers to be interviewed I will list down all the questions that will be asked by the students, and for the students I will make a short session on interviewing each other in class first before I start letting them loose in the staffroom. I think I've told some other EL teachers about what I did and there were some responses but I've forgotten what they had said. I should have written them down...so, that will be my 2009 resolution!! I should hang a notebook and a pen around my neck at all time!! What do you think? Well, friends, please...do comment.
One of the lessons that I would do whenever I teach a Form 2 class is one on giving instructions, to be exact, writing instructions for a recipe. Most of my students would really enjoyed this lesson, except for when they felt misplaced in the group. In this lesson ( 80 minutes lesson/ double period), students were to write the instructions for making a drink (for weak students) or a dish (for good and average students). Students were also required to use sequence connectors in the instructions, so they were exposed to some sequence connectors first. Then, they discuss on one simple recipe to write on and start writing the instructions into maximum of 6 steps. Students were also required to make illustrations(on mahjong paper) for their instructions, which means there will be 6 illustrations for the 6 steps. I haven't tried this using the IT yet, don't know how to. The students would normally have to complete the illustrations at home after the lesson and present on the next lesson in class. The students' presentation can be used for their oral assessment. I got this lesson from one of my TESL coursemates when we were doing practical teaching back in 1989. But she was doing it differently which I couldn't recall anymore as I have been doing a lot of changes to it. I believe the lesson was successful because the students enjoyed it and the end-product was really creative. Oh...I even gave prizes to the best and creative illustrations or presentations. The students did take a long time to decide on the recipe and made a lot noise, so sometimes I brought my students outside to the canteen or the school hall. I had shared this experience with other teachers, some like it and said they would try it in their class but there were also some who just could not bear the noise. By the way, I would go around the class to make sure they were using EL when discussing. But, of course, there were some 'mother tongue' interactions heard especially when I turned my back from them. I would like to try this using the IT next time but I've no idea on how to make the students draw the illustrations using the computer.
Task 2 - A challenging lesson:
One lesson that I found challenging is when I asked students (in a group of 3) to interview a teacher of their own choice in the staffroom to gather information about him/her so that students could write an essay about the person. Originally, I got the idea from a Bahasa Melayu teacher teaching a Form 1 class on writing a short paragraph on a teacher without revealing the name and at the end of the lesson students from other groups had to guess who the teacher was. I had made some alterations to the lesson by making them draw an illustration of the teacher. But last year, I made another alteration to the lesson by making them interview a teacher first. I brainstormed some simple questions that the students could use before they started interviewing the teachers. The lesson became challenging when some teachers refused to be interviewed (eventhough I've told them earlier) and some students were a bit late in starting their task. This is probably due to their inconfidence in spoken English. From this lesson I've learned that for those who are not fluent in the EL, they need to have a warming up session first before they are being 'put into' a real conversation. Thus, in the future, for the teachers to be interviewed I will list down all the questions that will be asked by the students, and for the students I will make a short session on interviewing each other in class first before I start letting them loose in the staffroom. I think I've told some other EL teachers about what I did and there were some responses but I've forgotten what they had said. I should have written them down...so, that will be my 2009 resolution!! I should hang a notebook and a pen around my neck at all time!! What do you think? Well, friends, please...do comment.
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