Reflection
on my teaching experience in SJK(T) Ladang Semenyih.
Last month, the School
of Education prepared a training programme for all the undergraduates’ students.
We were assigned into three different groups and were asked to design and
conduct lessons/activities for the primary six students to improve their
literacy skills such as reading, writing and confidence in speaking. Each group
will have 25 students in a classroom and the theme for this project is 'environment'. I was put in Group 3 and
the topic we chose is about ‘Saving the Environment’. First, we planned our logistics,
where we chose three main teachers to conduct the lessons/ activities each week
(four Fridays) and the remaining teachers chose five students to observe their
performance and participation in the classroom.
Week 1 Friday (4th Oct 2013)
The goal for this first lesson was to get to know
the students background, their strengths and weaknesses and their ability to
participate in the activities/lessons. I was the main teacher for this week and
started off the class with an introduction by greeting the students. I also
gave instructions by asking the students to write their names on the provided
coloured nametags and stick it on to their uniforms. So that it is easy for us
to remember the students’ names. Next, each student will be given 1 piece of
paper from a jar. This small piece of
paper contains the three main elements of the environment (water, earth, and
wind). Students were warned not to open their paper until everyone else gets
it. Next, we moved on to the ‘ice-breaking’
session where we played the 'Hitting/name
calling game’. The purpose of this game is to know both teachers and
students names better, and to develop a close-relationship with the students.
Next, our group introduced 3
brainstorm activities for the students to learn more about ‘Saving the Environment’. One of them is the ‘Hangman’ game. Another
main teacher
(Teacher 2) conducted this game by having students to guess the correct word
which is the ‘ENVIRONMENT’. The teacher carried
out the lesson by providing visual pictures for students to guess the
word. Upon my personal observations, half of the students were actively participated in this activity, except for one or two students. Students were also competing in solving the 'Hangman' game. Moreover, there are few students that were really good in speaking English. There understood
the instructions given by the teacher and even if their English proficiency is not perfect, they were eager to put their hands up and try guessing the
word on the whiteboard. While they are some students who are weak in
their English remained quiet , shy to express their ideas and also seem blank throughout this activity. Since
these students were weak in their English proficiency, we designed this
activity by letting them to use Malay and Tamil Language. But, we also encourage them to use English by providing prompts to help them to say or express the word.
Our second activity was the memo pad
game. Another main teacher (Teacher 3) who conducted this activity by asking
students to write down the things that is related to the environment. Students were allowed to write it in Tamil or
Bahasa Melayu (BM) so that they feel comfortable and interested to perform the
task. Based on my observations, I was really impressed with these students when
they giving out their answers in this activity. There were really knowledgeable about the
environment, but there were some grammar and spelling errors in their writing.There was this student who is unable to spell ‘apple’ and cannot think of the
English word for ‘pokok’. I feel that this student needs more attention to
build up his vocabulary and spelling. At
that moment, we decided to have a plan B by having feedback session. During
this feedback session, the teacher will go through each students answer and
improve both of their grammar and spelling errors. The teacher gave the
students the opportunity to explain their answers further.
After
they finished writing their answers on the memo pads, we continued with the
Happy and Sad Face Earth activity. I designed and conducted this activity where
I used cut out materials 'Happy and Sad Faces' to present my lesson because
I thought it would be easier for students to stay focused, and easier for me to
present my information about the Earth. First, I started off with the Sad Face, where I asked
the students ‘what is this’ ? (Pointing at the Sad Earth picture), “why is the
earth look sad/unhealthy"?. During my lesson, there are one or two students
managed to answer while others remained silent and blank. For those students
who are blank, I demonstrate by showing one example on what do I think that
makes the earth sad. Students used their visual learning style by seeing my
example on the whiteboard. After
providing them with an example, students were eager to say and write their
answers on the colourful memo pads. I asked them to write either in Tamil or
Bahasa Melayu so that they would be confident to carry out the task
efficiently.
I did the same for the Happy Earth
and show some scaffolding for the students by giving them an example on what I
think that makes the Earth happy/ healthy again. Before my time ended, I went
through all of the students answers on the whiteboard and gave some positive
feedbacks/ praise on students’ answers. Based on my observation, I can tell
that the students can write good English words and sentences but the one thing
is weak in most of their answers were their grammar and spelling errors. During
feedback session, I chose random answers and asked the students to explain why
they wrote that answer. Some of them gave a good explanation while one student
struggled to give her explanation on ‘government control the deforestation’. I
also found it hard to help scaffold her answer.
When designing and conducting this activity, I
also made an effort to employ as many teaching styles as possible. I applied my
knowledge of VAK by adopting various teaching styles. I used visual, auditory
and kinesthetic styles. First, I provided visual pictures on the board
(visual), followed by my instructions (auditory) and I demonstrate by showing
an example for students to see (visual learning styles). I observed that some
boys and few of the girls used their kinesthetic learning styles by moving
around the classroom and write as many answers as they can on the memo pads.
Both boys and girls were also motivated to come and paste their answers on the
white board.
Out of all these three activities,
we observed that these students were attempting to speak good or average
English. While some students found it
hard to understand the instructions in English and lose focus throughout these
activities. This showed that these students were not given the opportunity to
speak English at home, where all of them were used to speak Tamil at home.
These students needed extra coaching in the English Language especially in
their grammar and spelling.
After my activity, students learnt more about
the environment through the ‘Advanced Pictures’ activity, where the main teacher(Teacher 3) showed pictures
that is good and bad for the environment. All the activities, we encouraged
students to use their interpersonal skills, where they work in pairs or groups to
brainstorm ideas, seek help from their friends to avoid confusion and
misunderstandings. As for my activity, I provided visual images for students to
make the lesson interesting and have an example to guide them through the
activity. Students participated in the activities by
communicating and answering the questions in both English and a bit of Malay to
their teachers and peers (Linguistic).
This linguistic intelligence is used for all activities.
For
the next hour, we focused on role play. Teachers 3, 4 and 5(How, Chee Hao and
D’Hann) explained the meaning of role play, inform the students what they would
expect from this play and also tell them that this ‘play’ is going to be their
final presentation. Upon my observation,
some students knew how to do a role play while others seemed to be blurred and
confused. To make things clearer, three of these teachers will demonstrate a
role play to the students by acting out a couple of scenarios. This is to show
students how to do a role play using words relating to the environment and the
props to make the role play sounds meaningful and fun. Students watched the
demonstration and this gave them a clear visual idea about role-playing. The
multiple intelligences used in this part are teachers get to act out their
scripts to make a story regarding the environment (Interpersonal), teachers get to act by move around (Bodily-Kinesthetic), and students
observed their teachers doing a role play (Visual)
All
of us have learned to look beyond the classroom in dealing with the students’
poor performance. There are a few students were lack of focus and blank
throughout the activities such as finding hard to understand the instructions.
After applying more individual attention, I noticed a significant turnaround in
their attitudes and performance. These experiences left me determined to always
try to interact more with each student; seeing him or her as a whole person,
rather than simply a child who seems only to not care.
Multiple
Intelligences is proposed by Howard Gardner. He suggested that intelligence is
no single IQ number, but rather a collection of skills and talents that are
manifested differently in students. There are nine profiles of intelligences
which are linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial,
bodily-kinesthetic, naturalistic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and existential.
An understanding of Multiple Intelligences theory changes how I view my own
abilities through giving me a deeper meaning that when I sometimes take long to
grasp things does not necessarily mean that I am not intelligent, but rather
that I have a fundamentally deeper understanding. This affected my teaching by
providing activities to help these children to be aware of the different
intelligences. In our activities, we encouraged students to give out their ideas
(linguistic), students worked collaboratively in groups to share their ideas
and seek help from their friends(intrapersonal), come in front and paste their
memo pads on the whiteboards(bodily-kinesthetic).
Week 2 Friday (11th Oct 2013)
The goal for the second lesson was to teach students
‘guided reading’, learnt
new ‘environment’ vocabularies together with its meaning and also read articles
relating to ‘saving the environment’. This week lesson was short as we lasted
from 8 till 10 because the school principal Madam Rajeswari informed us that
there will be a praying session for all students and staff from 10am till 12pm.
Teacher 4(Chee Hao) started off
with the lesson by doing a quick
recap on the previous lesson with the students .The teacher regrouped the
students into three new groups. This time students were grouped according to
their ability levels (high, average, and weak).
Our group had decided to regroup the students
because of our observations on their performance in week 1. The reason we do
this is to help students to build up their confidence and encourage them to
share their ideas with their peers who are in the same group. They will also
feel motivated to perform the task and would not be afraid to ask questions and
speak out their ideas.
Similar to the previous week, we chose
another three main teachers to conduct a short vocabulary lesson before the
guided reading. First, teachers chose
four or five ‘environment’ vocabularies that students may not know. Then, they elicited the ‘environment’
vocabularies by showing pictures, props, and used gestures to elicit certain
words and phrases from students. The
other teachers and I were in charge of observing the students. During this
vocabulary lesson, I helped the main teacher who taught the weak ability
students by holding pictures or props that related with the vocabularies.
After the vocabulary lesson, the
teachers focused on ‘guided reading’. Teacher 4(Chee
Hao) taught students in the high ability group by using an article
on the ‘Waste Problem’. This article was designed where the language,
vocabulary and questions are advanced compared to the average and weak ability
group. Teacher 6(Darshini) taught
students in the average ability where their article ‘Our Poor Earth! Save it!’
was slightly advance for these students. As for the students in the weak
ability group, Teacher 7(So Yeon) taught
the article on ‘Earth Day, Every Day’, where the language and questions were
simple and given a word search to build their knowledge on environment. There
were also given prediction texts to test their prior understanding of the
topic. This part of the activity lasted within 15 to 20 minutes and the guided
reading lasted for 10 minutes, where students will read the article using the
skimming and scanning strategies and answer the questions provided in the
worksheets. Then, teachers in three different groups used concept-checking
questions (CCQs) to grade the students’ vocabularies. Upon my observations, I was really impressed
with the students from all three groups because they were focus and interested
to perform the task, some students helped their peers who are struggling with
the task. Even if these students have poor English language proficiency, they
were knowledgeable by asking questions and provide their own opinions/ ideas
about the article.
After reading, we have 25 minutes to
spare. In this hour, we decided to bring out the newspaper hitting/name calling
game. This is actually a reward for all students because they been on their
best behavior and performed their vocabulary and reading task successfully. We
wrapped up our lesson at 10am sharp.
Moreover, there are two other
important theories applied during this lesson. One is the VAK Theory. Based on the three groups that I observed, all the
teachers in the group used visual and auditory teaching styles. I can see that
most of the students were more towards visual and auditory learners. As we know
that visual learners learn best by seeing the information. In this guided
reading lesson, teachers used colourful flash cards to explain the vocabularies
and students were allowed to write down notes regarding the vocabularies they
have learnt. While auditory learners learnt best by hearing the information.
This style applied after teachers have explained the vocabularies, students
were asked to repeat the key vocabularies and pronounce the word together with
their peers in the group. The other
theory is the Multiple Intelligence
theory (M1). From my observations, there are many multiple intelligences
used in this ‘guided reading’
activity such as students discussed and help their peers in reading and
answering questions (interpersonal),
students were participating in discussions and expressing their ideas in
English, and students were also interested learning about the things around the
environment and provide solutions to help the Earth from getting harm (linguistic and naturalist)
Week 3 Friday(18th Oct 2013)
The goal for the third lesson is to
teach a short grammar lesson on modals such as ‘should’, ‘must’, and negative
modals such as ‘shouldn’t’, ‘mustn’t’. Then, show them a movie called ‘Wall-E’
and helped them to write role play scripts for their upcoming presentation (25th
October 2013). On this day, we arrived the school around 7.40am. When we
entered the classroom, all of us were shocked to see only eight students
attended the class. I asked one student why half of their classmates were
absent today. He responded by saying that they had a one-day trip to Penang and
came back late at night. So that’s the reason why they did not show up for
class. Despite the disadvantages, we just move on with our agenda for today and
made some changes to our lessons/ activities.
First, teacher 8(Deborah) took
over the housekeeping session, where she explained about today’s lesson and
what would students expect from this lesson. Another three main teachers
were assigned to teach a short grammar lesson
on modals. As for teachers who is observing and not teaching also took their
seat and focus on the lesson. During the grammar lesson, teacher 5(D’Hann) taught ‘should’ , teacher 8
taught ‘must’ and teacher 3(How) taught the negative modals for both ‘shouldn’t’ and
‘mustn’t’. The grammar lesson began with teacher 5 writing an example on the
whiteboard. The examples are “Everybody should wear helmets/seat
belts.” Then, teacher 5 elicited the target language (TL) and focused on
the meaning of the word. Teacher 5 will write an example of should on the
whiteboard.
After
showing the example, teacher 5 used concept checking questions (CCQ) to see
whether students have understood the modal ‘should’.
Teacher 5 will focus on the form on the word ‘should’. Teacher 5 asked students to point out should+ action word and check the use
of verb and modal ‘should’ whether it makes sense. After that, Teacher 5
focused on the pronunciation, where students need to tell the word ‘should’ in BM. If students are unsure
and don’t know the word, teachers will tell the word for ‘should’ in BM is harus. Teacher 5 asked all students to pronounce
the word should or nominate students
for pronunciation. After providing students with examples on ‘should’, teacher
5 encouraged students to construct their own sentence using the word ‘should’.
At the end, teacher 5 uses Concept-Checking Questions (CCQ) to see whether students
have understood the lesson. Teachers 8 repeated the instructions for the modal ‘must’.
After
students have known ‘should’ and ‘must’, they proceed by learning the negative
modals taught by teacher 3(How). Teacher 3 led in and reinforce on what
they have learned just now. The instructions is pretty much the same as above,
where teacher 3 will focus on elicitation and focus on the meaning of
‘shouldn’t’ and ‘mustn’t’ by writing an example on the board and later used
concept-checking questions(CCQ) to
see whether students have understood the lesson so far. Next, teacher 3 will
focus on the form and asked students to point out the action verb of the same
example. Then, teacher 3 asked students to pronounce the word and tell the
students that there are two ways we can write these negative modals such as
‘shouldn’t’, ‘should not’, ‘mustn’t’ and ‘must not’. Teacher 3 provides
concept-checking questions (CCQ) and
the grammar lesson ended. This week, I’m just a facilitator and observed the students’
performance.
During
the grammar lesson, I was paying attention and listening to the main teachers
who were teaching modals (grammar). The teachers’ voice projection was really
good, their instructions and concept-checking questions were clear and simple
and students seemed to be enjoying the lesson very much. When I’m observing the
students, I can see that there has been slight improvement in the students
English speaking skills, especially for the ones who are weak. There were
outspoken and confident in giving out their ideas and examples on modals. Other
students who were proficient in their English also showed some confidence to
share their ideas to the entire class. At the same time, there is one student
who struggled when she was asked to give an example on ‘must’. So, I helped her
by giving examples on the things that she does in her daily life such as ‘I must take my breakfast every morning’.
At
8.25am, students watched a movie called ‘Wall-E’. The purpose of showing this
movie to the students is to help them to understand the characters and roles in
the movie, and to give an idea to students on making storyline/scripts about
the environment. We showed the movie by using laptops provided by three
teachers .This movie lasted for two hours. At this time, I observed the
students and all 8 of them were focusing and enjoying the movie. After the
students finished watching the movie, we had a short discussion about the movie
by asking students their feelings/ thoughts about the movie, the main character
and what can do to prevent this situation from happening to the earth. During
the discussion, I can see that the students were actively engaged in the discussions
where they were able to give their thoughts and provide suggestions on
preventing this cause from happening to our planet Earth.
The discussion ended around 10.12am.
Moving on to the next part of the lesson, where we split the students into
three new groups. Group 1 will be air pollution, Group 2 will be water
pollution, and Group 3 will be land pollution. The other teachers and I chose
to sit with the group of students and guide them to write their scripts for the
role play. All three groups were required to write their scripts within 5
minutes. There were three teachers in Group 1, three teachers in Group 3 and the
other teacher and I was helping out only 2 students (one girl and one boy) in
Group 2. This is the part where I was facing difficulties as a teacher. I asked
the students to give out their ideas and I found that these children have
amazing ideas but they were just too long for the script. The other teacher who
was supposed to help me went to the other group. So, I was left alone with these two students
and was struggling to think of scenarios. Then, it was recess time at 10.45am
and my group 2 students had not finished with their characters and writing
their script. But this does not stop me as I immediately had a plan B. One of
the teachers from Group 1 decided to help me out. After students have returned
from their lunch break, they continued to think and list down the characters
for themselves and for their friends who are absent. The teacher and I managed
to brainstorm ideas and asked the students to write their lines using the
modals they have learned. Based on my observation, the two students were bright
and confident in giving out their ideas for their scripts. While they are
writing, I checked their grammar and spelling errors and language. At the end
of the day, these students did not have the chance to do a rehearsal because of
time constraint. But, I told them to rewrite the script, tell their other
friends and practice their lines for the role play.
For
VAK, most students used their auditory and kinesthetic learning styles. This
lesson encourages students to use their auditory learning styles by discussing
the modals together with the teachers and peers. They were allowed to speak
their answers and pronounce each of the modals words together. From my
observation, there is this student who used his kinesthetic learning style
during the modal lesson ‘must’. He is willing to come in front and write the
Malay word for ‘must’ and also construct
a sentence using the word ‘must’ on the whiteboard.
Experiential learning
What I understand about Experiential
Learning where learning occurs through experience. The learning tasks require
students to be active participants, have hands on opportunities and make
connections to the lessons. This learning combines active learning with
concrete experiences, abstract concepts and reflection in an effort to engage
all learning styles.
David Kolb has proposed a four-stage cyclical
theory of learning. The Kolb’s experiential learning is a holistic perspective
that combines experience, perception, cognition, and behavior. He believed that
“learning is the process whereby
knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” (1984, p. 38).
The diagram
below shows the four-stage cyclical-theory of learning.
- concrete
experience (or “DO”)
- reflective
observation (or “OBSERVE”)
- abstract
conceptualization (or “THINK”)
- active
experimentation (or “PLAN”)
The theme on ‘environment’ is suited to this
experience based learning because human plays a role in solving in every
environmental issue. Thus using an experience-based approach to a topic on
environment encourages students to examine their own effects on the
environment, whether it is positive or negative. Once these students have
become concretely aware of the ways in which they impact on their environment,
they can reflect on that and experiment with different
environmentally-conscientious behaviors outside the classroom.
Overall, my teaching has been guided
by Experiential learning where the other teachers and I have designed and
conducted activities which encourages
active learning, and collaborative learning . According to Meyers and Jones(1993), they said
that active learning provides opportunities for students to talk, listen, read,
write and reflect as they approach the course content through role playing and
class discussions which require students to apply what they are learning in the
classroom(Humanist Theories, 2013).
As a group, we designed and
conducted our activities that encourage students to be active learners such as to
get them involved in discussions about the things and explore the issues that
are affecting the environment and reflect upon their experiences and how they
might apply what was taught in real-life situations. Moreover, experiential
learning works for me. After my Happy and Sad Face Activity, I allowed my
students to reflect on what they have learned from this activity. This helped
them to draw connections between their personal experiences and the lesson in
the classroom. I also attempted to
provide generalized feedback to the whole class by praising their answers,
along with the individual feedback to some students. When I helped my students in writing their
scripts, I encourage them to work in groups. Two of them found it difficult to
write the storyline and dialogues. As a teacher, I provided some guidance by
dividing the task among them. One student can write the storyline and the other
writes the dialogue.
To conclude, I have learned a lot
from this field project where I got the experience teaching in a real classroom , given the opportunity to conduct the activities and lessons using theories such as VAK, multiple intelligences
and observe how these students used their different learning styles in the
classroom. This field project has given me a deeper understanding on using the theories that I've learned throughout this module and applying them in the classroom.
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