Thornbury uses many metaphors to describe what a lesson is like. I do agree with all the metaphors used as a good lesson should have a plot,theme, rhythm, flow and a sense of ending. However, it's difficult to remember every one of them.

To put it simply and to enable myself to remember better, a good lesson should state its objective, have an appropriate introduction, teacher-centred instruction and student-centred learning activities (body/development), key takeaways of the lesson as a consolidation and a reasonable conclusion.

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class on 4th october

hi

Omkar's ESE reflections

Omkar's ESE reflections

 

My appointment to ACJC as an ESE trainee has been particularly fruitful. Besides being an excellent premise for enlightenment, it offers an ideal opportunity for a fresher like me to soak in the different nuances of teaching and work life in Singapore.

 

During the two months of class room observation I became conversant with various methods of teaching for which I remain indebted to the 'Economics Department' of ACJC and particularly to Madam Rahimah (My mentor).

 

The students at ACJC were mostly proficient in their understanding of the subject I taught/observed(at least the H2s).They were mostly cooperative and the lessons went smooth with occasional confusions regarding my accent.

 

I was not asked to observe/teach EL classes and thus I am giving an account of my experiences/learning in general as well as areas to improve upon in the following paragraphs:

 

 

Holistic development of a child:

 

 

ü  Recognizing and rewarding hard work:

As every child is different so are their needs. Madam Rahimah personalizes her teaching for almost every child in her classes. A certain girl in 2EC206 was exempted from reprimanding (regarding the non-completion of a home-work) keeping in view of her genuine academic involvements outside that class. Another boy in 2EC302, who was dropping from H2 to H1, was given regular counsels. These enable a teacher to form a rapport with her pupils which make them a lot more receptive to her teaching.

ü  Being considerate:

Madam Rahimah on another occasion postponed an economic workshop keeping in view the possible overlap of preparation time between her class and a Physics SPA. A teacher's concern, thus, should not only be confined within her own lessons but also that of the others' as the ultimate intention of a teacher should be a pupil's holistic development.

ü  Questioning and responding:

Modern teaching is less about lecturing and increasingly more about asking the relevant questions which bring the pupils to think and finally form a deduction to which the teacher responds to further clarify student-understanding. Scaffolding only helps to bring the pupils to think in the right direction.

ü  Monitoring:

Monitoring of students' learning could be done through classroom recaps, asking students to share his/her explanation to the whole class or simply by asking a class to prepare an essay on a newly taught topic. These would help a teacher to know individual deficiencies in a class, giving him/her a platform to act accordingly.

ü  Enhancing soft skills:

Through PBL presentations or the everyday sharing of answers in front of the entire class, the art of public speaking could be inculcated in students.

 

 

 

 

Subject Mastery:

 

 

ü  Remaining updated (nationally and internationally):

Madam Rahimah ensures that she remains updated on each and every major proceeding in the world of economics both nationally and internationally. Her inputs during the PBL series deserve a special mention in this regard. A teacher should always be prepared to expand his/her own horizon of content and current affairs in order to stimulate thinking among his/her students.

ü  Using media (print and audio-visual) to apply theory in practice:

Selection of appropriate media presentations for specific student-needs is equally important. Madam Rahimah selects portions from The Strait Times, The Economist, you-tube and various other sources to arouse interest in the subject. This practical application of curriculum knowledge helps to bring out the potential best from students.

 

 

Creativity:

 

 

ü  Using online resources to help students build logical inferences of the real world:

Economic policies could seem vague and too textbook unless supported by real life instances. A classic example was one of Mr. Mashren's(the Level Head of Economics) classes where he brought out the possible solutions as well as their evaluations of the problem of giving 'unemployment benefits' by just showing a few BBC clippings in his class.

ü  PBL:

The Problem Based Learning series conducted by Madam Rahimah synthesized multiple aspects of student learning. From an exposure to real life economic problems to the thorough understanding of economic concepts required for analyzing the needs and prescribing policies, these lessons were both enjoyable and hugely beneficial for the pupils. A teacher should always look forward to advocate for creative methods like this to multiply student-learning.

ü  Group formation:

Forming groups and assigning them some work in the classes promotes not only exchange of key ideas but also a sense of team spirit. Mrs. Wai Hin, in one of her classes, split the class in four groups to encourage scholarly discussions among her students. A similar tactic was followed by Mr. Clifton when he divided one of his classes in four equal parts so that each group could respond on the four aspects of a single economic concept.

ü  Reflections after evaluation of answer scripts:

Failure is the pillar of success. Even if a student fails it could be reversed through well planned introspection and a little guidance, a sort, Madam Rahimah does after evaluation of term exam papers. Students benefit immensely through this as it helps them analyze and realize the reason(s) behind their failure.

 

ü  Using surveys:

Surveys could reinforce student's understanding and make him/her even more interested about the subject. A survey under Miss Marhaini and Mrs. Chan to a bakery, served this purpose.

ü  Use of acronyms:

Use of acronyms could prove to be very helpful in enhancing student memory. In some of Mr. Hashim's classes he used this technique and the students reciprocated gleefully.

 

 

Creating Positive environment:

 

 

ü  Reiteration of the purpose of a specific task:

Whether it is PBL or going on a survey, a teacher should always ensure that the purpose of any such exercise should be clarified to the pupils again and again. This helps in the better attainment of the desired goals.

ü  Respecting students' views:

It is imperative for a teacher to respect a student's view on a certain academic issue as it is conducive of an environment of healthy discussions within a class which has become instrumental for modern teaching.

ü  Letting students mark each others assignments:

Madam Rahimah uses this tactic to invite positive criticisms and thus alternative learning among her students.

ü  Technology:

Apart from the usual whiteboard, visualisers and power point slides have become essential for classroom teaching. Their audio-visual effects create a lasting impact of the demonstrated concept on the students. ACJC has an impressive repertoire of ICT(eg. "live lecture") tools and I am extremely fortunate to have experienced a slice of that.

 

 

 

 

Reflections - by Mei San

Dear all,

I taught General Paper for a year at Serangoon Junior College (SRJC) although my CS1 is Economics (JC) and my CS2 is English Language (Sec). It has been a good learning experience for me as I find that I learn most when I teach. I also realise that there is an application question in the Comprehension paper, which is entirely new to me.

I was assigned 1 GP class last year and 2 GP classes this year. Although discipline problem is generally not much of an issue in a JC, there were occasions when I had the same 2 to 3 students who fell asleep during my lessons. I was quite disturbed by this occurrence as I took it to mean that my lessons were not engaging enough.

We have a culture of sharing teaching materials and resources in SRJC and this is very useful for new teachers like me. Content packages are prepared by various teams and we stick to the same format so as not to confuse the students - overview and content notes on the topic, extra readings, essay outlines and comprehension passages. We also made it compulsory for our students to subscribe to "Broader Perspectives" in the hope that they will read this monthly magazine on their own to gain better general knowledge.

The Scheme of Work / Lesson Plans for GP lessons usually dictate that we introduce a topic by helping students do a mindmap. We encourage students to read their content packages before the class and the first lesson is usually spent eliciting responses from them just to ensure that they have done their readings. Subsequent lessons will be used to work through essay outlines and comprehension passages.

One new initiative of the department in Term 3 this year is the R2D2 (Read and Reflect; Discuss and Demonstrate) approach to teaching/learning. Every week, one teacher will be tasked to source for an article of interest for students to read. After this reading, they are supposed to reflect on some questions which serve as potential application questions in the Comprehension paper. Teachers are expected to discuss the issue in the article with the students and to demonstrate how the examples can be aptly applied to other colleges' preliminary exam questions as well as past GCE 'A' Level exams. This activity is beneficial for the students but we often find it a challenge to carry out this discussion because it has not been factored into our Scheme of Work.

To be a competent English Language/General Paper teacher, I believe that not only must lessons be engaging enough to sustain students' interest in the subject, but more importantly, we must also be able to strike a good balance between fun lessons (e.g. videos, role play, debates) and those which allow students a chance for time practice as well as to hone their exam skills. Based on the quality of teaching survey feedback from students, I would need to engage them more and come up with more interesting lesson plans because after a while, my lessons have become very predictable. I hope to achieve this objective for this QCE520 course.

Thanks.

Reflections by Vanessa Kwan

Hello everyone,

I started my contract teaching stint in Victoria JC at the end of July 2009. Over the one-year period that I was there, I was deployed to teach JC 1 Economics and did not teach English. I had the opportunity however to observe a few JC 1 GP lessons during the first semester this year and here are my takeaways from those lesson observations.

I had the privilege of observing a senior GP teacher who had been teaching for more than ten years. He would come up with various classroom activities or discussion styles such that students never knew what to expect each lesson. This can be intimidating if left to a stern teacher, however, this teacher that I observed managed to instil curiosity and excitement in the students. They were eager to attend classes weekly and were enthusiastic and ready to speak up in class. What I found was that the classroom environment during GP lessons is very encouraging for students to participate and share their thoughts / opinions on the issue at hand, and for peer learning to take place. GP can be intimidating for students who aren’t strong in their current affairs or ability to speak up. The teacher managed to eliminate any trace of that in class by using humour and approachability in his manner of speaking.

One weekly activity conducted was the sharing of articles by the students to encourage them to read up more about current affairs. Students would find an article that appealed to them and had educational value and they would share it with the class for about 5 minutes at the start of lesson. I found this activity useful as it got students reading and also got the quieter students to speak up more as well. Sometimes if the topic of discussion was relevant or pertinent, the discussion can extend beyond 5 minutes and become a classroom sharing. What I liked very much about this was that the pace of learning was set by students. They had the autonomy to self-direct their learning as well as learn from one another.


Some of the areas I feel that I need to work on to be a good EL teacher is proficiency & mastery in the language. I would also like to acquire the necessary skills to be able to engage students in effective discussion and for learning to take place through these discussions. I hope to work on being more flexible in teaching English and to be able to sustain the interests of students in the subject matter through various teaching methods.

Thank you.

Reflection

Dear All

I was posted to Yuhua Secondary in mid-Sep last year. This is a neighbourhood school where the kids usually do not speak English at home. Even, if they speak English, many are still not proficient in speaking and writing standard good English. The school is very old and does not have very good infrastructure. The library is very small and only a small number of students actually make use of the library resources for their own learning.

Last year, I had opportunities to observe English lessons. However, as it was during term 4 , the teachers were all going through examination papers and common tests. So I had no opportunities to observe how the English teachers actually taught their students.

Then, at the start of this year, I was assigned a 3NA class to teach. In the beginning, I faced difficulties in classroom management, conducting the English lessons and meeting the expectations of the English department in my school. Fortunately, I had two teachers who were in-charge of the other two 3NA classes. I worked together with them and the three of us actually shared resources among ourselves. From time to time, the three of us met and planned our lessons. In that way, we were able to save a lot of time and I definitely learned a lot from my peers.

Then, recently, I had opportunities to observe a few English lessons because of the hand-over of my class to another teacher. I particularly liked one of his lessons and wish to share with all of you. There was a news report some time back in which an ex-police officer boarded a tour bus in the Philippines and took hostage of 25 passengers. The hostage-taker was Rolando Mendoza who had hijacked the tour bus to get his job back.

The teacher actually showed videos of the hostage incident to the students and tried to get the students to critically question whether the Philippine police had actually done their best to rescue those who were held hostage. The students actually showed a lot of enthusiasm during the group

discussions and the lesson served as a hook to get the class to pay attention. The pupils also learnt the skills of writing an information report.

However, in my opinion, I feel that the teachers have problems getting the students to pay attention to all of their lessons. I have heard many students complaining that English lessons are

boring. As such, I am keen to know how lessons can be carried out to capture the attention of pupils. Besides, nowadays, we have foreign students in our classes and learning how to handle a diverse group of students is no doubt, a real challenge for teachers.

Warm regards

Ramya