Beautiful Performances on the Last day of Class (Semester 2, 2011/2012)

You people should use your talent in your lessons at school! I think it would be brilliant!

Bunmi, only sing this song if you're introducing the Nigerian culture or something, okay?

Thank you for the class party and for a wonderful semester. Good luck, do not forget to reflect and collaborate and Ill see you in Semester 1 (2012/2013)! Muaahs!

Zhou Chen's 3rd One

Zhou Chen presented for the third time today. He was more confident, smiled a lot more and took our suggestions from the last class. He encouraged his students and used "Well done." and "Good". I like that when students try to improve and understand that they need to continue improving even afetr they have completed a semester with me. Learning is a lifelong responsibility. If you dont believe me, one day, when you have grey hair or maybe before that, you will remember what I said, and realized (hopefully, much earlier! :-)) that life is about learning. That is why life is a verb and not a noun to me. My BIGGEST concern was the text and questions he gave to his students.

That text should be edited and proofread many times. Perhaps using another text is wise (as heard in the class, today). You must make smart choices as to what to use in the classroom. We should never use texts from a student who is struggling with English. The best sources would be BBC, Nat Geo, Discovery Channel, daily newspapers (not tabloids) and the like. Really good websites for teaching learning ESl would be great too. Learn to be a good reader and selector of resources, okay? I wish I had more time with you, Zhou Chen and I want you to continue learning and improving in whatever you choose to do with life. Im only an email away.

Fifi's Third Time's A Charm Too!

Today, I was really glad that Fifi presented another lesson. This was because her last two lessons had many mistakes and scored her a pretty low grade. She took up my suggestion and decided to give it another go. Well done, Fifi. You did better this time and had less mistakes in your spoken language as well as in your worksheets. Good. For those who are wondering, Fifi began by blindfolding a student in her classroom and making her walk to her seat (dangerous, i know!).

She then asked what the students should do when somebody is in need of help. After that, she divided the students according to colour. She distributed sheets of paper in different colours. Those who got red, had to sit with others who got red too. She then moved on to a a Power Point Slide with a table.

Students discussed what they did that involved helping another person, when, why, and how. After discussing in a group, students presented how they helped another based on the table given.

Next, she showed a text on community service. She presented expressions/phrases to convince in an argumentative essay. She also highlighted the linkers. 

Students were then given a situation about a grandfather who was making a choice between staying in the city or the village. She gave two different scenarios and asked students to write an argumentative essay to decide where grandfather should stay.  She gave a new list of expressions as well. One was a little difficult esp when given without context" "Without a doubt...". Think of context always when introducing new aspects of the language. Finally, she asked students to check their peers' work. 

What does blindfolding have to do with the Table on helping others, the community service text and the decision about grandfather? I have no idea. The link between the lesson stages needs to be smoother. It is good that students need to use the expressions/phrases to convince but a sample writing needs to be exactly the same as WHAT you want the students to do. You can't give a text about something else and expect students to write something else. Other than that, I think you did well. 

Mubarak's Third Time is a Charm!

He presented for the third time, hoping to improve his teaching AND of course, grade. He taught about energy saving as well as the use of coconut shells and mango pits to generate energy. Well, what do we think? Good points? Aspects to work on? 

Our Beloved Jack

What were his positive points and what were aspects that he could work on?

Instructions should not be too long. Students will get restless waiting for the instructions. They should be precise and to the point. To make it easier for yourself, phrase the instructions before class and either distribute the instructions on a piece of paper or write them on the board. That way, you wont need too long to explain the instructions. Also, try your very best NOT to use the rule-based approach. the Malaysian English Curriculum for Secondary Schools promotes the use of the Communicative Approach. Teaching of grammar, therefore, should be embedded in context. Rules should be used in communication thus highlighting the indirect approach to teaching English. This applies to the others too who like to use direct teaching of rules. Communication is the key, okay? Good luck! 

P/S Thanks, Cherry for this wonderful, green-friendly, photo.

Ting Ting's Love for the Environment

What do you think of Ting-Ting's lesson?

Any improvements? Did she mumble? Were her task sheets devoid of mistakes?

Jia Xin's New Self

The only thing of concern to me was that her essay task and her sample essay weren't opinion essays but she called them opinion essays. Her essay structure was more procedural or instructional. Need to take a good look at this, Xin. Other than that, you have improved a whole lot. Rou Jin was amazed. So was I!

Zhou Chen's Improvements

No doubt Zhou Chen has improved particularly with his classroom conduct. He smiles a lot more and looks comfortable in class. However, there were still mistakes in his task sheets and also, there was confusion among his students when it came to his instructions. Chen needs to be clearer when giving instructions. Anything Ive missed?

Bunmi in Action

Here are some photos shared by our Bunmi.

You may want to use these in your lesson too.

Here he was playing in Malaysia. He coaches students from an international school

If your lesson theme is soccer, football or sports, you may want to use these photos (a footballer in action), rather than search for random shots of people you dont know. Anybody else wants to share? These are great shots, Bunmi. Thanks!

Flowery Fifi

Fifi's set induction was good. The picture was eye catching.  She asked her students to read questions from the task sheet before playing the audio clip. Good. She called students by their names: each of them.

Points to work on: Fifi needs to proofread her sheets carefully because there were many mistakes in them. Some questions were phrased incorrectly. Pronunciation too needs improving: 'stat' vs 'state'. No  matter what, she explained very nicely to her students whenever they couldnt understand something. Good. A vocab or grammar activity was missing from your lesson, Fi. Why? Like Mubarak, you may want to present again in the next class. It is up to you. I dont mind it. Think about it.

Ma Ji's Environment

Ma Ji was a lot more comfortable being in font of the classroom. He kept his students on their toes by offering lollies and vitagen for answers which were correct.

He discussed with students what they know about environmental problems. Answers ranged from air pollution to global warming. Good.

He then distributed different texts with picture to groups of students. I like this. The students had to read and discuss with their friends the problem and solutions. The thing is some naughty students (Alwana and Fifi) did not read their passage or relate the problems with their passage. Instead they talked about deforestation in Malaysia. Their text was specifically on Amazon rainforest. hmmmm Ma Ji must make sure that students discuss and find solutions specifically to do with the text given. Else, there is no point giving them the text. Okay?

Population explosion. You should hear Bunmi and Joy's solution to this. hehehe

In the end, students ahd to come to the front to present their case to a realllly nice officer from the government to get fundings for their projects to solve their problems. Ashilla and her invisible partner (Paul) won the medal and vitagen for arguing that an awareness program for the public required the fundings. You have improved, Ma Ji. Keep it up.

Mubarak's Party Poppers

The set induction: colourful...yet is it suitable for 16-17year olds? How many candles do you see in the pic?

He introduced these phrases as new words. I was worried. These are not new to many of our teenagers. Perhaps in very rural areas of Malaysia and Cambodia. I really hope Mubarak will have a different view of the Malaysian students after he has observed a lesson at BBBS tomorrow.

He then made the students repeat after him. 'Wait up'. All: 'Wait up'. 'What's up'. All: 'What's up'. Nooooooooo! Never make students repeat after you in class. Nooooooooooooooooooo. They will make fun of you! Repeating aloud does not have a purpose in an English lesson actually. It is not meaningful and is unsuitable for the 16-17 year olds. If it was done in my son's class, (he is 8), he would think that it is too childish. Think about this Mubarak dearie.

He followed through with his theme: party and that is good. The audio was also about a party. Although, we couldn't really hear it because of technical errors.

Overall he did okay. Not good, but okay. He looked great though. And his demeanour was wonderful in class. (Someone in class thinks that you have good genes :-) ). I think it's Fifi. Mubarak, it is okay to make mistakes. That is why you're here. I don't mind if you want to present a third lesson although the others only presented twice. If it will help you improve and get better marks, I'll allow it. Besides, we still have time before your exam week. Let me know and don't get discouraged!

Wang Yi's Summary

Wang Yi taught Summary writing to her students today.

 Love the clip on summary writing. It couldn't have been better presented than this. 

 I like it. And you gave a task after the clip which asked students to discuss the steps in summary writing which were found from this clip. Like it too. However, when you went all technical and started to lecture the students on how to write a summary, I had to stop you. Remember NOT to overwhelm students with too much info per lesson. You can do this GRADUALLY. Not more than 2-3 points per lesson. Don't go on and on and on with notes like you're lecturing. Bear in mind that practice is always better than giving them theories, particularly for teenagers and children. They will get bored and stop paying attention. 

I like the guide you gave and the VERY thorough explanation you provided for the students on summary writing. However, Fifi and I both think that there was some kind of confusion when there were 7 paragraphs in the original text but only 5 paras in the summary guide. We were both looking at main ideas from only the second paragraph to write the second paragraph in the guide. We didn't know that we needed to combine paras 2, 3, and 4. Perhaps, some explanations about this would be helpful to the students. You have to smile more Wang Yi...Anymore?

Ellina's Addiction

Today, Ellina taught about Drug Addiction.

 She was sleepy and admitted it. Wake up...

Her lesson flow was good. I like it. However, instead of getting students to only point out and identify the type of conjunctions (subordinating etc), you need to get students to point out in the text, these conjunctions. Discuss briefly also how they are used. We also had a thorough discussion about the use of 'because' to begin a sentence. Are we allowed to begin a sentence with 'because'? In the above, the sentence in the 3rd line begins with 'Because of this'...I somehow think that the conjunction 'because' is used as a connector here. Sequence connector. I believe that you should stay very far away from beginning your sentences with 'because'. If your text has this, you need to adapt the sentence and change. 

We also spoke about leaving a meaningful background on the screen when using the projector. If you're using the projector, your background becomes a backdrop like in stage productions. Humans are affected by their surroundings and if you have an opportunity to 'paint' your classroom, why not? Rather than leaving the screen at 'Windows Files downloaded', why not have a background like the above to discuss 'Drugs Addiction'

Cherry Merry

Her Set Induction would surely capture her students' attention because it caught your friends'. 

Love the activity where you got friends to write descriptions of the two in front and paste these descriptions on the students. Just think about how you would do this in a co-ed school. Boys describe the boy in front and girls describe the girl? No, boys should not paste descriptions on Wang Yi. :-) 

There were some mistakes in the sample passage. As much as I love samples before a writing activity, we must ensure that the samples are clear of mistakes. MUST make sure of this, okay?

I like the part where she got the students to exchange their writing. Peer checking is a very good way of reducing teachers' load. Remember, we learned about peer scaffolding by van Lier as one type of scaffolding developed from Vygotsky's (1978) Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). I hope you still remember this. 

Of course, this type of error list will have to be given to students early in the year. As they get used to what you mean by 'Wrong Form', 'Wrong Tense' etc, they would have no problems checking their friends' work. Remember to include the use of symbols to represent these. e.g., Wrong tense: T, Wrong spelling: SP. You can choose to create these symbols but stick to simple codes. We do not want your students to suffer when deciphering your codes. There have been cases where some teachers got too ambitious and ambiguous with their codes, that nobody could understand them. 

Pei Pei's Idol Finale

I love her activity on the board. You could get students to think of their own words and write on blank sheets of paper to paste in the two columns.

I love the guide she gave to her students.

Her students used her guide to speak in detail about their Idol.

She discussed with her students and presented very positive ions around her, you couldn't help but like her.

She is cute BUT stern and she can make you really listen to her without raising her voice. She exudes command in her manner. She managed to make Ashilla and Ma Ji present well in her lesson. Ma Ji, you have a romantic voice which we didn't know about until you sang that Ethan Chan song. hehe Close your mouth Pei. I think she will do well for Teaching Practice. Amen.

Bunmi Against Bullying

Bunmi continued his theme in his second lesson on Tuesday. In the last, he taught about women battery and this time his lesson was about bullying. The flow of his lesson was clear. 

 The clip used was effective, except that something went awry with the audio system. Not your fault.

We discussed about the suitability of the task: Four 3rd graders fighting over a turn with the football. Bunmi claimed that he has experienced the same situation with teenagers he coached. It is wise to cater to the need of the students and their context. BE mindful that in an all girls' school bullying can take many different forms, aka Facebook gossips, photo spams, chat threats, etc. As long as the context of the students is related to the task, okay?

I was at first confused with the next tasks you gave them: to create a stand up card and the other card on bullying. I wasn't sure of the difference at first. Some students may be confused as well. As long as you explain when asked, you should be alright. 

Your friends seemed to enjoy your lesson fully. Here's Zhou Chen doing the matrix in class. 

Lovely materials used in your lesson. You were as usual, attentive and gentle with your students. 

Well done.

Growing Trees: Why Observation at School is Important.

In case you do not see the importance of having this experience esp before your Teaching Practice at school next semester, I'd like to remind all of you that:

Korthagen and Kessels (1999) criticize teacher education programs which focus solely or a lot on theories rather than applications or practice. Loughran and Northfield (1998) agree stating that the complexity of teaching, classroom dynamics, school contexts, and people’s beliefs and experiences could be understood in real context rather than in artificial ones.

These are among many reasons why I organized this 'experience' for you. You will be able to see how students interact with teachers and the types of strategies used by the teachers. You will also see first hand the types of tasks/exercises provided for these students. I need not remind you, i hope, about age appropriacy or suitability of tasks to level of proficiency.

A Hawk's Eye: Bukit Bintang

An old pic of BBBS

You are provided with a beautiful opportunity (a rare one) to observe an English lesson at school this coming week. After organizing with the Department of Education, KL, and getting a letter of approval for you to go to Bukit Bintang Boy's School, Jalan Utara, Petaling Jaya, I look forward to hearing what you discover from the observation. I've written in Spectrum (University Malaya's online instructional support system) the things that you need to take note:

The lesson stages, teacher's classroom management, students interactions with teacher, activities in the classroom, the scaffolding done in the classroom, age appropriacy, suitability of activities with the students' level of proficiency. weak vs good students, good points and aspects to work on.

Please reflect on all or some of the above. Most importantly, what you've learned from a lesson conducted by a real teacher in a real classroom setting.

An Eagle's EyeView: Observation at Samad

You have had a beautiful opportunity (a rare one) to observe an English lesson at school last week. After organizing with the Department of Education, KL, and getting a letter of approval for you to go to SMK Sultan Abdul Samad, Petaling Jaya, I look forward to hearing what you've discovered from the observation you did. I've written in Spectrum (University Malaya's online instructional support system) the things that you need to take note:

The lesson stages, teacher's classroom management, students interactions with teacher, activities in the classroom, the scaffolding done in the classroom, age appropriacy, suitability of activities with the students' level of proficiency. weak vs good students, good points and aspects to work on.

Please reflect on all or some of the above. Most importantly, what you've learned from a lesson conducted by a real teacher in a real classroom setting.

*Update*
Some photos from Samad School shared by Hemah and Shahrul

 Sample advertisements on the board

 A very attentive teacher. Hemah shared that she moved around all the time: a good way to lose weight..

 The students like they really enjoyed being in the classroom

 An adverstisement created by students

Hemah, Teacher Jegateeswary and Shahrul