AEIS, English

Date: 7/5/2009

Day: Thursday

Students present: Michael, Henry, William, Susan and Noe Noe

Students absent: Nil

Teacher (main and assistants): Lim Young

Subject: English

Topic: Journal and Tenses

Teaching process

Concepts taught: I went through with the students the routine journal presentation. What was different for today was that I demanded them to choose a longer and more challenging article for presentation. Students were requested to improve on their level of critical thinking, bringing themselves one level higher than what they used to do. What they used to do was to give very low level reflections like " I think this is very good.". What I challenged them was to tell me why it was good or why did they feel a particular way. Many of them were still unable to answer effectively.

I also introduced the system of peer sharing and commenting. I made them listen attentively to what their counter parts were presenting and I require them to comment on their peer's performance. It was particularly useful as they would be paying more attention to other's presentation, giving more constructive comments (instead of rubbish which they usually do) and thereby learning not to commit the same mistakes when they present. To control the flow of peer commenting, I used the following framework to guide the discussion.

1. What went well
2. What went wrong
3. What can be improved

Example questions gone through: Nil

Practice questions given: Practice 11 of tenses book

Post-teaching

General comments of students: While I was marking their tenses practices from last week, I found out that Susan was copying from her brother and the answer key behind. What I did was that I stopped the class immediately, asking them to look up and listen to me while I talked. In a very serious tone, I addressed to them the importance and value of integrity. I gave them a very stern warning that I do not want to see this happening and they understood very clearly. As a penalty, I made Susan recopy everything that she copied again.

I think as a form of character building, we have to be very firm when it comes to the issue of integrity. It goes beyond academics and in my opinion, is more important than any academic gains.

After the 'prep-talk', the class became amazingly obedient and focused. I had no problems getting finish up their work on time and the students became much more serious in their work.

Improvement points of students: Students are still very poor in their grammar, except for Henry. They are all rather weak in their English articulation. Thus, I proposed to them that they take a short article every night and practice reading it, focusing on the pronunciation and the stress of tones in their sentences. I also suggested that they read to an audience, either their uncle or their sister, so as to allow for objective commenting and improvement points for their articulation.

Homework given (including due date): Recopy of corrections for 'Tenses' Practices with 3 or more errors. The requirements are written on the whiteboard. To be handed in on Tuesday, 12/05/2009.