Jodee's Reflections

PLEASE POST ABOUT: (1) 3 TIPS FOR TEACHING/ CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT/ PLANNING GLEANED FROM MICROTEACHING. (2) GIVE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES FROM YOUR OWN OR OTHER LESSON OBSERVATION.
1) Make seemingly difficult and obscure terms understandable and applicable to the students

At times, when we start out teaching students that we are not yet familiar with, we tend to overestimate or underestimate their abilities when it comes to teaching them new concepts. Especially for a subject like literature, where many carry a preconception that it is obscure, difficult to score in an examination and that it is irrelevant to their lives, I find it very important to keep that in mind, so that I can hopefully debunk those ideas in my lessons during the course of the year. I especially liked Andrea's simple activity where students got to experience discrimination as something arbitrary and senseless. This made a seemingly difficult idea immediately relatable and relevant by encouraging movement in the class, at the same time making literature fun.

2) Encourage a safe and participative classroom culture

Especially in a learning environment where students are expected to sit and absorb information that is being given to them, it might be difficult at the start to get students to voice out their opinions and speak up in class. I've learnt that it helps to lighten the classroom atmosphere with humour, as Brennan and Samuel have proven in their lessons. Their friendly and approachable tone of voice and questioning methods help encourage the students to attempt at providing answers to the questions posed. Debates such as those conducted in Wee Kiat and Damien's lessons also encourage a participative culture, and forces students to take a stand and defend their beliefs. This means that students are now active participants with a personal stake in their learning.

3) Making literature seem easy doesnt mean you have to dumb it down

I was impressed with the way Pepper, Mark and Jia Min incorporated difficult literary terms eg. metaphysical into their lesson to great effect - students were neither thrown into the deep end to struggle with the terms nor had the term drilled/force fed to them. In Mark's case they were taught to break down the larger term into its root word, and his explanations tapped on the student's prior knowledge by linking various other subjects such as geography and history in a true multi-disciplinary manner. Perhaps, it is important to remember that while we attempt to make literature simple and understandable, we still have to give them the right terms to work with, albeit with a gentle introduction, an interesting lead in activity or more scaffolding as they work through the meaning of the literary term.