a. Focus on a specific assessment task in your school. Describe the assessment and discuss its effectiveness
I have only secondary one classes - three Express and one NA and we when I took over, we were towards the end of Animal Farm. Their creative assessment was to dramatise a scene from the book, and we were looking out for characterisation and entertainment value.
Initially, I thought this would be fun to watch but given that the students only had 70 minutes each week and dramatisation required them to come up with a script, act and have props/costumes, it really wasn't that feasible. When I took over, we had only 140 minutes to prepare them. When I read the scripts they submitted, it was really awful with the "narrator" handling most of the lines. It was a Herculean task to try to get students to understand that they don't have to include every single line from the text and they had to sift out what was crucial to the text and what wasn't. This was high level for the Express kids and with the NA kids, it was a lot worse with them often not knowing where to start.
When they finally performed, some kids from the Express stream came up with good performances where their performances showed a creative use of space and props, for eg using the slit of their chairs to act as the door opening to the barn where the animals spied on the humans and animals drinking together in the final scene. However, I often got the sense that these were accidental revelations rather than something intended by them. For the NA kids, on the day of the performance, none of them were prepared and some groups didn't even have their scripts with them. In the end, they just stood in front of the class and read from their books.
At the end of the day, I wasn't sure if dramatisation was such a good way to assess their understanding of the book. First of all, it involved group work and I had groups that refused to cooperate and in the NA class, an ADHD boy simply refused to work with anyone! Secondly, students within the group who were chosen to write the scripts were based on how legible their handwriting was rather than a synergy of the group. Lastly, given that this was the first time they were doing literature, I thought it was a big step to have to come up with a script from a novel, act AND portray characterisation. I think it was too much, too soon.
If I could do it differently, I would perhaps just use a tableaux for the Express students, and for the NA students, I would adopt the Glogster project my group and I thought of in QCR521.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Seriously, it's like a dream come true ...
Reflect on your teaching practicum so far: What have you learned from your experience during TP? What kinds of challenges do you foresee as you develop as a Literature teacher in your specific school context?
Seriously, I cannot thank the Ministry of Education (MOE) enough for sending me to Pasir Ris Crest Secondary for my Teaching Practice. Everything since day one has been like the moment when Lucy first entered into the world of Narnia through the wardrobe, amazed at every sight and sound. Everyday, I literally run from home to school, excited to face the challenges of the day, because I know that my Cooperating Teachers (CTs) and HODs will be there to render support and encourage me when I need it. Teaching Practice has really been such an enriching experience for me, allowing me opportunities to really explore new pedagogical techniques, like Directed Viewing-Thinking Activity (DVTA), and sharpen rudimentary techniques, like groupwork and lecturing.
In my school, I was assigned two Literature classes, one Secondary Three Express class and one Secondary Three Normal (Academic) class. The Express class I was assigned are very vocal, however the answers that they provide lack the reflection required. The Normal class reflects a lot, having witnessed the extensive notes that they jot down into their notebooks, however when discussions are held, they clam up.
I will now briefly describe the journey I took with each specific class. With the Express class, the period before the March Holidays was a challenging one. In the first few classes, I used DVTA to teach the class. However, I realized that the students were distracted by the video instead of connecting the video with the text. It was then I realized that my questions were pitched too high and were not accessible by the students. After intense discussions with my CT, it was then I continued using by DVTA, but I had to contextualize the video to the set text (we were doing Anita Desai's FASTING, FEASTING) and rephrasing the questions using simpler words and adding page numbers to the questions as well. After which, the students were able to engage in the prediction activities of the DVTA as well as using ideas developed through the video and applying them to the set text.
With this class, I also used a lot of Socratic dialogues, encouraging them to give the points rather than using teacher talk. Having blank slides with a question on the top, students were encouraged to give their answers after giving them a short period of reflection. Even though not all the points are relevant, at least the answers given helped to further discussions in the class, as fellow classmates corrected the wrong points that have been made. Hence, within a matter of two weeks, I was able to find my way with this class. Besides DVTA, I also used group discussions and DRTA (Directed Reading-Thinking Activity) to encourage ideas in the class.
However, things were not as smooth with the Normal class. In the period before the March Holidays, it was really very tough. Apparently, their teacher has always been spoon-feeding them with information through lectures. Hence, I realized that methods such as Socratic dialogue and DVTA/DRTA do not work with them. In fact, there were times that I had to stop the class and asked them what did they really want. In other words, I did plenty of student feedback forms and self-reflection with this class. Even the weeks immediately after the holidays, I found myself dragging my feet to this class, because I have exhausted the things I can do with this class. My CT constantly encouraged me, even offering to go through my lesson plans in detail.
After a very challenging lesson (in fact, it was two days ago), I just went back to what the students told me about their teacher's style of teaching. I thought over and over how it was possible to encourage student participation even if lecture needs to be used. Hence I decided to go with a lecture style, but my lecture slides had to be filled up by answers from the students. And the only way to elicit answers from students was through group work, where students will do close reading of the text and prepare answers in the format of PEEL (Point-Evidence-Elaboration-Link). So the next day, when I used this method, student particpation increased and I found that I could carry on with the lesson smoothly. It was at this moment that I realized that a good Literature teacher is not one who has a wonderful bag of tricks (with revolutionary teaching techniques like Socratic method and DVTA), but one who actually connect students with the text through whatever method necessary, be it old-fashioned or revolutionary.
Apart from teaching, I was also given the opportunity of marking/benchmarking Literature test papers, setting set-text questions for a Literature test, conducting a Lesson Training session on Visual Literacy, preparing a sample lesson on reading political cartoons that will be used across an entire level and cross-disciplinary projects as well. Everything has been a blast.
As much as I am excited in going to Meridian Junior College, I cannot say that I will not miss Pasir Ris Crest Secondary.
Seriously, I cannot thank the Ministry of Education (MOE) enough for sending me to Pasir Ris Crest Secondary for my Teaching Practice. Everything since day one has been like the moment when Lucy first entered into the world of Narnia through the wardrobe, amazed at every sight and sound. Everyday, I literally run from home to school, excited to face the challenges of the day, because I know that my Cooperating Teachers (CTs) and HODs will be there to render support and encourage me when I need it. Teaching Practice has really been such an enriching experience for me, allowing me opportunities to really explore new pedagogical techniques, like Directed Viewing-Thinking Activity (DVTA), and sharpen rudimentary techniques, like groupwork and lecturing.
In my school, I was assigned two Literature classes, one Secondary Three Express class and one Secondary Three Normal (Academic) class. The Express class I was assigned are very vocal, however the answers that they provide lack the reflection required. The Normal class reflects a lot, having witnessed the extensive notes that they jot down into their notebooks, however when discussions are held, they clam up.
I will now briefly describe the journey I took with each specific class. With the Express class, the period before the March Holidays was a challenging one. In the first few classes, I used DVTA to teach the class. However, I realized that the students were distracted by the video instead of connecting the video with the text. It was then I realized that my questions were pitched too high and were not accessible by the students. After intense discussions with my CT, it was then I continued using by DVTA, but I had to contextualize the video to the set text (we were doing Anita Desai's FASTING, FEASTING) and rephrasing the questions using simpler words and adding page numbers to the questions as well. After which, the students were able to engage in the prediction activities of the DVTA as well as using ideas developed through the video and applying them to the set text.
With this class, I also used a lot of Socratic dialogues, encouraging them to give the points rather than using teacher talk. Having blank slides with a question on the top, students were encouraged to give their answers after giving them a short period of reflection. Even though not all the points are relevant, at least the answers given helped to further discussions in the class, as fellow classmates corrected the wrong points that have been made. Hence, within a matter of two weeks, I was able to find my way with this class. Besides DVTA, I also used group discussions and DRTA (Directed Reading-Thinking Activity) to encourage ideas in the class.
However, things were not as smooth with the Normal class. In the period before the March Holidays, it was really very tough. Apparently, their teacher has always been spoon-feeding them with information through lectures. Hence, I realized that methods such as Socratic dialogue and DVTA/DRTA do not work with them. In fact, there were times that I had to stop the class and asked them what did they really want. In other words, I did plenty of student feedback forms and self-reflection with this class. Even the weeks immediately after the holidays, I found myself dragging my feet to this class, because I have exhausted the things I can do with this class. My CT constantly encouraged me, even offering to go through my lesson plans in detail.
After a very challenging lesson (in fact, it was two days ago), I just went back to what the students told me about their teacher's style of teaching. I thought over and over how it was possible to encourage student participation even if lecture needs to be used. Hence I decided to go with a lecture style, but my lecture slides had to be filled up by answers from the students. And the only way to elicit answers from students was through group work, where students will do close reading of the text and prepare answers in the format of PEEL (Point-Evidence-Elaboration-Link). So the next day, when I used this method, student particpation increased and I found that I could carry on with the lesson smoothly. It was at this moment that I realized that a good Literature teacher is not one who has a wonderful bag of tricks (with revolutionary teaching techniques like Socratic method and DVTA), but one who actually connect students with the text through whatever method necessary, be it old-fashioned or revolutionary.
Apart from teaching, I was also given the opportunity of marking/benchmarking Literature test papers, setting set-text questions for a Literature test, conducting a Lesson Training session on Visual Literacy, preparing a sample lesson on reading political cartoons that will be used across an entire level and cross-disciplinary projects as well. Everything has been a blast.
As much as I am excited in going to Meridian Junior College, I cannot say that I will not miss Pasir Ris Crest Secondary.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Coping, Adapting and hopefully Surviving
b. Reflect on your teaching practicum so far: What have you learned from your experience during TP? What kinds of challenges do you foresee as you develop as a Literature teacher in your specific school context?
My Practicum thus far has seen several rather drastic changes and shifts. At the start of the practicum, I was assigned to a CT who was teaching Secondary 3 Literature Romeo and Juliet. She was tasked to teach 57 students altogether in 3 different groups. I was supposed to take up her teaching load and for the first two weeks I did so. It was interesting and I felt that I was really building rapport with the students.
After the March break however, my timetable was rescheduled and I was informed that I now had to teacher 3 Secondary 1 literature classes and I would only be seeing ONE group of Secondary 3 students for literature. This was quite upsetting especially since I had adjusted and prepared myself to teach the following group.
But it was the additional preparation of more lesson plans, this time on Animal Farm, and the lack of rapport and familiarity with that class that was the most discomforting.
I have since learned that, that is the norm for my school and I should get used to it. Nonetheless it is quite challenging as it appears that I will have to get used to a constantly shifting and changing environment. That is I suppose an aspect of the particular school environment that I find myself in that I must learn to adapt and try as best to cope with as I can.
Getting back to more pedagogical concerns, one thing that I have noticed about the students is the lack of literary skills and strategies to cope with essay writing. While the school vision is quite weighty, at times I feel that the basic skills of literary writing are lacking in the students.
My challenge then will be to focus on building and developing students' core skills: writing, close reading and textual analysis and inference to allow for better response and critical thinking about the ideas and questions driving each literary text.
The texts will always change, hopefully by concentrating and focusing on fundamental skills, it will aid students in better preparing to tackle and take on the exams as well as the various literary texts that will come their way in the future.
My Practicum thus far has seen several rather drastic changes and shifts. At the start of the practicum, I was assigned to a CT who was teaching Secondary 3 Literature Romeo and Juliet. She was tasked to teach 57 students altogether in 3 different groups. I was supposed to take up her teaching load and for the first two weeks I did so. It was interesting and I felt that I was really building rapport with the students.
After the March break however, my timetable was rescheduled and I was informed that I now had to teacher 3 Secondary 1 literature classes and I would only be seeing ONE group of Secondary 3 students for literature. This was quite upsetting especially since I had adjusted and prepared myself to teach the following group.
But it was the additional preparation of more lesson plans, this time on Animal Farm, and the lack of rapport and familiarity with that class that was the most discomforting.
I have since learned that, that is the norm for my school and I should get used to it. Nonetheless it is quite challenging as it appears that I will have to get used to a constantly shifting and changing environment. That is I suppose an aspect of the particular school environment that I find myself in that I must learn to adapt and try as best to cope with as I can.
Getting back to more pedagogical concerns, one thing that I have noticed about the students is the lack of literary skills and strategies to cope with essay writing. While the school vision is quite weighty, at times I feel that the basic skills of literary writing are lacking in the students.
My challenge then will be to focus on building and developing students' core skills: writing, close reading and textual analysis and inference to allow for better response and critical thinking about the ideas and questions driving each literary text.
The texts will always change, hopefully by concentrating and focusing on fundamental skills, it will aid students in better preparing to tackle and take on the exams as well as the various literary texts that will come their way in the future.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Reflection #4 (due 9 March, Saturday)
(
1. Describe the state of literature in your school - state how
many classes are taking pure and elective lit at upper sec, how many students
are there in each class, what texts are being used. Describe the state of lit
in your school - Are teachers passionate about lit? Does the principal
emphasize lit? how do the students perceive lit? What are the typical
approaches to teaching and assessment?
2. Refer to debates in the media last week (see ST report
"Big drop in number of students taking literature" on Feb 25 followed
by forum articles and Sunday Times report). Get involved in the discussion and
give your views on these matters e.g. what have you learnt from the discussion?
What troubles you about the discussion? What is your own opinion about the value
of lit or factors accounting for its decline based on what you’ve observed in
your own school?
Friday, February 1, 2013
QCR523 Posting 3: Learning Journey Reflections
Reflect on your class learning journey. What are some principles and practices that you can take away from the experience?
Deadline: 23 February 2013 MN
QCR523 Posting 2: Alternative Assessments
Explore in some depth one kind of alternative assessment. You may:
(1) Read one of the optional articles from Weeks 3 to 4.
(2) Google or do a literature search on the same or similar form of alternative assessment.
(3) Explore some other idea not mentioned in your readings.
Share about your readings and your thoughts about the specific form of assessment discussed. You should use this as an opportunity to explore an alternative assessment that you may be interested in for either your essay assignment or for your own classroom execution.
Deadline: 9 Feb 2013, Sat, Noon
Monday, January 14, 2013
QCR523 Posting 1: Purpose of Assessment
From your readings and your classroom discussions and activities, what is one principle of effective assessment that you would define for yourself as a classroom teacher?
Deadline: 20 Jan, Sun 2359 hrs.
Deadline: 20 Jan, Sun 2359 hrs.
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