Category: Teaching

Psychopath…. a good example for my case study activity

When I declared that my Human Development class (MPPE 1333) would use Case Based Learning, I am determined to find as many authentic examples as I could from books, journals and my own life experience.  One of the examples that I think I could include in my existing cases would be this one.  A case of a brother who killed his younger sister to torment his mother (he has this so twisted thought that rather than killing his mom, he decided to kill his sister so that his mom would lose two of her children – his sister and him).   It seems that all of the cases that I have found are from US (except the examples from my own life).  I wonder if there are no recent psychopath cases in other parts of the world.  

What did I do while undergoing Latihan Ikhtisas_Part 5

I have to teach poetry and literature while doing my Latihan Ikhtisas.  With zero background in TEASL or BENL (Bachelor in English Language and Literature), I admit that I was struggling to get myself familiar with the poems and short stories.  I start to read poems when I was at university for leisure reading, so I don’t feel the need and pressure to understand it accurately.  I had never learned poems at secondary school (for English).  So, it was a bit stressful for me to teach the students the literature part. 

Some of the poems and literature that I have to teach are as follow.  

For form 1

  1. News Break (poem)
  2. Sad I Ams (poem)
  3. King Arthur (graphic novel)
  4. Fair’s Fair (short story)

For form 4

  1. The Living Photograph (poem)
  2. The Charge of the Light Brigade (poem)
  3. Leaving (short story)
  4. Tanjong Rhu (short story)

I constructed quizzes using Quizziz and also worksheet that I used for class activity.  Nothing much though.  For the Quizziz and worksheet, they have to do it in pair or group.  It depends on the situation.  Sometimes I used the computer room if I wanted to give them a quiz using Quizziz.  It is an element of gamification and active learning that I tried to incorporate in my class.  

Well, at least even though I am not trained in TEASL, but I just gave my best shot.  That’s my motto.  Sometimes I guess we have to be impostor.  A good one to succeed in whatever thing that we do.  In this case, to make sure that I could deliver well my lesson to the students, I become an English teacher impostor.  😀

Poems that I have to teach during Latihan Ikhtisas (and after)_Part 6

This is the first poem that I taught my form 1 students last year when I did Latihan Ikhtisas.  I taught this before the mid term examination.  I did not have the time to revise it before the mid term examination with the students.  Some of them could not answer it well.   So, I didn’t have a quiz on Quizziz on this poem.  I only used a worksheet as an activity which contains the following questions.  

Exercise: News Break

Paste this worksheet on your Literature exercise book.  Write the answer according to the questions given.  You do not need to rewrite the questions again.

  1. What is this poem about?
  2. What does the word ‘crease’ mean in stanza 2?
  3. What animal is the child compared to?
  4. In stanza 4, who does the parent think the child is?
  5. What is the actual reason for the change in the child’s behavior?
  6. Why do you think the child was behaving himself? Give a reason.

Poems that I have to teach during Latihan Ikhtisas (and after)_Part 5

This is the second poem that I taught my form 1 students last year when I did Latihan Ikhtisas.  I taught this after the mid term examination.  It was included in the final year examination.  I have a quiz on Quizziz on this poem too as an activity that I did using the computer room as formative assessment. 

I sent the results to their parents.  One parent replied my email telling me that she is thankful with what I do in class.  She knows her son performance.  But for the son, when he knew that his mom got an email from me, he was “grounded” and he has to read book instead of browsing the internet or watching the TV.  He later said “Teacher, jangan la hantar email pada mak saya.  Saya tak boleh tengok TV lama-lama atau tengok Youtube bila balik wajib.  Kena baca buku sebab mak kata teacher beritahu dia saya kurang membaca“.  [Translated: Teacher, please don’t send email to my mother.  I was grounded and cannot watch the TV or Youtube for long.  I have to read book because my mom said you told her that I don’t read a lot]. 😀

 

 

 

 

 

Poems that I have to teach during Latihan Ikhtisas (and after)_Part 1

There are several poems that I have to teach while undergoing Latihan Ikhtisas.  Two poems for form 1 [Sad I Ams and News Break] and another two poems for form 4 [The Living Photograph and The Charge of the Light Brigade]. 

For my form 5 tuition class, I teach the students two poems – What has happened to Lulu by Charles Causley and A Poison Tree by William Blake.

I don’t know how my teaching is effective when I was teaching the form 1 and form 4 students because some students could answer questions related to the poems well whereas some were still struggling.  But, with the CEFR curriculum, there will be no poem section in PT3 next year.   So, let’s wait and see then.  

Note: The implementation of CEFR curriculum has its own criticism.   Some research has been done relating to the implementation of CEFR.

How do I teach students poetry when I have zero training or background of TEASL?

When I did my Latihan Ikhtisas, I noticed that they incorporate poems in English.  I never learned any poem when I was in secondary school.  I start to read English poems when I was at university (when I was in my early 20s).  But reading for leisure and teaching it to students formally are two different matters.   Teaching involves explanation and as a teacher, I have to make sure the students would understand and appreciate the things that I teach.  That’s not easy. 

How on earth am I going to teach poems which I never learned before?  That’s the question that going on my mind that I ask myself repeatedly.  Well, whether I had learned it or not, it is my responsibility to teach it and so I asked around how they teach poems in their class.  Basically, I taught four poems:

  1. News Break (form 1)
  2. Sad I Ams (form 1)
  3. The Living Photograph (form 4)
  4. The Charge of the Light Brigade (form 4)

I started to google some tips and having a former student who happened to be one of the SPM examiners (penanda kertas soalan) is certainly a bonus.  So, this is how I teach students poems, step by step.

First: I would read the poem once.  They have to listen how I pronounce certain unfamiliar words.  As an alternative, you can download video on the Youtube.  There are videos made about the poems (Malaysian actress, Juliana Evans did videos on The Charge of the Light Brigade and The Living Photograph.  If you want to spice up a bit your class, you can choose videos with British pronunciation like A Poison Tree and What has happened to Lulu?.  There are other videos by Malaysian teachers too! Kudos to all Malaysian teachers who are committed in their teaching!)  

Second: I would ask the students to read aloud the poem individually by taking turn.  All of them have to read. Nobody will be exempted in this case.

Third: I would ask the students to highlight the words they don’t understand.  I would ask them to write the words in their exercise book, so when we discuss the meaning/synonym/antonym of the words, they have to write it down on the exercise book.

Fourth: I would explain in general what the poem is all about, a bit on the writer and any event that related to poem.  For example, “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Lord Alfred Tennyson is based on Crimean war.  A war between British and Russian army in 1863 to 1865.   I would explain a bit about the war and who is Lord Tennyson at that time.  This would set the imagination of the students about the poem itself (this is what I hope for).  

Fifth: I would explain the literal and laden meaning of the poem based on stanza.  Normally, there would be 4 to 5+/- stanzas in a poem.   

Sixth: I would give them a handout with questions that they need to answer in pair/group.  They need to discuss with others to answer the questions.  In this case, I am incorporating active learning.  Note: The handout has questions that I took from various sources and sometimes I changed some of the questions too.  I also put some of the questions on my Quizziz that I made public.  So, teachers can use any of the quiz in Quizziz without creating their own questions.  Save time.  Sharing is caring.  For example, a quiz on my Quizziz – The Living Photograph (form 4), The Charge of the Light Brigade (form 4) and Sad I Ams (form 1).  

Seventh: After every student has finished answering the questions, I would discuss the answers and they have to write the correct answer in their exercise book.  If you use Quizziz, you can get direct results of your students performance and you can even email it to their parents if you have their parents’ emails 😀 

My first tuition after Latihan Ikhtisas

When I did my Latihan Ikhtisas, I have to teach form 1 and form 4 poems.  Yup.  Poems that I never learned, taught or studied.  I struggled.  Indeed.  But, I learn certain technique how to teach poem.  So, when I asked Ita last Tuesday 18 June 2019 what she wanted to do over the weekend, she told me that she and Aalia planned to do a tuition class for the form 5 students.  I offered myself to teach the “exceptional” students.  So, there are 6 of them but Rahim was absent (he went back because his father was hospitalised). 

Ita and Aalia planned to cover a poem and the themes part for the Captain Nobody novel.  I never taught form 5 last year so, I challenge myself to learn about the poem.  I have a quick crash course with Ita on Thursday afternoon (20 June 2019) to learn about the poem.  With a bit of confident, I started to construct a handout.  I looked at various questions that I could find from the reference book and whatsnot and I collected them all and made it into an activity worksheet that I later shared with Ita and Aalia. 

So, here is the poem that I have to teach the “exceptional” ones last Friday (21 June 2019).   I haven’t thinking about what I would do on the second class.