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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.  

Tuition fever is back again….

While undergoing Latihan Ikhtisas, even though I didn’t teach SPM and PT3 students, I did tuition classes with them paired with another teacher.   For MUET, there was no tuition class though because I gave them essay writing homework almost every week.  So, I covered quite a lot with them during class and thus, I didn’t feel that there is a need for me to conduct extra or tuition class for them.  What a heck!  They are 18 years old and I consider them as pre-matriculation students.  They should be independent in their learning.  Stop spoon-feeding them.  That’s my motto.

This year, I did one tuition class early this year.  But since then, other than the yearly academic camp, I don’t have other opportunity to conduct tuition class for the students i.e. my former form 4 students.  After teaching them almost a year, I admit that I am a bit attached with them.  Some of the teacher said that I only have special preference towards certain students.  This is not true.  I am fair to all of them but it seems that some of the have certain attachment towards me and thus, it appears as if I am overly concerned towards certain students as compared to the rest of them.  Well, it depends on how others want to perceive it but my conscience is clear.  As their super-duper senior, I act like their big sister, rather than a teacher sometimes.  They could notice this when I changed my voice intonation.  So, some of them treat me differently as compared to the way they treat their other teachers.  

I do keep myself updated with their learning progress and life.  So, I know their well-being and family states as well.  When I heard the news about Rahim’s dad involved in an accident after Friday prayer last week (14 June 2019), I could not help from thinking about Rahim since then.  Later on, knowing his English performance during the recent mid term, I could not help from thinking “What should I do with him?”.  Ita (one of the English teachers) teased me saying “Well, look at who taught him last time?  Since you left, he is different.  A rebellious.  Aalia told me that she has difficult time to deal with him and some of his friends.  Perhaps he needs you to teach him again“.  I rolled my eyes as I read her Whatsapp message.  Not only Rahim, Ita also told me that Raiz is not making any progress.  I know Raiz on different level.  His dad is the one who collects the palm oil from my place.   My sister buys chicken from his dad too.  In short, he is someone that I know cum my neighbour.  I am in dilemma.  

When I looked at the list of students who got D and E for English, I notice some of familiar names from my previous class.  I vividly remember the time when I had my Zuhr prayer at the musolla and Ainsyah sat beside me.  After Zuhr prayer, with tears in her eyes, she told me how she wishes that she could perform better in English.  She seems hopeless with her proficiency.  As I held her in my arms (by this time, she was crying), I told her that as long as she is willing to learn, I would help her the best I could.  Now, it is times for me to uphold that promise.  How can I help these students?

Can I do it?   In sha Allah I will try my best to coach them.  So, there will be 6 of them under my tutelage this year (I had 8 students last year).  Ita told me “Don’t put too much hope on these kids.  They know they couldn’t get A for their English.  So, don’t put any unrealistic expectation on them“. 

I learn and teach psychology.  I don’t want to practice something that would lead to self-fulfilling prophecy in specific the Pygmalion effect and Golum effect (I know the detrimental effects of self-fulfilling prophecy and there are many research have shown it).   So, I will discuss with them their realistic target and how they can achieve their target within these few months.   That’s what I am going to do as a start.  

So, my first tuition class after Latihan Ikhtisas would be on Friday 21 June 2019.  

Letter….

One of the Directed Writing compositions is letter.  There are two types of letters: 1) Informal and formal letter.  The informal letter is kind of straight-forward things because the format is simpler as compared to formal letter.  I find that for SPM Paper 1, it is quite common for the letter question to be formal letter as compared to informal.  I guess, this is one of the ways to ensure that the candidate would know how to write proper formal letter for future use such as employment and others.  

Example of formal letter question

You are a qualified preschool teacher and are looking for a change of school to teach in.  You come across this advertisement in a local newspaper.  Write a cover letter for your application in not less than 250 words.

Notes:

  • Reference to advertisement
  • Reference to accomplishment and present position
  • Independent and team player
  • Principles of work – priority child in the class – course attended
  • Confidence – pleasant personality
  • Call for an interview
  • Closing words

When writing the letter, you must:

  • Lay out your letter correctly (addresses, date, salutation, title, closing]
  • Use all the notes given

*********************************************************************************************

Tips:

  1. Read the question carefully.
  2. You are writing the letter to apply for something such as applying for a certain position. It should be short and brief.  Do not forget to include important details.
  3. Identify the situation and format.
  4. Use the 5Ws + 1H approach to elaborate the points given. For example, elaborate points given:

(1) How did you know about the vacancy?

(2)Why are you applying?’

(3) What is your accomplishment?

(4)What is your present position?

(5) What is your attitude to work?

(6) How do you regard the child in the class?

(7 ) What is your principle of work as a teacher? E.g. No discrimination among students regardless of their background

(8) What is your personality?

(9) When can you attend an interview?

Click HERE to see the example of a well-written formal letter

 

What did I do while undergoing my Latihan Ikhtisas (LI)?_Part 4

I taught form 1, form 4 and form 6 (MUET) classes when I did my LI.  For the lower form, for the obvious reason, they assigned me to the classes with many students who got C range grades either based on their UPSR (for form 1) or PT3 (for form 4).  I took it as a challenge because even though some of them got better grades, their English proficiency is still can be improved.

I do admit that I struggled a bit to get myself familiar with the syllabuses and whatsnot.  So I have to search for the DSKP, SOW and stuff even though my colleagues give whatever things that I need EXCEPT activity worksheet.  I believe in personalised lesson plan and activity.  Even though we might teach the same subject/course, yet we should custom-made our teaching because we are different and our students are also different. Of course, this would entail extra efforts on our parts as teachers.  So, some might use short-cuts of using the same worksheet for different classes taught by different teachers.  “Sharing is caring“.

Even though I share the activity worksheet with others, yet I created my own after searching and looking at examples from the internet.  Sometimes, I took an excerpt from a book that I was reading and turned it into a reading comprehension exercise.  Normally, the available exercises would be abridged from the original source so using this approach, I need to abridge the excerpt as well.  This would hone my writing skills as I realise that I “abandon” writing any journal during this period of LI.  Yup.  I decided to totally immerse myself in the process of being a teacher.  As a teacher, you rarely involve in writing journals or whatsnot for publication unless you are doing your post graduate study.  When I did my LI, I notice that none of the teachers ever published their action research.  The irony is some of them don’t even know what action research is.  After investigating the factors of this phenomenon, I conclude that they are bogged down by many administrative stuff and teaching.  So, before you know it, a year passes by without doing any research about and on your teaching i.e. action research.

I religiously collected some data since I decided to use token economy for my form 4 class (majority of them rarely submitted any homework that I gave – especially the boys.  The girls were different.  They submitted their homework on time.  No problem).  I will write more about how I did the token economy in different post.

How to encourage students to submit their work?

First, you need to know how they complete their homework.  There are so many reasons how and why they submit their homework on time.   A common assumption is they do the homework themselves because they could complete the task that I give.  But there are also students who would submit their homework and yet they complete the homework due to plagiarism.  Yup, they would copy each other homework without understanding how to complete the task.  In addition, there are also students who have difficulty to complete any homework that I give because they do not understand the topic or in writing composition, they do not know how to construct sentences.  In this case, there might be students who will not submit the homework at all because of he/she does not know how to do the homework and there are also another group of students who would still submit their homework and yet, they might submit incomplete homework.  On top of that, there are also students who do not have the “tool” to write.  Meaning, they do not have any pen to write and thus, they are not able to complete my homework.

Looking at this variety of reasons how and why students submit (or don’t submit) their homework, as a teacher, we need to use different strategy and approach to deal with these variety of issues even though it might lead to these two things i.e. submission or no submission of homework.  It is really unfair for a teacher to punish a student who did not submit his/her homework when he/she does not have a pen to write with.  It is almost unthinkable at this age that there are students who do not have this basic stationery, a pen.  Yet, this is the reality.  There are students who could not afford to buy a pen.  Given a choice of buying a RM2 worth of meal and RM2 pen, some might choose to buy a meal than a pen.  Hey, you can’t blame them.  According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the lowest basic needs are related to physiological needs.  Yup.  You need to eat and drink in order to survive (Alhamdulillah the air that we use to breathe is free).  

In addition, it is also unfair for students to be punished if they are not able to complete their homework due to lack of understanding even though they have given their best effort to complete any given task.  For example, if a student is only able to complete less than 350 words essay, we need to look closely at several aspects.  If they have already use all of the points which have been discussed/given, this means that they are not able to elaborate the points in more than one sentence.  What should we do?  Rather than punishing them for incomplete essay, we have to acknowledge their effort (and hidden struggle).  But at the same time, we need to give constructive comments.  There is an incident in which a student does not able to complete his homework because his pen has run out of ink.  Yup.  This relates to the first point.  No pen = incomplete homework.  

However, if they copy each other work, we could not let this matter go without any action.  We need to do something about it.  In this case before we make any decision (i.e. punishment), we need to identify why they copy other’s work.  Most probably, they might also have lack of understanding to elaborate points.  But in this case, rather than giving their best shots to complete the task, they use the short-cuts way i.e. copy each other work.  This is a classic example of mini plagiarism.  Students should be punished if they copy each other work.  Individual effort should be applauded and encouraged.  

That’s why sometimes I give students “group essay”.  Meaning, they have to discuss the points in groups and write their essay in mahjung paper later on.  We can divide the essay into several paragraphs.  So, each group would be assigned to one paragraph of at least 50 words.  So, if I have 6 groups of students (one group = 4 members), I would have 6 paragraphs which equivalent of 300 words.  So, in any continuous essay, since it is required for them to write 350 words, I wrote the first introductory paragraph of 50 words (of course, I asked each group to provide on sentence) on the white board.  Later on, ask the students to continue writing the following paragraphs in their own group.  In this case, students don’t feel pressured to complete the whole task on their own.  But, you need to monitor closely when they complete their group work.  To encourage group cohesion, you need to give reward if they could complete the task as a group.  This would lead to the second point.

Second, reinforce desirable behaviours.  Use rewards, praises etc. to make your students feel appreciated and valued.  To be continued…. 

 

 

An example of an article for school magazine

We went to PWTC last year to go to International Book Fair (Pesta Buku Antarabangsa) on 27 April 2019 (Friday).  I had to join this trip to replace a teacher as a chaperone.  So, I was entrusted to chaperone four female students (2 form 3 students and 2 form 4 students).   Our English panel needed a representative to write an essay about the trip to be included in the school magazine which is published biannually.  It was a chance that I would definitely grab.  But since the articles are meant for students, I could not submit an article in that magazine.  What a shame!  But I asked (forced) two of the girls in my group to submit an article.  So, here is the article that I have edited before they submitted it for printing.   This is an example of informal article composition, but if you omit the name of the authors/writer, it can be considered as a descriptive composition (describe an event).   So, for directed writing, actually it is similar with continuous writing format.  The only difference is the points are given unlike continuous writing in which you have to figure out yourself the points that you want to include in your essay.

Title:  A day trip to PWTC

Written by Thaqifah Izyan Binti Ahmad and Ezzah Raabiatul  Adawiyah Binti Mokhtaruddin

It has always been one of my dreams to go on a trip with my friends to Kuala Lumpur.  Early this year, our Malay language teacher, Miss Normah Binti Nayan told us about a trip that would be organized by our school to Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) at Kuala Lumpur.  I felt so excited and could hardly wait the day even though it would be in April.  We were going to PWTC to go to the Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair 2018 (KLIBF18).

I still could remember the day vividly, Friday 27th April 2018.  I could hardly sleep and just managed to catch a wink because we have to gather at Az-Zahra musolla of our school at 0330 am.  I woke up at 0220 am and woke my roommate too, Ezzah because she would also be in this trip.  There were 80 students and 20 teachers who went on this trip. 

We departed from our school at 0345 am and we were advised by Ustazah Norzihan Binti Saniman to make du’a for our safety and other things that we wish in life.  Normally, we would still be asleep at 0345 am even though it is considered as the best time for tahajjud.  This time around, since we were wide awake to start our day-trip to Kuala Lumpur, we took this chance to make du’a to Allah in the last third of the night.  Ustazah Norzihan told us about the Prophet’s hadith which was narrated by Abu Hurairah (RA): “In the last third of every night, Our Rabb (Cherisher and Sustainer) Allah SWT Descends to the lowestmost heaven and says ‘Who is calling Me, so that I May Answer him?  Who is asking Me so that May I Grant him? Who is seeking forgiveness from Me so that I May Forgive him?’  [Sahih al-Bukhari, hadith Qudsi].  I made a simple due in which I pray May Allah Grant me all my wishes.  Since it not even 0400 am, I felt sleepy and thus, I fell asleep throughout the journey afterwards. 

I only woke up when we arrived at Pagoh’s R&R at 0557 am.  We performed Subh prayer at the R&R’s musolla and after that we had our breakfast eating Nasi Ambeng that the teachers ordered for us.  We met other students and teachers from different schools who were also going to PWTC.  We continued our journey at 0700am and this time around, I did not fall asleep after that and I enjoyed looking at the scenery along the way to PWTC. 

To ensure our safety and wellbeing, Miss Normah as the group leader of this trip divided each of us into a group of four.  There were 20 groups of students and 20 teachers were assigned to all of the groups to act as chaperones.  The teacher assigned for our group was Teacher Hadijah Binti Jaffri and there were four of us in her group: Ezzah, Azwa, Nadhirah and me.  I was so glad and happy because Teacher Hadijah was assigned as our group chaperone. 

We arrived at PWTC at 1005 am and the teachers gathered us for a quick briefing before letting us go to PWTC to explore the various booths ourselves.  Teacher Hadijah instructed us to meet her at 1200 pm around lunch time.  Ezzah and I spent around two hours browsing various booths.  I bought several books for myself and my parents.  I bought my parents a book entitled ‘Mendidik anak lelaki’ by Adnan Hassan Salleh.  The book that I bought for myself was a novel by Hilal Asyraf entitled ‘V.T’.  It was recommended by Ustazah Nur Nasihah Al-Sakinah Binti Abdul Manan when I accidentally bumped into her at one of the booths.  I love reading that book because it makes me feel motivated. 

While waiting for Teacher Hadijah, Ezzah and I ate a sandwich that we bought for RM5.  We shared the sandwich because we thought that the food that they sold at the small stalls inside the PWTC were costly.    At around 1155am, Nadirah found us while we were about to finish our sandwich because Teacher Hadijah wanted to bring the four of us to Sunway Putra just across the street from PWTC for lunch.  We went to Burger King® and Teacher Hadijah gave the four of us a treat.  All of us ordered one whole set each.  While waiting for our order to arrive, Teacher Hadijah realized that Azwa was not feeling well.  She went to the nearby pharmacy to buy some medicine.  I could tell that she is a caring person because she looked so concerned when she knew Azwa was not feeling well. 

After lunch, we went back to PWTC and waited the bus to arrive.  The bus arrived at 0250 pm and we went to take a Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) train at National Museum station to go to Kajang.  I felt so excited because this would be my first experience to take a ride on MRT train.  It took us around 45 minutes to arrive MRT Kajang Station which is nearby to the famous Hj Samuri’s satay Kajang restaurant.  It took us a few minutes by walk from the MRT Kajang Station to the restaurant.  We performed our Zuhr and ‘Asr prayers at the restaurant’s musolla.  We enjoyed eating satay Kajang to our fullest.  We stayed at the restaurant until 0530 pm.  It was raining heavily when the bus arrived to pick us up. 

I could hardly wait to read the books that I bought so I started reading it while on the bus on the way back to Johor.  After a while, I felt tired from reading and I had a quick chat with my friend before both of us decided to sleep.  Around 0815 pm, we woke up when we arrived at Ayer Keroh’s R&R.  We performed Maghrib and ‘Isya’ prayers at the musolla.  After that, Ezzah and I ate curry noodles that both of us shared for dinner.   We departed from Ayer Keroh at 0915 pm and arrived at our school at 0120 am.  Even though I felt exhausted but I was happy because I had a memorable trip with my friends to Kuala Lumpur and I have fulfilled one of my wishes.  I wish that I could have many trips with my friends in the future.  [1050 words]