my work back.
Alan: Wait, Phoebe. Just a couple more questions and it is done.
Alex: Be patient, phoebe.
Phoebe: Come on! You guys. The monitress will collect the assignment in just three minutes. You know what the monitress is like.
Alex: Yes, she is a pain in the neck.
She doesn’t take late assignment.
Alan: You are right. I remember Peter handed in his homework just one minute late on time.
She just went straight to Miss Sun for it.
Phoebe: You see. That’s why I am so worried that you may not finish copying on time.
Alan: Let’s do it fast, Alex.
Alex: Okay. Phoebe, be quiet.
Phoebe: Oh! Alex, Alan, someone is coming.
Alex: You are too noise, Phoebe!
Alan: I told you we would be fast.
Phoebe: No! Mr Lee is coming. Close your book!
Alan: My god! It is too late. He is already behind us.
Alex: Oh no. Poor us.
For teachers who would like to incorporate drama activities in their lessons, Mr Walker has the following suggestions:
1. Do it!
2. Plan it by researching drama activities on the Internet and in books.
3. Start with simple activities and gradually build your confidence and knowledge of drama.
4. Start playing games involving both teachers and students to break down barriers.
5. Approach the class with a positive attitude.
6. Be accepting and approving of what students give you as output.
7. Don't let anybody put students down.
8. Do a few activities yourself before asking students to do them, so you can adapt them to your class.
9. Use the school hall or a bigger room if necessary, so you can include movement games and a bit of exercise.
10. Be prepared to change rooms if other teachers complain about the noise level.
11. Be careful when conducting "hot seat" activities or movement games because students can break chairs or damage their uniforms.
12. Remember that drama does not have to lead to theatre.
13. If you decide to stage the drama, seek help from other teachers.
Don't try to do too much by yourself.
Watch the video below to learn more about Mr Walker's suggestions to other teachers for organising drama activities.
Mr Walker used to work in a lower-band school, where he also organised drama activities.
Click on the video below to find out his experience.
Anxiety has always been one of the major obstacles that second/foreign language learners have to overcome. This is particularly the case with lower-ability students. In the academic year 2003/04, Miss Wan taught a remedial class in Form 2 comprised of 21 students. About half of the class were from new immigrant families of low socio-economic status. According to Miss Wan, students from immigrant families are at a disadvantage when it comes to learning English, as they have only been learning it for a few years and have little exposure to the language outside class. As a result, many of these students are afraid of English, as Miss Wan described:
"They are afraid of learning English because they know they are not as good as the other students, so I need to help them to relax and cultivate their interest in learning English in order to give them hope."
In order to help students gain confidence in learning, Miss Wan has made a conscious effort to help her students. Go to the next page to view an account of Miss Wan's efforts, identified on the basis of lesson observations and interviews.
Click on the video clip to learn more about Miss Wan and her teaching.
Tailor-made Worksheets
Miss Wan designed worksheets using a font size of 14 rather than 12 and limited the number of questions on each page. Her justification was that less-able students can be overwhelmed by a lot of words in small print. When they feel that they cannot cope with the task, their learning suffers.
Regular Dictation
With regard to dictation of a difficult passage, Miss Wan separated the text into two sections, so students only had to do dictation on one section at a time. This way, their chances of "failing or giving up in the dictation" were lower and they had "a greater sense of success".
Unseen Dictation
When students were given unseen dictation, more support was provided. For example, Miss Wan wrote the text herself and incorporated some of the vocabulary items that students had learned previously so that they could recycle these items. She also changed the parts of speech of these vocabulary items and encouraged students to use their background knowledge and phonics skills to figure out how certain words should be spelled. In this way, they needed to apply what they had learned and could not rely on memorisation.
Revision
Miss Wan also revised the vocabulary items with students in preparation for the unseen dictation. During the revision, students were divided into two groups (boys and girls) and were then called on to dictate different phrases read by Miss Wan on the blackboard.
Clues were given if students had difficulty figuring out the spelling of certain vocabulary items. Because the revision was done in the form of a game or a competition, students were keen to participate. This kind of revision not only helped students prepare for their unseen dictation, but also alleviated their fear of doing unseen dictation.
One of Miss Wan's students said:
"Since I could remember how to spell the words we went over on the blackboard, I was not scared when I had to do the actual dictation."
Support was also given to students on the pronunciation of the words.
In order to provide more scaffolding for students' learning, Miss Wan incorporated a variety of activities on a specific topic into her lessons. For example, after teaching a unit on cartoons and a popular comic book about McMug, she showed the movie "Toy Story" to students in the MMLC.
Afterwards, students were asked to write a composition called "Toy Story 3". The students could use the information they had acquired to create a new story. Miss Wan also encouraged some students to read their compositions aloud to the class.
The fact that students felt safe in Miss Wan's lessons is demonstrated by an incident in which one of the students, in the course of presenting his story to the rest of the class, took the initiative to teach other students a vocabulary item he used in his story to ensure they knew what he was trying to convey. Click on the video clip on the left to view the incident and to hear some students' comments about the learning atmosphere in the classroom.
Further student comments about how the encouragement and support they received from Miss Wan alleviated their fear of speaking English are listed below:
"Sometimes, I am afraid of losing face if the teacher points out my mistakes in front of the whole class. When a classmate doesn't know how to pronounce a word, she [Miss Wan] teaches the whole class again, instead of just focusing on the student. Then the whole class learns the word again and one does not get the feeling that he/she is the only one who doesn't know the word. It really gives us confidence to ask [questions]."
"In Form 1, I was a lazy student. I liked sitting there and listening to what the teachers taught. I seldom asked questions. Now she [Miss Wan] encourages us to speak English and I dare to ask questions. Sometimes, I ask some interesting questions and tell jokes....We are happy and the lessons are more relaxed...She always encourages us to speak in front of the class. We are not afraid of speaking. Also, for some group
activities, we are allowed to leave our seats to express our views...."
In many instances, students reported that they were not afraid to speak in class because they knew Miss Wan would not scold them if they made a mistake; instead she would give them support and help them. Another reason why Miss Wan was able to make students feel comfortable in the classroom was her good relationship with the students. Students
commented that their relationship with Miss Wan is like "friends" and that they are "very close" and "can talk freely".
Miss Wan says that she used to be a stern teacher. However, after having her own child, she realised the importance of putting herself in the shoes of the students. Miss Wan tried to smile more in class and treat the students like her own children. She believes that if students like the teacher, they will also like the subject taught by the teacher and thus "they will not be so rebellious and will achieve more in the lesson".
Personalising Grammar Lessons
Miss Wan made use of students' curiosity about teachers' lives to introduce defining and non-defining relative clauses. First of all, she divided the class into two groups, boys and girls. Photos were shown through an overhead projector, so every student could see the pictures clearly. Then students had to locate Miss Wan, her daughter and her husband in different pictures using relative clauses. This is a very good contextualisation of the use of defining relative clauses for identification.
Two marks were given if students were able to make a complete sentence such as "Miss Wan is the one who is wearing a hat." Only one mark was given if they said something such as "wear a hat".
Students were very excited when they saw Miss Wan's photos, and very eager to raise their hands and say where Miss Wan was.
Many of them tried hard to use the taught grammar pattern. After the identification activity, Miss Wan spent some time explaining the difference between defining and non-defining relative clauses. Before teaching students about relative clauses, she also reminded them that there would be another
competition following her explanation, so that students would be more attentive when they listened.
By showing photos to the students and giving them a real purpose for using the taught sentence structures, Miss Wan ensured that students were more involved in the lesson and more motivated to learn. In fact, not only did students learn the grammatical structures taught in the lesson that day, they also learned more about Miss Wan, which helped to create a bond between her and the students. Click on the video clip on the right to view a short segment of the lesson.
Students reported that they had fun and learnt at the same time in the lesson. They appreciated Miss Wan sharing her personal life with them.