Sharing of Good Practices
for Using Various Language Arts Activities to Enhance the Creativity and Critical Thinking
of Gifted / More Able Students
Po Leung Kuk Stanley Ho Sau Nan
Primary School
Content
(1) School Introduction
(2) Learning English in Drama (3) Writing Programme
(4) Reading Programme
(5) Other Trainings & Activities
Brief Profile of our School and Students
●
- A subsidized school in Kowloon City
●
- Students are from the surrounding private and
●
public housing estates
●
- Mixed ability
Aims
•Enrich the English language environment in school through conducting more English
language activities and developing more quality English language learning resources for students
•Promote reading and writing across the
curriculum in respect of the updated English
Language Curriculum (Primary)
Learning English with
Drama
Why drama?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
What about the others?
What did we do?
What do students learn?
Why drama?
01
Benefits of acting skills
What did we do?
02
We have established an English drama school team with a
selection of students who have shown their passion and
potential in learning English as a
school elite programme.
We uses ECA session on Fridays with afternoon online training with our experienced drama instructor Miss Emily due to Covid
restrictions.
Hong Kong School Drama Festival
Hong Kong School Drama Festival Through Zoom
To stimulate creativity, smart learning, critical thinking and logical reasoning in students, drama and arts play a pivotal role in the
education process.
What did students learn?
03
Verbal Communication Skills
clear
confident
active listener
Non-verbal Communication Skills
eye contact
gesture
facial expression
prosody
pitch, tone, volume, tempo
Inter-personal skills
teamwork
responsibility
caring
motivation
problem-solving
Problem-solving and critical thinking skills
face challenges & solve problems
WHOLE PERSON
DEVELOPMENT
What about
the others? 04
Readers’ Theatre Charades
DURING LESSON
Scene Study Still Photos
Appreciation of life
Language
Arts in RaC
RaC goals regarding language arts
• Aims to improve and enhance both the reading and speaking skills for students in junior primary school.
• Provides an opportunity for students to be exposed to authentic materials.
• Enables students to to view a piece of text from multiple perspectives.
• Enhances the engagement of students with the reading material.
• Allows students to explore different interpretations of the same text through changes in reading tone/voice.
Primary 2 - Before
•No explicit instructions were given to students regarding
intonation and speed of reading
(free interpretation)
Primary 2 - Process
• Practiced speaking with students – corrections on pronunciation
• Students were praised and encouraged for the efforts
• Recordings of similar material (poetry/nursery rhymes) were shown to students
• Students were explicitly taught some techniques on reading poetry (pauses, emphasis on rhymes etc.)
Primary 2 - After
• Students are more comfortable with reading this text type.
• Students are more able to incorporate
intonation and speed changes within
the reading to enhance their output.
Primary 3 - Before
• No explicit instructions were given to students
regarding
intonation and speed of
reading (free interpretation)
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Primary 3 - Process
• Practiced speaking with students – corrections on pronunciation
• Students were praised and encouraged for the efforts
• Analysis of the text were conducted together – students understand the text type to be a narrative story.
• Students worked together in groups to act out their favourite page of the book.
• Students work together to determine the best
intonation/gestures/reading speed to best convey the feeling of the story, particularly in scenes with dialogue.
Primary 3 – After
• Students understand the importance of tonal
change to reflect feelings.
• Students can understand the text and incorporate the directions given into their tonal changes
(particularly within
dialogues eg. Ending the sentence on a higher note when the dialogue
contains a question)
English Ambassadors
- Provide rich learning experiences through diversified activities and to nurture students’ potential
- Enhance vocabulary building, speaking and listening, reading and writing, high-order thinking, critical thinking, communication and leadership skills through different trainings
- Help teachers to promote different English activities
English Folk Song Singing Contest
• Folk songs are often simple and repetitive
• Singing, dancing & movement
Morning Assemblies
- Drama
- Story-telling - Sing songs
- Poetry recitation
English Campus TV
Our English ambassadors tailor-made some interesting TV programmes.
For examples, story telling, craft and food making programmes.
Tongue Twister Competition
Tongue twisters are a great way to practice and improve pronunciation and fluency. They can also help to improve accents by using alliteration, which is the repetition of one sound. Students can become a confident speaker through training.
Free-to-air Channel - Song Dedication
Our school provided a special chance for the students to share their Christmas greetings and to promote Christmas carols through the English Channel.
English Week
Students had the golden chances to learn different language skills.
Both of the lower and upper class students had high participation in the activities.
