Building a firm foundation at junior secondary level to
prepare for the challenges of the NSSC
Mr Ho Sai Ming (Panel Chair, NLSI Lui Kwok Pat Fong College Mrs Bridget Ip (Language Learning Support Section)
Challenges for English teachers posed by NSSC
• Introduction of elective modules
• Importance of generic and independent study skills
• Emphasis on assessment for learning
• Need to cater for learner diversity
How to respond?
Curriculum design
• Integrate elective elements in the junior form curriculum
• Align the formal and informal curricula
Teaching and learning
• Use project work to enhance generic skills
• Promote a variety of forms of assessment
• Promote strategies for dealing with learner
diversity
How to respond?
Teachers’ professional development
• Facilitate teachers to attend long and short courses outside school
• Provide opportunities for collaboration
• Give teachers space to work on curriculum
development for NSSC
• School background
– Students are creative and talented but…..
– their achievement in English doesn’t match that in other subjects, so…..
– enriching the English environment is a high priority for the school
NLSI Lui Kwok Pat Fong College
• Introduction of language arts elements into the junior forms in preparation for LA electives
Curriculum design for junior forms
Pop Culture
Fiction Poetry
S1
S2
S3
S1 Poems and songs:
Christmas poems
Tasks Language Arts skills and knowledge
Target language
Poems and Songs
•reading a selection of poems in different forms
•students write a poem in the form of their choice
Different types of poem Rhyme
Review of Christmas vocabulary
S1 Students’ work
acrostic rhyming poem
shape poem
and write their own poems in the form they choose
Students learn
about different
poetic forms
S1 and S2 Fiction:
Storytelling and Readers’ Theatre
Tasks Language Arts skills and knowledge
Target language
S1 Students study fairytales and
choose one for re- telling
Conventions of fairy tales
Vocabulary related to fairy tales (prince, princess, castle, wolf, witch, giant etc)
S2 students study fables and select an outline for
readers’ theatre
Conventions of fables and background (eg Aesop’s fables)
Vocabulary associated with the fables
(hare, tortoise, moral, theme etc)
Storytelling
competition for S1 and S2
Performance skills for storytelling and
readers’ theatre
Connection with the informal curriculum
Students’ work (inter-class competitions)
S1 (2007)
“The Three Little Pigs”
S2 (2008)
“The Goose and the Golden Eggs”
S2 Fiction:
Science Fiction stories
Tasks Language Arts skills and knowledge
Target language
Predict the content of movies from
posters
Conventions of the science fiction genre
Vocabulary associated with the genre and with the stories to be studied, eg, alien, robot, time travel
Read one of two short stories and do a writing task in response to the story
Short stories with a twist ending
Use of setting in a short story
Future tenses Dialogue
Materials used:
For weaker classes:
• “Emergency Landing” by Louise Cooper
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/britlit/emergency-landing
For stronger classes:
• “The Fun They Had” by Isaac Asimov
http://users.aber.ac.uk/dgc/funtheyhad.html
Tasks Language Arts skills and knowledge
Target language
Superheroes
reading passage and powerpoint presentation
Characteristics of superheroes from
movies and comic strips
Describing appearance Vocabulary specific to the genre
Movie “Spiderman” Describing and
evaluating characters in a movie
Vocabulary for describing character and appearance Vocabulary for superpowers Design trading
cards for their own superhero team
Features of trading cards
Review of vocabulary
Produce a comic strip
Features of comic strips Story elements
Dialogue writing
S2 Popular culture: Superheroes module
Students view some clips and make comments about the characters. They review vocabulary for superpowers
Spiderman
Students learn the features
of comic strips……….
They create and present their own versions
Tasks Language Arts skills and knowledge
Target language
Students learn about healthy eating in the Home
Economics class and design a healthy snack
Vocabulary for ingredients
In English lessons, they learn about the features of slogans, jingles and TV
advertisements
•rhyme
•alliteration
•repetition
•Advertising strategies in TV advertisements
•Creating impact with images and words
Vocabulary related to marketing
Persuasive language They design a slogan, jingle
and TV advertisement for their product
An inter-class competition is held in English Week.
S3 Popular Culture: Healthy snacks project
Connection with the informal curriculum
Features of jingles and slogans
Advertising
strategies
Students’ work
No Sweat (2007)
Model cookies (2009)
Super Apple
(2008)
How to find time for all this?
Use only one of the two textbooks in S1 and S2 to make time for school-based programs and materials Supplement students’ grammar learning with sentence
pattern practice related to writing topics Align school-based classroom curriculum
with the informal curriculum
Strategic deployment of teachers
• Introduction of language arts elements into the junior forms in preparation for LA electives
• Increase in amount of time allocated to school- based materials and programmes
• Alignment with the extra-curricular programme
• Coordinator assigned to oversee the teaching of LA in the junior forms and promote progression of skills
Curriculum design for junior forms
Progression of skills
• The S1-3 Coordinator attends CLP for all three levels
• This promotes continuity and reduces repetition in the school-based materials
• Progression can be built into the school- based programmes in preparation for
the electives
•Metaphor
•Personification
•Alliteration
•Imagery
•Syllables
•Onomatopoeia
•Rhyme
•Rhythm
•Similes with “as”
and “like”
Features
•Narrative poem
•Jingles
•Slogans
S3
•Diamante
•Haiku
S2
Comparing the mood of two songs
Discussion of themes in a poem
Writing a poem with metaphor
•Performing a poem
•Writing haiku and diamantes
•Evaluating a song
•Writing acrostics and shape poems
•Acrostic
•Rhyming poem
•Shape poem
•Limericks
S1
Skills Forms
Level
Progression in Poems and Songs S1-S3
Project work to enhance students’ generic skills
Variety of forms of assessment
Strategies for dealing with learner diversity
English-rich environment
Project work is undertaken in S1-3 to give students chances to collaborate and communicate ideas
Portfolios for language arts
Self and peer-assessment
Use of rubrics
Some differentiated materials
Choices of product in projects
Deployment of the CNET
Use of physical space
EMI in non-language subjects
Teaching and learning
9 teachers have attended the LA course at HKIEd
CLP every cycle for each level and co-teaching with the CNET
With the help of EEG, 3 teachers have been given space for
designing the school-based elective modules
Facilitate teachers to attend courses outside school
Provide opportunities for collaboration
Give teachers space to work on curriculum development
Teachers’ professional development
Sharing and interaction with other schools
Seed Project Network
Sharing of TV ads project
Project with a primary school
• Developed from the S4 and S6 movie competition, started in 2005
• Students study the causes, effects and solutions of some social issues, and how these issues are viewed from different perspectives
• They also learn the features of documentary films and watch some examples
Piloting of the social issues module in S6:
Documentary film-making
Impact of the measures
Students’ motivation and engagement with English
Teachers’ confidence
Students’ performance
Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com
Students’ motivation and engagement with English
• Students show greater interest in joining English activities
e.g. English Ambassadors, Crazy Sale, Radio Show.…
• Students enjoy talking with the NET and CNET and thus strengthen their abilities in using English
(Speaking being the best Paper in CE)
• The ELC is always crowded with students
Teachers’ confidence
• Better understanding of the Elective Modules and the NSS curriculum
• Greater confidence in designing learning tasks and developing the curriculum
• Stronger competence in organizing various English learning activities
• Enhanced collaboration and increased
understanding about co-teaching
Students’ Performance
• CE (English):
2009: 7% increase in pass rate compared with 2008 (20% above the territory’s)
• AL (UE):
2008 and 2009: Best value-addedness scores among all subjects
(Consistent during 2006-09, VAP Stanine +(7)/(8)
Future directions
K I S S
• Employment of a CNET
• Conducting various extended English learning activities (to enrich the English environment of school)
• Refining the school-based curriculum
• Strengthening all teachers’ English competence
• Creating a whole-school approach to ELT
• Assessing Ss’ performance merely based on exams & tests
• Focusing only on the brighter students
• Catering for learner diversity
• Asking Ss to take more responsibility for learning
• Persuading other subjects to make use of EEG for PD
• Greater use of English as medium of instruction
