.... is at Aisyah Sinclair

Microteaching started today. My group went first. Aishah was the first to teach, followed by me later on. Aishah conducted the introduction and the pre-stage of the lesson plan meanwhile, I handled the while-stage and also the post-stage.

It was horrible because my panic struck out of the blue. Every little thing that I had practiced the night before backfired. I stammered and my mind went blank. I encountered with tongue slip for quite a number of times.

We had a video about the poem to show to the students. They seemed to enjoy the video. But, while I was teaching, I kept wondering whether my friends (who pretended to be my students) managed to guess our learning outcomes.

For Madam Lim made us all evaluate our friends' performance in a piece of paper and we had to guess the learning outcomes. If we managed to guess them right, it means that our friends had achieved their goals in teaching.

Unfotunately, I really got distracted by this fact that I made a lot of mistakes in delivering my speech and instructions. Moreover, I did not have the confidence to teach.

No class for today. Thus, went to meet with Aishah at TESL Square to design a new lesson plan. Aishah came up with the idea of teaching the Form students on The Road Not Taken. We have not come up yest with the activities.

According to Aishah, Madam Lim wants to look at the activities only. So, it ios better to have good activities. But how lah to come up withc such good activities? Hmm...

The meeting was briefly done. We would be meeting again this Friday.

Today we decided to draw lots on our microteaching for Methodology in Teaching Literature. I finally managed to find a partner, Siti Aishah Sabri and to my great dismay, our turn was the first.

Madam Lim asked whether we could proceed with our turn for tomorrow's class, but we said we could not manage to finish one lesson plan within a day.

I know it sounds like a crap. I mean, in reality, as a teacher, you should be able to finish planning/designing a lesson plan within a day. I hope Madam Lim understands that we're novice teachers and yes, we need times to create one friggin' lesson plan. =(

And so, me and my partner put our head together to come up with a lesson for next week's microteaching. Madam Lim encouraged us to finish the draft by today so that she could have a look at it and give comments.

Aishah and I decided to teach Sonnet 18. We wanted to focus on the post-activity where we would ask the students to write a letter to William Shakespeare. It was initially inspired from my senior's experience where she taught her students the same thing. According to her, the students loved the lesson vey much.

The plan was like this: the teacher was assumed to be William Shakespeare. As for the students, they were required to write a letter containing the literary devices that they manage to find in the sonnet, the moral values that they gain from the poem, their opinions towards Sonnet 18 whether they think the sonnet is difficult or easy to understand and lastly, their opinions about the modern and classic poems they have encountered in their lives. If none of the students have encountered with any poems before, they were asked to give suggestions to William Shakespeare on how to simplify the texts to the students their age.

When we had finished drafting our lesson plan, we showed it to Madam Lim. Unfortunately, Madam Lim said our lesson was pretty vague. We needed to edit some parts of it. Therefore, Aishah and I decided to change the whole lesson plan by tomorrow.

I personally think that the lesson in the short story 'The Lesson' is more towards student-centered. Firstly, the teacher, Miss Moore uses an authentic environment to teach her students, that is by bringing them to a toy store, F.A.O Schwarz. She makes the field trip to the toy store meaningful when she gives each student money ($5) to pay for the taxi fare. They have to culculate 10 percent tip for the taxi driver. Indirectly, Miss More incorporates Mathematics with her English lesson.

Furthermore, Miss Moore also encourages the students to ask questions. She applies the scaffolding interaction when giving feedback. In other words, she does not instantly provide the answers to her students. She uses prompts whenever necessary.

Evidence #1

"Hey, I'm going to buy that there."

"That there? You don't even know what it is, stupid."

"I do so," he say punchin on Rosie Giraffe. "It's a microscope."

"Watcha gonna do with a microsope, fool?"

"Look at things."

"Like what, Ronald?" ask Miss Moore.

"What I want to know," I says to Miss Moore though i never talk to her, I wouldn't give the bitch that satisfaction, "is how much a real boat costs? I figure a thousand'd get you a yacht any day."

"Why don't you you check that out," says Miss Moore, "and report back to the group?"

The above dialogues are among Miss Moore and her students, Sylvia, Big Butt and Sugar. It is one example of the scaffolding interaction that Miss More applies in her lesson.

Furthermore, Miss Moore instills the thinking skill on her students. She makes them think the value of money when they look at the displayed stuffs in the toy store. One student named Sylvia sees a paperweight made of semi-precious stones (that are fused together under tremendous pressure) as a chunk of glass cracked with something heavy. As a slum area residence, she never encounters with a paperweight before. Therefore, when she looks at the price, which costs it merely $480, she is incredulous because she never thinks that such a 'chunk' would cost a fortune.

Another student, Flyboy encounters with a displayed handicrafted sailboat that costs $1195. As the children who live in the slum area, most of the items sold in the toy store are extremely expensive and they could not afford to buy them. Even Flyboy tells the whole class that his sailboat only costs him fifty cents when he buys it at a local store, Pop's.

Miss Moore manages to make her students think what type of people that usually come to F.A.O Schwarz to buy all these costly items and how the students' status are perceived to these peoples' eyes.

All in all, 'The Lesson' is more towards student-centered.

There is no words that can best describe a perfect lesson. When a teacher teaches 50 students, for instance, and only one who manages to grasp the lesson taught, I personally think that is also one example of a perfect lesson.

You don't need to get all your students to undertsand your lesson. Some students are dificult to grasp the knowledge instantly the moment you teach. However, having one student at a time to understand what you're teaching is considered as a great success if it were to compare to none.

I worked on the lesson plan alone. Yes, alone. This makes me look like a freak because I was so used working with Izlin and Hafriz together. And sometimes with Liyana. The least favorite part when it comes to pair work is that, I do not have a pair to work with. Izlin is always with Hafriz. Where as Liyana has her own set of groups. I know this is merely a reason for me to whine. But I never make this as a reason for me not to do the task assigned.

I had done my lesson plan on "The Lesson" but little did I know that it has to be typed. =.=! I wrote my lesson plan in an A4 paper. And everyone in the class had their own work type-written. All of a sudden, I felt inferior towards my work. I was afraid Madam would penalize me. Hence, I decided to submit my task tomorrow.

Towards the end of the class, Safa approached me and asked about the lesson plan. He had no idea that we were supposed to submit the lesson plan today and he did not bring his. He asked me with whom I work the lesson plan with and I told him the truth. Fortunately, he was working alone too and he asked permission whether he could work with me. I agreed. He took a look at my lesson plan and offered to edit it.

Before the class ended, Madam Lim informed that our first test is postponed to 29 March 2009. Oh, btw, today's presentation was on Chapter 7. :')

The brother observed the class today, still. For today's lesson, we were still in Chapter 8. Fathiah's group presented Chapter 8. I don't know whether am I the only who notice this or is everyone else with me on the same track--each time Fathiah presents, she somehow often gets 'the look' from the audience.

During Methodology in Teaching Literature class this afternoon, I realized that Fathiah's presentation was somewhat..... dragging. I turned to my left side to look at my friend, Liyana. And the reaction I got from was she rolled her eyes, as if indicating that Fathiah's presentation was a complete turn-off.

I turned to my left, and my friend, Izlin too rolled her eyes. Ohhh... if you think I am writing this just because I want to insult my own classmates, you're completely wrong. I know that everyone is not perfect and we do make mistakes sometimes.

Perhaps, I am double-standardizing the way Fathiah presents. Just because I turned to look for Liyana and Izlin's reactions, and just because they are my close friends and happened to give me the same feedback, it does not mean that everyone in the class also has the same reaction. Right?

After Fathiah's presentation, Madam Lim distributed the short story "The Lesson" in a form of handouts. We were required to read it and then came up with a lesson plan. The lesson plan must derive according to the lesson that students (in the short story) have learnt.

I realized instantly that the lesson plan was a pair work and I didn't have a friend to work with. The close friends have already had their own pair.

I guess that this is one of the drawbacks if you keep clinging to your own cliques. You don't have the self-independency when it comes to working outside your comfort zone.

Click For Links.