Mini Test No2~

First, I will show a video about our environment and how bad is the pollution. Then, students are divided into groups. Each groups are given a pamphlet, a newspaper and a magazine. The students are required to analyse the materials to identify sentences of news that are related to the theme of the video. After they have found it, students are required to use what they have and expand it into a paragraph titled ‘Pollution in my environment’ of not more than 150 words. Each group will go to the front and present their work.

Mini Tests~ Fail???

1st activity~

You are a journalist who is in Sabah to write about the famous places here. You are trying to add in the directions to the famous places from the Hyatt Regency Kinabalu Hotel. Based on the map, give directions to your readers. The direction in the journal should not be more than 80 words. Begin your journal as follows:

One of the places that I recommend is…

2nd activity~ 

You are the tour guide for a group of tourists. You are bringing them from Sabah Tourism Promotion Corporation to the the Hyatt Regency Kinabalu Hotel. On the way to the hotel, you are required to explain briefly about the places that you have passed by as well as what is available there. This is to provide your tourists the information they need to know Sabah better. Your brief explanation must be more than 100 words.

‘INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING WRITING’ possible???

      In relevance to the first slide, I would agree that intergrating technology in teaching writing is a very good process in helping students learn better and it provides a lot of benefits to both students and teachers.

       

      In an average school, there will be students who are shy as well as students who are very good in technological things especially computers. By intergrating technology, these students can improve well in their English proficiency such as writing. For instance, shy students can interact with their friends without fully facing them. This helps to provide confidence in the students to express themselves a little bit more. You may think that this does not help in their writing at all but in my opinion, the lack of confidence and inability to express themselves prevents the student’s ideas from being expressed. Furthermore, intergrating technology allows students to cooperate among themselves in school and out of school. For instance, teachers can give the students group writing assignments which usually requires the students to meet in order to do it. Using certain tools such as google.doc, it allows the students to cooperate with each other at home. This helps to give the students more time as they do not have to finish all their work within school period. In addition, teachers can give or do more activities in class if the group work is done at home. This helps to save a lot of time as well as test the students cooperative level through technology. Thus, in my opinion, I think that integrating technology brings more good than bad for the education in our country. It can also help students to learn skills other than academic skills such as working skills.

        As shown in the slides, there are actually numerous online tools that would easily attract students’ attention as it is fun and interesting. PREZI, for instance, is a tool used to create videos of a lesson which makes a lesson more interesting. The videos created are similar to clicking on slides but with a more attractive and unique display. This helps to attract the attention of the students and makes them keen to learn in class.

       In conclusion, being able to integrate technology into teaching writing will greatly enhance a student’s ability to learn as well as giving full attention and being keen in learning. 

You got HOTS?

The activity that I thought of integrates the level of analysis.

Students are required to analyse several pictures that are linked with one another and identify the links related to the theme. From the pictures they see, they must brainstorm on points that are related to the theme given. With the points they have, students need to write a paragraph of not more than 150 words.

Theme: Bad effects of smoking.

Response?!?!? How?!?!

         We were told that we would need to mark some students’ essay to teach us in assessing a student’s work as well as to teach us how to give comments for students to improve. I find this quite challenging as I am not really that good in assessing other people’s work. Through this lesson, I learnt that it is not easy to grade a student’s work and an even harder job to give constructive comments to the students. For the essay given to me, I noticed that there are quite a few mechanical errors and I got confused on how I should grade the work with constructive feedbacks. Miss Yoon explained a few ways we can do this in order to help students improve.

         The method I think that I would most probably use is the written comments. Depending on the students, a written comment can be used to tell the students where the errors are. The written comment can be simple sentences that weak students would understand and it can also be a bit advanced sentences suited for better students. For example, the essay given by Miss Yoon shows an understanding of the topic but has a few mechanical errors. By pointing out the errors in the comments, the student can revise again based on the comments.

         In addition, written comments should be an encouragement for the students instead of criticizing their work. This method can further encourage the students to do well and have confidence in what they write.

Scary Experience?!?!

At first we were asked to to correct an essay each titled ‘A Scary Experience’ but we did not know how, so Miss Yoon allowed us to do this in groups. For my group’s particular essay, we gave it 13 out of 20 marks. From the essay, I can clearly get what the students is trying to tell. As we are dealing with students with a weak proficiency in English language, we did not focus too much on the general mistakes. We focused on the ideas more as mechanical errors are something that can be improved in time. We could easily get the flow of the ideas of the story, ideas that are interesting and relevant to the topic from the essay. Furthermore, the student was able to certain terms or words that shows a good usage of English such as leisurely and good intention. In conclusion, this student showed a significant command of the language. Thus, we give this piece of work 13!!!

What they said?

Text message received: I am on my way.

Situation: She woke up a bit late than expected. She knew she was late so she said she was on her way. She waited at the bus stop and there was no bus within the distance. Then, she decided to walk the distance rather than waiting for the bus for hours.