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Form:	4 Mawar Merah	Level: Advanced
Subject:	English	Day: Monday
Theme:	People	Time: Double Period
Topic:	7 wonders of the world	No of students:

 

LEARNING OUTCOMES:   Language for Inter personal Use 1.1 d. exchanging ideas, information and opinions on topics on interest

LEVEL:   Level 2   viii. Reading article and giving opinions in the following ways: Agreeing with the writer Disagreeing with the writer and giving reasons.

 

 

BEHAVIOURAL OBJECTIVES:

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

1. Give the definition of wonder.
   
2. Identify the location of the 7 wonders in the world.
   
3. Do a brochure promoting the 7 wonders they have read.
   
4. Write down the advantage and disadvantage of the wonders of others group presentation.
   
5. Write an essay explaining on wonders they liked most.
   

 

PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE

Students familiar with some interesting places that can be found in the world

 

TEACHING AID(S)

1. Projector.
   
2. Colour paper.
   
3. Worksheet.
   
4. Markers
   
5. Whiteboard.
   

 

MORAL VALUE(S)

Co-operation

THINKING SKILL(S)

Analyzing, classifying/categorizing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PROCEDURE	THINKING SKILLS/MORAL VALUES	REMARKS (Time allocation, teaching material(s))
Set Induction Teacher writes the question "what is a 'wonder?" Teacher list down some definition given by the students. Teacher explains to the students on what is wonder. Teacher shows pictures of 'The 7 Wonders of the world'     Activity 1 Teacher ask students to open http://www.7wonders.org webpage and students read briefly on each wonders. Teacher shows of the world map to the students. Students identify the location of the 7 wonders on the world map. Teacher divides the classroom into groups. Each group been given 1 sticky note (with one of the 7 wonders place written on it) and one representative will have to come forward to stick it on the location of the 7 wonders on the world map provided. Activity 2 Teacher gives one colour paper for each group. Each group will have to do brochure promoting their place. Teacher will give sample of brochure that can be found on the website. The brochure must explain the advantage and disadvantage on the respective place.     Activity 3 Teacher distributes worksheet to the students containing 7 blanks column. Students present their brochure and provoking others group to visit their place. Other students will copy down the description of each wonders into the worksheet given. Teacher will let students decide on the best group presenter by voting to each group. Closure Teacher chooses the best group which have the most interesting and creative brochure. Teacher asks students to choose wonders they liked most. Students write an essay on wonders they choose as a homework.

 

 

ESL Website Evaluation

http://www.sesameworkshop.org/web/workshop/home

1. What does the application attempt to “teach”?

The application tempts to teach the basic skills need to be acquiring children at the young age. Sesame Street workshop is an educational website designed for preschoolers, and is recognized as a pioneer of the contemporary standard which combines education and entertainment in children's developing stages. Sesame Street workshop uses a combination of puppets, animation, and live actors to teach young children the fundamentals of reading (letter and word recognition) and arithmetic (numbers, addition and subtraction), as well as geometric forms, cognitive processes, and classification. Since the show's inception, other instructional goals have focused on basic life skills, such as how to cross the road safely and the importance of proper hygiene and healthy eating habits. Basically, the website does not only teach children on how to read, writing, listening, speaking or counting but the foundation of the hidden curriculum as the application starts to implement moral values in their teaching and learning lesson. The Workshop develops innovative and engaging educational content delivered in a variety of ways, including television, radio, books, magazines, interactive media, and community outreach by taking advantage of all forms of media and using those that are best suited to delivering a particular curriculum,



2. What sorts of things is the application user expected to do with regards to learning the content?

The user expected the application that it will only be a drilling and memorizing activities which most of educators practice it over children at the young age. For example, the user will repeat letters or words that been say or to memorize a picture and match it. For the sesame street workshop, the content been divided into 4 main topics which are:
a) Health and Wellness: Establishing an early foundation for healthy eating habits and at the same time discovers ways to make this habits fun and tasty.
b) Respect and understanding: Travel the globe and explore different cultures and traditions, both near and far that will help children appreciate and understand the wider world. Also let children to have the idea that our world is full of amazing diversity.
c) Literacy and Numeracy: Turning everyday experiences into learning opportunities - a new project helps parents instill important skills during daily routines.
d) Emotional wellbeing: Teaching children to become resilient and flexible in a quickly changing world requires patience and a little help. Discuss and explore ideas with children using fun activities, tips and songs and help them gain the confidence they need to thrive during difficult times.

3. What sorts of computer skills is the application users expected to have in order to operate/access/use the application?

In term of user computer skills in handling the application, it is user friendly as even beginner computer user can be easily get used with the application. The application can be browse by subject (alphabet/letters, early reading, health and safety, people and places, feelings, self confidence, cultural appreciation, music, art, creativity, etc) or by theme ( animals, clothing, food, imaginative setting, musical instruments, daily routine, etc) or by sesame street’s characters ( Cookie Monster, Bert, Big Bird, Elmo, etc). It is applicable for all users because every section has a brief introduction or explanation about the content. It helps user to be in the right track as for what information or skills they are look into.

4. While you are “playing”/”accessing”/”assessing” the application, does it remind you of anything you do in a classroom, or with a teacher, or with a fellow classmate, or in self-study?

When playing the application, it does remind me in a way on how teaching and learning should be in the classroom. The application emphasizes the students to do more compare to the teacher. The application encourage two ways of communication as the teacher roles here as a guidance or facilitator. The application does not remind me of the content of the lesson in our Malaysian setting. It differs in a way that the content is more based on real life situation, as to prepare young children facing the world. In our setting, we tend to use materials which are exam-based whereby we are more to the process of drilling and memorization. We focus more on the factual to the extend making the lesson to be fun and memorable which is crucial for growing up children.

5. Can you pinpoint some theories of language learning and/or teaching underlying the application?
As a teacher, we should practice or encourage conducting a lesson which is more of two ways of communicating. In other words, we should go for more student-centered rather than teacher-centered. In the early stage of young children to develop, it is very important for them to build a strong and good foundation. Teacher must in the early stage implement to the student on having a dreams and ambition. The application encourages students to interact with it as it will give instruction and the students are requiring completing the task. Another underlying theory of language learning that can be found in the application is the authentic value of the application. The reason why authentic been put as the core elements in selecting materials is that it will enable children to practice it in real life situation. By doing so, it also motivate students to learn as they can relate on what they learn with things that exist or happens around them.

6. How well is the constructivist theory of learning applied to the chosen website(s)?
Constructivist theory of learning emphasizes the importance of one’s such experience to be implemented or incorporate with the existing knowledge. It stresses the importance of practice rather than learning the theory. The chosen website is based on the US educational development whereby the content is more to the real life situation rather than our educational system, which is more towards drilling and memorizing process. For example, when we want to teach children on numbers or counting, we usually ask children to memorize the number 1 – 10 using their fingers as based. In contrary, the application shows a picture consists of different types of cookies. The students have to count how many cookies in the picture according to its type or shape. Clearly shows that the application encourages the learner to practice more on the knowledge they acquire rather that just memorize it. The activity helps children to understand more on what they experience everyday with a better situation and example. In that way, they can improvise their existing framework into a new knowledge.

7. In 1980s and early 1990s, there was a major debate on ‘whether the computer was “master” of or “slave” to the learning process (Higgins and Johns, 1984). In relation to your evaluation - was the computer a replacement for teachers, or merely an obedient servant to students?

The computer cannot replace for teachers or merely an obedient servant to students. In the process of teaching and learning, it is not also the process of delivering factual knowledge but also integrate it moral values and example. Computer may not produce mistake in teaching but it does not have heart to understand the learner as what makes a teacher really valuable. Computer is also not an obedient servant to the students as the application has it own system to prevent students for making error. Computer can be simply put as a tool to increase or boost teacher performance in teaching and learning. It helps the lesson to be more interesting for the learner. That is the main reason why we have the subject CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) in the first place, as to helps and polish teacher performance in the classroom.

8. Would you like to use the application yourself in your future work?

Yes? Give reasons:
The main reason why I prefer to use the application is based on the authentic materials the application is using. It helps to motivate students in learning as they can use their existing experience to be incorporating with the lesson. The application also promotes student-centered which enable student to have higher opportunity to produce creative thinking and encourage them to think outside the box.



No? Give reasons:
Since the web is been establish by other country, the syllabus they are having is different from what we are using. Based on what we and they are having, it will be a problem in explaining the students on how it is related to the students when it comes to examination because that what are really matters to our students, to be able answer the paper.

Suggestions/Recommendations.

Our educational system should make a research in upgrading or improvise our syllabus to be not too exam-oriented. We should do more application which not based on theory so much. In learning, students must enjoy the lesson rather than having pressure to memorize it. Knowledge should be more memorable not remembering. if the application been proposed to be used in our setting, the spoken language should be change to a more familiar voice or slang otherwise we will nurture students with other country identity rather than our Malaysian English identity.

Article Review

A. Citation of the Article:

a. Title: Engineering a Poem: An Action Research Study
b. Journal: Journal of Technology Education, Vol. 18 No. 1, Fall 2006 (http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/v18n1/koch.html)
c. Author:
Janice Koch (Janice.Koch@hofstra.edu) is Professor of Science Education and Director of the IDEAS Institute of the School of Education and Allied Human Services, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY.
Brooke Feingold was a graduate student in education at Hofstra University when this was written and is now a public school educator.

B. Summary of the Article:

The Aims of the Research
This study explores the use of design technology to teach a unit on poetry in a fifth grade class. The main goals of the poetry unit were to develop students’ abilities to use their own creative voices to express themselves and to write descriptive poetry that creates detailed images for the reader. To reinforce the latter concept, the teacher used a design challenge that asked these fifth grade students to make a three dimensional representation of the imagery created by another student’s poetry. The students’ experiences of being immersed in design and construction revealed engagement and attention to detail. Their abilities to meet the design specifications and constraints of this challenge were observed and researched by the classroom teacher. The students’ understanding of imagery, appreciation of poetry, and their ability to write poetry improved as the unit progressed. Design technology became a vehicle for creative expression that is not usually associated with the teaching and learning of poetry.



The Methodology

Techniques for the assessment of student learning are an integral part of classroom research. The researcher had the opportunity to observe student interactions and experiences through an unbiased lens as a result of being a visiting teacher to the class. The following methods for data collection included:
1. Analyzing the responses to pre- and post unit assessment instruments;
2. Maintaining a teaching journal.
3. Using frequent minute papers, in which students were asked a question about the unit and given a minute to respond in writing.
4. Analysis of student understanding of poetry.
5. Analysis of student design portfolios and products
6. Student self and peer evaluations

Students were provided with a series of poetry assignments. Each assignment was an opportunity for the students to apply what they knew regarding a different type of poem. In order to improve their ability to use imagery in these poems, the students were required to represent their poetic imagery in graphical forms developed through an iterative, engineering design process.

The Subjects/Sample
This unit was implemented in a fifth grade class. The middle school in which the unit was implemented is situated in an affluent suburb of a major northeastern city in the United States, where parent involvement and expectations run high. In the 2002-2003 school years, there were 4874 students enrolled in the school district, with 92.6% of the student population from a white background. The district had only 10 black (not Hispanic) students, 70 Hispanic students, and 5.8% of the students were of Asian, American Indian, Alaskan, or Pacific Islander descent, reflecting a lack of diversity when compared to other districts in the state (NYSED, 2003a ). In this particular school, only 5.2% of the students were of Asian, American Indian, Alaskan or Pacific Islander descent, 0.8% were Hispanic, and 0% were Black (not Hispanic).





Findings of the Research

The scores on the post assessment instrument improved greatly compared to the pre-assessment (n = 22). The average score on the pre-assessment instrument was 71.9%, and the mode was 80. On the post assessment instrument, the average was 91.7% and the mode was 100, revealing that many students had perfect scores on the final assessment of the poetry. This represents a significant increase in student understanding of poetry.

The second findings based on the teacher’s teaching journal identified three emergent themes. First, the students became more comfortable with sharing their poems orally and participating in class discussion about them. Secondly, the poetry unit gained life and excitement as the design project was introduced. Finally, the students gained expertise in manipulating the materials they needed to make the model from their drawings in their design portfolios.

At the end of various class sessions the teacher would have the students respond to prompts about their class work anonymously. These “minute papers” were a quick and informal way for the students to provide insight into what they were thinking, feeling, and learning about poetry without the pressure of censure. The final minute paper given on the last day of the unit asked the students, “How did the construction of your design project enhance your learning of poetry?” Twenty four students responded. Seventy-one percent indicated that it did improve their understanding of poetry. Their explanations varied. One student wrote, “It did because you not only get to picture your image you get to see the image and look at the details.” An insightful response was, “It enhanced my learning of poetry because now I know that poetry doesn’t have to just be in poem form, it can be in project form.”

Most students put a lot of effort into their work, which was revealed in the peer evaluations that indicated how accurately the finished projects depicted the images represented in the poem. Student peer evaluations also pointed out those projects that did not accurately reflect the designer’s effort or accuracy of poetic interpretation. For example, one student had written a poem about the beach, and her peer had decided to build a sand castle, which is one of the images in the poem.





Reaction
Judging from the title, at first glance it seems that this research does not have to do with the use of computer assist language learning. Most of the research methodology used in this research was conducted manually with the implementation of engineering elements, more into building things virtually. But what triggers me to review this research is on how the research gives a revolutionary impact into our learning and teaching approach. The research gives us an idea on how the technology can be manipulated to make learning and teaching less stressful and creatively been conducted compare to our traditional approach, text-book based. The most interesting ideas that deprive from this research is on how we combine the engineering approach of building a three dimensional form of poem with the use of computer in the classroom. There are many advantages if we manage to integrate the use of computer into this new methodology. It can save us in term of budget been used, time consuming and more open space for students to show their creativity. The research is like posting a challenge for all teachers to create an application or software whereby they can integrate the engineering poem approach into computer assisted language learning.
The research is well conducted in term of its validity and reliability. The first point that makes this research can be heavily depend is based on its varied way of gathering information. There are 6 methods been used by the authors which each approach are inter-related to each other. This makes the result from each approach can support to each either to strengthen more on the findings statement or to make comparison. I also admire the authenticity on how the research been conducted. The researcher acted as a visitor teacher to the subject or sample. The sample does not in any kind been inform that an experiment been conducted as all the results were based of the students actual performance. It helps to reduce on the outside factors such as the student’s mentality preparation to take the experiment which can avoid invalid results.
It is always a surprise on how technology can enhance our teaching methodology. A nations status in the eyes of the world can be define by many things. One of the core elements in labeling a develop country is based on the technology they are acquiring. That is why our Malaysian Education Department tries to integrate the use of technology in the profession of teaching to the maximum. the implications of integrating engineering elements in our teaching methodology is something that we as a teacher must valued and harvest as to full fill our nation vision, to become a fully develop nations in technology. Based on the findings on the research, students enjoy the lesson on making a three dimensional poem meaning. This gives us in Malaysian context a new prospective and view on how we can make our lesson more interesting and thus in the same time motivate students to learn more. It is also a good platform for students to use the creativity to the maximum as with the computer assisted learning, it has no boundaries for the students to explore their ideas. Who knows that maybe through this little implication of teaching and learning approach, we may someday once again hold the title a country who owns the tallest buildings in the world like what we achieve with the PETRONAS Twin Tower.

Greeeeeeeeeeetingss....