Teaching and Learning: English Literacy - Assignment Example

Teaching Speaking Target Level: Grades 2-3 Number 20-25   Time durations: 45 min hour Materials: Picture of a man with thought bubbles Pens/markers In this lesson, the students should be able to: 1. Enrich vocabulary with the use of different/alternative terms to express a thought 2. Express themselves freely 3. Develop socio-linguistic competence by constructing relevant sentences to describe a picture Procedure: Motivation/Initial Activity The teacher starts by asking students what they want to be when they grow up. Each student briefly says “I want to be a _________.” Main Activity The teacher relates the activity to the lesson by explaining that each person has dreams or wishes. She shows students the picture of a man dreaming (See Appendix C). The teacher writes on the board the sentences using the words ‘dreams’, ‘wishes’, ‘wants’, ‘needs’, ‘longs’ and other related terms. The students will identify what the man is doing/thinking of and recite a sentence about the picture. Next, they will determine the difference between sentences expressing desires that are impossible or difficult to attain and sentences expressing things that are possible or easily attainable. This activity helps them to learn the difference between hopes and wishes, and the terms that they can use to express their thoughts appropriately. Examples are as follows: Difficult/Impossible Easy/Possible The man dreams of finding a treasure. The man plans to finish his studies. Class discussion on expressing plans and wishes will follow. The teacher emphasises the difference between the two. Enrichment To reinforce learning, the class will do the activity, “Agree or Disagree?” This activity entails each student to construct a sentence expressing his hope/dream. As each student recites, another one will stand up to give him an advice on how to attain his dream or goal. The rest of the class agrees or disagrees with the advice by saying ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’. If anyone disagrees, he will stand up and give his advice to the other person. One important rule to follow is to give everybody a chance to express a dream/wish and give an advice. Rationale Thought bubbles will be used to motivate students to formulate sentences. In particular, the picture shows a man who thinks of many things including a luxury car, house and lot, college diploma, healthy body, and delightful dinner. The thoughts in the pictures are very common to allow students to relate easily with the boy, thus construct sentences with ease. The focus of the lesson is to develop discourse competence by making students express themselves freely. In this regard, there is no need to explain further why they want the things they will mention. Checking of students’ pronunciation mistakes will be limited in order to encourage them to speak. As proponents of the Communicative Approach posit, students will learn faster by struggling to use the language than by just knowing or memorising its rules (Richards & Rodgers, 2001). Discourse and socio-linguistic competence will be enhanced by having each of the students give an advice to one of their classmates. Discourse competence will be challenged as students express their thoughts whilst socio-linguistic competence will be demonstrated as students reply in accordance to the intention of their classmates. According to Tarone & Yule (1989, 67) ‘sociolinguistic competence involves the ability to produce and understand language appropriate to specific social situations and conforms to the politeness conventions of those situations’. Giving advice to their classmates tests the students’ ability to respond with politeness and consideration. For instance, if one expresses intention to graduate with honours, the second student is expected to advise him to study hard and improve in a particular subject. In other words, the adviser should provide encouragement but at the same time make the other realise what he should do to attain the goal. Considering the gender and culture of the students, the picture to be posted on the board should show only those things that are relevant to their context. Specifically, the picture of the food shows fruits and vegetables as the Muslim culture prohibits pork and other meat dishes. Material things such as cars, house and lot, and jewellery are neutral to the culture, and would not offend the learners. Likewise, the pictures do not include having a family as some of the students may not be thinking of having a family in the future. Instead, the pictures include finishing a college degree, a goal aspired by all. Once again, the choice of materials for instruction should be done carefully to avoid discrimination and confusion. Teachers should not infuse their moral standards into their lessons as this could offend the students. As demonstrated in the lesson, the teacher will allow other students to provide advice to their classmates. Having a similar cultural background, it is assumed that students themselves are better advisers than the teacher who is coming from a different culture. Lesson for Writing Target Level: Grades 2-3 Number of students: 20-25   Time durations: 45 min – 1 hour Materials: Worksheets for reading and writing In this lesson, the students should be able to: 1. Comprehend the story, ‘The Mouse Sings with the Cat’. 2. Develop communicative competence through writing 3. Express themselves freely in writing Procedure Motivation/Initial Activity As part of their assignment (given previously) the students will read the story, ‘The Mouse Sings with the Cat’ (See Appendix C) then answer the worksheets (See Appendix F) to demonstrate reading comprehension. Class discussion will be done at the beginning of the session to check understanding. Main Activity Following the discussion of the story, the teacher asks the students, ‘Why is it important to be simple and love oneself’? Using the guide (See Appendix C), students will write an essay expressing their thoughts on the topic. Enrichment The teacher will ask students to read and comment on others’ writing. Each will read at least 3 essays and give (only) positive comments to each. Rationale A. The materials for the writing lesson include cloze exercises and guided composition writing that come in the form of worksheets. The cloze exercises are prepared to check for comprehension and strategic competence whilst the guided composition aims to enhance discourse competence. The cloze exercises are fun to answer as they are songs composed to tunes of ‘London Bridge and ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’. After completing the exercises, children will be able to check if their answers are correct by singing the songs. Meanwhile, the guided writing exercise further promotes discourse competence. Instead of having them write their thoughts on their own, the worksheet will guide them to introduce the topic, expand it, and conclude with a message. Notably, the songs composed for the cloze exercises focus on the content of the story thus they do not contain taboo themes that could clash with the Maldivian context. Similarly, the guided writing exercise, which requires the students to answer the question, ‘Why is it important not to be vain?’ does not promote any concept that negate the cultural values of the students (---). The enrichment part requires students to give positive comments to others’ essays. This will help students improve and feel better about expressing themselves. It is better to give only positive comments to others because according to---, punishment will ---. In contrast, rewards will promote positive behaviour. Teaching Grammar Target Level: Grades 2-3 Number of students: 20-25   Time durations: 45 min – 1 hour Materials: Board of Activities Pens In this lesson, the students should be able to: 1. Fill up the ‘board of activities’ by inquiring from other people the activities they did in the past 2. Construct sentences in the past tense 3. Present their work in front of the class Procedure Motivation/Initial Activity The students will complete the ‘board of activities’ (See Appendix) by inquiring from their classmates what they did in the past. The board contains different activities and students have to find who did them three days ago. Main Activity Upon completion of the board, the students will present in front of the class. They will mention the persons who fulfil the activity and stories behind the activities. At the end of the presentation, the teacher will ask students to identify the verbs in the sentence and the tense they used to express activities in the past. Students will discuss the function of past tense of the verb. Enrichment The students will design a similar ‘board of activities’ to record activities they did in the past week. The board shall have seven columns and at least three rows to show three activities done in a day. On another page, they will write a narrative documenting the activities and reflections they have of each activity. Rationale Inductive style using examples to formulate generalizations Activity cooperative learning?? Read More