Generating Ideas for Composition Writing

Objectives of Lesson :
• To stimulate imagination and generate ideas appropriate to the writing topic
• To gather and select ideas for writing through a storyboard
• To brainstorm feelings and descriptive words based on the group’s storyboard

This is the second composition I did with my class. Based on the first writing, pupils face difficulties in generating ideas for their composition. In addition, some of their ideas did not flow smoothly and coherently. Thus, I plan to allow pupils to visualise and generate ideas through the use of storyboard.

The storyboard encourages pupils to fill in gaps between pictures through drawings. This will be less intimidating especially for pupils who lacks vocabulary fill up the ordinary graphic organisers. 

During the first lesson, pupils will work in groups to complete their storyboards and share them with the class. Following this lesson, pupils will write words or phrases to describe what they have drawn. Before they continue to embark on their individual writing, they will copy onto their own storyboard. 

Pupils are observed to be able to link the events in their story more coherently and more ideas are seen being generated through the use of this storyboard. 

 
 

 

Mdm Hafiza

Primary 3D

Fun Public Speaking Activities

Many pupils are actually quite shy to get up in front of a class to present because they are scared of speaking in front of a bunch of people. The fear of being judged, laughed at or being corrected are just some of the reasons aplenty.

But I do believe in getting pupils to start practicing and enjoying public speaking early to build up their confidence. Indirectly, it would also help them in their Oral skills, in particularly the Stimulus-Based Conversation (SBC) segment, where pupils are required to be fluent and cohesive in their response.

So how do we learn public speaking? Through practice! Only when pupils are confident at speaking, then the techniques will start to make sense.

Here is one fun activity 4F did today. I didn’t tell them we are going to have a SBC on “Accidents at Home”; I told them we are going to make up a “Fictional story of my friend” based on a picture. What/How/Why it happened that led to my friend’s current state.

I modelled one story for them and the children are hooked. They started to ask me if it was real and so on. Next it was their turn. The class was split into halves and in their groups, pupils start to share their friend’s fictional story enthusiastically. Then, they voted for the “Most Interesting” story and I got a few of them to share with the class. It certainly took them more courage to stand up in front of a class to share than in a group setting! Kudos for their efforts though!

Some pupils were indeed creative in their responses, (person lying down to avoid being hit full-front by a truck; a girl sleepwalking and fell down the stairs etc) whilst other pupils admitted that theirs were the typical narration of a child crossing the road and got hit by a car suddenly.

 

With numerous interesting ideas shared, the next SBC topic on “Accidents” should be a breeze! Check out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zRgNymCB7w for more fun activities to do with your child!

Miss Yeo Eunice

Primary 4F

Word Identification Skills : Consonant Blends

Big Book : The Jigaree

Materials needed:

Laminated cards, two white board markers of different colours per group

• Get pupils to identify the word beginning with /cl/ (climb) from the big book using the word frame 

• Do the same for the word beginning with /sw/ (swim)

• Recap the consonant blends /tr/, /br/ and /bl/

• Assign each group to work on one consonant blend

• Every member is to take turns to write out one word on a laminated card

• Encourage other team members to help out when their friends are unable to spell or think of any words

• Upon completion, display every group’s words and get the whole class to read them together

Samples:

Mrs Tan Yee Min

Primary 1D

Feedback to improve learning (Reading aloud)

After a lesson highlighting the success criteria in the Reading Aloud component, pupils did their recording using Audacity. Pupils listened to their own recording and saved the recording that they like most.

In the subsequent lesson, pupils worked in pairs to provide feedback on their partner on the clarity, intonation and pronunciation. Pupils also reflected on what they have learnt in this lesson and how they can take note of the same points they have raised when they listen to their own recording. With increased awareness of the success criteria of Reading Aloud, pupils are more conscious in their delivery in this component. A culture of trust and support has been established in this class so pupils are receptive to the feedback from their peers. It is hoped that with this positive attitude, pupils will serve to help one another to improve. 

Tapping on saved recording in the shared folder, pupils will be able to track their own progress as earlier recordings can be retrieved easily. As the teacher, I am also able to make use of these pupils’recordings to better explain the marking schemes.

Mrs Goh-Wong Wei Ling

Primary 6A

Fun With Idioms

It was the first time that my class was introduced to idioms. This activity is based on the article in the Little Red Dot. To make idioms fun and relevant to the pupils, I started off with an interesting video on idioms. 
https://youtu.be/wy6GzaLxhQw
It shows how idioms should not be taken literally. Also, the pupils tried to guess the meaning of the various idioms as we went through the video. 

Next, the pupils proceeded to find an interesting idiom at home using the Internet. They wrote down the meaning of the idiom and formed a sentence with it. When they got back to class, they shared their idioms in groups and learnt from one another. They were exposed to interesting idioms that they have never heard of. 

Lastly, in groups, they did an idiom card, explaining the meaning and forming a sentence using the idiom that they felt was the most interesting. They even tried to design the cards according to the literal meaning of the idiom. It was a fun activity to do with my pupils.  


From this lesson, I hope that I have made English more fun and interesting to my pupils.

Miss Oh Hui Chan Keline 

Primary 4A

Formative Assessment in SBC via KAHOOT IT

Pupils have been guided as to how they should approach Stimulus-Based Conversation. I decided to leverage on Kahoot It (https://getkahoot.com/). This is a simple online tool which records the responses of pupils at one time.

For this activity, I wanted to assess if pupils were able to spot what they should lookout for in the BLARE checklist and the TREES strategy. After each response, the data gave me a sense of what I should do the next lesson to fill up the gaps in their misconceptions about the checklist or the strategy. 

This formative tool can be used for any EL Component. It can be helpful for your TLC-FA observations as well.

So what are you waiting for…just Kahoot It!

Mrs Fernandez
Primary 6E

Conducting Stimulus-Based Conversation with Linoit

This was the first oral activity in class. My main aim was to collect a whole range of responses by all pupils. A tuning-In-activity on the pre-requisites of Stimulus-Based Conversation (SBC) was conducted. After the discussion, I taught pupils that the stimulus provides the scope of the conversation. Pupils were also shown the mark scheme to familiarise what is needed to do well.  

I informed them that this was a kind of pre-test to have a feel of the type of responses. 
Pupils were introduced to Linoit and given specific instructions on how to post their thoughts on the canvas. The sharing of their responses took about 15 minutes. I had to arrange the post-its on the canvas to allow pupils to read their peers’ comments. After this, we conducted a group discussion on the strengths and the areas of improvements of some responses with regards to the accuracy of the language used and the type of responses. ( Language, Accuracy & Response – see checklist) 



Pupils were provided with a checklist as they informally assessed their peers’ responses.
This is the link that you could visit to see the pupils work.

http://linoit.com/users/vshree/canvases/SBC%20Unit%201

Mrs Fernandez

Primary 6E

EDP Staff English Learning Blog 2016

WELCOME to this new blog..

Our English Department has come together to create this blog to achieve the following shared objectives. We aim to bring about a more effective student outcome in the teaching & learning of English by sharing ideas and learning from one another via this online sharing platform.

For this blog to be a success, we would like to reach out to all EDP EL teachers to contribute your lesson ideas to this blog.

Let EDP EL Journey 2016, be an experience created for the EL teachers, by the EL teachers!

EL DEPARTMENT 2016