History
This week I had my second and final lesson observation by my NIES. The focus of my tutorial sessions was on hands-on practice in the writing of essay paragraphs using the PEEL framework. Having conducted an introductory lesson on the writing of essay paragraphs during last week’s tutorials, I was keen to see the extent to which the students had internalised the relevant requirements and techniques. In this respect, I decided to get the students to form into small groups to tackle an essay question and construct paragraph responses in accordance with the PEEL framework. This was in fact my first attempt at introducing cooperative learning into my lessons, and the outcome was even better than I had expected. Despite my initial concern about possible classroom management issues, the students proved to be highly motivated in dealing with their group task. I was hugely impressed with their serious attitude and firm focus during their group discussions, which was reflected in the high quality of their final paragraph responses. Certainly, there remained much room for improvement in the formulation of their arguments (e.g. presentation of their key points in a clear and succinct manner), but it was evident that I had generally succeeded in getting them to integrate the PEEL framework into their writing styles, which will undoubtedly prove useful to them in the writing of essays over the long run.
Project Work
For the PW lecture this week, the emphasis was on teaching students about the need to avoid plagiarism and how to do proper citations and references. While this may seem to be a common-sense task for me in view of my university experience, I fully recognised how alien this was to most of the students. However, this topic would only come in useful when the students had to write their final group papers towards the end of the PW cycle, by which time they would probably need a refresher course in this area. As for the PW tutorial, the students were required to critique their group-mates’ preliminary ideas. However, as far as I could see, there appeared to be no proper evaluative framework for the students to do a systematic critique of the various proposals, which could limit their ability to come up with constructive criticisms and/or suggestions. Hence this may be one area for me to consider should I need to conduct a similar PW lesson in the future.
Hockey (Boys)
This was my second week observing the Hockey (Boys), after which I would be switching over to Ten-Pin Bowling for the next two weeks. Since the boys would be having their first competitive game next Monday, they were particularly motivated and hyped-up during their training sessions. In fact, they even wanted to conduct additional training sessions during the long weekend, but this was understandably vetoed by the teacher-in-charge since the boys would obviously need time to recuperate for their competition. Looking at the boys’ sense of confidence and strong determination to do well, I sincerely hope that this would be effectively translated into their actual performances on the pitch in a real competitive environment. After all, the fate of their hockey team literally lies in their hands.
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