Carmen's Reflection 5

Reflect on your teaching practicum so far: What have you learned from your experience during TP? What kinds of challenges do you foresee as you develop as a Literature teacher in your specific school context?

Teaching in St Andrews Secondary School (SASS) has been a challenge so far. The students vary greatly in terms of attitudes. The Express classes are generally well-behaved though a little chatty. They are the easier bunch to manage as just a little scolding and reasoning with them will work in getting them to cooperate in class. The normal technical classes are a little more difficult to manage. They are very weak in their studies and according to the teachers, they have very low self-esteem. They tend to carry the mindset of being too stupid for junior college or local polytechnics. Hence, a lot of encouragement is needed when teaching them so that they do not lose hope and give up on their studies.

The normal academics students are the great challenge of the whole lot. Normal academic students are what the teachers refer to ask “neither here nor there”. According to the teachers, the students are not very smart but definitely not dumb. In other words, they are just slow learners and many of them have learning needs. When teaching them, you need a lot of patience and you need to be prepared to teach the same thing over and over again to them. Teaching a normal academics class, I realized that they are very poor at retaining information, especially if it has something to do with their academics. Many times, I find myself repeating the same things over and over again. Also, since normal academics students are very poor at self-discipline, I found that conducting group works with them is impossible. When we let them work in groups, the boys find it very hard to restrain themselves and will choose to talk instead of doing the assigned task.

Since SASS is made up of majority normal academic students, I foresee a lot of challenges teaching Literature there. Firstly, group works are a big no-no for most classes. Role-playing is another big no-no for normal academic classes as they tend to get out of hand and act out of the context of the lesson. Hence, most of the lessons have to be quite teacher-centered.

Secondly, most of the boys, including the express students, are not very confident in their essay writing skills. They tend to ask the teacher for help. Even when the teacher goes through with them the answers, the students are unable to string them together into a proper essay. I found many of the Literature teachers resorting to writing up model essays for them to copy. The teacher has to scaffold to the extent of tying up the answers for the students to copy and use it as reference for similar questions.

Also, the students are overly reliant on videos. Rather than reading the text, I found that the teacher has to keep showing them clips on the movie of the text so that the students know what is happening in a particular chapter. Even though the videos are not good representations of the text, the teacher have no choice but to let them learn through the watching of the videos because the student will not read their books at all (the normal academics students). I found that this was so during the many periods of lessons that I had to help relief for the normal academics classes. When asked why the students refuse to read the text, most of them replied that they had no choice and had to take up Literature to meet the minimum subject requirement.

All in all, I feel that teaching Literature in SASS will be quite a challenge. I find that the teachers have made a lot of effort in making the lessons interesting (even providing extrinsic motivation like giving treats). However, most of the students are uncooperative during the lessons. As a result, the students are unable to learn much from the lessons and a lot of precious teaching time is wasted in maintaining discipline in class.

Amala's Reflection #5

                                  Amala's Reflection #5

Six weeks have flown by very fast and now we are moving on to our seventh week of our Teaching Practicum 2. I must say that these six weeks so far have been both a pleasant experience and at the same time, an eye-opener for me in terms of understanding the students' capability of relating to Literature in English.

Firstly, I am teaching Stella Kon's 9 Classroom Plays to the Secondary Two students from the Normal Academic Stream and what I have realized as of now is that many of them are very disengaged when it comes to the Literature lessons because of their lack of interest for the subject itself. I heard about students' lack of interest for Literature as a subject but only through my Teaching Practicum 2, I have witnessed it myself.

The practice that was being practised in the three classes before I started teaching them was, the teacher wrote all the points in a very precise and deatiled manner such that the students were comfortable with that practice. Also, they were required to only refer to the points and write their answers in prose forms for their weekly assignements for each text. However, I decided to use my own teaching style by only giving them the brief points and evidence for the questions so that they had to think of their own explanation or elaboration for the assignment. Through this, I thought that they will become independent learners who can be responsible and think of their own answers. However, the feedback that my Cooperating Tutor gave me was that this practice made it tougher for the students to do their assignment as they were used to the teacher giving them all the answers.

Personally, I feel that this makes the students feel very spoon-fed such that they might suffer in the examination when they previously were given all answers by the teacher. My objective is to ensure that students take responsibility for their learning and deviate from being spoon-fed by the teachers. However, I aam concerned about whether they will be independent learners who will think and write their own answers and have a two way interaction in class.

I really hope to see changes in the students such that they take the initiative to at least find for a few answers that will help in running the discussion for the questions on the text. At the moment, there is only a handful of them who conscientiously put in the effort to complete their handout prior to the lesson whereby I am aware that there are a few who might write a few points for the sake of writing or even copy from the others.

Nerine's Reflection 5

Reflect on your teaching practicum so far:

What have you learned from your experience during TP?

What kinds of challenges do you foresee as you develop as a Literature teacher in your specific school context?

The most important thing I learnt from my experience during TP is to know and understand my own style. This applies not only to teaching style but manner when dealing with students, parents and fellow teachers.

In my school, Upper Sec Lit is not offered. Hence, my timetable is filled with 3 hours of Lit and 7-8 hours of EL each week. I take 3 Sec2 classes and they are doing Animal Farm. I have always thought the book to be interesting till I came to this school. The teacher who teaches it is retiring at the end of the year. To her, line-by-line analysis is the only way to learn a book thoroughly. Every Lit lesson involves her putting the book under the visualizer and going through the events word by word. My students completely hate this method of teaching and they rarely look forward to Lit lessons. They see every Lit class as a free period. When I asked these 3 classes if they want to take Upper Sec Lit next year, I get a resounding “NO!” I think it would be difficult finding even 15 students in the Sec2 Express cohort who would consider Combined Humanities (Lit + SS).

Because they have this mentality that Lit is not important since they will not study it next year, they place a lot more emphasis on other subjects. In addition, because the school only allocates 55 minutes a week for Lit, some lessons are taken up by Sports Day/public holidays etc and I get to see them only the following week. By then, it would be difficult to get them back on track again. This is extremely disheartening for me but at the same time, it makes me want to make a difference in this school. I believe that Lit is a subject students will enjoy if they enjoy the text and the teacher. One huge challenge I thus face in this school is helping students love and be passionate about the subject.

Final Reflections

b.       Reflect on your teaching practicum so far: What have you learned from your experience during TP? What kinds of challenges do you foresee as you develop as a Literature teacher in your specific school context? 

I am currently teaching at Northland Secondary School and I'm taking the entire Secondary One cohort for English Literature. The school does not offer English Literature at the upper secondary level. Students have 'traditional' exams in the middle and end of the academic year. Students are also graded through mini-assessments, with the bulk of them being take home essays.

1) PEEL Model - for Writing, for sharing.

The PEEL model is often criticized for being over rated and over emphasized by some Literature teachers. Often, they  cry out that the PEEL model is a rigid format that prevents an essay from having a flow. However, at Northland Secondary School, most of the students are from the bottom tier of the PSLE cohort. This means that many of them are very weak in English. A number of them have issues with crafting sentences. I do not wish to turn my lesson into a grammar lesson, the least I could do is to introduce PEEL to them to help scaffold their thoughts and their output. 

My entire term focused on teaching students how to develop a PEEL opinion. 3/4 of the term was crafting PEEL for essay writing, the remaining 1/4 was using PEEL to share opinions in class discussions. Such a proportion is justified because students are required to write essays for their Mid-Year Examinations (MYE) and I would be expecting them to craft at least one coherent paragraph using the PEEL framework. The remaining 1/4 is used to broaden student's horizons as they will be introduced to multiple perspectives about the texts. 

Using the PEEL framework ensures that essays and class discussions are void of "fluff" because there is evidence and elaboration to substantiate the points. This is important because many students do not read the text and there is a chance that some of them might contribute "rubbish" - I once had a student who went on to invent his own story to the (not-so-funny) amusement of the class.

2) The economics of time

I only see my students for 45minutes, once a week. This means that I have to be very selective with the things I choose to teach my students. The only logical thing for me to did is to prepare them for their MYE. Apart from the PEEL framework, I have taught them:

- Annotation Skills --> To ensure that they are busy jotting down notes and not staring into blank space as I teach.
- Reading Skills --> I got them to re-make the story into a comic strip without much success. The students ended up drawing without reading the story. The better ones only included the first portion of the story. Many others were too preoccupied with drawing "what is correct."

3) Challenges

As a literature teacher, I would like to expand the notion of assessment in this school. Students should not be just graded on their ability to write essays. Other forms of assessments include:

- Story Reading - Getting students to read aloud in a dramatic manner.
- Comic Drawing - Retelling a story through drawings.
- Acting
- Poetry Slam

In order for such assessments to take place, more allocated time is needed. Firstly, students need more time with the teacher to 'work things out' to ensure that these form of assessments are executed in accordance to the expectations of the rubric. However, requesting for more allocated time is almost impossible, given the tight schedule.

Therefore, it would be a strategic move if English Literature can be positioned as a "multi-disciplinary" subject. For example, story reading and acting can replace traditional oral examinations for English. In fact, I think that if a student is able to do a dramatic reading of a passage or perform in front of an audience, he/she would not have a problem reading in front of a teacher in a traditional English oral examination. It is only then that more allocated time is justifiable. 

Another challenge would be to get students to even read the text. A student once told me that reading a book with lots of words is his greatest nightmare, and a trip to the library is like going to hell. I believe that there are many students in Northland who have not discovered the joys of reading. It is only when students read the text that the teacher can do more 'fanciful' activities like class debates. I've still not found a solution to this. I've thought of replacing silent-reading sessions (because in reality, many students are just stoning) with activities such as story telling and poetry slam performances to spur students to read during their own free time. 

Shalini's Reflection #5

Reflect on your teaching practicum so far: What have you learned from your experience during TP? What kinds of challenges do you foresee as you develop as a Literature teacher in your specific school context?

One big learning point I take away from my practicum is to never underestimate the students.

I have a whole spectrum of students, ranging from the well-behaved best secondary 2 express class to the really rowdy and take 20-minutes-to-settle-down Normal Academic class. The other two in between classes, 1 express and 1 normal academic, provide a smooth transition between these two classes. Initially, I was extremely afraid to step away from the teacher-centred classroom and from the kind of environment where I encourage students’ participation, but keeping it within the perimeters I had set. However, my CT encouraged me to move away from this despite my hesitations. So naturally, I started with the Express classes. I was really afraid that students will not participate or will not provide the right answers or will be unable to comprehend the task. However, when I conducted a debate on Romeo & Juliet, to my amazement, the students were really enthusiastic and were very eager to look at their text, find for evidence and even counter argue their peers points. I even saw students debating points within their groups. This was very encouraging as I did not expect such a vibrant debate. For the first time, I heard students moan when the bell rang to signal the end of the period! Additionally, this seemed to resonate with  the readings I had read in NIE of allowing students to take learning into their own hands and really immerse themselves into the text. What I initially thought students would not be able to do, they did beyond my expectations.

But the real realization that students should not be underestimated came from my Normal Academic Classes. When I did a tableaux activity with them, I was so afraid the students, with their complete disinterest in group work and any activity, their HATRED for literature and discipline issues, would not understand what to do, how to analyse the story or would simply not participate in the activity, resulting in the failure of the task and one big, chaotic mess! However, once again, with my CT’s encouragement (Or rather this time round she forced me into it as she insisted on observing me in the least well behaved NA class as they do this task), I embarked on it with fear. But once again, I learnt the students were capable of so much more.  Minus a few students who were really disinterested, the rest of the class seemed to take the activity seriously and really do the task. It was heart-warming to see the same group of students who had told me that they hate group work and their class cannot do group work; ask so many questions about the text and really do the task. Thus, I learnt this very valuable lesson to never judge or put a limit to what students are capable of and deny students the full learning experience based on our perceptions of their shortcomings. If my CT had not encouraged me to do it with the NA class, I would have simply gone to class and lectured them (as I had been doing) and they would have lost out on experiencing the text at a deeper level. Of course, it took quite a bit of effort to plan and more so, to discipline the kids. But herein lays the challenge.

Finally, another possible challenge I would face is differentiating the teaching of literature for the Express and NA classes. Currently, I have to cover the same content for both streams. Initially, I used the same materials for both streams. However, it is evident that the NA kids learn things at a slightly slower pace, on top of discipline issues, and so I found myself having to tweak the lessons for them. Also, across the 4 classes, I find that the students have very different learning styles. Even within the express classes, differentiation is needed. For example, the 2E1 students   were very engaged in whole class discussions whereas the 2E2 students refused to participate in whole class discussions and looked like they were going to die out of boredom. However, whenever I did group activities, they were engaged and focused on the task, even asking questions to clarify their understanding. Thus, I learnt that it is extremely crucial to know your class profile and to conduct activities that are appropriate to their learning style. This, I feel, will be the challenge we face as beginning teachers who are pressed for time and who will already have so much on our plates. 

Reflection 5

Reflect on your teaching practicum so far: What have you learned from your experience during TP? What kinds of challenges do you foresee as you develop as a Literature teacher in your specific school context?

 I think the biggest thing I have "learned" so far is that many students do not respect Literature as a proper subject, because they do not see any uses for it in the future, and is a subject that is too "touchy-feely". What I told my students is that Literature is the only subject that allows them to be critical, more reflective as well as explore problems in society, and their response is that History allows them to do the same. I told them that we can identify underlying motivations for certain courses of actions when we study characters and the society, and their reply to it is that it is a boring subject. I do not think that all my students feel this way, but the more vocal and mischievous students definitely do. To counter this attitude towards Literature, what I do is try and plan for my lessons to be more interesting and also demonstrate my love for Literature in how I teach. I guess it does take time to understand and also love this subject.

Another thing I learned is to create a very guided lesson through the power point. In other words, without the power point, I feel rather handicapped, because I am getting rather good at using the power point slides to carry out the entire lesson, with my activities and choral reading (for poetry) imbued inside as part of the power point slides too. Once, I had a lesson observation with my NIE sup that did not allow for me to use the ppt slides as the projector was not working very well. While I did prepare for it, the entire lesson using the whiteboard made me feel extremely inadequate and the lesson felt extremely boring. MY NIE sup also feedback to me that I did not fully utilise the entire whiteboard space as my writing was all over, jumping to and fro different places. I do not blame my students for not sitting through the entire lesson peacefully, as I have even forgotten to carry out the other activities that I had planned for them. Since the projector was not working very well, even the videos I had wanted to show my students could not be aired out on the screen. On the postive note, because I am able to create a very guided lesson with power point slides, my lesson objectives and key questions are very clearly stated to my students and they have a good grasp of the flow of my lessons.

One challenge I forsee as I develop as a Literature teacher is getting my students to love and appreciate Literature (or at least show some respect for this subject) so that they would take this subject at O levels. But with that, I need to get past my HOD by persuading her to open a class, even if there are only slightly over 10 students, which was what happened this year. The school principal also believes in encouraging students not to take too many subjects, and most students in my school take only 7 so that they can maximise the time to master each subject. First things first, I will have to demonstrate my love for this subject and also make lessons as interesting and meaningful as possible.

Another challenge I forsee is to make this subject as culturally relevant to students as possible so that they would feel that this subject is relatable, and would help them grow, both emotionally and morally. To me, Literature is the only subject that teaches one moral values, and I would like to inculcate good moral values in my students. This can be done first by making the subject more culturally relevant to them, in terms of the Singapore context as well as it being suitable for teenagers, so that they can then relate to it and then learn life lessons from books.

With that, all of us continue the struggle with the education system as literature teachers.

Sarala's Final Reflection

Reflect on your teaching practicum so far: What have you learned from your experience during TP? What kinds of challenges do you foresee as you develop as a Literature teacher in your specific school context?

From my experience during Teaching Practice thus far, I have learnt a couple of things which are beneficial and am constantly still trying to work on the strategies I have employed to make my lessons better. As my school does not have Upper Secondary Literature, I only teach the Lower Secondary students, specifically the Normal Academic classes. One thing that I have learnt is that students in this stream are capable of learning and understanding what is being taught to them. However what is lacking in them is interest. Many of them cringe at the thought of Literature as it requires them to read. And reading is really not something that they enjoy doing. 

During my lessons, to veer off from too much teacher centered teaching and boring my students more than they already seem to be, I posed questions to my students to get them to think about what I was teaching and also to get them to personally respond to issues that are being discussed in the story. This did not really work in the beginning as I tend to get answers only from the more vocal boys. I tried to call on people as to allow more students to answer the questions but it did not seem to work so much too, as the shy ones remained shy and did not want to open up. Thus, I used extrinsic motivation on them. I brought sweets to class the next time round and this time, I was surprised by its results. Just one sweet from me could make all of them want to answer my question. Even the shy ones are raising their hands to answer my questions. Although I have to admit that some of their answers were sometimes irrelevant, I gave them the sweets nevertheless in appreciation of their participation. But, some of their answers were really good and they even managed to give me answers that were not what I was thinking about. Thus, I raised those as good points and expand on them to allow every student an opportunity to learn from their fellow classmates. However, one disadvantage that came out of this was that all of them became more rowdy during lesson. This made it pretty hard to manage and I constantly have to pause my lesson to explain to them the need for them to control their excitement so as to allow every student to learn. This got quite exhausting on my part, but it was still a very rewarding lesson as I managed to achieve student participation and engagement which was lacking in previous lessons.

One other learning point would be that students in this stream have very short attention spans. They "switch off" very easily and I have to constantly manage them and bring them back to the lesson. I would have loved to do some group activities in class, but due to the constraints of time, I could not carry them out. As such I try to infuse some pair work where they discuss certain things with their partners and then discuss with the class. To ensure that they focus during the lesson, I too provide them with notes that has blanks which they will have to fill in as the lesson is in progress. This worked in getting the majority of the students engaged and focus, but there are still some who occasionally "switch off" and have certain blanks on their notes still not filled. At times, I get them to watch videos which are relevant to my lessons and ask them questions about the videos thereafter and link them back to the day's lesson. What was heartening here was that I managed to get them all engaged during the showing of the video. They were all eyes on the screen and really listening. And when I gathered their responses, it was again heartening to hear some really good answers.At least, there seems to be some form of learning taking place.

However, having said that, the problem that all Literature teachers face is the problem of time. How do we complete the syllabus with what little time we have? How do we then get students to love the subject in the process as well? Striking this balance is a challenge especially with students who are already not very interested in the subject. Thus steps have to be constantly taken to modify lessons to inculcate some form of interest as well as cover what has to be covered in the syllabus. I face the problem of not having enough time to finish what I needed to finish before my students take the mid-year examinations. Thus, in one of my recent lesson, when doing the P.E.E method with my students for characterisation, one of my Cooperating Teacher told me to just furnish students with the answers so that they could just copy it down. I was pretty shocked at first, so when the lesson started out I was still trying to get students' responses and moving the lesson. However towards the end when time was really running out, I had to do what my Cooperating Teacher told me to do, which was to just furnish them with the answers. Personally, I felt that not much learning is happening here, as students are merely copying what was written on the whiteboard onto their worksheets. Whether or not they internalised the points was questionable and whether or not they will translate the information onto their examination papers was another question altogether. Additionally, I too feel that this does not help in inculcating love for the subject in students, which in turn will lead to a lack of interest and the lack of wanting to learn anything during Literature lessons. This thus feels like a vicious cycle. Having to complete the syllabus to prepare students for the examinations in a stipulated period of time is a real problem that not only Literature teachers, but all teachers face.