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.

Sarah'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?

What I have learnt from my TP so far is that all students have the potential to learn. In my own Literature classes, it is always the few girls who are constantly answering my questions. But I cannot use that as a basis that the whole class was following me. In order to assess their understanding, I used extrinsic motivation to get them into answering questions while doing close reading. I gave out chocolates for those who answered my questions thoroughly. At first it only works for the normally active students, but after a while a lot more other girls become active participants. Some of them struggled to come up with good answers, but I am glad that they are opening up and are not afraid to voice out their answers, despite a few wrong interpretation of the text. This works really well for the Sec 2 Normal Academic students as my aim is to get them to think instead of feeding them with answers. This is also how I try to improve on my questioning techniques. From comments given by my CT and supervisor, I need to give the students more open-ended questions to challenge the students. With the chocolates, I am forced to think of more open-ended so that students may answer the questions with proper evidence and explanation - a skill which is essential in Literature. I am slowly learning how to challenge my students and enforcing critical thinking in classroom. 

I also tried to implement the usage of ICT in my class. I got my Sec 2 Express students to log in to a few twitter accounts I created for 3 characters in the book and tweet the characters' personal thoughts and feelings. Since we are unable to use phones in classrooms, I got my students to do the task at home. Surprisingly, the students were enthusiastic and were very in-character. Although some of the tweets were nonsensical and out of context, most of them were relevant. I printed their tweets out and get them to analyse the problems that the characters faced from the tweets and write an advice column for the characters, in groups of four. I may also use this twitter in future lessons to talk about characteristics as well as they key themes in the story in future lessons. This is is one of the possible methods to challenge the students further.

I have also learnt how disseminate instructions more clearly. I tend to give verbal instructions unconsciously, be it giving students tasks to be done at home or in class itself. Students may tend to miss out certain important instructions and it will be better to at least have a written instruction on the board, on the slides, or best is to give them instruction worksheets. It will be more effective and less disruptive, especially if students are to do group work in class.

One of the challenges that I foresee myself as a Literature teacher in this school is how to cope the high expectations that the HOD and other senior teachers have on us Lit teachers. My school has a niche in the Arts, and they are particularly proud of their pool of Literature teachers and students who have constantly  performed well above the school's expectations. I am afraid that I may not perform well as an educator and succumb to the pressure. I believe what is important is to have confidence in what I am teaching. Consulting the senior teachers is the best way to learn. Get them to help observe some of the classes and get feedback from them. It is also important to keep an open mind and accept critics. By embracing our weaknesses, we will be able to progress further as an educator.

Final Reflection - Zarifah

Literature Final Reflection

Describe and discuss an innovative or creative practice in your school

The school I am in uses ICT on a large scale. Since I have been in this school for the past six weeks I have had the opportunity to see how ICT has been effectively and efficiently used in English Literature. Currently, the students are doing short stories, concentrating specifically on characterisation and themes. After the usual frontal teaching on themes, the students are given the opportunity to express their understanding of the three themes learned in the form of a comic. Students were required to create a scene that reflects the short story, “Monster” or “A Devoted Son” to illustrate the themes they have chosen. Using ComicLife, students are to use a minimum of six frames to illustrate this. I found this to be extremely creative and useful because through this assignment, students are likely to realise that devices learnt such as themes and characterisation are not limited to the class room and chosen texts. It can be found in other mediums as well, such as in a comic. Students tend to learn better when they realise what they have learn in school is applicable. Moreover, the use of a graphic novel to represent their ideas would also benefit students who are more of a visual learner. In addition to being a great visual representation of students’ understanding to what have been taught in class, the work done on ComicLife can be easily printed or posted on websites so that it can be shared. Often, students are very enthusiastic when it comes to such story boarding activity, and the work done on ComicLife can be easily emailed to their parents. Students’ confidence is reinforced as they receive positive reinforcement from their parents. ComicLife is often used for lower secondary because it is relatively easy and a good platform to inspire creativity in students.

In upper secondary, other mediums, such as Glogster is used instead. Students were given a poem and through the use of Glogster they were required to represent what they thought that that poem was about. Students are able to use images, videos and sounds to represent what they think the particular poem is about. I like how the video, sound and images can be placed on the same page with the poem. This prevents the students from going overboard and making it too cumbersome. Limiting the students to one page need not necessarily limit their creativity, rather it forces and encourages them to interpret the poem and present their interpretation creatively.

Good luck everyone for the rest of your practicum! =)

Joel's Final Reflection - The Realities of Life and Teaching

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?

This practicum (though it has only been six weeks) has provided an injective dose of reality which were never revealed to me during previous teaching stints, be they relief, contract or previous practicum experiences. I have definitely learnt much and hopefully gained much as well.

Right off the bat, it must be mentioned that teaching constitutes only five percent of what a teacher does (at least in my case). The other ninety-five percent of the time has been spent settling administrative tasks, attending meetings/non-classroom engagements, endless markings (and revised markings) of students’ scripts, lesson plans, relief duties and the list goes on. On top of all these, a teacher is expected to conduct himself well with relation to the five percent and perform what is above and beyond the requirements.

I have learnt that it is of paramount importance to not lose one’s personal philosophy of education or why we have embarked on this most noble profession in the first place. During the beginning weeks, I began to realise that as more time passes, the more I became disillusioned with what I was witnessing and experiencing. It was necessary to hold on steadfastly to my personal beliefs and really “not lose myself”. I did not want to be another statistic.

Two essential traits of the trade would be adaptability and resiliency. The former will ensure that despite the many “curveballs” that come my way, I would still be able to make the best out of any situation and think quickly “on my feet”. This is essential as every single day would provide new challenges that would be unforeseeable and unexpected. This would be where the latter comes in as well. Resiliency is required to maintain one’s sanity and to be in control of all situations as any single act of defiance, perceived or otherwise, could spell the end of one’s career. This I feel is where two realities are evident. One would the realities of teaching and the other would be the realities of life. The realities of teaching should entail the many challenges faced and more importantly (or at least I feel this way) the students and their learning. This would be crucial to what the job entails but on the other hand, there is the slight matter of actually keeping that job in the first place which would form the harsh realities of life. This brings about the conundrum that I think is unique to teachers. As teachers, our hearts should ideally be with and for the students. However, in the event that things do not go as planned and the students’ well-being are perceived to be in detriment because of decisions/circumstances placed on us (trainees), do we then approach the matter with our hearts on our sleeves or do we compromise against our own wishes? Many would be quick to point out that a balance must be found and common sense should prevail but a balance can never be struck on unequal planes and common sense is, contrary to popular belief, less common than most other things in life.

Pedagogy wise, NIE has indeed trained us well enough to handle the classroom. Unfortunately, it is not possible to be prepared for the actual school setting that we are posted to as this would be unique to individual schools. I have never been one to believe in luck but I do believe it does play a significant part. Having a good mentor/CT is of the utmost important and we are unable to select them. Hence, we will need to adjust accordingly and follow suit in the vein of our CT(s). It is unwise to do otherwise.

The challenges facing me as a Literature teacher in this school would be multi-fold. Firstly, although Literature is my CS1, I only have a total of two periods per week and this is for teaching the lower secondary. It does not help that the two periods are separated into one each. This makes teaching challenging as only so much can be accomplished within a single period and the time spent with the class is insufficient to have the same impact as say for example English where I have many more teaching periods. The school does not place a strong emphasis on Literature and this is most evident by way of the Time-tabled teacher’s (TTT) period where it is part of the school’s policy to set aside two periods during school hours for teachers of the same subject and level to all meet to discuss the proceedings and decide on the way forward.etc. To my knowledge, Literature is the only subject that does not have a TTT. Furthermore, at the upper-secondary level, there are only one and a half class taking Literature and it used to be even less than that with one teacher taking the entire upper secondary. This would be rather challenging for me as I became a teacher with the strong intention to teach Literature. The current situation would not bode well for my development.

The future would appear rather bleak for the subject as well if the beliefs/comments of the teachers and my CT are anything to go by. It has been made quite clear to me that things can be done in a slip-shod manner for Literature because “most of them would not go on to take Literature at the upper-secondary level anyway”. If the people teaching Literature place such little emphasis on the subject, it is no wonder the students view the subject as something to be overlooked and it also adds to the impression that Literature is a difficult subject to score in and that many do not take them at the upper-secondary level. The situation is not helped by the fact that many teachers who teach Literature are not Literature trained as well. It creates a world of difference when the person teaching Literature is actually trained in the subject. The irony of it all would be that there are two Literature trained teachers (including myself) posted to the school but we are both given minimal periods to teach it and only at the lower-secondary level.  

Reflection 5 (Brian)

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 of the things I've learnt is that students have their own 'ideal way' of dealing with Literature, and that as a teacher I need to navigate the need to adapt myself to their learning style to teach them effectively, while at the same time trying to draw them out of their comfort zone and into new ways of thinking and learning.

I've been teaching one of the Secondary 2 Express classes and we've been going through Romeo & Juliet. Their teacher has developed a routine of giving them a few questions to tackle, after which she will ask students for their main points, validate them, and provide a model answer for them to copy while she explained it.

When I took over, I still assigned them the prepared questions that were shared with all the teachers across the level. But instead of giving them a model answer, I would type out their response on the spot and get the entire class to indicate whether or not they can add anything else to it. Thus, the students would have to a) assess what the main point(s) are and b) work on the phraseology. Once the response was fully developed, I would give them time to copy it down.

It wasn't until last week that I got feedback via their English teacher that they wanted the model answers. It came as a bit of a surprise to me, because their responses were actually good. In terms of phraseology there was of course room for improvement, but they were capable of getting the main points and articulating them well enough.

I told them as much in the next class, but I understood that there was a lack of confidence in their own abilities. So to compromise, I started providing a prepared response, but only after I was done with the class critique session. I would then point out how their class efforts at building a response managed to hit all the main points, so the model answer was more as an example of how to phrase the same points.

The challenges I face as a Literature teacher, though, are more evident in the Sec 2 Normal Academic class I teach. While the students are actually capable of doing the work, there is a greater need for scaffolding. However, even if they are able to verbalise a response, they do not write it down because they lack confidence in their own ability. Their language definitely needs work, but they do manage to get the main points. And yet instead of writing it down, they end up not doing anything because of their inability to fully capture their thought process in clear and accurate English.

The issue of language is definitely one that is not easy to address. If students are capable of understanding the text and developing a response, but lack the necessary linguistic ability to pen it down, how do we bridge that gap with only two periods a week? And how do we develop their confidence so that they are willing to articulate their thoughts on paper, even if the presentation may be less than stellar?

Geraldine'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?

After 6 weeks of practicum, I have learnt the importance of adaptability. I teach 3 different secondary 2 classes. These classes are extremely different from one another not only in terms of academic grades but also the 'class personality'. As such, when i enter each class, it is a whole different ball game. During the first few weeks of practicum, I would always stick to my single lesson plan in all 3 classes no matter what. However, now I've learnt that these 3 classes do not learn the same way at all. For the highest-ability class, I am able to have more student-centric learning through group work and independent construction. However, in the lower ability class with extremely rowdy students, the best strategy which works best is to have teacher-directed lessons where the students copy notes as I go through the content of the lesson. It sounds dull and I would love to have more group work with this class, however, the profile of the students simply does not allow me to do so. Now, I've learnt to adjust and adapt my lesson plan to match the needs of each class. I think a lesson plan is only 30 % of the work done, the rest is about finding what is effective in that class at that very moment.

Challenge #1:

 In my school, there is no upper secondary literature offered. Therefore, students do not really see the point in studying literature. They would prefer to focus on more 'important' subjects such as math and science instead. With this attitude, students would place any literature assignments/homework as the least important and it is  a big challenge to get these students to complete tasks. Even getting students to read the literature text is a huge problem. Right now, I am covering short stories with the students and in order to make sure they read the short stories, I have to give the classes 'silent reading' time. Imagine what would happen if they are required to study an entire novel in the future. Some students do not even see the point of buying the literature text and it's the end of term 2 already.....

Challenge #2:

Each class has two 40-minute literature periods per week. It is difficult to cover all the content while at the same time making lessons interesting with just 80 minutes of lesson time. A collaborative activity like role-playing would already require about 3-4 periods because students have to plan, write their scripts, practise and then perform. There is simply no time for such activities because there is the prioritised need of feeding students all the content before the examinations.  

I think these issues stem from the root problem of the school not valuing literature as a subject. If the school does not value a subject, how can we expect our students to?

Kheng May's Reflection 5

Six weeks into practicum and with 2 more observations to go, I thought things would be slower and more relaxed but I was wrong. All I hear around me are teachers going ‘term 2 is such a short term!’ and immediately I feel the pressure to nod my head and chime in agreement. As a teacher on practicum, we do not have the full load of work and we do not have any other responsibilities and commitments to handle. Yet, it is almost impossible to finish the syllabus on time. Once we become full-fledged teachers there will be no need for detailed lesson plans anymore. BUT, what I have come to realize is that a teacher cannot go into class unprepared. We often underestimate our students, thinking that they do not know any better and that we can just teach ‘on-the-spot’. Being confident of what you want to cover and how you want to teach it is important not just for your image as a teacher, but also for the students’ learning. Unfortunately, during my time in practicum I have witnessed such incidents happen that do not put in a good name for Literature teachers.

Aside from work, what I gathered from practicum so far is that it is important to surround yourself with likeminded people. Yes, that means staying away from the old and disgruntled teachers who are just bidding their time till retirement. I also realized that the generation gap between the beginning teachers and the senior teachers is huge and it can cause conflict and tension to arise if it is not mediated properly.

Challenges in the future

1. I guess the common enemy of all teachers is time. Despite having 5 periods (45 minutes each) of Literature every 2 weeks, I am struggling to finish what needs to be covered for their SA1. I am always torn between teaching my students what is needed for their exam and spending 3 periods to finish analyzing one poem. I would like to be able to squeeze a poem dry, to look at it from all angles so that my students will know that Lit is not boring and not just all about ‘reading books’. I would like to give them time to research and read about writers and poets on their own before coming to class. I would like to bring them out on a learning journey because it is beneficial and relevant to what they are learning and not because it is a requirement that they must have at least one camp and one humanities event in a year. In a race against time, my ideals and dreams as a Literature teacher have to make way for other things that are deemed more important. I guess that is a fact and what I have to do now is to adapt my ways around it.

2. Finding your place and value as a Literature teacher.

With all the heat Literature has been receiving, I feel that it still has a very uncertain future in Singapore. My secondary 2 students are not the least bit interested in Literature and despite my efforts to interest them with videos, songs, pictures, 9gag etc. they always give me this blank look and only 2 brave souls raise their hands to answer my question. They complete their homework but it lacks the heart and passion that should come from a Literature student. This nonchalance they feel towards Lit has to do with them not valuing Literature as a subject. When they do not see the value of a subject, studying it is just a waste of time. It is just a subject they need to pass and do well in so that they can use their good grades to get into a good science class next year. It is very disheartening to know that students see Literature as a chore instead of something that is refreshing and an escape from the Science subjects (at least that was how I saw Literature in school). Their lack of love for the subject, coupled with the fact that teachers are rushing to cover the syllabus just robs all the life from Literature and it is what makes our jobs as Literature teachers, as educators who not only teach but spread the passion for Literature, so difficult to do.