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.