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. 

The problems of letting go.. Reflection 5(Harvinder)

b)

          The TP has taught me a very important lesson on the term “Time constraint”. While teaching Merchant of Venice to many of my Lower Secondary students, I find myself in a constant race with my arch nemesis, the minute hand on the classroom clock. This minute hand is out to get me. It disallows me from giving students some amount of experiential learning of the text. It also disallows me from pressing students into forming their own opinions of the characters. It’s partner in crime is someone I would like to label as “Sir Syllabus of Litville,” commonly known as the Literature Syllabus. As this text is being taught to a Lower Secondary class, I am tasked with the following:

1.  Completing the text in the stipulated timeframe to a class of students who are pretty clueless of this Alien Early Modern English.

2. Allowing the students to know enough to effectively seat for their Examinations.

            As such, as I teach the students about this piece of Drama, something has got to give. My arch nemesis and his partner in crime have just too much power over me. The “best decision” would be to frame my lessons to lead up to the main things they will be tested on in their examinations. This would mean letting go of some crucial lessons and possible readings of the Merchant of Venice. With minute hand constantly robbing them of time, (seriously, I have never come across any other villain who works non-stop like this) the teacher cannot possible cover all the facets of the text. As such, I have to cut down on teaching students some Dramatic devices employed by William Shakespeare. This is something that makes me feel extremely guilty. I have sleepless nights thinking about how students will never know the significance of the use of contrasting images/ juxtapositions in Gratiano’s conversation with Antonio. I have thee sleepless nights not because my bed is uncomfortable, neither is it because the students are not able to learn/process this at this current juncture. The sleepless nights come from the fact that I am choosing what is important for them to learn. I am not providing them with the rich vocabulary of devices that they can use to identify the beauty of the writer’s craft. 

            Depending on the teacher, students may never know how Shakespeare wrote with such care in beautifying a play by painting vivid pictures with words. Students may also never know that there are usages of Puns, Foreshadowing and Dramatic tension in one Scene alone. It really depends on the teacher.  We choose what is important for the students and that in turn guides our lesson. The question is, “Who are we to guide them?”; Are we the absolute and final possible reading of the text? In sooth, no. Then, who are we to provide them with what is important in a piece of Drama and what is not? Have we conducted a worldwide poll on “Why Foreshadowing is more prominent/important a technique vs Imagery(Metaphors)?” We have not. However, we cannot keep concentrating and explaining along the way why this is a metaphor or that is an instance of foreshadowing. The repetition may help the students better identify such techniques but we do not have time to pick out all that there is to allow them this. We pick and choose what is important and hope it sinks in. The smarter students will get it after a few examples. The slower students may not and will struggle to identify the techniques still. Do we ensure all students can successfully identify the constant use of a dramatic literary technique or do we expose them to as much of it as possible? Quality vs Quantity.

            As such, the problem that I am facing and which will always be there till the end of time is ensuring the students can indeed learn all that they need to in their one year of studying Literature, without losing out on too much. Teaching Shakespeare in Lower Secondary, for example can take up to 3 terms or even a whole year. We still have to cover things like Poetry and Prose/short stories. Students need to be exposed to a variety of prose and poetry. It is up to us to effectively frame up a year’s work to ensure students get the most of their experience in Literature. Unfortunately, something we have to live with is condensing some areas of study and leaving out some less crucial bits (even though it may give us sleepless nights).The  phrase “less crucial bits,” after all, is always subject to debate. At the end of the day, to sum up in a terrible metaphorical example, Batman may think Robin due to his acrobatic fighting skills is important but Robin may not be so crucial when the only enemy in question is the Joker, who frankly is all brains. That is the sad price to pay in teaching Lower Secondary students Shakespeare.

Shih Wen's Reflection 5

b)

Practicum has taught me the practical skills for teaching Literature. The school offers only lower secondary Literature, and I was assigned to teach Secondary 1 (Academic) students. For my stint in the school, I am required to teach 7 compulsory poems namely

·         “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop

·         “Funeral Blues” by WH Auden

·         “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost

·         “The Daffodils” by William Wordsworth

·         “The Tiger” by William Blake

·         “Neighbours” by Alfian Sa’at

·         “Evening Song” by Leong Liew Geok

Students do not have mid-year examination for Literature and they are assessed based on two Literature Quizzes and one Literature Project (all in term 2). It sounded promising at first…

6 weeks into practicum (5 weeks of actual teaching), I have taught the 1A students similes, metaphors, personification, “The Daffodils”, “One Art” and have given them a quiz on an unseen poem (“Funeral Blues”) which tests them for their understanding of the literary devices taught. I have 3 periods with them a week, each 30 minutes. They have also missed two periods in week 2 due to a leadership camp. With so little time and so many areas to be covered, I cannot help but to wonder if students really enjoy Literature in the midst of all this hectic business, being bent over backwards with homework, quizzes, project etc. What I have yet to cover (and must be covered by week 8 of my practicum), are 4 poems, a quiz, and a project presentation. My Co-operating Teacher gave us full autonomy in coming up with the Literature Project. As such, a fellow trainee and I designed a Project for students where they would have to imagine themselves as Literature teachers applying for a position at a school. Then there was a painful, unison outcry of “eeeeewwwww...” and “noooooo…”. I was perplexed. Why the outright negative response? It did not take me long to realise what the school, or I for that matter, killed the joy of learning Literature in the first place. It was clear. The students hate Literature, and they cringe at the thought of becoming a Literature teacher. How do we expect students to appreciate poetry when they are drilled non-stop with technicalities under the pressure of a tight curriculum? The irony of it all is that while examinations are taken out of the assessment process, students are piled with more “summative assessments” which seems rather like “mini formative assessments”.

It is not hard to foresee what challenges lie ahead as I develop as a Literature teacher in my school. Without support from the school in terms of a better Literature curriculum and programme, teachers become robots fulfilling one task after another in a systematic manner, stunting professional development. There is no room for AFL (Assessment For Learning) or SDL (Self-Directed Learning) to take place since both require time, a luxury which Literature teachers in this school do not have. Last week, I raised the issue of not being able to complete the compulsory poems which should be taught to the 1A students by term 2 week 6 and requested to drop two of them so that I could concentrate on the remaining two. I was turned down by my mentor as she proclaimed that MOE requires students to complete all 7 of the poems. That raises the issue of the jarring gap between policy makers and schools. While I am not particularly aware what is exactly required of the students (i.e. whether they have to complete 7 poems by second half of term 2) from the ministry, I am very sure somewhere that along the way, information has been miscommunicated. As educators, we talk about differentiated learning all the time. While it is evident in the choice of different streams available to students today (i.e. normal, express, special etc), it is non-existent across students in the same stream from different schools. In other words, Normal Academic stream students from one school might have the same academic competency as Express stream students from another school and vice versa. Do we then teach them the same, and cover the same grounds for both groups of students? That brings us back to the state of Literature in my school. In my school, I am always told that “Our Express stream students are equivalent to Normal stream students from other schools.” It is not hard to make the connection of what our Normal Academic students are equivalent to in other schools. In the end, I was asked to cover the rest of the poems in a superficial manner, and that I can take just 2 periods (60 minutes) to cover each poem. I made the calculation. I am still short of 1 hour for the last poem, but what can a trainee/beginning teacher do to but to oblige?

I am not sure what kind of change I can make when I eventually become a beginning teacher. In the case of my current school, I would probably learn to adopt and adapt what is thrust into my arms t make Literature less painful for my students.

Alfie's Refletion 5

Focus on a specific assessment task in your school. Describe the assessment and discuss its effectiveness. 

Last term, one of the assessment put in place was the creation of a story expressed through comics and a character profile write-up. Students formed groups of four or five and worked on their project for two lessons (2 weeks). My ct came up with a specific rubric to mark the comics and character profile. The assessment made up 50% of their CA. 

Telling a story through comics
This part of the assessment tested students' understanding of plot; Introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution. Students had to create an original story and tell that story through comics (pixton.com). I think the students found the comic-making process an interesting one. Most of the comics did actually adhere to the basic elements of plot, showing  a sense of understanding of the previous lesson. This assessment also allowed students to express their creativity and which was evident in most of the stories. Interestingly, most stories also conveyed values like punctuality or loyalty. Perhaps, a disadvantage of this assessment is that some students chose to only do their comics at the last lesson and they did not produce good stories. Strict monitoring of students' projects work is essential even though it can be cumbersome with six classes. 

Character profile
Students had to choose a character from a movie, storybook or TV drama. They had to do a characterization of the character (two characteristics with evidence) and explain why they like or dislike the character. They also had to create a character profile picture of the character in a situation that portrays who the character is. For example, a group who did a character profile of Thor portrayed Thor saving a group of people from Loki. This then coincided with their characterization of Thor that describes him to be a brave person. I thought that this was an effective form of assessment in testing students' understanding of characterization. Most of the students were able to describe the characters they have chosen and it familiarizes the notion of characterization as well. They do not see characterization as a distant, useless understanding. Perhaps, a downside of this activity was that students were not able to competently give good evidence and that some of the descriptions of the characters were rather surface. 

Overall, I found this assessment interesting and effective for the secondary one level. Most students could apply their understanding of plot and characters in their comic and character profile.  It was also very visual and the students at my school learn better through visual aids. It was heartening to read comics that showed not only creativity but heart. 

About 4 more weeks! We're almost there!! :D

Yati's Reflection 5

b.

Hi, I hope everyone is coping with practicum well. Anyway, I would like to share with you my experience from teaching practicum. I have learnt a lot from my TP and they included insights about my identity as a teacher and also some lesson learnt about classroom management and lesson delivery.

I would begin by telling you that this TP has helped me "find" who I am as a teacher. Last TP I was the overly-strict and serious teacher and whenever I tried to slip into who I am naturally, I find it difficult and students thought I was trying to hard. NIE has always taught us to be always strict when you start and with me that tip has never worked out. So what I do is to start nice and firm. I greet students say "hi how are you" all friendly but when I talk to them about discipline and about schoolwork, I get extremely serious. I frown real hard and show them I really mean business and then go back to being "normal" whenever I start teaching again. Whenever students go against any of the rules or do not meet my expectations, I will turn into this monster and students don't like it and usually behave better because they don't like that side of me.

Of course, I am still developing as a teacher and my identity as a teacher is something I still struggle with from time-to-time. How do I teach Lit the way I want but also maintain the balance between being fun and goofy and being serious and firm. As a result, I have had CTs telling me that I can be inconsistent because when I am nice "I am too nice" and when I am strict "I am too strict". So striking the right balance is still something of a struggle but I have learnt a lot about my capabilities and identity as a teacher and in the meantime I will continue to work on this.

Another thing I would like to share is my experience of the actual lesson delivery. I enjoy teaching Literature because I can run with different activities and my CT is very supportive and encouraging when I do this.  For the lower secondary school lessons I find that the challenge is getting students to feel engaged with the text.  So my lessons will always be dramatic and loud and I have learnt that being as loud dramatic and fun is the only way I can gain students' attention especially after 1pm classes (my school ends at 3-3.30pm on Mons to Thurs). However, I have a harder time with my upper sec Lit class.

It is a class of 19 students and they are rather shy and many of the activities that I plan do not go according to plan as students are too shy and reserved to participate. Also, I found that I have to be extremely clear and slow and as my CT advised "treat them like idiots" during my explanation of jargon like couplet and sestet which to me, were very simple to understand. My lesson delivery for the upper sec is not as clear as I assume that students know things and that things are easy enough for them. As such, a challenge is to be able to teach these students in a clear but at the same time make the lesson fun and not teacher centred.

So those are my thoughts! Thanks for reading til the end and I wish you good luck in your practicum guys! A few more to go!

Creative/innovative practice in my school - Mariam

Hello all! Not sure if all schools have this, but my previous 2 schools didn't so I'm guessing this is unique to my school. In JYSS, all departments have Lesson Study groups which experiment and try out new interesting lessons on a test class, and if it works, will roll out the lesson to the cohort. I got stuck with an English Lesson Study group which is doing an experimental lesson using iPads to teach complaint letter. The Lit Lesson Study group is doing an experimental lesson tweaking envisionment for Unseen poems and I got to pitch the poems since I'm not there physically and they chose Mid Term Break - remember the one in which the persona's little brother died? I also learnt a lot about material choice from the pitch because my first pick before Mid Term Break was Stop All The Clocks, which would be so fun for envisionment right? With all its dramatic images? But apparently the homosexual slant wouldn't fly so whatever.

Have a great week ahead! Here's hoping we have more chances to teach what we actually like (though the probability is slim and our prospects of that happening bleak)