Through the assignment of the subject TSL 3110, Linking Theory to Practice, I

have learned and gained numerous priceless experiences. In this assignment, we were
required to create a weekly scheme of work, a lesson plan on a selected topic within the
weekly scheme of work created based on syllabus of English in primary school and
carry out micro teaching based on what is in the lesson plan.
The first task that we were assigned to do is to prepare a scheme of work (SoW)
comprising one week of lessons in a primary school. The topic that I chose to do the
SoW is Topic 1: Things I do from year 3 KSSR English syllabus. The very first thing I
learned by doing this part is learning to consider certain factors when creating weekly
scheme of work. The first factor to consider is the time. When planning, I made sure the
contact hour for the week so that it will be easier to list the number of learning
outcome(s) in one lesson. The second factor is the items or subtopics that need to be
covered for the week. Followed by, the balancing and integrating all four skills with the
language content so that we do not get carried away during the lesson. I also learned
the importance of creating a good scheme of work as it reduces a lot of workload and
eases the teachers job to create lesson plans faster.
The second task that we were assigned to do is to plan a lesson for any one day
based on the curriculum specifications suggested previously in our scheme of work. As
for this sub task I decided to choose a grammar lesson plan from the scheme of work.
According to the lesson grammar points are taught using the reading skill which is the
focused skill for the topic. On the other hand, the language content selected was action
verbs. Since I chose grammar as my language content, I learned on how to make
grammar lessons interesting by integrating different language skills such as reading.
Grammar lessons are always said to be boring through this I learned on how to create
creative activities that can make the lesson more fun and let the pupils learn
subconsciously.
When creating the lesson plan I learned on how to integrate theories, terms
approaches and techniques studied in previous semesters into my lesson plan. I
decided to use story as the technique to teach action verb so that grammar can be
taught using the covert approach. As for this lesson, I used the grammar lesson stages
to create my activities. It involves three stages which are presentation, focused practice
and communicative practice. As for the presentation part, I created a simple story which
has focused action verbs in it to be presented for the presentation part. During the
practice stage the focused practice method was used whereby the same story was used
and the action verbs were focused by repeating and demonstrating to the pupils. Then
they identify action verbs in the story with teachers help. In production phase the
communicative practice method was used. In this stage, pupils will play the poison box
game which includes simple instructions that they need to demonstrate such as walk to
the door. Thus, pupils will learn to use action verbs in different context of
communication. This suits the KSSRs aim which says to equip pupils with basic
language skills to enable them to communicate effectively in a variety of contexts thats
appropriate to the pupils level of development. Poison box was also used to integrate
total physical response and multiple intelligence theory by Howard Gardner (kinesthetic)
in the lesson. Moreover, the use of game was also to help in reducing anxiety among
pupils because according to Stephen Krashen, the best methods are therefore those
that supply 'comprehensible input' in low anxiety situations, containing messages that
students really want to hear.
The next part is the material designing. After creating my lesson plan, I listed
down the materials that I need to use to conduct the lesson. The materials were video,
short story and sentence strip. The video chosen was simple and slow with repetition of
key words. Thus it helps the pupils to understand the content being taught. The use of
video in the lesson helps in integrating ICT in education. The short story created was
also simple and suits the average language proficiency of young learners. The content
of the story was contextualized so that they get it relate it to their life. The story was also
supported with colorful and big pictures to aid understanding based on Jean Piaget is
theory which states that young learners think in a concrete way teaching concepts
without proper supportive material will not help in enhancing their language ability.
Part two of the task was the preparation of micro teaching. The preparation for
micro teaching was about choosing the right lesson plan, teachings aids, learning
outcomes and managing time for each section. The first part was the choosing the right
lesson plan. It took us sometime to choose the lesson plan because all three of our
lesson plans has its strength and weaknesses. Then we decided to teach the lesson
that focused on reading skill because that lesson has integrated other skills in the
teaching and learning process. Integrating other skills such as speaking helps in
expressing the pupils understanding. Skills such as listening sets purpose for reading
and helps pupils to learn how to group words into meaningful chunks. This can help
them master the skill faster.
The second section of preparation was to choose the learning outcome which
best suits the lesson. We learned the importance of choosing the right learning outcome
as it has to be related to the activities carried out and assessed at the end of the lesson.
We also learned that it has to be measurable so that after assessing we can find out if
our objective of the lesson is achieved. The evaluation was done using both verbal and
non verbal responses. The non-verbal was used to assess the first objective where they
have to list down the action verbs and verbal for the second objective which they have
to read and demonstrate the instruction. The next section is time management planning.
We planned on the amount of time each of us need to teach and the content that we
were supposed to present about. We also learned on how to create activities that can
retain the momentum of the lesson by keeping all the activities in every stage connected
to each other. From this we learned the importance of pre planning a teaching lesson as
it can help in listing out the possible problem we would face and ways to overcome it.
The next part was the micro teaching. During the micro teaching we learned a lot
of new knowledge and experience. Before starting to teach, we arranged the class so
that there will be space for the teacher to walk and observe the pupils as they do their
work. I was assigned to carry out the presentation part. During the presentation part, a
small task sheet was given to the pupil. They then circled the action verbs found in the
text. Teacher collected back the paper to check the answers. This was done to see if
pupils were able to achieve the first objective of the lesson which states thatpupil
should be able to recognize 4 out of 6 action verbs. There were too many things to
handle at a time. I had to control the laptop, read the story out loud with actions and not
forgetting to entertain the pupils as they ask extra questions. From this I learned on how
to multitask in class and not letting the pupils to lose their attention from the lesson.
That is where the teaching aid came in hand. The pupils were more interested with the
teaching aid thus, the attention span was longer. I also learned to entertain pupils
questions as it will make them feel more comfortable in class. They will also feel free to
ask any doubts regarding the topic. I realized that a good teaching aid can enhance the
teaching and learning as pupils will be more interested in the lesson and looking forward
to the next activity.
After the microteaching we learned the strength and weaknesses of our
microteaching. The strength of our microteaching is the teaching aids. The teaching aid
was suitable to teach the topic and fun to be seen. We tried to make full use of the
story. Just like what I mentioned before, we realized that a good teaching aid really
helps in supporting a lesson. The next strength was the activities included the focused
skill which is reading, on every stage as much as possible. From here we learned that
we have to be precise with the focused skill that we are teaching. We have to include
more activity that uses the focused skill in order to make sure pupils actually mastered
the skill without forgetting the language content. As we were teaching action verbs, we
made sure we did actions whenever we mention an action verb. the activity also
involved active participation of pupils. This helped in evaluating their understanding on
action verbs. Entertaining pupils when they ask questions such as, the words they do
not understand was also a strength mentioned. As for this strength we learned the
importance of teaching, for pupils understanding and not for just for the sake of fulfilling
whatever that is written on the lesson plan. There were also weaknesses in the
microteaching. The weakness was during the presentation stage, the story was read
quite fast. In order to overcome this, the story should be read word by word slowly and
with correct stress and intonation so that pupils will get to enjoy the story.
The next task was peer observation and feedback. As for peer observation, we
were assigned to observe group two and give comments on their teaching. They had
their own strengths and weaknesses so as we observed, it gave us a chance to learn
many things that we should be prepared before we start teaching. One of their mistake
was the song they chose was very fast in beat so when the pupils try to sing along they
could not catch up with the lyrics but they were able to change the technique on the
spot by asking the pupils to sing without the music. From this, I learned that we should
always have plan B to everything we plan. If ever one fails the other will help. As for the
last part, we were given chance to critically reflect on our own micro teaching. This
helped us to be extra conscious with whatever we carried out and reflect to see if
everything happened as planned. We also learn to realize our own mistakes and
weaknesses during the teaching and learning process.
The conclusion is, through this assignment I learned many new ideas and got to
recall back all the theories, approaches and topics related to lesson planning and
classroom management. I also learned on how to overcome weaknesses in a lesson
not forgetting integration of ICT in other subjects as we used videos as our teaching aid.
My teaching philosophy has certainly changed that now I see that teaching &learning is
a two-way communication, that educator has to combine different methods of delivering
information, that it is important to assign some responsibility to the students, that it is
much more important to repeat things rather than try to tell pupils as much new things
as possible, that learning outcomes, theoretical material, tasks, activities and
assessment should be aligned, feedback is a normal part of the teaching & learning
process that should not be underestimated.