Task 1
School Name: Si Ling secondary school

Class: 4e1

Lesson observed : EL

Profile of the class: 4E1 is the only express class in Si Ling secondary school. The majority of the students belong to the Normal Academic Stream. Thus, the 4e1 students are the cream of the crop in Si Ling as these pupils, have been promoted to the Express stream over the course of 3 years according to academic merits. Academically, these students are considerably weak in all the subjects they take. This is not surprising given that many of the students in 4e1 entered the school with a relatively low PSLE score. In addition to that, many, if not all, of the students were not eligible to be placed on the 4 year Express course.
Just a side note to this, the principal have informed me that Si Ling secondary is one of the very few secondary schools which annually accepts students with the lowest PSLE T scores in Singapore. On another note, the general profile of the students is such that the majority of them come from families whose socio-economic status is much inferior compared to the average. Hence, the large number of students placed under the financial assistance schemes. Moreover, it is not uncommon to find many students coming from families where discord and conflicts are the main causes affecting the child’s mental, physical and emotional well-being.
Yet, despite the students’ profiles, I was impressed by the way the students behaved. It never once occurred to me that the students were in any way insolent or disrespectful towards their teachers. Yes, indeed, there are a few black sheep, but this is by far more impressive than any other schools that I have visited. The students will listen to the teacher and greet the teachers warmly .It is very heart warming to see them exuding respect towards their seniors.
I was very fortunate to have observed 4e1 on the very first day of my 4 week attachement. The following week, I was assigned to be their co-form teacher where I was involved in taking morning attendance and bonding with the class during life-skills lessons. I was to sit in and observe a 2 period English lesson which was taught by the HOD of English. A patient, amiable and helpful colleague, I was very fortunate to have him as my CT. He introduced me to the class and made the students greet me and was able to manage the class very well. No form of shouting nor reprimanding was required as the students were extremely disciplined. I was amazed by the students’ maturity. They followed the teacher’s instructions without making too much noise and listened attentively during class. It was truly stunning. Never have I stepped into a class of 30 pupils where every single pupil showed their cooperation by following instructions without creating any problem.
That day, Mr Lim conducted his lesson on strategies and tips on answering comprehension questions, a section where many students often fail to excel in. Comprehension questions of today are no longer the same as those of yesteryears. Today’s questions require more inference, critical-thinking and tests vigorously on the understanding and interpreting skills of the students. If my CT was going to teach students the strategies on how to tackle comprehension questions, that must be a very arduous task! While I sat at the back of the class questioning myself how he was going to cover that in 2 lessons, my attention was instantaneously drawn to the colourful powerpoint slides that my CT had done. So my CT was incorporating ICT into his classroom teaching!
One of the observations I made was that, upon flashing the slides on the screen, the students immediately focused their attention on the humongous screen staring before them. Nothing could probably garner more attention than the use of multi-media.It certainly is one way of grabbing attention from the class! Power slides that are nicely designed with colours and pictures enhance the aesthetic qualities of the slides which could be also very useful in eliciting attention from students.
As Mr Lim went through the slides, I noticed that his slides were very organized and the presentation was very concise and clear. For example, when Mr Lim proceeded to teaching students how to identify keywords in a question, he would illustrate to students first by bolding the keywords of each question in red. After that, there would be a slide with additional questions where students are required to identify keywords in questions. For different components of comprehension questions, he would adopt the same procedure : First, the explanations with clear illustrations done graphically and followed by supplementary exercises for students to practice.
ICT is very effective here because I realized that many students in the class happen to be visual learners and thus learn quicker with visual aids. In this respect, the use of Powerpoint in illustrating the steps involved in tackling comprehension questions was a fruitful one for the students. On the one hand, they are more engaged while on the other hand, being able to see what is happening concretely can actually be more effective than solely verbal explanations.
Many teachers whom I have spoken do support the use of ICT in classroom teaching and believe that ICT can broaden classroom learning and encourage independent learning however it is also important to take note that in a school like Si Ling secondary, where many of the pupils come from less well-to-do families, having a laptop or a personal computer may be considered a luxury. Thus, this can impede their learning should ICT become main tool of delivering content and resources.