Reflection Essay

by: Muhammad Akmal

Linking Theory to Practice TSL 3110 short coursework consist us to plan and perform

30 minutes microteaching in the class. We have to work in a group of three to complete the

task given.

The first step that we need to take is to draft a weekly scheme of work (SOW) before

we can proceed to draft the lesson plan. The weekly scheme of work is a guidance to plan a

lesson for the whole week. Planning the scheme of work must be referred to the standard

document or the curriculum specifications. For us, we chose to teach year 3 ESL primary

school students. So when drafting the SOW, we must refer to the year 3 KSSR standard

document. All the criteria in the scheme of work must be taken into consider especially the

number of week which can be referred to the monthly or year scheme of work, the theme or

the topic that is going to be taught, the learning outcomes (LO) of the lesson, the learning

standard, the activities for students and lastly the remarks. The process of drafting and

editing the SOW keeps go on with Mr. Yusni time by time until we get the finest scheme of

work to plan our lesson for the microteaching.

After finished drafting the scheme of work, then we have to draft a lesson plan for

Year 3 KSSR students based on the SOW that we have made. The teaching context of the

lesson is on the world of knowledge while the topic is on My Pets. The specifications that

we used are 1.3.1 Able to listen to and demonstrate understanding of oral text by asking WH-

questions and answer simple WH- questions, 3.2.2 Able to write with guidance: Simple

sentences, and 5.1.1 Able to use nouns correctly and appropriately. By the end of the lesson,

the students in their respective levels should be able to list out the common nouns correctly,

transfer information from the text into the graphic organizer correctly and able to write simple

sentences by using common nouns correctly. All the activities are provided with suitable

teaching materials and worksheets that we have prepared. The lesson goes on smoothly as

we planned, Alhamdulillah.

There are few new things that I have learnt from the microteaching especially in

managing the classroom fills with young children and how to manage the materials that I

have prepared for the lesson. There are few ways to manage the classroom as well as the

teaching aids. First of all, teacher should greet the students when he entered the class.

Teacher ask the students how are they doing in class and who are absent. Through greeting

the students, it shows that teacher cares about her students and the students will feel the

friendly and safe environments while being in class. As usual, the first impression is very

important. In this case, students impression about the teacher must be good to make sure

they give their full cooperation when the lesson takes place.

Next, teacher should also let the students guess what topic she will teach on that day.

Guessing can be seen as one of the skill by the teacher to attract the students and

heightened their curiosity to learn in classroom. Teacher gives few clues to them so students

can guess what topic they are going to learn. Then teacher must explain further about the

topic and relate it with the previous lesson so students will have better understanding on it.

Teacher also must use some teaching tools (BBM) or realia to attract the students. Besides

of attracting the students attention, these teaching aids also helps to give clear instruction.

When teacher is giving instructions, he directly can use the realia to show examples to

students so they can have better understanding on that topic. Most important is, by using the

teaching aids or realia students can experience hands on activity in the class. Teaching and

learning session will be more enjoyable if teacher plan an activity where students can take

part in it.

Teacher also has a right to teach in a free misbehavior classroom. So, a few steps

can be taken to manage and prevent any misbehavior from happens. First, teacher should

organize a clear set of rules for class behavior. This is based on the theory of Assertive

Disciplines by Canter& Canter. Organized a set of rules does not mean that teacher only

write rules on a paper and paste it on the wall. Organize means teacher set the specific rules

that can be used in the classroom during the lesson and teacher explain it to the students so

they can understand the rules and follow them.

Next, teacher must state to the students what the positive consequences are when

they obey and complied with the classroom rules as well as negative consequences when

they refuse to follow the rules. Teacher should recognize and praise students who are able to

comply with the rules to make them feel appreciated and have a motivation to keep following

the rules. For the students who broke the rules also must recognize and put under

observation. They will be given three warning and if they still do the same trouble they will be

taken to the headmasters desk or to the counselors room.

For example when teacher is teaching in front, there are few students talking at the

back and bothering others who wanted to study. Teacher takes the first action by asking

them to low down their voices and listen to what the teacher is teaching in front. If they are

still making noise, teacher can separate the group. If the problems still happen with the same

students talking and bothering other at the back, teacher can take them to the counselor or

directly to the headmaster because there is already three warning given before. The early

action is very important to prevent any major misbehavior in the classroom such as truancy

or vandalism.

Besides, teacher also should be more calm and confident when facing students in

class. The teacher in the video seems a bit nervous because she move too often when

teaching the students. The often the teacher moves, the less the students can focus.

Assertive teachers should clearly, confidently, and consistently model and express class

expectations. This kind of teacher works to build trust with the class. When teaching or giving

orders to students, make sure you are not hesitate. Be firm in the class and if you want to

state a rule, make sure it is clear. For example, our rule is no talking without raising your

hand. Please raise your hand and wait for me to call on you. This is what I have said when

students answer the question without raising their hand.

Teaching English vocabulary is not easy to be deal with. A crucial component of

learning a foreign language is the acquisition of vocabulary. For young learners, the very first

words that they acquire could lay the profound basis for a better later learning of the children.

This study is intended to investigate the specific application of techniques in teaching

English vocabulary to young learners. I have strived to investigate the current techniques in

teaching vocabulary to young learners and studied the difficulties that teachers encounter

during this process. Oral interviews, questionnaire and observation schemes were used as

useful instruments for data collection. The questionnaire-based survey aims to scrutinize

teachers common techniques in teaching vocabulary to young learners, general difficulties

that they meet in teaching. Oral interviews and observations serve to elaborate on the

information gathered from questionnaires and discover teachers opinions on how to solve

arisen problem in language classroom, especially during vocabulary section.

The result of this survey indicates that using flashcards in presenting, sorting tasks in

practicing and sentence completion in revising vocabulary are three most preferably common

techniques in teaching young learners the English vocabulary. The exploitation of combining

different techniques is considered rather limited; in conclusion,, this study provides some

suggestions for teachers to realize the benefits of having available activities and games in

young learners classroom

Next, there are also some problems that I have discovered along the 30 minutes

microteaching in class. Firstly is the three of us has exceed the time given by us to conduct

the lesson which is 30 minutes. As for myself, I also did some mispronunciation while

teaching vocabs to the students. To overcome these problems, we have to be really

particular about time management and the management of materials. Sometimes time are

wasted because of teacher used to repeat instruction to regularly and talks more about minor

things than the main topic. So, teacher should avoid from wasting the time on something that

is not appropriate but focus on what he or she is going to teach on that hour so the objective

of the lesson could be achieved successfully. As for the pronunciation problem, I have to

practice and listen and speak more so that I can improvise my pronunciation.

For the next lesson, I have planned the lesson based on the results from the previous

lesson. From the previous lesson, I have observed that students are really good and have

improved on asking and answering WH- questions from teacher. But still there are some

students who cannot write simple sentences correctly in order. So, on the proceeding lesson

I will stress more on the constructing simple sentences and at the same time I will integrate

language arts in the teaching. The topic is still on My Pets with the teaching context is on

the world of knowledge. The specifications will be 3.2.2 Able to write with guidance: Simple

Sentences, 4.1.2 Able to sing action song with correct pronunciation, rhythm and intonation,

and 5.1.1 Able to use nouns correctly and appropriately. As for the objective, by the end of

this lesson, pupils in their respective levels should be able to state the characteristics of 5

animals correctly based on slide show, write 8 missing words in the song lyrics correctly by

hearing to the recording and able to write 8 simple sentences by using common nouns

correctly based on pictures given by teacher.

In this proceeding lesson, I have integrated an element of language arts which is

completing a lyric and singing a song entitle my Pets because I want the students to enjoy

learning the topic while at the same time they can improve their skill in listening, speaking

and writing. Besides, the extra exercises on constructing simple sentences are very

important because there are still some students who cannot master the skill. They can write

but the order of the sentences is not appropriate and the uses of tenses also need to be

improvised. I hope with this proceeding lesson plan, students will be able to improve their

learning styles and attract them love more on English subject.