Prepared by MA Anne
Unit Summary:
These two lessons are taken from a series of lessons in a phonics programme designed especially for the class. The two lessons aim to help students distinguish between the short vowel sound /II (letter 'i') and the long vowel sound /i:/ (word letters 'ee', ea'). The teacher starts the lesson by revising the short vowel sounds that the students have learned before. The students then go through a series of activities to get acquainted with the long /i:/ sound and to differentiate it from the short I II sound. The activities include naming objects with the long vowel sound /i:/, categorizing words into short and long vowel sounds, making a sentence using the words learned and doing a cloze dictation on words with the two target vowel sounds.
Total Number of Lessons (30 mins each):
Two in one session
Background (standard/level of students):
This is a S.1 remedial class in a CMI school. According to their English teacher, the students have special needs in reading, writing and learning in general. In these two lessons, another English teacher was present in the class to give assistance to students when necessary. It is considered that in the lessons videotaped, the presence of 'guests' in the classroom may have positively affected the students' performance.
Phonics involves supporting learners to recognize the relationship between letters and sounds and to apply this knowledge while reading and spelling (Richards, et al, 1992). The value of teaching phonics has been given greater weight recently and the ways of teaching is quite substantially covered in the latest English Language Curriculum Guide for primary schools (CDC, 2004). Schools are advised to incorporate phonics learning into the school English curriculum instead of adopting and implementing a separate phonics programme. Since the concept of phonics learning is newly introduced to the primary curriculum, most secondary school students have not been taught phonics before. As the S.1 class being videotaped has its special needs, the phonics programme is considered useful in helping the students grasp individual sounds in a more focused manner.
Lesson Highlights:
Perceiving before producing
The English Language Syllabus for Secondary Schools (CDC, 1999:67) points out that it would be useful to revise or teach phonics at the junior levels and that in teaching phonics, teachers need to help learners ˇ§perceive sounds and intonation patterns before they produce them.ˇ¨ In this lesson, the teacher was introducing the long vowel sound /i:/ for the first time. She tried to help students perceive the sound through relating it to words that they were familiar with, listening to the teacher's pronunciation of the sound, distinguishing it from the short vowel sound /I/ and working out the spelling of words through focused listening.
Catering for the needs of remedial learners
As this is a remedial class made up of learners who need extra assistance and support in learning more than an ordinary class does, the teacher has made use of different strategies in making the learning manageable and keeping the students actively involved most of the time. The strategies include:
(1) Starting from what the learners know
After revising the short vowels that the students had learned, the teacher introduced the long vowel /i:/ sound by making use of words that students were familiar with. Students were given a worksheet with pictures of objects arranged from the more familiar ones to the less familiar ones (e.g. bee, knee, tree, three ˇKˇKseal, wheel.). Students were able to read for themselves the first few words. The teacher then highlighted the vowel sound to the students and helped them relate the spelling of the words to the pronunciation of the less familiar words. The space for the last object in the worksheet was left blank, thus providing a challenge for the more capable students to suggest words with the long vowel /i:/ sound after going through the earlier examples.(2) Using non-verbal means of communication
The teacher used different gestures and body movement to help students grasp the sounds better. For instance, she moved and stretched her neck as a seal does when she read the word 'seal'.(3) Moving from part to whole
Although the focus of the lesson was on individual vowel sounds, the teacher was fully aware of the need to help students see meaning in what they learned. She asked students to think about using the words introduced to make sentences. When students were stuck and did not seem ready to do so, she helped students focus on individual word sound and word meaning again. She then made a sentence using the words introduced and explained the meaning of the sentence through a lively demonstration (see the discussion that follows).
(4) Using appropriate realia and demonstration
The sentence that the teacher made as mentioned in (3) above was -- ˇ§Sit on this seat to see if the slippers fit your feetˇ¨. A student was invited to sit on a chair and try on a pair of slippers brought in by the teacher. The teacher then raised one of the student's feet and asked the class to tell if the slippers fit his feet. This brought fun to the class and livened up the atmosphere. The students were also able to see the meaning of the words/sentence in context through the use of realia. Learning is facilitated in classrooms where the affective filter (Krashen, 1985) is low and where students can see meaning in the language they learn.
(5) Catering for different learning styles
The teacher provided visual input (writing on the blackboard, word cards, worksheets), auditory input (teachers' reading aloud) and built in opportunities for making comparison through physical movements (putting word cards into categories of short and long vowel sounds). The variety of activities helped cater for the needs of different learning styles, visual, auditory, spatial and tactile etc. (Given & Reid, 1999). Moreover, as the attention span of the class was generally low, students began to look tired and listless in the second half of the double lesson. The teacher then engaged students in a game which required them to stand up when they heard her read a word with a long vowel sound and sit down when the word has a short vowel sound. This showed that the teacher was very alert to the responses and states of mind of the students.(6) Having good control of the pace of the lesson
The teacher conducted the lessons in a generally swift pace, keeping the students on task throughout the double lesson. It is particularly important in a remedial class to keep the students engaged and to sustain their interest as their attention span is short. Whenever students needed more focused attention, e.g. during the cloze dictation, the teacher would slow down and repeat the pronunciation of the key words in order to support students in working out the vowel sounds and the spelling of the words.
(7) Rewarding students for active participation
The teacher divided the class into two big groups and added a mark to every correct contribution from members of each group. Correct answers to difficult questions gained more marks. The marks for each group were added up at the end of the lesson and the group would gain a prize for their active participation. This is a strategy that works well especially with students in lower secondary classes.
Discussion Questions:
1. To what extent do you think the objectives of the lessons have been achieved?
2. Do you agree to the principle of perceiving before producing in teaching pronunciation? Do you think students in these two lessons should be producing the target vowel sounds more?
3. Describe how the lessons match with the aims and suggested strategies to additional support to the less able learners described in the English Language Syllabus for Secondary Schools (CDC, 1999: 111-113)
a) giving them more exercises through which to focus on particular knowledge, strategies and skills;
b) giving them more clues and guidance;
c) simplifying and rephrasing tasks and questions;
d) arousing their interest and desire to complete a learning activity;
e) being sensitive to their needs and their cognitive levels;
f) stretching those who are ready to take greater challenges;
g) appreciating their capacity to learn and improve.
4. If you were to teach this class, would you like to make any changes to the lesson activities? If so, what changes would you make and why?
5. Do you notice from the students' performance in class their different needs? How could learners' different needs be best catered for?
6. What do you think of the teacher's way of rewarding students for active participation in class? What other ways could students be encouraged to participate in class actively?
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