WEEK 2

Reflective Journal

This will be my second week of my teaching practice phase 3. This week I

have learnt about ways to make the learning become more fun-filled and meaningful

on the same time. Education of Young Children (2009) named play as a central

component in developmentally appropriate educational practices, and the United

Nations High Commission on Human Rights (1989) recognized play as a

fundamental right of every child.This is based on the concept of Learning Through

Play in order to make the classroom environment become more pleasurable and

enjoyable.

There are some issues regarding the pupils response in the class during the

teaching and learning process. The pupils were looked bored and less enjoyed the

lesson most of the time. While some settle on daydreaming, tile-counting, and

general inattentiveness, other students are drawn to more destructive pursuits.

For where there is boredom, there is misbehavior percolating just under the surface,

ready to pounce. (M.Linsin, 2012) Pupils become more demotivated when assigned

with dull tasks such as completing worksheets and reading a passage from the

textbook. They expect something that is fun, interesting and challenging everytime

when the teacher gives works.

According to SmartClassroom Management.Com there are eight attention

killers. The most important points are the sitting too long and talking too much

activities. The teacher also needs to take serious actions in order to control them. I

believe that the teacher will get frustrated if the same situation repeats in every

lesson. It is harder even for me to control the pupils behaviour especially when
conducting the reading and writing lesson. This situation less happens during the

listening and speaking class. This is because of the interesting activities prepared for

them such as role play. This is relevant to the Multiple Intelligences Theory

introduced by Howard Gardner. This theory has emerged from recent cognitive

research and "documents the extent to which students possess different kinds of

minds and therefore learn, remember, perform, and understand in different ways,"

according to Gardner (1991). Most of the pupils in my class consists of Visual

learners and Bodily-Kinesthetic learners.

There are few solutions I have discovered for the problems mentioned above

with reference to Play. Play may seem simple, yet it is profound to a childs

development. Play makes learning something that happens naturally and joyfully,

when a child laughs, explores and imagines. First of all, I have implemented more

fun-filled activities in the class by changing the routine tasks such as completing

worksheets and reading passage. I have played video songs and rhymes in the class

to meet the pupils high energetic level. Other than that, I have also conducted some

language games in the class, so that the pupils can involve in more active

movements. Critically, recent research supports the idea that adults can facilitate

childrens learning while maintaining a playful approach in interactions known as

guided play (HirschPasek, Golinkoff, Berk, & Singer, 2009).

I have given opportunity for the pupils to experience technology in the

learning such as PPT PowerPoint and video projection. According to Dual-Coding

Theory, Paivio (1990), individuals remember about a thing when it is presented in a

meaningful way. For example, in the sentence, The Lion King jumped from the clift.

helps the pupils to refer to the Lion King character from the movie and learn about

the regular tense Jumped more easily. I also have added fun activities such
dancing, singing, and reciting poems. One of the effective activities is the making

crafts during the language arts class. The pupils love to make crafts based on their

imagination and creativity and use it later as hands on activity such as reciting

poems. Its this innovation and imagination that will continue to bring forward

unprecedented levels of achievement in terms of our mastery over nature. (Thomas

2015) These activities will be done during 20th February - 24th February 2017.

As a conclusion, this practicum phase helped to find out new and creative

ways to make the learning become more interesting and enjoyable. The pupils give

good response for these activities rather than the less interactive activities. This

experience also helped me to improve my creativity in planning and executing

activities. The pupils also enjoy the lesson and learn the language in the most

effective way. As a result, I could achieve my learning objectives of the day.

Prepared by: Checked & Verified by: Checked & Verified by:

(Sattiyan Nayar S/O Sagar) (Pn Salina Binti Shariff) (Dr Tarsame Singh S/O Masa
Singh)