REFLECTIVE ESSAY

As a part of the coursework for TSLB 3073 which is Teaching of Reading and Writing
Skills in the Primary ESL Classroom, we ought to do a lesson plan, teaching materials,
simulated teaching and reflective essay. For the simulated teaching, we did it in a group of
three and choose one lesson plan to be adopted and adapted based on the suitability of the
class. Hence, we chose to teach Year 5 topic, Real Life Heroes which focused on the reading
skills that need pupils to be able to identify and describe about the Real Life Heroes at the end
of the lesson.

The strength that we have are we provided a poem that introduce wholly about the
Real Life Heroes besides creating an activities which could engage all of the pupils. We used
a web called Wheeldecide to choose pupils randomly so that pupils will be more excited. From
this, it also have the integration of ICT in the lesson as it is one of the needs in education
nowadays. For teaching materials, we used a colourful manila cards and pictures to attract
pupils’ interest in learning. Dislen, G. (2013) claimed that teacher said that pupils get more
eager to learn when attractive materials are used in the classroom which such materials attract
their attention and keep them alert.

As for the weaknesses, we as a teacher were providing all of the information rather
than the pupils think for themselves. For instance, in Presentation stage on defining the difficult
words, teacher already prepared the meaning for the words which just need pupils to paste it.
Next, on the Practice and Production stage the instructions given were not organized and long
winded. During discussion, teacher started with advance level question first then go to the
intermediate and low. Despite, teacher should do it vice versa. The instructions for the games
were too long that in real classroom, a year 5 pupil will not be able to catch up with it.

If we have the opportunity, we would like to improvise on delivering the instructions

which we will shorten it and use simple sentence to suit primary student level besides making
it more organized. There are two general rules for telling what pupils need to do which are
instructions must be kept as simple as possible and they must be logical (Rhalmi, M., 2010).
We also would like to add on the content which we will integrate element of HOTS besides
scaffold the pupils better by providing the complete sentence structure. On the closure part,
we would read the poem again with actions to reinforce their understanding on the topic.

The threats that we may face in real classroom are on the presentation stage, there
will be a bit time consuming as the pupils may not really fluent in reading the poem. So, the
teacher need to guide them slowly for them to read in groups, individually or with the whole
class. Besides, by using the ICT especially on the Wheeldecide web it will take more time to

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change the name and spin the wheel one by one. Moroeover, if the connection of internet is
poor, the Wheeldecide web cannot be used in the class.

In conclusion, from this simulated teaching I can learn on how to conduct the class and
approach pupils by using the suitable techniques besides inculcating the values of a teacher
in myself. I also learnt some of improvements in teaching Reading and Writing lesson to make
sure that the Learning Standard and Behavioural Objectives are achieved at the end of the
lesson.

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