Descriptive Writing: Shared Sensory Writing with 5 Abu Hanifah and 5 Farabi

Hi peeps! Time to add that spice to my teaching 😊😊😊 This is a wonderful mini-writing that you can try in your class. I found it here -http://secondaryenglishcoffeeshop.blogspot.com/2017/04/collaborative-writing-activities.html

Anyway here's a quick guide on how to carry it out:

1. Put SS in groups of three.
2. Get each group to describe an object e.g. a pencil, a bunch of keys (preferably have the objects ready but I didn't have them ready. I had them look around the library and choose the objects they liked)
3. Revise the five senses quickly. Then get them to choose three senses.
4. Each SS will take one sense and describe the object chosen using that sense in note form. (I used sticky notes because they are colourful)
5. Then groups piece them together and write a descriptive paragraph.

A neat writing task don't you think? I wanted to share this with the Batu Pahat teachers yesterday during the workshop but didn't want to keep them in the hot room for too long sigh...Anyway give it a try teachers.

Those who can DO, Those who can do more TEACH

You Rock Muarians!

Date: 13 AUGUST 2018
Venue: PPD Muar

I was very impressed with the 46 teachers who attended the Yapeim 21st Century Learning workshop in PPD Muar. They were an awesome lot! I especially like the part when they evaluated the lesson plans in the module. One group stood out in that they were able to give a critical appraisal of one of the lesson plans and came out with suggestions on how it could be improved. We all know that no lesson plan fits perfectly for a group of learners and they were not meant to be prescriptive anyway  so it allowed us to have a professional discussion on the lesson plans in the module. 

I'm usually a bit wary when corporate sectors organise something for teachers 😜but I guess this is part of their CSR, so as a trainer I wanted to make sure teachers get something useful from the session and I hope they did. We had a good mix of young and experienced teachers. One has just taught for two years and at the other end of the spectrum, we had someone who has done thirty! (sounds like my own panel 😑). I was pleased with the teacher's participation and enthusiasm despite the small room. 

Tree of Hope 

This is the participants' Tree of Hope in which they wrote what they had hoped to gain from the workshop. At the end of the four-hour workshop I picked some "hopes" and read them aloud and asked teachers if their expectations were met. One "hope" really stood out 😂😂😂. The teacher wrote "I'd like to learn about cultures." to which I responded jokingly, "You're in the wrong workshop!" followed by laughter from the whole group 😃😃😃. The group was such a sporting lot! Think we had a successful outing here in Muar.

Thanks to YAPEIM and En Fauzi (DELO Muar) for their support. YOU ROCK MUARIANS!

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27th MELTA International Conference in Johor Bahru, 18-20th August 2018

Calling all English teachers in Johor! There is a special rate of RM280.00 conference fees being offered to 150 teachers to attend this conference. As we all know, the Duli Yang Maha Mulia Raja Zarith Sofiah binti Almarhum Sultan Idris Shah, Permasuri Johor herself is MELTA's patron and this year's event is held in Berjaya Waterfront Hotel, Johor Bahru. 

MELTA has a special place in my heart. I won the Dr. Basill Wijasuriya Award for Best Teacher Presenter in 2009 in Putri Pan Pacific, Johor Bahru and again in 2012 in Sunway Putra Hotel. As a matter of fact, I am a life member and I enjoy reading the bulletins they have been sending me. It's a shame that I won't be able to join this conference as I'll be in Turkey (my second trip- some people can't get enough of Turkey 😆) during that time. 

I hope teachers in Johor will take this opportunity to attend this prestigious conference and perhaps present a paper or two to improve their practice as ESL teachers. You can download the letter here.

And here's the form for the special rate.

Wishing the organising committee and participants a successful conference!

Those who can DO, Those who can do more TEACH

Classroom Observation: 1 Ibnu Sina (2.30-3.30)

Was in Farid's 1 Ibnu Sina today despite the headache and neck pain. Happy with the lesson today 😊 Definitely an improvement from the previous observation. Teacher was well-prepared and the lesson was clearly structured. However, the pace of the lesson could have been a little bit faster for Activity 2 (rather draggy) and therefore more time could have been given to Activity 3. Overall, a well-planned lesson and I could see that the teacher had taken a lot of effort for this lesson. Well-done! Such a joy to see a teacher improving!

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SPM English Workshop 2.0/2018- Poems and Captain Nobody

Alhamdulillah...after three postponements, this workshop finally took off. 102 SPM candidates were in IKBC (Ibn Batutta Knowledge Centre) for the workshop. Another 20 had to re-sit their papers in the Maths Room. I dealt with the novel Captain Nobody and Poems namely The Living Photograph and The Charge of the Light Brigade. Here's hoping that students understand the poems and novel better Ameen  😇

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Mini-plots with 5 Abu Hanifah

Do your students complain of not being able to elaborate their essays? Or not have ideas to write? Well, if you have the same problems I do then you can try this lesson in your next class.

TIME: double period

MATERIALS: 

1. Essay titles ( one per group). Since I'm focussing on the narrative and descriptive essays, I give them relevant titles related to the two genres.

2. Mah jongs, marker pens, masking tape

STEPS:

1. In groups of 4, SS discuss a mini-plot for the title given. the mini-plot must consist of an introduction, development, climax, falling action and denouement.

2. Groups paste their mah jongs on walls so that you have 5 stations (depending on the number of groups you have).

3. 3 stray 1 stay: 1 member will stay to explain the mini-plot to other groups while 3 members will be going round to other groups to look for for information or learn about idea generation from other groups. After the three members return, they in turn explain other groups mini-plots to the 1 member.

4. T reviews group's language errors and recaps lesson.

5. SS individually write essay as homework.

Happy teaching!

Those who can DO, Those who can do more TEACH

My Fantasy Island 1 Ibnu Majah and 1 Ibnu Khaldun

Congratulations to 1 Majah and 1 Khaldun for your hard work and excellent presentation! I'm very proud of all of you. What's most impressive was the questions you asked the presenters. They showed a lot of maturity and sense 😍 Well-done to all and especially to the winning groups: 

• 1 Majah (Group 6 for Most Creative Group and Best Presentation)
• 1 Khaldun (Group 1 - Most Creative Group and Group 4- Best Presentation)

Here's how to get this simple but meaningful activity done:

LANGUAGE FOCUS: Listening and Speaking

TIME: 4 periods for preparation and presentation

4C's incorporated: comunication (encourage the use of English), collaboration, creative and critical thinking skills 

STEPS: 

1. Write task on board:

My Fantasy Island- What would it look like? What attractions would you have on your island? 

How can visitors get to your island?

2. Draw and colour your island. 

3. Select not more than two presenters to explain to the class. (5 mins per group).

4. After each presentation, allow three questions from the floor.

5. Peer Evaluation: SS vote for the best groups for Most Creative Group and Best Presentation.

6. Always have a bag of sweets and chocolates ready for the prize 😃

I carry out this activity without fail every year. 

Happy teaching peeps!

Those who can DO, Those who can do more TEACH

Once Upon a Team-teaching

May has been a busy month for me. Although I have only four classes I'm always hoping for more time.  I'm always cooking up something  😅 😆 Well, in all that  madness, two team-teaching  sessions were arranged with Farid and Syamsul. It wasn't perfect but we learned a lot!

The lesson with Sam was on writing. His warmer was excellent to the extent that he got carried away a little and took my time. On my part, I was struggling a little to get the SS to understand how to do the gallery walk but the main thing is we achieved the objectives we collaborated on. Alhamdullillah...

Farid (the handsome newbie hahah), also got carried away with the warmer which was supposed to be mine! He went on and on and I was like "O.k. he can take the whole lesson now." 😆 From the outset we faced  a technical glitch when the lappy and LCD that didn't want to synchronise so the lesson stretched to another 30 mins but team-teaching doesn't have to be perfect the first time right? What's crucial is what important lessons we took from it. Here are mine:

• it was a rejuvenating process for me (after teaching for 31 years) to collaborate with young teachers after having taught for 31 years
• my regret for not doing this more often
• Sam and Farid have a lot of potential. However it is about POTENTIAL MEETS PREPARATION EQUALS QUALITY LESSON. Time must be given to think out a lesson properly. We face a lot of distractions yes but there must be that quiet time where we sit and plan our quality lessons.
• the lesson planned need not be perfect because as teachers, we know that we need to make allowances for the unexpected in the classroom. A lesson plan is important of course but flexibility and resourcefulness on the part of the teacher and the ability to think on his or her feet to change a strategy/question phrasing/technique will help during these times. Alhamdulillah experience helps.

Thanks to Sam and Farid for having me in their classes (ke kena paksa ni 😉😉😉)
You guys rock!

Boy am I going to miss teaching 😭😭😭

Farid and I team-teaching Charge of the Light Brigade- for the memories

Sam an I teaching writing in Form 3- a great experience

Our collaborative report

Happy teaching!

Those who can DO, Those who can do more TEACH

A great website!

I must share this wonderful site with all of you! It's called on the same page. There are really many fresh and creative ideas here which align with 21st century learning too. Aside from onestopenglish, this is definitely a great resource for teachers. Have a look see o.k 😊😊😊 Be good peeps! I've been busy so I've not been able to post anything thus far. Catch you later!

click on pict

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Vocabulary Attack vs. NILAM

Vocabulary Attack versus NILAM 😃

Instead of NILAM why not get your students to do vocabulary work? Aren't all of us tired of the lies with NILAM? How do you get your students to read a book in 1-2 periods and get the report done? At best, they just copy the blurb! We all know for far too long it doesn't work and yet we still so it 😒.  Even reading has to be forced down the students' throats. Parents should inculcate the reading habit at home. Teachers too yes but not the way it's been done all these years. Hmmm...someone is in bad mood today 😆😆😆

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A VOCAB LESSON: SHOWING FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS

Here's a lesson plan I plan to carry out in 5 Abu Hanifah dan 5 Al Farabi next week. It is a vocabulary lesson focussing on useful words/phrases to spruce up that essay. After a few weeks of teaching, I noticed that my students' grammar is not too bad but their vocabulary is really basic 😌

Materials used

Lesson plan and materials

Happy teaching!!!





Those who can DO, Those who can do more TEACH

Idioms- A Vocabulary Lesson warmer

Tired of watching your students sit in class all the time? Well, you can make them move around a bit. In today's lesson, I did just that. Boy, were they reluctant to move 😊 Hence, this is a warmer that you can do to get them moving before teaching the beautiful phrases in English- idioms, pairs of words, similes etc.

STEPS

1. Print our a list of idioms and their meanings enough for the whole class. I have 21 so it was 11 idioms and their meanings.
2. Cut them up into strips and jumble them up in a bag.
3. Get SS to each pick a strip. Half the SS will have the idioms and the other half the meaning.
4. Ask them to mingle and find their partners. Once they've found their partners, make them stand around the classroom and call each pair to read aloud their idioms and meanings.
5. Clarify any unclear idioms.
6. Now, you can continue with the handouts and lesson proper on beautiful expressions in English!

Simple isn't it? I thought about this 45 minutes before entering class and managed to google the idioms and cut them into strips. I hope my students understood what I was trying to achieve in 5 Abu Hanifah today 😊

Happy teaching peeps!

5 Abu Hanifah

1

They just love taking photos!

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ASEAN-ELT CONFERENCE 2018

Hi peeps! You can bookmark this conference in case you're planning for professional development. I'm not sure if the conference chair, Professor Jayakaran Mukundan (UPM) is doing a rebranding of MICELT, but previous conferences have never been disappointing. You'll be spoilt for choices as to which paper/workshop to attend. And if you're thinking of spreading your wings and adding a colourful facet to your teaching repertoire, why not present something? Go for it teachers! I hope to see you there too. For more details click on the image.

Those who can DO, Those who can do more TEACH

e-guru to fine-tune your teaching!

Click on the link for useful videos on teaching English and other subjects.

e- guru

Those who can DO, Those who can do more TEACH

Lesson Plan: Eat Healthy, Stay Wealthy

Dear all,
Here's another lesson plan conducted last week. Try it and share with others. And oh! the next time you go to Giant, grab those brochures and use them for this lesson 😊

Lesson Plan:

DAY/DATE	SUNDAY		13/8/2017
FORM	2 QAYYIM	TIME	9.30-10.30	NO. OF SS	28
THEME	People & Health
TOPIC	Eat Healthy Stay Wealthy
LEARNING STANDARD	Know fundamental skills in reading and acquire new vocabulary.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES	By the end of the lesson, you will be able to: 1. Read a variety of texts and scan for details and  individual meanings of unfamiliar words. 2. Acquire vocabulary related to food.
SUCCESS CRITERIA	I will be successful if I can 1. Read and understand the gist of a text and answer open-ended questions. 2. Classify 25/30 food-related words into 5 groups correctly. 3. Decide and classify healthy vs. unhealthy foods satisfactorily.
TEACHING &  LEARNING ACTIVITIES	1. SS watch a video on “Eat Healthy Stay Wealthy”. 2. SS answer some questions based on the video verbally.. 3. SS read a passage on “Food for Fitness” silently 4. SS classify words from the passage into six groups and answer comprehension questions based on the passage read 5. Feedback and discussion 6. Using a circle map, SS choose pictures of healthy and unhealthy foods to complete the circle map.
TEACHING AIDS/RESOURCES	Circle map, handouts, GIANT brochures, video
21ST CENTURY ELEMENTS	Collaboration / Creativity / PBL SS centeredness / Communication / Critical thinking / I-THiNK Maps / Task-based /
SCHOOL-BASED ASSESSMENT	1 2 3 4 5 6
REFLECTION

Download the handouts, video here HERE.

Happy teaching peeps 😎




Those who can DO, Those who can do more TEACH

Lesson Plan: Simple Past Tense and Regular-Irregular Verbs

Was observed on Monday by an inspectorate :) They are all in my school till Thursday. Here's the lesson plan in case you'd like to try it! My SS were angels 😉😍 Not bragging o.k. but I was very pleased with how the lesson went. One of the best lessons I've conducted...most importantly, objectives achieved 😄 The inspectorate's feedback was positive Alhamdulillah. Feel free to use and share. 

It's a habit of mine to have a lesson outline such as the following before I'm observed. For the lesson plan proper, please check below.

FORM 2 IBNU QAYYIM

 THE SIMPLE PAST TENSE 

AND REGULAR IRREGULAR VERBS

(60 mins)

ACTIVITIES	STEPS	MATERIALS
1.   WARMER/ STARTER         (10 mins)	1.        T distributes number 1- 4 cards to each group and ask each group member to pick one number. 2.        T shows some simple past tense verbs on ppt. and ask SS to study the spelling of the verbs. 3.        T asks SS to identify which are regular verbs and which are irregular: 4.        T gives input on the simple past and regular/irregular verbs using ppt.	Ppt. slides Numbers 1-4 enough for all SS in groups of four
2.   STORY TIME       (35 mins)	1.        T distributes a true story (Escape from the jungle). 2.        SS read the story silently and change simple present tense verbs into the verbs in the boxes into the simple past tense. 3.        T models by reading aloud and asks questions to check SS understanding for each paragraph: a.  When did the incident take place? 1971 b.  What’s the name of the girl in the story? Juliana c.  How old is the German girl? 17 d.  Who was Juliana traveling with? Her mother e.  What was she travelling on? A plane f.   What animal did she see on her journey to escape?      caimans and piranhas 4.        T checks answers by calling “HEADS TOGETHER NO. 1” to give answers to the blanks in the story. 5.        All SS with no.1 stand up and answer questions. T continues to call other numbers. 6.        Once all the blanks are filled up, T gets SS to verbally say which verbs are regular and irregular verbs. Alternatively, T can draw columns on board and call SS to classify the verbs in the story: REGULAR IRREGULAR Para 1: looked   called left, were, broke, fell, hit, lay, food Para 2: started heard, found, saw, knew Para 3: learned came, knew, swam, learnt, got took	Numbered heads “Heads together”
3.   GRAMMAR GAME AND CLOSURE    (15 mins)	1.        Grammar Tic Tac Toe How to play: a.      Use the 4 games on the slides. b.      Divide class into 2 teams (green and red teams depending on colour of marker pens used) c.       Give green marker pen to green team and red pen to the read team. d.      Show slide Game 1. Call GREEN TEAM to choose a verb in the simple past and change that to the infinitive. (correct spelling mandatory) e.       Next, call the RED TEAM to choose a verb and do the same. (the idea is to block the other team and to try to score a tic-tac-toe) f.        The winner is of course the group that can have a straight line! (No worries, when I carried this out, only in the 4th game did green team won!) g.      Allow group discussion before one volunteer come to the board to choose a verb. 2.        Follow-up: SS to find 10 regular and irregular verbs for the next lesson.	Ppt.

 

DAY/DATE	MONDAY		14/8/2017
FORM	2 QAYYIM	TIME	7.30-8.30	NO. OF SS	28
THEME	People
TOPIC	Grammar- the simple past tense and regular-irregular verbs
LEARNING STANDARD	The simple past tense – form and meaning
LEARNING OBJECTIVES	By the end of the lesson, you will be able to: 1. Read a story and complete the story with the simple past tense verbs correctly. 2. Show understanding of regular and irregular verbs in a grammar game.
SUCCESS CRITERIA	I will be successful if I can 1. Read and understand the gist of a story. 2. Change at least 20 infinitives into the simple past tense to complete a story (“Escape from a jungle”) 3. Change simple past tense verbs into present tense in a language game.
TEACHING &  LEARNING ACTIVITIES	1. SS listen to input on the simple past tense and regular/irregular verbs. 2. SS read a story silently and fill in the blanks with suitable simple past tense verbs. 3. T calls numbered heads to answer the questions. 4. SS demonstrate understanding of the simple past tense for regular and irregular verbs by playing tic-tac-toe.
TEACHING AIDS/RESOURCES	English Language, Catherine Swan, UK Press Grammar, Betty Azar, Longman, handouts. Ppt, numbered heads squares, grammar game
21ST CENTURY ELEMENTS	Collaboration Creativity PBL SS centeredness Communication Critical thinking I-THiNK Maps Task-based
SCHOOL-BASED ASSESSMENT	1 2 3 4 5 6
REFLECTION

What you need (click HERE for lesson plan and attachments)

Try it and do share how it goes in your comments.  Feedback welcome.

Happy teaching peeps!




Those who can DO, Those who can do more TEACH