Lesson Plan Part 3

Handout 1

Article 1

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/10/6/nation/4847698&sec=nation

Article 2

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/4/12/nation/6037008&sec=nation

a) What happened to the baby?

b) Where does the baby found?

Underline the words that you find difficult or unfamiliar with

Handout 2

♪♫♪♪♫ Create your own Word Search Puzzle ♪♫♪♪♫

Step 1:

Enter the Puzzle Maker website (http://www.puzzle-maker.com)

Step 2:

Follow the guidelines provided

Step 3:

Insert the following words into the box

(Abortion, Garbage Dump, Dead Babies, Pregnant women, uumbilical cord, protruding, lodged, discovered, discarded)

Step 4:

Click “create puzzle” button

Step 5:

Print the puzzle out

Step 6:

Exchange the puzzle with your friends

Handout 3

♪♫♪♪♫ Encyclopedia-based activity ♪♫♪♪♫

Using the online encyclopedia, find the following information:

a) Abortion alternatives

b) Abortion prevention

c) Abortion and religion

Lesson Plan Part 2

Teaching Procedure:

Set Induction(5 mins)
Teacher shows the power point slideshow that consists of dead baby pictures.
Teacher asks the following questions:
1. What can you tell me about the pictures?
2. What lead to those incidents?
3. What do you think of abortion? To bring the students to the topic that the teacher is about to teach

Step 1 – Reading and analyzing the text(30 mins)
Teacher asks students to read the following newspaper clippings:
1. Dead baby found among trash*
2. Dead baby found at garbage dump*
- Students are required to read and scan for the main ideas found from the text.
- If the students have difficulty in understanding the text, they can refer to Merriam-Webster Online dictionary
- Students are required to answer the following questions:
a) What happened to the baby?
b) Where does the baby found? Teacher will help the students to read and understand the text

Step 2 – in class discussion (25 mins)
Based on the two stories read by the students, teacher re-post the same questions for the students
1. What can you tell me about the news?
2. What lead to those incidents?
3. What do you think of abortion? This activity will help the students to be more verbal in voicing out their opinions

Step 3 – using online puzzle maker (20 mins)
Teacher asks the students to browse Puzzle Maker website
- Based on the website, the students need to create their own word search puzzle
- Words that can be used must be based on the text they have read
- Students will print out the word search puzzle and exchange with the other friend
Students will gain experience in creating their own word search puzzle

Step 4 – Using online encyclopedia (10 mins)
Teacher gives a few address of online encyclopedia (except for wikipedia)
- Teacher asks the students to find the following information in their groups
a) abortion alternatives
b) abortion prevention
c) abortion and religion Teacher is prompting the idea for students to seek for information from reliable sources, not from ordinary unreliable blogs

Conclusion (5 mins)
Students are required to respond in groups what they have learned today
- Teacher stresses the importance of getting correct information from reliable sources To make an overview of what the students have learnt and also to instill moral value.

Websites:
Merriam-Webster Dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com/)
Free Online Puzzle Maker (http://www.puzzle-maker.com/)
Text 1: Dead baby found at the garbage dump
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/4/12/nation/6037008&sec=nation
Text 2: Dead baby found among trash
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/10/6/nation/4847698&sec=nation
Online Encyclopedia (http://www.encyclopedia.com)
Britannica Encyclopedia (http://www.britannica.com/)

WWW Lesson Plan Part 1

Form: 4 Bestari

Time: 8.45 am – 10.00 am

Level: Intermediate

Subject: English Language

Enrolment: _____/ 30

Theme: Social Issues

Topics: Abortion

Teaching Areas:

1.0 Language for Interpersonal Use

vi. Participating in teacher-guided class discussions on topics of interest by

- agreeing to another and saying so

- disagreeing politely with another and giving one’s opinions

- defending one’s point of view

2.0 Language for Informational Use

A. Processing texts read to by

iv. Identifying important ideas by listening and checking a list. (Level 2)

Vocabulary: Abortion, Garbage Dump, Dead Babies, Pregnant women, umbilical cord, protruding, lodged, discovered, discarded

Grammar: Past tense, Present tense

Sound system: Stress in four syllable words

Educational Emphasis: Thinking skills, Values and Citizenship

Suggested sentence patterns: Initiating Discussions, Giving Feedbacks

Teaching Materials: self-prepared power point presentation, handouts.

Technical requirements:
• one computer per group of 3 - 4 students
• an Internet connection
• a Web Browser

Learning outcomes:

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

1. read for meaning from and main ideas
2. use effective reading strategies (skimming, scanning and predicting)
3. guess the unfamiliar vocabulary used in the texts
4. use the Internet in reading and expanding the issues discussed
5. use the search engine to look for related pictures, videos and articles

++ References

Books

Chitravelu, et.al (2005). ELT Methodology: Principle and Practice. Oxford Fajar. Kuala Lumpur.

Brown, D (1995). Principles and Practices in Language Teaching, Prentice Hall Regents. New Jersey

Websites

Constructivist Learning Theory
http://www.exploratorium.edu/IFI/resources/constructivistlearning.html

Teaching with the Constructivist Learning Theory
http://www.ndt-ed.org/TeachingResources/ClassroomTips/Constructivist%20_Learning.htm

Constructivist Theory
http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/constructivism.htm

evaluation of educational websites
http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/802papers/bokcaisse/bokcaisse.htm

http://www.google.com.my/search?q=criteria+of+good+educational+websites&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Positive Reinforcement: A Self-Instructional Exercise
http://psych.athabascau.ca/html/prtut/reinpair.htm

Activity theory
http://carbon.ucdenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/act_dff.html

Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy
http://gestalttheory.net/gtp/index.html

BEHAVIORISM:SKINNER AND DENNETT
http://www.trinity.edu/cbrown/mind/behaviorism.html

cooperative n collaborative
http://www.studygs.net/cooplearn.htm

Suggestions/Recommendations

Recommendations for Ministry of Education

1. I’d like to encourage the Ministry of Education to come out with this kind of effort in developing an educational website for the students. It’s quite a shame for our own ministry and any specific department not to have an educational website for the students. This is because nowadays, most schools have been equipped with internet facilities so there is no excuse to not to come out with at least one educational website.

2. Ministry of Education also should be aware of the existence of the educational websites. This is because we are afraid that some of the input are contradict with the one prepared by the CDC. So, I’d like to suggest that an ongoing supervision towards the websites will be done in order to ensure every educational website follow a certain standard or guideline.

Recommendations for Teachers

1. I’d like to recommend the teachers to use this application as it really helps in making the students understand the literary texts. However, teachers must realize that the application will never replace the roles of teacher.

2. This application, even though I encourage the teachers to use it, I’d like to suggest that the teacher to explain the literary texts first in the classroom because the way the information is presented is quite lengthy, plain and uninteresting.

++ Question 8

Would you like to use the application yourself in your future work?

Yes.

Reasons:

1. The application is user-friendly whereby the 3 target groups will not going to face difficulty if they are using this application. The 3 groups of people are – teachers, students and parents. Besides that, the application promotes independent learning thus making the teacher functions as a facilitator in the classroom.

2. The application does not deny the fact that teacher still play an essential part in teaching and learning process. Students might easily get boring when they have to read a lengthy explanation on the literary texts. So, this is when the teacher plays the role to inject the interests of students by coming out with a more interactive and creative way of exploring the literary text.

3. The activity provided in the application is focusing on two important aspects – the novel (text) and glossary. This shows that the application still follow what is being presented in the syllabus. All of the information presented is based on what is listed in the syllabus. So, there’s no doubt for the teacher to use this application in the classroom.

4. The Question Bank section, as it is .PDF format can easily be downloaded and kept by the students and teachers for future reference. Students need to have a basic computer skill in order to do the followings:

a) create a new folder

b) save the .pdf format file

c) print the .pdf document

++ Question 7

In 1980s and early 1990s, there was a major debate on ‘whether the computer was “master” of or “slave” to the learning process (Higgins and Johns, 1984). In relation to your evaluation - was the computer a replacement for teachers, or merely an obedient servant to students?

In relation to my evaluation, the computer (in this context, the application) is not the replacement for teachers but it is also not a servant to the students. That means, the role of computer itself differ from one group of students compared to another. If we refer to this application, we can say that it replaces one role of teacher, but still it cannot play one important role that a teacher has – giving appropriate feedback. Basically, a computer and related ‘siblings’ are developed based on the coding of 0 and 1. So, if it is not 0, it will be 1 and vice versa. Enough if you do not understand that explanation because a simpler one will be given. A computer has only 2 answers in general – correct and wrong answers. Even though students can answer the questions, they still need clarification as well as explanation from the real teacher instead. Besides that, Brown (1995) mentioned that teacher can play a role of facilitator, a role that will be rejected by the computer. This is because only teacher can facilitate learning and teaching process in the classroom. However, the greatest thing that an application can do better than a teacher might be the Games and simulations provided in the application. Sometimes teacher needs more time to prepare a game for students but sometimes it ends up very frustrating. So, by the help of an application like this one, it can be considered as a relief for a teacher as they no longer need to stay up till late to prepare an interactive-yet-supporting-learning-theory game for students.

Image 8: Crossword Puzzle (example)

Image 9: Crossword - answers revealed

So, does it an obedient servant to students? In order to answer that, we can refer to the meaning of the two words – master and slave. Slave is the one that obeys the master so, the meaning of master is of course contradicting with the meaning of slave. I do think that the students or the users are the master to the application. But, unconsciously we are the slave to the application. We are in need to find the correct answer instead of looking for the answer that we think is right. Meaning, in answering questions, we are supposed to answer according to 0 and 1 concept. 0 is correct and 1 is wrong. Students, though considered as master can only choose between the two answer. Meaning that, the concept of self-learner is not really achieved. Students are bounded to answer ‘inside the box’ thus disabling them to think critically on the questions.

In short, my stand over this issue is that the role of a teacher cannot be replaced easily by any computer or application. This is due to some of the roles of teacher that the computer cannot carry out because of their limitations as machines.