SBP English Language KLA Sharing Session
Date: 26th Jan 2002
Venue: Tack Ching Primary School
Ms Pau Yuk Fong
Ms Chau Ka Ki
Ms Wong Pui Mei
Ms Ho Wai Yee
Tai Po Old Market Public School (PM)
Summary
Ms Chiu Yuk Kwan
Our Lady of China Catholic Primary School (PM)
Ms Cheng Wing Sheung
Tai Po Methodist Primary School
Summary
Ms Tam Wing Kam
Ms Chan Wing Yan
Ms Ha Yuen Shan
Po Kok Branch School
Summary
Lillian Shum
Holy Carpenter Primary School
Summary
Ms Pau Yuk Fong
Ms Chau Ka Ki
Ms Wong Pui Mei
Ms Ho Wai Yee
Tai Po Old Market Public School (PM)
The teachers learnt from last year’s teaching experience that
most students were not able to master the skill of blending.
Building on such experience, the teachers improved their
practice by revisiting individual sounds at the beginning of each
lesson and practising the skill of blending regularly. They
practised blending using project work and small readers. Even
the method of blending was well thought out. The teachers found
that students learnt blending more easily when they started with
onsets and rimes than with discrete sounds.
The teachers explained how they made use of
authentic learning experience to arouse their students'
interest in learning English. In Tai Po Methodist
Primary School, the students used the vocabulary
(food) and text- type (recipe) they learnt in class to
work out the steps for making a sandwich. They then
did a demonstration in front of the whole class.
Performance-based assessment and peer assessment
were used to increase the meta-cognition level of the
students. In Our Lady of China Catholic Primary
School, students set up stalls in a food court. They
created their own menus to attract customers to their
stalls. Students carried out simple conversations in the
authentic learning situation, and the teacher assessed
Summaryto set criteria.
them as they performed according
Ms Tam Wing Kam
Ms Chan Wing Yan
Ms Ha Yuen Shan
Po Kok Branch School
The teachers encouraged their P.2 students to write more by giving
them more chances to do free writing in class. The students could
draw simple pictures of their own (e.g. a ball) and produced the target
structure or other learnt structure (e.g. I can see a ball. There is a ball.).
Surprisingly
the performance of the students (high, average & low)
Episode
1
was much better than expected. This gave the teachers much
confidence to keep up with the new practice.
Lillian Shum
Holy Carpenter Primary School
The teacher shared with fellow teachers
the experience of curriculum adaptation
in her school. She pointed out that
curriculum development is an on-going
and painstaking process and that there is
no single formula to success, every
school has its own development. She
encouraged the audience to work as a
team when they started their own schoolbased curriculum.
Report on the Sharing Session
In the sharing sessions, the teachers were able to demonstrate that
they could use students’ performance to inform their teaching. They
were reflective and innovative. The concept of curriculum
development as an on-going process was well illustrated in all sharing.
From last year’s experience, teachers of Tai Po Old Market Public
School(PM) discovered that most students were not able to master
the skill of blending. The teachers improved their practice by
recycling individual sounds with students at the beginning of each
lesson and practicing the skill of blending regularly.
They practised blending the sounds using project work and small
readers. Even the method of blending was well thought out. The
teachers found that students learnt blending easier when they
started with onsets and rimes than with discrete sounds.
The teachers of Po Kok Branch School studied P. 3 students’
performance in the Attainment test and discovered that their
students were not able to express simple ideas in their own
language. They realized that it would not be possible for their
students to reach that standard in one year. So they decided
to bring in early intervention through introducing free writing
in P.2. They gave students more practices in class and they
included free writing in subsequent tests. They traced the
performance of three students from the low, average and high
ability group. This provided useful feedback to their teaching
and gave them tremendous confidence to attempt more in the
second term.
The teachers of Our Lady of China Catholic Primary School
and Tai Po Methodist Primary School tried to use authentic
learning materials to arouse students’ interest in learning
English. Students learnt about the assessment criteria
before the activity and took an active part in the
assessment.
Teacher development is an on-going process, the wisdom
teachers gained from last year’s research is used to improve
their current practice. The work relationship between teachers
and CDOs is a dynamic and interactive one. The follow up work
committed by the teachers of Tai Po Old Market Public School
(PM) was originated from last year’s collaborative action
research on phonics teaching.
CDO brought to the attention of the teachers at Po Kok Branch
School their students’ learning problems. The teachers reacted
positively and were willing to try various means to address the
problem. They took the initiative to think about ways to improve
the marking scheme so that the students’ performance could be
reflected vividly.
CDO was just like a conductor, she orchestrated teachers with
similar experiences to work together. This kind of informal
sharing enabled two teachers from Our Lady of China Catholic
Primary School and Tai Po Methodist Primary School to gather
together and to reflect on their own teaching. The constructive
comments given by them may help illustrate the importance of
such kind of professional sharing.
THE END