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Chi Tak’s NET
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Resource Teacher of Literacy
1999 New Zealand Government’s Literacy
Taskforce
Literacy Facilitator for Canterbury and
Westland.
2002 N.E.T in Hong Kong
School-based Curriculum Development
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Background of the students
Low
socio-economic status
Over 80% of the students are new immigrants.
The students’ performance in the Hong Kong
Attainment Test is very poor. Some students are in
the lower quartile.
There is wide student diversity.
Many students are transitory.
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In 2002-2003 our school
joined
the “School-based Curriculum
Development ” with the Curriculum
Development Institute .
joined the Native English Teacher
(NET) Scheme.
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Module Development
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Learning and teaching activities
Learning and teaching materials
A variety of approaches
Diversity – widen experiences
Integration of like modules and
language focuses.
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Airport Trip
Letters to New
Zealand
Making Sandwiches
Cookery
programmes
Peak Trip
Cotton reel
Bulldozers
Birthday parties
Festivals
Shared / Guided
Reading
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Learning activities
• Outings to Hong Kong International
Airport
• Writing letters to New Zealand Students
• Outing to The Peak
• An English Day Camp
• Making Sandwiches & having a Birthday
party
• Cookery programmes
• Making Cotton Reel Bulldozers
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The Airport Trip
Planning
the module
Unit Two (pg.6 “On Target with English” Book
5C ) “At the Airport” tells the story of Mrs. Lee and
Grandma who are going to Los Angeles to see Aunt
Judy and Uncle Mike.
It tells how Grandma has bought Aunt Judy plenty
of T-shirts, several scarves and some tea and dried
mushrooms.
Over several pages, the textbook outlines the
process of going through the airport and covers the
vocabulary associated with travel by plane.
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Planning the Module
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In a series of co-planning meetings in December 2003
and January 2004, the P5 English staff decided that it
would be a meaningful to take the P5 class to Hong Kong
International airport.
Discussing vocabulary, such as suitcases, boarding cards,
name tags, trolleys, passports, and departure times, would
have more meaning if the students could experience
them first hand in the environment of the airport.
We took three P5 classes to the airport last year.
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Our Objectives
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To provide an authentic environment for the P5
students to:
practice speaking English and develop their
confidence in the use of the language.
learn about the workings of a modern airport
gain an appreciation of the place of Hong Kong
in the global network
have an experience which will contribute to their
life-long learning.
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Language Focuses
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Simple interview techniques using a prescribed and practised set of
sentences. (This was for interviewing travellers. There were four
relatively simple questions that were practised by all students prior to
the trip).
Listening and responding (particularly during the interview).
Practise interview techniques/Learn the Questions
Inform the students about other Countries and world cities
e.g.England, London, France, Paris
Vocabulary items associated with airports (these matched the unit).
Reading to gain information. Writing to record information and to
correspond. (Letters were written to the bus company thanking the
owner for giving discounted fares and to the school principal thanking
her for letting the classes go on the trip).
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Making Friends
with New Zealand Students
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Letters to Hoon Hay school in Christchurch in
New Zealand.
To provide an authentic environment for the P5
students to:
practise Writing letters to pen-friends
develop their confidence in writing.
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Make Friends
with New Zealand Students
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We did not try to make these letters word perfect
as re-writing would have killed the enthusiasm.
We downloaded pictures and told students about
Hoon Hay School and N.Z. schools. They were
fascinated and excited.
Students were very happy to get letters and
presents from their friends.
They keep on writing letters to their friends and
they are getting replies.
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Pathway of English Curriculum Development :
2002-2003
Primary 1 (1 teacher)
2003-2004
Primary 1, 2, 3 & 5 (4 teachers)
• my experience: 2002-2003 Primary 1 and 2003-2004
Primary 2 (about 1.5 years)
• At the beginning, I didn’t know what to do, I felt pressured,
nervous and worried
• As there was only one class, I was the only teacher taking
part in the development work
• This meant I had no-one to share with and to exchange
ideas with, or to use as a model.
• In 2002- 2003, I felt lonely.
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What have I done ?
• 1st step: Reallocate the English lessons
7 lessons per week in P.1-P.3
1 lesson for Dictation
I lesson for Reading small readers
5 lessons for general use ( included ETV, Listening)
Extra lessons(Extra curricular activity): 1 lesson per 2
weeks for teaching big books with the NET teacher
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2nd step: Analyze the text book and find out the language
focuses, functions and plan activities
3rd step: Select the language focuses which I want to
teach
4th step: Rearrange the units, design learning tasks to
match the corresponding modules.
5th step: Prepare a scheme of work ( Based on the
textbook analysis )
6th step: Design the learning tasks using wither a
contextual theme or a linguistic theme (e.g. a visit to the
botanical garden)
7th step: Find other related teaching resources to enrich
the content of the text book,e.g. small readers, big books
and phonics
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Explore new ideas in dictation and exam paper
Different testing focus in dictation, spelling, recite the
vocabulary, distinguish between different sounds(phonics)
• Different forms of dictation: Matching, fill in the blanks,
jumbled words, listening to songs and filling in the
blanks.( refer to the samples)
• Use authentic situations to link up the different parts of the
exam paper. The design of the exam paper will be linked to the
tasks the students did before. ( refer to the samples of the exam
paper)
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Changes in the students attitudes during this English
Curriculum Tailoring Project
• They become more interested in learning English
• They enjoyed the activities and I had good responses
during the English lessons
• Most of them have progressed in the attainment test
(from P.1 to P2)
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