Adventures in Miss Chua's Classroom

Two Weeks in Miss Chua's Class (HIGHLIGHTS)

Saturday, February 7, 2015 • 11:37 PM • 1 comments

We had a splendid time this week learning and enjoying the use of language.

P5: Plot Diagram

We started our lesson with a silly skit which displayed the different elements of a story plot.

A rich story plot is one that takes into account the different elements of plot. At the moment, I noticed that the girls are generally proficient in the crafting of the exposition and conflict of the story. Nonetheless, they are not able to fully develop a proper climax and resolution for the story.

Following the introduction of plot diagrams, the children watched a few videos and were asked to identify the different elements of plot in their video.

P5 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Introduction

We had a wonderful lesson with that teaches the girls to describe TASTE in its varying dimensions.

Using a whole series of adjectives, the children are to invent a special candy and to describe the hardness, the elasticity, the texture, the spiciness of the candy they invent.

To spice up the lesson, we also had a GREAT feast consisting of WONKA candies and snacks! Through the tasting session, the girls are required to draw inspiration from the candies they taste, to NOTICE the different dimensions of taste and use it to create their own candies.

P5 Reading Strategy: Visualisation

Reading is a complex task involving many cognitive processes. Often, our girls face difficulties in reading because they lack essential reading strategies that would help them in the comprehension process. Hence, this year, they will be introduced to a full series of comprehension skills to combat the comprehension monsters.

This week, the girls were introduced to the first comprehension strategy: Visualisation. Visualisation involved the conscious creation of mental images in the brain as one reads. The girls were told to take on the role as movie directors and to imagine the sights, sounds, smells and feelings of the characters in the story.

Through a series of drawing, speaking and listening activities, the girls practised the skill of visualisation before attempting the comprehension passage in the Marshall Cavendish booklet.

To monitor their visualisation process, the girls were asked to either illustrate or pen down their mental images as they read. This process is crucial as it enabled me to monitor how effectively they have mastered the skill of visualisation.

Sample 1

In this sample, the pupil used simple pictures to illustrate the mental images she had created in her brain as she was reading. She illustrated the picture of the bug with a hundred legs and would probably keep that image in her mind as she continued reading the story about Esther's encounter with bugs.

Pupils are also encouraged to visualise what they could see, hear, smell, touch and feel (emotions) as they stepped into the shoes of the characters. This pupil took on the perspective of Esther and imagined herself holding the cold glass of home-made barley. I know that she has applied her skills of visualisation and schema-activation because she has included additional details (cold glass) to reinforce her understanding of the text.

The girls were then provided with some question-answering guidelines and were given the opportunity to attempt the questions independently.

Scaffolding is provided through the analysis of questions

I would use their performance in this comprehension exercise to determine the skills they require/lack in the answering of questions. These skills would then be introduced or reinforced in subsequent comprehension lessons.

P6 Philosopher's Circle: Animal Testing

We had our very first Philosopher's Circle session this week. Using the Philosophy for Children techniques developed by Dr.Matthew Lipman, the children sat together to consider important life, social and cultural issues.

Philosophy for Children is a movement that that aims to teach reasoning, argumentative and evaluative skills to children. Such a form of instruction is ideal as pre-teens as they enter the formal operational stage of their cognitive development.

Philosopher's circle is also an excellent instructional tool used to facilitate the building of a democratic society. A democratic society is one that takes into the account of various perspectives and uses the process of negotiation and collaboration to achieve the best possible results for the community.

In this week's Philosopher's Circle, we discussed the issues, dilemmas, ethics and alternatives to the ANIMAL TESTING. I was pleasantly surprised at the level of thought produced by the children, given their first exposure to philosophy.

I was also proud to see the girls participating actively and respectfully as they critiqued their friend's arguments and provided alternatives.

It is my hope that such skills will help the children not only in their discussion of various topics in the Stimulus-Based Conversation component and also in intellectual journey as critical thinkers.

Labels: P4C, Reading Strategies, This Week in Miss Chua's Class

Unknown said...: We ex-5 Grace girls did this before.

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