Writing about Own Goals and Resolutions

In a writing task, I asked my students to write about their own goals and resolutions. One of my students, Tammy (pseudo name), put much effort in writing. She would come to me after lesson to ask me how to write her resolutions in English. 

Her task:

To constantly review her progress, she made herself a checklist. She would put a tick if she paid attention for the whole day. She talked less to her neighbour and became more active in answering my questions.

Authentic tasks enable students to use language in a real life context and personalized tasks can really motivate them in completing the task as they have a real goal. Also, in key stage 2, students become more aware of their learning strategies and how to evaluate their learning progress. Tammy has demonstrated her ability to set clear goals and to self-monitor. I have learnt that it is important for students to identify their own problems and set own goals, so that they are more motivated to take actions. I will encourage the rest of the class to make a self-checklist like what Tammy did. For those who keep their promises, I may give them prizes later!

A Student with Dyslexia

Peony is a student with dyslexia. Few weeks ago, I observed that she always replied ‘I don’t know.’ before attempting to do anything. I tried to foster a close relationship with her and send a positive message that trial and error is appreciated. I am very happy to see her improvements and now she actively asks for help and tries her best to respond to my questions.

As I got flu and almost lost my voice today, I typed out most of my instructions for the task instead of saying verbally. I discovered that Peony, who always asks me to repeat my instructions, did not do so today.

Peony might have memory difficulties in auditory working memory, so she forgets instructions and sometimes loses track of what she is doing. As compared to her peers in KS2 who are able to remember and recall the steps of the task, Peony might not be able to adopt effective memory strategies in organizing the information she receives. I realize that apart from repeating my instructions to her step by step, I should have used alternative methods such as imagery strategies to visualize my instructions so that she can follow more easily.

Amy’s Social Skills

Amy is an unpopular girl in my class. She seems to be very defensive and she always puts the blame on others. During the lesson, she had an argument with a boy and they were shouting at each other. I told Amy firmly to ignore the boy, but Amy replied, “I did nothing wrong. If he had not provoked me, I won’t be this mad!” I asked her to stay behind and tell me what has happened. During our conversation, she suddenly told me that her parents were planning to get divorced soon.

Perhaps one of the reasons behind her defensiveness is family influences. She may not receive adequate parental scaffolding at home, which leads to loneliness and not willing to disclose her true feelings easily. When she overhears her parents’ arguments, she may just copy their negative tone.

As I only teach in this school for 6 weeks, there is little I can do to help her deal with her family issues. Still, I can assign her roles during lessons so as to avoid outbreak of arguments, e.g. jot down the names and number of times her peers provoked her and tell me what happened after lesson.

Metacognition in a Listening Task

Metacognition is a vital for students’ learning as they are able to think and reflect on the way they think and learn. To develop my students’ metacognition skills, I would ask them questions at the end of each lesson and I have been doing this for two days.

I did a listening task with them today and I asked them about the strategies they used while doing the worksheet. I was really impressed by how fast they learn to think about learning and give concrete reasons in just a few days. A girl told me that while she was reading the questions, she would circle the key words. As a result, she was able to listen for the specific information needed and did not miss any answers. Some students also told me that the recording was too fast and there were no pauses (‘beep’ sound) so that they did not have time to write down the answers. Through metacognition, not only can students monitor their learning by adopting the most suitable strategies, but I can also adjust the listening worksheet and recording to suit their levels and needs, e.g. MC questions instead of writing sentences.