Blog Reflection 3

The first question that came to my mind was how to go about SEEDING for my English lesson plans.

To give a quick background *I shall not bore you with the details :)*, this programme (SEED-EL) will be rolled out this year and I know quite a reliable source that it is in its GESTATION stage now. It is therefore no longer a seed but an organism that is going to break out of its shell pretty soon to face the "cruel" world.

SEED-EL is actually a re-invention of Reading and English Acquisition Programme (REAP) *erm, are we always thinking of sowing the seeds and reaping the harvest?* Primary 1 to 3 children will be exposed to the Shared Book Approach (SBA) in a more structured way.

One thing that came strongly across in this document is that reading (with BIG books) will be enjoyable, meaningful, non-threatening and impactful in many ways.

How can my design of lessons (with use of ICT of course) be aligned in that way? *let's face it, no one likes their lessons to be boring or run-of-the-mill* *or worse no use of ICT involved* *gasp*

Would online-stories be able to create the same impact? Where can I get GOOD online-stories?

Another thing that came across very strongly is the use of heterogenous groupings to bring about learning. If Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development were to be applied here, then not only will the teacher be providing the scaffold and stimulii, "high progress" pupils can model for the "middle progress" or "low progress" pupils. There, I learnt a new way of describing the abilities of pupils (^_^)

Finally, we must never forget that when we conduct (or create) any lessons, the best way to know if our lessons have been effective is through the kind of work pupils produce. For SEED-EL, observation checklists are used to evaluate if pupils exhibit the skills taught. For my lessons, what am I going to structure in so that I know my students have learnt something?

Nevertheless, I believe in order to ensure a good harvest, more seeds should be sown (of course in a very organised way *i.e. a clear direction to be given* so that growth is optimized). Love, care and PATIENCE must be shown to ensure that these seeds do not wither and perish.

Will there be nurturing rain or punishing rays? I really wonder...