One of my lesson that went very well is on the first chapter : the world through our senses. I pick one of the subtopic in this chapter that is Sense of Sight and light. I stressed on the structure of an eye. It is an experiment on observing the structure and function of the human eye.
The difficulties to memorize and to understand the structure and function of different part of the eye that my student faced make me think of the alternative way to make them understand clearly. So i came out with this experiment from the book and one of the blog. They uploaded their experiment that have been carried out in their classroom in the website.
The experiment that i did with them is dissection of cow's eye. With the help of technology i manage to download the video from this website and i asked my student to carry out this experiment in class. Basically we carry out this experiment with the help of the video that i have downloaded before to make sure they know what they are doing.
What i did is, i divide my students into 6 groups and ask them to bring a cow's eye for each group. Then they will follow the video that i have downloaded as i show it on the screen by using LCD projector. I will paused and play as they did the disection to make sure they are on the correct path.
This was different than other lesson because they have an experience to see the real structure of an eyeball. Humans eyeballs have the same structure as the cows eyeball. So in order to understand the real structure in theoretically they get to feel and see by themselves. This will improved the level of understanding of my students. The reason this lesson successful is because of they get the experienced to see the structure of an eye and relate it with the functions for each part of an eye.
From here, i learned that my students needs a hands on approach with the help of ICT approach to make them understand a certain topics better. This will also make my lesson more interesting .
If i were to improved this lesson i'll make sure i break up my students into a smaller group so that they have the experienced to touch and see the experiment step by step clearly. I hope i will be able to do a virtual dissection with the help of software or through the net one day. It is because my student's faced difficulties of getting cow's eye and also some of them can't do because of religious reasons.
I have shared this experience with my colleague in school. Some of them did try with their class too.
Task 2
Teaching science in english when my students is in the last class and some of them are illeterate is very challenging to me. What i did is i'll make sure that my lesson is as simple as i could and i'll explain by using simple english to make sure they can understand all of it. With the help of technology i will show them all the diagram, videos, pictures, animation and etc so that they could see the process clearly rather that just explaining. I did tell them to stop me if they can't understand and i will explain it again and again.
Their notes are in the diagram formed. They will only asked to write some word just to drill their writing skill. Fifteen minutes before the class end, i will teach them all the simple vocabulary and their meanings that i am going to use for the next lesson to make sure they will not lost track. Sometimes i have to refresh back their ABC's because they are very weak on that too.
From this experience i learn that i should have more skills in entertaining those pupils that are very weak and illiterate. I also learn that to know your students better will make you a better teacher. I did share this experienced with my colleague in school especially language teachers and experienced teachers to get ideas and help from them. They did give a good feedback and help me a lot through out that year.
3 comments:
Hi Anniza,
it was an interesting lesson to have students involved in a hands on experience! and of course with the assistance of the technology, it can help us to explain complex things to students even clearer. I bet that your students find this experiment to be the most enjoyful class and hopefully it will help them remember well too :) Perhaps you can share the blog link with others here so as to let them see the content of the video and they might find it useful for their teaching. So did you ask for students' feedback regarding the activity? What did you find then? Please share with us..
Yes..teaching Science in English for weak students is challenging since apart from helping student to achieve the lesson's objectives, you are also responsible to make sure that they master the terms! Have you ever think of a collaborative teaching with English teachers as to help those weak/illiterate students to be better?
Very challenging .....but you have made even the weak students interested esp using technology. Keep it up!
Hey you have answered my question about how to help students to remember. Anyone with other ideas? We would love to hear them : )sm
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