NURZARIMAH BTE JAMIL.
AP 980424
801222-01-5460
4 SPL
LITERATURE REVIEW.
‘Word Scavenger Hunt’ (WSH) is a game designed by Farhana and I. This game was first conducted during a Language Games class as a requirement for our first assignment. WSH is actually a vocabulary game for upper primary school students. Meaning it is suitable for the beginner level of standard 4, 5 and 6 students.
Like most of the language games, WSH also played in groups. Each group is provided with a selected alphabets to hold by the group members and the themes are given to them. Teacher will call out the chosen alphabets and the students have to guess any words that begin with the alphabets. The words should based on the theme given. Students are given 1 minute for each round to come out with the word lists. Different alphabets and different themes will be called out after each round.
For example, the teacher call out the alphabets of C, P and A. the theme given is FRUIT and VEGETABLE. The students have to come out with a word list of the theme begin with those alphabets such as Carrot, Coconut, Papaya, Apple etc. they are given 1 minute before the next round. The group with the longest word lists without any spelling errors is the winner. And this is how the game, WSH goes.
If we bring our mind deeper towards the game, we might think of the significance and the relationship of WSH with any theories. The main theory that come across the mind is Multiple Intelligence (MI) theory which is very parallel with language games. MI is introduced by Howard Gardner, a professor at Harvard University in 1983. MI theory has been used in recent years to facilitate the identification and instruction of gifted and talented children.
There are seven different domains in MI theory. The very first domain that can be found in WSH is Linguistic Intelligence where the teacher gives instruction and tell the rules of the game to the students. This is to see the students’ ability in understanding the orally instruction given by the teachers.
Since the students are require to think of any words that begin with the chosen alphabets and the given themes, they are actually using their Logical-Mathematical Intelligence. This activity needs them to think critically and recall any words associated that have been learned by them. This is kind of experience learning because the students have to think back the learning process they have been through to come out with the words.
Interpersonal Intelligence is also one of the MI domains finds in WSH. This is a cooperative learning where the students have to work in groups. By using this kind of learning, the students can learn to build a team spirit and eager to work out with the game. The cooperation occurred among them is very crucial to create an excitement to be a winner of the game. This is also known as cooperative learning. The challenge is to provide for individual accountability while utilizing all of these group activities. Interpersonal smart students need to interact with others to be more successful at processing their information (Gardner, 1987).
These are 3 main MI domains that can be found in WSH. The other MI domains that have not been mentioned are Spatial Intelligence, Bodily Kinesthetic Intelligence, Musical Intelligence and Intrapersonal Intelligence. Those are use non literally in WSH.
Gardner (1983) and Ramos-Ford and Gardner (1991) suggested that these intelligences are autonomous but that they are also interactive. In general, students have relative strengths and weaknesses across the intelligences, which has implications for the gifted and talented students. That is, students will differ as to the areas they are considered to be gifted or talented. It is believed more talented and gifted children would be identified in this way.
As has been stated before, this game is a language game. It is to help in improving the students English vocabulary and to increase the English level among the students. These statements are seconded by a research done by Finocchiaro (1982) and Ngeow (1998). The research shows that factors such as a learning situation that has a low affective filter (Krashen, 1987) whereby the students learn to use the language in a non- threatening and fun environment. Otherwise, students will feel uncomfortable and insecure which will further induce a ‘psychological barrier’ to communication and learning (Littlewood,1995). This is a Krashen theory of i + 1.
It should be pointed out here that there are many more theories that can be related with WSH game, but these are some of them. However, what should be counted here is the approach of the game towards the students learning. In education field, games have become one of the method of language learning which they label as ‘Edutainment’.
In conclusion, as stated by Krechevsky and Seidel (1998: 38):
“From the first day of school, students bring working minds to class. The educator’s job is to create the best possible working environment for those mind. Let us creative enough to stimulate these wonderful minds”
- The lesson plan of Word Scevenger Hunt is provided.(refer to Appendix 1)
Appendix 1.
Lesson Plan
Subject: English
Standard: 5 Seroja Attendance : 45
Date : 03 Jan 2002 Time : 2.00- 3.20 p.m.
Topic : Animal Farm Venue : 5 Seroja
Objective
By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
1. list down animal found on the farm in written form and orally.
2. underline all the animal found in the reading passage.
3. answer all the comprehension questions correctly.
Teaching Aids
1. Handout 1: pictures of a few animals farm.
2. Handout 2: a passage on ' Life on A Farm'
3. Handout 3: containing the instruction and rules of the game.
4. Mahjong paper
5. Manila card 1: pictures of cow, chicken, and goat.
6. Manila card 2: alphabet
7. Marker
Prior Knowledge
Students have already learnt about animal in general lower primary level.
Content
1. Animal found on the farm are like:
w Cow
w Goat
w Sheep
w Etc
Delivery
Set induction
1. Teacher shows manila card containing pictures of cow, chicken and goat and asks the student to name them.
2. Teacher elicits from the students the category of the pictures.
3. Teacher introduces the topic of the lesson.
Pre-Reading
4. Teacher gives handout 1 to the students and asks them to name the animal.
5. Teacher discusses with the students where can they find the animals.
6. Teacher distributes handout 2 and explains to them what they need to do.
While-reading
7. Students are required to read the given passage silently first, while reading they need to underline all the animal they found in the passage.
8. Teacher asks for volunteers to read the passage loudly.
9. Teacher asks the students whether they could understand the passage and discusses on it for a while.
Post-reading
Activity 1
10. Students are asked to form a group and answer the comprehension question in the textbook.
11. Teacher discusses on the answer.
Activity 2
12. Once again, teacher asks the students to form a group, there should only be three groups all together.
13. Teacher announces that they are going to have a game based on what they have learnt just now.
14. Teacher gives handout 3 and explains how they are going to play the game to the students (refer to handout 3).
15. They will play the games for about 30 minutes.
Closing
16. Teacher ends the lesson by asking some students to tell what they have learnt for the day lesson.
Homework
Write a short description of any animal farm.
Date of submission: 10 Jan 2002
Teacher's Notes
Prepared By:
Farhana Mohd Hanapiah
Nurzarimah Jamil
4 SPL
NURZARIMAH BTE JAMIL.
AP 980424
801222-01-5460
4 SPL
LITERATURE REVIEW.
‘Word Scavenger Hunt’ (WSH) is a game designed by Farhana and I. This game was first conducted during a Language Games class as a requirement for our first assignment. WSH is actually a vocabulary game for upper primary school students. Meaning it is suitable for the beginner level of standard 4, 5 and 6 students.
Like most of the language games, WSH also played in groups. Each group is provided with a selected alphabets to hold by the group members and the themes are given to them. Teacher will call out the chosen alphabets and the students have to guess any words that begin with the alphabets. The words should based on the theme given. Students are given 1 minute for each round to come out with the word lists. Different alphabets and different themes will be called out after each round.
For example, the teacher call out the alphabets of C, P and A. the theme given is FRUIT and VEGETABLE. The students have to come out with a word list of the theme begin with those alphabets such as Carrot, Coconut, Papaya, Apple etc. they are given 1 minute before the next round. The group with the longest word lists without any spelling errors is the winner. And this is how the game, WSH goes.
If we bring our mind deeper towards the game, we might think of the significance and the relationship of WSH with any theories. The main theory that come across the mind is Multiple Intelligence (MI) theory which is very parallel with language games. MI is introduced by Howard Gardner, a professor at Harvard University in 1983. MI theory has been used in recent years to facilitate the identification and instruction of gifted and talented children.
There are seven different domains in MI theory. The very first domain that can be found in WSH is Linguistic Intelligence where the teacher gives instruction and tell the rules of the game to the students. This is to see the students’ ability in understanding the orally instruction given by the teachers.
Since the students are require to think of any words that begin with the chosen alphabets and the given themes, they are actually using their Logical-Mathematical Intelligence. This activity needs them to think critically and recall any words associated that have been learned by them. This is kind of experience learning because the students have to think back the learning process they have been through to come out with the words.
Interpersonal Intelligence is also one of the MI domains finds in WSH. This is a cooperative learning where the students have to work in groups. By using this kind of learning, the students can learn to build a team spirit and eager to work out with the game. The cooperation occurred among them is very crucial to create an excitement to be a winner of the game. This is also known as cooperative learning. The challenge is to provide for individual accountability while utilizing all of these group activities. Interpersonal smart students need to interact with others to be more successful at processing their information (Gardner, 1987).
These are 3 main MI domains that can be found in WSH. The other MI domains that have not been mentioned are Spatial Intelligence, Bodily Kinesthetic Intelligence, Musical Intelligence and Intrapersonal Intelligence. Those are use non literally in WSH.
Gardner (1983) and Ramos-Ford and Gardner (1991) suggested that these intelligences are autonomous but that they are also interactive. In general, students have relative strengths and weaknesses across the intelligences, which has implications for the gifted and talented students. That is, students will differ as to the areas they are considered to be gifted or talented. It is believed more talented and gifted children would be identified in this way.
As has been stated before, this game is a language game. It is to help in improving the students English vocabulary and to increase the English level among the students. These statements are seconded by a research done by Finocchiaro (1982) and Ngeow (1998). The research shows that factors such as a learning situation that has a low affective filter (Krashen, 1987) whereby the students learn to use the language in a non- threatening and fun environment. Otherwise, students will feel uncomfortable and insecure which will further induce a ‘psychological barrier’ to communication and learning (Littlewood,1995). This is a Krashen theory of i + 1.
It should be pointed out here that there are many more theories that can be related with WSH game, but these are some of them. However, what should be counted here is the approach of the game towards the students learning. In education field, games have become one of the method of language learning which they label as ‘Edutainment’.
In conclusion, as stated by Krechevsky and Seidel (1998: 38):
“From the first day of school, students bring working minds to class. The educator’s job is to create the best possible working environment for those mind. Let us creative enough to stimulate these wonderful minds”
- The lesson plan of Word Scevenger Hunt is provided.(refer to Appendix 1)
Appendix 1.
Lesson Plan
Subject: English
Standard: 5 Seroja Attendance : 45
Date : 03 Jan 2002 Time : 2.00- 3.20 p.m.
Topic : Animal Farm Venue : 5 Seroja
Objective
By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
1. list down animal found on the farm in written form and orally.
2. underline all the animal found in the reading passage.
3. answer all the comprehension questions correctly.
Teaching Aids
1. Handout 1: pictures of a few animals farm.
2. Handout 2: a passage on ' Life on A Farm'
3. Handout 3: containing the instruction and rules of the game.
4. Mahjong paper
5. Manila card 1: pictures of cow, chicken, and goat.
6. Manila card 2: alphabet
7. Marker
Prior Knowledge
Students have already learnt about animal in general lower primary level.
Content
1. Animal found on the farm are like:
w Cow
w Goat
w Sheep
w Etc
Delivery
Set induction
1. Teacher shows manila card containing pictures of cow, chicken and goat and asks the student to name them.
2. Teacher elicits from the students the category of the pictures.
3. Teacher introduces the topic of the lesson.
Pre-Reading
4. Teacher gives handout 1 to the students and asks them to name the animal.
5. Teacher discusses with the students where can they find the animals.
6. Teacher distributes handout 2 and explains to them what they need to do.
While-reading
7. Students are required to read the given passage silently first, while reading they need to underline all the animal they found in the passage.
8. Teacher asks for volunteers to read the passage loudly.
9. Teacher asks the students whether they could understand the passage and discusses on it for a while.
Post-reading
Activity 1
10. Students are asked to form a group and answer the comprehension question in the textbook.
11. Teacher discusses on the answer.
Activity 2
12. Once again, teacher asks the students to form a group, there should only be three groups all together.
13. Teacher announces that they are going to have a game based on what they have learnt just now.
14. Teacher gives handout 3 and explains how they are going to play the game to the students (refer to handout 3).
15. They will play the games for about 30 minutes.
Closing
16. Teacher ends the lesson by asking some students to tell what they have learnt for the day lesson.
Homework
Write a short description of any animal farm.
Date of submission: 10 Jan 2002
Teacher's Notes
Prepared By:
Farhana Mohd Hanapiah
Nurzarimah Jamil
4 SPL
Tuesday, February 12, 2002
A BIT TOUCH ON OUR COMING POST MORTEM
Dear Mr.G and friends...
well, i think i'm lacking of reports in this gameplan diary. i made a mistake of putting 3 entries in one day because it will be counted as 1 entry (crying). but i'll try my best to make sure i have all the entries ready by this thursday (the due date for the entry). wish me luck. so, what should i write here...
today is Chinese NEw Year. i would like to take this opportunity to wish all my chinese friends Happy Prosperous Chinese New YEar. don't forget to do our assignments.
well, we are supposed to have our language games class this thursday but since most of us won't be here until that day so Mr. G cancell the class. but that is the day of submitting out entries.don't forget...
still about our language camp 2002. next thursday is a post mortem day. i'm actually not really wait for the post mortem. i'm afraid the 'legend' of last sem's language camp repeated. but i hope everything will be fine. the post mortem is a way to improve our programme. hope to hear many ideas and suggestions in post mortem. see you there. better off now. bye.
Dear Mr.G and friends...
well, i think i'm lacking of reports in this gameplan diary. i made a mistake of putting 3 entries in one day because it will be counted as 1 entry (crying). but i'll try my best to make sure i have all the entries ready by this thursday (the due date for the entry). wish me luck. so, what should i write here...
today is Chinese NEw Year. i would like to take this opportunity to wish all my chinese friends Happy Prosperous Chinese New YEar. don't forget to do our assignments.
well, we are supposed to have our language games class this thursday but since most of us won't be here until that day so Mr. G cancell the class. but that is the day of submitting out entries.don't forget...
still about our language camp 2002. next thursday is a post mortem day. i'm actually not really wait for the post mortem. i'm afraid the 'legend' of last sem's language camp repeated. but i hope everything will be fine. the post mortem is a way to improve our programme. hope to hear many ideas and suggestions in post mortem. see you there. better off now. bye.
happy Chinese New Year to all my chinese friends... everybody is rushing to fulfill the requirement for the language camp - 5 marks entries n 5 marks comments in blogspot.. heheh.. same like me .. this is the last entry.. actually I don’t know what to add coz you all have wrote everything about what had happen before and after the language camp. Anyway, we should proud of ourselves coz we managed to handle everything. To make everything we wish for become truth. Even though, we had to deal with low proficiency students but somehow we managed to make them to love English, realize the important of English in their life. For me myself, this is the second time I went to a language camp and I always proud of myself coz at least I had a chance to ‘berkhidmat’.
About the treasure hunt itself, a big hand to Suhaimi coz he managed to prepared the games by himself even though there’s a big misunderstood about the instruction. Hey.. it’s doesn’t matter anyway coz tell you the truth my friends.. it was really hard to prepare a treasure hunt games. Even we had trouble (Nadia, Farhana and I) handle the treasure hunt in our first language camp. The happiest time when I looking at all the facilitators who supposed to be a tourist guide to the students. They seem tired coz they have to speed like a LRT…as for the rest, and me we a bit relief, I guess coz we just have to stand at the check- point. Meanwhile for the drama presentation, I’m a bit surprise with the performance by the students. They all have the talent. They could memorize the line. I guess, they just need someone to guide. Who has faith and believe in them that they all can do it. And the most memorable memory that always in my heart is when Zarim announced that our group, The WOLF is the Winner.. thanks to Zarim and Suhaimi as my partner and also my beloved Wolfs – Idayu, Shahirah, Hairul, Nana, Halil, Izzwan, Asrul, Akmal, - I love you guys and thanks a lot for the letter and also for the call.
About the treasure hunt itself, a big hand to Suhaimi coz he managed to prepared the games by himself even though there’s a big misunderstood about the instruction. Hey.. it’s doesn’t matter anyway coz tell you the truth my friends.. it was really hard to prepare a treasure hunt games. Even we had trouble (Nadia, Farhana and I) handle the treasure hunt in our first language camp. The happiest time when I looking at all the facilitators who supposed to be a tourist guide to the students. They seem tired coz they have to speed like a LRT…as for the rest, and me we a bit relief, I guess coz we just have to stand at the check- point. Meanwhile for the drama presentation, I’m a bit surprise with the performance by the students. They all have the talent. They could memorize the line. I guess, they just need someone to guide. Who has faith and believe in them that they all can do it. And the most memorable memory that always in my heart is when Zarim announced that our group, The WOLF is the Winner.. thanks to Zarim and Suhaimi as my partner and also my beloved Wolfs – Idayu, Shahirah, Hairul, Nana, Halil, Izzwan, Asrul, Akmal, - I love you guys and thanks a lot for the letter and also for the call.
Hi, firstly I would like to wish my Chinese friends Gong Xi Fatt Chai. Have you enjoyed your Yee Sang last night? It looked delicious when I saw it on TV.
Okay…today I’ll continue my entry.Ana asked us (Thiba & me) to take the attendance in every meeting.Besides that,she gave the works that we have to do on the language camp.I appreciated it because pity on Ana-she has to do everything/lot of works to do.
When I stayed back at college to settle everything about the first aid(type and went to see the person who incharged it),one of my friends from the previous language camp said that they totally forgot about the first aid when they went for the camp.Oh mine!It's dangerous.When I went to see the person at UTM clinic, they warned me lots.I was just nodding my head and oh my God...when they want to stop mumbling at me!This is because many UTM students do not give back the first aid and the clinic has to be careful to lend it to students.The first aids at our clinic have not enough and thank God my lucky day when they give me one.
Now let's talk about the progression-night where we have to prepare everything(in material stuff)for the language camp.Before went to the class where the work was done,Zarim,Sabariah, Hani and me went shopping at Rainbow.We bought some materials and photostated the booklet and so on.We found Mazlia,Norlia,Norazalia nad Farah there went shopping their materials too.They have bought some polisterines and they asked for Zarim's help to take it to class.Sabariah and me was sitting at the back and we're dying laughing when Zarim did not realize that the door car cannot be closed because of the polisterine.And the car started moved.But finally we can made the door closed.
At the class, me together with Kristy did on the files.Then, we helped Norlia and Mazlia's group to make their game's material.We also gave hands to our friends.On that night,we have been giving some briefs about the game progressed.When it was late night, seemed one by one was going back.When there was only a few people left,Ana asked us to stop because it was already past 1a.m.After cleaned the class and arranged the chair,we went back to Melawis with Banchee's help.Thanks Banchee.
Okay…today I’ll continue my entry.Ana asked us (Thiba & me) to take the attendance in every meeting.Besides that,she gave the works that we have to do on the language camp.I appreciated it because pity on Ana-she has to do everything/lot of works to do.
When I stayed back at college to settle everything about the first aid(type and went to see the person who incharged it),one of my friends from the previous language camp said that they totally forgot about the first aid when they went for the camp.Oh mine!It's dangerous.When I went to see the person at UTM clinic, they warned me lots.I was just nodding my head and oh my God...when they want to stop mumbling at me!This is because many UTM students do not give back the first aid and the clinic has to be careful to lend it to students.The first aids at our clinic have not enough and thank God my lucky day when they give me one.
Now let's talk about the progression-night where we have to prepare everything(in material stuff)for the language camp.Before went to the class where the work was done,Zarim,Sabariah, Hani and me went shopping at Rainbow.We bought some materials and photostated the booklet and so on.We found Mazlia,Norlia,Norazalia nad Farah there went shopping their materials too.They have bought some polisterines and they asked for Zarim's help to take it to class.Sabariah and me was sitting at the back and we're dying laughing when Zarim did not realize that the door car cannot be closed because of the polisterine.And the car started moved.But finally we can made the door closed.
At the class, me together with Kristy did on the files.Then, we helped Norlia and Mazlia's group to make their game's material.We also gave hands to our friends.On that night,we have been giving some briefs about the game progressed.When it was late night, seemed one by one was going back.When there was only a few people left,Ana asked us to stop because it was already past 1a.m.After cleaned the class and arranged the chair,we went back to Melawis with Banchee's help.Thanks Banchee.
Monday, February 11, 2002
Hai everyone..it's me! I feel like I'm in the 15th century and you guys are heading towards the future. I know that I'm dreadfully late and I hope that Mr. G. can forgive me.Anyway, I'll always keep in touch after this.
Alright, lets see..I can still remember the first meeting when Azura suggested to do our language camp in Sek. Keb. Air Manis. When she told me that the school was located in a Felda, I imagined this old looking school, complete with a croocked look. Me and my silly thoughts. I kept on wondering what it would be to handle those kids.Well, when we discussed about the work that we will be doing, Zarim
suddenly suggested me and her to handle the transportation. Some sort of like the transportation department. Like always me and my 10 cents look, was confused and kept quiet as if nothing happened, although Zarim was still sitting and waiting for my reply. Sorry, Zarim..to keep you waiting that day. Well, of course I agreed to work with her. Who does'nt want to work with Zarim..the most cheerful human being on earth!
So, a week after that, I went to the..what do you call that place?..Jabatan Pengarah Kerja?(if I'm not ,mistaken) I went there to ask for the transportation form. The guy that was on duty that day told me to get the form in my own faculty and submit the form back to them 3 days before the Language Camp. So, I kindly rushed back to the faculty and unfortunately the office has already closed. Why? because it was saturday and its a half day working time. Wait a minute..am I going on too detail? Never mind, as long as I'm still reporting.
In order to submit the transportation form, we (me and Zarim) had to wait for the tentative of the program from Hani. This is because we have to seek the Ketua Jabatan's signiture to proceed our request. it was 4 days before the language Camp to arrive..so as unexpected, me and Zarim were quite worried that we might not get the transportation in time. Zarim told me that Mr. G was worried that we might not succeed. Who knows that he might kill us for not being able to get a bus?
Well, that day..Zarim helped a lot because I had to see my supervisor. Thanks Zarim..thanks for seeking the K.J's signiture. Zarim decided to wait at the Pengarah Kerja around 1.00PM. Haha..I arrived 15 minutes late..wait a minute..I think it's 20 minutes late. I'm so sorry, Zarim (I've already apologized to her that day..). I was late because my supervisor had so many things to remind me, since the due date to submit my proposal is comming closer. All-right, when I arrived, Zarim and I went straight to the transportation department to submit the form. There was only one staff, working. I think it's because it was luch time at that time. When the staff showed us the list of students booking the bus on 2nd february, I felt as if my eyes were going to stick out on the list. Zarim some sort of like plead the staff to find us a bus on 2nd February. Well, everything went fine when they confirmed with us that there will be a bus on 2nd February. That's all for now. I'll be back tommorow to edit in more info. Bye for now!
Alright, lets see..I can still remember the first meeting when Azura suggested to do our language camp in Sek. Keb. Air Manis. When she told me that the school was located in a Felda, I imagined this old looking school, complete with a croocked look. Me and my silly thoughts. I kept on wondering what it would be to handle those kids.Well, when we discussed about the work that we will be doing, Zarim
suddenly suggested me and her to handle the transportation. Some sort of like the transportation department. Like always me and my 10 cents look, was confused and kept quiet as if nothing happened, although Zarim was still sitting and waiting for my reply. Sorry, Zarim..to keep you waiting that day. Well, of course I agreed to work with her. Who does'nt want to work with Zarim..the most cheerful human being on earth!
So, a week after that, I went to the..what do you call that place?..Jabatan Pengarah Kerja?(if I'm not ,mistaken) I went there to ask for the transportation form. The guy that was on duty that day told me to get the form in my own faculty and submit the form back to them 3 days before the Language Camp. So, I kindly rushed back to the faculty and unfortunately the office has already closed. Why? because it was saturday and its a half day working time. Wait a minute..am I going on too detail? Never mind, as long as I'm still reporting.
In order to submit the transportation form, we (me and Zarim) had to wait for the tentative of the program from Hani. This is because we have to seek the Ketua Jabatan's signiture to proceed our request. it was 4 days before the language Camp to arrive..so as unexpected, me and Zarim were quite worried that we might not get the transportation in time. Zarim told me that Mr. G was worried that we might not succeed. Who knows that he might kill us for not being able to get a bus?
Well, that day..Zarim helped a lot because I had to see my supervisor. Thanks Zarim..thanks for seeking the K.J's signiture. Zarim decided to wait at the Pengarah Kerja around 1.00PM. Haha..I arrived 15 minutes late..wait a minute..I think it's 20 minutes late. I'm so sorry, Zarim (I've already apologized to her that day..). I was late because my supervisor had so many things to remind me, since the due date to submit my proposal is comming closer. All-right, when I arrived, Zarim and I went straight to the transportation department to submit the form. There was only one staff, working. I think it's because it was luch time at that time. When the staff showed us the list of students booking the bus on 2nd february, I felt as if my eyes were going to stick out on the list. Zarim some sort of like plead the staff to find us a bus on 2nd February. Well, everything went fine when they confirmed with us that there will be a bus on 2nd February. That's all for now. I'll be back tommorow to edit in more info. Bye for now!
It's me again. Heehehh looks like Puy Yih is back in action..lolol well I will continue about the language games experience too :) on my part. Hmm the treasure hunt was fun. Although I was standing at the check point lol and hiding the envelopes, I had a good time looking at the kids and their facilitators running everywhere. Some of them are so impatient that they just want to rush off to the next check point. But I stood there and said NO you must answer the questions correctly first. They didnt seem to even understand the questions. The facilitators had to help translate to BM in order for it to be comprehensible to them. The treasure hunt was a little messed up, but I still want to say good job to Suhaimi and whoever prepared the treasure hunt. I understand it must not have been easy to plan the whole thing.
Puy Yih feels that the kids like her :) I guess that is true but I think they don't like me. I just don't know how to humour kids and I don't know how to be fierce yet get them to respect me and all that. Not cut out to be teacher material I guess. LOL :) Well but whatever it was, I did have lots of fun at the camp and I am sure my 'cows' did too. Although they emerged last in everything, but I am still proud of them because I have seen their effort and sincerity in trying in the games that we played. I am happy for them and I hope that they learnt something from the camp.
During Okapi though, they didn't really co-operate. They just let the person who saw the picture do the sculpture. They didn't care at all about the instructions I gave them. Duck emerged as the winners and i helped Christina calculate the points along with Puy Yih.
At night, the kids were running everywhere but soon came under control when the teachers started disciplining them :) Hheheh It was so cold at night that I kept having to have to go to the toilet and I had to get Shu Pyng to teman me :) Hhehee. Then in the middle of the night after a long talk, Christina and Puy Yih and Shu Pyng ate cup noodles. I had a cup of milo and munched some of Shu Pyng's noodles. Then all full and contented, we lay our head down to sleep :)
Well relatives are rushing in and I have to go help serve drinks now. That's how the first day of new year always is eh :) Bye!
Puy Yih feels that the kids like her :) I guess that is true but I think they don't like me. I just don't know how to humour kids and I don't know how to be fierce yet get them to respect me and all that. Not cut out to be teacher material I guess. LOL :) Well but whatever it was, I did have lots of fun at the camp and I am sure my 'cows' did too. Although they emerged last in everything, but I am still proud of them because I have seen their effort and sincerity in trying in the games that we played. I am happy for them and I hope that they learnt something from the camp.
During Okapi though, they didn't really co-operate. They just let the person who saw the picture do the sculpture. They didn't care at all about the instructions I gave them. Duck emerged as the winners and i helped Christina calculate the points along with Puy Yih.
At night, the kids were running everywhere but soon came under control when the teachers started disciplining them :) Hheheh It was so cold at night that I kept having to have to go to the toilet and I had to get Shu Pyng to teman me :) Hhehee. Then in the middle of the night after a long talk, Christina and Puy Yih and Shu Pyng ate cup noodles. I had a cup of milo and munched some of Shu Pyng's noodles. Then all full and contented, we lay our head down to sleep :)
Well relatives are rushing in and I have to go help serve drinks now. That's how the first day of new year always is eh :) Bye!
Hi everyone. Okay…to continue about the stay at Air Manis. I was talking about the language problem in my last entry, so I will continue from there.
I help manage the kids in hall. It seemed that every facilitator had a different way of keeping the kids occupied. I had my own way….making them ‘play’ while singing, but of course, I was talking in English and most of them had not the least idea about what I was trying to convey…LOL. The kids liked me, I think, but they had great fun with Christine, Farhana too.
Talking about the kids reminds me of the treasure hunt. I was incharge of one of the checkpoints, and was given a heap of envelopes by Suhaimi, the treasure hunt coordinator. Kids from different groups were dashing past me from time to time, most of whom had no facilitators with them. They were such fast runners! I helped some of them with the questions in the envelopes regardless that they were not my ducks (LOL…like that is such a noble thing to do!). The game was quite fun for the kids (not for the facis who had to run for their lives to keep up with their children.).
When the Okapi game was played in the evening, my ducks emerged as the winners. I helped the game coordinators (Christina and Shu Pyng) calculate the marks given by the judges ( I was one of the judges too!). Counted everything twice to make sure it was accurate. Didn’t want any injustice to occur. I also helped to keep the kids under control when a mishap happened among one of the facilitators and several other facis had to tend to her.
When sleeping time came, I ran up and down the children’s sleeping quarters, trying to get the kids who were hungry to go to the canteen to have their supper, and the ones who were not, prepare for bed. I went to the toilets NUMEROUS times because the kids were afraid of PENUNGGU’s (whatever that was) and insisted that I become their grand toilet chaperone.
Okay, I think I have blown my own trumpet very loudly already for one entry. Forgive me friends, but I think that’s what the gameplan requires us to do rite? Voice our contributions – a task which I find very difficult to keep modest, LOL.
Bye everyone.
I help manage the kids in hall. It seemed that every facilitator had a different way of keeping the kids occupied. I had my own way….making them ‘play’ while singing, but of course, I was talking in English and most of them had not the least idea about what I was trying to convey…LOL. The kids liked me, I think, but they had great fun with Christine, Farhana too.
Talking about the kids reminds me of the treasure hunt. I was incharge of one of the checkpoints, and was given a heap of envelopes by Suhaimi, the treasure hunt coordinator. Kids from different groups were dashing past me from time to time, most of whom had no facilitators with them. They were such fast runners! I helped some of them with the questions in the envelopes regardless that they were not my ducks (LOL…like that is such a noble thing to do!). The game was quite fun for the kids (not for the facis who had to run for their lives to keep up with their children.).
When the Okapi game was played in the evening, my ducks emerged as the winners. I helped the game coordinators (Christina and Shu Pyng) calculate the marks given by the judges ( I was one of the judges too!). Counted everything twice to make sure it was accurate. Didn’t want any injustice to occur. I also helped to keep the kids under control when a mishap happened among one of the facilitators and several other facis had to tend to her.
When sleeping time came, I ran up and down the children’s sleeping quarters, trying to get the kids who were hungry to go to the canteen to have their supper, and the ones who were not, prepare for bed. I went to the toilets NUMEROUS times because the kids were afraid of PENUNGGU’s (whatever that was) and insisted that I become their grand toilet chaperone.
Okay, I think I have blown my own trumpet very loudly already for one entry. Forgive me friends, but I think that’s what the gameplan requires us to do rite? Voice our contributions – a task which I find very difficult to keep modest, LOL.
Bye everyone.
30 JAN 02 - Today there is a meeting for language camp at 8.00p.m.All group members are come because we have to make the materials for the game in language camp. As a members of materials department i have to help them to make the games materials like cutting the manila cards, papers and so on.Before going to the class i followed zarim-one of the language camp member to the Rainbow to buy some materials for the games like polisterine board. Since i'm quite good in art some of my friend ask me to help them drawing the design for their game materials.Besides that our department have to prepare a t-shirt for this language camp. On 31st of January 02 i will going to Mr.G house with 3 others of my friends to print the language camp t-shirt. For today we done our work until 12p.m sharp.For the unfinished work some of them will be continued on the next day at college.
I think i'm the only person who talk about the preparation before the language camp.Heh...heh...I'm just like the person who are still using 'lokomotif' where are the rest of my friends are using bullet-train. Just now Banchee taught me how to enter the gameplan(I Love U Banchee).I'm sorry MR G for the late entry(I will always keep in touch with this web after this-until February,14th).
On the first meeting when Zura suggested about the school in Felda,I was so excited and started imagined the children.I listened with interesting and raised my hand to agree whatever they had discussed (and ignored my friend's talking about something else because my focusing was on the discussion progressed-sorry my dear friend, you have been abandoned)Then, they have decided for the date.Again,I raised my hand to agree.Wow, it was a long time to wait for the day.I imagined the children will enjoy to learn English with this way because the subject focuses on the game.
On the second meeting,when Farhana told me about my task, I was so eager and asked her whether the first aid will be prepared by the school or us.This is because first aid is very important for any program if there happen a tragedy.Although there are only some basic things in the first aid but it will help us little.Then, Farhana told me about another tasks that I have to do.Anyway,thanks to Farhana because she helped us lots(Thiba and me-the security & health committee)before the program.
It's already late now.This is my first entry and I will come back tomorrow to continue the story regarding the language camp.Adios!
On the first meeting when Zura suggested about the school in Felda,I was so excited and started imagined the children.I listened with interesting and raised my hand to agree whatever they had discussed (and ignored my friend's talking about something else because my focusing was on the discussion progressed-sorry my dear friend, you have been abandoned)Then, they have decided for the date.Again,I raised my hand to agree.Wow, it was a long time to wait for the day.I imagined the children will enjoy to learn English with this way because the subject focuses on the game.
On the second meeting,when Farhana told me about my task, I was so eager and asked her whether the first aid will be prepared by the school or us.This is because first aid is very important for any program if there happen a tragedy.Although there are only some basic things in the first aid but it will help us little.Then, Farhana told me about another tasks that I have to do.Anyway,thanks to Farhana because she helped us lots(Thiba and me-the security & health committee)before the program.
It's already late now.This is my first entry and I will come back tomorrow to continue the story regarding the language camp.Adios!
HI everyone it's me again with a big tummy after a sumptious reunion lunch with my family. Since my sister has to go to in-laws tonight. Well anyway tomorrow is Chinese New Year so Gong Xi Fa Cai to everyone :) I guess I will talk a lil about my language camp experience heheh. Wow we had to wake up really early that morning about 6.00am. I went for a bath and my teeth were chattering from the cold. Heheheh then waited for Christina to come. She brought her bumble bee with her!! I quickly asked Dave to get my small pillow from upstairs. I am thankful for that pillow. Since we didn't have pillows to sleep on. Puy Yih brought her blanket which is really a great move because since the four of us slept in the hall we were shivering from the cold. I woke up in the early morning and had to turn of the fan. And even after that it was cold. That was the first night for us. Freezing sleep after heart-to-heart talks. This camp not only made me realise certain things about certain people, but it helped me to be more patient towards the students. They do not have a high command of English and when I see them struggling to understand. I do not get frustrated. Instead, I wish to help them to understand and to make things easier for them. Even if frustration arises, it soon fades away, because I know my duty there. And my duty is to facilitate them. Not to make those 2 days a living hell for them. Christine, Christina and Puy Yih were really good at keeping the kids busy with singing songs. As for me, Banchee, Fyla and me went out in the scorching sun to hang up the banner..LOL it was sort of funny because the rafia string kept snapping so many times and we had to tie it over and over again. :P Then after that I wandered into the hall, and tried to help Mak E T with the back drop since we used to do that in secondary school. So I helped a lil. But I soon saw that I not really needed since everyone piled in to help. So I went to Christina and the others and try to help with the singing. I guess I am really terrible with kids. Well anyway lunch time and dinner time came eventually :) The food was not so bad compared to the jungle police camp I went to in secondary school were we had rations :) Of course it was no luxury as what we could have bought ourselves. But life is never a smooth pavement eh? :) Take the good with the bad.Besides, for me, it's just more experience to be gained :) I guess that's all about the language camp from me now. I will be back again tomorrow. As usual :) Now...I have to help my mom prepare steamboat and I have to help decorate the house too :P Take Care and see ya
Sunday, February 10, 2002
hie i would like to wish all my chinese friends a very happy new year and a great holiday to my other friends. i have just safely reached kota bharu this morning.
a brief summary of the past weeks happennings. i went to k 16 for the grand meeting to complete some of the games. everyone was busy cuttingand sticking was done . i help here and there withe the papers. then up to see farah in her room, she was busy wraping the hamper. but the hamper was to heavy it decided to topple down. i told farah to get a bigger sturdy box to fit all those goodies. anyway i tired helping but we ran out of tape and plastic wrappers. so there goes the poor hamper all alone not being wrapped. then christina and i went to the photcoppier to get some document photocopied but had to come back again to get it since there was a big crowd there. after that we went back to the group meeting but nothing much could be done since we didn't have any decorative material to prepare the games. an hour later i went to collect the photocopy and me and christina left for home.
a brief summary of the past weeks happennings. i went to k 16 for the grand meeting to complete some of the games. everyone was busy cuttingand sticking was done . i help here and there withe the papers. then up to see farah in her room, she was busy wraping the hamper. but the hamper was to heavy it decided to topple down. i told farah to get a bigger sturdy box to fit all those goodies. anyway i tired helping but we ran out of tape and plastic wrappers. so there goes the poor hamper all alone not being wrapped. then christina and i went to the photcoppier to get some document photocopied but had to come back again to get it since there was a big crowd there. after that we went back to the group meeting but nothing much could be done since we didn't have any decorative material to prepare the games. an hour later i went to collect the photocopy and me and christina left for home.
today i'm going to forward my personal view on the lg. camp. first of all i'd like to address the notion of lg. camp itself. well i think lg. camp means more than just having games. it should be covering almost everything about the language. there should be a lot of input as well as a lot of output. the purpose of a language camp should seek to help expose students to studying english and of more importance prepare them for english exams. well our camp at air manis might conform to some of these objectives but considering the nature of the students, games alone may not be of help to them. it maybe my biased view on this but i doubt that the students did learn anything from the games conducted. we managed to instill some team work spirit in them and provide them with a little survival skill besides confidence, but what about learning english? it could hav been the time constraint that made it impossible to have more thorough activities or cmprehensive camp but i just wanna say that we need more input in the future (games might be more to output). what we can do is to organize a real language camp where teaching takes place just as much as playing games related to language.
regarding this whole camp, it was a good experience. though, i would like to suggest to mr. g that he raises the marks for this. i think 20% is just far too little mark for the workload that we endured. from my experience involving in activities alike, this lg. camp has achieved the status of university program. it went beyond what the course requirement expects. considering how everybody worked toward making this camp a success, mr. g ought to consider awarding extra marks for this camp. anyway, you mentioned that this camp is better than the previous one didn't you? so why not make some acknowledgement about it! thanx.
regarding this whole camp, it was a good experience. though, i would like to suggest to mr. g that he raises the marks for this. i think 20% is just far too little mark for the workload that we endured. from my experience involving in activities alike, this lg. camp has achieved the status of university program. it went beyond what the course requirement expects. considering how everybody worked toward making this camp a success, mr. g ought to consider awarding extra marks for this camp. anyway, you mentioned that this camp is better than the previous one didn't you? so why not make some acknowledgement about it! thanx.
Well like I said, I am back.. and I have lots and lots to say, but i can only do it in one entry.. so I am gonna spilt it up a lil. So I will leave the language camp experience to the next time. I will talk about what happened before the camp, which was the meetings. This is gonna be a lil out of date..but what the heck..i do have a few more entries to go! Oh well..We had a meeting after class and Farhana told us about what was the tentative program and all that. We also decided the next meeting for making the materials. On Wednesday at 8.pm. I arrived at 8.15pm since my 'driver' was late :P But when i reached there was less than 7 people there. No one was doing anything so i just sat down and listen to my linkin park.. and YES MR G I KNOW WHO BARRY MANILOW IS :P hahahhaah and i listen to soft stuff as well :P Well all the people arrived shortly and then we started to get down to business.. Boy there were lots to be done. we put the paper in the files, made the paper for the grouping, and then we made the alphabets for the scavenger game. We also arranged the pamphlets and stapled them. Then after that, Mr G came and then the 'hamper' people came. Christina and I had nothing to do by then, so we wanted to help with the hamper but we were not allowed to. It seemed they wanted to do it themselves. So we sat there. Soon the 'hamper people' came back and we offered our help. So after that, Christina and I got down to wrapping the hampers. I had to go by then. It was about 11pm and I had to go because my friend was waiting for me already. You see, when there was nothing to do and we were not allowed to touch the hampers then i thought our job was done. So i called my 'driver'. I told him 10.30pm but I stayed till 11pm to finish helping with the hampers. I am sorry i didnt stay longer. So anyway, I was told that i was supposed to go and print t-shirts with Mak Iti the next day at 8am. So I was alright with that. But later that night she messaged me and said that it was cancelled. Then later Christina told me there is a meeting at 2PM at K16. And I was alright with that. But later, Banchee called me and told me not to go. She said Mr G only asked for 2 people for the printing of the clothes. And i was like..ummm.... what should I do. Banchee asked me to stay at home and do my thesis. So that's what i did..since she is my 'boss' so i stayed at home and did my thesis. Went to see my supervisor and saw Mr G along the way too. Then on Thursday.. or is it Friday, one coursemate came to give me my tag and t-shirt. It was different from the others, but a few were the same. Actually Banchee asked me to design the t-shirt with photoshop and I did. But it seemed that it has too much colour or too complicated or something..LOL although I think the one I have now is more complicated.. but anyway all is well and I think everyone did a good job with the t-shirts. Well, some didn't even have a camp t-shirt for that matter.Oh well, anyway, I am glad my name was spelled correctly because Puy Yih was Puh Yih and Shamila was Sharmila. Hmm dont know about the rest though. But they had to make do with it since Banchee said ' tak apa lah asal kan boleh baca ' or something like that. Hmmm 4 years together and names get spelled wrongly.. :) Well i guess accidents happen eh. In my next entry I'll talk about the camp. So chiao for now.. :)
Saturday, February 09, 2002
Hi everyone
I am back in Ipoh....chinese new year is like a day away and i have NO BAJU RAYA!!! I have two more entries to put in here but this is just to wish all my chinese friends a HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR, all my non chinese friends a HAPPY HOLIDAY & COME VISIT ME IN IPOH! Thats all people! =) Bye!
I am back in Ipoh....chinese new year is like a day away and i have NO BAJU RAYA!!! I have two more entries to put in here but this is just to wish all my chinese friends a HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR, all my non chinese friends a HAPPY HOLIDAY & COME VISIT ME IN IPOH! Thats all people! =) Bye!
Hi everyone
I am back in Ipoh....chinese new year is like a day away and i have NO BAJU RAYA!!! I have two more entries to put in here but this is just to wish all my chinese friends a HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR, all my non chinese friends a HAPPY HOLIDAY & COME VISIT ME IN IPOH! Thats all people! =) Bye!
I am back in Ipoh....chinese new year is like a day away and i have NO BAJU RAYA!!! I have two more entries to put in here but this is just to wish all my chinese friends a HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR, all my non chinese friends a HAPPY HOLIDAY & COME VISIT ME IN IPOH! Thats all people! =) Bye!
report on the second day of language camp (3/2/2002)
the second day was much tiring than the first day. and one more thing, the facilitators proved to be less enthusiastic than the students themselves, where the kids woke up as early as 4.30 am. us? we were sleeping like log till around 7. well, that's my case anyway. but let's move to the activity.
as usual, the students were gathered in groups. we were doing a task where each group come up with their own song, and ours were an individualized version of 'jingle bells'. anyway, after the singing session, we all went for breakfast. then we moved to another game, where we did it at the class again, the same one like yesterday. after that one more major activity was done, and it was the drama. we were given time to practice the lines we've gotten yesterday. the next activity included the presentation of the dramas, and this were judged by three teachers. now we move on to preparing for the closing ceremony while they calculate the marks. during the event, prizes were given to winners in groups or individually. the day ended fast where the students were rushing to get back. we only managed to divide the prizes and say a quick goodbye to our group members. then we got ready to go back and pack our things. the bus came and we took our last glance at the school.
the second day was much tiring than the first day. and one more thing, the facilitators proved to be less enthusiastic than the students themselves, where the kids woke up as early as 4.30 am. us? we were sleeping like log till around 7. well, that's my case anyway. but let's move to the activity.
as usual, the students were gathered in groups. we were doing a task where each group come up with their own song, and ours were an individualized version of 'jingle bells'. anyway, after the singing session, we all went for breakfast. then we moved to another game, where we did it at the class again, the same one like yesterday. after that one more major activity was done, and it was the drama. we were given time to practice the lines we've gotten yesterday. the next activity included the presentation of the dramas, and this were judged by three teachers. now we move on to preparing for the closing ceremony while they calculate the marks. during the event, prizes were given to winners in groups or individually. the day ended fast where the students were rushing to get back. we only managed to divide the prizes and say a quick goodbye to our group members. then we got ready to go back and pack our things. the bus came and we took our last glance at the school.
on the 30th of january, we met for final preparation for the lg. camp. we worked on all the materials together n' prepared all necessary stuffs for the students. we looked for any shortcomings in all the games to be implemented during the game. kak harison n' i worked on our game n' we decided to change the word stem whereby 3 new much simpler words were chosen for the game. we were also asked to prepare the answer scheme- there were 10 mahjong papers al together prepared for all the groups involved in the game. everything went smoothly that nite n' everybody was busy working on own materials. toward the end, some of us rehearsed some of songs to be taught to the students. the working session ended at about midnight.
LITERATURE REVIEW – LEARNING THEORIES BEHIND ‘ALIEN JUMBLE’
Different learners have unique characteristics that require different methods of teaching. The process of imparting knowledge to a learner is just as important as the content of the knowledge itself. Games in the classroom were adopted by many language instructors in order to infuse the elements of fun, motivation, and comprehensive content. According to Larsen- Freeman (1986), communicative activities include games, role- plays and problem- solving tasks. These activities offer challenges to learners' ability to negotiate meaning using the target language given the input as well as challenge their spontaneity of the cognitive process.
Collaboration is a philosophy of interaction and personal lifestyle whereas cooperation is a structure of interaction designed to facilitate the accomplishment of an end product or goal (Panizt, T., 1996). In the classroom, group work assigned to students is a form of collaboration as students have to ‘join forces’ to produce an end product. Learning requires social interaction and collaboration. (Brown, J.S., Collins, A. & Duguid, S., 1989). Individual group members would have different abilities and skills. Students would naturally contribute and cooperate by using their unique abilities respectively. In ‘Alien Jumble’, the game that was introduced in class, a great deal of Collaborative Learning could be seen. Students had to work together to form a word, by using the jumbled- up letters provided. As the four players could not see their own letters, they were dependent on each other’s cues and responses, in order to guess the word correctly. A collaboration of skills was not only present among the four players of the game, but the other members of the game as well, as they could shout out the directions to help the players. The team members of a group was working with each other, not against each other, like how it would have been if activities were planned for individual students.
Next to that, the different talent in every member of a team is brought out in a Collaborative Learning session. Students tend to put their heads together, when they can see an end product that they are trying to achieve, in this context, either incentives such as prizes, or just the intrinsic motivation to have victory over the other teams. Theories in Multiple Intelligence theories state that there is a single intelligence in every individual that they are born with, and this intelligence cannot be changed. However, it can be nurtured, strengthened, ignored or weakened (Gardner, H., 1983). ‘Alien Jumble’ is a game that requires two groups of students. Therefore, students in a class are usually divided into two equal groups. With over ten students in each group, a large variety of talents, as claimed by the multiple intelligence theory, will be present. This game caters for students with visual/spatial intelligence because they are required to arrange the letters hung on the necks of the players to form a four- letter- word (organizing things spatially). Besides that, students with bodily/kinesthetic intelligence will benefit as well. The game involves much physical movement and creates a ‘hands- on’ experience for students. Students have to move around to play the game. Other than that, students with verbal/linguistic intelligence will definitely contribute tremendously when playing the game. Shouting out the correct direction to help their teammates form the words allow students to produce utterances that will function as good practice/ exposure to the language. The clues given for each word will help students with this intelligence put their talents to good use. Understanding the clues given will help them solve the jumbled –up letters faster. Learning will definitely be enhanced among students who combine their different abilities and function as one. Learning is facilitated when the student participates completely in the learning process and has control over its nature and direction (Rogers, 1969). Students’ motivation will be increased when they successfully unscarmble the jumbled words.
Experiential learning can be described as learning that arises out of reflection on experience, leading to purposive action in order to test out the 'hypotheses' that arise out of this reflection (Jaques, D., G. Gibbs, and C. Rust, 1993). The idea of exploring and discovering becomes the stem of experiential learning. In the game, students had to explore each other’s words, and then make their own guesses on what the word could be. They receive cues from other team members and send out signals to each other through body language (as the four players are not allowed to talk). All team members had a chance to experience it. Students are learning by doing in this game, in a sense that they are learning the words by trying to build the words, and later by using it in context when they form a sentence using the word they just built. Learning from context helps students make connections between new information and what they already know. (Miller, G.A., Galanter, E., & Pribram, K.H., 1960)
All in all, games in the classroom like ‘Alien Jumble’ should adopt ideas from the different theories of learning mentioned in this paper.
Gardner, H. (1993a). Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice. NY: Basic Books.
Jaques, D., G. Gibbs, and C. Rust, Designing and Evaluating Courses. (1993), New South Wales: Educational Methods Unit, Oxford Brooke University.
Larsen- Freeman, D. (1986). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching
England: Oxford University Press.
Rogers, C.R. (1969). Freedom to Learn. Columbus, OH: Merrill.
Miller, G.A., Galanter, E., & Pribram, K.H. (1960). Plans and the Structure of Behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Brown, J.S., Collins, A. & Duguid, S. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32-42.
Different learners have unique characteristics that require different methods of teaching. The process of imparting knowledge to a learner is just as important as the content of the knowledge itself. Games in the classroom were adopted by many language instructors in order to infuse the elements of fun, motivation, and comprehensive content. According to Larsen- Freeman (1986), communicative activities include games, role- plays and problem- solving tasks. These activities offer challenges to learners' ability to negotiate meaning using the target language given the input as well as challenge their spontaneity of the cognitive process.
Collaboration is a philosophy of interaction and personal lifestyle whereas cooperation is a structure of interaction designed to facilitate the accomplishment of an end product or goal (Panizt, T., 1996). In the classroom, group work assigned to students is a form of collaboration as students have to ‘join forces’ to produce an end product. Learning requires social interaction and collaboration. (Brown, J.S., Collins, A. & Duguid, S., 1989). Individual group members would have different abilities and skills. Students would naturally contribute and cooperate by using their unique abilities respectively. In ‘Alien Jumble’, the game that was introduced in class, a great deal of Collaborative Learning could be seen. Students had to work together to form a word, by using the jumbled- up letters provided. As the four players could not see their own letters, they were dependent on each other’s cues and responses, in order to guess the word correctly. A collaboration of skills was not only present among the four players of the game, but the other members of the game as well, as they could shout out the directions to help the players. The team members of a group was working with each other, not against each other, like how it would have been if activities were planned for individual students.
Next to that, the different talent in every member of a team is brought out in a Collaborative Learning session. Students tend to put their heads together, when they can see an end product that they are trying to achieve, in this context, either incentives such as prizes, or just the intrinsic motivation to have victory over the other teams. Theories in Multiple Intelligence theories state that there is a single intelligence in every individual that they are born with, and this intelligence cannot be changed. However, it can be nurtured, strengthened, ignored or weakened (Gardner, H., 1983). ‘Alien Jumble’ is a game that requires two groups of students. Therefore, students in a class are usually divided into two equal groups. With over ten students in each group, a large variety of talents, as claimed by the multiple intelligence theory, will be present. This game caters for students with visual/spatial intelligence because they are required to arrange the letters hung on the necks of the players to form a four- letter- word (organizing things spatially). Besides that, students with bodily/kinesthetic intelligence will benefit as well. The game involves much physical movement and creates a ‘hands- on’ experience for students. Students have to move around to play the game. Other than that, students with verbal/linguistic intelligence will definitely contribute tremendously when playing the game. Shouting out the correct direction to help their teammates form the words allow students to produce utterances that will function as good practice/ exposure to the language. The clues given for each word will help students with this intelligence put their talents to good use. Understanding the clues given will help them solve the jumbled –up letters faster. Learning will definitely be enhanced among students who combine their different abilities and function as one. Learning is facilitated when the student participates completely in the learning process and has control over its nature and direction (Rogers, 1969). Students’ motivation will be increased when they successfully unscarmble the jumbled words.
Experiential learning can be described as learning that arises out of reflection on experience, leading to purposive action in order to test out the 'hypotheses' that arise out of this reflection (Jaques, D., G. Gibbs, and C. Rust, 1993). The idea of exploring and discovering becomes the stem of experiential learning. In the game, students had to explore each other’s words, and then make their own guesses on what the word could be. They receive cues from other team members and send out signals to each other through body language (as the four players are not allowed to talk). All team members had a chance to experience it. Students are learning by doing in this game, in a sense that they are learning the words by trying to build the words, and later by using it in context when they form a sentence using the word they just built. Learning from context helps students make connections between new information and what they already know. (Miller, G.A., Galanter, E., & Pribram, K.H., 1960)
All in all, games in the classroom like ‘Alien Jumble’ should adopt ideas from the different theories of learning mentioned in this paper.
Gardner, H. (1993a). Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice. NY: Basic Books.
Jaques, D., G. Gibbs, and C. Rust, Designing and Evaluating Courses. (1993), New South Wales: Educational Methods Unit, Oxford Brooke University.
Larsen- Freeman, D. (1986). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching
England: Oxford University Press.
Rogers, C.R. (1969). Freedom to Learn. Columbus, OH: Merrill.
Miller, G.A., Galanter, E., & Pribram, K.H. (1960). Plans and the Structure of Behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Brown, J.S., Collins, A. & Duguid, S. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32-42.
The first day of Language Camp in S.K.A.M (02/02/2002)
I shall start my report from the time we took of from the campus FAB car park. Truthfully speaking, we were late from the scheduled time when the bus finally made a move towards our destination. The trip was tolerable, with not much problem, and for myself I spend it with sleeping. When we arrived there the students were already moving about, filling the place. I was earlier assigned to manage the registration and take the attendance of the pupils with three other facilitators, while checking if there are any missing ones from the checklist. There were about 106 students who had joined the camp that weekend.
The next activity included the opening ceremony and the icebreaking activity a.k.a ‘getting to know you’. We had a short refreshment break. During the dividing of group members, I as the representative of my group went to collect the materials and instructions for the coming two games. When I finally went back to my group, ten students were selected for our ‘snake’ group. Next activity was drawing the poster for our group and selecting a motto. We proceeded with the two games in a nearby class. I explained the games to the two other facilitators of my group, Norlia and Mangala. All of us three took turns to handle the lesson/game. Then we had a break for lunch. The coming activity includes two other games, and this time Mangala went to take the instructions and materials. I as gamemaster assistant under the programme coordinators went to the briefing for the treasure hunt. I was to stand guard at one checkpoint and distribute the envelopes containing clues. I then went to join the class. Again, we three took turn to handle the games. Then we had another short break a.k.a teatime. After the break the treasure hunt was to begin. When the students and facilitators were given briefing on the activity, I went to my checkpoint and spread out the clues. I stand guard while the groups went in and out of my checkpoint looking for clues. Unfortunately, the activity was flawed, were some groups run without their facilitator, and some rascals took other group’s clue, accidentally or purposely. Anyway, the game ended with us getting a long break for cleaning ourselves and getting some rest. We had dinner later, and continued with another game, which proved to be the interesting one of all. We ended the day with a short briefing before retiring to bed. Although some students couldn’t help but get themselves into trouble and running around, making excuses of going to the loo. For the facilitators, for me particularly, I went to sleep a bit later.
I shall start my report from the time we took of from the campus FAB car park. Truthfully speaking, we were late from the scheduled time when the bus finally made a move towards our destination. The trip was tolerable, with not much problem, and for myself I spend it with sleeping. When we arrived there the students were already moving about, filling the place. I was earlier assigned to manage the registration and take the attendance of the pupils with three other facilitators, while checking if there are any missing ones from the checklist. There were about 106 students who had joined the camp that weekend.
The next activity included the opening ceremony and the icebreaking activity a.k.a ‘getting to know you’. We had a short refreshment break. During the dividing of group members, I as the representative of my group went to collect the materials and instructions for the coming two games. When I finally went back to my group, ten students were selected for our ‘snake’ group. Next activity was drawing the poster for our group and selecting a motto. We proceeded with the two games in a nearby class. I explained the games to the two other facilitators of my group, Norlia and Mangala. All of us three took turns to handle the lesson/game. Then we had a break for lunch. The coming activity includes two other games, and this time Mangala went to take the instructions and materials. I as gamemaster assistant under the programme coordinators went to the briefing for the treasure hunt. I was to stand guard at one checkpoint and distribute the envelopes containing clues. I then went to join the class. Again, we three took turn to handle the games. Then we had another short break a.k.a teatime. After the break the treasure hunt was to begin. When the students and facilitators were given briefing on the activity, I went to my checkpoint and spread out the clues. I stand guard while the groups went in and out of my checkpoint looking for clues. Unfortunately, the activity was flawed, were some groups run without their facilitator, and some rascals took other group’s clue, accidentally or purposely. Anyway, the game ended with us getting a long break for cleaning ourselves and getting some rest. We had dinner later, and continued with another game, which proved to be the interesting one of all. We ended the day with a short briefing before retiring to bed. Although some students couldn’t help but get themselves into trouble and running around, making excuses of going to the loo. For the facilitators, for me particularly, I went to sleep a bit later.
Literature Review: V-Web Game (Word Stem)
Learning through experience is, perhaps, the most ideal learning process that guarantees much success in comparison with other learning processes. As Margot and David (cited in David et al. 1985) put it, “The old adage of ‘experience is the best teacher’ still holds true to some extent”. David et al. (1985) further suggests that drawing upon learner’s prior experience and engaging learners actively throughout the learning process are inherent to achieving desired learning goals.
But two questions are worth noting. What is it that actually turns experience into learning? How learners apply their prior experiences in new contexts? Perhaps Duley (1981) provides the best answer to the aforementioned questions when he mentions the process of reflection as the vital element in learning. He points out that reflection is the most essential experiential learning skill that is often overlooked. Reflection is what it takes to turn most of our prior experiences into learning besides assigning meaning to the new learning contexts.
According to Grundy (1982), the notion of reflection in learning can be traced to Aristotle’s discussions of practical judgment and moral in his books ‘Ethics’. She asserts that Aristotle himself explicated the process of practical judgment within the framework of reflective thinking process. Aristotle believed that only by reflecting on all the experiences that one comes to a conclusion of his judgment. Aristotle’s concept of reflective thinking gains support from modern-time thinkers particularly John Dewey. Dewey (1933) argues that reflective activity involves the perception of relationships and
connections between the parts of an experience. He further asserts that it is this activity that enables effective problem solving to take place hence improve learning.
Through the V-Web game, learners are actually made to bring in all their previous experiences with words. As they are required to derive as many different words as possible from the word stem, learners are tested on their ability to utilize their concrete experience (knowledge of words learnt earlier) in accomplishing a new task. In the course of utilizing these previous experiences (knowledge), learners are likely to extensively deal with reflecting upon their recent learning. This conforms to the Kolb et al. (1971) learning cycle, which emphasizes on the use of observations and reflections to conceptualize or generalize new experiences encountered.
The fact that this game requires learners to derive as many words as possible just adds to the game promoting for strong collaborative skill. Working in pairs is indeed an evidence of the game incorporating some elements cooperative learning. The competition for deriving the most words makes the pairs constantly working closely together to ensure the attainment of personal and group’s success.
Deutsch (1949) and Thomas (1957) both argue that working in groups to accomplish group’s goal leads to learners expressing norms in favor of doing whatever necessary for group’s success. This holds true with regard to the V-Web game where each pair is motivated toward achieving success by working on as many derivational words as they could from the word stem. Learners will even take turns to jot down the words while the others work hard thinking for all the possible words. In fact, learners will also work tolerantly with their peer’s ideas (in this case learners will pick the words that scores the most marks and that do not violate the rule of the games) so as to ensure an
accomplishment. This could help weaker learners feel that their classmates appreciate them and want them to learn and contribute to the team (Slavin, 1983b). Besides, Wadsworth (1984) stresses that as learners interact to decide on what constitutes the best, cognitive conflicts will arise, inadequate reasoning will be exposed, and higher-quality understanding will emerge.
On the whole, this literature review forwards two major learning approaches- experiential and cooperative learning. In regard to the former, this game involves every individual learner to actively experience working on the words. In so doing, each individual learner has to activate their schemata of previous learnt words to derive as many words as possible from the given word stem. Reflection, then, plays the vital role in helping learners to accomplish their task. As far as the latter approach is concerned, this game groups learners into pairs. This, then, reflects the game’s motive to subscribe to the cooperative learning principles whereby learners are to exchange their experiences and work on deriving the most words for their team. It is while working on the best suitable words that this game tries to make learners acquire the essence of learning cooperatively in the classroom.
REFERENCES
David, B. et al. (1985). Reflection: Turning Experience Into Learning. New York:
Nichols Publishing Company.
Margot, P. and David S. (1982). Debriefing in Experience-based Learning. In David, B.
et al. Reflection: Turning Experience Into Learning. New York: Nichols
Publishing Company.
Deutsch, M. (1949). A theory of cooperation and competition, Human Relations, 2, pg.
129-152.
Dewey, J. (1933). How We Think. Boston: D C Heath.
Duley, J. S. (1981). Field experience education. In Chickering, A W (ed) The Modern
American College. San Francisco: Jossey-Boss.
Grundy, S. (1982). Three Methods of Action Research, Curriculum Perspectives, 2, 3, pg.
23-34.
Kolb, , D. A. et al. (1971). Organizational Psychology: An Experiential Approach. New
Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Slavin, R. E. (1983b). When does cooperative learning increase students achievement?,
Psychological Bulletin, 94, pg. 429-445.
Thomas, E. J. (1957). Effects of facilitative role independence on group functioning,
Human Relations, 10, pg. 347-366.
Wadsworth, B. J. (1984). Piaget’s theory of cognitive and affective development (3rd ed.).
New York: Longman.
Learning through experience is, perhaps, the most ideal learning process that guarantees much success in comparison with other learning processes. As Margot and David (cited in David et al. 1985) put it, “The old adage of ‘experience is the best teacher’ still holds true to some extent”. David et al. (1985) further suggests that drawing upon learner’s prior experience and engaging learners actively throughout the learning process are inherent to achieving desired learning goals.
But two questions are worth noting. What is it that actually turns experience into learning? How learners apply their prior experiences in new contexts? Perhaps Duley (1981) provides the best answer to the aforementioned questions when he mentions the process of reflection as the vital element in learning. He points out that reflection is the most essential experiential learning skill that is often overlooked. Reflection is what it takes to turn most of our prior experiences into learning besides assigning meaning to the new learning contexts.
According to Grundy (1982), the notion of reflection in learning can be traced to Aristotle’s discussions of practical judgment and moral in his books ‘Ethics’. She asserts that Aristotle himself explicated the process of practical judgment within the framework of reflective thinking process. Aristotle believed that only by reflecting on all the experiences that one comes to a conclusion of his judgment. Aristotle’s concept of reflective thinking gains support from modern-time thinkers particularly John Dewey. Dewey (1933) argues that reflective activity involves the perception of relationships and
connections between the parts of an experience. He further asserts that it is this activity that enables effective problem solving to take place hence improve learning.
Through the V-Web game, learners are actually made to bring in all their previous experiences with words. As they are required to derive as many different words as possible from the word stem, learners are tested on their ability to utilize their concrete experience (knowledge of words learnt earlier) in accomplishing a new task. In the course of utilizing these previous experiences (knowledge), learners are likely to extensively deal with reflecting upon their recent learning. This conforms to the Kolb et al. (1971) learning cycle, which emphasizes on the use of observations and reflections to conceptualize or generalize new experiences encountered.
The fact that this game requires learners to derive as many words as possible just adds to the game promoting for strong collaborative skill. Working in pairs is indeed an evidence of the game incorporating some elements cooperative learning. The competition for deriving the most words makes the pairs constantly working closely together to ensure the attainment of personal and group’s success.
Deutsch (1949) and Thomas (1957) both argue that working in groups to accomplish group’s goal leads to learners expressing norms in favor of doing whatever necessary for group’s success. This holds true with regard to the V-Web game where each pair is motivated toward achieving success by working on as many derivational words as they could from the word stem. Learners will even take turns to jot down the words while the others work hard thinking for all the possible words. In fact, learners will also work tolerantly with their peer’s ideas (in this case learners will pick the words that scores the most marks and that do not violate the rule of the games) so as to ensure an
accomplishment. This could help weaker learners feel that their classmates appreciate them and want them to learn and contribute to the team (Slavin, 1983b). Besides, Wadsworth (1984) stresses that as learners interact to decide on what constitutes the best, cognitive conflicts will arise, inadequate reasoning will be exposed, and higher-quality understanding will emerge.
On the whole, this literature review forwards two major learning approaches- experiential and cooperative learning. In regard to the former, this game involves every individual learner to actively experience working on the words. In so doing, each individual learner has to activate their schemata of previous learnt words to derive as many words as possible from the given word stem. Reflection, then, plays the vital role in helping learners to accomplish their task. As far as the latter approach is concerned, this game groups learners into pairs. This, then, reflects the game’s motive to subscribe to the cooperative learning principles whereby learners are to exchange their experiences and work on deriving the most words for their team. It is while working on the best suitable words that this game tries to make learners acquire the essence of learning cooperatively in the classroom.
REFERENCES
David, B. et al. (1985). Reflection: Turning Experience Into Learning. New York:
Nichols Publishing Company.
Margot, P. and David S. (1982). Debriefing in Experience-based Learning. In David, B.
et al. Reflection: Turning Experience Into Learning. New York: Nichols
Publishing Company.
Deutsch, M. (1949). A theory of cooperation and competition, Human Relations, 2, pg.
129-152.
Dewey, J. (1933). How We Think. Boston: D C Heath.
Duley, J. S. (1981). Field experience education. In Chickering, A W (ed) The Modern
American College. San Francisco: Jossey-Boss.
Grundy, S. (1982). Three Methods of Action Research, Curriculum Perspectives, 2, 3, pg.
23-34.
Kolb, , D. A. et al. (1971). Organizational Psychology: An Experiential Approach. New
Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Slavin, R. E. (1983b). When does cooperative learning increase students achievement?,
Psychological Bulletin, 94, pg. 429-445.
Thomas, E. J. (1957). Effects of facilitative role independence on group functioning,
Human Relations, 10, pg. 347-366.
Wadsworth, B. J. (1984). Piaget’s theory of cognitive and affective development (3rd ed.).
New York: Longman.
Friday, February 08, 2002
On the 3rd of January we had our first meeting to decide on the committee members and the allocation of the different tasks to be undertaken by them.The most important of the day's agenda was to decide where and when the language camp should be held.Quite a number of us thought it would be convenient if we have it in one of the schools nearby.But, when it comes to voting, majority of us present wanted a school in the suburbs so as to gain more experience and adventure as some of them said.Well we all agreed on the venue, a near village school in Air Manis.Next we discussed the proposals and other sub committees like those incharge for transport.One of the PROs switched to the transport committee leaving only three PROS.Then we decided on the less important things like the T-shirt and so forth..(1/25/2002 9:30:09 AM) I have posted this to language game report instead of GAMEPLAN.I am transferring this to the right destination.
On the 10th of January, we had a short meeting or rather a briefing session by the director on the outcome of their first visit to the school, Sekolah Kebangsaan Air Manis.The school has agreed to have us conduct the language camp there.The only thing that has not been settled was the budget for food for the 100 participants.We were also requested to meet Ecik Asram to get back our proposal and the materials which they have agreed to provide us.We were also asked to hand over the L1 and L2 as requested. On the 7th of January had a short meeting wth the director, Farhana at the foyer (PSZ).This was actually a discussion on matters concerning the proposal for the language camp.We went through the objectives and some of the details to be enclosed in the proposal.We did some adjustments with the objectives, the number of students to be involved in the camp and a few minor details.The proposal would be forwarded to the Head of Dept., Faculty of Education ( Dr. Hafiz bin Omar) and the Deputy Registrar Officer,En Asram.The PROs would be entrusted with this duty.(1/27/2002 2:30:09) I have posted this to language game report instead of GAMEPLAN.I am transferring this to the right destination.
On January 18th, at 8.15 am had a short meeting with Encik Asram together with the PROs, Pui Yih and Christina.We handed over the documents requested earlier and asked about the materials.We were told that the materials would have to take some time before they can be released.This was because the faculty do not have ready stock of the materials.We were asked to come and get it on the 28th of January.
(1/26/2002 2:39:09 AM) I have posted this to language game report instead of GAMEPLAN.I am transferring this to the right destination.
(1/26/2002 2:39:09 AM) I have posted this to language game report instead of GAMEPLAN.I am transferring this to the right destination.
It's almost a week after our Language camp, held at Sekolah Kebangsaan Air Manis.Personally, I think it was successful and most of us, kind of enjoyed ourselves there.Of course it very tedious and we all felt very exhausted. All I can say is that everybody gave their fullest co-operation and support despite of the 'bad' timing.I hope both the participants and facilitators have gained some valuable experience as well as knowledge where learning L2 is concerned.Any way this 'camp' could be our last get together since some of us would have to leave at the end of the semester. For those who will be going out into the world to teach, your experience at the language camp might help.
(2/8/2002 7:15:44 AM) I have posted this to language game report instead of GAMEPLAN.I am transferring this to the right destination.
(2/8/2002 7:15:44 AM) I have posted this to language game report instead of GAMEPLAN.I am transferring this to the right destination.
Farhana Bt Mohd Hanapiah Language Games
801128-03-5238 SHE 4932
AP 980432 En. Ghazali Bunari
4 SPL Literature Review of Game 1
How did my Game 1 might have enhanced language learning of my students? Most probably this question would not refer to me and my game alone, in fact many language teachers who venture to implement language games in the classroom may asked this question too. The game that I have implemented is known as ‘Word Scavenger’, a game that hunts for words, words and words. The hunting for words activity was based on certain theme or topic that basically drilled on the vocabulary. The set of words were introduced in the lesson plan, and ‘Word Scavenger’ could only be implemented after the topics had been covered. It’s like recalling the previous input and putting it into an exciting game. The topics chosen revolved around simple topics stated in the KBSR syllabus specification. The topics chosen were animal, fruits and vegetables and transport. It is appropriate for standard 4, 5 and 6 level, because they were introduced to these sets of lexical item that increase their list of vocabulary. The game activated the students’ brain to search for words started with the particular letter but confined to a particular theme.
First of all, ‘Word Scavenger’ instilled the quality of group work. As the students were divided into groups, they would need to work the game in-group. It means that if the group unites well, then the group members would not have many problems in achieving the game’s goal (also the learning goal at that time). Many researchers have proved the advantages of learning in-group work. Group work trains the students to work together as a team, cooperatively helping each other. It has been outlined in the notion of collaborative learning that instructional use of small group promotes active learning and students’ self-reliance in learning (Foote, 1997).
Collaborative learning is a learning strategy whereby learners grouped themselves into smaller units to go through the learning process together (http://www.clrc.com) . It is a student-centred approach where the teacher acts as facilitator or guidance, instead of having full authority on students (http://www.clrc.com). What I’ve mentioned here, occurred during the implementation of my game.
There are five basic principles in collaborative learning, which are positive interdependence, group processing, individual accountability, face-to-face promotive interaction and social skills (Knight & Bohlmeyer, without year). How did ‘Word Scavenger’ manage to full fill these essential components of collaborative learning? Positive interdependence emphasizes on the principe of sink and swim together, where students know that they have to go through the learning together. They could not leave anyone to drown, whatever they do; it must be the responsibility of the whole group. There are two main categories in positive interdependence, output interdependence and means interdependence that will identify the learners assumption of what they want to achieve at the end of an activity and the ways to get what they want (Knight & Bohlmeyer, without year). In short, positive interdependence means the positive dependence of each group member where it lifts up motivation and individual productivity, which somehow would contribute to group success in general (Knight & Bohlmeyer, without year). Words Scavenger had this positive interdependence because each member in a group knew that, they need to work together (depend positively on each other) in order to come out with the longest word list started with announced letters. Everybody had the same goal (i.e. hunting for words) and all of them worked on by cracking their head to think of the words. Realizing that each of them, individually contributed in one’s own way in making the group to the top, they would double up their effort, again to come out with the words.
The second component, face-to-face promotive interaction stresses that teacher must ensure the students to interact, encourage and praise each other during the group work. It will lead to interpersonal dynamic and cognitive activity (Knight & Bohlmeyer, without year). After the teacher announcing the letter, the students with the role of word shooters would run to the word scribbler and automatically there is interaction between them in order to come out with the words, and positive encouragement of praising would definitely occurred when one of their team mate came with word that they could not think of.
‘Words Scavenger’ also built individual accountability on the students, where they were not only responsible toward teacher but also toward the other group members. Moreover, they were assigned with roles that they must be responsible for the task. For example, Word Scribbler would need to be to play his or her role as the one to write all the words that the others groups members said. He or she must not missed any given words cause it if it so it would mean she or he was taking the chance of the group to win the game. So she or he would need to listen carefully and write the words quickly and correctly in the term of spelling. It was the same for the Word Shooters and Words Hunters; they must be accountable for their roles.
The last element that could also be found during the implementation of ‘Words Scavenger’ was social skills. Even though, the students were not able to talk much because they were all busy thinking of the words but they learnt to give and take, negotiating on certain words on which they were not sure whether about the spelling or the acceptability of the words. More or less, there was some interaction in which the students socialize and using their social skills.
‘Words Scavenger’ obviously tried to meet the interest of the students with linguistic intelligence. Linguistic intelligence according to Gardner, is the ability of children to demonstrate strength in the language arts, be it in writing, speaking, reading and listening (http://www.nea.org/neatoday/9903/gardner.html). The class activity cannot cater for all the different types of intelligence that each student posses, but at least, ‘Words Scavenger’ attempted to answer the need of the students with linguistic intelligence where they would involve in vocabulary building (when hunting for words) and spelling (in assuring they got the right words). ‘Words Scavengers’ was able to furnish this linguistic intelligence especially under the vocabulary component.
‘Words Scavenger’ also concerns the personality of the students. According to previous study, there is a relationship between student’s personality and second language acquisition (Ellis, 1985). This personal factors can be grouped into three headings but only group dynamics and individual learning would be mentioned in the case of ‘Words Scavengers’. According to McDonough (cited in Ellis, 1985: 101) that group dynamics as an important set of personal variables. Asking the students to work in group during the game had enabled to promote stimulus for learning. At the same time ‘Words Scavenger’ had borrowed the factor of individual learning technique especially in learning the vocabulary of second language. As Naiman (1978) and Pickett (1978) reported that some of the learners in their studies employed the technique of (cited in Ellis, 1985: 104);
“practicing vocabulary whether by putting words into different structures in order to drill oneself, reading to reinforce vocabulary, playing games such as trying to think of words with the same ending and repeating words to oneself”
‘Words Scavenger’ met this individual learning style to learn vocabulary through game that required the students to think of words that start of with the announced letters under a particular theme.
Learning vocabulary through game manages to reduce the threat of learning from the students. It would encourage the learners to learn in the most relax environment and reducing the feeling of insecurity on the students. Krashen includes this value in one of his hypotheses. According to Krashen’s affective filter hypothesis, learners with low affective filter would be more ready to receive input. Affect refers to motives, needs, attitudes and emotional states (Lightbown and Spada, 1993: 28). The game would surely provides a conducive environment for learning since learners are not feeling anxious or tense but they rather enjoying themselves playing the game of vocabulary. When the affective filter is low, the students would be more receptive to the input. Furthermore the classroom became less formal and the focus of the lesson seemed to be on the game and not a particular language structure which would appear more serious or formal. Without realizing that they were actually learning vocabulary instead of just participating in the game, the students were put in low affective filter where they gained self-confidence and motivation to join the activity.
Moreover, Krashen emphasizes that ‘acquired knowledge’ results to better learning through his acquisition-learning hypothesis. He refers acquisition as subconscious process; while learning as conscious process that mostly happen in formal language classroom. He adds that ‘learnt knowledge’ cannot be turn into ‘acquired knowledge’ (Lightbown & Spada, 1993). In ‘Word Scavengers’, learners subconsciously learn the vocabulary through games, which in Krashen’s acquisition-learning hypothesis is more preferable.
References.
1. Ellis, R. 1985. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2. http://www.clcrc.com
3. http://www.nea.org/neatoday/9903/gardner.html
4. Foote, E. 1997. Collaborative Learning in Community Colleges. ERIC Digest.
5. Knight, G. P. & Bohlmeyer, E.M. Without Year. Cooperative Learning and
Achievement: Methods for Assessing Casual Mechanisms. Without the place of publishing: Without the Publisher.
6. Lightbown, P. M. and Spada, N. 1993. How Languages are Learned? Oxford: Oxford University Press.
801128-03-5238 SHE 4932
AP 980432 En. Ghazali Bunari
4 SPL Literature Review of Game 1
How did my Game 1 might have enhanced language learning of my students? Most probably this question would not refer to me and my game alone, in fact many language teachers who venture to implement language games in the classroom may asked this question too. The game that I have implemented is known as ‘Word Scavenger’, a game that hunts for words, words and words. The hunting for words activity was based on certain theme or topic that basically drilled on the vocabulary. The set of words were introduced in the lesson plan, and ‘Word Scavenger’ could only be implemented after the topics had been covered. It’s like recalling the previous input and putting it into an exciting game. The topics chosen revolved around simple topics stated in the KBSR syllabus specification. The topics chosen were animal, fruits and vegetables and transport. It is appropriate for standard 4, 5 and 6 level, because they were introduced to these sets of lexical item that increase their list of vocabulary. The game activated the students’ brain to search for words started with the particular letter but confined to a particular theme.
First of all, ‘Word Scavenger’ instilled the quality of group work. As the students were divided into groups, they would need to work the game in-group. It means that if the group unites well, then the group members would not have many problems in achieving the game’s goal (also the learning goal at that time). Many researchers have proved the advantages of learning in-group work. Group work trains the students to work together as a team, cooperatively helping each other. It has been outlined in the notion of collaborative learning that instructional use of small group promotes active learning and students’ self-reliance in learning (Foote, 1997).
Collaborative learning is a learning strategy whereby learners grouped themselves into smaller units to go through the learning process together (http://www.clrc.com) . It is a student-centred approach where the teacher acts as facilitator or guidance, instead of having full authority on students (http://www.clrc.com). What I’ve mentioned here, occurred during the implementation of my game.
There are five basic principles in collaborative learning, which are positive interdependence, group processing, individual accountability, face-to-face promotive interaction and social skills (Knight & Bohlmeyer, without year). How did ‘Word Scavenger’ manage to full fill these essential components of collaborative learning? Positive interdependence emphasizes on the principe of sink and swim together, where students know that they have to go through the learning together. They could not leave anyone to drown, whatever they do; it must be the responsibility of the whole group. There are two main categories in positive interdependence, output interdependence and means interdependence that will identify the learners assumption of what they want to achieve at the end of an activity and the ways to get what they want (Knight & Bohlmeyer, without year). In short, positive interdependence means the positive dependence of each group member where it lifts up motivation and individual productivity, which somehow would contribute to group success in general (Knight & Bohlmeyer, without year). Words Scavenger had this positive interdependence because each member in a group knew that, they need to work together (depend positively on each other) in order to come out with the longest word list started with announced letters. Everybody had the same goal (i.e. hunting for words) and all of them worked on by cracking their head to think of the words. Realizing that each of them, individually contributed in one’s own way in making the group to the top, they would double up their effort, again to come out with the words.
The second component, face-to-face promotive interaction stresses that teacher must ensure the students to interact, encourage and praise each other during the group work. It will lead to interpersonal dynamic and cognitive activity (Knight & Bohlmeyer, without year). After the teacher announcing the letter, the students with the role of word shooters would run to the word scribbler and automatically there is interaction between them in order to come out with the words, and positive encouragement of praising would definitely occurred when one of their team mate came with word that they could not think of.
‘Words Scavenger’ also built individual accountability on the students, where they were not only responsible toward teacher but also toward the other group members. Moreover, they were assigned with roles that they must be responsible for the task. For example, Word Scribbler would need to be to play his or her role as the one to write all the words that the others groups members said. He or she must not missed any given words cause it if it so it would mean she or he was taking the chance of the group to win the game. So she or he would need to listen carefully and write the words quickly and correctly in the term of spelling. It was the same for the Word Shooters and Words Hunters; they must be accountable for their roles.
The last element that could also be found during the implementation of ‘Words Scavenger’ was social skills. Even though, the students were not able to talk much because they were all busy thinking of the words but they learnt to give and take, negotiating on certain words on which they were not sure whether about the spelling or the acceptability of the words. More or less, there was some interaction in which the students socialize and using their social skills.
‘Words Scavenger’ obviously tried to meet the interest of the students with linguistic intelligence. Linguistic intelligence according to Gardner, is the ability of children to demonstrate strength in the language arts, be it in writing, speaking, reading and listening (http://www.nea.org/neatoday/9903/gardner.html). The class activity cannot cater for all the different types of intelligence that each student posses, but at least, ‘Words Scavenger’ attempted to answer the need of the students with linguistic intelligence where they would involve in vocabulary building (when hunting for words) and spelling (in assuring they got the right words). ‘Words Scavengers’ was able to furnish this linguistic intelligence especially under the vocabulary component.
‘Words Scavenger’ also concerns the personality of the students. According to previous study, there is a relationship between student’s personality and second language acquisition (Ellis, 1985). This personal factors can be grouped into three headings but only group dynamics and individual learning would be mentioned in the case of ‘Words Scavengers’. According to McDonough (cited in Ellis, 1985: 101) that group dynamics as an important set of personal variables. Asking the students to work in group during the game had enabled to promote stimulus for learning. At the same time ‘Words Scavenger’ had borrowed the factor of individual learning technique especially in learning the vocabulary of second language. As Naiman (1978) and Pickett (1978) reported that some of the learners in their studies employed the technique of (cited in Ellis, 1985: 104);
“practicing vocabulary whether by putting words into different structures in order to drill oneself, reading to reinforce vocabulary, playing games such as trying to think of words with the same ending and repeating words to oneself”
‘Words Scavenger’ met this individual learning style to learn vocabulary through game that required the students to think of words that start of with the announced letters under a particular theme.
Learning vocabulary through game manages to reduce the threat of learning from the students. It would encourage the learners to learn in the most relax environment and reducing the feeling of insecurity on the students. Krashen includes this value in one of his hypotheses. According to Krashen’s affective filter hypothesis, learners with low affective filter would be more ready to receive input. Affect refers to motives, needs, attitudes and emotional states (Lightbown and Spada, 1993: 28). The game would surely provides a conducive environment for learning since learners are not feeling anxious or tense but they rather enjoying themselves playing the game of vocabulary. When the affective filter is low, the students would be more receptive to the input. Furthermore the classroom became less formal and the focus of the lesson seemed to be on the game and not a particular language structure which would appear more serious or formal. Without realizing that they were actually learning vocabulary instead of just participating in the game, the students were put in low affective filter where they gained self-confidence and motivation to join the activity.
Moreover, Krashen emphasizes that ‘acquired knowledge’ results to better learning through his acquisition-learning hypothesis. He refers acquisition as subconscious process; while learning as conscious process that mostly happen in formal language classroom. He adds that ‘learnt knowledge’ cannot be turn into ‘acquired knowledge’ (Lightbown & Spada, 1993). In ‘Word Scavengers’, learners subconsciously learn the vocabulary through games, which in Krashen’s acquisition-learning hypothesis is more preferable.
References.
1. Ellis, R. 1985. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2. http://www.clcrc.com
3. http://www.nea.org/neatoday/9903/gardner.html
4. Foote, E. 1997. Collaborative Learning in Community Colleges. ERIC Digest.
5. Knight, G. P. & Bohlmeyer, E.M. Without Year. Cooperative Learning and
Achievement: Methods for Assessing Casual Mechanisms. Without the place of publishing: Without the Publisher.
6. Lightbown, P. M. and Spada, N. 1993. How Languages are Learned? Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ISSUES
PHOTOS
I added more photos. Click HERE to look at them. I like watching the smile on your faces.
DRESS TO TEACH
I told your director to remind you that you should dress like a teacher. She interpreted it as "jeans are not allowed". I should have been more specific. For me, decent clothing means "body hugging tees are not allowed" and jeans are okay. Be conservative and rely on your personality to attract attention and not your flesh. Well, people have different standard of decency. You might wear a mini skirt and tell me, "my mom never make noise about this skimpy dress". Next time, I will provide pictures so that everybody understands what I mean by dress like a teacher.
HOMEPRINTED T-SHIRT
We decided earlier that we'll wear a black t-shirt printed with "Language Camp". (I heard you. You said it was not us who decided. It was you). Some of you refused to follow the decision. I don't think it's fair to me to punish you since the significance of wearing that homeprinted black t-shirts to pedagogy was not that great. Nevertheless, I decided to reward those who wore the t-shirt. You displayed your sense of belonging and strong team spirit despite the substandard quality of print. (We were saving RM8-10 for each t-shirt we printed on our own). 2 marks to you. Marks awarded to you were taken from Participation Mark Scheme.
BEING A TEACHER
Have you watched this ad, "Mentor, advisor, friend, facilitator, innovator, coach......... I am all these and more. I am a teacher." It was shown on TCS 5. Some of us didn't fit this bill. We ate before the kids ate their meals. We left the kids unattended. We scolded the kids for not knowing and for being naive. We didn't care about the cleanliness of the classrooms and the school surroundings, we ignored rushing water from the unturned tap, and a lot more other examples. But not all of us were like that. I will also reward those who showed me the true meaning of being a teacher and readiness to sacrifice their needs just to make sure the kids were happy. You taught by examples. I wish I had that talent. 2 marks to you and the others get 1 mark. Why 1 mark not zero? You guys were okay. You did display that you care a little bit.
I want to correct Farhana who wrote in the gustbook that I was not satisfied with the camp. I AM SATISFIED with your performance. It is just that I am not good at giving praises. I hope that you guys can introduce Language Camp in your future schools.
Thursday, February 07, 2002
just wanna talk about the last meeting we had before the language camp on January 24th. we were told that we had to support the students' meals. That would mean each of us would hav to chip in more that we expected or rather we should. everyone was against the idea of paying more. so we decided to redo the budget. this time the school were made responsible to only take care of their students' meals while we took care of our own meals. we also agreed that we were not going to have homestay as we could not manage to arrange it with all the possible foster parents. so we had to sleep in school. da..what an experience though!
LITERATURE REVIEW
Collaborative learning is the process whereby each member contributes personal experience, information, perspective, insight, skills and attitudes with the intent of improving the learning accomplishments of others. Collaborative learning occurs when small groups of learners help each other learn. In many situations group learning tends to be used in an informal, unstructured, and loosely monitored way. Collaborative learning requires that each member of the group contribute to the group performance, it does not mean that each member of the group can attach their name to an assignment completed by individual members of the group. (Slavin, 1989)
For collaborative learning to be effective, the instructor must view teaching as a process of developing and enhancing students' ability to learn. The instructor's role is not to transmit information, but to serve as a facilitator for learning. This involves creating and managing meaningful learning experiences and stimulating students' thinking through real world problems.
My game had, in many ways incorporated the collaborative learning whereby students were put into small groups. They were asked to describe a picture clearly and come out with a sculpture similar to the picture given. Every member in the group played an important role to produce an end product, which was an animal sculpture. Some were in charged of describing the picture as clearly as possible while the rest had to visualise the picture described and molded the plastercine into a perfect sculpture. I only acted as a facilitator and allowed enough space for the students to work on their own. Marks given were based on the group performance as a whole.
According to Johnson and Johnson (1986), there is persuasive evidence that cooperative teams achieve at higher levels of thought and retain information longer than students who work quietly as individuals. The shared learning gives students an opportunity to engage in discussion, take responsibility for their own learning, and thus become critical thinkers (Totten, Sills, Digby, & Russ, 1991). Critical-thinking items involve analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of the concepts. The game that I had implemented required students to be critical thinkers when they had to analyse the picture. One wrong move, the sculpture would be distorted too.
Howard Gardner claims that all human beings have multiple intelligences. These multiple intelligences can be nurtured and strengthened, or ignored and weakened. We can improve education by addressing the multiple intelligences of our students. These intelligences are located in different areas of the brain and can either work independently or together. Through my game, students had the chance to develop Visual-Spatial Intelligence which is the capacity to think in images and pictures, to visualize accurately and abstractly. Students had hands-on experience when they had to design the plastercines. Studies show that many students who perform poorly on traditional tests are turned on to learning when classroom experiences incorporate artistic, athletic, and musical activities.
Experiencial learning is a type of learning in which students are doing something - not just thinking about something. The experiential learning cycle integrates 1) concrete experiences, 2) reflective observations about the experiences, 3) generalizations about experiences and observations (abstract conceptualizations), and 4) active experimentations with the abstract concepts (Claxton 1987). The same goes with my game. The game required students to “do something” and made use of their experiences or background knowledge. They had to come out with suitable vocabulary in describing the picture precisely.
REFERENCES
1. Anuradha A. Gokhale. (1995). Journal of Technology Education. Vol 7, no 1.
2. Claxton, C. and P. Murrell. (1987). Learning Styles: Implications for Improving Educational Practices. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report No. 4. Washington, D.C.: The George Washington University, Graduate School of Education.
3. Gardner, H. (1993a). Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice. NY: Basic Books.
4. Johnson, R. T., & Johnson, D. W. (1986). Action research: Cooperative learning in the science classroom. Science and Children, 24, 31-32.
5. Slavin, R. E. (1989). Research on cooperative learning: An international perspective. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 33(4), 231-243.
6. Totten, S., Sills, T., Digby, A., & Russ, P. (1991). Cooperative learning: A guide to research. New York: Garland.
Collaborative learning is the process whereby each member contributes personal experience, information, perspective, insight, skills and attitudes with the intent of improving the learning accomplishments of others. Collaborative learning occurs when small groups of learners help each other learn. In many situations group learning tends to be used in an informal, unstructured, and loosely monitored way. Collaborative learning requires that each member of the group contribute to the group performance, it does not mean that each member of the group can attach their name to an assignment completed by individual members of the group. (Slavin, 1989)
For collaborative learning to be effective, the instructor must view teaching as a process of developing and enhancing students' ability to learn. The instructor's role is not to transmit information, but to serve as a facilitator for learning. This involves creating and managing meaningful learning experiences and stimulating students' thinking through real world problems.
My game had, in many ways incorporated the collaborative learning whereby students were put into small groups. They were asked to describe a picture clearly and come out with a sculpture similar to the picture given. Every member in the group played an important role to produce an end product, which was an animal sculpture. Some were in charged of describing the picture as clearly as possible while the rest had to visualise the picture described and molded the plastercine into a perfect sculpture. I only acted as a facilitator and allowed enough space for the students to work on their own. Marks given were based on the group performance as a whole.
According to Johnson and Johnson (1986), there is persuasive evidence that cooperative teams achieve at higher levels of thought and retain information longer than students who work quietly as individuals. The shared learning gives students an opportunity to engage in discussion, take responsibility for their own learning, and thus become critical thinkers (Totten, Sills, Digby, & Russ, 1991). Critical-thinking items involve analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of the concepts. The game that I had implemented required students to be critical thinkers when they had to analyse the picture. One wrong move, the sculpture would be distorted too.
Howard Gardner claims that all human beings have multiple intelligences. These multiple intelligences can be nurtured and strengthened, or ignored and weakened. We can improve education by addressing the multiple intelligences of our students. These intelligences are located in different areas of the brain and can either work independently or together. Through my game, students had the chance to develop Visual-Spatial Intelligence which is the capacity to think in images and pictures, to visualize accurately and abstractly. Students had hands-on experience when they had to design the plastercines. Studies show that many students who perform poorly on traditional tests are turned on to learning when classroom experiences incorporate artistic, athletic, and musical activities.
Experiencial learning is a type of learning in which students are doing something - not just thinking about something. The experiential learning cycle integrates 1) concrete experiences, 2) reflective observations about the experiences, 3) generalizations about experiences and observations (abstract conceptualizations), and 4) active experimentations with the abstract concepts (Claxton 1987). The same goes with my game. The game required students to “do something” and made use of their experiences or background knowledge. They had to come out with suitable vocabulary in describing the picture precisely.
REFERENCES
1. Anuradha A. Gokhale. (1995). Journal of Technology Education. Vol 7, no 1.
2. Claxton, C. and P. Murrell. (1987). Learning Styles: Implications for Improving Educational Practices. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report No. 4. Washington, D.C.: The George Washington University, Graduate School of Education.
3. Gardner, H. (1993a). Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice. NY: Basic Books.
4. Johnson, R. T., & Johnson, D. W. (1986). Action research: Cooperative learning in the science classroom. Science and Children, 24, 31-32.
5. Slavin, R. E. (1989). Research on cooperative learning: An international perspective. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 33(4), 231-243.
6. Totten, S., Sills, T., Digby, A., & Russ, P. (1991). Cooperative learning: A guide to research. New York: Garland.
Wednesday, February 06, 2002
Hi everyone,
The camp turned out to be more fun than I thought. And I even brought back souvenir from the camp; a swollen voice box. I tried to cure myself with panadols, honey and coconut. I must have my voice coz thesis presentation is on Wednesday. :”(
I flopped onto my bed as soon as I reached home and fainted for a few hours. I even miss the hall where I slept with a few other facilitators at night. In the beginning, all 3 fans were switched on, then when morning approached, none of the fans was on. LOL. we nearly froze to death. I only had my bumble bee to hug. The rest had sweaters and blanket. Actually, the place which the school teachers prepared for us was very cozy and comfortable. But when I saw big red giant ants attacked my boiler, pants, bee and toes, I changed my mind.
Then, the first activity was the registration. As kristy, syarifah and kak Harrison were the ones in charge only at the registration table, I did not want to disturb them. So, I went to the hall but there were already too many people decorating the board. Hmmm……in the end I went to monitor the students’ line and guided them to move 2 by 2 to write their names and take files.
Upon seeing the students were becoming more and more noisy, I asked Farhana if we should teach them to sing first. Hehehehe….so I started the singing session and later christine and puy yih took over coz I didn’t want to sing with the mic. Don’t want to scare the students with my voice and most of all, don’t want the sky to rain.
Errr…I think I’ll just cut out some parts of the events…like when I go changed baju and etc. okay, later we all were put into groups with the kids. Me, wati and maziana were mother froggies taking care of 10 baby froggies. The mention of it makes me miss them. I hate myself for shouting at them but it was inevitable at times. There are friends who said I was garang. J I don’t mind though. I find it hilarious coz I think the only asset I have is my thunderous voice. Therefore, I did not want to waste it. But the consequence I was mahal; painful throat. Then, marsha and I thought of the method that Miss shanti has taught us in class. The raising up your hands and keep quiet, method. I tried that in the canteen but the kids were still talking even when their hands were up. LOL
After that, we had to implement the games separately but simultaneously. Our teaching class was at the Kemahiran Hidup room. How nice! I did not have one in my former school. Well, the toilets in my former school were also very dirty! We asked the kids for their names again and then elected 2 leaders. The leaders were supposed to take care of their own group members. Like when we had to gather at some particular place, the leaders had to make sure everyone was there or when in the hall, they have to make sure the rest didn’t make noise.
Frankly, we had no big problems with the kids. They were all very obedient towards the end of the camp. LOL. But there was one boy who can be considered the “monkey” of the class. He’s more active and mischevious but I think, later was tamed down by us. He turned out to be the most quiet one and I also noticed the rest of the boys didn’t mix with him. I asked him what was wrong but he replied he’s okay. I think the most effective games were Win, Lose or Draw, and Great Minds Don’t Think Alike (excuse me if I get the name wrong). For the win, lose or draw, I think it was the time when the kids had to push themselves to the extent until they can remember the correct words. They tried very hard to guess the correct similes. The problem was they knew the Malay version of the correct words but found it so hard to translate them to English. Then, the challenge was even greater after the mother froggies told them that the loser group will kena “conteng” on the face by the group that won. The last ten minutes, the mother froggies joined in the fun and were the ones who drew and the kids guessed. It was so much fun, seeing the kids cracked their heads to think and at one moment, the “monkey boy” gave up and talked in gibberish. All of us burst out laughing. ROTFLOL…
The kids were able to show off individual talent when they played Great minds don’t think alike. As this was the last game which replaced Pyramid game, they knew they had to compete with each other to get the most stars. There was a tie, and we gave them another alphabet P. One of them wrote “Perancis” for country. LOL But all in all, they all did very well as they could come out with many different words for every category which surprised us.
The BINGO game, was the most funny game. I think we were too ambitious to think that it could be played as well as we played in class. First of all, the kids had no idea what was past tense and when they called out the words, they even pronounced the –ed. So it became “yell-led”, “comb-bed”, “scrub-bed”. And so that was how we named the “monkey boy”, “yell-led” as most of the altered words came from him. And for the Word-stem game, they had difficulty understanding how the game went. The froggies joined the “smart” cows for this game.J The results were not very encouraging, they could derive irrelevant words like “basket” or “chiken” from the word “chicken”.
My game, Okapi was the last game they played that night. I have a few comments but it think I shall save it for post-mortem later. So, that night, the facilitators were overjoyed that takda post-mortem and we could retire early. One disadvantage of sleeping in the hall was we could listen to every people who walked down the stairs or walked past the hall and gave us a shocking knock on the door. And I really wonder if the kids got any sleep…they slept around midnight and woke up very early. Even before the facilitators.
We had light exercise in the morning, led by puy yih, norlie and marsha. We wanted to play Simon Says but due to time contraint, we scraped the plan as we had to create a song for our own group. I felt disappointed that my froggies did so well during rehearsals but when the real time came, they made mistakes. This includes drama. The froggies worked so hard…”yell-led” made the cat’s tail with full enthuciasm and the rest encouraged one another to do their best. I was so touched and surprised by the way they shown their maturity at times. Some were willing to switch roles because the other person could not manage his or her own lines. They reminded each other not to repeat the same mistakes done in rehearsal when in stage. But in the end also, they didn’t do well coz they didn’t make use of the mic. Half wanted the mic and half were against it. Nvm, they got the consolation prize but “yell-led” asked “kenapa kecik aje”. I replied sadly “nvm, u all have done ur best and there will be other chances”.
We bid farewell to them later in the afternoon. I left with a heavy heart. Okay, lessons learnt…do not push ur students, pour out more patience and understanding, simplify tough lessons and do not lokek praises. I think it is really a powerful tool to boost the kids’ self-esteem. After all, they are only kids and I kept forgetting about that. Thank you and sorry if my report is too long. I just couldn’t stop writing and it reminds me of the sweet memories I had in the camp. It made me forget about thesis for 2 days. :D
The camp turned out to be more fun than I thought. And I even brought back souvenir from the camp; a swollen voice box. I tried to cure myself with panadols, honey and coconut. I must have my voice coz thesis presentation is on Wednesday. :”(
I flopped onto my bed as soon as I reached home and fainted for a few hours. I even miss the hall where I slept with a few other facilitators at night. In the beginning, all 3 fans were switched on, then when morning approached, none of the fans was on. LOL. we nearly froze to death. I only had my bumble bee to hug. The rest had sweaters and blanket. Actually, the place which the school teachers prepared for us was very cozy and comfortable. But when I saw big red giant ants attacked my boiler, pants, bee and toes, I changed my mind.
Then, the first activity was the registration. As kristy, syarifah and kak Harrison were the ones in charge only at the registration table, I did not want to disturb them. So, I went to the hall but there were already too many people decorating the board. Hmmm……in the end I went to monitor the students’ line and guided them to move 2 by 2 to write their names and take files.
Upon seeing the students were becoming more and more noisy, I asked Farhana if we should teach them to sing first. Hehehehe….so I started the singing session and later christine and puy yih took over coz I didn’t want to sing with the mic. Don’t want to scare the students with my voice and most of all, don’t want the sky to rain.
Errr…I think I’ll just cut out some parts of the events…like when I go changed baju and etc. okay, later we all were put into groups with the kids. Me, wati and maziana were mother froggies taking care of 10 baby froggies. The mention of it makes me miss them. I hate myself for shouting at them but it was inevitable at times. There are friends who said I was garang. J I don’t mind though. I find it hilarious coz I think the only asset I have is my thunderous voice. Therefore, I did not want to waste it. But the consequence I was mahal; painful throat. Then, marsha and I thought of the method that Miss shanti has taught us in class. The raising up your hands and keep quiet, method. I tried that in the canteen but the kids were still talking even when their hands were up. LOL
After that, we had to implement the games separately but simultaneously. Our teaching class was at the Kemahiran Hidup room. How nice! I did not have one in my former school. Well, the toilets in my former school were also very dirty! We asked the kids for their names again and then elected 2 leaders. The leaders were supposed to take care of their own group members. Like when we had to gather at some particular place, the leaders had to make sure everyone was there or when in the hall, they have to make sure the rest didn’t make noise.
Frankly, we had no big problems with the kids. They were all very obedient towards the end of the camp. LOL. But there was one boy who can be considered the “monkey” of the class. He’s more active and mischevious but I think, later was tamed down by us. He turned out to be the most quiet one and I also noticed the rest of the boys didn’t mix with him. I asked him what was wrong but he replied he’s okay. I think the most effective games were Win, Lose or Draw, and Great Minds Don’t Think Alike (excuse me if I get the name wrong). For the win, lose or draw, I think it was the time when the kids had to push themselves to the extent until they can remember the correct words. They tried very hard to guess the correct similes. The problem was they knew the Malay version of the correct words but found it so hard to translate them to English. Then, the challenge was even greater after the mother froggies told them that the loser group will kena “conteng” on the face by the group that won. The last ten minutes, the mother froggies joined in the fun and were the ones who drew and the kids guessed. It was so much fun, seeing the kids cracked their heads to think and at one moment, the “monkey boy” gave up and talked in gibberish. All of us burst out laughing. ROTFLOL…
The kids were able to show off individual talent when they played Great minds don’t think alike. As this was the last game which replaced Pyramid game, they knew they had to compete with each other to get the most stars. There was a tie, and we gave them another alphabet P. One of them wrote “Perancis” for country. LOL But all in all, they all did very well as they could come out with many different words for every category which surprised us.
The BINGO game, was the most funny game. I think we were too ambitious to think that it could be played as well as we played in class. First of all, the kids had no idea what was past tense and when they called out the words, they even pronounced the –ed. So it became “yell-led”, “comb-bed”, “scrub-bed”. And so that was how we named the “monkey boy”, “yell-led” as most of the altered words came from him. And for the Word-stem game, they had difficulty understanding how the game went. The froggies joined the “smart” cows for this game.J The results were not very encouraging, they could derive irrelevant words like “basket” or “chiken” from the word “chicken”.
My game, Okapi was the last game they played that night. I have a few comments but it think I shall save it for post-mortem later. So, that night, the facilitators were overjoyed that takda post-mortem and we could retire early. One disadvantage of sleeping in the hall was we could listen to every people who walked down the stairs or walked past the hall and gave us a shocking knock on the door. And I really wonder if the kids got any sleep…they slept around midnight and woke up very early. Even before the facilitators.
We had light exercise in the morning, led by puy yih, norlie and marsha. We wanted to play Simon Says but due to time contraint, we scraped the plan as we had to create a song for our own group. I felt disappointed that my froggies did so well during rehearsals but when the real time came, they made mistakes. This includes drama. The froggies worked so hard…”yell-led” made the cat’s tail with full enthuciasm and the rest encouraged one another to do their best. I was so touched and surprised by the way they shown their maturity at times. Some were willing to switch roles because the other person could not manage his or her own lines. They reminded each other not to repeat the same mistakes done in rehearsal when in stage. But in the end also, they didn’t do well coz they didn’t make use of the mic. Half wanted the mic and half were against it. Nvm, they got the consolation prize but “yell-led” asked “kenapa kecik aje”. I replied sadly “nvm, u all have done ur best and there will be other chances”.
We bid farewell to them later in the afternoon. I left with a heavy heart. Okay, lessons learnt…do not push ur students, pour out more patience and understanding, simplify tough lessons and do not lokek praises. I think it is really a powerful tool to boost the kids’ self-esteem. After all, they are only kids and I kept forgetting about that. Thank you and sorry if my report is too long. I just couldn’t stop writing and it reminds me of the sweet memories I had in the camp. It made me forget about thesis for 2 days. :D
Your Are What You Write
I really have a good time reading your weblogs (Diaryland and Blogger). I feel like I know each one of you as a person although I don't spend time talking to you. It's interesting that you pour your hearts on your weblog just to take negative stuffs out of your system. Some of you mixed the languages and codeswitched like nobody's business. I have no problem with that, as long as you have finished the requirements of the task. Nevertheless, please consider this. I read Suhaimi's PSM. He wrote, a good writer writes for an audience (Suhaimi, 2001 ;-)). Who is your audience? I know that almost all of you read each other's entries. I know for a fact that an English teacher from Kedah is keenly monitoring your activities through your weblogs. Ev, the person responsible for Blogger, might also read your entries. To tell you the truth, you have the power to reach people all over the world. Those who have access to the Internet can read your entries. With power comes responsibility. Power without control is nothing. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. (I can on and on). Bear in mind, I will not eavaluate you based on your moral value. That's not in my marking scheme. I'll just evaluate you based on whether you have completed the task or not. As for the ethic of the contents of your entries, I will let your audience judge you on that. Nature will take its course.
If you have been following the entries in Gameplan and its guestbook, you might have known that there is a conflict going on. In the beginning, I didn't want to be involved but both parties had mentioned my names several time. (Speak of the devil.. :-)) I have to state my stand here. FYI, I smiled looking at the entries made both parties. Arguments and rebuttals were hurled at each other. (Farizal, you might want to study this.) Then, they started to gather supporters. I kept smiling. Controversy sells media, and in our case, Gameplan has started to gain popularity because of this controversy. Let me quote a message sent to me from Kedah, "suka cikgu baca ragam murid dan guru" I sort of agree with her. To both warring factions, you can entertain us further by continuing your amusing debate or you start kiss and hug each other. It's your choice. My philosophy is simple. You can quote me, "In everything, there's a lesson. Learn it."
I really have a good time reading your weblogs (Diaryland and Blogger). I feel like I know each one of you as a person although I don't spend time talking to you. It's interesting that you pour your hearts on your weblog just to take negative stuffs out of your system. Some of you mixed the languages and codeswitched like nobody's business. I have no problem with that, as long as you have finished the requirements of the task. Nevertheless, please consider this. I read Suhaimi's PSM. He wrote, a good writer writes for an audience (Suhaimi, 2001 ;-)). Who is your audience? I know that almost all of you read each other's entries. I know for a fact that an English teacher from Kedah is keenly monitoring your activities through your weblogs. Ev, the person responsible for Blogger, might also read your entries. To tell you the truth, you have the power to reach people all over the world. Those who have access to the Internet can read your entries. With power comes responsibility. Power without control is nothing. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. (I can on and on). Bear in mind, I will not eavaluate you based on your moral value. That's not in my marking scheme. I'll just evaluate you based on whether you have completed the task or not. As for the ethic of the contents of your entries, I will let your audience judge you on that. Nature will take its course.
If you have been following the entries in Gameplan and its guestbook, you might have known that there is a conflict going on. In the beginning, I didn't want to be involved but both parties had mentioned my names several time. (Speak of the devil.. :-)) I have to state my stand here. FYI, I smiled looking at the entries made both parties. Arguments and rebuttals were hurled at each other. (Farizal, you might want to study this.) Then, they started to gather supporters. I kept smiling. Controversy sells media, and in our case, Gameplan has started to gain popularity because of this controversy. Let me quote a message sent to me from Kedah, "suka cikgu baca ragam murid dan guru" I sort of agree with her. To both warring factions, you can entertain us further by continuing your amusing debate or you start kiss and hug each other. It's your choice. My philosophy is simple. You can quote me, "In everything, there's a lesson. Learn it."
hi everyone! so did you guys enjoy the camp? I really did! I never thought it would be so fun and rewarding..but still..it can even knock my sense to ever dream of becoming a teacher..still can never do that..haha!!however..i would like to thank everyone for being such a nice bunch of buddies during the camp..it was fun having you around..too bad we were deprived of water on day two!!alaa..sekali-sekala tak mandi..okie what!!the report for the briefing sesion and material production on last wednesday night is yet to be posted..( p/s: Mr.G,pls hold on..it will be posted tomorrow night..the due date is 7/2 right?)happy chinese new year and enjoy your holiday..to those who is yet to present your thesis..good luck..
Tuesday, February 05, 2002
PHOTOS
Now that you have taken your bath and enough sleep, let us review what had happened. We'll do a post mortem meeting soon. Be prepared to gloat. Be prepared to tell me what were your contributions to the Language Camp. We will look at the contributions based on their quality and quantity. Then, we'll give some suggestions for the future language facilitators. FYI, I think your language camp was better than the ones done last semester. It's not that I ridiculed Last semester's project. All previous projects helped in making your project a beeter one. You see, I learn from my past mistakes. I expect the future project will be better than yours beacuse I have learnt from your experience. If we are taller, we are standing on the shoulder of giants. Do you understand?
p.s.
Photos: Wanna look at your water deprived face? Click HERE
Now that you have taken your bath and enough sleep, let us review what had happened. We'll do a post mortem meeting soon. Be prepared to gloat. Be prepared to tell me what were your contributions to the Language Camp. We will look at the contributions based on their quality and quantity. Then, we'll give some suggestions for the future language facilitators. FYI, I think your language camp was better than the ones done last semester. It's not that I ridiculed Last semester's project. All previous projects helped in making your project a beeter one. You see, I learn from my past mistakes. I expect the future project will be better than yours beacuse I have learnt from your experience. If we are taller, we are standing on the shoulder of giants. Do you understand?
p.s.
Photos: Wanna look at your water deprived face? Click HERE
Monday, February 04, 2002
2.00 p.m
Mr Ghazali fetched four of us- Mawarni, Azlinda, Siti Sabariah, and Marziana to his house. We printed 24 T-shirt include Mr Ghazali T-shirt, that are for facilitators. For those who are not give their t-shirt, they should do it by their own. Other than that, we also printed 11 T-Shirt for competitors who will be the winner in the game. We learned a lot on how to printed the t-shirt. It looks easy but once we do, it is quite hard. Special thanks to Mr. Ghazali’s wife who are give moral support to us in making it. She guide a lot. At first, Siti Sabariah printed the first five T-shirt, but at sixth- my t-shirt- it became worst-not because Mak E.T. fault, but on that time we ain’t not know that after sixth-T-shirt, we have to wash it to clean up the block. Oopss…. Before that… I forgot to explain what is block. Block that we used to print was in a square shape. Each and every side has a wood stick that stand as a frame. On the block, there is a film. On the film, which is like a plain of textiles but have a small pixels, it was stated the name of our program bla…bla…. the film itself is like a kind of tissue that are very smooth and soft. We used the block and put it on the T-shirt and then we put a kind of paint-yellow in color (don’t know how to called it) on the block and press it to left and right side till the color absorb on the T-shirt by the small pixels as I mentioned before. After printed ten t-shirt and we would like to wash it for second time, we washed it incorrect side. So, it becomes worst. That’s why some of our T-Shirt printed with LANGUGAE CAMP 2002 BUT SOME DON’T HAVE BUT… TAKE AT LOOK AT MY T-SHIRT this coming Saturday, how worst it is? But then, lesson to be learn from mistake. It doesn’t mind.
Mr Ghazali fetched four of us- Mawarni, Azlinda, Siti Sabariah, and Marziana to his house. We printed 24 T-shirt include Mr Ghazali T-shirt, that are for facilitators. For those who are not give their t-shirt, they should do it by their own. Other than that, we also printed 11 T-Shirt for competitors who will be the winner in the game. We learned a lot on how to printed the t-shirt. It looks easy but once we do, it is quite hard. Special thanks to Mr. Ghazali’s wife who are give moral support to us in making it. She guide a lot. At first, Siti Sabariah printed the first five T-shirt, but at sixth- my t-shirt- it became worst-not because Mak E.T. fault, but on that time we ain’t not know that after sixth-T-shirt, we have to wash it to clean up the block. Oopss…. Before that… I forgot to explain what is block. Block that we used to print was in a square shape. Each and every side has a wood stick that stand as a frame. On the block, there is a film. On the film, which is like a plain of textiles but have a small pixels, it was stated the name of our program bla…bla…. the film itself is like a kind of tissue that are very smooth and soft. We used the block and put it on the T-shirt and then we put a kind of paint-yellow in color (don’t know how to called it) on the block and press it to left and right side till the color absorb on the T-shirt by the small pixels as I mentioned before. After printed ten t-shirt and we would like to wash it for second time, we washed it incorrect side. So, it becomes worst. That’s why some of our T-Shirt printed with LANGUGAE CAMP 2002 BUT SOME DON’T HAVE BUT… TAKE AT LOOK AT MY T-SHIRT this coming Saturday, how worst it is? But then, lesson to be learn from mistake. It doesn’t mind.
We have a meeting on tonight. Farhana gave some briefing regarding the program for this coming Saturday. Besides that, we did some work on the games that will be played in language camp. We also wrapped the hampers, make a completed files where by we put the sticker on the front page (name of program and competitors’ name), and put some papers and a pencil in each files. Moreover, we have to listen to people who gave some briefing on his/ her game- some excellent games that have been selected. For each game, there are some materials/ aids that should be done for the game. We must prepare all those things for 100 students. Time is constraints in order to make all those things. We don’t have enough time. Instead, they are several instructors who did not come on that night. Each of us also has task or work to be done but please participate this program because it is hard to conduct if no cooperation between instructors. Briefing on this tonight by game masters are to ensure that the program run smoothly and so go flow. Instructors who did not come this tonight may loose everything and did not know the new tentative of the program or the final changing made at last.
THE LG.CAMP EXPERIENCE
hello everyone...
so, how was the language camp? for me it was a very good experience.
i spent my time sleeping all day after the camp. i was very tired and all of you feel the same too i guess...
hey...you should be fresh now because we have a lot of works to do.
like puy yih, i also expected that the students are not that bad in english but i was wrong. the students' english level is very low. maybe they don't really being exposed with english environment.
i can tell that with this camp, they tried very hard to enjoy our english games although most of them were not understand with what we were trying to do. and most of them were blur and confused. but they had a very enjoyable moment. that was what my 'wolves' told me. :). the most enjoyable moment for me, is the Treasure Hunt. felt like i was one of the students. running here and there to be the winner. but hey!!!we were the winner. Wolf is the winner and we got the best group award...YAhoo!!!!. thanks to the students and the facilitators- banchee and suhaimi and of course ME!!!
i also would like to take this opportunity to say sorry if i did something that not satisfied to anyone of you. truly say, until now, i'm not satisfy with my performance during the opening and closing ceremony. sorry again.
and to all my friends and especially to Mr. G and Farhana thanks for your guidance and we had a great time conducting the camp. thanks again, chow.
hello everyone...
so, how was the language camp? for me it was a very good experience.
i spent my time sleeping all day after the camp. i was very tired and all of you feel the same too i guess...
hey...you should be fresh now because we have a lot of works to do.
like puy yih, i also expected that the students are not that bad in english but i was wrong. the students' english level is very low. maybe they don't really being exposed with english environment.
i can tell that with this camp, they tried very hard to enjoy our english games although most of them were not understand with what we were trying to do. and most of them were blur and confused. but they had a very enjoyable moment. that was what my 'wolves' told me. :). the most enjoyable moment for me, is the Treasure Hunt. felt like i was one of the students. running here and there to be the winner. but hey!!!we were the winner. Wolf is the winner and we got the best group award...YAhoo!!!!. thanks to the students and the facilitators- banchee and suhaimi and of course ME!!!
i also would like to take this opportunity to say sorry if i did something that not satisfied to anyone of you. truly say, until now, i'm not satisfy with my performance during the opening and closing ceremony. sorry again.
and to all my friends and especially to Mr. G and Farhana thanks for your guidance and we had a great time conducting the camp. thanks again, chow.
Sunday, February 03, 2002
(24/01/2002)
After the Language Games class, Farhana held a meeting for all the committee members. She highlighted the tentative outline for the two-day camp, and all of us discuss about what needs to be added or modified.
In that meeting also, Farhana consulted us about four more events/activities that needed some volunteers to head and administer them during the camp, namely Treasure Hunt, Motivational Speech, Senaman/Riadah, and Siasah. We settled the matter right there and then, selecting the leaders for each activity. So these are the conclusion; Treasure Hunt will be handled by the programme coordinators, and the gamemaster and gamemaster assistant, the motivational speech will be given by Farizal, the Senaman/Riadah activity will be done by Marsha, Puy Yih, Norlia and Farah, while there's one person who will be leading the Siasah.
Lastly, we decided and picked a date for the briefing and materials revision and distribution to be held. It will be on Wednesday night the 30th of January. That is all for this moment.
After the Language Games class, Farhana held a meeting for all the committee members. She highlighted the tentative outline for the two-day camp, and all of us discuss about what needs to be added or modified.
In that meeting also, Farhana consulted us about four more events/activities that needed some volunteers to head and administer them during the camp, namely Treasure Hunt, Motivational Speech, Senaman/Riadah, and Siasah. We settled the matter right there and then, selecting the leaders for each activity. So these are the conclusion; Treasure Hunt will be handled by the programme coordinators, and the gamemaster and gamemaster assistant, the motivational speech will be given by Farizal, the Senaman/Riadah activity will be done by Marsha, Puy Yih, Norlia and Farah, while there's one person who will be leading the Siasah.
Lastly, we decided and picked a date for the briefing and materials revision and distribution to be held. It will be on Wednesday night the 30th of January. That is all for this moment.
Hi everyone…
Looks like I am the first to recover from exhaustion to be here. =) I slept the whole afternoon away, and am quite fresh now.
I had a great time for the past two days. It passed all too soon, and my ‘ducks’ were just starting to get attached to me. SIGH. That’s how life goes. Hello’s and goodbyes are inevitable.
I arrived at the camp with a thousand expectations. Would this camp be successful? Would we be doing anything more than merely fulfilling the Language Camp course requirements?
I was pretty worked up about the whole thing.
The welcome to the school was glorious. We were shown to most comfortable sleeping quarters, and the hygiene of the toilets were better than many town schools. Good start to a great day I thought. And so it began.
I made myself useful immediately by helping out with the backdrop. I could see that they were badly behind schedule, and some had a err….’height’ problem sticking words on the board. Nonetheless, time constraint got the better of us and we had not enough time to stick up the entire backdrop. The words looked crammed because more lines were planned to be stuck on the board in the first place. Anyway, the rest of the opening ceremony seemed to have passed pretty smoothly. The kids didn’t seem to notice anything out of the usual about the backdrop and were busy singing away on the top of their lungs. Then came the part where I was given the honour of taking a bunch of little ‘ducks’ under my wings with two other facilitators. They were a bunch of shiny eyed, shy, and active kids. I immediately felt a certain ‘motherly responsibility’ over them, and in return, sensed devotion on their part. Drawing of logos and mottos were a fun activity. When given the marker and manilla card, the artistic kids immediately set to drawing a duck- the animal that showed the identity of the group. I had a time of my life trying to make them talk in English, but it all seemed very awkward and unnatural. They seemed to have spoken in nothing else but Bahasa Melayu for the past ten years of their lives. I couldn’t blame them. However, they managed to take control of the situation, and independently chose different items they wanted for the logo with good explanations (in B.M.) why they wanted those items. I did a good lot of translation on the way to help them. That was the only way they could get started. They were probably a little taken aback with my excitement and enthusiasm, but I was getting weary when they did not respond. I found out what the problem was several hours later.
The kids had a proficiency level of 1 out of the scale of 10 (well, most of them anyway). We were initially asked to conduct EVERYTHING in English with the hope that we could maximize their exposure to English. That was near impossible. They could hardly understand very simple phrases. To them, English was almost a foreign language. I was surprised to find that other group fascilitators seemed to have built a strong relationship with their team, until I noticed that everyone was talking almost 100% in Bahasa Melayu with them. NO WONDERLAH! I said. Knowing that it is not wrong or particularly negative as it was the only way to communicate and build interpersonal relationships with the kids, I started to code switch actively. That was when the fun actually started. My ducks actually started to talk to me, and tell me about their lives and started to be really really enthusiastic about the whole thing. However, English was used as much as possible although I repeated myself a great deal when using that language.
The first few games were quite monotonous. We did not know the level of the students and started off with very ambitious games. As a result, most of them looked like zombies. Mr. G came by with a bunch of tips that could help us get along better with the kids. Some of it worked like magic potion.
Oh dear, I have to get to the bathroom. URGENT nature call. Have to stop abruptly and will get back A.S.A.P. describing my experience in Air Manis. Gotta go!
BYE.
Looks like I am the first to recover from exhaustion to be here. =) I slept the whole afternoon away, and am quite fresh now.
I had a great time for the past two days. It passed all too soon, and my ‘ducks’ were just starting to get attached to me. SIGH. That’s how life goes. Hello’s and goodbyes are inevitable.
I arrived at the camp with a thousand expectations. Would this camp be successful? Would we be doing anything more than merely fulfilling the Language Camp course requirements?
I was pretty worked up about the whole thing.
The welcome to the school was glorious. We were shown to most comfortable sleeping quarters, and the hygiene of the toilets were better than many town schools. Good start to a great day I thought. And so it began.
I made myself useful immediately by helping out with the backdrop. I could see that they were badly behind schedule, and some had a err….’height’ problem sticking words on the board. Nonetheless, time constraint got the better of us and we had not enough time to stick up the entire backdrop. The words looked crammed because more lines were planned to be stuck on the board in the first place. Anyway, the rest of the opening ceremony seemed to have passed pretty smoothly. The kids didn’t seem to notice anything out of the usual about the backdrop and were busy singing away on the top of their lungs. Then came the part where I was given the honour of taking a bunch of little ‘ducks’ under my wings with two other facilitators. They were a bunch of shiny eyed, shy, and active kids. I immediately felt a certain ‘motherly responsibility’ over them, and in return, sensed devotion on their part. Drawing of logos and mottos were a fun activity. When given the marker and manilla card, the artistic kids immediately set to drawing a duck- the animal that showed the identity of the group. I had a time of my life trying to make them talk in English, but it all seemed very awkward and unnatural. They seemed to have spoken in nothing else but Bahasa Melayu for the past ten years of their lives. I couldn’t blame them. However, they managed to take control of the situation, and independently chose different items they wanted for the logo with good explanations (in B.M.) why they wanted those items. I did a good lot of translation on the way to help them. That was the only way they could get started. They were probably a little taken aback with my excitement and enthusiasm, but I was getting weary when they did not respond. I found out what the problem was several hours later.
The kids had a proficiency level of 1 out of the scale of 10 (well, most of them anyway). We were initially asked to conduct EVERYTHING in English with the hope that we could maximize their exposure to English. That was near impossible. They could hardly understand very simple phrases. To them, English was almost a foreign language. I was surprised to find that other group fascilitators seemed to have built a strong relationship with their team, until I noticed that everyone was talking almost 100% in Bahasa Melayu with them. NO WONDERLAH! I said. Knowing that it is not wrong or particularly negative as it was the only way to communicate and build interpersonal relationships with the kids, I started to code switch actively. That was when the fun actually started. My ducks actually started to talk to me, and tell me about their lives and started to be really really enthusiastic about the whole thing. However, English was used as much as possible although I repeated myself a great deal when using that language.
The first few games were quite monotonous. We did not know the level of the students and started off with very ambitious games. As a result, most of them looked like zombies. Mr. G came by with a bunch of tips that could help us get along better with the kids. Some of it worked like magic potion.
Oh dear, I have to get to the bathroom. URGENT nature call. Have to stop abruptly and will get back A.S.A.P. describing my experience in Air Manis. Gotta go!
BYE.
Friday, February 01, 2002
MEETING
last wednesday we had a meeting. a meeting to work out with the materials. everybody is busy doing their works. seems like we couldn't wait for the big day. oh yes...i also went to pengarah kerja to make a confirmation of the bus on the same day. lucky us...we'll get the bus. they told me that they will provide us with a fascinating bus, the white bus and air conditioned...alhamdullilah...i was very worried about the transportation actually. and friends...please DON'T FORGET!!! the bus will fetch us at FAB PARKING LOT and you should be there at 6.45 a.m. PLEASE DON'T FORGET!!! farhana had mentioned about this during the meeting last wednesday but please remind yourself and also the others.
i get another duty for this program. i was asked to be the MC for the opening and closing ceremony. i discussed with farhana how the ceremony will flow and get ready with the text. i thought that i should speak in malay but then Mr.G asked me to speak in English...this will be a very good try for me. i hope i can do my best. wish me luck...
friends...tomorrow we'll start the program and wish you all the best and hope to have a very enjoyable moment at S.R. Air Manis. see you tomorrow. DON'T FORGET TO WAKE UP EARLY...tomorrow is the big day...hope nobody is left behind...BE AT FAB PARKING LOT AT 6.45 SHARP!!!! I BEG YOU....thank you for youe cooperation. -zarim-
last wednesday we had a meeting. a meeting to work out with the materials. everybody is busy doing their works. seems like we couldn't wait for the big day. oh yes...i also went to pengarah kerja to make a confirmation of the bus on the same day. lucky us...we'll get the bus. they told me that they will provide us with a fascinating bus, the white bus and air conditioned...alhamdullilah...i was very worried about the transportation actually. and friends...please DON'T FORGET!!! the bus will fetch us at FAB PARKING LOT and you should be there at 6.45 a.m. PLEASE DON'T FORGET!!! farhana had mentioned about this during the meeting last wednesday but please remind yourself and also the others.
i get another duty for this program. i was asked to be the MC for the opening and closing ceremony. i discussed with farhana how the ceremony will flow and get ready with the text. i thought that i should speak in malay but then Mr.G asked me to speak in English...this will be a very good try for me. i hope i can do my best. wish me luck...
friends...tomorrow we'll start the program and wish you all the best and hope to have a very enjoyable moment at S.R. Air Manis. see you tomorrow. DON'T FORGET TO WAKE UP EARLY...tomorrow is the big day...hope nobody is left behind...BE AT FAB PARKING LOT AT 6.45 SHARP!!!! I BEG YOU....thank you for youe cooperation. -zarim-
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