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Thank you for opening your classroom for our learning!

The experience was very enriching and fruitful. Here’s sharing with you my reflection ^_^

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A Caring and Supportive Learning Environment

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A Caring and Supportive Learning Environment

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Most of the time the students were able to practise ‘One Voice’. They raised their hand, waited to be called on and took turns to speak. While it may look like a simple classroom routine, it is one that requires constant reminders and reinforcement. Looking at the participation and engagement level, it is evident that the students feel safe to share and contribute (even with the mic!) Teacher’s calm composure and tone of voice help a lot. Teacher also made a conscious effort to listen to those seated at the back to make sure that they are not left out. Teacher asked questions like ‘Who have I not called?’ to again make sure that no one was forgotten. Teacher ensured that all students had a part to play and were able to contribute, including those who did not complete the preparation work. Teacher listened to all ideas patiently and asked questions / rephrase to clarify. The genuine interest and respect the teacher shows for students’ responses help build a caring and conducive learning environment.

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How do we get students to gain a clearer and deeper understanding of what is expected (for writing of a non-fiction text)? The lesson got students to craft out success criteria from their understanding of the features of non-fiction text. A meaningful task, and with more practice, students will internalise the idea of understanding expectations, working with the expectations in mind and checking their work against them. Teacher made conscious efforts to ask questions to try to help students to connect their ideas to what they have learnt, and also to connect their different ideas. More time will be required for students to be able to do so more effectively and independently.

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Overcoming Challenges (Class Dictated Writing)

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Overcoming Challenges (Class Dictated Writing)

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Doing class dictated writing is always a ‘nightmare’. It is challenging to sustain students’ interests and keep them engaged over a prolonged period of time. I have picked up a couple of useful tips.

1. Allow students to do some preparation work and come prepared. This allows students, especially those who may not be able to think on the spot and the quieter ones ample time to think and come prepared to contribute more confidently. Otherwise, the few fast thinkers will dominate the session. It also helps cut down wait time as most students are prepared. Time saved can be used for deeper learning - making connections, challenging assumptions, asking questions and addressing them.

2. Voting for one’s favourite idea(s). Everyone has a say, even if the idea does not come directly from you. It also helps to encourage active listening and greater ownership of work as a class.

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With limited time left, teacher chose to stop gathering ideas and instead, use the remaining time to assess whatever the class has put together, using the checklist that the students came up with. It was a good opportunity to also highlight to students that checking should be an ongoing process, and not something that is to be done only upon task completion.

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“You can have a plan, but you have to be flexible. Everyday is unpredictable, and you just have to go with the flow.”

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“You can have a plan, but you have to be flexible. Everyday is unpredictable, and you just have to go with the flow.”

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It is interesting to note that with the most prepared lesson and the most angelic students, the earth’s forces will always have a way of turning your lesson topsy-turvy during lesson observation.

I walked into class in horror the morning of open classroom as the classroom has just been repainted and the decorations in the class have all been taken down. To top it off, the students did not get their snack break the period before. I had the option of having to deal with 31 hungry restless otters for the next 2 periods or 10 minutes out of my lesson plan. It was a no brainer that I chose to give them a snack break.

Let’s be honest here, having someone observe our lesson be it a formal lesson observation or an open classroom is a daunting experience no matter how experience we are. So it is of utmost importance that we must continue to drive a culture of learning through care and professionalism so that the stigma of having one’s lesson observed is summative on one’s capability is broken.

Back to my lesson, I have planned to co-construct a set of success criteria with my students in class before we craft our class story based on a pre discussed information text. The students were able to contribute to the success criteria confidently as they have been learning about the features of information text type in the previous unit as well. Writing out the class story was slightly more challenging as not everyone in class did their preparation work before hand. Thus, only about 1/3 of the students in class were able to give factual information based on prior research. The rest of the students depended on their prior knowledge of otters, Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve as well as the story video that they watched while having their snack break earlier. We only managed to complete writing the information text on Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve (shown on the first picture) by the end of the 2nd period. The remaining story (shown on the second picture) was written during the 3rd period after they came back from recess. By then, the students were more charged up and we were able to speed up on the writing.

Areas for improvements:
This lesson would have been comfortably paced as a 3 period lesson instead of 2. Also, on hindsight, to have everyone included and take ownership of the class writing, we could have done the research as a class and made sure everyone had the information with them prior to this lesson.

Follow-up:
The P3 teachers shared during our P3 level TTT ways we can do the class writing. Some teachers focused on teaching students how to sieve out information needed from hard copies printed for every student in class. I personally thought this was a great way to ensure that everyone in class stayed engaged and have something to contribute for the lesson on class writing.

To end off my self reflection, I strongly believe that Open Classroom is indeed an exceptional way for professional growth for everyone involved. Angie, being in the class observing and giving insights from her perspective, helped me reflect on my teaching practices and run through some processes which I never would have dwelled further if not for the feedback given.