P2 English

Melvyn and i had a first hand experience on taking the P2 for an English lesson today. We were tasked to teach them Present Continuous tense. Mrs Yan-Ko provided us with the necessary teaching materials, so all we need to do is just to deliver it and gain some lower primary teaching experience.

Melvyn did the introduction and the general rule of change a verb such as "do" to "doing". I continued the lesson by consolidating of what Melvyn had thought and went on to teach the students to form sentences with present continuous tense using the pictures given.

For example, i showed a picture of 2 people doing some gardening work. I asked the class to tell me how many persons are there in the picture and so if it was singular or plural and whether "is or are" was to be used. Then i asked the students what the action was in the picture. Once they had replied, eg, "They are cutting the tree.", i wrote the sentence on the board. Next i would underlined "cutting" and explicitly told them that word is present continuous tense. This process of forming sentences from the pictures went on for a few more rounds. Next i split them into their groups for group activity.

In the group activity, each group will be given 3-4 pictures. Each group was to form sentences using present continuous tense and wrote them down on the mahjong paper. I felt that this group activity was well received as students like to be involved in activities. Also, i felt it was a good opportunity for us to check on their understanding of the lesson. During the facilitation of the activity, i realized while some students managed to grasp the concept well, there were a few who really struggle to even differentiate between using "is" and "are". Thus i had to spend more time with them and formed the right sentences with them. Having me alone was not enough i thought, so i constantly reminded the rest of the group members to coach the weaker ones and formed the sentences as a group. I did not want to let the weaker students to just sit out and let the rest do the work. Neither did i want the stronger students to just finish their part and leave their teammates struggle on their own.

I personally thought that teachers or P1 and P2 have to identify the weaker students in the class as fast as they could when they take over the class. This will let the teachers know that these students need more time to learn a concept. Detecting and doing it early can also ensure that these students do not fall too back behind from the rest of the class.

Lastly, I really enjoyed the lesson I had with the P2. They are very well disciplined.