Teaching Experiment #3 Take-off, Touch-down and Mini whiteboards

I've been experimenting with how to make revision lessons less tedious and more engaging. It's pretty difficult to figure out what the general class' ability is if you can only ask one or two students a question at each time. In this post, I'm going to talk about the 'Take-off, Touch-down' strategy and mini whiteboards

Take-Off, Touch-down

I use this to test the learning temperature and preferences of the class. Basically, touch-down means to sit and take-off means to stand up. Though it sounds simple, the kids really enjoy this because it means they can move around and they like the airplane metaphor. 

I use this for True/False questions, to find out the likes and dislikes, if they understand or not understand - basically, for anything that only has 2 answers to.

Mini Whiteboards

So now, mini whiteboards are my new best friend for formative assessment in class. They are very easy to use, and the kids love them! Note that you should also use DRY-ERASE markers with them, as other markers tend to leave an ugly stain on them. A lot of my kids have their own whiteboard dusters, but for those who don't, I get them to use a small square of toilet paper, or if you want to be environmentally friendly, just any old piece of cloth will suffice.

Here's what I use my mini whiteboards for:

1. Pairwork
Today I got the kids to sit in pairs to do a grammar exercise on Present Perfect Tense . They numbered themselves 1 and 2. For each question, they got to discuss the answer and 1 and 2 took turns to write.
I would time them and give them about 20 seconds, then call out '1, 2, 3...FREEZE', whereupon they would show me their answers.

The kids love this probably because they can legally talk to their friends in class and there's some safe competition going on with their friends.

2. Groupwork
I use this in a few contexts. I usually get the kids to first number themselves and give each number a role (E.g. scribe, leader, material collector, noise controller).

a) Sometimes I get them to discuss a difficult Science application question (or any more difficult question that would help having more discussion), then have them discuss it among themselves and show their answers.

(I also used this in my Sink and Swim game that I blogged about awhile ago. Check out the post here.)

b) I've also found out that magnetic mini whiteboards are fantastic. When I was teaching the topic of light, I was trying to find out if the kids knew how to draw the lines showing the reflection of light into a person's eye. I found that it was really helpful that I got the kids to work in groups and draw them out, then put up all their magnetic whiteboards to point out the right ones and where the misconceptions are.

This also worked really well when I got the kids to brainstorm ideas then put them all up on the whiteboard to draw links and connections to ideas.

You can find magnetic mini whiteboards from Daiso, they come in different sizes!

My mini whiteboards and markers.

You can put them up if they're magnetic! Makes for a good teaching tool. 

Good Minion, Bad Minion

I have a very special card on my bedroom wall from a student. It was the only card I took back with me during Teacher's Day. Not only because it made me laugh the most, but also because it was a very honest and sincere response from a student that made me think more about my classroom management skills and the kind of self I want to present to my kids.

Anyway, needless to say, I've made my fair share of blunders when it comes to managing my class. I took over from an extremely experienced teacher who believes in authoritarian classroom management. Her unyielding consistency and tough-as-nails approach has conditioned the kids to be well-mannered angels (I was amazed to see them march up to class on the first day, with arms folded behind their backs into two lines so straight I could see down the middle. Oh, and they also had 2 specific stops on the way to class so stragglers could catch up).

When I took over, I tried to incorporate her no-nonsense military approach into my management style. It didn't work. I do not, by nature, have a loud voice. And I hadn't yet made up my mind about who I could be with my kids, so I tended to speak to the kids sometimes as if they were my friends and let them get away with some things. But then, I would recall what other teachers tell me - to be extremely strict, to keep some boundaries at first so the kids don't step all over you etc. So there were a couple of times I let it rip and hollered at them to assert my expectations on the kids. And it kind of worked - I managed to scare them into submission (Apparently, it's all in the voice and the eyes.).

However, I think I just managed to confuse my kids with this inconsistency.

Are you ready? Here's the card:

1. So I see the front page of this card and immediately go 'AWWW.' because I love Despicable Me minions. I'm obviously the minion, because this girl has written ST in the little diamond box on the minion's clothes (unless she meant Super Teacher hehehe).

2. Then I open the card and start reading. At first, I think, "Oh this girl is so sweet." Then I get to the part about me being mad at the kids, and start feeling a little bad about it.

 3. THEN I get to this bit in the card and I sound like I have Split Personality Disorder. Haha! For those who don't know, the yellow minions in the film get kidnapped by the bad guy, get given a special potion and turn into little evil monsters that are set on taking over the world. They also have a serious case of aggression and are by default, berserk.

4. LOL. That's all.

So I guess I need to straddle the line of being friendly and tough to the kids without being two different persons with them. If anyone has any tips on how the best teachers interact with the kids I'd love to hear it!

Teaching Experiment #2 Evaluation of learning in a Singapore classroom

I was struggling for awhile with formative assessments and how to make students think about the learning they had done in class that day. I thought that would enable them to develop a sense of responsibility for their own learning, identify their area of weakness and provide me with feedback on what kind of intervention I should carry out next.  I find most Singapore kids in classrooms quite afraid of sharing their thoughts and opinions openly, and when I ask questions of the class, the few dominant ones usually end up answering everything. There are two strategies that I've been using at the moment and it works well for my kids.

1. Thumbs Up - Thumbs Down
I often use this strategy 'Thumbs up-Thumbs down'. I check students' understanding by asking those who understood the concept well to show a thumbs up, and those who don't understand quite well to show a thumbs down. Usually when I use this in between concepts, I ask students to close their eyes and show their thumbs. That way, they don't get pressured into not admitting their lack of understanding if majority of the class gives the thumbs up signal. I also use

I also sometimes pose questions and ask students to show a thumbs up if they agree and a thumbs down if they disagree. You can further check their understanding by asking them about their decision. This usually works better if you get the students to close their eyes first before showing their thumbs. Singapore students are so kiasu that they often feel peer pressured to go with the majority, even though their answers may be correct!

2.  3 - 2 - 1
3 - 2 - 1 allows the children to reflect upon their learning a bit more. It's basically a short reflection they do at the end of a lesson where they have to fill up 3 different categories. My adapted version of this strategy was to get them to write down:

3 things I have learnt today
2 things I understood wrongly but now corrected (pardon my poor English in the template, I should have rephrased 'misconceptions' a bit better to them)
1 topic I must revise more of

I was actually amazed by how well it worked with my P4 class, and how much I could learn about their learning and what I had to focus on the next lesson. I was initially sceptical of how well this could work, seeing as my kids aren't particularly great at expressing themselves. Of course, it would help a lot if you modelled at first what you expect them to write.

Anyway, when I got the feedback from my kids, I could see that there was quite a lot going on in their little heads (even more amazing was that there was learning going on in the heads of those who I thought were completely spaced out!). From here, I gather the importance of getting feedback from my kids and they are able to carry out metacognition. Learning and teaching is indeed a two-way process. Here are some examples of what my kids have written. It's not perfect English, but I get what they're saying and excitingly, that they are learning!

Bless this boy, I mentioned that it's all right to get an answer wrong just as long as they tried and he actually wrote it under things he had learnt for the day. He's usually quite spaced out in class, so I was quite surprised by the amount of detail that was written. And he even quoted examples. 

I really liked how this child was able to articulate what she misunderstood. Before this lesson, she would have said that everything around us, including shadows and sound, were matter. 

This kid is another one who is always spaced out in my class and I was pretty impressed that the kid could say what she didn't know at first and what she knows now. 

I've posted my own template of 3-2-1 below. I'm also thinking about making some changes to it, such as getting the kids to date their reflection and write the topic of that day above. They should also get to keep a copy of their own 3-2-1 reflection, so they know what they need to focus on and revise more of.

3 - 2 - 1 Template

Teaching Experiment #1: Revision Wide Awake

So I was sitting in this meeting a couple of weeks ago and was struggling so hard with actually keeping my eyes opened and attending to the desperately important information that the speaker was mercilessly droning on about. One of my colleagues muttered drily, "Now I know how the kids feel in my class."

It was kind of a revelation. And also a bit of a sinking feeling that -I- could possibly induce such a heavy stupor in my class when all I wanted to do was to do my job and make them learn.

Anyway, with revision week and the dreary task of making tons of revision powerpoint slides and facing 39 bored faces looming ahead, I decided to do a little research into Revision strategies and experiment with them.

One very interesting game I found was 'Sink or Swim'. I adapted it and it worked MIRACLES in my class. The whole class was actually engaged in the game, not a single person was trying to sneakily read/sleep/scheme to make mischief. When I gave them a topical assessment, the kids performed much better. Here's how 'Sink or Swim' works:

SINK OR SWIM

1. Divide the class into groups of 4/5, depending on your class size. Get them to number themselves (1 to 4 or 1 to 5.)
2. Give each group a mini whiteboard and a marker and something to clean the board with. 
3. The whole class starts off by standing up and 'swimming'. (This is already a plus point, it effectively ensures NO ONE is in a conducive physical position to sleep.)
4. Flash your revision question on the board and start with getting all the Number 1s in the room to write their answer on the mini whiteboard. Walk around the class to check answers. 
- IMPORTANT: Tell the other numbers in the group that they are not allowed to help the answerer or the group will get disqualified from the round. This allows independent thinking for the answerer and prevents free loading. 
5. After about a minute, announce 'GROUP CHECK'. This enables the rest of the group members to check Number 1's answer and teach/correct if necessary. (This facilitates peer teaching and learning.)
6. After 30 seconds, count down "5..4..3..2..1, FREEZE. " At this point, all writing should stop and all boards should be up for the teacher to check the answer. 
7. Those who get the answer correct get to continue 'swimming' while those who don't have to sink (sit back in their seat). Subsequent correct answers get awarded with the option to save your sunk groupmate. 
8. Repeat with the other numbers. 


It was one of the more awesome revision lessons I had with my kids. I've uploaded the PDF version of my lesson plan for those who want to use it.(Science Lesson Plan) I'll be talking more about mini whiteboards and Lesson closures in my next blog posts. I will also share some of my kids' reflections on their learning, which really amazed me.

Do comment if you have any thoughts on this. Do share if you have other fun revision strategies, or if you're planning on trying out Sink or Swim!

In closure, try to minimize 'low-grade clerical work' (I love this quote from Ken Robinson) and learning will naturally take place.

The Teaching Experiment

I wanted to have a blog to share my thoughts on teaching and classroom management strategies. This is especially since there aren't many teacher blogs that focus on the Asian context of teaching, learning and managing a classroom.

I've just had an extremely challenging, but rewarding 4 months into teaching in a Singapore Primary classroom (I now teach 10 and 11 year olds). In so many ways, when I'm in my class, I feel like I'm in a special experimental bubble where I have to try (many times by trial and error) to engage all 40 of my kids through various ways and to ensure that learning takes place, answer all their questions, teach them right from wrong etc.

Before I embarked on teaching, I never realised how many challenges there are involved in a Primary classroom. I had always loved school, and it was never hard for me to want to learn.

One big struggle I face is in teaching my kids (yes I have now taken to calling them my kids in a rather possessive way) why it's wrong to take revenge on your friends, to deceive your teacher, to steal and extort money and to fall asleep in class (among many other things). So yes, it is of IMMENSE interest to me how young children process morality. It doesn't seem good enough to just tell them off, especially in the Asian way, "It's WRONG. How could you be so SELFISH/LAZY/other negative adjectives."

The thing is, these kids probably didn't realise they were being selfish/lazy/other negative adjectives. Or if they did, they probably don't realise the effect of being so. Or sadly, even if they do understand the effects and consequences, don't care quite enough.

It would be really interesting to better understand the way the naughtiest kids think and then get around their naughty behaviour by addressing the root of the problem.

The academic year is coming to an end for my kids but I'll be studying this issue of teaching them right from wrong. Also going to be trying out more classroom management and teaching strategies and reviewing them here! =)