I was posted to Bedok South Secondary School for my ESE. As a student teacher with English Literature as CS1 and English Language as CS2, I was assigned two mentors – one who teaches upper secondary classes and another, who teaches lower secondary classes. In the classes that I observed, both mentors mainly engage the use of Microsoft Word documents and, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations. The purpose of using Microsoft Word documents was mainly to document answers that students supply immediately, so that the entire class gets access to these answers and, show the answers that the teacher suggests to class assignments. On the other hand, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations are used to impart comprehension skills to the upper secondary students. However, with the lower secondary Literature classes, PowerPoint presentations are used to flash the pictures of a picture book that they are learning, scanned by the teacher, so that students do not have to purchase the book and still be able to benefit from it in class.
However, in lessons conducted after school, such as the Grammar Boot Camp program that was mentioned in blog post 1, ICT such as games and online quizzes are utilized. Instead of using pen-and-paper to teach students at the Boot Camp, computer learning is chosen to engage them. On the contrary to the concerns I raised in blog post 2 regarding students being distracted by the mode of technology being used, this lesson was not affected by those concerns. This is because, this particular lesson was conducted in the computer lab, with each student assigned to his/her individual terminal, peer distraction was kept to a minimum. Furthermore, the school’s computer lab has a monitoring system where the teachers can choose to disable certain functions on the student’s terminal. For example, when the teacher is explaining an important concept, they can lock all the student’s terminals and therefore, prevent students from logging into Facebook and get distracted as a consequence.
Although I did not personally encounter much advanced uses of ICT in the school’s teaching of English Literature and English Language, I understand that they do attempt to use it in certain classes. In one instance, I attended all the meetings on a plan to use ICT to teach expository writing but did not get to observe the lessons conducted because my ESE had come to an end. However, based on the plans discussed, it is clear that the English department is trying its best to harness the strengths of ICT in their lesson planning. This lesson was planned to teach students expository writing based on the topic “Singapore Icons”. According to the plans discussed, the teacher will first use YouTube videos to show students various local icons that may be used to represent Singapore such as, Phua Chu Kang (Singlish), the Merlion, chicken rice (local delicacy) and Singapore Girl. After watching these videos, students are required to study for a vocabulary test that is conducted in the computer lab, where their answers are graded and reviewed immediately. After learning their mistakes, students are required to use their knowledge of new vocabulary words and apply it to an online unguided vocabulary cloze. Finally, a PowerPoint presentation is used to summarize what they have learnt thus far before delving into expository composition skills. By teaching comprehension skills by using ICT such as YouTube videos and computer tests, students are kept interested because, they enjoy the audio-visual and hands on learning that is different from the usual passive auditory style of learning.
Although Bedok South Secondary School is not as advanced as other schools in the vicinity in their use of ICT, it is observable that the teachers are trying hard to keep up with the use of ICT and incorporate it in as many aspects of teaching as they can. While it is clear that they are not embarking on Masterplan 3 as of yet, there are plans in the department to purchase ipads to enhance interactive classroom learning. Therefore, though the school is still executing Masterplan 2, the culture is slowly but surely moving into Masterplan 3.
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