ENGLISH - OUTCOMES EDITION - SUSAN BAING
Review of a grade 10 English book for Papua New Guinea
In recent days, I have received a copy of the book above and found that my response varied day by day until the present time.
At first I disliked the book intensely for the approach used. But then I had to be clear in my mind as to the purpose of the book. It was to guide students and teachers through a wide range of activities many practical and useful.
They were to read and comment on reviews, conduct surveys, examine brochures, prepare resumes and comment on literary works and newspaper reports. This makes the book excellent in providing direction and purpose to students.
The book has some detail on how to write. But the students are not given systematic practice in writing except to complete the tasks.
At least there are text books from Oxford University Press that give writing practice in earlier grades. This is the Pacific Series USING ENGLISH. The question remains as to whether or not this is enough to prepare students for the higher grades.
It could be said that the 30 + exercises throughout the book under review have a Mastery Learning component. But this is not correct. Students can not practise writing by being required to write on fancy questions.
Each exercise is different. The students have success or failure of one or two exercises. They have a week to put their assignments and resource material together. That is not realistic. It is intellectually cruel.
The book has to be used in conjunction with other text books and resources. Schools in rural Papua New Guinea
There are guidelines in each section on how to write. But telling how to write is not the same as doing it.
There is limited scope in having students write their own creative exercises and practise the writing skills. This book is all too fancy.
TEACHING STUDENTS TO FLY IN ENGLISH - FAMILY POSITIVE ...
familypositiveliving.blogspot.com/.../teaching-students-to-fly-in-engl...Cached
1 Sep 2011 – I was an English teacher in Bumayong High (1993-1994) and
Busu High (1995). In both schools I was given the grade 9 English classes for a ...
The problem with the book under review is that it is thick and expensive which means the price is high. It may be that each student will not have a copy.
The problem with the book under review is that it is thick and expensive which means the price is high. It may be that each student will not have a copy.
How does the teacher have students each read the pages if there is not enough funding in the school for one book for each student or photocopy paper and ink? The photocopy machine is broken down.
I am starting to respect my first impressions. And my first impression is that this book is too complicated and esoteric. It is too fancy. There is too much work to be covered by teacher and class. There is not enough time to do it well.
It teaches them to be intellectually wise but does not teach them just to write about the world. If this is what they are required to do in grade 10, heaven knows what is expected of them in grades 11 and 12.
One of the problems of university lecturers writing books is that they see all students as sub-university. So the standard rises without the background skill rising too.
UNIVERSITY LECTURERS Vs HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS
UNIVERSITY LECTURERS Vs HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS
familypositiveliving.blogspot.com/.../university-lecturers-vs-high-sch...Cached
9 Oct 2011 – There is a vast difference between university lecturers
and high school teachers. In the media recently the statement was
made that high school .
What happened to good old writing skill? The book teaches about writing but does not teach students to write, except to complete interpreting of information and reading to express educated responses.
Students will complete this book and move on to grades 11 and 12 and not be able to write essays at university. This book will make them experts in knowing about argumentative writing. But they can not do it.
Can they look at an issue and decide that the framework is political, social, economic and military? Probably not.
Will they go to the university library and read a text book to discover the bias and intention of the writer. Probably not. What would they want to do that for?
Most professional books are quite straight forward with bias far beyond the scope of the reader. So this book does not even prepare the students for university study. It is far too pretentious.
What about having students read the newspapers? Can students write in good English about their family? Or the recent landslides? Or the problems of the nation? There is no time for that. They will probably be asked to identify the bias of the writer.
My eldest daughter is in grade 8 this year and with limited experience in writing except to copy work from the blackboard.
If given work such as this in grades 9 and 10, will her lack of writing, interpreting and thinking skill suddenly rise? Probably not.
I have recently seen students in grade 9 who will go to grade 10, but can not put a sentence together. Now Susan Baing wants them to fly with high level knowledge.
This book does not teach students to Master basic Learning. It wants them to fly intellectually but does not teach them even to crawl.
I am an experienced English teacher but would be afraid to use this book. It would make me and the students its prisoner.
ESSENTIAL WRITING GUIDE FOR SECONDARY STUDENTS IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA
All is not lost. There is a book written by the late Dipa Gigmai to teach the basics of writing to PNG students. Combined with the book by Susan Baing, there is the beginning of an attack on student writing skill.
It too is a book for Outcome Based Education in having assessment exercises at the end of every section. Page by page, there are 15 exercises that promote mastery of basic grammar forms. Better than nothing.
These cover a wide range including correct pronouns, verb tenses, possessive and quantifying adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, sentence structure, phrases, clauses, types of writing, letter writing and tips for writing.
But nowhere does the author place any focus on the actual skill of writing. There is focus on the trees but no focus on the forest.
Students may come out of using this book with a detailed knowledge but still be writing baby talk in their own essays and reports.
Susan Baing does not comply with Blooms Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. A key task is for students to make explanation in their own words.
SUPPORT TO TEACHERS ON MASTERY LEARNING
The simplest classroom strategy is for students to read a newspaper article and explain in their own words orally or written. But there may be no time for that.
SUPPORT TO TEACHERS ON MASTERY LEARNING
The simplest classroom strategy is for students to read a newspaper article and explain in their own words orally or written. But there may be no time for that.
This would be a pure joy after going through the Baing book where they have to report on bias etc etc. They evaluate and make recommendations. What happened to the old requirement just to explain in own words? That is not fancy enough.
Bloom's Taxonomy
members.tripod.com/teaching_is_reaching/bloom's_taxonomy.htm Cached - Similar
This is a revised version of Benjamin Bloom's work with the addition
of the ... Words typically used: describe, compare, contrast, rephrase,
put in your own words, ...
******************
CONCLUSION: Both books are most useful but totally inadequate. There is always an attitude among PNG teachers that if students do not understand then the teacher moves on. No Mastery Learning.
The book by Susan Baing requires large amounts of work to be completed by the students in any 3 week period. If they do not complete the assessment assignments, the class moves on.
The teacher has to become a slave to the program in the book. There is no room for other remedial or enrichment work. There is a tyranny at work here in conformity to the book.
There have to be students start to fall by the wayside if they do not keep up topic by topic week by week. What if they can not find the brochures needed in an assessment period? When do they complete their assessment?
The book by Dipa Gigmai falls down on the basic reality that students require mastery patterns by the hundreds if they are to recall-forget-recall-forget-recall-forget-recall-recall-recall. Come back from the holidays and forget.
Our patterns in combining sentences will require 2500 exercises between grades 5 and 12.
The Gigmai book provides about 45 exercises for grades 9 and 10 in combining sentences when these students require 600 to cover all structures and the recall-forget syndrome.
This book is like buying lollies in a lolly shop. I will have one of them, one of them and….two of them.
FAMILY POSITIVE LIVING - AIDS HOLISTICS: TEACH STUDENTS ...
familypositiveliving.blogspot.com/.../teach-students-to-write-comple...Cached
19 Jan 2012 – The major problem for students in PNG High Schools is to write in
complex ... THE KEY TO TEACHING WRITING - FAMILY POSITIVE LIVING .
There is limited value in revising the same exercises over and over. The Gigmai book covers 5% of language structures.
Now that OBE has been scrapped, let us hope that the replacement is more basic Mastery Learning. Teachers could use the above books for resource ideas but take the time in class to promote the basics.
Teach writing skills by writing.
No comments:
Post a Comment