MASTERY LEARNING TALK ON EM TV

This is a presentation to be viewed on EM TV on House and Home on 29 April 2014 sponsored by Mr Norman Sike Director of Port Moresby Institution of Matriculation Studies and Norman Sike Institute. It is about Mastery learning that Norman and I have been discussing for about 10 years.

Norman introduces the programme and then hands over to me.

Thank you Mr Sike,

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Civilization advances by Mastery Learning. Children practise skills until they master the basics from riding a bicycle to crossing roads and using a computer. They practise until they master.

A child has to learn words with understanding growing faster than speaking. They master basic words to put into basic sentences. Mummy icecream becomes Mummy can I have an icecream. This becomes mum will you buy me a double icecream with nuts on the top?

Children learn the rhythm and music of language. All language is made up of weak and strong stresses. Mi wokabaut i go long taun. Husat i go long hap? Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Mary had a little lamb.

As the child grows, so too understanding of the logical format of English. All English description is a flow chart of steps. A student who writes only baby talk never sees the flow chart in words. Having walked for many hours, he was tired and sat by the roadside, waiting for a PMV and watching the boys playing touch football and talking to the girls ( 6 steps)

Sir Winston Churchill once wrote “ A sentence should fit together like a piece of polished machinery”. Mastery Learning helps us to fit sentences together. Practice makes perfect.

Children have a wide range of tasks. They read books, magazines and newspapers. They sing songs and recite poetry. Children today talk in rap and hip hop. They have their own rhythm.

Teachers practise students until their writing skill becomes perfect. I knew a teacher who rejected Mastery Learning in students practising day by day.

He explained a concept once. If the students did not master they were not listening. That was an insult to his professionalism. He explained once and tested once.

If the students failed, it was their fault. I was too polite to tell him he was an unprofessional fool who was not earning his pay.

Mastery Learning in writing requires the student to think through the steps to be used in any complex sentence. Students who write baby talk can never do that.

My name is John. I am 13 years old. I live in a village. It is a village on the Sepik River. It is a little village. I live with my mother and father. I have brothers and sisters. I have one brother. I have one sister. My brothers and sisters go to school. I go too. The school is near the village. It is a small school. I am in grade 6. My brother is in grade 5. My sister is in grade 3.

If the students are to write complex sentences and not baby talk, they have to take dozens of patterns into their hearts. Only then will they pass the Grade 10 and Grade 12 Written Expression exams.

Only then will they write job applications that give them employment after they leave school. Then they will please employers by writing polished and accurate reports, business letters and memos.

But Mastery Learning of Enrichment English at PIMS and the Norman Sike Institute helps the student apply the rules of writing. Students are to turn baby talk sentences into elegant complex sentences by sequences of exercises every day, every week. Students gain practice in writing in their own words.

We have all been taught mathematics by Mastery Learning. Every day we completed sequences of mathematical exercises all categorized from simple to complex and arranged to drill one concept only. This is how we approach Mastery Learning of writing.

BASIC PATTERNS. Combine into one sentence. These are exercises for grades 6 to 12. All grades start at the start. The next 60 are called Peter, Paul and Mary patterns.

Patterns on the screen have been selected from 300 other patterns to range from simple to complex for this presentation.

Pattern 1

I saw Peter.

I saw Paul.

I saw Mary.

I saw Peter, Paul and Mary.

Pattern 2

I bought apples.

I bought oranges.

I bought bananas.

I bought apples, oranges and bananas.

Pattern 3

He opened his eyes

He smiled.

He went back to sleep.

He opened his eyes, smiled and went back to sleep.

Opening his eyes, he smiled and went back to sleep.

Pattern 25

She looked out the window.

She saw a ship.

It was on the horizon

She looked out the window and saw a ship

on the horizon.

Looking out the window, she saw a ship

on the horizon.

Pattern 46

The chicken was killed.

It was cooked.

It was eaten

The chicken was killed, cooked and eaten.

Pattern 47

The man was arrested.

He was charged.

He was put in the cells.

The man was arrested, charged and put in the cells.

Pattern 52

He drew a picture.

He looked at it.

He crumpled the paper.

He threw it in the rubbish bin.

He drew a picture, looked at it, crumpled

the paper and threw it in the rubbish bin.

Pattern 61

He looked out the window.

He watched the boys.

They were sitting under the tree.

They were eating their lunch

They were talking.

He looked out the window and watched the

boys sitting under the tree, eating their lunch

and talking.

Looking out the window, he watched the boys

sitting under the tree, eating their lunch and

talking.

Pattern 113

The volcano erupted.

It sent lava high into the sky.

It came crashing down.

It destroyed villages.

It killed many people.

The volcano erupted, sending lava high into the sky to

come crashing down, destroying villages and killing

many people.

Pattern 114

The birds migrate in early spring.

They cross the Strait of Gibraltar

They catch the hot air currents.

They glide down into central Africa.

The birds migrate in early spring, crossing the Strait

of Gibraltar to catch hot air currents and glide down

into Central Africa.

Migrating in early spring, the birds cross the Strait

of Gibraltar, catching hot air currents and gliding down

into Central Africa.

Pattern 115

The round worm is known as Ascaris lumbricoides.

It lives in the gut of human beings.

It lays eggs in the epithelial layer

These then pass down the alimentary canal.

These enter the body of another human host.

These continue the cycle.

The round worm known as Ascaris lumbricoides lives

in the gut of human beings and lays eggs in the epithelial

layer that pass down the alimentary canal to enter the body

of another human host and continue the cycle.

Pattern 156

King Neptune rose out of the sea.

He roared with anger.

He held his trident high.

He put fear into the hearts of sailors.

They stood terrified on the deck of the ship.

Rising out of the sea, King Neptune roared with anger

and held his trident high, putting fear into the hearts of

sailors standing terrified on the deck of the ship.

King Neptune rose out of the sea, roaring with anger

and holding his trident high, putting fear into the hearts of

sailors standing terrified on the deck of the ship.

Pattern 159

Sailors were afraid to sail beyond the horizon

They had heard stories of ships.

The ships fell off the end of the earth

They tumbled forever in the darkness of space.

Sailors were afraid to sail beyond the horizon, having heard

stories of ships, falling off the end of the earth and tumbling

forever in the darkness of space.

If students are to master writing patterns, they have to be given maximum support by the teacher who takes students down through the exercises in any sequence. The work proceeds in lock-step manner.

Teacher demonstrates. Students complete the first solution with help from the teacher. There may be 2-3 exercises to follow that the students can now complete. The teacher stops class work and takes the students through the solutions. At the discretion of the teacher, the students may do the next 3 patterns.

When a new pattern comes, the process starts again with teacher demonstration, student practice and teacher support. This goes on to the end. The next day, the teacher demonstrates for the benefit of students who have forgotten. And the work goes on.

When all patterns are mastered, the teacher can have students revise. At the teacher’s discretion, the students may complete the patterns 10 at a time.

Grammar is taught in Mastery Writing but only to explain the structure of sentences. There are teachers who think that they teach English through exercises in nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives and tense. These are only useful as a tool in Mastery Writing.

I am pleased to be associated with the Port Moresby Institute of Matriculation Studies and the Norman Sike Institute. I have the opportunity to fulfil a dream to design and validate for this school and nation a sequence of 2000 Mastery Writing patterns to take students from Grade 6 to grade 12.

There will be no limitations grade to grade. Faster students proceed along the sequence. A grade 7 student may end the year half way through grade 8. Other students may revise patterns of previous grades if they find difficulty in the new year.

An important point I would like to make. There will need to be reserve exercises for faster students to complete after 2000 patterns have been mastered. We must avoid criticism that faster students are held back. It need not be so. They can be enriched at the end.

The work needs to be standardized by a specialist team. Teachers in the nation cannot be allowed to design individual patterns to be used in class. Mastery Writing will end up a dog’s breakfast from school to school.

Good night all.