reFlections 21may
Farah here to finish the overdued reflection for the visit after cross-country
Tutoring(3 ppl)
i didnt teach Ron cos he was being taught by an Auntie there
so i was assigned to teach J
he was doing maths and chinese at the same time
we only finished a few questions since he was there talking to his group of friends before going home quite early
I was sitting opposite to Dan, so i helped him with some of his corrections as well
realised that most of the questions he got wrong was due to careless mistakes
must say that both J and Dan are rather smart in which i taught them and they were able to understand almost immediately
however sadly, they were rather talkative and i think i spent more time there talking to them and answering their questions rather than helping them finish doing their work
Esp. Dan, i had to keep telling him to do his work because he was chatting away almost after every single line of working he wrote down
i think i shd learn to apply some of the things i have learnt from the meetings to help them stay focused next time
in the end i decided to ask the auntie whether i can teach Ron back and left Dan with Jean, which left him rather sad :[
i guess the auntie dun really trust me with Ron so she assigned me to teach someone else
i shall call him G cos i didnt manage to get his name
i think G is the best tutee i had so far because he was smart, focused and willing to listen
he was doing math problem sums -- model drawing which happens to be what i loved in primary school -- but not now
i took some time to figure out how to do the question -- without using algebra
and i thank G for willing to wait patientlyand quietly ;]
i must say it wasnt a easy question, both to do and to explain
i had him draw out the model which made me realise that drawing the model accurately is very important because they tend to draw it for example, equal to one unit of something else which in fact, is actually not true, in the end getting a wrong answer though it would be correct based on the model they had drawn
for this matter, i think boys will have to pay extra attention since they are usually less cautious and aware of the details as compared to girls
i used various methods of drawing to teach him partly because i wasnt able to find the best method earlier
in the end he understood and was able to finsh 2 questions before the tea break
this is very much due to G for being able to listen and respond during the process when i was teaching him although Ron was just infront of him
however, i think in solving model-drawing problems, it very much involves the basic in which, in order to help tutees to improve, we should first show them by example the various type of questions and how to go about drawing models then using the models to solve the question, and secondly remind them of the important points to take note when drawing the models
i personally feel that it is no use to keep doing and doing if they dont remember and remind themselves how to do each question since it will be like committing the same mistakes over and over again for every question
hence, i think it would be useful if we had a session whereby we can teach them how to solve model- drawing questions step by step using the various methods for different sets of questions
Games (华文)
once again im the one in the chinese booth -- in which some simply hate, while others love
i think i really spent time into designing the questions, which covers many aspects involivng the chinese language, summarized as follows:
1。读 [i] 汉语拼音
2。写 （字）[i] 笔画 [ii] 错别字
3。说 （口试）
4。翻译
5。作文 [i] 描述 [ii] 造句
6。理解问答
7。文化 （诗）
basically, most groups did well with a score of around 19 to 20 since i gave at least one mark as long as they tried to answer the questions and were able to give a rough answer that was close to correct one
a) one surprised me with her discription of 老人 in which she was able to describe to full detail, for example, 没有牙、驼背、脸皱皱、拿拐杖、白头发、and many more i cant remember, which shows how observant she is
b) a few were able to memorise 李白的 诗, though it was a very popular one which i thought everybody should know
c) the same mistakes descibed in my previous post for the 汉语拼音came out again plus one more that some were unable to fill in the correct 声。
d) mistakes for 造句were also the same as those mentioned earlier
ObSeRvAtIoNs:
Not so goode) [i] some were very selfish in which they keep the question paper for themselves and wanted to earn the mark alone though everybody working together would have ensured their answers are more quick and accurate [ii] some simply came to my booth, realising it was chinese and totally shut off though it was in fact easy to earn a few marks without a strong command in the language [iii] the groups cared more about marks than their own learning -- some compared with their own teamates to see who earned the most marks for each booth
Goodf) [i] some groups were very united in which they read the questions together and one lifted up the question paper for everybody to see, which i thought was very good [ii] one guy gave his best and answered the questions all by himself although he wasnt good in Chinese as compared to his teamate, who wasnt even thinking at all [iii] although some of their teammates may be selfish, the rest was able to accept it and didnt let that affect their performance
g) nevertheless, what i thought was most worrying was the fact that they were unable (or perhaps just lazy) to read and understand the instructions. Most tried reading the instructions which they failed to understand, then simply asked me to tell them what i want them to do for all questions
one group in particular, even after i asked and explained to them to 描述 (describe) 感受， for example 生气(anger)，伤心(sad)， 惭愧(guilt)，which i expected for example, 生气得脸发红，大声骂。。。or 伤心地哭了、掉眼泪，or 惭愧的底下了头，they actually acted out for me! they were going like “你为什么。。。！”yelling to show their anger or pretending to cry and saying “我考试不及格。。。” =.=
conclusioni was quite tired that day partly because of the cross country but the station games was still quite fun and active with the kids running around and screaming about
however, i think the noise is indeed too much as the kids get all too excited, so i guess we'll most probably not do it again
i was surprised by how the kids like simon says and i think beryl really do know the kids very well!
Ron once again proved his cuteness that even sarah laughed :]
we still owed them a present so we'll be giving it to them the next visit
hope that they will not be angry with us, especially Jo, because it is really the learning that counts
however, i think station games, though a good idea, involves more fun elements than learning since time is limited and the kids are usually more focused on earning points and winning. we also dun really have time to go through with them the correct answers and correcting them to show why the got the question wrong
perhaps some questions given will leave an impact on them in future, but i think the chances are very small since they tend to do and forget since they dont really have the time to commit them to memory
hence i think it is good to have station games, but not too many times at once
hope the outings/ fieldtrips will be a success :]]
Labels: 5.21.08, farah
Jelly! wobbled @ Sunday, May 25, 2008
