In the past, I gave one mark for each correct question that a pupils did in his/her daily work. This is quite meaningless as sometimes the working is correct but as answer is wrong due to carelessness. Hence, last year, I put in 2 marks for each question with 1 mark given to correct method and 1 mark to correct answer. Again this is quite meaningless as some questions have longer working. Hence, for this year, I tried a different way of marking. I mark my pupils' daily work similar to the way I mark in a test/exam paper. To me, this adds more meaning to my pupils as when they receive their marked work, they will be able to tell how many marks they can score for each question and how are the marks allocated for each question.
After attending the AfL workshop, I am more conscious in providing meaningful feedback to my pupils' assignment. In the past, I would just circle or underline the error and left the pupils to guess why. Now, I put a small tick at the correct step before the error and still circle or underline the error. Next, I try my best to write down at the side what is the error or a question for them to think about what is wrong with their working.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
T1W9 - 3E2
Wow this class was getting noisier and restless each day. Worse still, some of the pupils were always changing place and their seating plan was still not confirmed after one month of planning. Hence, I could not take it anymore and stepped in to change their seating. Within a week, I changed their seating plan twice and this second attempt seems better so far. Will need another week to monitor.
This class of pupils are very talkative and a handful of the boys just cannot sit still. Hence, teachers teaching this class must be very firm and have to keep reminding them the class rules. However, all of them want to learn though some of them are really lazy to do work. Hence, they need to be push. Some strategies that I used for this class have work rather well so far.
It just happened that their A Math lessons are normally just before recess time. Hence, if I have to wait more than 5 mins before they are all ready for lesson to start, I will release them 5 mins late for recess. Releasing them late happens at least twice a week ... sigh ... and you may think it is not right, but it works well as the class will ensure that the noisy ones are quiet and not disrupting so that the class can be released on time. What's more, all the pupils are able to be very attentive as I do my teaching and they will really wait for me to give them the signal that they can be released before they start moving out of the class for their break.
When I give exercises as seatwork cum homework, they will also have to show me that they are able to do at least one of the questions before I release them (one by one) on time for recess. This method works well so far as the lazy ones become very hardworking (at that moment) trying their best to do the work correctly so that they can go off for recess on time.
For a few weaker yet lazy ones (usually only one or two of them) who do not write down anything or attempt at least one question, I will make them stay on in the class and help them with the first question, clarify their doubts or misconceptions before releasing them.
Though this class of pupils are noisy and mischievious, I can tell that majority of them if not all want to learn and they want to do well. This is seen by their enthusiasm to get confirmation from me that they have done the work correctly. Sometimes, I feel that they seem to be attention seeking but this attention-seeking behaviour is constructive to their learning as they lack the confident to say that their concept is correct. Because of their eagerness to ask and clarify their doubts, I don't dread going into the class to teach and I don't mind if I can't be on schedule as when I teach at their pace, I am able to keep majority of them interested in A Math which is often seen as an abstract subject that is very difficult to learn.
This class of pupils are very talkative and a handful of the boys just cannot sit still. Hence, teachers teaching this class must be very firm and have to keep reminding them the class rules. However, all of them want to learn though some of them are really lazy to do work. Hence, they need to be push. Some strategies that I used for this class have work rather well so far.
It just happened that their A Math lessons are normally just before recess time. Hence, if I have to wait more than 5 mins before they are all ready for lesson to start, I will release them 5 mins late for recess. Releasing them late happens at least twice a week ... sigh ... and you may think it is not right, but it works well as the class will ensure that the noisy ones are quiet and not disrupting so that the class can be released on time. What's more, all the pupils are able to be very attentive as I do my teaching and they will really wait for me to give them the signal that they can be released before they start moving out of the class for their break.
When I give exercises as seatwork cum homework, they will also have to show me that they are able to do at least one of the questions before I release them (one by one) on time for recess. This method works well so far as the lazy ones become very hardworking (at that moment) trying their best to do the work correctly so that they can go off for recess on time.
For a few weaker yet lazy ones (usually only one or two of them) who do not write down anything or attempt at least one question, I will make them stay on in the class and help them with the first question, clarify their doubts or misconceptions before releasing them.
Though this class of pupils are noisy and mischievious, I can tell that majority of them if not all want to learn and they want to do well. This is seen by their enthusiasm to get confirmation from me that they have done the work correctly. Sometimes, I feel that they seem to be attention seeking but this attention-seeking behaviour is constructive to their learning as they lack the confident to say that their concept is correct. Because of their eagerness to ask and clarify their doubts, I don't dread going into the class to teach and I don't mind if I can't be on schedule as when I teach at their pace, I am able to keep majority of them interested in A Math which is often seen as an abstract subject that is very difficult to learn.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
5N1 AM (T1W9 - Appln of Differentiation: Rate of change)
Started teaching topic and pupils find this topic tough. This is partly due to pupils being weak in Mensuration and they do not like to do questions that are very wordly (one characteristics of NA pupils - language). To help them tackle questions on Rate of Change, I taught them to identify information from keywords in the questions, write them down in mathematical notations and how to piece them together with the help of Chain rule.
For example, the question will always have one rate of change given, say "the rate at which x is increasing is 5 cm/s". Then pupils will write this as "dx/dt = 5". Next, they will have to identify what the question wants them to find, say "find the rate of increasing of the volume". Then pupils will have to write down "dV/dt = ?". They will then write down using Chain Rule a relationship between dV/dt and dx/dt : dV/dt = dV/dx*dx/dt ---(1). From this eqn, they will see that they need to find dV/dx as dx/dt is already given. So to find dV/dx, they need a formula relating V and x which is normally a formula they already know or given in the question. After getting the formula, they will get their dV/dx and then substitute it into (1) and BINGO they have answered the question.
Normally after showing one to two examples, the pupils and I will write down the essential general steps to solving similar question on the topic taught so that they have some basic steps to follow as they do other similar questions as practice.
For example, the question will always have one rate of change given, say "the rate at which x is increasing is 5 cm/s". Then pupils will write this as "dx/dt = 5". Next, they will have to identify what the question wants them to find, say "find the rate of increasing of the volume". Then pupils will have to write down "dV/dt = ?". They will then write down using Chain Rule a relationship between dV/dt and dx/dt : dV/dt = dV/dx*dx/dt ---(1). From this eqn, they will see that they need to find dV/dx as dx/dt is already given. So to find dV/dx, they need a formula relating V and x which is normally a formula they already know or given in the question. After getting the formula, they will get their dV/dx and then substitute it into (1) and BINGO they have answered the question.
Normally after showing one to two examples, the pupils and I will write down the essential general steps to solving similar question on the topic taught so that they have some basic steps to follow as they do other similar questions as practice.
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