Best Lesson

My best lesson conducted would actually be the simplest and most bite sized one, which was conducted with my Sec 3NA's. They had failed their common test which was based on a summary..... and I mean the whole class failed.. I kid you not! Upon taking over the class from the relief teacher, I found out that they do not read the question, as in there may be 3 parts to the question instead of just assuming that its one question, so they must be asking me for one part. So with regards to content factor that was the problem that had to be addressed. Language wise, there is little ability to rewrite sentences or points in their own words.

So I had to break down the summmary into 3 main parts. Firstly, one lesson on content, drilling the need to identify how many parts there are in a question, and thus what points are relevant. This had to be done slowly, with a spiral progression ranging from whats the point in a single sentence, to a small paragraph, and then to a harder paragraph. Slowly, they started to get the hang of it.

The second was on language. There is no way these kids were going to write fantastic summaries based on their own language ability. And previously, the highest in the class for language, was 3-5 marks. So I thought them to 'cheat', of course after checking with my HOD on whether this was allowed.

EG: The blue cow jumped high and over the moon.... becomes The cow jumped over the moon.

Simple cutting and rewriting. It may not score them fantastic marks on the language aspect, but at least they would get better or might even pass if they can edit and produce something in their own words.

Apparently, the last test conducted, half the class has been passing, and a few more just missing the passing grade, unless of course its some ego boosting story my HOD told me. Well, for now, better pass than fail.