PAL Reading Funfair @ SK Jengka Batu 13

SK Jengka Batu 13 hosted a PAL Reading Day today, 14th November 2014.  PAL, or Peer Assisted Learning, is an effective method to promote literacy and fluency.  Level 2 pupils are paired with Level 1 pupils for all activities.  The level 2 pupils coach or assist the level 1 pupils, creating a safe environment to experiment with language and have fun.  Pairs were issued a "passport" to collect stamps from each activity.  If they completed all the stamps in their passport, they could redeem it for a delicious snack at the end of the day.  It is important to remember that school should be fun, and to encourage collaboration and inclusivity for all students.

Tom James, Chenor

LINUS Conference Conference Hosted by PPD Maran, in Pekan

Tom James, Chenor, and myself, Sarah Higgs, Jempol, were invited as keynote speakers at the Pekan Conference for LINUS & the 21st Century Classroom.  The event was coordinated by the PPD Maran and hosted at AnCasa Royale River Resort in Pekan 11th - 13th November, 2014.

We were very excited to participate in this course and felt welcomed by the PPD officers and teachers attending the course.  Our content covered the 21st Century Classroom, Tips & Tricks, as well as Technology Integration & Useful Websites.

A special thanks to Mr. Nazwan, who in addition to coordinating the event was also a keynote speaker.  

Sarah Higgs, Jempol

Tom James, Chenor

A Fun Day with English, SK Kg Tengah

Tom James & Sarah Higgs helped Temerloh Mentors Jimmy Ma & Martina Gilmartin with "A Fun Day with English" Event hosted at SK Kg Tengah today, 12th November, 2014.  The event was coordinated by Mr. Arif and was a great success.  Students were selected to participate in the event and divided into their houses: Green, Red, Yellow, Blue and Orange.  Events included Cheer!, Games Session and Showtime.  English speaking facilitators led the games and encouraged the students to speak English.  In the end, Yellow House won the first prize.  However, all five houses had a great time competing & participated in English activities all day.  Great work SK Kg Tengah & Temerloh Mentors!

Sarah Higgs, Jempol

Tom James, Chenor

Brighton Kids English Club IX: Finale!

On Monday we held our ninth and final 2014 Kids English Club in Maran. The turnout was great, and everyone spoke a lot of English and got prizes and balloons too!! The older kids group (11-14) was first, but got rather mixed together with the 7-10 age group when they saw how much fun we were having. So we worked it out together and did some warm-up activities and games, then played a darts game with a cumulative language target, i.e., reviewing many of the target structures we've studied this year. We also had interactive reading time (see video below!) and, of course, snack time (everyone's manners were quite exceptional this month!) After nearly three hours, everyone was quite exhausted! Thanks everyone for coming, and we hope to see you all next year!

Best Game EVER!

SK Bukit Bota's Sports Day, 9th November 2014

SK Bukit Bota's Sports Day this year was so big they had to have it on Sunday!  Today, 9th November 2014, students competed in many athletic categories.  Even the preschoolers had their own fun events, such as bean bag on your head race.  Sarah and I were invited as guest judges and presented medals to the winners.

Great work SK BB!

Tom James, Chenor

Herbiculture Project at Felda Bukit Tajau

We (Mr Shah, Year-6 Pupils, Mentor Marshall)  had a great time digging, transporting, transplanting, and clipping specimens being grown for a large landscaping project at the local sports field. The irrigation canals have nearly been completed, the land is about to be moved, and in a few months time, our little transplants will be ready to find their permanent homes! We had the chance to learn some new words, speak some English, socialise, and do some hard work in the hot sun. We hope you enjoy the photos!

 The Fantastic Herbiculture Team

Spell Master 2014, hosted by UiTM

Sarah Higgs, Jempol, and Tom James, Chenor, attended the Spell Master 2014 event hosted by the Universiti Teknologi Mara Pahang today, 5th November, 2014.

We want to thank Chairwoman Roslina Abdul Aziz for her warm welcome and meeting with us at the event.  She truly did an amazing job coordinating the event and assisting during the competition.

We were interviewed after the event, and gave recommendations for the event next year.

The event was attended by VIPs Maziana Osman, Tn Hj Nik Ismail Harun and Mohd Zaki Abd Latiff.

From the Program:

SPELL MASTER 2014

This is an annual community service activity organized by the Academy of Language Studies, UiTM Pahang in collaboration with the People's Bank of Regional Maran. As a bank that has a social responsibility, this program reflects closer to the local community and is very concerned that the People's Bank will promote human capital development among the students who will one day be the determining factor of success of our country.

For the record, the program has been implemented for five consecutive years starting from the year 2009 and at the request of an overwhelming response from the participants of the school, the same program is also designed for the 6th year of 2014. We also have received the blessing and cooperation of the PPD Maran to ensure a participation of 52 primary schools in the Maran district.

In a program like "Spell Master 2014", the students who participate will not only gain exposure to the game that can be viewed on TV, but can also strengthen their English language skills in addition to closer acquainted with friends from school Sebya -school involved. We hope that the opportunity for six hours at the campus of UiTM Pahang, will make the students are motivated and aspire to continue their education in an ivory tower.

Main objectives of this program are to:

• provide exposure to the students of English in rural schools
• improving knowledge of English vocabulary students
• build confidence in the students in the English Language
• promote the learning of English in a way that is easy and fun

Poor Retention & Four Activities to Fight Back

We have all been in this situation:

We make a lesson plan, full of collaborative activities that support our students' learning and achieve our learning objective.  The class is successful and afterwards we feel good about the class.  But somehow, the next day, the students do not remember anything.

This is poor retention.  We teach them, but they do not remember or apply the new content.

There are many possible reasons why the student retention is low.  However, in this post I want to give you some strategies for improving low retention, rather than focus on what the root cause is.

First, take a look at this video.  Chris Cannon explains the 3C's that you can use to help increase student retention.  (If embedded video does not play, please click here.)

Interesting right?!?!  Now, here are 4 activities from ESL Edge 2 that you can use in your classes to help improve retention.

In Class

1.  Read My Mind

Write a list of words and/or examples with the structure/s you have been practicing.  Let's imagine they have gone through past tense, with a bit of mystery, tell them "something happened to me last night". They will feel curious, so encourage them to guess what happened using the vocabulary & structures.

2.  Choose & Make

Write vocabulary on pieces of paper and put them in a bag.  Write the structures they have been practicing on pieces of paper as well.  They need to chose one word from the vocabulary bag and one from the structures bag.  Then have them construct a sentence using the vocabulary and structure they picked.

For Homework

1.  Read & Identify

Provide texts where students need to skim and identify structures or vocabulary they have learned.  Seeing how they are used in texts can really help them understand how to use them.  Youcan also mix it up and use a viewing activity instead of reading.  In this case provide links where they can watch short videos and do the same thing.

2.  Choose & Use

After identifying structures and vocabulary in the previous exercise, they can start using them.  Ask them to choose a handful of words and structures and have them write a short text.  It can be an email, a report, a story or whatever they want.

The big secret for improving student retention:

Hear it.  Read it.  See it.  Use it.

Be prepared to discuss the above content on my next school visit!

Sarah Higgs, Jempol

This work by Sarah Higgs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Works Cited

Busy Teacher. (2014). Time to Face Our Enemy: Poor Retention. Four Activites to Figh Back. In ESL Edge 2: How to Teach ESL Like a Pro (p. 32).

Cannon, C. (2013, Aug 27). How to increase student retention | For Student Retention Strategies . Retrieved from Fighting4Youth.com: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s77CcP8p_n8

Mentakab Dancing Association Charity Dinner

Mentors Sarah Higgs & Tom James from Maran and Martina Gilmartin & Jimmy Ma from Temerloh attended the Mentakab Dancing Association 24th Anniversary Dinner & Dance.  Proceeds from the event will be donated to local charities & to promoting dancing for youths.  The event was truly special and an interesting look into the world of dancing.

Sarah Higgs, Jempol
Tom James, Chenor