The PTTLS Program - Essay Example

PTTLS [Assignment Number] [Section Number] PTTLS The recent session which I taught in the PTTLS program was of Preposition identification and application. The session was developed particularly for small children and it was delivered to students of grade 3. The session was prepared with the background idea that students are aware with nouns and pronouns and have the ability to extract meaning from a picture or transform the message from an image into a one line sentence. i. For making the session of preposition interesting and lively, multimedia aid and physical activities were included in the session. The session was started with a video presentation which has several pictures, each depicting a message or story. For example books placed on the table, two girls standing in a row, and a man swimming in a pool. Students were asked to do or act as it was been shown in the picture. Like if the man been shown is swimming, students were asked to act as with their hands and expressions as if they were swimming too. This physical activity was used as the attention grasper of the session. A concept of preposition and their application was then given and the same slide of pictures was shown, but this time they had written sentences on it which students had to repeat after the teacher. This repetition of sentences was done in a rhyming manner where the preposition word was repeated three times in one sentence (New Century Education, 2009). ii. The effectiveness of learning from the session was that almost all students were involved and were taking active participation in the activity without being forced to do. The session started without briefing on the topic as this could have given a boring impression first up. Moreover, students did not only come to know the definition of preposition, they also get an idea of their usage in sentence formation. At the end of the class, pictorial booklet was handed to students, which had different pictures on every page, each with an incomplete sentence over it. The sentence needed to be completed by filling the appropriate preposition as inferred from the picture (Englisg Flash Games, 2011). iii. Some weak areas that were highlighted in this class include less participation of kids who were seated in the back corners and were not in sight of the teacher all the time. Those students need more encouragement from the teacher to act more confidently and expressively. Another thing that can be improved in the next sessions is use arts & craft, and other handy stuff in teaching resources that can fanaticize kids and they feel energetic and eager for the next sessions (Kofin, 2011). 2. This session can be further extended to cover other parts of speech, and using them correctly in a sentence. Another feature that will be focused during this program is to introduce two or three uncommon and difficult words in each session, to improve the vocabulary of the kids. For a full teaching program, resources of music and arts & crafts can be included to further enrich each session and magnify the learning outcome. The full program would be comprised of a series of 6 sessions, each covering a specific topic (Expert Edge, 2012). The first session would be on types of noun and verbs. This session would cover nouns, pronouns and verbs and will educate the students about when and why they are being used. The second session would be on forms of verbs and how to connect them in a sentence. The third session will comprise of preposition and articles. After these sessions, students will have the basic knowledge of sentence formation and inferring messages form a picture or group of sentences (NIACE, 2012). The next session in this program will be a complete activity based, in which an overall understanding of students and their knowledge would be evaluated. This session will urge students to put to test all their previous knowledge of English language. After getting an idea of where the students stand, the next two sessions will be design to critically analyze student’s understanding, in which they would have to make short stories and correct the grammatical and spelling errors in sentences (Kids Inglish, 2012). 3. Session Plans from the Teaching program i. Verbs The session on verb will start an animated picture, in which a boy is running. The students have to tell what the boy is doing. Then students have to make the ‘verb’ word with the clay material given to them, like ‘run’ in this example. Similar pictures of other objects are displayed and the procedure is repeated for making the words from clay. Then the teacher explains the role of verb in a sentence that is to describe the relation of the subject noun with the object noun. Using helping verbs in a sentence will also be taught in this session. The teaching methodology applied caters all the different nature of students, by using audio, video and arts material for auditory, visual and kinesthetic learners (Nwlink, 2011). Since the target group is of kids of 3-4 grades, the teaching methods used encourage each student to participate in classroom learning and activities. The teacher has to ask questions from students on a regular interval, to keep revising what is been taught. The learning outcomes of this session are that students will be able to identify verbs and judge their right placement in a sentence. In addition to this, they will be able to properly connect the verb in a sentence by the use of a helping verb. Lastly, they will acquire the ability to differentiate between a present tense and a past tense sentence, by looking at the helping verb (Grammar Your Dictionary, 2012). A popular game, Jumping for Joy, will be played with the kids, to evaluate how well the students have grasped the concept of verbs and helping verbs. This game is played with the number of kids that are in a sentence. Each sentence should be a simple one, with a subject word, a helping verb, a verb and an object noun. One single word is written on a separate piece of paper (which is visible to every student). If the sentence has 5 words, then 5 students would be called in front, and each will be handed with one piece of paper. They then have to stand such that a proper sentence is made. Then the student having a verb will start jumping at the end and will say loud the entire sentence while jumping (Grammar Your Dictionary, 2012). ii. Story Making The story making class centers around one object, say a ‘Museum’. The class starts with a Hang Man activity, to attract more kids in the class. After the name is guessed by the students, several pictures with brief details of the object are shown to them. This helps them understanding more about what a museum is, and what is being used for. It would be the final session of the learning program, as it will cater all the previous topics taught in the program (Learning Games for Kids, 2013). The element of functional skills is also embedded in this teaching program. Many of the activities and games been played in the program uses everyday pictures and objects that are common. This helps the student in relating their class room knowledge to the outside world. Activity based sessions are especially design such that students are urged to apply their knowledge to their surrounding objects and combine multiple words in a functional way, to communicate properly with others. In addition to this, by making students write a letter to their parents, relatives or to God and making them talk with their class mates, functional skills can be embedded in this teaching program (NIACE, 2012). List of References Englisg Flash Games, 2011. English flash games for Learning Vocabulary. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 14 January 2013]. Expert Edge, 2012. Glossary of English Language Terms. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 14 January 2013]. Grammar Your Dictionary, 2012. Verb Games. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 14 January 2013]. Kids Inglish, 2012. Kids English Course. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 14 January 2013]. Kofin, J., 2011. Teaching Prepositions through Clay. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 14 January 2013]. Learning Games for Kids, 2013. Story Blanks: Parts of Speech. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 14 January 2013]. New Century Education, 2009. Teaching Aids. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 14 January 2013]. NIACE, 2012. Developing Functional Skills. Research Report. Leicester: National Institute of Adult Continuing Education National Institute of Adult Continuing Education. Nwlink, 2011. Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic Learning Styles (VAK). [Online] Available at: [Accessed 14 January 2013]. Read More