Experience Sharing on the NSS Short Stories Elective Module

Language Arts NetworkInformal Gathering15th January 2010

Language Arts Network E-grouphttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/languageartsnetwork/

Instructions available on request

This afternoon’s programme4:00 – 4:20

Ice-breaking activity

4:20 – 4:35

Presentation by a teacher from UCC Kowloon East (now implementing the module)

4:35 – 4:50

Presentation by a teacher from TWGHS Wong Fung Ling College (at the planning stage)

4:50 – 5:20

Group discussion and sharing

5:20 – 5:30

Conclusion and introducing resources

School Sharing:United Christian College Kowloon East

Mr Michael Leung (S4 Coordinator)

School characteristics and choices made

• DSS school: Great diversity among ss

• Some near native speakers• Experience of Literature in junior

forms• Strong culture of reading in school

Students

Teachers • Some teachers have extensive

experience of LA through Seed project and junior forms

• Some teachers also teach English Literature

Other factors • Christian ethos

Textbook “Star Summit”• Select additional

materials to stretch more able learners

• Build on ss knowledge from literature lessons

• Seed project and LA teachers take up the elective modules initially to develop scheme of work and supplementary resources

• Integrate values and attitudes and “Habits of mind”

• Make judgments of characters from this perspective

Designing the scheme of work

Elective textbook

EDB Scheme of work Additional materials

Relationship with materials in theme book

Examples of materials used for enrichment

Other short stories taught The Crane Wife, After Twenty Years, King Midas and the Golden Touch, The Lost Son, Emma and Sylvia…

Websites of short storiesBritish CouncilEast of the Web

Make use of current news as the theme for a story or story extract:

Example for practising the use of dialogue:Ss read the news about the scandal involving the legislative councilor Mr Kam Lai Wai and his former assistant.Ss then wrote a storyboard and made up dialogue for some encounters between Mr Kam and Ms WongSs finally wrote a story extract using the dialogues

Benefits: current and more authentic, cater to ss interests, motivating, interactive, teaching moral values

Ss responses: active, creative in creating the storyboard and the short story

Ss performance: interesting story plot but not skillful in making use of the dialogue in depicting the characters

put his hand gently on her shoulder,

Reluctantly,

Reflections on students’ performance

Gap between appreciation and productionStudents need greater exposure to short stories before they can write anything of qualityTheir vocabulary needs to be enrichedStudents can listen to the teacher read short stories, or audiotapes of actors or writers reading stories. This helps them to appreciate the style and meaning of the storyPeer evaluation and sharing

SS find the material motivating, but it needs to be chosen carefullySome students are very exam-oriented and may not take the module seriously

Assessment may motivate some students - but teachers’ goals are more long term

Challenges encountered and steps takenDesigning a suitable assessment task

HKEAA-style question modified to apply skills taught in class

Challenges encountered and steps takenDesigning a suitable assessment task

HKEAA-style question modified to apply skills taught in classSBA arrangements

Ensuring students’ exposure to good writing – finding suitable materials

use websites eg East of the Web, students’ work from previous years / other classeswork of ss from other schools (more achievable)

For future improvement…..How can we make the reading in the module more student-led rather than teacher-led?

School Sharing:TWGHs Wong Fung Ling College

Ms Theresa Lo (member of English curriculum team)

School characteristics and choices made

• weak• low motivation• lacking knowledge in

the elective modules

Students

Teachers • see the need of making

coherence among teaching materials

• have some experience in teaching short stories

Other factors • co-planning has been

started in the curriculum team established last year: S1, S2 – short stories

• make adaptations to the course book materials

• more scaffolding for the tasks

• design student-centred tasks

• start from the basics• choose simple short

stories• adopt the TBL framework

in the core• integrate the Short Story

elective and the core• make use of prior

teaching experience and materials

Link between core and elective

The Short Story Elective is an extension to the core unit

The elective is implemented in S4, 2nd termIt is thematically related to the core unit

Core part(Animals)

Short Stories

(Animals)

Selecting suitable short stories

Simple stories Stories that are thematically linked to the core unitDifferent stories of various text typesStories that can be used to illustrate the targeted literary elementsSome examples of stories chosen…

Design of the student portfolio

The 5 main parts in the student portfolio

IntroductionPart 1: the basicsPart 2: story appreciation and reviewPart 3: story writingPart 4: story telling

The basics

Notes and exercises on the targeted teaching points:

SettingPlotPoint of viewcharacters

Story Appreciation and Reviewcompulsory textstexts at students’ choicestory review forms

Writing a story

vocabulary building materialsmind maps and graphic organisersdraftsend productpeer assessmentteachers’ feedback and rubrics

Telling a storySpeaking skills – verbal

repetitionprojection of voicepacepauses

Presentation skills – non-verbalaudience participationbody movementshand gesturessounds

Speech content and organisationMaking use of storytelling aids, e.g. storyboards and note-cards

Group Sharing

1. What materials will you use for the module? (eg textbook, school-based materials)

2. When designing the module, what are the most important considerations for your students and your school situation?

3. How will you assess the students? What problems do you anticipate with this?

4. What can you take from the two schools’ sharing to apply in your own teaching of the module?

8 minutes

Sharing stories

Refer to the form and story you brought with you

Share your stories/extracts with the group

Each group chooses its favourite piece of material

12 minutes

Check out the

recommend-ations on

the LA Network E-

group!

Useful resourcesEast of the Web: Short Stories Teaching Resources: http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/teacher.html

BBC/British Council Teaching English: BritLit: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/download/britlit/britlit.shtml

Merlyn’s Pen: http://www.merlynspen.org/

American Folklore: http://www.americanfolklore.net/index.html

Story Arts: Storytelling Activities and Lesson Ideas: http://www.storyarts.org/lessonplans/lessonideas/index.html

Language Learning Support Section http://cd1.edb.hkedcity.net/cd/languagesupport/article/index_e.htm

Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

Thank you!