1. 5.0 INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION ON MICRO-TEACHING SESSION
For the project course of Teaching Writing Skills in the ESL Primary Classroom (TSL
3107), I was assigned to prepare a 30 minute lesson plan to teach a writing lesson in a
KBSR or KSSR class. As I am teaching Level 1 classes, so I prefer to use KSSR as the
format of my lesson. Thus, after several thoughts, I tended to use Process Approach in my
teaching writing lesson plan. I had to read in-depth on the theory itself beforehand, in order
to create a lesson plan which reflects the process approach. It was really challenging to plan
the activities, stage by stage, to suit with the approach relevantly. Then, I carried out
discussion with my group peers to decide which lesson plan between three of us to be
conducted in our micro-teaching. Finally, we met into our decision to select the lesson plan
of mine with the topic of “Pet’s World”. We decided on the stages we had to conduct each
and as it were my lesson plan, my group mates gave me the honour to start it off with my
Set Induction and then followed by the Pre-Writing stage of Step 1 in the lesson. My team
mates, Sharifah Yusfida conducted the following Step 2 of Pre-Writing and While-Writing
Stages while Nooramisah conducted the Post-Writing and Closure Stages.
In Set Induction, In order to divide the teachers into groups, I asked them to pick up
the coloured papers in a box. Those teachers with the same coloured papers will be in the
same group. This activity was called “Poisonous Box”, and it is one of the alternative ways to
carry out classroom management in setting up groups. My intention of doing this activity was
to make them move a little bit but it seemed inappropriate as we are rushing. I was quite
frustrated as it was not carried out exactly it used to be, but kept reminding of myself that I
had to consider the next group’s presentation to be finished by the time constraint. Then I
carried out “Charades” activity where teachers had to guess the actions I’ve made up.
Purposely, I’ve set up this activity as vocabulary preview and in order to attract anticipation
of the pupils. It really did attract the teachers, as they burst into laughter when I modelled the
actions with related “sound effect” of the animal (the cat and the duck). Instead of only me
being the model, I asked the other teacher to do the charades according to the picture cards
they picked up. This is where I tried to apply the three-way communication between me and
the teachers, and at first they seemed reluctant to do the activity voluntarily but finally some
of them came out and this is where I had to play my role, which to encourage the teachers to
do the actions by giving hint and examples. I realize here the importance of building pupils’
self-confidence in the real classroom especially coping with shy and awkward pupils in using
the language by giving them support and guidance to confront any task they had to do.
In Step 1, the Pre-Writing Stage, where I had to conduct the brainstorming session, I
realize that I had to make the session into smaller scope of content so that it will be easier
for my team mate, Sharifah Yusfida to set the focused items during the scaffolding session.
2. The positive element I found in this brainstorming session is it is indeed a good activity for
the teacher to get to know pupils’ background knowledge and make them engaged in the
learning process as it will make them feel that their views and ideas being appreciated thus
increasing their motivation and positive perception towards the lesson and also the teacher.
In Scaffolding session, I found that it is really time-consuming and five minutes
allocation time was not enough indeed to carry out this activity. It takes about eight minutes
to finish this session. Our group was urged to continue to the next stage by Madam Flori as
we took too much time in the scaffolding session it leads to overflow. I realize that I should
pay attention to the timing of each phase of the lesson in future. I also noticed that the
teacher should also encourage pupils to write on the board. It could be randomly selected
volunteers from the good pupils then followed by the average pupils in real classroom. They
can just simply write the compound sentences in the form of a paragraph purposely to get
them involved in the scaffolding process.
In While-writing Stage, the teachers had to do group task. They had to complete the
word web in the worksheet and do exactly the process of writing taught in the earlier stages.
I think the teacher was clear and organised in delivering the group task. They were actively
participating in the task. The positive element in this activity is pupils were more aware with
the flow of writing about pets. This activity induces the cooperative and teamwork spirit in
their minds as they correcting each other in group. Despite of it, they can also use their
interpersonal and intrapersonal skills prudently in dividing work in groups. This is the
implication of constructivism theory which brings the efficiency in learning-process.
The Post-writing session was also interesting as teacher asked for pupils’ feedback
and responses for the errors of each groups’ presentation. The award and positive feedback
given for the pupils’ presentation purposely to increase pupils’ motivation and their feelings
towards the next writing class.
By carrying out the micro-teaching, I began to comprehend the meaning of good
teaching and to build my teaching competencies This micro-teaching session present an
early springboard for me to teach writing skills more effectively. I also learnt how to be more
creative in the teaching learning activities. In order to select and use appropriate procedures
and materials, as well as assess their learners’ needs and progress, I need to be clear
regarding the desirable outcomes of a writing lesson and processes involved in good writing.
For my future lesson, I would like to change my method of teaching where I would like to be
more focused on students’ collaboration with their peers (more to group task) .This session
gave me a real perspective of what I must do as a teacher and what should I avoid.
