REFLECTION

I am teaching in a rural school in Kuala Selangor which is 25 km away from Kuala Selangor town. My school is SK Kampung Raja, Batu 8 Jalan Raja Musa, 45000 Kuala Selangor, Selangor, Darul Ehsan. Majority of my pupils are the Malays and they are not good in English. They need a lot of guidance from the teacher to learn the language.

Reflection is really a process that begins with looking back on a situation, pondering over it, learning from it and then using the new knowledge to help you in future similar situations. Reflection, which is learning through experience, is not a new concept. As humans, we naturally reflect on our surroundings and experiences. However, the conscious, deliberate and ordered process of using reflection as a learning tool in our professional practice is much more challenging. It is a complex activity that requires the individual to develop a set of skills required for problem solving (Moon, 1999).

Reflection, therefore, encourages us to become aware of our thoughts (intellectual) and feelings (affective) which relate to a particular learning experience or area of our practice.

According to ELT Methodologies Principles and practice by Nesamalar Chitravelu (P.17), a scheme of work is a plan that indicates what will be taught for the semester / year and in what order it will be taught. Objectives set out in the syllabus for each school year form the basis for the scheme of work for the year.

We were given the task to come up with the correct scheme of work at first. We were required to prepare a daily scheme of work to demonstrate how the four skills such as the content, grammar and educational emphases are integrated and developed.

After a serious discussion my fellow friend and i decided to choose year 3 scheme of work because both of us are teaching level 1 and we thought it would be easier to carry out the lesson later. Unfortunately our scheme of work was rejected by our lecturer a few times. Then later on with our lecturers guidance and reference books we managed to produce a better scheme of work. While planning the weekly scheme of work we took into consideration the principle of 3Ps. After completing the weekly plan we moved on to yearly scheme of work. Then lastly we produced our lesson. We have chosen the best lesson plan to be carried out in the

classroom. Since my fellow friend had done a good job on the lesson plan I decided to choose his lesson plan to teach my pupils at my school.

The reason I have chosen his lesson plan to be carried out in my school was just because the level of the pupils are almost same to my pupils in my school. They were not excellent pupils but are average ability pupils. So the lesson was quite easy to carry out and it was easy for them to understand. Furthermore my pupils had the previous knowledge about the topic and they are familiar with the topic too. The topic is very simple I guessed because what they are going to learn is about action words which is interrelated to their daily lives. This topic is very useful for them because it helps them to enhance their knowledge in using the English Language properly. They have learnt simple words, phrases and sentence structure throughout the lesson which I think motivates them to learn the language in a meaningful and fun way.

The topic which we have chosen was Things I Do. During the set induction I played the recorded song of The Mulberry Bush which has action words. They been introduced indirectly the topic for the day. The enjoyed listening to the song and was ready to go further of the lesson after a few questions about the song. They were eager to move on to the next step.

After the set induction, I showed them the power point presentation. Here I taught them how to pronounce the words with the correct intonation and stress. I showed them the vocabularies with the help of the pictures together. I asked the pupils to read the words after me. I corrected their intonation and pronunciation. I found that they pronounce a few words wrongly such as wear, comb and brush. I corrected them with the right stress and intonation. Besides, I emphasized that listening and speaking skill is an important skills too if pupils wanted to master better English. According to Calore Cox, in words study, pupils analyze the meaning, structures, and sounds of words and then apply what they learn to new words they encounter in reading and use when writing.

Next, I said the action words and asked the pupils to listen and circle the correct words using the worksheet. This is to asses pupils listening skill and ability and to begin with easy task as a motivation to learn more and feel the sense of accomplishment.

Then, I called the pupils in pairs to pick a picture and his partner picks a related word. They say the word and other pupils say aloud the word after them. Then they paste them on the board. All pupils copy down the words on the worksheet given accordingly. The pupils completed the worksheet and I walked around the class to monitor and assisted those weaker pupils. I guided some of the pupils as they were not able to answer all the questions.

When I carried out the lesson plan that I have done for the year 3 pupils it was observed by my head of English panel En. Syafiq bin Sharani. He gave some comments and appr eciated my work.

I realized that there were some strengths and weakness in my microteaching. First I would say that my lesson went very smoothly and had achieved a success because the pupils showed great interest and enjoyed the learning process. They showed positives attitudes and earganess when I used the power point presentation as teaching aids. Now days they prefer something interesting rather than using the old method of chalk and talk. I could noticed the pupils were able to cope with my lesson by reading the words with correct pronunciation, intonation and stress.

Not forgetting our beloved lecturer Miss Kon helped me and gave me enough time to complete my assignment due to my mistakes and was very understanding of my situation as a teacher full of commitments. She gave motivation and encouragement to complete my work successfully.

There were some weaknesses that I found throughout the lesson. Some of the pupils were not participated well in the learning process due to their bad health. The work that I had done in the power point could be upgraded with other necessary information, useful and colourful pictures should be inserted as well to arouse their interest towards the lesson.

Even though I encountered many problems to complete my assignment I managed to complete it finally. I also learnt to provide feedback to my peer that was very helpful to him in his up coming teaching and learning process. On the other hand, I was not happy when given task in pair work. Sometimes It was difficult to work in pairs because the partner is far way from us and difficult to communicate with them. Anyhow I managed to co-operate with him and finished the task effectively.

Apart from that, the school itself should create and provide more opportunities for the pupils to learn English. The more chances for the pupils to expose to the environment to speak targeted languages, their ability of speaking no doubt will be immensely improved. Therefore teachers are playing a very prominent role to educate the children effectively.