Lesson Plan 3

January 20's lesson plan was a review session for my student Arvin. We tackled the two letters we had already covered, 'M' and 'A'. More than a review session, however, this lesson introduced the concept of blending sounds together. The sound 'ma-' is very common in the Filipino language. It denotes a variety of adjectives such as "malungkot" ("ma-" + lungkot or sad), "masaya" ("ma-" + saya or cheerful), "matakaw" ("ma-" + "takaw" or gluttonous).

Maliit na Maya and the Wordless Picture Book

The stories I let Arvin read consisted of "Maliit na Maya" (The Small Eurasian Tree Swallow or Maya Bird) and a Wordless Picture Book entitled "Nang Sumakit ang Ngipin ni Mando". Maliit na Maya tells the story of a girl named Maan and a small tree swallow she encounters in a mango plantation.

Nang Sumakit ang Ngipin ni Mando illustrates the story of a boy named Mando who eats too much candy and suffers a tooth ache.

After the reading activity, I asked Arvin a series of reading comprehension questions, all of which began with the "ma-" prefix. Some of the words in the story used included 'Maan', 'maya', 'mangga' and 'manggahan' (mango and mango plantation, respectively), and 'maliit' (small).

Letter Hanger

One of the more fun activities I prepared for Arvin was the 'letter hanger'. Basically, pictures of words beginning with the letters 'M' and 'A' are strung and hung onto the hanger, allowing them to dangle, almost like a toy mobile.

Arvin's task was to take the pictures that started with the same letter and group them together. This activity is both a fun and effective educational experience for the child. They get to connect the sounds, letters and words together and understand the lesson; all without boring the child out and frustrating them to learn something.

Tachistoscope

A new teaching tool was introduced to us: the tachistoscope.

The tachistoscope is basically a piece of paper with windows and adjustable letter cards. Each letter card consists of at least two or more letters that can be adjusted upwards or downwards, forming a variety of combinations and helping the child learn blending letters to form different words.

Other Activities

Aside from the ones mentioned above, our professor also prepared three activities for the kids. One of them had a set of pictures with blanks, and the child had to correctly identify the word from a bunch of scattered letters (mostly 'M's and 'A's). The other activity was pretty much the same, but the child was made to write the word down on the worksheet. The last one was a variant of the memory game. Here, the child was given two piles: a pile of pictures and a pile of name cards, arranged randomly on the floor. I had Arvin play the game, to help him correctly match the words with the pictures.

Lesson Plan 2

For January 13's session, my student Arvin and I tackled our second letter in the Marungko approach: 'A'. This was the first time for the new year that we saw each other again, so this lesson plan was a great way to review our previous lesson, the one on the letter 'M'.

Isang Mainit na Umaga and the Wordless Picture Book

This session had two stories. Isang Mainit na Umaga (One Hot Morning) is told from the first-person perspective and features food eaten on a hot day. The Wordless Picture Book, Ang Bisikleta ni Alon (Alon's Bicycle) illustrates the story of a boy named Alon who takes a ride on his bike, and gets a flat tire.

Some of the words that were used to help with the lesson were 'Alon', 'atis' (Philippine sugar apple), and 'apa' (ice cream cone).

Phonological Awareness

One of the activities we engaged in was a ready-set-go sort of game. In this activity, I laid down a batch of pictures whose first letters were either 'M' or 'A'. About four feet from that, I laid down a sheet of paper marked 'M', and another marked 'A'. Arvin's goal was to grab a picture and run to the sheets of paper and lay down the picture to its corresponding letter.

This game also served as a review for the previously tackled letter, 'M'.

Coloring Activity

Another activity of note was the coloring activity. I gave Arvin some crayons and an activity sheet where he had to color the pictures whose words started with the letter 'M' in yellow, and those that started with 'A' in red.

Mid-Semester Evaluation

Our very first session for the year, January 6 was not spent with our students. Instead, we held an evaluation of the Literacy Training Service (LTS) program in the College of Education, the home college of the program.

The session lasted from 8:30 until around 11 in the morning. Here we convened with the other LTS team, the Balara team, as well as our professors. It consisted mostly of us sharing experiences and problems that we've encountered so far, and our professors advising us on possible solutions and troubleshooting steps.

We shall resume our sessions with our students the following week, with our second lesson plan.

Lesson Plan 1

December 16's session was the last for the year before the Christmas vacation. This was also our first lesson plan, which will be followed by more lesson plans next year. For our first lesson, we tackled the letter 'M'. The order of the letters in the Filipino Alphabet with which we will teach our students is actually based on the Marungko Approach, aptly named after a professor who researched and arranged the letters by their degree of ease in a child's learning process.

A Story of Marie

One of the first activities of note was a story session. I pointed to my student the different pictures in a given set, and provided with a guide on the story, began to narrate the food "Marie" ate. Some of the words used to aid the lesson of pronouncing 'M' were 'Marie', 'mamon' (Filipino sponge cake), 'mangga' (mango), and 'masaya' (cheerful; happy). I think that making the lessons into stories is a very practical, creative and fun approach to helping the students learn and review the concepts of the letters and their sounds.

Practice and Coloring

The next activity had a few cut-out pictures, and my student Arvin had to group them into two: Merong Mm (Does have an Mm) and Walang Mm (Does not have an Mm).

Another activity worth noting was the coloring activity towards the end of the lesson. Handing Arvin a yellow crayon, I asked him to color the pictures that started with the letter 'M'.

Pre-Assessment Day

The Monday after our screening test, we were assigned our students. I got assigned to an 8-year old named Arvin. He recently celebrated his birthday, and is taller and healthier than most of the kids in his year. We had several activities that constituted the pre-assessment, including reading comprehension and writing exercises that pretty much gave me an idea of his level of learning and how to pace the lessons.

I'm really excited to handle Arvin in the months to come!

Screening Test; a very Chinese day

If you recall my previous blog post, our group recently visited the sites we would teach in. There are two groups, or teams: Our group, the San Vicente group, would be teaching at the San Vicente Elementary School. The other group, the Balara group, would be teaching at the Balara Elementary School.

Some members of the San Vicente Team (in white)
and of the Balara Team (in blue) at the College of Education.

Some members of the San Vicente Team.

Kuya Chinese

Two Mondays after our visit, we administered screening tests to the students. We were grouped into pairs, and were further partnered with members of the Balara group. Our group had four volunteer tutors, and were assigned to the section II-Piña (Pineapple), consisting of 42 children. When I stepped in the room, I was greeted by such a wave of enthusiasm from the second-graders, some even calling me and asking if I was Chinese. Later they gave me a nickname of sorts, "Kuya Chinese" (the Filipino title 'Kuya' means 'big brother' in English).

The screening test was a simple diagnostic test, consisting of reading and writing exercises, reading comprehension parts and other similar activities. Since there were four of us, we were able to alternate administering the test, which on our part was mostly oral dictation.

Students from San Vicente Elementary School.
They are holding the screening test.

At around 11:30, we finished administering the screening test, and were about to leave when suddenly this mob of waist-high children surrounded me and were hugging and giving me high-fives. It was extremely touching, that just after two hours of handling them, they had taken to our group with such rapport. They told me, "Kuya, balik kayo ha!" (Kuya, come back soon!) and I assured them that I would be back.

Zai jian

Having lunch at McDonald's.

We left the site to have short lunch at McDonalds. We finished our lunches and left McDonalds at around 12, and made our way back to the home college of the Literacy Training Service (LTS) program, the College of Education. From there, we had a short orientation for our next site, Balara Elementary School.

The students in each classroom for this site were more compared to San Vicente, having around 60 in a room. Our group of four was assigned to II-Matulungin (Helpful). In under two hours, we finished administering the entire exam to the students. As we were about to leave the room, the students asked to learn "good bye" in Mandarin Chinese, and quickly I instructed them the pronunciation of 再見 (zai jian) and said that it wasn't exactly 'good bye', but 'see you soon', ending the day on a more positive note.

We're Going on an Exposure Trip!

I apologize for my late update, school has kept me busy, and tonight is a sudden respite from my projects.

This happened two Mondays ago, on the 11th. It was officially the first day of classes for me, classes having been suspended due to the supertyphoon which hit several areas in the Visayas and Mindanao areas of the Philippines. If you'd like to donate to the victims, please do contact your local government officials on how to help. I made a three-part blog entry on how to help, which may be accessed here, here, and here.

On to the blog proper

That Monday morning was filled with excitement. I woke up earlier than usual, which is to say a lot, since I have a very intimate relationship with my bed. I was excited to finally visit our teaching sites for the Literacy Training Service (LTS) Program, which we were grouped and assigned to the previous semester.

A portion of the San Vicente group.
On our way to San Vicente elementary school via jeep!

Our group, the San Vicente group, wore white, while the other group, the Balara group, wore blue. Our group names were taken from the elementary schools we were assigned to. Our class then split up and made our way to our sites at around 9 in the morning.

A few of us San Vicentes got on a jeep and were actually surprised to find the rest of our team waiting for us outside the entrance!

The gates to San Vicente Elementary School.

We were really excited as we made our way into the school. We waited in the quadrangle with our professors while waiting for the school representatives to meet us there. A few minutes and a few careless shots later, the principal and head teacher came out to welcome us.

Inside the school quadrangle, waiting for the principal and head teacher to meet us.

The best shot I could get of my professors and the school representatives.
From left to right: Two of our professors, the principal, the head teacher, and our other professor.

After the representatives welcomed us and thanked us for volunteering in the LTS program, we were given a tour of the grade 2 classrooms. Each room had around 40 to 45 students. Our program will focus on the students of this year level, the students we will take on for the program will be determined by a screening test which we actually administered just this Monday. (Two weeks after this trip)

I will, I will.

We left the school after the tour. Too bad we didn't get the chance to take a group photo! Some of my classmates left immediately. One of these days, I will get a group photo. I will, I will.