Lesson 2: Congratulations is a big word

Well, today was my second lesson for my 1st group of students. Only 3 of them turned up today, 2 were absent from school. Believing that they are the healed of the LORD.

As the syllabus was not in yet by class time, I chose to get them started on Dr. Seuss's "Oh the places you'll go!" As you know, Dr. Seuss is a very humorous read with many rhyming words. I thought it would be easy for the kids.

In fact, I thought a story book I'd brought along with me from home was far too simple for them. Kae had set aside some books from his collection of books he has already outgrown at my parent's during a visit there. Sweety carted them back for me in his school bag. =)  He's very fond of the kor kors and jie jies that I teach,  and frequently asks me about their progress. He even discusses with me about my lesson plans for the kids. Hahaha. =)  I think my little bookworm really hopes that they can read and he does say short prayers for them to learn how to read well and fast. ^.-

The first word of the Dr. Seuss book made the 3 of them gawk. "CONGRATULATIONS" loomed more than it congratulated, and the 3 kiddos were intimidated by the 5 syllable monster of a word.

Here is the bit I got them to read (copyright Dr. Seuss naturally) -  

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

You'll look up and down streets. Look 'em over with care.
About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there."
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

And you may not find any
you'll want to go down.
In that case, of course, 
you'll head straight out of town.

Back to CONGRATULATIONS - I got them to break the word down into smaller bite size bits.

C-ON-G-R-A-TU-L-A-TION-S

C as in Cat

ON as in "Turn ON the lights."

G as in Game

R as in Red

A as in Apple, Ant

TU sounds like you're saying out the number 2

L as in Less

A sounds just like it is in its alphabet form

TION sounds like "shurn" and can be found in shorter words like Action, Station

S - don't forget to end with a sssss like a Snake

The smile that broke upon their faces when they realised they were able to read the word was really priceless- a mixture of pride, bashfulness, relief  and joy! =D

I thought with the big word cleared, the rest should be no sweat. But we did run into a few hiccups - they pronounced "steer" as "stree" and "with" as "the",  "some" became "something", "care" was "car"... 

In fact I dun blame that for strugging with "great" as well, because well... they might have broken it down into "g-r-eat" and eat sounds nothing like ate. =pp

The 3 pages take about 57 seconds to be read at a normal pace (yes I got Kae to do a recording so I could time him), but they took between 3-7 minutes to struggle through them.

You must understand the kids are graded also by their speed and that is one of the primary criterias for putting them into the various reading grade levels.

I am wondering how we will ever get a whole book properly learnt and conquered in 2 lessons when 3 pages, that were more like 3 paragraphs really, was stumbling them. Hopefully when we start on the proper book next week, they will be more comfortable at breaking down the words and reading them phonetically. I read the same passage to them several times after each try, but if they get page 2 right, they forget page 1 and by the time we're done with page 3, they've all but forgotten page 2. 

The whole KPI crap is quite nerve wrecking- basically must hit MOE set targets of improving their reading times and abilities. I feel that we are not going at it right, that we can move even faster, make more progress if we lay again the foundation of phonetics from the start. It's no use telling me yes they make these sort of mistake, and not thinking out of the box to help correct the issue. But then again I am just a humble ikan bilis amongst the "more experienced" teachers and professionals. Perhaps there is a bigger game plan that I am just not yet seeing. Hmmm.

I started on giving out chops today for the kids to collect in their student handbooks and redeem for a prize at the end of the term. Tomorrow, I will start handing out "Passports" for them to collect the stamps. It will be like Children's Church in NCC- the more you collect, the more points you have to redeem a gift. Everyone gets a gift at the end of the day lah and I am not trying to be legalistic. I just hope this motivates them to try harder. I've promised them that it won't just be pencils as one boy mumbled it probably was. If anyone wants to sponsor a book prize or a toy, let me know? =)  Perhaps you can pen an encouragement message to the child on your prize. I have 15 kids up for "prize adoption" then. I know many of them come from pretty low income families so I can imagine how much it will mean to them that people, even strangers out there, care that they can read and read well. 

Anyway after class, I went to submit the attendance for the day and the HOD was there. She asked me why I have not considered entering teaching as a career. I told her frankly that I love it as a part time job ,but might not have the stamina to do it full time. (Actually I just am not fond of the way the civil service works locally for now. =pp Besides, MOE is not going to give 2 hoots about passion and aptitude when I dun have the "papers" they want. =pp) What was amusing was she asked me this question after complaining about 5-8 minutes about her horrible work load, not having a chance to rest, working 7 days a week... Lol not the best advertisement for a career in teaching no? Then, she caught sight of some postcards I held in my hands and took them to have a look. I'd written letters to Ian on those cards. I thought she wanted to see the pictures that were on the reverse side,  so I did not stop her when she took the stack to look-see. I felt grossly offended however when she started to read them!!! =pp It was kinda obvious you know that she was reading them. =p I think it was rude of her but I did not want to make a big deal of it because we were in the office and I would not want to embarrass her (senior staff mah). The Brit teacher (a fellow facilitator) who was standing with us looked a bit surprised at her actions. It is universally rude to read other people's mail. Ah well. It's okay. It was all mushy so haha. I let her be and told him about how the postage was free to send overseas. I also told the HOD that she could get free postcards from most cafes and shops these days, as she wanted to get hold of some to get the older kids to practice letter writing on them.  

The Brit teacher and I walked off to the back gate together and he was sharing about the books his wife got from the library for him to teach the kids from. The thing is those books seem like what the kids need, but it will be tough to cover those books and complete the syllabus set for us to complete at the same time. He also told me about a Brit series on ITV that had a delightful premise and concept. I hope local TV doesn't steal ideas from overseas all the time so I ain't gonna talk about it here. Lol. I hope more and more producers and writers will think of new and interesting ideas. I know it is tough, but I really hope we can do more than just pirate someone else's idea. 

Well, it is 0007 of 23/7 already and my batts down by half. Ian should be coming online soon so I'll wash up and wait for my Prince Charming. =)  Another class tomorrow, and yet another on Friday. I believe Daddy God's gone ahead to prepare me and my students for the lesson. Phew! =D