SIXTH DAY 15 OCTOBER 2014

AN OVERVIEW BY NORDIYANA BINTI MOHD. RANI 

Action, horror, romantic, drama, thriller. These movie genres sound very much familiar to us. Like movies, we also have genres in teaching by where we call the teaching process as a genre-based approach. This is a part of the lesson that we had in Slot 1 on Wednesday with Andrew that is ‘Language Demands of Subject Content and Accompanying Tasks’. 

Basically, there are two major genres which are spoken and written. There are different genres with distinctive features that we use as a teaching approach in order to help learners to develop awareness of the language related to their specific subjects. Writing report for example, is most likely fundamental in learners’ studies therefore it is teachers’ responsibility to be aware of the language demands of this genre. 

 In Slot 2 with Carol, we discussed the topic ‘Cognitive and Higher Order Thinking Skills across the Curriculum’. 

Cognitive skills or thinking skills can be divided into two categories which are LOTS (lower order thinking skills) while the other one goes with the acronym HOTS that stands for higher order thinking skills. There is a range of skills that we can enhance and develop in learners’ cognitive skills for example concrete information processing skills like indentifying and organising information along with more abstract thinking skills such as reasoning and hypothesising. By making themselves aware of developing students’ thinking skills, teachers will be able to help learners to utilize their cognitive skills besides fulfilling the language demands of a particular task. 

 For the last slot on Wednesday, we had Bill to facilitate us on the topic ‘Consolidating Learning with Differentiation and Mixed Ability Groups’. Generally, there is always a mix of different abilities in a single classroom, unless if you are teaching ‘one-to-one’. Thus, it is more likely that teachers cannot use a single set of fixed materials to teach a subject to a classroom. It is just like you asking learners to wear the same size shoes. We know that all of them cannot fit into the same materials so what we need to have is personalisation by where we can set up a tiered or biased task and text so that each individual students will be able to cope with the lesson. 

Preparing open-ended activities is also another way of catering these mixed ability groups’ needs, plus teachers can also give differentiated homework to learners. Whatever materials, tasks or activities that we plan for the learners, it is best to put them as a priority so that we can ensure that the aims of learning are highly achieved. 

Pen- off -Oxford