Reflections of visiting Taipei Municipal LSSH
First of all, I would like to appreciate our teacher to give us such a precious experience to visit LSSH. The first idea that came through my mind upon seeing this high school was “What a nice place to study!” On that beautiful Wednesday morning, we attended and observed two English classes. I sincerely thank the teachers of the two classes for letting me know what the English course at today’s high schools is all about. My personal thoughts and reflections on the two classes are as followed.
The first class was given by Ms. Liu. And the students were eleven graders; most of who are males. The lesson taught in that class is a simplified version of a story from mythology. The story was about the origin of echo. Undoubtedly, the lesson consists of a lot of allusions which are even strange to many college students. I doubt this kind of topic can activate those teenagers’ motivation to study it. Motivation has been proved to be one of the most crucial determiners for successful learning. When I studied in senior high school, one of the lessons in English the textbook was about U.S. professional baseball. I am a super baseball fan; therefore, I can still remember the contents of the lesson today. I am not saying that literature is a bad topic; on the contrary, I adore literature, but for those high school kids, we really choose some topics related to sports, movie stars or pop singers etc. Because most of them still look up to Lebron James, Rainei Yang and Jolin Tsai more than the great Shakespear and T.S. Elliot. The other thing that really attracted my attetion was that in both classes the teachers used English for most of the time. I was astonished at the very beginning, but later I noticed that English was used to give students orders or requests only. I think that was really wise. Because it is important to immerse students in a environment where English is spoken. Through repetion of those frequently-occured classroom English, students can get used to them and even learn those phrases by heart unconsciously and gradually.
The second class that we observed was more interested and student-centered than the first one. The teacher gave each of the learners whom are twelve graders a piece of sheet. On that sheet was some problem the learners thought they were facing. After they finish writing down their problems, they have to find another students to be the councler. The councler had to write his or her opinions on the sheet as a recipe. It is a good way to develop students’ creativity and imagination. The other activity was poem writing. The teacher gave students a sample of a type of poem called “Dialogue Poems”. And then, students were asked to find a partner and they have to cooperate with each other to come up with a so called dialogue poem. I am also fund of writing English poems, so I also write one at the same time. I would like to share my “masterpiece” with all of you here. The title of it was “Ode to Major League Baseball” to honor the upcoming 2007 baseball season.
Moony night Starry night
Exciting games held under light
Big Unit pitches a strike
Big Papi swings it fly high
Brilliant fielder locks the little white
No doubt it won’t go awry
As long as eye can see
As long as men can live
Major League will always be.
To conclude, I think I saw a perfect example to develop students’ writing skill during the session. It was really a nice experience; I had learned a lot.
While you find mythology a bit boring or unrelated to students’ life, students find the stories fascinating…if their teacher delivers the content in a very interesting or innovative way. It’s interesting that so far I haven’t found any lesson in the textbooks cover any pop culture except stories about Yo-yo Ma and Christopher Reeve (Super Man). There are stories that are meant to inspire teenagers by providing them with good models, too. There’s not much literature, indeed, for some reason. Overall, the readings in textbooks don’t seem to be as interesting as those in the magazines such as Studio Classroom. But luckily, we have many to choose from besides the textbooks as outside readings. Personally, I enjoy a little taste of literature in the textbook for a change. It gives a balance to some extent.