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CONTENT PAGE

Introduction 2

Day 1 4

Day 2 7

Day 3 10

Day 4 13

Day 5 16

Reflection 19

Materials 22
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INTRODUCTION

This is a journal of my School-Based Experince on the 16th to 20th

August 2009 at Sekolah Kebangsaan Bukit Sawa, Terengganu. I have chosen
the school because I heard the education system in Terengganu is very good
and it makes me feel interested to see how the system works.

Following that, I need to complete the given assignment from the

lecturer throughout my School-Based Experience. I have to work closely with
my coordinating teacher and look for the types of communicative activities
used by the teacher, analyse teacher’s instructional language and
questioning techniques. Also, I have to compare teacher’s and learner’s roles
and identify effective classroom management. Lastly, I have to collect
samples of remedial and enrichment activities and write journals based on
the observations.

All of the reports are based on my experiences at the school through

observations, interviews, references and discussion with all the school’s
members. I hope this journal could helps me in order to be a good-quality
teacher one day.
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DAY 1 : Observing English Language Class

Date : 16th August 2009

Day : Sunday

I have sought permission from an English Language teacher and I was

allowed to observe standard three students in 3 Bestari class. It is the best
standard 3 class among the four classes in the school.

It was an hour period lesson and I looked at the types of

communicative activities used by the teacher in the classroom and teacher’s
instructional language and questioning techniques. I sat at the back of the
classroom so that I could see the teaching and learning process clearly. Also,
I took some pictures and interviewed the teacher for the records what I have
observed.

The lesson started at 11 am with the topic ‘Plants’. Teacher started the
induction set with questions and answers session. She asked the students
about plants and their experiences with it. Students’ responses were really
good and they love to share their own stories with the class. Then, she
showed a picture of a chili plant and described clearly about it. She told
about the structure of the plant, the colour, the habitat and the use of it.

After that, teacher divided students into five groups and asked them to
draw and labeled the chili plant on the mahjong paper given with the group
members. Teacher gave students 15 minutes to complete the task. Then, a
representative of each group presented the task and explained about their
drawings and share with the class members.

Later, teacher distributed exercise paper about plants to each student

and they were encouraged to complete the exercise with their peer. They
were allowed to discuss in pair or in groups. After they have done the
exercise, teacher discussed the answer with the whole class and let the
volunteers to answer each and every question. Finally, the class dismissed
after a short closure.
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On the whole, I could see that the teacher used many types of
communicative activities. In example, questions and answers session, group
work and pair discussion. The students engaged actively in all the activities
and they seem like to enjoy the lesson. In addition, the teacher’s
instructional language was very simple and easy to understand. Teacher
used simple English words and tried her best to used very limited Bahasa
Melayu words. She only used Bahasa Melayu words to translate some
complex English words. The teacher used the simplest way of questioning
techniques. She asked the questions that the answers were very familiar
with the students. It is because she wants students’ responses as many as
they could and to encouraged them to involve in the communication.
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DAY 2 : Observing for teacher’s and learner’s roles

Date : 17th August 2009

Day : Monday

On the second day, I get permission to observed standard 4 Cerdas. At

this time, I looked for teacher’s and learner’s roles through teaching and
learning process. I have interviewed the teacher and recorded the data’s
through lesson observation form and captured pictures.
During the observation, I noticed that the teacher used two teaching
strategies in her lesson which is teacher-oriented and learner-centered
strategy. Teacher-oriented strategy was shown at the introduction session of
the lesson, teacher referred English text book and started to teach the topic
entitled ‘Sports’. Teacher read the comprehension dialogue and explained to
the students. At this time, teacher is a controller and performer while the
student is the listener or audience. Also, there was only one way of
communication during this time.

Learner-centered strategy was proven when lesson activities started.

During the activities session, teacher asked the student to get in a group and
read the dialogue. Then, they have to choose a representative for their group
to make a role-play based on the dialogue. At this time, teacher’s role was as
an observer and a facilitator who observes and helps students during the
role-play. On the other hand, students’ role was as a performer, presenter
and controller. They performed actions as in the dialogue; they presented
their acting creativity and controlled the situation. At this time, there was
two ways of communication process because teacher also helped students in
the role-play.

As a result of my observation, both the teacher and the learners’ roles

were important during the teaching and learning process. This is because
both sides have to play their own role effectively so that both sides could
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achieve their goal. In this class situation, the teaching and learning process
take place effectively because I could see the students were enjoyed doing
all the activities and the teacher said she reached her learning outcomes
that day.
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DAY 3 : Observing Classroom Management

Date : 18th August 2009

Day : Tuesday

The third day observation was to find out how a teacher manages her
classroom for learning and the different teaching styles. On the day, I get the
opportunities to observe standard 5 Pintar.

Before the class begun, all the students were line up outside the
classroom because the class was at 7.45 am which was after the school bell
rang. After they have done their prayer, they entered the classroom, cleaned
up the class and sat at their own places. Then, teacher entered the
classroom and prepared for the lesson. Suddenly, there was a sound of a
phone ringing, “ring ring”. The entire student looked for the sound and then
teacher asked what the sound was. Actually the topic of the lesson of the
day was ‘Getting Connected’ and that was how the teacher gained the
pupil’s attention. Then, teacher explained and gave an overview about the
topic.

After that, teacher asked students to take out their ‘E-Book’ or an

electronic book and searched for the topic. Students followed the instruction
and read the comprehension dialogue on the topic. Then, teacher read the
dialogue and the whole students imitated her. Later, teacher called some
volunteers to act a role-play in front of the class. One boy and one girl
volunteered themselves to be in the play. The lesson continued with a group
discussion about the topic. Teacher divided students into four groups and
they had to discuss with the group members about the advantages and
disadvantages of telephone. Students were allowed to move around the
class and chose their own working area. They could sat at the back of the
classroom, had their group circle or any kind of discussion style they had
preferred. They used their E-book to access the resources and teacher
moved around the class to observe and monitored the discussion progress.
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Also, teacher helped and support students who were weak and work slowly
than the others. She explained clearly to them about what they have to do
and get the peers who are work more quickly to help the weak ones. Not
only that, teacher told the students to raised up their hand if there was any
inquiries and came over to the teacher to get the explanation.

After the discussion time, teacher asked the group representative to

present their group work in front of the class. After all the group had
presented their task, teacher asked all the student to sat at their own places
and kept all the apparatus or materials like the e-book, mahjong paper and
marker pens. Then, teacher let the monitor collected all the group’s tasks
and asked them to put it on the class wall. Later, teacher had a short closure
by giving a feedback about their group work and gave reward to the best
group presentation. Lesson ended with a reminder from the teacher to
students to complete their E-book exerciseand students lined up outside the
class to go to the computer lab for the next lesson.

Based on my observation, the teacher was able to manage the

inappropriate behavior. It had shown when some of the students were talking
during the lesson. Teacher called the students’ name and asked them what
they were talking about. They automatically stopped talking and focus at the
lesson. Also, the teacher gave a compliment and a reward (sticker) to
students who showed a good behavior during the class. That was the way of
the teacher to encourage positive behavior in the classroom.
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DAY 4 : Techniques in Teaching Language Skills

Date : 19th August 2009

Day : Wednesday

On the fourth day of my School-Based Experience, I get the chance to

observe Puan Baki Setia English lesson. The purpose of the observation was
to see her techniques in teaching language skills.

As a result of the observation, I noticed that she is a good quality

teacher. The way she brought herself to class was very confident and
organized. Her voice projection was very loud and clear and that was made
her looked very sure in her presentation. Also, she kept an eye contact with
all her students to make sure they were focused and listened to the lesson.

In addition, she asked question frequently and used facial expression

and body movements while teaching. In the other hand, she looked very
assertive and care about the students’ needs. She marked any student who
looked confused and not understand what had she taught and repeated
again until the student understood. Not only that, her production stages
looked systematic because she stood in front of the class, at the center
where every student could saw her. Sometimes, she moved around the class
to monitor the students at the back. Also, her presentation time was
organized very well and she could control all her students in a time.

The topic of the lesson was ‘Animal and Us’ and the students were
learning about ‘Pet’. Puan Baki Setia integrated all the four language skills
which were listening, speaking, reading and writing in her lesson. She started
the lesson with reading skill where all of the students read the
comprehension text in their E-book. Then, she used a radio and let the
students hear to a dialogue and animals sounds. She asked the students
about the dialogue and sounds they heard and let the students to guess
what the sound was. Later, she got back to the comprehension dialogue and
called three students to read out loud the dialogue. After that, she discussed
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about the comprehension dialogue with the students and explained to them
what all was about. The lesson continued with writing activity where student
had to write a short essay about their favourite pet.

In addition, grammar and vocabulary also integrated in her lesson. She

requested the students brought a dictionary every time during English
lesson. That was because she wanted her students to learn grammar and
vocabulary on their own. They were encouraged to search in the dictionary
for the word that they do not understand.
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DAY 5 : Types of Remedial and Enrichment Activities

Date : 20th August 2009

Day : Thursday

I have collected the samples of remedial and enrichment worksheets

from the teacher I have observed. The remedial and enrichments materials
are for standard 5 students. I have compared and contrast both worksheets.

COMPARISON
i. Both worksheets are based on students’ ability. Enrichment worksheet
is for students who learn quickly and remedial worksheet is for
students who are slower than others.
ii. Both worksheets are based on mastery-learning where the students
have to master every level from bottom to reach the top level.
iii. The reasons to complete the worksheets are to identify students’
ability, level of understanding, their strengths and weaknesses.
iv. Teacher could use the worksheets as a testimony of students’ records
of achievements or failure, other than examination papers.
v. The worksheets are based on English syllabus and both are created by
the teacher.
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CONTRAST
Enrichment Remedial
i. Set for the high-flyer i. Set for the weak achiever
i. The task is difficult and i. The task is easy and
challenging straightforward
i. Helps to polish students’ i. Helps to enhance students’
strengths weaknesses
i. Difficulty level of task increase i. The exercise repeats until
when student mastered a level students master the topic/level.
i. To encourage students to be i. To teach strategies for coping
more interested in learning. with future difficulties.
i. Enhance a student’s education i. To close the gap between the
by bringing new concepts to students in the class.
light or using old concepts in
new ways.
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REFLECTION

Five days of School-Based Experience in Sekolah Kebangsaan Bukit

Sawa, Terengganu have given me a lot of information, experiences,
knowledge, skills, and have changed my impression towards many things
such as students’ ability, teacher’s credibility, schools’ environment and
school’s facilities.

I felt very happy and thankful because I have given the chance to
observe and learnt many things from the observations. I learned many things
through the observation and interviews on the first day. As a teacher, I have
to know how to create the activities for my students. Teacher should know
the abilities of his/her students because not all of them have the same
abilities. Some of the students are weak and some are excellent. Also,
teacher should know how to make student involve actively in the teaching
and learning process so that the teaching and learning goals could be
achieve.

On the second day, I could see the relationship or repo between the
teacher and her students. She tried her best to make the students engaged
actively in the teaching and learning process. Teacher’s role was as a
coordinator, instructor, and sometimes as a friend to the students. On the
other hand, learner’s role was as a listener, an audience, a performer and
sometimes as a ‘teacher’ to the others. I have learnt that as a teacher, I
should know how to play my role in the class. I have to create the activities
creatively so that both sides (teacher and student) could play their role
actively in class.

The third day of observation of standard 5 Pintar has changed a bit of

my impression towards school’s kids. My assumption was standard 5
students could behave themselves appropriately in class because they were
big enough. Actually, it was wrong because it was not easy to control them! I
learnt many things about classroom management from the teacher that day.
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When the teacher walked in to the class, automatically the class were
soundless and everyone seem like were ready for the lesson. I have asked
the teacher how she copes with the students, and she said that as a teacher
we should be assertive and be strict to the students in the right way. Not
only that, I have noticed that the way of the teacher ‘keep in touch’ with the
students during the lesson were very good. She kept an eye-contact with the
entire students in the class and always interacts actively with them. Also,
she used a reward technique in avoiding potential behavior problem.

My observation continued until the fourth day where I have to look for
teacher’s techniques in teaching language skills. Puan Baki Setia credibility is
very good and high-quality. I have learnt many things from her teaching and
learning techniques. The way she presented her lesson in the class was very
organized and systematic. She looked very confident with herself. Also, her
voice projection, body language and facial expression were excellent and
interesting. So, as a teacher, I should follow her style of presentation so that
my lesson could be interesting and motivating.

As a result of my School-Based Experience, I was very surprised when

the first time I knew that each student in standard five could have their own
‘E-book’ or an electronic book. They were using the E-book in their lesson
without using a text book. The E-book was given by The Ministry of State
Education Terengganu to all the standard five students in Terengganu
started this year. The best part was it is free! How lucky they are. I felt very
thankful and excited during the five days in Sekolah Kebangsaan Bukit Sawa
because I have given the chance to learn many things from head to toe. I
hope I could apply all the experiences, knowledge and skills I have learnt
throughout the School-Based Experience later, when I have become a real
graduated teacher.
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