Justification (Poem)

This poem was chosen because it is suitable for pupils in year 1 to year 3.The theme
are world of stories. The poem is a rhyme poem. There are few reasons why I think this
poem is suitable for students in primary school. Let us look at the pedagogical principles in
choosing primary school children poetry which have been my guidelines in choosing this
poem.

The first concern is on the students language level. Level of language proficiency
varies from one person to another. Therefore, I prefer to start with an easy one as a way to
motivate students to love language. The poem is suitable for the Malaysian Primary
Classroom which consists of pupils with different proficiency levels. This poem is really
simple and easy for them to recite. Most of the words are very easy and can be easily
understood by pupils as they have already learnt those words in year 1 to year 3 such as
frog, rabbit, turtle, dog, rat and so on. The lines of the poems are comprehensible to every
pupil even though there might be some difficult words for pupils with low English proficiency.
For instance, pupils with low proficiency might be having difficulties to understand some
words such as fondest, smidgen, purchased, installing and delivered. Therefore, the teacher
will start the lesson with vocabulary activities before moving further to its deep meaning.
Ideas are not too complex and easy to understand. However, those difficult words would help
the pupils to improve their vocabulary as they could learn new words through the poem.

The second pedagogical concern is on content. This content of the poem is suitable
as it talks about animals, or pets. It is also fulfilling the criteria that had been given in the
content standard and the learning standard for year 2 pupils. With a good content, the
teacher could plan a lot of activities. It is important for the pupils to engage in fun yet
meaningful and purposeful learning activities. This poem caters to the need of every pupil
which is to have a fun learning activity. This poem is fun as there are a lot of their favorite
animals. Those kinds of activities are suitable for pupils with the age of 7 and 10 years old.
This poem is meaningful and purposeful as it helps pupils to improve their reading skills and
vocabulary. It depends on the creativity of the teachers themselves.

The third concern is interest. Animal is a very interesting topic for the pupils.
Children love something that they can see. This poem can improve pupils imaginative
thinking as well as helping to develop the way they organize their thinking. This poem will
attract pupils attention and they will enjoy the poem. Pupils will have fun by telling stories as
the poem tells a story about going for a pet shopping. The fourth concern is moral values.
Besides, teachers could also include some moral values which related to the poem even
though they are not stated in the lyrics such as asking the pupils on how to take care of their
pets or animals. Pupils will learn to love the nature and appreciate Gods creation in this
world. Therefore, pupils will apply the values learnt in their daily life such as they wont hurt
the animals and will take good care of their pets.

The main purpose of choosing this poem is it fulfills the criteria in choosing poems for
primary school students. Besides, it can be adopted in variety of activities that involves varies
skills such as writing, listening, reading and speaking. This poem gives an opportunity for
pupils to improve their pronunciation and intonation. The content is simple and easy to
understand even if the teacher simply refers the lines to picture cards without explanation. At
the same time, teacher can touch on the vocabulary used in this poem so that by the end of
the lesson, students will be able to use it in their daily life.

Justification (Song)

The song People in my town is an action song .Based on the pedagogical principle
in choosing song for primary school students; there are a few reasons why I think this poem
is suitable for students in primary school.

The first pedagogical concern is age. A few sentences or phrases have been
repeated. Children often learn things through repetition before they start to develop their
understanding upon a certain thing. Students in upper primary school have developed their
associative thinking. This type of song is a part of drill for them to learn on how to associate
pictures and words. This song is suitable for students from 7 to 10 years old as it is quite
short and the sentence structure is quite easy.

The third pedagogical concern is interest. Children love song that contain rhyme as it
is pictured as more interesting and relax kind of learning. The gist of this song is mainly
revolved on something that happens around them. For example, pupils can see variety of
people around them such as teachers, lawyers, doctors and so on. They tend to relate their
new knowledge to their prior knowledge. They will try to find any connection between their
new knowledge and prior knowledge. Most children love to learn something that they are
seeing in their daily life. Pupils are very kinesthetic; they love to move around during lesson.
This will help them to prevent feeling bored in the class. That is why this song was chose. By
singing and doing action at the same time, pupils will be able to focus on the song and
actions. Pupils will love to sing this song over and over again and do all the cute actions.
Using action song is one of the way to make a dynamic lesson. Therefore, this song
absolutely suitable for children as it arouses students to further explore their surrounding
people.

The second pedagogical concern is on content. The content of the song is suitable
for the pupils. The action song entitled People in my Town is included in the English
Language Curriculum for Primary School (KSSR) Year 2: Occupation. It is under the World
of Knowledge in the curriculum. This indeed makes the song suit the content standard and
learning standard of Malaysian curriculum. Year 2 primary school students will be
participating in physical activity as they will perform basic motor skills and movement

patterns along with the song. Simple actions for example cutting peoples hair, writing on a
page may also offers students physical activity participation.

The fourth pedagogical concern is proficiency level. Choosing a song that is in

accordance with the children proficiency level is also crucial as young children could only
able to grasp with simple grammar and vocabulary. The vocabulary used is simple and can
easily comprehend by the young children with guidance. Besides that, the song consists of
words that are familiar with the pupils, like teachers, doctors, nurses and so on. When
children combine actions with song, they tend to remember the song patterns due to the
repetition in the song.

The purpose of choosing this song is to demonstrate enjoyment, increasing interest

and concentration during the lesson and the main idea of this poem is to let the students
acknowledge what happening around them such as jobs that are people involved in. The
content is simple and easy to understand even if the teacher simply refers the lines to picture
cards without explanation. Children will learn to be ambitious and to have a better future.