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A teacher finds a creative way to teach values and spark the interest in learning in her students on the Learning Support Programme by appealing to their love for animals.
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LSP pupils received overwhelming support from donors when organising their maiden jumble sale to raise funds for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). |
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At the beginning of the year, all Primary 1 pupils sit for the School Readiness Test (SRT), which identifies pupils who have not acquired basic language and literacy skills and are deemed to be ‘at risk’ of failing in school. These pupils will be part of the Learning Support Programme (LSP), attending daily half-hour lessons under the charge of the Learning Support Coordinator (LSC).
As the school’s LSC and Senior Teacher, I was tasked with formulating teaching strategies to capture the attention and interest of the LSP pupils. For many of them, reading was a problem as their reading age did not correspond with their chronological age. This made the writing assignments even more daunting.
The premise of the LSP teaching framework is the integration of the core skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. The transition to the writing assignment would be gradual. Last year’s enhanced LSP pilot model focused on teaching phonological awareness, alphabetical knowledge and principle. This enhanced model will be rolled out to all primary schools in 2007.
Real-Life Learning
It dawned on me that getting the pupils directly involved in a meaningful activity, which ended with a writing task, would make learning come alive for them. Thus, the
Primary 1 and 2 LSP pupils of Montfort Junior
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The pupils were greatly encouraged by the success of their efforts, which raised their self-esteem and desire to learn. |
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School embarked on a learning journey with a difference.
The LSP pupils were thrilled when I told them about organising a jumble sale to raise funds for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). Children are always fascinated by stories about animals and never tire of relating their own experiences and stories about their pets and other creatures. Furthermore, they were all excited to be part of this worthy cause.
The LSP room was progressively transformed into a storage headquarters. Heartened by the generous donations from parents, pupils and teachers, the pupils geared themselves up for the Great Montfort Sale. The LSP pupils gained an immense sense of satisfaction from seeing people buy the items they had priced and sorted out. Their self-esteem grew from being directly involved in the planning and execution of a successful jumble sale.
Word Power
During LSP periods, they learnt more about jumble sales and unanimously agreed that the best way to advertise theirs was to send out appeal letters to parents. They also suggested suitable places to put up the eye-catching posters of dogs and cats. The LSP pupils were then exposed to words and sentences related to jumble sales; and being so deeply involved in the organisation of the sale meant that learning had become more meaningful for them. At the end of the jumble sale, the LSP pupils paid a visit to the SPCA where they learnt more about animal welfare, made some animal friends, and witnessed the presentation of a cheque of $1754 to an officer from SPCA.
After their visit, the pupils wrote about the entire experience. Familiarity with the words and processes involved in the planning of the jumble sale made the writing exercise pleasurable and learning came to life for these LSP pupils. To me, this is the essence of learning.
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Supportive parents, like the volunteer parent above, helped to man the stalls during the jumble sale. |
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Montfort Junior School has always been blessed with parents who are ever willing to help. Many of the parent volunteers who manned the stalls during the jumble sale are also reading mums to the LSP pupils. They bond with them twice a week during reading sessions, which the LSP pupils look forward to. It was therefore important for these volunteers that the jumble sale took off and ended with a tidy sum of money for our furry friends in SPCA. No less heartwarming was the sight of these boys living up to the school values of being responsible, working as a team and helping the disadvantaged. |
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