As a secondary 2 student now, the Language Arts Programme for this year is certainly more challenging as compared to that of last year. Despite the challenge, I like this year's Language Arts Programme more than last year's because I feel that it is more organized as comapred to last year's Language Arts Programme. This year's Langauge Arts programme allows me to be clear of what I am learning each term without getting mixed up and rather "blur" about what I am really learn during each term.
However, to me, there are still a few flaws in this year's programme. One particular issue I'd like to raise would be actually the issue of ACE. ACE was set up for students to be independent learners and submit work based on their own efforts. However, the school has made it such that each student ahs to submit a certain number of work it he is to progress to the next year. Ironically, Hwa Chong wants us to be independent learners, but this has forced students to submit ACE so as to progress to next year. In my opinion, this is actually defeating the whole purpose of ACE as students no longer submit ACE for their own sake but rather to progress to the next year. When students are no longer doing ACE for their own sake but rather for their teachers, then, what is the point of having ACE in the first place?
A lesson that I particularly enjoyed would be actually the lesson on characterization. During the lesson, we watched videos and went through powerpoint slides in class. I think that particular lesson embodies exploratory learning the most. It was also a good example of "blended-learning" as it requires both info-comm technology and the traditional ways of teaching. The teacher uses IT to further expose us students to how writers craft their stories and the traditional methodof teaching to enusre that we fully grasp the method to be able to breathe life into our characters.
Overall, I think that the Language Arts Programme this year is a great improvement from last year, however, I hope that the ACE system can be revised.
Clyde, I do not agree that this year's Language Arts lessons are more challenging. Last year, we had to absorb the ways to learn literature and find the points in the stories within one year. It was made worse by the fact that we did not learn these things in primary school, meaning we had to start from scratch. However, this year, we have only learnt about the ways to develop our characters in a composition so far, something we can link to the compositions that we have been writing for a long time. How difficult can that get? In the future, perhaps, we may be able to learn things that are more advanced but till then, don't say that LA lessons are more challenging.
ReplyDeleteI would also like to raise a point on the "ACE" that you weree talking about.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, ACE is a component of our grades. However, all subjects have it, not just English. Therefore, you should not have included that.
Also, did it not cross your mind that if the school did not "force" us to do ACE, would we do it? Definitely not! What the school is doing, is movitating us to do extra things to fill up our time instead of playing games all the time. In the future, this may become a habit and you could potentialy receive more pay or even be promoted rapidly for doing extra work. We may also be movitated to learn more, developing our skills for the fierce competition in the future.
Hopefully, you will understand more about the reason for doing ACE now. ( No, Dr Hon did not pay me to write this, I did it for ACE. :D )