Abstract R & D Background Purpose & Design Action Plan Findings & Analysis Implications Remarks
> Purpose & Design
  1. Topic of the project
    Integrating higher-order thinking in an S3 unit on movies
  1. Materials
    Two movies were used:
    “The Princess Diaries”   http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0247638/
    “Holes”
      http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0311289/
  1. Level
    S3
  1. Objectives of the project
    1. To engage students in higher-order thinking tasks with appropriate scaffolding for language and ideas
    2. To enhance students’ writing and discussion by providing language and content scaffolding
    3. To teach students some features of non-print fiction texts and how to discuss these in preparation for the SBA component of the NSSC for English
  1. Difficulties and strategies used
Difficulties Strategies used
  • Students have no ideas about the content and find it difficult to grasp the essence of the question they are being asked.
  • Provide scaffolding for content by “moving up” the taxonomy, i.e. providing activities and questions whcih enable students to understand and remember important content before using events in the films to justify their opinions
  • Students may have some ideas but cannot express them in English
  • Provide scaffolding for language by pre-teaching vocabulary and language structures required for the writing or speaking tasks
  • Students wait for teachers to answer the questions so that they can be sure of copying down “correct” answers in order to prepare for examinations.
  • Modify the end of year assessment questions and rubrics to put more emphasis on thinking skills demonstrated
  • Include a speaking task on the movies in the oral examination at the end of the year
  1. Assessment tools

    • student questionnaires
    • student interviews
    • samples of students’ work
    • teachers’ reflections

 

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