Special English course design to help students embrace a prosperous future

PLK Mrs. Ma Kam Ming-Cheung Fook Sien College We always adhere to the spirit of the school motto of "loyalty, diligence, respect for God and love for others", put students first, cultivate the balanced development of students' moral, intellectual, physical, social, aesthetic and spiritual education, and are committed to providing holistic education and developing each student's natural potential. Principal Joanna Yuk King Or brings the teaching team to plan school-based courses that combine knowledge, skills, and attitudes for students, flexibly uses teaching resources, and develops learning and teaching strategies and strengthened supporting facilities that fit the students' learning process. Through diversified English learning experiences, a solid language foundation is laid, so that students' social skills, teamwork spirit, personal leadership skills, independent learning spirit, etc. can be comprehensively developed to welcome a prosperous future.

New teaching concept: Designing characteristic school-based courses

The school participated in the "Quality School Improvement Plan" (QSIP) in 2019, which focuses on improving "assessment quality" and emphasizes "matching teaching and testing". Based on teaching experience and mastery of the assessment system, the teaching team re-formulates a more up-to-date and appropriate school-based curriculum to promote learning and teaching effectiveness. The English subject team worked together to implement a new teaching strategy and promote a series of "Backward Planning" based on the concept of "matching teaching and testing". This plan is different from previous teaching strategies, starting from the "end point" and emphasizing "learning objectives." Teachers set teaching goals first, then design course content, formulate teaching methods and evaluate teaching forms. This thinking model can ensure that the course content is focused and not easy to go off topic. At the same time, the school will establish clear learning goals for each topic, then consider the skills required by students to complete the topic and the difficulties they face, and then design tiered teaching materials according to abilities. Students with high abilities receive in-depth training, which also lays a solid foundation for students with less ability to learn step by step.

Optimize language policy and design "Writing Booklet"

In order to strengthen students' ability to comprehensively apply English, the school starts from the aspects of teaching policies and school-based teaching materials. Principal Joanna Yuk King Or said: "The school actively optimizes the teaching language policy to create a strong English context for students. For example, in junior high school, in addition to English subjects being taught in English, geography, life and social studies, science subjects, etc. also use the English extended activity model. In addition, we also cooperate with the library to provide students with interdisciplinary English enrichment training to consolidate their English foundation." The English Department has carefully designed exclusive "Writing" for different topics. Booklet" lists the English vocabulary, article structure and grammatical sentence patterns in the course to fill the shortcomings of traditional textbooks, thereby improving students' writing skills and taking care of learning diversity. The teachers will also share excellent essays in class, analyze the best sentences and vocabulary in the articles, and encourage students to apply their English knowledge and improve their writing skills.

In-depth understanding of the examination system and significant improvement in out-of-school performance

In order to further improve students' learning effectiveness and public examination results, English teachers have achieved a series of results in continuously promoting professional development. In addition to participating in the territory-wide system assessment and the Diploma of Secondary Education Examination every year, they also actively participate in various professional trainings and seminars to learn about the latest teaching methods. English teachers have an in-depth understanding of the examination system and constantly adjust teaching content and teaching strategies to ensure that students can obtain the best results in the examination. In recent years, students' English writing performance has improved significantly, and they have repeatedly won good results in external competitions. The meticulous teaching of English teachers helps optimize the school-based English curriculum, helps students build their learning confidence, achieve "learning in a methodical manner", and achieve encouraging teaching results.

Promote interdisciplinary collaboration and cultivate correct learning attitude

The school is committed to integrating English elements into the curriculum content of various subjects. For example, the field trip topics and teaching materials in the geography subject are all written in English, and students are required to report their learning results in English after the inspection; in the comprehensive science subject, students will conduct experiments in English and display and report the experimental results in English; the English subject is also related to students. In cooperation with the Career Planning Team, we led the fourth-grade students to participate in the "Disney Youth Team Activity Program" and conducted an all-English pre-employment introduction workshop to understand the nature of work in different positions in the park and learn employment-related English vocabulary, enriching students' knowledge reserves and giving them valuable experience in contact with different careers.

At the same time, the school has specially established a cross-curricular Chinese language learning (Language across the Curriculum, LaC) to deepen the effectiveness of the interdisciplinary collaborative teaching model and establish rich and diverse learning scenarios for students to integrate the knowledge they have learned and conduct in-depth learning experience and reflection. To this end, the school takes students to study on the farm. Through working in the fields, they learn nature-related knowledge, English vocabulary and English expression patterns, and establish a grand view of knowledge, so that they can understand that even in ordinary daily life, as long as they have a studious heart, life is full of knowledge, and then it is integrated with subject knowledge. Through appropriate courses and learning activities, we help students practice what they have learned, establish a correct learning attitude, and develop independent learning habits.

Establish a living environment and diversified English learning activities

The school firmly believes that changing students' concepts about English does not happen overnight, so it actively promotes activity-based teaching and integrates English elements into campus life. Through frequent application training, students can establish new concepts and change their attitude towards learning English. In the "English Corner", teachers have specially placed different cooking utensils and organized various types of workshops to encourage students to use their creativity in cooking, deepen their language knowledge, and enjoy campus life while establishing a natural English context, becoming a "Real Communication" outside the classroom.

Foreign English teachers will also lead the "Campus TV Station" and "English Corner" activities, leading students to perform English radio dramas, play English board games, and even open English magic classes to add English elements to the campus. In addition to the rich on-campus activities, the school also encourages students to participate in inter-school activities such as the inter-school English recital competition and "English WeCan" to increase students' self-confidence in using English, establish a learning atmosphere of mutual encouragement and mutual learning on campus, and promote the exchange of knowledge.

In addition, in order to further strengthen the English context, the school regularly holds English morning and weekly meetings to encourage students to express their thoughts and feelings in English. In activities such as Reading Festival, Reading Award Scheme, and Chinese Language Week, the teaching team carefully designs different links to create learning opportunities to improve English proficiency. At the same time, during the annual English Week, students will plan and host activities on their own to cultivate collaboration skills; in the process, they will promote communication with foreign English teachers, strengthen communication and collaboration between students and students, and teachers and students, thereby establishing a learning community.

Make good use of e-learning platforms and practice "Read Aloud"

English is an international communication tool, not just for exams. Laying a solid language foundation will help broaden students’ international horizons. The school always adheres to a forward-looking teaching policy, optimizes teaching materials and cooperates with online learning tools according to the learning differences, progress and difficulties of different students, improves learning and teaching efficiency, and cultivates students' independent learning spirit. The school makes good use of the "Reading Progress" function of Microsoft Teams to conduct "Read Aloud". According to students' individual learning progress, they can enrich their vocabulary reserves and learn various key points of knowledge by reading articles. "Read Aloud" is a simple and direct learning method for students with weak foundation. With continuous self-training, they can effectively improve their reading and listening skills and become fluent in English. At the same time, the school also uses AI (artificial intelligence) programs to help students master the accuracy and fluency of English pronunciation and improve their conversational skills.

Grasp new teaching trends and provide interesting English experience

The teaching team has been keeping pace with the times and has created a channel of interesting English short films in response to the changes in living habits and popular trends in online videos in recent years. English teachers will shoot English short films with real-life scenes. For example, when visiting a theme park, they will introduce the pronunciation of the fairy tale characters in the park and the English vocabulary of the mobile games in the park; when enjoying the buffet, they will introduce the English names of different foods. Principal Joanna Yuk King OrLaughed: "I have always been grateful to my fellow teachers for their enthusiasm for education and their endless creativity in promoting teaching. Some teachers even introduced common English vocabulary for outings to their classmates through the camera while riding bicycles. This reflects the school's teachers who love teaching, regard education as their career, and put their classmates first. "With its diverse and innovative teaching strategies, the school's English teaching has achieved remarkable results. In recent years, students have performed well in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination, and their scores have continued to rise. Some graduates have also entered the English Department of UGC-funded institutions, successfully cultivating students' English abilities and interests, and cultivating outstanding talents for society.