Layered teaching design with one-to-one English support

Heung To Middle School (Tin Shui Wai) Committed to cultivating students’ diverse development, the English subject team comprehensively and meticulously takes care of students’ learning diversity through the implementation of layered teaching. The school practices interdisciplinary collaboration, provides students with experiential learning opportunities, and encourages students to use English in their daily lives. The school also attaches great importance to creating an English learning context and cultivating students' reading habits. In order to help candidates prepare for the public examination, the school has also launched "one-on-one" English support to adjust personalized teaching strategies according to students' progress to help them achieve good results.

English layered teaching to take care of learning diversity

Principal Chan Kam SheungIntroduced, "BEE" is a major feature of the school's English school-based curriculum, which respectively represents layered teaching, experiential learning and creating an English atmosphere. The principal pointed out that the name "BEE" was borrowed from the bee, which symbolizes hard work, to visually let students understand that learning English requires hard work and perseverance in order to gain something, and to help students establish correct values ​​and strengthen their motivation to learn English.

The school implements tiered teaching from three aspects: curriculum, teaching methods and assessment. For example, the Vocabulary Worksheet is divided into two parts, one of which is for students with better English proficiency to learn more difficult and extensive vocabulary; the Grammar Worksheet is divided into high, medium and low levels, which are distinguished by pepper patterns. The "one pepper" questions will have more prompts, and the "three peppers" questions will guide students' higher-order thinking. Layered worksheets will be distributed according to students’ learning progress and personal circumstances to fully take care of students’ learning diversity.

In addition, schools will also adopt a layered strategy when conducting assessments. For example, Paper G comes with more detailed answer notes, while Paper N has more in-depth questions to take care of students' learning diversity. Principal Chan Kam Sheung added: "In order to reduce the labeling effect that stratified education may bring, the school deliberately uses pepper patterns to distinguish levels. One to three peppers distinguish different abilities, helping students adjust their choice of answer questions, teach students in accordance with their aptitude, and maximize learning effectiveness."

Create an English atmosphere and display reading results

In order to promote the reading culture throughout the school and create a good English context, the school has set up an electronic library called "Knowledge Reading and Listening" in the English subject, so that reading is no longer limited to paper books. It also organizes reading clubs and invites foreign teachers to cooperate with the English subject director to conduct in-depth reading and reflection with students. Students can choose how to present their reading results according to their learning interests and needs, such as making videos or reading reports on their experiences, etc., in various forms, and display their learning results to the whole school in morning meetings, sharing sessions, Heung To Talk and other occasions. Students have a positive attitude towards the reading programme, broadening their knowledge and equipping themselves. In addition, the school actively organizes activities such as English weeks and study tours, and specially extracts the first letters of each English activity to form the English word "WE LOVE ENGLISH" to create a positive English learning atmosphere and make students more willing to be exposed to English.

Experiential interdisciplinary activities integrating cultural heritage

Principal Chan Kam Sheung shared that the school held an interdisciplinary English musical, adapting the Chinese Yuefu poem "The Song of Mulan", which was created and performed by students. Teachers will also read scripts with students, allowing them to learn traditional Chinese virtues through English and combine education with national conditions. The English subject group will also select articles related to the theme in the reading materials, such as introducing the origin of eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival, exploring young people's love for Hanfu, etc., to inspire students to think about the cultural value behind traditional customs in English.

In order to encourage students to apply what they have learned, the school promotes cross-disciplinary collaboration between English and Tourism and Hospitality to implement experiential learning. The English Department launched the "World Cup" and movie viewing activities during the lunch break. The Tourism and Hospitality Department arranged for students to play waiters in the English Corner, entertain other students in English, and serve hot chocolate and popcorn. In addition, the English department collaborates with the co-curricular activity group to organize film activities. Foreign teachers will consult students before selecting films and encourage them to use English to talk in their daily lives. The themes of the activities are all centered around English, thereby expanding the scenarios in which students can use English.

The transition to middle school is gradual and DSE has achieved remarkable results.

The school holds adaptation courses in July and August every year to help new students make the transition. The July session will arrange collaborative teaching between English teachers and foreign teachers to reduce the nervousness of freshmen through interesting English games; the August session will specifically help them adapt to life and study in middle school. Principal Chan Kam SheungExplanation: "The school hopes to integrate students into the school atmosphere and campus life, and then slowly guide their studies, so as to welcome their middle school career with a happy mood."

At the high school level, the school has launched the "One on One Plan" for the Hong Kong Diploma Examination, arranging English teachers to follow up on a one-to-one basis and provide personalized and appropriate support after class every week in the second semester of Form 5. Alumnus Chen Ziyang said: "Through the program, I have successfully improved my English scores and language proficiency, and successfully entered Fudan University. The success of the program is due to the English teacher team adjusting different teaching methods according to the students' strengths and weaknesses, so that the students can make great progress in a short period of time."