English drama combines interdisciplinary learning to create diverse learning experiences

Hon Wah College Taking students as the foundation of education, making good use of the abundant resources of DSS schools, we are committed to cultivating students to become the pillars and elites of the country. Principal Kwan Wing Bun and the teaching team use innovative teaching strategies and curriculum frameworks to focus on cultivating students' English ability, combining English courses with different subjects and teaching elements, and promoting school-based English drama education to provide students with a rich learning experience, establish an international perspective, and embrace a rich life.

School-based English drama education integrating moral and value cultivation

Principal Kwan Wing BunWe understand that drama can inspire students’ creativity and build a good language foundation, social skills and team spirit. The school has added drama education into the school-based curriculum since 2017, allowing students to be exposed to various drama elements and promote language absorption and internalization through personal participation in drama performances. Principal Kwan Wing Bun pointed out: "For junior high school students, the school hopes to teach them grammar and parts of speech, introduce English Parts of Speech Play into the course content, and systematically learn the functions and roles of the eight English parts of speech through drama courses. In drama performances, students can use their creative thinking and flexibly use the knowledge they have learned to show the characteristics of different parts of speech." Through in-depth understanding of drama, students can gradually develop interests and explore their different talents and potentials, which will help establish the direction of their future development.

In addition to attaching great importance to students' language ability, the school also cultivates students to establish positive values ​​​​through the interlocking of value education and English courses, actively organizes musicals, and promotes moral education through artistic performances. Last year students from the school's English Drama Alliance performed Beauty and the Beast alongside professional actors from Dove Tales Theatre. This year, we plan to perform the classic drama "Robin Hood". Through the drama, we will cultivate students' artistic appreciation ability and aesthetic level. It will also allow them to understand the text and cultivate positive values ​​such as empathy, care, mutual respect and love from the perspective of character creation and storyline.

Promote learning effectiveness across disciplines and deepen knowledge areas

The school is committed to promoting interdisciplinary collaborative teaching to broaden students' international horizons and knowledge areas. It arranges secondary and secondary drama courses and history subjects for interdisciplinary learning to learn about relevant figures, historical facts, historical events, documentary works, etc. Principal Kwan Wing Bun said: "Students need to read "The Diary of Anne Frank" and learn and understand the historical background and overall impact related to the Second World War; the English subject leads students to read and analyze classic literary works, arousing students' interest in learning and emotional resonance." In addition, the English subject in Form 3 collaborates with the Geography subject to organize learning activities around the theme of environmental protection, leading Form 3 students to conduct field trips to understand its sustainable work and climate mitigation strategies. At the same time, the English Department guides students to read English reading materials on environmental protection-related concepts, and answer questions and reports in English.

Continuously optimize teaching strategies and strengthen English application skills

The school always attaches great importance to the optimization, innovation and research of teaching methods, and improving students' English listening, speaking, reading and writing skills is the focus of teaching. Teachers in the English subject team cooperate with each other and continuously optimize the school-based reading material framework, gradually introducing reading sub-skills (Reading Sub-skills) at the junior high school level. At the same time, English teachers design electronic learning materials to improve students’ self-learning and reflective abilities. School-based courses not only improve learning and teaching effectiveness, but also help students connect at various stages of learning and prepare for high school English courses. In addition, the school cooperated with English education experts from the University of Hong Kong in 2020 to launch the TEAM model, a school-based writing framework, to teach students to improve topic sentences, strengthen sentence structures, read and select appropriate literature, thereby improving the ability to write expository articles and strengthening application skills in all aspects of English.

Design English enrichment courses to enhance personal competitiveness

The English subject team has launched different strategies and policies to enhance students' English ability and enrich their learning experience, continue to create more opportunities for students to use English, enhance their personal competitiveness, and help them smoothly transition to university courses. The school offers school-based business English courses for Form 4 students to teach professional English-related knowledge, experience interviews and activities where English is the language, and learn to write cover letters, etc. In addition, the school will start to provide fully funded IELTS courses for Form 5 students in 2022 to familiarize students with the items, assessment standards and test content of the IELTS exam. Students achieve ideal results in the IELTS exam, which will help them enter university and study their favorite subjects. By promoting the integration of English learning and career planning, the school helps students set clear life goals and discover personal ambitions from different experiences.