Make good use of electronic teaching to deepen independent learning of English

C.C.C. Kei Wai Primary SchoolPursue excellence and innovation and provide diversified, flexible and flexible learning activities. Principal He Liwen leads the teaching team to focus on training students’ independent learning abilities and positive attitudes, and inspiring their interests and personal potential. Under the comprehensive teaching curriculum planning, students have outstanding performance in academics and activities. In recent years, the top three choices for secondary school placement have reached 98%, and nearly half of the students are admitted to secondary schools with English as the medium of instruction, including Kowloon Wah Yan College, True Light Girls' College, Good Hope School, Tsuen Wan Government Secondary School, Chung Hwa Mission Hoi On Chu Secondary School, and Tsuen Wan Public Ho Chuen Yiu Memorial Secondary School.

Make good use of electronic technology to strengthen independent learning

The school actively promotes the "flipped classroom" strategy, attaches great importance to "student learning as the center", and values ​​inspiring students' learning motivation to enhance their self-worth and future competitiveness. The school promotes independent learning through electronic technology. As early as 6 years ago, the school had a long-term vision and developed e-Learning electronic teaching, which can be used flexibly in the curriculum. Director Huang Guobo, chairman of the English Department, said that before each new topic is started, Edpuzzle and Google Form will be distributed to all students in the school through the e-learning platform for home preview, in order to collect preview data and adjust the teaching progress. Since students already have a basic understanding of the topic, teachers can free up class time for higher-level teaching activities, focus more on discussion points, and improve the quality of teaching.

Tablets will be used well during class, and students will be arranged to participate in popular interactive learning games such as Quizizz, Kahoot or Seesaw to make the class more lively and stimulate interest in learning. After the class is over, the teacher will use the electronic platform to test how much knowledge the students have mastered, and then adjust the teaching based on the data to consolidate what the students have learned. "Some students may master the learning content after watching it once, while others need to watch it several times. This model that combines electronic teaching and independent learning allows students to repeat learning according to their mastery level until they fully understand the learning content. It can cater for and meet students with different learning needs and take care of the diversity of their learning."

As the saying goes, class hours are limited, but learning hours are unlimited. The school has added English extended reading materials to the electronic platform to provide students with more learning channels and materials. "Take the topic of natural disasters for sixth grade students as an example. The text only mentions five types of disasters, but students learn more about disaster types through extended reading, which enriches their knowledge and expands their vocabulary." In addition, the fifth grade English class also holds an innovative activity called the One-minute Challenge, where students are challenged to complete multiple tasks within one minute and learn grammar. Regardless of success or failure, students are required to write a report in English, read the report content simultaneously in a video recording, and upload it to the electronic platform Padlet. Students can see everyone's videos and learn from each other. Therefore, they are more nervous about their own works and have requirements for themselves. They will continue to improve and practice before uploading their own videos to achieve the spirit of independent learning and consolidate knowledge.

Professional school-based teaching materials suitably meet needs

The school designs school-based teaching materials to provide students with tailor-made learning resources to more accurately meet their learning needs. The school-based textbook contains various stylistic examples, commonly used vocabulary and verb lists, which are very helpful for students' compositions. For example, to describe happiness, in addition to the common "Happy", the textbook also provides a wealth of emotional vocabulary for students to choose from, as well as a list of verbs to enhance their language use abilities.

In addition, the school also cooperated with the Education Bureau to design school-based exercise books based on students' learning levels and needs to supplement the textbook content. Standard textbooks may not fully meet the needs of all students. The design of these school-based textbooks is step-by-step, which not only connects the reading chapters of the textbooks, but also provides sufficient guidance to allow students to transfer from reading skills to writing applications.

Situational learning: learn and use English flexibly

The most important thing in learning English is to know how to use it flexibly in real-life situations. The school conducts the Space Town Literacy Program in the junior primary stage, with the purpose of allowing students to apply the English knowledge learned in the classroom to practical life. They have a lot of opportunities to take classes with foreign teachers and immerse themselves in the all-round English world. They have all four skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. Through interaction with foreign teachers, they can actually apply English.

The school also arranges a lot of interesting activities, such as teaching students how to make small cakes. The teacher will distribute a list of materials, and students need to carefully read the required materials and each production step, and learn a lot of words from it. Also, because they learn English while cooking, they can learn and use it to enhance their memory. At the same time, students understand that English is not just a subject, but a part of life. Students can finally eat cakes made by themselves, which is full of satisfaction, and learning English in real life situations will make them feel more real. It is definitely an unforgettable learning experience.

Diverse activity experience English rooted in life

Context and interest are the keys to learning. The school has designed diverse and interesting English experiences to make students enjoy being in an English environment. The school holds English activities every week, including foreign teachers inviting students to use English broadcasts in the morning assembly; a campus live broadcast room is also set up, where students are invited to live broadcast and report the weather of the day to the whole school in English to train their speech courage and English speaking ability.

Subject teachers will also recommend capable students to serve as English ambassadors, provide focused training, and then encourage them to create an English speaking environment in school to promote English learning from the bottom up. For example, English ambassadors are arranged to share current affairs with the whole school regularly in morning meetings. In addition to training their expression skills, other students can also broaden their knowledge, which will be of great benefit to future international exchanges.

Another special event is the English idiom poster design competition held every year. The winners' works will be printed as bookmarks and given to the whole school to encourage students to actively participate. Principal He pointed out: "Idioms are a kind of wisdom that condenses the philosophy of life and can bring inspiration to students. In addition to promoting positive education, students can learn more high-quality English idioms."

Jump out of the classroom and learn while playing

The most important thing in learning is to have a thirst for knowledge. If students can discover knowledge from life, their motivation for learning will be enhanced. In addition to sitting in the classroom and listening to the teacher's lectures, the school also actively invites private organizations to cooperate and hold extended teaching activities using English as the medium to take students beyond the textbooks. The school has held drama activities, and the dramas selected are all world famous works. For example, students have been arranged to appreciate the story of Robin Hood, and students have been arranged to interact with the actors. The appeal of the drama can increase students' interest in learning English. Teachers carefully plan teaching activities so that students can familiarize themselves with new words related to the script before enjoying the drama, so that they can have a basic understanding of the script and be more immersed in it when watching it live. After the drama performance, a series of activities will be arranged to deepen learning knowledge.

In addition, in order to allow students to apply what they learned in textbooks to real situations, the school once took students to a pizza shop to make pizza on site. "This experience is a very valuable and unforgettable experience for the students. They can make pancakes with their own hands and take the finished products home to share with their families, creating a successful learning experience." Principal He said that after the experience, students will write reflective articles to share their deepest memories and things they are grateful for. In addition to allowing them to learn to appreciate the efforts of others, it is also an alternative way to train their English writing skills.