QCL520 Final Reflection

Final Reflections:

• How do you make difficult concepts accessible to your students?

Making difficult concepts accessible to my students can be done in many ways.
Firstly, huge concepts should be broken down into smaller ones which could be easily digested before linking them back together to form the big picture.
Secondly, scaffolds play a big role in doing so as it slowly shapes the student's perspectives and mental processes towards what we are trying to teach them. Hooks are especially useful because they are not directly linked to the concepts in the textbook but instead draws students closer into the "frame of mind" which makes concepts accessible. Discussions within class are also good because they allow students to verbalise their perspectives of concepts and to clarify their thoughts with their classmates as well as allowing the teacher to understand the level of thought taking place in the student's minds.
Thirdly, there should always be a rationale behind each difficult concept, as students would not feel compelled to understand such concepts if the teacher him/herself does not even know why they are teaching such concepts for. The teacher's attitude would also play a part in making such concepts accessible.

In relation to Theme 6, big concepts like Challenges, Adaptability and Leadership should be broken down into smaller examples before attributing them to the larger concepts, and finally linking all back to the big picture of Rise and Fall of Nations being linked to such concepts. The teacher should also emphasize that the lessons learnt from Venice are important, but it is up to the students themselves to see the true relevance of the lessons in relation to Singapore, and that it is not dictated by the teacher.

• How do you plan to teach so that students are able to organize and structure the massive loads of information that they will encounter? 

Whenever possible, students should always have a chance to relate concepts to themselves in a personal way. In doing so, students would be able to see the relevance these concepts have in their lives, or through some experiences of their own.
Also, a fair amount of charts/graphs/pictorial notes would be very good tools for students. By sifting out the relevant information and concepts from the textbook, it would ensure that essential lessons and takeaways that students would have to learn isn't too wordy and are very clear and focused.
It would also be good for students themselves to create their own mind maps for every chapter, with guidance from the teacher,

With relation to Theme 6, the topic of the Rise and Fall of nations may be very text-focused and unclear to students due to the different time periods/contexts, thus there has to be a bigger concept which can tie all of these together for the student to remember as the key takeaway of the lesson. One way for them to organize what they have learnt would be through the Cycle of Nations framework (http://patrioticprinciples.com/the-cycle-of-great-nations/), which provides a clear view of what the lesson is trying to bring across to students.

QLK520 Group 2 E-Learning

I felt that I had some knowledge of vocal health as well as voice projection, as I had spent months in school but I didn't have any issues cropping up with regards to vocal problems.

The e-learning site showed me many problems and ways to cope with such problems should they arise. I realised that I should always be in the know of how to tackle these issues even though they have not happened to me.

The checklists seemed a little too long to properly maintain and look at point by point, but the videos were very informative and were nicely split into the different techniques which were easy enough to remember and practice.

Techniques like body posture seemed to be very relevant as I tend to have bad body posture, and thus the video highlighted to me how that could affect the air flow in my body and the inability to use my diaphragm to speak loudly.

Knowing how to identify and manage vocal problems would be useful in the long run as it is impossible to escape vocal problems, and I can only be prepared and pre-emptive in my strategies.