ABILITY GROUPING

1) DEFINITION OF ABILITY GROUPING

• ABILITY - The state of being able to perform, also a natural talent or acquired proficiency
• ABILITY GROUPING - The practice of sorting individuals based on their qualities

2) WHY USE ABILITY GROUPING ?

• Most teachers believe that it is easier to teach a group of students with similar levels of prior learning.
• Increases student achievement.
• High achievers benefit from having to compete with one another.
• Low achievers benefit from not having to compete with their more able friends

3) BAD EFFECTS OF GROUPING

• Increase social stratification

• Effect on low track students' self-esteem and their stigmatization

• Reduces opportunities to develop relationships among students from other groups

• Students were found to be unhappy with their placements in group

CONJUNCTION AND PREPOSITION AND HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE THEM

CONJUCTION :
-is a part of speech that connects two words, sentences, phrases or clauses-

Forms of CONJUNCTION :

1) Single word, e.g : and, but, because, although - "Jack and Jill went up the hill"

2) Compound, e.g : as long as, in order to - "I will be here as long as you love me"

3) Correlative, e.g : so...that, either...or - "Either you or Susan must remain with me"



PREPOSITION :
-is a connecting word that shows the relation of a noun or a noun substitute to some other word in the sentence-

Forms of PREPOSITION :

1) Simple (single-word), e.g : on, at, in, without, beside - "The cat sat on the table"

2) Compound (complex-word), e.g : along with, away from, next to, in front of, in relation to, on top of
    - "She sat next to me today"



How to differentiate between CONJUNCTIONS and PREPOSITIONS ?

CONJUNCTION
-accompanied by a verb, it means there must be a clause after the conjunction that has a verb in it.
-examples :

• We stay indoors while the storm raged.                                                                              
• Adam is looking much better since he came out from the hospital.
• I will be home during the Chinese New Year holiday, unless there is a train's strike.

PREPOSITION
-accompanied by a noun phrase or there always be an object after the preposition.
- examples :

• The children climbed the mountain without fear.
• We stay indoors during the storm.
• She has been in the teaching profession since 2000.

THE PRINCIPLES OF THE DIRECT METHOD (RICHARDS & RODGERS-1986)

1. Classroom instruction was conducted exclusively in the target language
2. Only everyday vocabulary and sentences were taught
3. Oral communication skills were built up in a carefully graded progression organized around question-and answer exchanges between teachers and students in small, intensive classes
4. Grammar was taught inductively
5. New teaching points were taught through modeling and practice
6. Concrete vocabulary was taught through demonstartion, objects, and pictures; abstract vocabulary was taught by association of ideas
7. Both speech and listening comprehension were taught
8. Correct pronunciation and grammar were emphasized 

meaningful learning

          in my opinion, meaningful learning is about making any lessons worthy and valuable so that it can lead students, especially, toward better long-term retention rather than rote learning. however, students nowadays tend to memorize the knowledge they get instead of trying to understand the literally meaning of that particular fact or sentences. besides that, the purpose of learning the knowledge is not much clear understood due to this memorizing stuff. so, in order to make the learning meaningful, the teacher who is the most important person in educating the students, should play their roles to help students learn meaningfully. one of them is the teacher should consider and appeal to students' interests. once the students find the lesson is parallel to their interests and fun to learn, they will then try and try to be prepared well to ensure they understand the lesson. 

Whenever a new topic or concept is introduced, the teacher should attempt to anchor it in students' existing knowledge and background so that it becomes associated with something they already know. Other than that, the teacher must avoid the pitfalls of rote learning which are the things that most contribute to meaningless learning. the most frightened thing is once the students get bored in memorizing the facts that they must know, it will be worthless then to push them back to understand the facts. therefore, the teacher must take this thing very seriously so that it won't be late to make the students learn meaningfully, perhaps :)

SYNOPSIS OF GULP AND GASP (by John Townsend)

     this is just me and my partner's work while in literature class. we were given a task of producing a synopsis of the "Gulp and Gasp" drama and we had to come out with 150-200 words only. hope you enjoy it :) 

           This story started with the conversation between Lord Septic and Crouch. Lord Septic was telling Crouch about his plan to own the railway line they'd been at that night. During the conversation, a flower-seller named Rose, came. Lord Septic asked Crouch to tell her to get off. Crouch then threw away Rose's flowers and then he left. Percy came and helped Rose. They shared each other stories. Percy then told Rose that he's an orphan and the only thing he had, is a key with letters NSL on it. They were about to hug when Crouch came back. They had a fight, and unfortunately, Percy was beaten by Lord Septic on his head. Till then, he was unconscious. Rose was tied down to the railway track, unknown that Percy had run away. While tying up Rose, Lord Septic reminisced the event of his father tying up Lady Gatsby to the same track. But then, it turned out Lady Gatsby is Percy's mother and Percy is the real owner of the railway track. All of a sudden, Percy came, managed to stop the train and save Rose. Lord Septic and Crouch were tied right after it. Rose told Percy the truth. Percy then proposed Rose and the two villains were left to be arrested. 

HOW TO ENSURE OUR ATTENTION WHILE LEARNING TO BE ON RIGHT TRACK?

First and foremost , we have to sleep early at night . It is not good for our body to stay up late till morning especially for those who have classes during the day . Our mind needs rest too , thus , make sure that we get good sleep at night . Second important thing is , we must be punctual ! Or the better one is we reach the class early 10 to 15 minutes before the lecture starts . It does help us to pay attention to the teacher as it cut down the feeling of rushed that may bother us later during the lesson . 

Next , take out all the things that we may use during the lesson , something like , pens , paper , notes and etc so that we can pay all attention to the teacher without been distracted of insufficient paper for instance , while taking down the notes . If possible , sit at the front row and far from the 'talkative' friends . On top of that , ensure that we have read at glimpse the topic that we are going to learn for the next day, at least the night before it because it really helps us to pay a total attention to the teacher's saying in front. As a conclusion, i would like to stress that paying attention while learning is really important because there are lots of information we could get, from there. Thus, try our best to pay attention in class ! hehe :)

elements of poetry of HE HAD SUCH QUIET EYES

we go through the poem first.

HE HAD SUCH QUIET EYES

He had such quiet eyes

She did not realise

They were two pools of lies

Layered with thinnest ice

To her, those quiet eyes

Were breathing desolate sighs

Imploring her to be nice

And to render him paradise

If only she'd been wise

And had listened to the advice

Never to compromise 

With pleasure-seeking guys

She'd be free from "the hows and whys"

Now here's a bit of advice

Be sure that nice really means nice

Then you'll never be losing at dice

Though you may lose your heart once or twice

alright, here we go. The elements of poetry of this poem.


1) THEMES -the betrayal of love
                     -personal experience
                     -relationship that are meaningful

2) TONE -reflective
                -sad
                -happy
                -sympathetic

3) SYMBOL -quiet eyes = calmness
                      -dice = life-gamble
                      -thinnest ice = danger

4) STYLE -simple and easy to understand

5) RHYTHM -six to nine syllables for each line

6) RHYME - a, a, a, a, a, a........

7) PERSONIFICATION -"to her, those quiet eyes were breathing desolate sighs"

8) METAPHOR -they were two pools of lies

9) ALLITERATION -the sound of "h" = "he had such quiet eyes"
                                 -the sound of "l" = "they were two pools of  lies, layered with thinnest ice"


i guess, that's all from me . Thank You :)