Collection of Professor Dr David Ngin Sian Pau

I will provide my students with clear, simple, and well designed visuals including pictures, maps, charts, and diagrams. I will also use the blackboard, whiteboard, overheads, computer generated imagery and pictures in books to reinforce what I am saying to my students. Organizing information using different colors for different main ideas and details will help develop students’ visual skills as well.

It is good to make sure that students verbalize what they know by explaining, summarizing, expressing their reactions, asking and answering questions, and participating in discussions. Teaching students how to set up and work in study groups, and to study out loud for tests and having students teach or explain the information to the teacher will also help develop student aural and speaking skills.

If the facility is available, I will provide students opportunities to participate in labs, projects and learning outside of the classroom such as field trips, to do role-play and to perform demonstrations, to build physical models of concepts and to incorporate physical activity into assignments which will also help increase students’ kinesthetic skill sets.

At last, teaching active listening and note-taking skills, using different colors for note taking, with one color for the main idea and another for supporting details, having students repeat back, in their own words, what they heard from me, to have them repeat back what I say and also to have them take their text book and say back what they just read in their own words will help them increase their listening and comprehension skills.

Reading

When teaching my students, I will try to encourage them to read actively by employing a few simple strategies that cuts down their reading time. This also increases their reading speed and comprehension, and makes students accountable for reading. I will teach my students about the importance of a main idea. The main idea is the heart of a piece of writing, and as a result, it's important for students to recognize it. The main idea often appears at the beginning or end of a passage, and spells out exactly what the piece is about. Finding supporting details can help narrow down the main idea. By identifying the details, students can find the main idea through a process of elimination. Every good piece of writing will re-emphasize the main idea in the concluding sentence or paragraph. The conclusion simply restates the main idea, so if students missed it the first time, they can find it near the end of the passage. Asking students to take notes in the text. By encouraging a student to make notes as he reads, he is less likely to miss the main idea and supporting details, thus greatly increasing comprehension. I will encourage my students to constantly learn to be an active, to involve in reading to take time and practice. I believe encouraging students with kind words and leadership can make them more likely to grasp concepts quickly and with minimal frustration.

For advance level students, I will teach till their reading speed reaches 200-250 words a minute at the least with a minimum of 75% comprehension on the text they read.

Writing

As we all know, many students that desire to write well can benefit from taking advantage of opportunities to increase their vocabulary. Aside from reading the dictionary page for page, there are everyday opportunities for increasing vocabulary, such as crossword puzzles, board games like scrabble, etc. For those pursuing general education or college degrees, some type of English class is probably required. Students in my class will take those grammar and writing assignments seriously. They may not have to write 10 page papers in the real world but they will have to write a thank you note, create a resume, correspond with colleagues through email, write a letter of resignation, etc. Students that desire to write better should…..write! Every writing class, I will let students write a journal for the day or the week at least five to ten minutes. This could be in the form of a personal journal. As a teacher, I understand that in order to write well, it is important to practice. So students should look for opportunities to write and to not get frustrated if they get stuck. I will let them know that as they practice, it will get easier. I will use red ink pen to insert comments on what students have finished writng. For those who are not in school, I will consider having a trusted friend review their writing. It’s important that students should not forget about grammar check on microsoft word. This feature will alert them (with colored lines) when they have used incorrect grammar. It’s not correct to ignore them. This should help improve their writing skills.