It was a Friday when we arrived at our new destination, the Berjaya Hills Golf Resort. It is a lovely piece of property nestled up in the hills in Bukit Tinggi. This place is a cloud tropical forest due to it's high elevation. The high elevation caters to low temperatures and crisp chilly mountain air. It doesn't swelter up here like it does in the rest of Malaysia. This lush ecotone is often blanketed in a mist every morning. The conference room was attached to a recreation hall with pool & ping pong tables and a bowling alley.
Our first lesson was based on CVC (consonant vowel consonant) constructions. The students were split into groups of 3 for many rounds of phonics spoons. CVC helps students recogonize short vowels. This is critical for students to start identify the code of language. It was essential to master the short vowels before progressing to the long vowels. It is also a source of many vocabulary words. We spent a couple days on various CVC activities. Students started to register the benefits of phonics. They paid closer attention to their pronunciation with blending and segmenting.
The remaining 18 of the 44 sounds were covered, which includes long vowels, diphthongs and consonant blends. We added the consonant blends and started learn more words (CCVC and CVCC). All of the new words were supported with pictures to enhance comprehension. The beginners in the class were making good progress. They began to self correct their own mistakes in regards to pronouncing short vowels.
Next, we dived into long vowels. Students learned: when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking. Dipthongs posed a challenge to some of the intermediate students as well. We did many activities practicing long and short vowels. Magic 'e' was introduced, but it would take many more sessions before the concept was mastered. Instead of directly jumping into the Fry Word list, I acquainted the students with the 220 word Dolch List. The vocabulary and proficiency of the group continued to rise. I also decided to give extra work at this juncture to 5 of the intermediate students.
We started to do some onset and rhyme activities; however, daily we would apply or review earlier concepts we had already learned. It wasn't until the fifth session, I introduced the first 50 words from the Fry list. Students were pleasantly surprised they knew most of them from previous activities. It was a well needed boost to their confidence. They gobbled the words up so fast I could introduce the next 50 on the following day.
We began the class next day with Fluency Fry Speed Readers from the first 100 words. Students work in pairs to time and correct and assortment of the first 100 Fry words. It is an exercise in speed, fluency and accuracy. Students are encouraged to give more weight to accuracy during this exercise; therefore, take your time an say it correct. Mistakes were even made by the intermediate students while a few beginners made double digit mistakes. It was a good wake up call for the class. We spent the day reviewing the words with multiple tasks. At the end of the class, we had a new assortment of the Fry's first 100 Fluency Speed Readers. Everybody's accuracy and speed had improved. This method of Fluency Fry Speed Readers. was repeated throughout the travels as a practice and assessment tool.
One of the favorite activities was Secret Sight Words. Students are shown a list of pictures. They must identify the picture and use the first letter from the picture's word in making a new word. Guess correctly, you'll have gotten an answer which is from the Fry words we covered. By the time we left Bukit Tinggi, the students covered 300 words. Actually, it was more than that, but we completed the first 300 of the Fry's list.
The highlight in terms of English was a fun excursion to KL which resulted into a trip to Kidzania. Kidzania is a micro-world for kids. They have their own currency named kidzos. Kidzos are obtained by being trained briefly in an occupation and performing a few occupational tasks to earn kidzos. Kidzos are required to get your eye examination which qualifies for driving school. Don't forget you also need the for your drivers license fee, insurance and petrol. There are other opportunities to spend kidzos, like work at Subway and make your own sandwich. The best part was the medium of Kidzania is English. In a nutshell, kid's eyes were opened to thinking about a career and the value of earning, learning and spending. The group had a blast.
Please keep in mind, the students were also engaged with Yes, I can! and physical activities daily. They were swimming, wall climbing and flying foxing to name a few. The identity of the class emerged and bonds between me and them formed in Bukit Tinggi. The learning process was in full swing, everybody got swept up in it. Outside of class they had many opportunities to practice with me throughout the day during activities and meals. We shared lots of laughs and good times together during this segment of our saga.
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| we got busted for late assignments, lol |
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