Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Question About Use of Notebook

Hello teacher Ban Har, I am one of the teachers in the course to apply the Singapore method in Santiago de Chile conducted recently. I now have to help 13 teachers next week in using the Singapore method textbooks. I have a question: how to use a note book, apart from the textbooks?

Marcela, a teacher in Chile

Hola Marcela. As we did in the course, we often use one problem in the development part of the lesson. At this point, the students are not likely to be opening the textbooks. They would be given the problem and asked to solve it usually in pairs or groups. They are likely to record their solutions in the notebook. After about 5 to 10 minutes, they will be asked for their responses which are used by the teacher to help students develop the key concept. By the end of the development, if you have attended one of my lessons before, you will see the board filled with different ways to solve the problem. Students can record this in their notebook. Sometimes there is also a conclusion. They will also be asked to write this in the notebook.

At this point the teacher will ask students to do consolidation tasks from the textbooks. These can be done in the notebook.

At the end of the lesson, students can do their reflection (e.g. write a letter to a friend about the lesson) in the notebook.

The notebook is an important tool for students to learn how to organize ideas.