Good Luck On Your Final Exams – I’ll See You in Term 2!

We’ve been having a great time watching the 2006 “Charlotte’s Web” movie in class this week.  I think it’s a great reward for the students behaving so well throughout a very difficult Term 1.  At any rate, it does give a nice break from the regular routine in the lead-up to the final exams.

I do think the kids are ready for the exams next week.  On Monday, they will sit for two Thai language exams before the combined Listening/Reading tests, which will be followed by their Chinese language test.  I’m happy that the easiest of the English-language exams will be on the first day so it will lessen the pressure on the students.  I quizzed many of them over the past two weeks whenever I saw them – in the classroom (pointing out differences between the book and the movie and reminding them of certain scenes/chapters), during Extra Lessons (we spent this week revisiting some of the vocabulary words), and in the hallways during breaks and lunch.  Right now, they all seem to remember the important parts of the story and can keep the various characters straight.  And I think they have greater confidence than they had right before the mid-term tests.  At least now they know what to expect from the P4 Reading (and Listening) exams.

I am really looking forward to Term 2 and have been already done a lot of preparatory work for the lessons.  The book for the second half of P4 is a lot more fun and there is so much more we can do away from the standard read-and-answer questions format that Charlotte’s Web requires.

What is that book, you ask?  Why it’s the fantabulous, utterly glumptious novel by Roald Dahl called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!   Roald Dahl is my favorite children’s book author and each of his books are a lot of fun to read.  (I also happen to think it’s really cool that my baby daughter – Anda – was born on Roald Dahl Day, 13th September.)  I hope that the students will have so much fun with the adventures of Willy Wonka and Charlie Bucket that they will seek out Mr. Dahl’s other books such as The BFG, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, George’s Marvelous Medicine, etc.   All of these (and many more) are now available at B2S in Central Festival Phuket in honor of Roald Dahl Month (September). 

I’ve already started the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory blog to help the P4 students in Term 2.  The site is called T. Mark’s Chocolate Factory and I hope you like reading it as much as I enjoy making it.  See you there!

Final Exam Demarcation

The final exams are just one week away.  We are finishing watching the 2006 film version of Charlotte’s Web in the classes and the kids are being given a bit of a review as well.  It’s the last time they will be able to ask questions prior to the tests.  In fact, the Listening and Reading exams are scheduled on the very first day – Monday, 20th September.

The Listening Comprehension test is worth 10 points.  The various homeroom teachers will read a brief biography of the author E.B. White.  They will then answer ten questions pertaining to the oral reading.  While the mid-term test consisted of true or false questions, the final exam has multiple choice.  In my opinion, these types of questions are easier but the students will still need to listen carefully.

Wrapping Things Up: Chapters 19-22

No, that’s not Wilbur nor is that Uncle next to him. Friday’s trip to Phuket Zoo was the perfect way to finish my teaching in P4 for Term 1.  While the classes for Yellow, Red, and Star were “business as usual,” P4/Green had their lesson during the field trip as we tried to find the various animals mentioned in Charlotte’s Web.  It was great fun!

If you’re a parent, you might be wondering about now why I’m writing about the end of Term 1.  After all, it’s only the beginning of Week 18.  We have two full weeks of school left until the final exams.  Well, the kids know that I always finish up each term by showing a movie of the book we just read.  Since we have short periods now (just 40 minutes long until after Sports Day), we need to take two weeks for each class in order to view most of the movie.  I had thought about showing the students the original 1972 version of Charlotte’s Web that I saw when I was a kid.  But in watching it last week, I realized that it is a bit corny for 9- and 10-year-olds today.  I will show them a four-minute trailer (preview) of the older movie, however.  I also have a copy of the sequel – Charlotte’s Web 2: Wilbur’s Great Adventure.  Perhaps I’ll give that to Teacher Colin to show during one of his Movie Club sessions next term.  Thus, we’ll be watching the 2006 live-action version of the film; I did edit a bit of the movie in the middle so we will be able to view as much of it as possible in the allotted amount of time.  I even added new credits at the end to list all of the P4 students from this term.  One of the special surprises I like to do for the kids every once in a while.

Preparing for This Week’s Lessons

I just spent the past two hours working getting reading for this week’s P4 Reading classes.  We’ll be covering Chapter 19 – “The Egg Sac” – and Chapter 20 – “The Hour of Triumph.”  Because the length of our lessons have just been reduced from 50 to 40 minutes each, I have to fix the amount of material I can cover in that all-too-brief time.

It really is different for each class as how much I can teach in P4/Yellow or Red isn’t the same as what I can do in P4/Star or Green.  There is quite a bit of vocabulary in these two chapters; I picked out twenty-one words that I’d like to cover just from Chapter 21!  There are a total of nineteen questions that I could ask for to see if the students truly understand this important part of the book.  After all, Charlotte has created her egg sac (her magnum opus, or “great work”) while she is feeling very tired all the time and can now rest knowing she has truly saved Wilbur’s life with his winning of the “special award.”  There is a lot happening in the book as we are nearing it’s end (we’ll finish it in another week).

After some great thought, I’ve decided that the children will get the most meaning out of these chapters if I simply read them aloud in the classes.  If they have already attempted to read the chapters at home, they will benefit greatly by following along in their books while I read it to them.  I’ll introduce a bit of vocabulary at the beginning and stop to explain other words as we meet them in the text.  I do so enjoy reading to the kids and there is so little time in P4 to be able to do that.  The beginning of Chapter 19 in particular is beautifully written and conveys some nice imagery and feelings that are best shared through a proper oral read-through as I can express the emotions through changes in my voice.  I’m looking forward to it, and I’m sure the students will appreciate the break from the summary/Q&A routine we’ve followed recently.  It’s always good to change things from time to time in order to breathe new life into a subject…

Weeks 14 & 15: Chapters 16, 17, and 18

Despite two days of missed lessons last week due to the Queen’s birthday, all four P4 classes are back on the same page.  This makes Teacher very happy as I don’t have to remember which class is on which chapter and can just teach the same lesson each day.  As I write this, I’ve taught the lesson to P4/Yellow on Monday and P4/Red on Tuesday; P4/Star will have a discussion on Chapters 16-18 tomorrow morning and I’ll see P4/Green Friday afternoon.

Also this week, we switched from 50-minute periods to just 40 minutes.  This was done so that no classes are missed despite the last 90 minutes of the day being consumed with “cheering practice” for Sports Day.  We still have to teach the same amount of material but now have less time to cover it in.  That’s a real challenge for a one-class-per-week subject such as P4 Reading (and I’ve been complaining since the beginning of the year that we need two periods per class each week to cover the what I need to in a manner which the students can understand and remember).  At any rate, Yellow was a big success this week (I ended with two minutes to spare) but went over time with the lesson in Red as it now comes right after lunch; they were ten minutes late in coming back to class and never did settle down enough (the post-lunch lessons are notoriously difficult for most teachers). 

Charlotte’s Web – Student Drawings

Over the last two weeks, students in my various P4 Reading classes have been drawing pictures based on chapters in Charlotte’s Web.  We would read the chapters in class and then each child was given paper to draw an event that had occurred in that particular chapter.  Most of the drawings represent either Chapter 12 (“A Meeting”) or Chapter 13 (“Good Progress”).

This activity was done mainly to keep each class at the same place in the book as two classes (P4/Yellow and P4/Red) saw their lessons canceled two weeks ago because of the Buddhist holidays and the two remaining (P4/Star and P4/Green) will have their lessons canceled this coming week due to the Queen’s birthday.  Other lessons in the upcoming weeks will also be canceled (Science Day, Sports Day, a field trip, various practice sessions, etc.) so it will be difficult to maintain the same number of gradable points for all of the different classes.

A Few Facts About E. B. White

At the beginning of the term, I talked a little bit about E. B. White – his life and his other writings.  I mentioned that he was an editor for The New Yorker and wrote essays for that magazine for many years.  I also talked about how he’d only written three children’s books – Stuart Little, The Trumpet of the Swan, and Charlotte’s Web – and that he’d gotten his ideas while living on his farm in the state of Maine in the U.S.A.  When we discussed Chapter 5 in class – where Wilbur first meets Charlotte – I explained that E. B. White chose the full name, Charlotte A. Cavatica, from the scientific name for the common grey barn spider:  Arensis cavaticus. 

I’d like to share a few more facts about our book’s author…

Week 13: Chapters 12, 13, 14, & 15

First of all, I am sorry for putting this week’s chapters up so late.  It has been a very busy week for me – both at school and at home – not to mention that I’ve also been sick all week!  In addition to the “normal routine” at work, we have also added “Cheering Practice” for the students each afternoon in preparation for next month’s Sports Day as well as the first week of tournament Futsol.  Wednesday, the P4 and Special Subjects teachers had their weekly meeting with Teacher Colin while all Primary teachers had a meeting with Khun Nong on Thursday morning.  Finally, the P4 Parents Meeting was held Thursday afternoon (I had a nice time chatting with many P4 parents).

Week 12: Drawing

Because of the Buddhist holidays last week, two out of the four P4 Reading classes were canceled. So that nobody would fall behind too far, I had the remaining classes read Chapter 12 in class. Then, the students were to draw a picture of something that had happened in the chapter (while being careful not to just copy one of Garth Williams’ illustrations). There were so many great drawings from the kids in P4/Star and P4/Green that I decided to repeat the exercise with the kids in P4/Yellow and P4/Red this week. I’ll scan the drawings for later posting here…

Week 11: Chapter 11

As the kids wrote their Mid-Terms last week, I didn’t assign homework due for Week 11. During the lessons, we will begin with a summary of the first ten chapters (I will elicit students responses to “Setting”, “Characters”, “Problem” and “Solution”) before the students read Chapter 11 quietly in class. While they do that, I will board this week’s vocabulary words and comprehension questions. Writing the answers will be part of the homework in addition to reading Chapters 12, 13, and 14.