NOOR HANANI BINTI BADROL HISHAM

7 PISMP TESL/LGA/RBT

My past teaching experience during practicum 1 and 2

I had been experiencing with two times of practicum session for two past
semesters. I had my first practicum at Sekolah kebangsaan Kampung Baru which
was located in Bukit Mertajam whereas for the second practicum was at Sekolah
Kebangsaan Tasek Permai located in Simpang Empat. There were many strengths
and weaknesses of both schools for the teaching and learning aspect. Most of the
pupils in my classroom during first practicum was Indian while for the second
practicum mostly were Malay. Sekolah Kebangsaan Kampung Baru could be said as
an urban school while for the Sekolah kebangsaan Tasek Permai was rural school.
There were huge differences of problem faced by pupils being observed during my
practicum at those both schools.
I always believe that teaching was more than only chalk and talk during
teaching and learning session. Since the beginning, handling with the primary school
pupils had not always been easy for me as a trainee teacher. It was because pupils
should be treated differently, each in terms of their own needs and interests in order
to make pupils engaged during teaching and learning session. Apart from that, I also
believe that teacher should treat pupils equally so that they would not feel neglected
during the teaching and learning session. It would be hard for me to be fair to all
pupils, but in order to try to make teaching and learning become effective, I had to
make some changes when handling with pupils. I had to do extra works and tried to
implement new methods and strategies when handling with the primary school
pupils. Their behaviours in the classroom were seriously beyond than what being
expected at the first moment I entered the classroom. Thus, as a teacher, I would try
the best to equip myself well before entering the classroom to start with teaching and
learning session.
Before the first practicum started, I had several expectation of what should
happen when handling primary school pupils in the classroom. One of the
expectations was that I implement some basic rules to be followed during the first

interaction. I had been expecting the pupils to follow the rules being highlighted but
after several days, they tend to break the rules. They even disrespect me in the
classroom when I was conducting the lesson. Some pupils did not complete the task
that I asked them to do and some even did not submit the task given. They had no
fear to me as their English teacher. At the end of the first month of practicum at both
schools, I tried to use the positive and negative reinforcement and punishment in
order to make them able to control their behaviour in the classroom. I tried to punish
for those who try to make problems in the class and I observed that most of them
slowly tried to eliminate the bad behaviour. It was being said by B.F Skinner with the
theory of Operant Conditioning that in order to remove the unlikable situation, pupils
will try to follow the rules so that they would be able to remove the unlikable situation
(Skinner, 1953).
Then, I make some observations with the pupils for their performance
throughout the teaching and learning process. I found out that most of the pupils can
actually speak English fluently even though they come from a various family
background. It means that they had a basic understanding of English Language.
Since all of them could converse in English, I was able to carry out my lesson for
speaking skill smoothly but during the reading skill lesson, I noticed that most of the
pupils could not comprehend the linear text that I gave them. They could read the
whole text fluently but they have trouble in understanding the text. They were not
able to comprehend the reading text they read. I only realized these problems when I
asked them to complete the comprehension questions based on the linear text I
gave them beforehand. They could not get full mark for the comprehension
questions and that make me wonder. I asked some of the students to tell me what
the text was all about and she tend to ask her friends. Some of them were also try to
find the meaning of all the words in the English-Malay Dictionary. This issue did
happen in both schools. Most of the year 3 pupils in Sekolah Kebangsaan Kampung
Baru and year 5 pupils in Sekolah Kebangsaan Tasek Permai were lacking with this
skill.
It was quite a sad to have a pupils were able to read most of the words yet not
to have a good understanding of what they read. There would be no function of
reading if pupils could not understand it because reading comprehension was the act
of understanding what you were reading (Yale, 2008). As a teacher, I will try my best

to help my pupils to be able to not just read the text but also understand the text.
Based on this issue, I want to make a solution which can help to improve my pupils
in comprehending linear text. According to Wilhelm (2014) when the readers wanted
to read the text, there were some strategies needed to be followed and one of them
was by tried to visualize the text that you read. That will support me in conducting a
research about usage of mind mapping technique. I wanted to try to use Baymax
Map as a technique to help my pupils improve their reading linear text
comprehension. Using this Baymax Map could actually make them understand the
text better as they will have to elicit the main points from the reading text which
answered the Wh-Questions. By being able to comprehend the linear text, hopefully
the pupils will be able to answer the comprehension questions regarding the linear
text. This action research seeks to improve this issue by extracting the main points
from the linear text using mind mapping technique. Mastering this reading linear text
comprehension is crucial for pupils so that they will be able to reflect on what they
have read from the reading text.