Singapore’s education system is rather progressive. We don’t just aim to teach well, but we also aspire to stretch the abilities of our youth. Hence, Differentiated Instruction (DI), where teachers strategically plan materials that cater to the differing ability levels of our students, is a key strategic thrust of our system.
The drawback of this is that when teachers plan properly for a future DI lesson, they often don’t have time to plan today’s lesson well.
So this was the passage found in the workbook.
When I was in primary school, I often compared myself with my peers. There were times when I felt like I did not fit in, especially when my friends talked about their families.
It bothered me very much that I was staying with a foster family instead of my own. I never told my friends that I was a foster child. Whenever they asked about my family, I just avoided their questions and pretended to smile.
It bothered me very much that I was staying with a foster family instead of my own. I never told my friends that I was a foster child. Whenever they asked about my family, I just avoided their questions and pretended to smile.
We typically divide students into three groups: low progress, mid progress and high progress. So if the above passage can be managed by most mid progress students, this means that I got to tone down the language for the low progress students. Which I did, 💯 AI free.
I mean, I wanted to use ChatGPT for this, but gave up after a short while because I reckoned that figuring out the appropriate prompt to use would take up as much, if not more time, as me editing the original prose.
So, I simplified the text as such:
When I was in primary school, I often compared myself to my friends. Sometimes, I felt that I did not fit in with them, especially when they talked about their families.
One thing bothered me: I was staying with a foster family instead of my own. I never told my friends that I was a foster child. Whenever they asked me about my family, I chose not to answer their questions and just gave a fake smile.
Then, I got to make the original prose more complicated for the high progress students. Thankfully, my natural writing style was flamboyant, so I actually enjoyed embellishing the words.
When I was in primary school, I often compared myself to my peers. There were times when I felt a distinctive sense of isolation, particularly when my friends swapped stories about their families.
The fact that I was staying with a foster family instead of my own felt like a tremendous weight on my shoulders. I never confided in my friends about being a foster child. Whenever they asked about my family, I dodged their questions and masked my pain with a smile.
All this customisation took away my lesson preparation time today. I only had about ten minutes to go. Desperate, I decided to edit what I was working on for the benefit of my students with dyslexia. I had earlier taught them the ‘-flu’ suffix, so I wanted to introduce them to the ‘-less’ suffix today.
After some furious banging on the keyboard, I came up with this:
When I was in primary school, I frequently compared myself to my classmates. I often felt helpless, powerless, and loveless when my friends talked about their families.
It bothered me immensely that I was staying with a foster family instead of my own. I never let my friends know that I was a foster child. I avoided their questions, not wanting them to see me as a loveless child and pretended to smile instead.
I guess I’m writing this because I’m kinda feeling guilty towards my students. That I didn’t plan a well-considered lesson for them. But I guess I’m just doing what I can to survive another hectic day. I will strive to do better tomorrow.
Thank you for reading.