Boosting creativity

cutting, pasting and writing. NiE encourages group work and activity. It helps students build better relationship with friends.

“It also boosts their creativity as they come up with funny and amusing works,” she added.

Following her sharing, others pitched in their ideas on ways to group students, by drawing lots, making use of their birth dates and colours.

SJK(C) Yuk Chyun, Petaling Jaya, teacher Tabitha Sunder tried NiE with her weakest Year Five class pupils.

Although it took more time than she had previously allocated, the pupils were curious about some articles, and so the whole class read the stories together, she shared.

“The pupils took time to analyse the pictures and their captions.”

During a word search activity to introduce new vocabulary, she noted that the class was more participative.

“The pupils in this class usually do not speak much. I have a special needs pupil who never does much work in class. But she was holding the newspaper and she found three words. To me, it was amazing. I think they would benefit more from using the newspaper as a resource.”

Manoharan too gave suggestions to the teachers.

“Flood the class with language. Put up children’s artwork on classroom walls. When their work is exhibited, they get excited.

“This is a good way to help students expand their vocabulary by exposing them to words – we call this incidental learning.”

He also noted that language learning should be fun.

“The reason Language Arts was incorporated was so that students can have fun with the language. Once in a while, leave the focus on grammar aside or students will not learn to have fun. Too much focus on grammar can stifle the writing process,” he said.

From the teachers’ feedback, Dass noted that students are enjoying the NiE activities conducted by the teachers and encouraged teachers to continue the good work.

“Don’t let it be a one-off activity. You have already aroused their interest and they are looking forward to more.

“Teachers would know best when to use an NiE activity. It can be used as an ice-breaker, filler or a full-fledged lesson. NiE can also be used for camps, society meetings and debates.”

All the sessions were part of the NiE workshops planned until September to mark Star-NiE’s 20th anniversary.

They were held in collaboration with the Selangor State and Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory Education Departments and the IPGKBA.