1.

0 INTRODUCTION OF SCHOOL SUPPORT PLAN

1.1 OBJECTIVES
To enable English Language teachers to foster continuous cycles of students

improvement by:
i) Using various types of data to support pedagogical decision making
ii) Analysing and interpreting students performances data in order to identify the

gaps in students knowledge and skills.

iii) Developing and implementing effective interventions to address these gaps.

2.0 CONTEXT OF SCHOOL AND STUDENTS

Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Jelutong was established in 1962. Previously, it is

known as Jelutong Secondary School with the motto Adopt and Adapt. One could say that

the school really started from scratch to become what it is today. The privilege of getting

brilliant students into our school was beyond our wildest dream. But with what we received,

our school was proudly achieved several milestones with its dedicated and committed

teachers through its successes and achievements of its students over its 55 years history.

The school started off with a humble beginning in January 1962 with 398 students (boys

and girls) in 11 classes. From then on, Jelutong Secondary School became a co-educational

English Medium school. The first principal was the late Mr. Keong Siew Tat. The students

are drawn from the various primary schools in Penang. It consisted of one block of double-

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storey building and later in 1964, another double-storey building was built. In 1966, Jelutong

Secondary School flourished with another 2 blocks consisted of one lab and 12 classrooms.

Later in 1973, it is known as Sekolah Menengah Jelutong with the motto Berdikari dan

Berbakti.

The initial aim of the school was to serve as a secondary school for students who lived in

the neighbourhood. Those who were not admitted into Penang Free School or Georgetown

Secondary School were instead sent to Jelutong Secondary School. The students obtained

Category C in the Malayan Secondary Schools Entrance Examination.

Jelutong Secondary School has come a long way from its humble beginning since its

establishment in 1962. Students and teachers come and go each year, but definitely SMK

Jelutong will always be there to provide education for our future generations.

Now, SMK Jelutong is a pioneer school for the transformation project known as Ground

Up School Transformation GUSTO advocating 21 st Century Learning. The Gusto Project

focuses on under-performing school where the majority of the students are from poor

families and communities from poor social demographic and students who do not have the

opportunity to access or engage with the outside world. Teachers will be trained in

conducting 21st century learning for the students and at the same time implement the

transformative work in the administration and lesson for the students.

Almost 100% of the English teachers in the school are optionists. Most of them are

experienced and qualified teachers who are eager to scaffold the students from zero to hero.

English teachers in our school are very enthusiastic to improve the outcome of learning for

students.

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 The School Support Plan was administered for 16 students from 5VK1 and the students

are from low to average level of proficiency. These students were chosen based on the

implementation of Pre-Test, on continuous writing. Basically, the students do not place much

importance in English Language due to the interference of their first language.

3.0 PRE-TEST, RESULTS AND DATA ANALYSIS

3.1 Pre-Test
The implementation of the pre-test was carried out in February where students were

asked to write a narrative essay and it was supposed to end with . I wish I had spent more

time with him. It is too late now. I marked the students scripts using the SPM marking

scheme and identified the students common gaps.

3.2 Results

NAME PRE-TEST
MUHAMMAD ANAS B SAGUL HAMID 18
MUHAMMAD FAZARI B NAZRI 30
MUHAMMAD HAKIMI B MOHAMMAD
NAZARUDDIN 21
MUHAMMAD IZZUL HAFIZ B NOOR
HASHIM 17
NASHIM ALI BIN ABD RAHIM 20
ONG HWANG SOON 16
TAN SOON AIK TH
WAN MUHAMMAD AFIQ B AZMIN TH
CHEAH CHAI NEE 13
HEMADHARSHINI A/P SAGAYABRITTO 17
KOED CI YEN 20
LEE SOOK FEN TH
NOR LYDIAWATI BT ISHAK 39
NURUL FATIHAH BT MOHD ROSDI 24
SITI ROSDEYANA BT MOHD RODEY 21
YUKADARSINI A/P MAHENDRAKUMAR 19

3.2 Data Analysis

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 GAPS
ADJECTIVE
NAME
OF GENERATING
FEELINGS VOCABULARIES IDEAS
MUHAMMAD ANAS B SAGUL HAMID / / /
MUHAMMAD FAZARI B NAZRI / / /
MUHAMMAD HAKIMI B MOHAMMAD
NAZARUDDIN / / /
MUHAMMAD IZZUL HAFIZ B NOOR HASHIM
/ / /
NASHIM ALI BIN ABD RAHIM / / /
ONG HWANG SOON / / /
TAN SOON AIK / / /
WAN MUHAMMAD AFIQ B AZMIN / / /
CHEAH CHAI NEE / / /
HEMADHARSHINI A/P SAGAYABRITTO / / /
KOED CI YEN / / /
LEE SOOK FEN / / /
NOR LYDIAWATI BT ISHAK / / /
NURUL FATIHAH BT MOHD ROSDI / / /
SITI ROSDEYANA BT MOHD RODEY / / /
YUKADARSINI A/P MAHENDRAKUMAR / / /
Based on the analysis, many gaps emerged from the data such as tenses, vocabularies,

modals, sentence structure, adjective of feelings and generating ideas. The gaps that I chose

to treat were adjective of feelings, vocabularies and generating ideas as they were more basic

compared to the other gaps.

4.0 INTERVENTION ACTIVITIES

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 The School Support Plan was carried out for six weeks starting in May. The duration of

time for each section is 80 minutes every week. The most common gaps identified in

students written data were adjective of feelings, vocabularies and generating ideas. Some

changes were made on the intervention plan compared to the initial plan after discussion with

English teachers in school during Weekly Professional Discourse (WPD).

WEEK 1 ADJECTIVE OF FEELINGS

For week 1, the teacher focused on introducing the adjective of feelings. The activities

that teacher had designed to address the problem on adjective of feelings for week 1 is Silent

Debate. Teacher started the session with charade. For starter, the students came to the front

and pick a paper that contains adjective of feelings. Then, the particular student acted out the

facial expression and the rest have to guess the expression. The teacher wrote out adjectives

on the board. For Silent Debate activity, in pairs the students were given a piece of paper

where they have to take turn to write out the adjective of feelings (debate). The students who

wrote the most adjectives is announced as the winner. After that, the students were given 6

minutes to do gallery walk to observe their friends ideas. For the follow-up activity, students

filled in the crosswords with adjective of feelings and find pair of synonyms for the

adjectives given. (Appendix 1)

WEEK 2 ADJECTIVE OF FEELINGS

On week 2, the intervention lesson was started with an activity called Odd One Out.

This activity is a recap of the previous lesson on adjectives. The students were given 3

adjectives and students choose the one that is out. For the main activity, teacher showed four

short video clips on feelings. Each group have to fill in the combo map given with the

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 adjectives based on the short video clips. For the follow-up activity, the students filled in the

gaps with the adjectives from the box and then the students choose five adjectives and

construct sentences. (Appendix 2)

WEEK 3 - VOCABULARIES

The awareness raising strategies for week 3 that has been applied was vocabularies.

Teacher exposed the students with various words to describe feelings. For the set induction,

the teacher carried out Just a Minute activity. The students are divided into 2 groups and a

word (describing feeling) is given. As a team, they have to think of other vocabularies to say

the word given and a volunteer from each team will list them out. As an evaluation of

understanding, students were given a worksheet on feelings. Then, they read and cross-check

with their shoulder partner. Teacher walked around and read it. Students were alert on their

friends mistakes.(Appendix 3)

WEEK 4 - VOCABULARIES

The activity that was designed for week 4 was on vocabularies. Each group role-played a

scene that was given to them. In group students listed down on a mini white board the feeling

that the characters showed during the role play. Later, students shared the vocabularies that

they listed with their friends. To further assess their understanding the teacher distributed a

worksheet. Students were able to identify the correct answer for each question. Teacher

rewarded students with a sticker for all their correct answers. Students had fun during this

lesson especially during the role play and took part actively. (Appendix 4)

WEEK 5 GENERATING IDEAS

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 On week 5, students were given a model of OREO. This model will help students to

brainstorm their points accordingly and organizing. O stands for opinion, R for reason, E for

examples and O for restate opinion. This will help the students to write a complete paragraph.

Students were able to write a short paragraph using adjective of feelings and vocabularies

pertaining to it. This model is extremely helpful for the students to write.

WEEK 6 GENERATING IDEAS

On week 6, students were introduced to a planning template of writing a story. In groups,

they have to brainstorm for ideas according to the description given in the template. Once

they finished, they have to present their product to their friends. They used five different

colours of pens to fill in the template. (opening-blue, build up-black, dilemma-red, resolution-

green, ending-purple). Unfortunately, they were not able to fulfil the task as the teacher

expected. Many students struggle to brainstorm for ideas to fill in the template accordingly. (A

ppendix 6)

WEEK 7 GENERATING IDEAS

The activities designed for week 7 is a simplified version from the previous task. The

teacher started the lesson by distributing short stories to each group whereby the students need

to come out with their own beginning or ending. Students share their story. Next, the teacher

conducted story chain with the students. Students were given a topic and in groups they have

to take turn to produce a complete story. The students were confident and able to generate

ideas.

During the activities, I assessed students informally when they were giving me the verbal

feedback to the questions asked and this was followed by formal assessment whereby they

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had to do written work in the worksheets or exercise books. The implementation of this

activities encouraged my students to gain knowledge and improve on their writing skills.

5.0 OUTCOMES OF THE INTERVENTION

The post test was administered on 31st July 2017. As for the post test, a similar question

was given to the students. The reason I chose a slightly similar question is to check the
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 students ability to write more detail and correctly. I marked the students scripts using the

SPM marking scheme. I review each student essay and identify the gaps. Based on my analysis,

its reveal that some of the students tend to make the same errors as in Pre-Test and some new

errors. The word count of the essay increased.

Difference
NAME PRE-TEST POST-TEST (+/-)
MUHAMMAD ANAS B SAGUL HAMID 18 20 2
MUHAMMAD FAZARI B NAZRI 14 16 2
MUHAMMAD HAKIMI B MOHAMMAD 24 3
NAZARUDDIN 21
MUHAMMAD IZZUL HAFIZ B NOOR
HASHIM 17 16 -1
NASHIM ALI BIN ABD RAHIM 20 21 1
ONG HWANG SOON 16 19 3
TAN SOON AIK 11 13 2
WAN MUHAMMAD AFIQ B AZMIN 17 21 4
CHEAH CHAI NEE 13 12 -1
HEMADHARSHINI A/P SAGAYABRITTO 17 22 5
KOED CI YEN 20 24 4
LEE SOOK FEN 17 16 -1
NOR LYDIAWATI BT ISHAK 38 39 2
NURUL FATIHAH BT MOHD ROSDI 22 24 2
SITI ROSDEYANA BT MOHD RODEY 21 22 1
YUKADARSINI A/P MAHENDRAKUMAR 19 24 5

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PRE-TEST AND POST-TEST

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 The chart above shows the difference between pre-test and post-test. Based on the

result, 13 students were able to score more compare to the pre-test. However, there were 3

students who score lower than pre-test. This happen due to the students attitude who

frequently absent to the school.

No. of students that use adj

of feeling correctly

From the analysis, students gaps in adjective of feelings shows improvement. In pre-test

only two students were able to use adjective of feelings, however it is increased after the

post-test. Ten students were able to use the adjective of feelings correctly after the

intervention activity.
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No. of students that use right
word choice

Based on the analysis, students were able to add new vocabularies in their essay. In pre-

test, students used wrong word choices to write essay. However, 13 students were able to use

correct vocabularies. This shows that the intervention is extremely benefit the students in

writing narrating essay.

No. of students who were

able to generate ideas

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 Based on the analysis, students show a slight improvement in generating ideas. In pre-

test, students were not able to elaborate the points but in the post-test they were able to write 7 to

8 paragraph.

Overall, there is improvement in students writing. This reflects that the intervention

activities were very useful for the students to score marks in their writing. Although it was a

basic skill intervention, but there is a progress in students writing. The word count increased and

they were able to organize their ideas accordingly.

6.0 CONCLUSION

In the post-test, which was carried out on 31 st July 2017, new gaps were identified such

as tenses (present tense and past tense), spelling errors and punctuation. These need to be

addressed with a further cycle of interventions.

This particular approach helps me to be more focused on students weaknesses. Thus,

more specific treatments can be carried out to address their weaknesses. As a result, I am sure

the students will be able to gain more confidence and also improve on their writing skills.

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13
APPENDIC
ES

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