leveraging Bloom’s Taxonomy for crossword construction

I've just read through the comments from teachers who attended my crossword construction workshop last year. One of the teacher's comment was crossword puzzles is only best in assessing lower thinking skills and not higher order thinking skills. Based on the idea of Bloom's Taxonomy, she believes that crossword puzzles is not applicable at all. I really appreciate her comment and decided to do some research on her argument.

In the process of the research, I came across a research paper by Elizabeth Avery Gomez and Julian Matthew Scher of New Jersey Institute of Technology titled "Design Strategies for the Pedagogical Use of Crossword Puzzle Generation Software, In Individual and Collaborative Design Modes" which is very helpful.

Based on the article, here's how Bloom's Taxonomy can be applied for crossword construction:

1. Knowledge
Skills Demonstrated
• Knowledge of the subject matter
• List, define, examine or describe

Activity
• Solve the instructor’s crossword puzzle individually to demonstrate knowledge of class materials or the context of the course (individual crossword)
• Solve the instructor’s crossword puzzle in groups to demonstrate knowledge of class materials or the context of the course (collaborative crossword)


2. Comprehension
Skills Demonstrated
• Understand meaning of subject matter
• Interpret and associate

Activity
• Interpret and associate the clues with the assigned class materials (individual crossword)
• Interpret and associate the clues with the assigned class materials (collaborative crossword)


3. Application
Skills Demonstrated
• Use information in a new situation
• Solve problems using required skill
• Apply, illustrate or relate

Activity
• Generate a crossword puzzle using the course content domain to illustrate knowledge of class materials (individual crossword)
• List and define clues and answers to contribute for the collaborative crossword to illustrate knowledge of the course content domain (collaborative crossword)


4. Analysis
Skills Demonstrated
• Organize into parts
• Recognize hidden meanings
• Analyze, order, classify

Activity
Individual crossword
• List and define words for the crossword generation
• Interpret the clues to use

Collaborative crossword
• Organize and order contributions from team mates
• Analyze, classify and consolidate team mates clues


5. Synthesis
Skills Demonstrated
• Relate knowledge from old ideas to new ideas
• Combine, modify, create

Activity
Individual crossword
• Complete another classmates crossword individually (synthesis of the instructor crossword and classmate’s crossword)

Collaborative crossword
• Consensus on clues to select
• Generate a collaborative crossword puzzle (synthesis to both instructor crossword and team mates clues)


6. Evaluation
Skills Demonstarted
• Compare ideas and purpose
• Assess value of ideas
• Assess, rank, measure

Activity
Individual crossword
• Compare the individually generated crossword puzzles (clues and answers) to the submitted
crossword puzzles of others

Collaborative crossword
• Compare the collaboratively generated crossword puzzles (clues and answers) to the submitted crossword puzzles of others


As I'll be conducting a similar (but improved) workshop in February, I'll incorporate this research findings as well as make the whole learning process more interactive. Watch out this space!

tips to write a five-line sajak

Recently I was browsing the Internet to find activities for my BM students (currently I'm giving BM tuition for a few UPSR and secondary students). I came across a website titled Combine Your Grammar and Poetry Skills. I find the activity rather interesting and wanted to share with my students.

Here is one of the sajak written by my student, Caryn Goh, a UPSR student. I was amazed by the result and her potential. I discussed with her and suggested some new vocabulary that can be used to improve the sajak.

Caryn's version:

Sang Suria,
Bercahaya dan besar,
Memberi cahaya kepada manusia,
Seperti bola yang panas,
Andainya aku seperti kamu,
Dapat membantu orang ramai.

Edited version:

Sang Suria,
Bercahaya dan besar,
Memberi harapan kepada manusia,
Seperti bebola yang membara,
Andainya aku sepertinya,
Dapat menerangi segenap manusia.

The following is the technique of writing (in Malay language) a five-line sajak.

1. Baris pertama - tulis satu Kata Nama (Am atau Khas atau Terbitan) pilihan anda.


2. Baris kedua - tulis dua Kata Adjektif untuk menerangkan Kata Nama anda. Anda boleh menggunakan Kata Penguat untuk Kata Adjektif anda. Contohnya, amat cantik.


3. Baris ketiga - tulis satu Kata Kerja untuk menerangkan Kata Nama anda.


4. Baris keempat - tulis perbandingan (simile) dengan menggunakan kata-kata seperti bagai, seperti, macam, bak, laksana.


5. Baris kelima - tulis impian/kehendak/keinginan/harapan anda dengan menggunakan kata-kata seperti andainya, sekiranya, hanya jika pada permulaan ayat.

Here are five different sajak which I have written as examples for my students.

Peperangan,
Kejam dan tanpa kemanusiaan,
Menafikan erti kemerdekaan,
Bagai tiada masa hadapan,
Hanya jika perselisihan ini tidak lagi berterusan.

Sejarah,
Sukar namun penting,
Menjemukan segenap pelajar,
Laksana menonton televisyen tiada berwarna,
Hanya jika aku mampu mengingati segala.

Pahlawan,
Waja dan perkasa,
Menentang musuh yang dikecami,
Bagai tiada keesokan hari,
Andainya aku juga gagah dan berani,
Akanku tamatkan kekejaman ini.

Menara KL,
Tinggi dan megah,
Berdiri teguh di pusat bandar,
Laksana wawasan kita yang tak pernah pudar,
Andainya kejayaanku juga setinggi pencapaianmu.

Malam,
Sunyi dan berpanjangan,
Menenggelamkan cahaya dengan kegelapan,
Bagai kemuraman yang tiada berkesudahan,
Andainya pagi akan mendatang.

I have a Form 2 student who asked me if writing sajak is part of the PMR exam. I told her no. Instead it's part of the process of learning BM. I explained to her that learning Bahasa Melayu is more than just passing or excel in PMR.

Through sajak writing, we learn to apply gaya bahasa such as simile, metafora or hiperbola which is part of KOMSAS (Komponen Sastera) and tatabahasa (for example Kata Nama, Kata Adjektif and others). The process of writing a sajak also requires students to use different vocabulary in a creative way and construct better if not poetic sentences.

Most importantly we learn to appreciate other writers' puisi by reading and conducting research to write our very own piece of sajak.

Mathematics Year 5 workbook - can you detect the errors?

In my previous post Buying Workbooks For Your Kids, I've mentioned about a publisher who published poor quality Mathematics workbook.

I was at a bookshop in Petaling Jaya few weeks ago. As I was browsing through some new workbooks, I came across a new series of books published under an unfamiliar name.

Since we are in our 5th year of using Maths and Science in English, I chose their Mathematics Year 5 workbook under the series Infomik UPSR (is there such word as Infomik?). I was completely shocked! I knew the new Year 5 syllabus well because I've just completed writing two new Maths workbooks.

Click on these pictures (including the front cover) and see if you can spot the errors. These are just three pages (yes, there are more mistakes and I'm not talking about typo errors alone). I don't mind if these are just some minor typo errors but incorrect sentences with grammatical errors that pupils might not be able to understand is simply unacceptable.

The most surprising thing is, according to the bookshop owner, this publisher's books got into school list. I hope it's not their Maths workbooks.

At the beginning, I was reluctant to comment about this book, well, since I have to fork out about RM9 (very pricey!) to get hold of this book. But for the sake of the pupils, I couldn't tutup sebelah mata (close one eye).

Fund-raising to build Sakya Institute and kesa sponsorship

Recently, Guru Phurla Rinpoche was here in Malaysia. He has been coming back regularly especially since the setup of his Sakya centre here in Kepong, Kuala Lumpur. In his visit, I've only managed to attend Guru Phurla Rinpoche's teaching of Medicine Buddha and Vajra Kilaya.

If you are trying to look for any English website about Guru Phurla Rinpoche, you won't be able to find one (yes, there's none). I think this is simply because he is a Tibetan/Mandarin-speaker and spreads his dhamma teaching mainly in Taiwan, China, Malaysia and Singapore. I'll try to communicate with Guru Phurla Rinpoche or the committee members at his centres to see if it's possible to have a website for people to access into.

In this visit, Guru Phurla Rinpoche told us that there will be a puja ceremony in August 2007 to raise fund to complete a Sakya Institute (*look at the brochure on the left) for Buddhist Studies located in Ching Hai. Construction couldn't be continued because of insufficient fund. RM230k is needed to complete the building alone.

This Sakya Institute provide a decent environment for lamas (buddhist monks) to study Buddhism. Sponsorships will also enable the institute to provide teaching materials as well as to cover the basic expenses for lamas such as kesa (tibetan robes for monks) and food.

For further enquiry, please contact the following person-in-charge at these Sakya centres:

Taipei, Taiwan:

Taiwan Tibetan Vajrayana Sakya Sherabling Foundation

5F, No.289 Chengde Rd., Sec. 4 Taipei, Taiwan, Ro.O.C.

Tel: 886-2-28822475

Fax: 886-2-28822476

Hp: 0933-879548

Email: phurla.rinpoch@msa.hinet.net

Kaohsiung, Taiwan:

7F, No.175 Foren Rd., Kaohsiung, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Tel: 886-7-7245489

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: 012-638 5051 (Ms Choon Lan)

Singapore: 9617 8018 (Ms Phang)

*Please note that my translation of the brochure is not complete simply because I'm not Chinese-educated. So, for more information, drop me a message or contact the Sakya centres above.