JUSTIFICATION

Teaching materials are essential tools of a teacher to conduct a class in an effective and best
way which will make the students go deep into the lesson physically and mentally. Teaching
material can be defined as anything which is used by teachers or learners to facilitate the
learning of a language. The materials can be posters, movies, CDs, websites, soft wares, and
so on. In primary ESL classroom teaching materials are one of fundamental element to make
the lesson successful. Primary school pupils especially level 1 pupils depend fully on teaching
aid in order to construct their understanding. Therefore, teachers should be good and talented in
selecting and adapting materials for their pupils because an error in selection and adaptation of
particular materials can cause misconception and misunderstanding on pupils capacity and also
in their performance. Teachers should learn to create appropriate material and use those
materials during their classroom lesson.
For our assignment task on creating a set of teaching and learning material, my partner and I
have planned a lesson that comprised the usage of variety of teaching materials for Year 5
pupils. The topic that we have chosen was Shapes all around and the skill that we focused was
reading skill for intermediate pupils. The teaching aids have evaluated based on the criteria of
selection and adaptation of teaching and learning materials. First of all, for the set induction
part, we have introduced Pop-up card to the pupils and they have to give few responses based
on the picture of shapes shown in the pop-up card. The pop-up card that we created is clear to
see, and the pictures and words in it are big enough to view. The main reason behind our choice
to use pop-up card in our lesson, pop-up card is a visual material in the form of Threedimensional aid. Pupils are able to see the material. According to Mannan (2005), the visual
materials support them in that matter, as they serve as metal scaffolds for the students and help
teachers to correlate and coordinate accurate concepts making the learning more concrete (R.
Garca Mara, 2012). Therefore, it will surely help to empower pupils imagination about the
lesson that they are going to learn.
Basically, kids love to look at the pictures and understand the words or meaning of the text with
the help of colourful pictures. For pre reading stage, we will introduce the difficult words found in
the text by showing the vocabularies using the hand shape card and ask the pupils to find out
the pictures that defines the meaning of the vocabulary inside the box given. Pupils are able to
link the difficult words with the pictures they see inside the Magic box that was given to each

group separately and it cater their understanding of new vocabularies in English which is not
common to them. Pictures are one of the valuable aids that bring images of reality into the
unnatural world of the language classroom (Kateina Joklov, 2009). The usage of visual aids
in teaching literature creates strong engagement between students and the texts (M. Md.
Yunus, Hadi Salehi, D. Sigan, 2013). Nowadays, the advancement of printing technology and
Internet as the main resources to download available picture have made things easier. It is easy
for us to produce the Magic box based on cheap materials and it can be used for such a long
time.
In addition, we also created a magic box as mentioned above in pre-reading stage for mainly
used during while reading stage. Inside the box we have separated sections to insert reading
text, questions, and answers for the questions, vocabulary card, picture card and also puppet.
The pupils will get one box for each group which contains 4 in a group. The story we have
chosen is appropriate to the topic which is about shape and the content is also focused on
shapes. During the while reading, after the teacher reads the story followed by the pupils,
teacher will instructs the pupils to find out the answers for the question given and arrange the
questions and answers cards accordingly. The magic box is a creative hand word which is made
up of card board and plastic cover. The box is reusable because all the material inside the box
can replace with others because it were inserted inside the plastic cover. The cost is affordable
and cheap even though these materials can be used for long term. Pupils will love to do the
reading activity because the box is decorated with colour papers, pictures and so on. Pupils are
love to use things which look unique. Visual support helps pupils to understand the meaning
and helps to make the word more memorable (Brewster, Ellis, and Girard, 1992:91). The main
purpose of creating this box is to make the students feels unique with that box, attract pupils
attention, reduce teachers load, and also to use it for all other lessons.
For post reading, we have created stick puppets using six different shapes and decorated it
with eyes, mouth and also hands to make it real and attractive. The material is durable because
we laminated the shapes and also used ice cream stick to stick the shapes. In this stage, we
have prepared five different texts and will ask the pupils to draw a robot by using the
descriptions given in the text. After that, the pupils will present their work by using the puppets
that were given to them. We have chosen puppet for this stage because puppets can act as a
psychological support for a child. When a child speaks through the puppet , it is not the child
who is perceived as making errors but the puppet and children find this liberating. Hence,

puppets can encourage our pupils to experiment more with the language and have a go when
they may have otherwise remained silent. Research published in the Journal of Child Neurology
and the Pediatric Academy Societies (2002) showed, using sophisticated imaging technology,
that the use of puppets in play dramatically boosted blood and oxygen levels to the brain. The
use of puppets prepares the brain for learning and is a powerful motivator in learning (Sandra
M. Reidmiller, 2008).
At last, for closure, we have created a dice box contains shapes pasted on its sides. Pupils will
roll the dice and should tell the name of the shape and spell it correctly. We used cardboard to
make the dice which is light to carry and easy to play. This material will make the pupils to
refreshed what they have learned in class and also it makes them enjoy with the dice game.
In the nutshell, all the materials that we created are safe cost, durable, appropriate to the pupils
level, contents were related to the DSKP, clear and attractive and more to versality because the
materials can be used for all other skills and lessons. In conclusion, teachers should always put
some initiative to create variety of material to teach so that the pupils will enjoy the lesson and
absorb the knowledge pondered by teacher easily and remember well. Especially for English
language, that is also their second language, really required interesting teaching material for the
pupils to visualize and to feel the language. Therefore, they depend a lot on good teaching
materials to understand new vocabulary in English language. In fact, good teaching materials
can help their memory to remember the new input that they have learnt throughout the lesson.

References

Azalina Yunus and H. Gaudart, (1996). Preparing & Using Visual Aids for English Language
Teaching. Selangor: Penerbitan Fajar Bakti Sdn. Bhd.
Kateina Joklov, (2009). Using Pictures In Teaching Vocabulary (Unpublished doctoral thesis).
Masaryk University, Czech Republic.
M. Md. Yunus, Hadi Salehi, D. Sigan, (2013). Using Visual Aids as a Motivational Tool in
Enhancing Students Interest in Reading Literary Texts (Unpublished doctoral thesis).
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia.
R. Garca Mara, (2012). Usage of Multimedia Visual Aids in the English Language Classroom:
Case Study at Margarita Salas Secondary School (Majadahonda) (Unpublished doctoral
thesis). Complutense University of Madrid, Spain.
Sandra M. Reidmiller, (2008). Benefits of Puppet Use. Retrieved August 1, 2013, from
http://www.puppetools.com/Reidmillerresearch.pdf