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TASK 3 (JEDIDIAH ZEHUAN LAM)

For Developing and Using Resources in the Primary ESL Classroom (TSL3113), we are
asked to make a teaching kit for a lesson based on principles of materials selection and
adaptation in groups. Andy, Amirul and I were put in a group and we decided to make My Town
which is a 3D model of a town complete with cars, signboards and roads.
Firstly, when designing and choosing teaching materials, teachers need to look at the
learners. Since our teaching is to cater for young learners in the primary school, a 3D model
of a town makes sense. Pupils are able to physically touch the buildings and move the cars
around the town. Pupils will be very interested if a teacher brings in a 3D model of a town into
the class to teach directions. Pupils can move the car around the town following the directions
given by the teacher or their peers. Since pupils can see the town, it scaffolds pupils
understanding of the topic by providing a visual aid. At a young age, pupils love to play
around with models and thus, My Town is suitable to be introduced to pupils in primary
schools.
Secondly, the materials used to teach directions can be varied to suit the various levels
of proficiency of pupils. My Town is versatile enough to be used for different levels of
proficiency. The directions can be as simple as stating the colour of the building or as
complicated as naming the exact name of the building. My Town can be used all the five skills:
listening & speaking, reading, writing, grammar and language arts. It can also be used in the
various stages of the lesson: set induction, presentation, practice, production and closure. It is
up to the teacher how to use My Town to enhance the learning for the day. My Town can be
adapted for the various levels in the primary classroom. Furthermore, the positioning of the
buildings can be changed to ensure that each time My Town is used, pupils will not be familiar
with the layout of the building. Each building in the 3D model is pinned using thumbtacks and
thus, it is easy to move it around to suit the class. Also, there are various topics can be taught
from just a 3D model of a town. Some examples include directions, colour, adjectives, signs and
road safety. A teacher are a key factor in the successful implementation of curriculum changes.
(Richards, J.C., 2001)
Next, under practicality, reproducing My Town will take a long time to make. A lot of
hours have to be invested to reproduce the building from scratch. Teachers need to invest a lot
of time in cutting, folding and sticking to make each building of the town. The size of each
building can be changed to suit the classroom but time is needed to complete building My

Town. The materials used are easy enough to buy such as colour paper, manila card,
thumbtacks, glue, sticks and model cars. The downside is that it requires a lot of time to prepare
the 3D model. Next, the size of the model makes it difficult to be moved around as well and
keeping it in storage. Since the size of the model is fairly large, moving it around can be difficult
especially if its just a single teacher moving it around.
Finally, My Town is not that durable since the buildings are made from paper.
Therefore, teachers have to be careful when bringing the 3D model to class as pupils may be
rough with the model. Teachers need to supervise pupils when using the 3D model to ensure
that it can be used again for another class or another time. However, with the materials chosen,
pupils are able to recreate their own buildings to make a model of a town on their own as well.
With the resources available to teachers, making their own 3D model of a town may be feasible
since it does not require any expensive materials. Knowing the trend in school as the budget
for teaching aids are cut and teachers are forced to fork out their own money for teaching aids,
the cost for reproducing My Town is quite cheap. The usage of My Town is endless and its
up to the teachers creativity in using it to teach different topics.
I have learnt many things when my group members and I discussed the options to
complete this assignment. We talked about making a teaching kit can be versatile enough to
teach various topics but simple enough to be completed by a single teacher. In the end,
we chose to make a 3D model of a town. Searching 3D templates of buildings was quite easy to
find but folding and assembling the individual buildings took some time to complete. Choosing
the initial idea was easy but finalizing the various details like should the buildings be able to
move around and how should the buildings be arranged was critical in deciding the final
produce of our assignment.
Teamwork and cooperation is important in any group task to ensure that the final
product will come out as we envision it to be. My group member were cooperative enough to sit
down and complete the buildings together and at the end of the day, Im proud to say that we
completed the assignment together. Working with Amirul and Andy was easy as we are all
willing to work late into the night to finish the buildings. Both group members were willing to go
out to buy things that we ran out while making the model such as colour paper and thumbtacks.
In conclusion, we are able to finish this assignment in time and in good time.

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