Team Objectives
Area of Concern
Underlying Problem Question
Plan of Action
Project Shine is an entirely self-initiated project by 3 spirited boys from Hwa Chong Institution (High School Section), Singapore under the category of “Service-Learning”. It has been officially endorsed by the Dyslexic Association of Singapore (DAS), its benefactor. Project Shine was started in January 2009 consists of two main aspects: teaching dyslexic primary school students at DAS Learning Centres in Singapore, and fund-raising through the selling of a charity song album. The charity album was produced in tandem with the main theme for Project Shine, which was greatly inspired by music. The benefits of using music to teach have been confirmed by methods such as the Mozart Effect and Suzuki Method, and studies by various music therapists.
Project Shine’s ultimate aim is to raise awareness about dyslexia and educate the public about the dyslexic community in Singapore.
Project Shine has received sponsorships from Microworks Technology, the Lee Wei Song School of Music, and AVD Technology. Besides DAS, we have collaborated with the National Library Board of Singapore, Singapore Arts Museum, and 3M Singapore.
Area of Concern
Project Shine targets dyslexia, and the dyslexic community. Dyslexia affects some 3-5% of Singaporeans, which is around 300 000 of us. Around 4% of the population has dyslexica significant enough to warrant intervention (The Straits Times, 2008).
Dyslexia is a broad term covering a wide variety of conditions. People with dyslexia may have significant difficulties in reading, writing, speech and language, alongside difficulties in language acquisition, phonological processing, working memory, sequencing, and motor skills. Notably, a dyslexia learner is not a slow learner, but a quick forgetter.
People with dyslexia can do great things. Rapper Akon and actor Tom Cruise, both famous public figures of today in society and are actually dyslexic!
We have aided these students to learn in terms of fun sessions of song-singing and even song-composing. From these sessions, we aimed to boost their confidence level and provide opportunities for them to showcase creativity, such as composing songs by themselves. We wanted to impart knowledge to them as well as allow them to have fun through these sessions.
Many people also have misconceptions about Dyslexia and we are therefore aiming to raise awareness of the dyslexic community in Singapore to let more people be aware of Dyslexia.
Team Mission Statement/Objectives
Making them smile, making them shine
Working with the Dyslexia Association of Singapore which has the mission of "helping dyslexics achieve", we have a common ground with the association to allow this students to blossom under this project, to have a heightened sense of new-found confidence in themselves, improve their English language skills like pronunciation, expanding their vocabulary and helping them appreciate literature (poems/songs). Through this, we have also taught them an invaluable skill of song-writing.
Shine hopes to bring back the smiles to their faces and minimize the burden they face as dyslexic individuals. We want them to stretch and develop their potential, and allowing their talents to shine forth, therefore "Shine".
Shine's ultimate goal is to raise awareness of Dyslexia to the community and let everyone know more about this condition.
Team Objectives
- To develop sincerity, patience, compassion within ourselves as we educate the dyslexic children who are struggling with the learning of English Language;
- To hone out ability to impart knowledge to the children in interesting ways to capture their attention (via Multi-sensory, Mozart/Suzuki Effect), to give back to the society
- To learn to cooperate as a group via tapping on each others' strengths
- To raise awareness of Dyslexic community in Singapore
Underlying Problem Question
Our Underlying Problem in 2009
Dyslexic Children are increasing in numbers in Singapore and if they have low confidence levels, they would not be able to do well. So how would we be able to help these children? How would we come up with a refreshing new way of learning, away from their normal syllabus?
We wanted it to enhance their understanding of the English language and their basic motor skills such as rhyming, vocabulary and pronunciation.
Our Current Underlying Problem
There are a few root problems concerned with dylexia which we have identified and have targeted:
- Many dyslexic children are painfully aware of their disability and have low self-esteem and poor motivation. They are frequently frustrated with themselves and tend to be withdrawn and shy.
- Some parents with dyslexic children fail to realise their child’s condition. Singaporeans are generally not aware of dyslexia and its implications, leading to many misconceptions. They associate it with mental problems, such as autism. They even relate it to “stupidity”. As such, parents do not nip the problem in the bud, affecting their child’s growth.
- Dyslexics receive social stigma due to their condition, and many perceive them of having low or inferior intelligence. They are treated differently from others, such as missing out on job opportunities or despised by their classmates and made the subject of jokes. Such discrimination jeopardizes the dyslexic’s progress in school and other areas of life.
Plan of Action
Having understood the different problems a dyslexic individual faces in his life, it is important to raise a child's self-esteem that he or she can achieve great things. Cozignant of the fact that raising awareness would let the common misconceptions become lesser and therefore people with dyslexia would not be subjected to as many prejudices. We also must let the parents realise their child's ability in many other areas, not just academically, but in terms of music, art, creativity.
Project Shine has split out into tackling the different problems and started with:
- Volunteer Work/Service - to aid the children in learning, via a groundbreaking medium of Music to educate the students and raise their self-esteem
- Raising Awarness - to tackle the problem of common misconceptions about Dyslexia and clear the prejudices which jeopardizes dyslexic's progress in their life
- Fund Raising - to get funds to help build better facilities for dyslexic children at the Dyslexia Association of Singapore as well as to raise awareness of Dyslexic community in Singapore via sales of albums
The major event received coverage from The Straits Times, and we were published in the 3rd July 2010, Saturday edition of the newspaper.
On 5th June 2010, Project Shine was invited to perform at the Annual Dyslexia Association ofSingapore Graduation Ceremony. The event was graced by Guest-of-Honour Ms Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of National Development & Ministry of Education, Mr Robin Moseley, Chief Executive Officer of DAS, and Mr Roslan Saad, Director of Education, DAS. It was attended by over 600 members of the audience.
Project Shine, together with our students at DAS, performed a song-and-dance item. It was a remarkable feat to do, considering that dyslexics often have poor coordination skills and find difficulty in remembering even a short series of steps, let alone dance steps.
We sung along to Shine, our title track on our charity album before performing an orginal dance item along to Justin Bieber's "Baby". We were pleasantly happy that our performance met with rousing applause.
Thereafter, we used the event to publicise our project message and sold our charity albums as part of the fund raising effort. The event was a success.
On 31 July 2010, Project Shine was invited to perform at once a month, Originals Only Open Mike (OOOM@SAM- Singapore Arts Musuem) by the Singapore Art Cafe. At the event was Power 98 DJ, Harry, and it was attended by over 300 audiences in that day.
Together with our dyslexic students, Project Shine performed our signature song, Shine. A member of Project Shine, De Jun, performed an original song, titled "Breakin' my Heart". Many of the audience took out their cameras and phones to record us singing, and we were sure the dyslexic kids felt special. We were happy so them. Singapore Arts Museum Director Jonathan How then interviewed Project Shine on our inspiration and message. After the performance, we returned our booth outside our performance venue. Many generous members of the audience decided to support our cause, and we earned over $350 that day from the sale of our CDs alone. It was a great opportunity to showcase our project.
Dyslexia is a neurologically based specific learning difficulty, characterized by difficulties in reading, writing and spelling. Those who have dyslexia normally have weaknesses in areas of language acquisition, phonological processing, working memory and sequencing. Some factors associated with dyslexia include poor motivation, impaired attention and academic frustration. Up till date, 3-5% of Singaporeans have dyslexia, which is around 3 hundred thousand of us.
In many volunteer works that were conducted in Dyslexia Association of Singapore were short volunteer works that were improperly planned, with not much benefits towards the students. Young students who have dyslexic since a young age have problems coping with their school syllabus and thus would naturally have low confidence levels. Our project therefore aims to embrace the talents of the dyslexic children under our guidance, and allow them to blossom into great individuals and prove to the society that dyslexics can go far, and do great things- just like us.
People with dyslexia could do great things. Let us take Akon and Tom Cruise for example, who are now great public figures. Thus, we would like to aid these students to learn in terms of fun sessions of song-singing and even song-composing. From these sessions, we would like to boost their confidence levels and in which allow their creative juices to flow, churning out songs by themselves. We wanted to impart a great skill for them to use as well as allow them to have fun through these sessions.
Click here to see Famous Dyslexics
Tom Cruise was born fighting. He grew up poor, and his family moved around a lot while his father looked for work. Tom, like his mother, suffered from dyslexia and was put into the remedial classes at school. While Tom was not an academic success, he focused on athletics and competed in many sports. A knee injury derailed his hopes of a promising athletic career. While in high school, he appeared in a number of plays, and with his mother's encouragement and support, pursued a career in acting. Tom focused all his energy on developing his acting career, once again revealing his drive and dogged determination. He never let his learning disability stand in the way of his success.
Born in 1847, Thomas Edison was a brilliant scientist and inventor. He was thrown out of school when he was 12 because he was thought to be dumb. He was noted to be terrible at mathematics, unable to focus, and had difficulty with words and speech. It was very clear, however, that Thomas Edison was an extremely intelligent student despite his poor performance in school.
In the late 1860s and early 1870s electrical science was still in its infancy and Thomas Edison was keeping abreast of the latest developments. Over the course of his career Edison patented 1,093 inventions. Edison believed in hard work, sometimes working twenty hours a day. "Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration."
Volunteer Work/Service
Our volunteer work service started since January 2009 where we started teaching dyslexic children via a groundbreaking medium of music and had a discussion with the Director of Dyslexia Association of Singapore, Mr Roslan. He was very supportive of this idea of teaching dyslexic children, rendering his support to us. He then analyzed to us to getting better and clear project objectives, and be more specific in terms of the outcomes and how we measure the outcomes versus input.
We then had a sit-in session conducted by a teacher, Ms. Miranda, at the dyslexic centre at Queenstown Primary School to observe their behavioural traits and understand how we could help these children. We consulted her on our lesson plan, rationale and objective.
After much discussion, we decided to break our volunteer service into 2 Phases for the year of 2009. Phase I was somewhat similar to a trial run, carried out these sessions two times a week during the June Holidays, each on a two-hourly basis. Each session conducted allowed us to gage the children? ability and what type of resources we would prepare for them. They have successfully written a verse of a song each in this course. At end of this phase, we gathered feedback from the parents of the children who attended and they were very much happy of what their child was learning and their interest in music was evidently seen after these sessions.
Phase II is a course that we are still conducting (and we are halfway into it), with more numbers coming into our volunteer service classes, aiming to let them write a song by themselves. By guiding them throughout the process of thinking of 5W 1H, we have been successful in getting them to write a new verse as well as around half a song as a whole class.
Phase III for Project Shine then started in 2010, where we continued our lessons with new recruits, dividing classes into Beginner and Intermediate standards where we would be able to cater to the students of different abilities. Events also came up for the students in Phase III where they were invited to perform at Dyslexia Association of Singapore Graduation Ceremony on 5 June 2010 as well as July 30 2010 as special guests for the Originals Only Open Mike (OOM @ SAM) at Singapore Art Cafe (Singapore Arts Museum)
Teaching Rationale
Our service is carried out with the use of music and is supported by the claims of:
- Multi-Sensory Teaching Approach
Simultaneously engages the visual, auditory and kinaesthetics
- Research in Suzuki Method and Mozart Effect
Proven positive and have been helpful to students
ESA Journal: Music and Dyslexia
- Artists (singers) in the real world
Tom Cruise, Usher, Will Smith, Britney Spears, John Lennon
Dyslexia is a broad term covering a wide variety of conditions. There is no universally accepted definition. People with dyslexia may have significant difficulties in reading, writing, spelling, number work, short-term memory, sequencing, auditory perception, visual perception, motor skills and/or spatial skills.
Many studies claim that music lessons have a positive effect on other areas of academic achievement. Strong claims are also being made for music therapy, which is a discipline based on the premise that music-making can have extra-musical benefits. Children with learning difficulties who study music are reported by
Katie Overy as showing both cognitive and emotional development, improving in skills such as co-ordination, language, concentration, attention and memory. Katie Overy teaches children with dyslexia and indicated that dyslexic children once taught about rhythm and timing showed significant improvements in phonological skills as well as improvement in spelling.
Sheila Oglethorpe suggests that practising an instrument daily, which involves listening, looking and touching, may compensate for dyslexic tendencies. She also suggests that musicians, artists and craftsmen with dyslexia are often outstandingly good at their art. Some examples of real life artists are Britney Spears, Usher, John Lennon and even Will Smith. Teaching programmes for people with dyslexia should be structured, sequential, cumulative, thorough and multisensory. Plenty of listening to music, repetition of assignments, participating in group lessons, initially learning by ear, and building self-esteem are to be recommended for children with dyslexia.
Therefore we believe that using a range of classical to pop music to teach the Dyslexic children is a ground breaking project as we develop their vocals, pronunciation and confidence which will also benefit them and allow them to relax and have fun in these sessions.
Methodology
Our project has taken on a relaxed and easy-going approach in teaching the children about singing and song writing. Furthermore, we have employed the following methods stated below to effectively help the children’s pronunciation
i. To train the children using songs that employ phonetics to help them shape the words and to enunciate them properly
ii. Lessons on proper pronunciation and solving problems with decoding, fluency and comprehension
In terms of feedback, we would also conduct monthly surveys with the children and after 2 months, we would also meet up with the parents to discuss whether the program has helped the children. To evaluate if our lessons have been fruitful and beneficial to the students, we have came up with tests/quizzes to test their language ability and occasionally informal tests to allow them to write short verses of songs to test if they have improved in recognizing rhyming words, and asking them to sing or read out their short verses boosting their self-confidence as well as to hear if they have had improvements in their pronunciation of words.
Action Plan
With a lesson package that we have set up for the children, we have integrated fun elements, interactive media and other ways of teaching the students.
Phase 1 – Preparation and Planning of first class (2009/Completed)
- Discussion with peers
- Guidance of Miranda, Educational Therapist in Dyslexia Association of Singapore to work out worksheet materials, using movie/songs to teach the children
- Sit-in sessions with Miranda in normal lessons by Dyslexia Association of Singapore
- Planning of sessions materials, designing
- Making clear Lesson Agendas
Phase 2 – Volunteer Work (June – End of October 2009/Completed)
- Project Shine’s first class of students: Phase I and II
- Successful launch of first class of students, with ability to write songs after a period of 3 ½ months
- Wrote in small verses for a few sessions, and finally under our guidance, enabled them to write a full song out entitled “Shine”
- Seen great success after evaluation by informal and formal tests
Phase 3 – Preparation and Planning of Project Shine Phase III (2010/Completed)
- Discussion with peers
- Planning of session materials, designing
- Making more interesting session materials/agendas
- With Two different classes: Intermediate/Beginner
- Creating two different set of materials to be taught
- Using thematic concepts to teach the students
Phase 4 – Volunteer Work (23 January-Current 2010/ Currently being carried out)
- Phase III started, with a new intake of pupils for beginner lessons
- Event on 5 June 2010: Invitation by Dyslexia Association of Singapore for children from Project Shine to perform their original song as well as a dance item.
- Event on 31 July 2010: Invitation by Singapore Art Cafe (OOOM@SAM) for children from Project Shine to perform their original song
Progress to Date
The description for the phases are in the "Action Plans"
| Phase | Period | Coordinators | Status |
| Phase 1 | April-June 2009 | Whole group | completed |
| Phase 2 | July- End of 2009 | Whole group | completed |
| Phase 3 | January 2010 | Whole group | completed |
| Phase 4: Phase III of workshop | July-October | Whole Group | In Progress |
Our members meet up at least 2 times a week to discuss on our session materials, our updates, and consulted the teacher at the center once each week on how to conduct a successful lesson and grab the students' attention for the lessons. We have thus successfully completed the first phase of our workshop in which had received great feedback from both the students and parents. Phase II has also thereby received great feedback.
In 2010, our group has met up more frequently to discuss on the lesson materials as we needed to design two different session materials: Beginner and Intermediate. Opening up to our invitation at East View Primary School for Project Shine to outreach, we have therefore needed more help and roped in more volunteers, with over 14 helping us right now.
Obstacles and Challenges faced
One major challenge our group faced while teaching the dyslexic children was the lack of experience in handing them. We had no idea they were so boisterous and noisy! Frequent disciplinary problems between the students surfaced, such as verbal attacks or even, to our surprise, scuffles. Luckily, after one or two lessons, we were better able to control and manage them. We followed up to forge strong bonds between one another, and soon enough such problems became a thing of the past.
Another obstacle that our group faced was trying to understand the individual ability of the students. As different students have varying capabilities, we had to bring down some of the resources to an equal level for them. We inserted more interactive elements and structured syllabus into the lessons so as to cater as much as possible to every one of them.
Also, the dyslexic children had alarmingly short attention-spans. They got bored and twitchy extremely quickly, and we definitely had to solve this problem, if not which our lessons could never go smoothly. We found out that they enjoyed music and movies, and computer graphics, so we decided to make more use of computer materials. Thus we tried to inject more fun into our lessons, for example, by letting watch a movie.
Rationale
Methodology
Action Plans
Progress to date
Obstacles & Challenges
Phase I was started on the 2nd week of July, from 9 June 2009 to 25 June 2009, which was kickstarted with an enrolment number of four boys who are from Primary 3 to Primary 4.
Respectively known as Zubir, Reggie, Yong Hui and Shaun. They have been with us since the first day of the programme so as to try out our teaching methods of using Song-Singing Sessions and song-writing sessions and whether it can effectively carry out the teaching objectives and as well as allow the Dyslexic Children to have fun through these sessions while they are being conducted.
The evaluation of each of the students (Input vs Output) and reflection(s) of each of us is included at this page. We also have included our lesson packages for reference. Though, due to copyright rules, we have attached the songs through an online playlist. This would not infrige any copyright rules or distribute the songs via pirated means. Just by clicking the "navigations" on the side of the notebook, you would be able to read and download our lesson worksheets/packageas well as hear from us about our experience when we have held the volunteer sessions of Shine at Queenstown DAS Centre.
As established beforehand in the "about" and introduction part of the website, we are looking into helping in these aspects of the dyslexic children that we were teaching.
- Help the dyslexic children at DAS
- Enhance their understanding of the English language
- Enhance their basic motor skills such as rhyming, vocabulary and pronunciation
- Help the children in their journey of growing up
- Impart skills that they can use for life like song-writing
We have planned our sessions beforehand and stuck the first few sessions closely with the syllabus in the Dyslexic Centre itself. Using phonetics cards to point systems, we have managed to capture the hearts and the attention of the four students who has been with us.
We have employed these skills to teach the students, aiding them in their development and as well as giving us a feedback or evaluation so we can guage how well we have done as teachers for the students. We constantly seek for fresh and effective methods to get the attention of all the students, including movie watching for comprehension passages, vocabulary learning to due with current issues like H1N1. Many approaches were thought of so as we would make the session fun, enjoyable and yet enriching for the students.
» Teach songs from a range of classical to pop songs
» Teaching on the meaning of the lyrics of the song
» Introduce rhyming words
» Train the children to employ phonetics
» Help shape the words through singing
» Teach proper pronunciation and solving problems with decoding, fluency and comprehension.
» Teach song-writing skills
» Vocal training: pronunciation and confidence
» Simple quiz every 3 sessions to test how much the children have learned from our teaching
» Compose short verses with a given tune to gauge if they have grasped rhyming words component
» Read/sing their short verses to the class: to check pronunciation and level of confidence
We have divided our resources into these few parts, to view them you could save them and view them. All of these resources has been done with care and 100% from the group: Project Shine. The lyrics were taken from lyrics webpages for song appreciation purposes only.
b) Guide/Lesson on Composing a Song
c) Song Appreciation
d) Vocabulary/Diction
Our group would hold weekly discussions after the sessions and evalutate and reflect how well we have done and assess our teaching methods so we could use different methods the next teaching round.
We have did an evlauation according to a 50 mark point system, to judge whether our programme has helped the students achieve their potential or have helped them in one way or another.
On one hand, I have a video here which is a recording of Zubir's own verse of a song right here. All of this was composed during class hours and premises within DAS by Zubir himself. All copyrights remain to Zubir himself.
Phase One was our first phase of meeting the children and getting to know them. Initially, the group had presumed them as just any other "mentally challenged" children: strange, queer, and pitiful. We perceived them as how the general public would. Most think that "dyslexia" is like Down's syndrome or having an association with being "retarded".
They turned out so much different. They were just like us normal kids, almost mirror images of us when we were their age. They laughed, they screamed, they got angry, they fooled around. To be honest, we had no idea they were so boisterous and playful. Truly, we learnt not to judge others just by what they appear to be, not to base our impression of what they had been "branded" with.
We broke the ice almost immediately during our first lesson where we started out roughly and slightly unfamiliar, but towards the end of our first lesson with them we managed to get things moving and enjoyed each others' presence. That was the sign of a bond, an unbreakable one - one that would be forged and consolidated in the time to come.
There was always this feeling of pride, when one saw the children improve with our help. We quite frequently carried out revision lessons with them, going through previous worksheets and resources. That indescribable satisfaction and pride when we saw our beneficiaries fill in that particular blank in the worksheet he was absolutely clueless about a few lessons ago. We gave our best, expecting nothing in return - no money, no recognition. But this feeling of contentment filled us with the gold of joy; of hope; of happiness. We needed nothing more.
The children were a particularly rowdy bunch, far more than what we ever expected. But we learnt to cope with them, to reason with them, to calm them down. Fights even broke lose among the students! We slowly learnt how to handle the problematic ones, those that regularly stirred chaos. Soon enough, apart from the occasional tension, all was well. This experience imparted us with invaluable social and interactive skills, to understand one's viewpoint and to sympathise with another. To resolve fights and to reason with them, we had to think win-win.
Our program was made to cater to every individual and yet as a team; one for all, all for one. Each of our little buddies were different in their own special way, and we had to accept that. Some individuals required more attention, whereas the others needed less guidance. They were all unique, and most of all, they were all welcome.
Their motor skills and grasp of the English language was surely affected by their condition. Some words we found simple and easy to pronounce and understand. But they did not. Often they struggled; we had to guide them, to pull them up when they stumbled; to prop them up when they walked. We realized how lucky we were, what we took for granted. They did not enjoy such luxuries as we did, thus it was our job to support them through each blunder.
The group came out from this experience as both a student and yet a teacher. We entered merely to teach. But we emerged also having learnt.
This volunteer phase has ended. We have recapped lessons to the whole class as well as the newcomers to ensure that they catch up what we have done so far. It was kickstarted from the start of 4th July 2009 which would last till the end of September. If feedback is good, we still would like to continue holding such volunteer sessions for the students as we feel that we are teaching them something productive that they could perhaps use in their lives.
The evaluation of each of the students (Input vs Output) and reflection(s) of each of us is included at this page. We also have included our lesson packages for reference. Though, due to copyright rules, we have attached the songs through an online playlist. This would not infrige any copyright rules or distribute the songs via pirated means. Just by clicking the "navigations" on the side of the notebook, you would be able to read and download our lesson worksheets/packageas well as hear from us about our experience when we have held the volunteer sessions of Shine at Queenstown DAS Centre.
As established beforehand in the "about" and introduction part of the website, we are looking into helping in these aspects of the dyslexic children that we were teaching. These aims are the same and in which we would like to continue going deeper into each of the aims right here.
- Help the dyslexic children at DAS
- Enhance their understanding of the English language
- Enhance their basic motor skills such as rhyming, vocabulary and pronunciation
- Help the children in their journey of growing up
- Impart skills that they can use for life like song-writing
We have planned our sessions beforehand and stuck the first few sessions closely with the syllabus in the Dyslexic Centre itself. Using phonetics cards to point systems, we have managed to capture the hearts and the attention of the four students who has been with us.
We have employed these skills to teach the students, aiding them in their development and as well as giving us a feedback or evaluation so we can guage how well we have done as teachers for the students. We constantly seek for fresh and effective methods to get the attention of all the students, including movie watching for comprehension passages, vocabulary learning to due with current issues like H1N1. Many approaches were thought of so as we would make the session fun, enjoyable and yet enriching for the students.
» Teach songs from a range of classical to pop songs
» Teaching on the meaning of the lyrics of the song
» Introduce rhyming words
» Train the children to employ phonetics
» Help shape the words through singing
» Teach proper pronunciation and solving problems with decoding, fluency and comprehension.
» Teach song-writing skills
» Vocal training: pronunciation and confidence
» Simple quiz every 3 sessions to test how much the children have learned from our teaching
» Compose short verses with a given tune to gauge if they have grasped rhyming words component
» Read/sing their short verses to the class: to check pronunciation and level of confidence
We have divided our resources into these few parts, to view them you could save them and view them. All of these resources has been done with care and 100% from the group: Project Shine. The lyrics were taken from lyrics webpages for song appreciation purposes only.
a) Movie Appreciation/ Comprehension
b) Guide/Lesson on Composing a Song
c) Song Appreciation
d) Vocabulary/Diction
Evaluation was being brought about by informal tests we conducted for the students, this included singing tests, vocabulary tests, spelling, dictation as well as oral. They were also assigned to write a song by themselves, and each came up with their own song.
After these sessions, our group would hold weekly discussions after the sessions and evaluate and reflect how well we have done and assess our teaching methods so we could use different methods the next teaching round. Interactive worksheets were also included in our package as we felt that by making teaching more hands-on and fun for the students, we are more likely to be able to get their attention as well as maintain their interest in English Language. Not missing out music appreciation where we get the students to appreciate pop culture music by famous artists. We also share biographies of different breakthrough artists or famous artists to the students to let them be inspired.
We also asked the children to write down journals as homework to allow them to expose to writing in the week, thereby allowing them to be able to grasp their writing abilities well. To see their maturity in their thinking as we grow with them, the satisfaction to us was certainly great.
Phase 1 was a success so we planned phase 2. Phase 1 of our project had a few problems and troubled us. Hence, we aim to perfect phase 2 and solve the problems we faced before more efficiently. Due to the good feedback we get from phase 1, the staffs at the Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS) had more confidence in us and hence convince more parents to enroll their children into our project. We felt that DAS helped project Shine greatly as they provided us with crucial tips and the skills to teach the dyslexic children.
The children were also very interactive in class and grew strong bonds with our student facilitators. I feel that high school students can interact with the primary school students better than the teachers of DAS as our age gap with the students is smaller. The "reward system" we implemented also helped to calm the excited children well. This will allow us to ensure every lesson to be productive and helpful to the dyslexic children.
We are particularly impressed with Reggie and Zubir. They are well behaved and show great progress musically. Both of them thought out their own lyrics and I must say, it is beyond my expectations.
One problem I would like to tackle as soon as possible is the gender differences within the group. In phase 2, Jean, a new student was being introduced to our little class. However, the ratio of males to females was 4:1. Hence, Jean was not very interactive and perhaps a little shy. I would like to make her speak up as the 4 boys are very interactive and can learn better. Interaction between the students and the teachers can increase the results of each lesson. Hence, we would like every student to voice out their opinions freely and learn.
23 January 2010 marked the first lesson that we started for Project Shine's Phase III where we started to incoperate new syllabus into the outreach. This outreach was divided into two classes where we had Intermediate and Beginner classes where the students we taught last year continued the programme. Newcomers also stepped in, with us outreaching to over 7 students at our original Queenstown Center. Our normal lessons were based on a 2-hour session. When our outreach had reached to the ears of East View Primary School, we were invited by the teachers to conduct sessions for the students in the June Holidays as well. Our duration was allowed to a stretch of 3 hours and to cater to the short attention of the children as well as some who is diagnosed with SLI(specific language impairment), we revised our syllabus for their usage and made each session worthwhile and the students wanting more.
An event that we have worked with some of the students whom we outreach to at Queenstown Primary School, they attended the graduation ceremony of Dyslexia Association of Singapore on the 5 July 2010 and did a dance item as well as singing of their originally composed song "Shine" which is included in the charity album. Memorising of dance moves was a barrier the students had to cross, as said that they are not slow learners but Quick forgettors, it is indeed true. We therefore used effective methods such as "naming" the dance-steps to help curb this problem, as well as making the dance rehearsals more interactive, relaxed and fun. In this event, we were featured on the newspaper on 3 July 2010, The Straits Times, Home Section. On 31 July 2010 Project Shine was also invited to perform "Shine" the original song written by the children under our guidance at the Singapore Art Cafe (OOOM@SAM:Singapore Art Museum).
The evaluation, as well as the scores of each of the students (Input vs Output) and reflection(s) of each of us is included at this page. We also have included our lesson packages for reference. Just by clicking the "navigations" on the side of the notebook, you would be able to read and download our lesson worksheets/packageas well as hear from us about our experience when we have held the volunteer sessions of Shine at Queenstown DAS Centre.
These aims are the same, yet a little more details for this phase of the project, where we go further and deeper into the teaching/volunteer methods.
- Help the dyslexic children at DAS
- Enhance their understanding of the English language
- Enhance their basic motor skills such as rhyming, vocabulary and pronunciation
- Help the children in their journey of growing up
- Build the children's self-esteem
- Allow students to realise their potential and talents are more than what they know
- Impart skills that they can use for life like song-writing
- Students to connect English learning with pop culture/music; making learning easier, effective yet interesting
The intermediate classes were conducted with five students who had been with us since 2009, Phase I. The beginner class started in January with only one student, but right now has up to 2 students. Outreaching to over 8 students at East View Primary School as well as intending to open up our outreach to more students at other centers of the Dyslexia Association of Singapore, we have managed to get more volunteers to take part in our project.
We have employed these skills to teach the students, aiding them in their development and as well as giving us a feedback or evaluation so we can guage how well we have done as teachers for the students. We constantly seek for fresh and effective methods to get the attention of all the students, including movie watching for comprehension passages, vocabulary learning to due with current issues. Many approaches were thought of so as we would make the session fun, enjoyable and yet enriching for the students.
» Teach songs from a range of classical to pop songs
» Teaching on the meaning of the lyrics of the song
» Introduce rhyming words
» Train the children to employ phonetics
» Help shape the words through singing
» Teach proper pronunciation and solving problems with decoding, fluency and comprehension.
» Teach song-writing skills
» Vocal training: pronunciation and confidence
» Simple quiz every 3 sessions to test how much the children have learned from our teaching
» Compose short verses with a given tune to gauge if they have grasped rhyming words component
» Read/sing their short verses to the class: to check pronunciation and level of confidence
To make the sessions attention grabbing, we have also used alternative methods to allow the students to appreciate the song. Letting them listen to the music, then look at the music video, they would be able to appreciate the art form of the song created, such as the international hit by Justin Bieber "Baby".
With a number of 12 new recruited volunteers for Project Shine in our teaching purposes - Raffles' Girls School, Crescent Girls' School, Nanyang Girls' School , they were sent to our different outreach schools to sit in for our lessons before they are transferred to the other centers to conduct Project Shine's outreach. To ensure quality control, we guide the volunteers through our worksheets and meet up with them 2 times each week to analyse and teach them how to deal with the students as well as posing them with real-life problems that they could possibly face while teaching these dyslexic children. The worksheets are also generated by our group as well, therefore maintaining academic quality in the sessions though they are taught by different students.
We have divided our worksheets/resources into lessons, and are putting up a few of the lesson packages for view, and are all downloadable, or you could even open with... All of these resources has been done with care and 100% from the group: Project Shine. The lyrics were taken from lyrics webpages for song appreciation purposes only.
a) Beginner
making use of the repitition approach to allow students to effectively learn vocabulary. Only a FEW examples.
b) Intermediate
-->Song Appreciation
-->Worksheets
Evaluation was done via the small tests given to each individual to do during the Beginner Classes, while informal tests were conducted for the intermediate classes. The Beginner classes allowed us to compare the marks and see significant improvement and the students' full comprehension on the vocabulary words that we have taught- via repititive practice with spelling, questions posed to students on the spot and interactive ways to learn vocabulary.
One student named Louis, has improved a significant 21/50 for his first test to 33/50 for his next test after repitition and has equipped him with greater sense of self-esteem and achievement. Once a quiet boy, he is now able to articulate himself better to others.
We also managed to allow the students to present their ideas in a systematic way like using skills like mindmaps to plan their songs they were able to pen down- to encourage more effective and interactive methods on the whole. We therefore equipped them with necessary skills for their academics as we go through our syllabus e.g. planning of composition writing.
To evaluate if our project has been a success, our reports that we send to Mr Roslan M. Saad, Director of Dyslexia Association of Singapore have turned out positive and he is looking forward to many more outreach that Project Shine could embark on to the other centers.
Starting our lessons on 23 January 2010, we managed to get 7 students to educate them via our unique teaching method. These students when being enrolled, were more gentle to start with, and gradually, we teachers became their friends and became a part of them. Being invited over to East View Primary School to extend our teaching, we were happy that we could help more dyslexic children in Singapore, and hopefully one day bring this programme to many many more Singapore Dyslexic children.
We learnt how to sympathise with the dyslexic children as the have fustrations when they are aware of their problem, and realised the joy in teaching them. Teaching them, each of the students are unique on their own and some have attention deficiency, some have language barriers, so we must cater to them one by one to realise their needs. Patience was also vital in executing this programme to the students, especially when they become too rowdy.
Personal maturity in each of us is also achieved by each of us as we grow with them and help these dyslexic children, and all in all appreciate what we have.
Plan of Action
Problem
According to our preliminary survey results, the general populace is unaware of the plight of the dyslexic community and information regarding dyslexia.
Project Shine has identified the lack of awareness of dyslexia in Singapore across each level of society as a problem to be targeted. This is evident as seen in the problems of:
The general populace is unaware of the plight of the dyslexic community. This ignorance
results in lack of aid given to dyslexics.
Parents with dyslexic children failing to realize their condition.
Misconceptions about dyslexia, relating it to autism and "stupidity".
Social stigma dyslexics face in life, such as schools and in the workplace.
Limited number of events that target and spread information about dyslexia outside of DAS.
Plan of Action
Project Shine's ultimate aim is to raise awareness about dyslexia and educate the public about the dyslexic community in Singapore via:
1. Talks to youth in schools such as Hwa Chong Institution, Raffles Girls' Secondary School, Nanyang Girls High School, Dunman High School and Crescent Girl's School.
2. Major Public Events such as the DAS Graduation Ceremony 2010, performance at Singapore Arts Museum
3. Posters in numerous public areas and events (i.e. NLB)
4. Brochures and dyslexia related-apparel (eg badges, 3M 'Post-it's, etc)
5. Events organized by Project Shine (eg roadshows, mini-carnivals, performances)
6. Mass media publicity (eg The Straits Times, magazines, Radio: Class 95FM, 987FM)
7. Online portals (eg. Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Youtube, Youth.sg, STOMP)
download a video collage of photos taken during the volunteer work and the songs we have on hand by clicking the picture above or
here. As there is a problem with the download function, do remember to left click and "save target as...." or "save link as" and add in a .wmv at the back of the file name to ensure it can be played.
download a video when we were recording one of songs meant for the fund-raising album by clicking the picture above or
here. As there is a problem with the download function, do remember to left click and "save target as...." or "save link as" and add in a .wmv at the back of the file name to ensure it can be played.
