Alternative curriculum is design only for students who are having difficulty in fully accessing the whole curriculum even they have given a full support. It aim was to design a curriculum that targets the specific needs or a more focused curriculum that is most appropriate that could help students who are not able to make growth in the general education setting boost their self-esteem and confidence. Therefore this paper would briefly discuss my experienced and researched on this component.
Initially, every student in a classroom has different abilities and they could not go together at the same time, in this case teachers are encouraged to apply variety of motivational strategies so that student with different abilities could all motivate in the learning. For example, during my experience I have done designing extra activities like; instead of giving students activities which is only the answering questions, some student would not able to answer some of those questions, so by providing extra activities like the true and false activity, the matching activity and the drawing, which are more simple for the fact that if they are able to do them then they are achieved the learning outcomes (refer to the journal). Supported by the article ("Are extracurricular activities in school important for your child?- ORCHIDS", 2021) believed that by giving students extra activities allow your students the opportunity to explore different areas of interest, increase self-confidence, build leadership skills and even improve grades.
From the source entitled ("Importance of special class | Allison Academy", 2021) portrays the importance of having special classes with students who need an improvement in particular areas is very effective as it gives them the opportunity to get quality education in line with their unique needs. In relation with my teaching experience, I have done doing special classes only to students who have difficulties in essay writings, this is where I assist them with steps on how to write essay writing, rules on the appropriate usage of grammar and practicing writing (refer to the picture). Therefore, by doing extra activities through special classes is a more focused curriculum or targets to students with having problems in writing as it help them to improve their writing skills.
Similarly, I have come to realize that using a mixture of English and Te Kiribati or bilingual teaching methods in the lesson really helps students with different abilities; I implement properly the bilingual in my lesson because as my students were in the lower class, thus it is very appropriate to the grade level they were in as some of my students easily understand English while most of them couldn’t. Therefore I often apply this policy as I know that if I was using full English from the beginning to the end most of them especially slow ones would never understand. refer to the my assessor's comments .
According to Anusca Ferrari, Romina Cachia and Yves Punie) they state that alternative curriculum is an approach in which teachers should find possible ways to diagnose the problem of each student including various effective teaching strategies. This source has demonstrated the idea that teachers are highly needed to find effective strategies to improve students' difficulties and weaknesses. In relation with my teaching experience, I have provided concrete teaching aid and demonstration of games help the lesson more reality is another aspect of this component. It is where it gave students chance to apply and practice techniques and rules of the relay events from their existing knowledge or skills; therefore by putting in practice what students have been taught helps develop their understanding on the concept of the topic and also really helpful to student with short memory where it helps the learning more memorable, they could not forget.
In conclusion I have learnt that it is very important for a teacher to understand and take account of different motivations for learning, this is because learners are not all motivated in the same way, as what interests one may not interest another. Finally I have learnt and proved that alternative curriculum is not similar with inclusive education because alternative curriculum aim is just for student who have difficulties in the learning even they have given the highest amount support while inclusive education aim was to welcome all no matter what, this means no one would left behind.
Bibliography
Anusca Ferrari, R. C. (2009, January ). Innovation and Creativity in Education and Training. Literature review on Innovation and Creativity in E&T in the, pp. 1-54.
Are extracurricular activities in school important for your child?- ORCHIDS. (2021). Retrieved 17 November 2021, from https://www.orchidsinternationalschool.com/blog/child-learning/extracurricular-activities-for-kids-2/
Importance of special education | Allison Academy. (2021). Retrieved 17 November 2021, from https://www.allisonacademy.com/students/learning/learning-disabilities/importance-of-special-education/