Holiday Programme at SINDA STEP (Day 2) - Pictorial Feedback Session

On Day 2 of the Holiday Programme, we handled a group of 17 students comprising of Primary Six and Secondary One students and the responses produced by this group were more detailed and animated in comparison to the older students on Day 1 (especially so for the Primary Six students). Not only were some of the pictorials well-drawn, the feelings expressed were also more fundamental in nature. Below is a sample of 7 responses (click on each image to see in full size) produced by the Primary Six students, together with an analysis of each.

This particular student has been observed in other exercises to be creatively gifted and it was thus not surprising to see a detailed and animated pictorial. She sees herself leading an uninteresting and mundane school life with little motivation but has found herself to be more motivated through her participation in the progamme. She has gained a better grasp of her school work and has also been able to overcome the perception that school is boring, thereby creating an interest in what she is being taught.

Capturing the spirit of the exercise, this student used the analogy of a basketball game and how her 'scoring' has surpassed her target because of the programme.

This student feels empowered (illustrated by the 'wings' on the students) and the bleakness of before has now become a bright and encouraging future.

This student chose to illustrate the realities of his life - the family requires financial assistance and would not be able to afford private tuition (which this student very much needs). He is therefore understandably grateful to have access to a tuition programme that also offers fee subsidies.

Using a play on the spelling of the words, this student uses the letters in the words 'before' and 'after' to illustrate how the programme has facilitated in moving from a typical fail grade to a pass grade.

Another animated illustration, this student describes the confusion and the sense of everything falling apart through the 'before' image. He also represents the general feeling that school days are long and tiresome. In the 'after' image, he illustrates how breaks seem rather long (primarily due to the arrangement of having the break between 7.00pm to 7.10pm and allowing the students to enjoy this break from 6.45pm). Also, as our centre incorporates a lot of fun into the lessons, the students (as in this case) rarely find lessons tiring.

This illustration demonstrates how confident the students have become. Usually, the students who enter the STEP programme are very unsure of themselves and would stick to simple answers and not venture beyond that. However, this student, in expressing his opinion and feelings, has dared to use more complexity (exemplified by the use of an advanced math sum) to describe how his abilities have improved - from struggling with the simplest of concepts to tackling the more challenging ones.

The information and feedback gathered over the first sessions was thus very illuminating and we were able to additionally identify a handful of students who require a different approach or some targeted attention. It was a casual and fun, yet insightful way to start of the Holiday Programme and the students seemed energised after the first session and we felt, the right tone was set (not too rigid and not too unstructured).

Day 3 to 5 of the Holiday Programme continues here...