Classroom Interaction

                           In the above picture, we see a teacher as she supervises and interact with a student as she works on a problem.This kind of interaction is called teacher-student interaction.

                                  In this picture the students are working together to complete a particular task. This kind of interaction is called student-student interaction. It is hardly found in the classes in Shillong.But it is time for the traditional system of interaction to change. The teacher must only supervise the students work and let them work on their own. This kind of interaction will enhance the students' ability to work with one another and rely on each other for the completion  of a particular task.

This picture shows a group of students who are working individually for their own group. The students work independently to complete a particular task and contribute their individual work to the group.The teacher is not seen anywhere near the group. Probably s/he must be supervising other groups to let the group work on their own.

When one looks back at how classroom interaction was carried out, one would find that the traditional way of interaction in which the teacher is the active participant whike the students are the passive listeners. The students are hardly given the opportunity to take part in classroom interaction.This will lead to poor development of not only the students' social skills but their listening and speaking skills as well. No doubt the other skills like reading and writing are developed but there is a need to help the students gain a certain level of competency in the use of the other skills. Hence listening and speaking have been ignored by the teachers as  the much needed student-student interaction for purposeful communication has been found to be missing in the classroom. 

              Classroom interaction aims at language learning by giving more emphasis on the experiences of the students.Therefore classroom interaction should be learner-centred. The students should be supervised in such a way that their experiences will become valuable resources for language learning. In this way, the students will be motivated and their independence to use the target language will help them gain  self-confidence as the anxiety level of learning a new language is reduced. Moreover, this will also help in creating good learning environment which will shed away  the students' shyness and adapt to the new environment .

                Therefore, it is time that the teachers realize the need to help the students interact with each other for purposeful  communication. If the students are allowed to work on their own under the supervision of their teacher ,there will undoubtedly be an improvement in the way the students interact with each other in the target language both inside and outside the classroom which will help them become communicatively competent which is, after all, the goal of language learning.

            

Materials for the Integration of Skills

HOW MUCH LAND DOES A MAN REQUIRE?

Leo Tolstoy

                                                      

                                                Starter    

  

                                Do you have brothers and sister?

                                Do you often argue with them? 

                                What do you argue about?

Students can write the answers on a piece of paper and share their answers with their shoulder partner.

An elder sister came from the town to visit a younger one.  The elder one was married to a tradesman and the younger to a peasant. As the two drank tea and talked, the elder sister began to boast and make much of her life in town—how she lived and went about in ease and comfort, dressed her children well, had nice things to eat and drink, and went skating, walking and to the theatre.

The younger sister was vexed at this and retorted by running down the life of a tradesman’s wife and exalting her own in the country.

“For my part, I would never care to exchange my life for yours. I grant you that ours is an uneventful existence; yet you, with all your fine living, must either do a very large trade or be ruined. You may be rich today but tomorrow you may find yourself in the street. We have a better way in the country. The peasant may never be rich but he will always have enough.”

“Enough!” retorted the elder sister. “Enough with nothing but your wretched pigs and cows! Enough with no fine dresses or company? Why, however hard your man may work, you have to live in mud and die there—and your children after you.”

“Oh, no,” replied the younger. “Though we may live in hardship, the land at least is our own and we have no need to bow and scrape before anyone. But you in town you may live in comfort today and find yourselves ruined tomorrow.”

 COMPREHENSION

Students will discuss in groups answers to the following questions:

1.     An elder sister ___ the town came ___visit a younger one. The elder was married ___a tradesman and the younger ___a peasant.

2.     I would never care ___exchange my life ___ yours.

3.     We have a better way ___the country.

Q 1. Why did the elder sister come to the country?

Q 2. What made the younger sister angry?

Q 3. What did the younger sister tell the elder sister?

Q 4. How did the elder sister react?

Q5.What would you have said to your brother or sister at home if s/he had blamed you for breaking the window pane ?

VOCABULARY

Meaning:

Vexed at: very angry at someone

Retorted by: to answer back angrily

Life of: the way of living

Examples:

My mother was vexed at me because I did not finish the housework.

The angry passenger retorted by pointing out the actual bus fare to the driver.

The old woman led a life of suffering and misery.

The students will make three sentences from each phrase.

GRAMMAR

May and might: permission

Asking for permission:

May and might are used to ask permission. They are more formal than can and would. Might is very polite and formal, and is not common.

Examples of may

May I put the TV on?

May I leave the room?

May I go and see my friend?

May I borrow your book?

Examples of might

I wonder if I might have a little more butter.

I was thinking if I might join you for the trip.

I wonder if I could take a look at your book.

Use may or might

1.______I go to the library?

2. I wonder if I _______ have a word with you.

3.______I share my sandwich with you?

4. I wonder if I _____come by your house this afternoon.

5._______ I speak with you for a minute?

Giving and refusing permission

May is used to give permission. May not is used to refuse permission and to forbid.

May I put the TV on? , ‘Yes, of course you may’.

                                     ‘ No, you may not’.

Writing

Look at the picture and write a story in one or two paragraphs.

Key words:

 ball      bat    run-out   my turn   fight   quarrel

Students will work in groups. Only one student will read the story to represent the whole group. Students will review their work by reading to the whole group. Changes will be made before the story is read to the whole class.

Listening and Speaking

Students will have to perform two activities.

Dialogue: Students will work in groups. The students in each group will work in pairs and write down a dialogue between a teacher and a student by using may  when giving and refusing permission. The students will use the dialogue in conversation with each other. They will shift their roles until they know have comprehended how may is used when giving and refusing permission.



 Debate


Students will work in groups to discuss on what they think of the two sisters. They will take sides with any of the two sisters and argue why they feel so strongly about her views.

  

Classroom Arrangement

In a normal classroom in Shillong, this kind of classroom arrangement is hardly found. What one would find if one enters a classroom in Shillong is the traditional seating arrangement in which the students are made to sit in three or four columns and the teacher would be stationed in front of the whole class. With the large number of students present in the classroom, the teacher hardly walks around the class to supervise the students’ work. As a result, the students are left to fend for themselves and the weaker and discrete students are left at the mercy of their friends.

The above picture shows a different but not very new seating arrangement in a classroom. What is new in the picture is the fact that older students are seen working together in a circle while they seated themselves on the floor. This kind of seating arrangement could be seen amongst children when they are playing games like fixing a puzzle or when they are trying to find an insect in the garden.

This kind of seating arrangement the students are seen working together as they have a particular task to complete. This way of working together does not allow the students to sit idle while the others work at it to finish the work for the whole group. This particular setting is found in a cooperative classroom in which all the students in the group work together cooperatively. It allows the students to express any difficulty that they might have in the completion of the task. Moreover, it allows the students to learn from one another and they do not have to rely on bookish knowledge which they could accomplish by rote learning. Thus, “Learning by Doing” comes to take its place here.

Learning and Nurturing

       There is one question I would like to ask. Is there any child who could grow on his/her own without the love and care of  a mother. Well, the answer , I would give is, no. Each and every child requires the love and care of a mother or a care-taker. In the same way, a little child in the classroom requires someone to teach him and guide him throughout the learning process. Through this picture, I would like to bring in some traits that a mother and a teacher share. 
          Like a mother, the teacher takes care of the mental and intellectual growth of a child. Therefore, in the classroom, the teacher teaches  and guides the students in the way a mother guides her little ones at home. The teacher also guides her students and corrects their mistakes and shows them how to do something in the right way.The teacher also provides food for the  students' thoughts which is similar to the way a mother provides food for her children at home.
         What I would like to point out here is the fact that little students look up to their teachers as a mother. For them the teacher takes the place of the mother in the classroom.  Therefore we can say that the school is the second home of every student and it is very important for them to feel safe when they are in  one. 
       The learning environment for students should unarguably be one in which students feel free to learn . An environment in which  students can explore and learn more on their own will be conducive for students of the present day. However, the needs and requirements of each and every child must be looked-after by their teacher. The teacher must take the role of a guide or a supervisor in the classroom. The teacher must not pressure any child to learn.S/he will learn on his/her own if s/he finds the topic to be interesting. But pressure on a child will only prove to be disastrous to learning as the child will learn not out of positive motivation but out of a negative one. Therefore respecting a child's feeling toward what s/he wants to learn will go a long way in motivating a child to learn.
         Hence in trying to make the young ones in the classroom learn, teachers must take and play the role of a  mother who every child loves to be close to. Taking this role will help teachers realize that they do not only have students to learn from them, but  young ones who needed someone to take care of them while they are at school.

Activities for the different types of learners

             There are different types of activities for the different types of learners. In this post I would like to talk about a few activities which could be implemented by the teacher in the classroom. Some of these activities could be used to train the students in the acquisition of the four basic language skills. In this post I will try to deal with the activities related with the different types of learners in different paragraphs.

          The activities which are related with the first type of learners, the verbal-linguistic learners or the word smart learners are activities in which the learners could connect vocabulary with pictures or symbols.The learners could also put ideas into a graph or a picture.In order to train the reading skills of these learners, the learners could be asked to underline prepositions in the story they are reading. They could then be asked to write sentences by using the same prepositions that they have underlined.To train their speaking skills, the learners could be asked to read out the sentences that they have written. While the other students listen to the sentences, they give themselves some training in their listening skills.New vocabulary could also be inferred from these sentences.

            The activities which could be used in training the basic language skills of the logical-mathematical learners are activities like reading a mathematical problem in English and then they could try in groups of two to answer the problem. This will help the students in giving their cooperative skills some training as training in this field is largely needed in the present day learning context.In this way the weak and the below average learners could learn from the above average learners. To train their listening skills. the students could be given some mental arithmetic and they could write down their answers either in words or in figures.The speaking skills of the students could be trained when students try to explain to their partner why s/he has arrived at a particular conclusion.

            The activities which could be introduced while teaching the visual/spatial learners are those in which students could describe a picture or write a story by looking at a picture.Picture stories could either be written which will train the writing skills of the students or they could be done orally in which the students could be asked to come up with a story by looking at a picture. This could be done in groups of four or five.Cooperative learning is initiated in the classroom and learners will learn to respect the views and ideas of the other learners in their group.In this way students will come up with new vocabulary either by inferring words from the picture or from their peers.

         The activities which could be used in teaching the bodily/ kinesthetic learners include activities like writing about an event, an article, a story and creating a slogan which will improve their writing skills. In the classroom, students could be asked to read a story and act out a part of the story for the class.This will help students to improve their reading skills. To improve their listening skills, students could listen to a song and do an action song.Students could also move around the classroom to ask questions from their peers and to improve their vocabulary, the students could run around the classroom and touch the objects as the teacher will call out the names of the objects.

          Musical learners could train their listening skills by listening to the lyrics of a song.The learners could also read the lyrics as they listen to the song.Students could also be motivated to write down their own lyrics. As they listen to the lyrics, the students could be asked to count the number of times a particular phrase is repeated in the song and also to listen to new words that they  come across in the lyrics. Writing their own lyrics would expand the imagination of the students from their classroom and take it outside the classroom.

          Some of the activities which could be implemented in the classroom for interpersonal learners  are reading together in a group of ten students and discussing the themes of the story. As the students take turns in reading the story, the others will listen as the story is being read. The students could be asked to come up with the different themes that could be found in the story. They could be asked to write down the different themes and they could discuss each theme with the whole class. The students could also do a role-play by taking the identity of the characters in the story.

         With regard to the activities which are related with the intrapersonal or the self-smart learners are activities which require the students to read a story or an article on their own. These learners could learn on their own with little help from the teacher. The role of the teacher is significantly reduced from the traditional role of the teacher to the new role of a supervisor or an advisor. Students could write down what they think about the story or they could be asked to write down on different topics which fall under their academic purview or on any current topic.These students could also be asked to give their views and opinions and discuss it with the whole class.

          While teaching the naturalists or the nature smart learners,the teacher could take the students outside the class  to the school garden. The teacher could ask the students to observe the different kinds of flowers that they see in the garden.When they return to their classroom, the teacher could read out or do a model reading  of a poem about a flower. The students are then required to read aloud the same poem by  following the correct pronunciation, stress and intonation in the way it  has been modeled by the teacher.The students could be asked to draw a picture of their own garden with the different flowers or vegetables in it. After this is done, the students are required to exchange their drawings with the other students so that each student will get an opportunity to describe their friends' garden. New vocabulary to match their friend's  garden will also be acquired by the students.This will help create a pictorial effect on the imagination of the students.

            Thus we could say that different activities need to be implemented by the teacher in the class in order to have an effective teaching-learning process.Different activities are needed to meet the needs and abilities of the different individuals in the classroom. If the activities are well planned  by the teacher they will no doubt motivate his/her students to take part in the different activities. In this way the students will be able to learn freely as their needs and interests are meted out to them by the activities and learning will prove to be an experience which is full of fun and strategic implementations.

Types of learners and their abilities

         We all know that there are different kinds of learners. Each learner learns differently from another. This is because each learner's ability to learn is different from another. The Multiple Intelligences Theory tells us that there are eight types of learners. In this post I will try to talk about each type of learner and their abilities to learn.
       The first type of learners are the verbal-linguistic learners. These types of learners learn best through reading, hearing and seeing words, speaking, writing, discussing and debating. The abilities of these learners lie in reading, writing, telling stories, memorizing dates and thinking in words. Theses learners like to read, write, talk, memorize and work with puzzles.
         The second type of learners are the logical-mathematical learners. These types of learners learn best through working wirh patterns and relationships, classifying, categorizing and working with the abstract. Their learning abilities lie in mathematics,reasoning, logic, problem-solving and patterns. These students like to solve problems, question, work with numbers and experimentation.
        The third type of learners are the spatial-visual learners. These learners learn best through working with pictures, colours, visualizing and drawing.Their abilities lie in reading maps, charts, drawing mazes, puzzles, imaging things and visualising. These learners like to design, draw, build, create, daydream and to look at pictures.
        The fourthe type of learners are the bodily-kinesthetic learners. These learners learn best through toching, moving and they can possess knowledge through bodily sensations. In other words, such learners learn best through their senses. Their ability to do things is seen through athletics, dancing, acting, crafting and using tools. These students like to move around and use body language a lot.
          The fifth type of learners are the learners who learn through music or musical learners. These learners learn best through rhythm, melody, singing and by listening to susic. Theses learnres abilities lie in singing, picking up sound and rhythm. They like to sing, hum, play musical instruments and listening to music.
           The sixth type of learners are the interpersonal learners. These lerners learn best through inter-communication with each other. Skills like sharing, comparing, relating, interviewing and cooperating are acquired by these types of learners. The students' abilities lie in understanding people, leading. organizing, communicating and resolving conflicts. These learners like to  have friends, talk to people and join groups.In other words, theses learners like to socialize.
           The next type of learners are the intrapersonal learners or learners who learn by communicating with thenselves within themselves. These learners learn best  by working alone, doing self-spaced prajects, having space and by reflecting.Their ability to do things lie in understanding the self, recognizing ones own strenghts and weaknesses and by setting personal goals.These learners like to work alone, reflect and to pursue individual interests.
           The last type of learners are the naturalist learners or learners who learn best through their contact with nature.They learn by working in nature, exploring things, learning about plants, animals and natural events. Their ability to learn lie in their understanding of nature and in identifying flora and fauna. They are those learners who love to be involved with nature.
         Thus we can ssee that there are different learners with different abilities to learn. Their outlook towards learning depends alot on their interests and their individual capacity to learn. Therefore, it is of vital importance for the teacher to be able to identify each type of learner in his/her classroom. as the number of students in the class multiply so will the interests and ability of the students. Effective teaching and learning will take place only when the teacher is successful in identifying the students' interests and the type of learners that they are.

Reflect on Assessment

REFLECT ON ASSESSMENT: 

HOW CAN YOU IMPROVE ASSESSMENT IN YOUR CLASSROOM? 

       Assessment is the measurement of learning. The purposes of carrying out assessments in the classroom are many. The most general purpose of assessment is to measure how much a student has learned  in the classroom. Classroom assessment is a complex undertaking that means something different to different audiences and in different situations. Assessment has many purposes that sometimes support one another and sometimes compete or conflict with one another.(Earl,1948).

     There are three approaches to assessment. They are Assessment of learning, Assessment for learning and Assessment as learning. Assessment of learning is done at the end of  a unit, a course, a grade or a key stage in which the teacher is the key assessor and the other students are the main or important points of reference. This approach to assessment will place a particular student where s/he stands in the class. Such assessments take the form of tests or examinations where questions are set from the material they have studied. Teachers maintain a record book in which the grades of the students are maintained. Based on their performance, students are awarded ranks and certificates. Assessment of learning emphasises on formative  assessment and not on summative assessment. In assessment of learning teachers use a number of innovative ideas in the collection of materials that could be useful for the students, The students will answer questions in the middle of the class. This will help the teacher understand that the students have understood the topic at hand and will move on to another topic. The teacher could also start the class by posing a few questions to the students based on previous knowledge of the students. Here the teacher assesses the students' work and keep a record of their performance to see who are the students who  need more help, what are their weak points and what are those strong points. Assessment as learning lays more emphasis on the students as they are the links. They are active, engaged and play a critical role in almost every aspect of the learning process. They monitor their own learning and gives feedback to one another in order to improve on what they feel they need to make an improvement in.

                    Since there are three approaches to assessment it would be difficult to ascertain which of the    approaches will work best. Therefore it is necessary for the teachers to accommodate all the three approaches so that every aspect of the learning process is being assessed. Since the students are the learners it is important that any type of assessment must reflect that learning is taking place. Any effort made by the teachers in assessment should be able to bring about the students' progress and development in learning. Hence teachers should make a judicious use of all the three approaches to assessment. It really does not depend on what one uses to assess but on how one wants to assess.

            As teachers we should make use of any material which we think will promote learning in the classroom. Any activity could be used in the classroom. Teachers should create an environment in which the students could learn and have fun in the classroom. They should be motivated to lean. Just as motivation is important in learning, teachers should assess the students in such a way that it will help the students to learn and be motivated by it. Assessment which demotivates the students should be avoided so that the number of school dropouts could be reduced. It  is a fact here in Shillong that most of the students drop out of school because they are unable to cope with the lessons that they found difficult to understand. At the end of the year the number of school dropouts is increasing thereby reducing the literacy rate. The effort of trying to give every child an opportunity to learn and receive education  and the practice of "education for all "will be put to waste if assessing them will demotivate and not  motivate them to learn.

                      Moreover, if one wants to reduce the number of dropouts, The teacher should assess the students on a daily basis and not at the end of a course or a unit. This kind of assessment will no doubt be taxing  for  the teacher but this will prove to be the only way to know whether or not the weak students have understood the lesson. In this way the teacher will be able to address them and clear their doubts. As of now there is a very few number of schools which have started adopting CCE or Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation. Assessing the students on a daily basis will motivate the students to participate actively in classroom activities which  promotes learning.

                     Assessment should be able to bring about some visible changes in the learner. This kind of change can be reflected through education. When a child is educated, s/he will exhibit a change in behaviour. Motivation will help the child to be active and to be a part of all the learning activities. Therefore assessment should be relevant, that is, assessment should meet the needs and requirement of a particular students. Sometimes, the teacher could go outside the syllabus in order to meet those needs which have not been specified in the syllabus. With the use of an analytic syllabus the teacher will no doubt be able to help and meet the particular needs of a  particular student.

                  Therefore it is time we do away  with the traditional type of assessment and try to incorporate new types of assessments in the classroom. This requires for a change to take place . Unless teachers are opened to changes the need to overhaul the old system of assessment in our classroom will never take place. Teachers should not only be receptive to what they do , they should also believe in what they do so that other teachers can learn from them.

                  To conclude, I would like to say that learning is an essential part of life and assessment is an essential part of learning. Therefore  we could only conclude that assessment is an essential part of life . Teachers should understand that assessing students does not only reflect how educated they are but it also reflects how well a student could do in life because of the education s/he has received.

            

                              

The Number in the Class

As  I reflect on the teaching  experiences I have had in the class, I found that the number of students in the class  is  relatively  more than what the teacher could handle especially at the elementary level.In most of the schools, one would find that there is a large number of students in each class. Th problem that arises in these large classes is the fact that there is only one teacher who has to pertain to every individual's needs. By " individual", I mean every single child who is present in the classroom.Therefore each child's educational needs and growth will have to be taken care of by his/her teacher both inside as well as outside the classroom.Except for a few schools, majority of the schools have only one teacher to cater to the needs of every child. When we look at the number of students in the higher classes, we will find that there are around forty to fifty students in the classroom.The number of students is found to be considerably high when we look at the college level. In some classes the number of students is as high as two hundred fifty in one class. in such cases, the question that comes to our mind is how will the teacher meet the educational needs and requirements of each and every" individual" in the classroom? The stress on "individual" is because each student is different from one another as the colour black is from white.The multiple intelligence theory acquaints the teacher with the fact that each " individual" student is different from another in a number of ways. Each student's capacity , ability, interests and needs are incomparably different . Hence in a class with a large number of students the teacher will apparently find it difficult to meet the needs and requirements of the students especially in his or her effort to check that each student's capacity and abilities are fully developed.In such classroom situations, the interests of the different individuals will not be taken into account because of the limited time schedule that has been assigned for the development of  language skills. The students will then find it not interesting enough to take part in the classroom activities if their interests are not met with. It is important to note that in the present educational system where the learner-centred approach is being adopted, one should take care that each and every individual's needs are met.Therefore I would like to point out that the number of students in each class needs to be reduced so that the students who are currently engaged in the different fields will get to experience something new, something which we never had the opportunity to experience.