Akshara Education Project (AEP) was initiated in 2001 in fifteen government schools in the villages around Madanapalle with support from Asha For Education, Seattle. The focus has been on Quality Education with a view to provide learning and teaching experiences that are joyful and realise the potential of the child and the teacher. Learning needs to be more child-centered activity rather than a teacher directed one. Children need more opportunities to work with their hands, talk, discuss and most importantly think for themselves. Only then they can become creative and active learners. When learning is made more meaningful to the child and the parents it automatically ensures regular attendance and continuation of the children at school.
One of the main activities of the project is to develop hands on activities for children of class 1 to 5 in Language Learning, Mathematics and Environmental Studies. These activities are then linked to the prescribed syllabus and are introduced to the children in school.
The other activity is to encourage the reading habit among children. It was found that the children were not reading any other book except their textbooks. Probably this was because they have had no access to any other printed material other than their textbooks. The project initiated a Mobile Library which visits the selected schools and issues books on a regular basis. So that children can experience the pleasures of reading. Reading skills help both the children and the teachers. Reading books help in enriching and enlightening ones learning.
The third activity which was introduced during this year is setting up of Learning Centers in villages where the levels of learning among children have been found to be very low. Right now we have three Learning Centers functioning at Gajulavaripalle, Dayyalavaripalle and Reddiganipalle. We have identified and trained three educated local youth in Activity Based Learning from the respective villages. These trained persons called as animators (teachers) teach in their respective schools from 1:30 pm till the school ends at 4:00 pm. After an hour’s break the animators (teachers) assemble the children at the school or any other convenient place for doing various activities with the children. They get the children to play organized games, help them do their homework and encourage them to read library books.
The project also looks at reaching out to other schools, groups or organizations who are interested in learning about innovative teaching methods and developing learning material.
January
During the first round of visit to the schools in January we found that there was a lot of discussion among the children as well as teachers about the Tsunami that had struck a few days back, mainly the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The children were curious to know about Tsunami and earth quakes. We helped them in selecting books which give information on these matters and got the children to make newspaper cuttings and display them in the class. In some schools we had painting and drawing sessions where children expressed their feelings about the disaster. Children showed a lot of empathy towards the people affected by the killer Tsunami. We decided to act fast and do something for the affected people. A core team including MORE staff, friends, a few students and teachers was immediately formed. We all collected a lot of medicines, some clothes and vessels. We got in touch with a few NOG’s doing rescue and rehabilitation in the costal villages of Tamil Nadu and worked with them from 4th to 10th January. (Appendix 1 for report)
We shared our experiences and showed photographs that we had taken during our stay at the villages to the children during the second round of visits to the schools.
During the rest of the month we were involved in making learning material and also training a person from Kuvempu an organization working in Chitradurga in making learning material. We provided him the necessary material, tools and training. After training he would go back to Kuvempu to set up a learning material production unit.
February
In February the first round of visits to the schools was during 1st to 5th, we intensely worked with class IV and class V children to reinforce the Place Value concept. It was noticed that many children were making mistakes while adding or subtracting which involved carryover or borrowing. We got the children to play games with pebbles, tamarind seeds and dice where they are expected to build tens, hundreds and thousands. The abacus and bead strings were also used.
From 10th to 12th we attended the Learning Network Conference held at Jaipur. The learning material which was made here was displayed at the conference.
The second round of visit was between 17th and 25th, during this round we did measurement of length, volume and weight. Classes III to IV were involved in the activities. We took with us to the school measuring rulers, tapes and wheel, containers of various sizes, standard volume measuring cans, scales and weights.
The children were divided into three groups so that everyone gets turns in measuring lengths, weights and volumes. Children measured small lengths such as length of pencil, book, slate, paper clip. Some children compared the different lengths of spans and foot. One group of children measured the heights of all children and recorded it. Others measured larger lengths such as width and length of the class room with a measuring tape. They also learnt to use the measuring wheel to measure long distances such as distance form school to home, main road to village and so on. Children explored while playing with measuring vessels the different capacities of various containers and bottles. Children compared the weights of different objects first manually and then by using scales. They compared the standard weights with the traditional weighing units.
Books issued during the previous visit were exchanged with fresh books from the Mobile Library during both the visits.
March
In March we did two school visit rounds and three Library rounds. The first round of visits took place between 2nd and 9th, during the first round children of class III to Class IV were given the opportunity of observing minute things through a microscope. Children were amazed at observing the details of a leaf including its stomata, the fine fibers of a piece of string, the details of small insects and the rough texture of their own hair. We also showed them using ready-made slides, cells of various micro-organisms. They were also instructed on how to handle and take care of the microscope.
The second round of visits was between 22nd and 29th during which children of classes I to III played with magnets. We had several bar, horse-shoe and circular magnets, bits of metal pieces and iron filings. There was no attempt to explain about the forces, fields or principles about magnets. We just wanted the children to explore the ‘magic force of magnetism’ by themselves and fun with magnets.
The Mobile Library activity for children of all classes took place during both the school visits and the other library visit was during 14th and 19th.
April
In April we had just one round of school visit and two rounds of library visits. April is the month when children are made to write exams and by 23rd April summer vacations were declared. We felt that it would be ideal if children are involved in an art and craft activity in the midst of preparing for their exams and a hot summer. In art and craft we got the children to explore with different media; drawing was done with pencil, charcoal, color crayons and painting with poster colors. In some schools we did paper folding (origami) and cutting.
The Mobile Library made its first round of visits between 4th and 11th. The second round from 14th to 18th and again from 22nd to 23rd was to only collect and not issue books as it would be difficult to keep track of the books during long summer holidays. But books were issued at the Learning Centers on a regular basis even during the summer holidays as the Learning Centers were functioning for three hours from Monday to Friday during the holidays.
On 19th April I visited Obulampalle in Kurnool district for a site visit in order to explore the possibilities of upgrading a primary school to a high school. (Appendix 2 for report)
May
Ravi has enrolled for Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) as a distant learner through Indira Gandhi National Open University, as part of the program he had to attend Contact Classes from 1st to 12th May. By doing this course he has had first hand experience of Teacher Education in conventional institutions.
Samskar-Plan and Movement for Rural Emancipation (MORE) have jointly worked out a strategy to introduce and enhance Activity Based Learning in 15 schools in Nizamabad District in 6 phases spread over the period December 04 to June 2005. MORE formed a core team of resource persons for this program. Ravi was selected as one of the team members. Ravi contributed three day each in Dec, Feb, March, May and June. (Appendix 3 for report)
June
Before the schools reopened on 12th June, we did an audit of the Mobile Library. We made a list of all the lost books, repaired damaged books and discarded the very badly damaged books.
During the first round of visits to the schools from 20th – 27th we got the children to do a Social Studies activity. As part of map-work children had to study the physical features of India and draw the map. The children worked individually on an A4 size map of India in order to transcribe it on to the ground with an enlargement of ten times. While the children made the map on the ground they worked in small groups. This exercise involved making grids and understanding scale. They showed all the major rivers using rangoli colors and the mountain ranges were depicted with stones and rocks, the forests were shown using shrubs and grass. The children as well as the teachers enjoyed the exercise. The children learnt geography in a joyful manner. They could locate their own places on the map and understand the relative distances between places.
The Mobile Library rounds were combined with the school visits.
On 17th June I visited Sharada Vidyalayam, Kakinada for a site visit in order to explore the possibilities of upgrading a primary school to a high school. (Appendix 4 for report)
July
In July we did two rounds of school visits and during both rounds we did maths activities. The topic that was being taught in the schools during this time was ‘fractions’. We felt that it would be appropriate if we do some activities which reinforce the concept of fractions. So during the first round we got the children to make ‘Fraction sets’ with card. They made several discs cut into various fractional parts. They had to cut each part accurately and color the pieces carefully. This was used to help children understand the concept of ‘whole’, ‘part-of’, ‘equal parts’ and ‘fractions’.
The second round was a follow up; during this round we got the children to use the ‘Fraction Set’. Children were able to understand the concept of fractions more clearly using this set because it is concrete, they can see and feel with their hands. They can put together actual parts to add up or take away parts to subtract and to compare put one piece on top of another. It was helpful in understanding basic fraction concepts and visualizing terms such as numerator, denominator, proper and improper fractions. The set was used for addition and subtraction sums from the text book. The geo-board was used to understand the multiplication of fractions.
The Mobile Library rounds were combined with the school visits.
August
In August we were able to do only one round of school visits. We did the topics ‘Various Parts of Our Body’ and ‘Moving Joints of Our Body’. After the general explanations and discussions we did an activity where all the children had to make a puppet with card, the limbs had to be sewn up with needle and thread. A broomstick is pierced through the hands of the puppet. When the stick is rotated the puppet makes amusing gymnastic movements. The children loved making and playing with this toy while learning about the various types of joints in our body and marking the different parts of the human body.
The Mobile Library did two rounds during August.
Ravi was invited by AKESI a group involved in educational activities in Gujarat to conduct introductory workshops for their network schools on Activity Based Learning. Ravi conducted the workshops in four of their schools from 13th to 20th. AKESI asked Ravi to do five follow up visits in the future. (Appendix 5 for report)
September
In September we did two rounds of schools visits, these visits were follow ups to the science activity that was done in August. During the two visits we made a ‘Our Human Body’ poster for the class in such a way that when the top layer is removed we can see the ‘Inside Our Body’. Many of the internal organs and structures were cut out of card and colored. The organs and structures have tabs so that they can be added to the poster in the appropriate place. This poster was also used as a tool to play a game to review and assess how much the children have learnt in the lesson. By doing this activity the children were able to identify the various internal organs and understand their functions. This also gave the children a perspective on where the organs are inside the body and in relation to one another.
We organized a three day orientation for the Animators (Learning Center Teachers). They were given ideas for doing activities linked to the syllabus. They were given suggestions on selecting appropriate books for children.
Two rounds of the Mobile Library were combined with the school visits.
October
From 2nd to 12th October the schools were on Dusserah vacation. So we were able to do only one school visit which was combined with the Library activity.
During this round we looked at Language Learning more closely. We had general discussions with the children on ‘how one learns the mother tongue’ and ‘the language skills’. We identified activities for the four language skills; listening, speaking, reading and writing and encouraged children to take part in them.
The Learning Center animators were also given orientation on teaching language skills.
On 25th and 26th October I visited MICDA School to conduct a workshop for the teachers on ‘Activities for Language Teaching’ and ‘Classroom Management’. (Appendix 6 for report)
November
In the first week of November the government teachers were transferred on a large scale, for this the district authorities had organized a week long counseling session. Hence we did not organize any school visits but during this time we went to the schools and collected all the Library books. The books were sorted and the damaged books were repaired. We will do the next round of issuing once the new teachers have joined and have built a rapport with the new teachers.
From 14th to 21st Ravi visited AKESI network schools in Gujarat for the second time, he interacted with the network schools and gave inputs on teaching languages. (Appendix 7 for report)
December
From 2 to 10th December Ravi was at Hyderabad for writing B.Ed term end exams. After the exams he spent three days selecting and purchasing books for the library at the Annual Book Fair. On 15 and 16th he participated in the workshop ‘Quality Education and Inclusive Education – two sides of the same coin’ organized by MORE.
The new books purchased were categorized and catalogued. One round of school visits for issuing books was completed in December.
Appendix 1
My Tsunami Experiences
Within a few days after the tsunami devastation a team of volunteers swung into action and collected a lot of medicines, water packets, utensils, clothes and other relief material. We wanted to see that all the collected relief material immediately reaches the affected people. Three of us from here packed everything into a van and set off to the coastal villages of Cuddalore and Nagapattinam. From 4th - to 9th Jan we visited many devastated villages and relief camps and did whatever was possible for us.
Each of these villages has horrifying stories. In some places we cannot even guess that earlier there was a village in that place, everything is completely washed back into the sea. In one village fifty-six people had died and still many were missing. This village had a deserted look, Kuppuswamy the village head who showed us the damage, two policemen and the driver of the earth-mover were the only people visible. The growling sea drowned the noise of the earthmover. The remaining people of the village are camped two kilometers away from this village. It was evening by the time we reached this relief camp; women with grim faces were all cuddled up in one corner of a large hall. The men were scrambling over the two NGO staff who were doing a damage assessment survey. Children were innocently playing hide and seek among the large number of plastic chairs put out in verandah. The government staff was overseeing the measurement of ration for the evening meal. We found the people to be very uneasy in the camp but they were also terrified to go back to their village fearing that another demon wave will come to drown them. Situations were somewhat similar in the other relief camps that we visited.
We heard of the NGO Coordination Cell that was functioning from the collector’s office in Nagapattinam and decided to see it. As we reached the collector’s office we noticed a lot of hustle and bustle. There were many vehicles parked outside, people with files in their hands were running up and down the stairs everyone looked very busy. Just behind the office we saw heaps and heaps of relief material lying and some more trucks being unloaded. It wasn’t difficult locating the NGO Cell, we found the Kurtha-pajama clad flock. We saw one tall fair lady in cotton sari listing out on a notice board the various meetings scheduled for the day. There were a lot of discussions taking place on relief and rehabilitation. There was everyone there doctors, engineers, teachers, volunteers, politicians, funders......
Apart from all these people were also volunteers who were silently doing their work in the villages. In Cuddalore we met a group of young Gujarathi boys who were distributing relief material and planning to build temporary huts. They were very skeptical about giving relief material to the government. They said it will be piled up and won’t be properly distributed. In a relief camp we saw a young lady conducting a meditation camp for the effected people. She was trying to get them to chant Om repeatedly, she said ‘this will calm them down’. In Velanganni we met a team whose truck was loaded with fodder, clean water and veterinary medicines. They were locating stray cattle, which were in distress, and helping them. In another place we saw some people in yellow robes chanting bhajans and distributing utensils. They looked very happy doing this, their truck had a huge yellow banner on which was a picture of a smiling bearded man looking like a swamiji. In a small town we saw a group of municipal workers, tirelessly cleaning the drains and sprinkling bleaching powder. Nobody was supervising this work. In a village we saw some RSS workers retrieving bodies from rubble and cremating them. We also saw casual visitors driving into villages to see the damage.
It was good to see humanity at work.
Ravi.
Appendix 2
Site visit report of Obulampalle, Kurnool District on 19th April 2005
by Ravi Aluganti
I visited Obulampalle on 19th April. Obulampalle is fairly a large village with a majority of the population consisting of Backward Classes. The other communities include Schedule Castes, Muslims and Forward Castes. Even though this village is just 8 kms from Allagadda town it is very underdeveloped. Most of the houses are ancient looking with very bad water and drainage facilities.
I reached Allagadda bus stand by 11 am, Ram Mohan Reddy was waiting for me at the bus stand. He is one of the Trustees of Sri Pochana Rami Reddy Education and Rural Development Trust. Later I met Ravindra Reddy the chairman of the trust and Madhu another trustee. After the formal introductions we all proceeded to Obulampalle. On our way to Obulampalle Ravindra Reddy gave me a brief and interesting history of Late Sri Pochana Rami Reddy, who was a freedom fighter. Sri Rami Reddy was a popular personality in this area who after independence took up and fought for issues relating to the downtrodden. Later in his life he was attracted to literature and in particular he did research on Veman’s poetry, his works have been published.
Ravindra Reddy is the son of Sri Pochana Rami Reddy who is very passionate of doing something for his village. He did his primary schooling in Obulampalle and high schooling in Allagadda and for higher studies went to Ananatapur. Right now he is working as a chief manger for a bank in Chennai. He firmly believes that the right kind of education and awareness can bring about the required change in this village. The other trustees Ram Mohan Reddy and Madhu whom I met also belong to Obulampale. Ram Mohan Reddy is working as a school teacher. Madhu has studied Law and is working with the health department at Allagadda. Both of them are very active and have a good rapport with the local people.
By the time we reached Obulampalle school the children were about to have their mid-day meal. We met the Mandal Education Officer at the school. He organized a meeting with the teachers of the school. Ravindra Reddy explained about the plans of upgrading this school to a high school. The teachers were very happy with the suggestion and said, this not only reduces the drop out rates but will also help in improving the quality of education. They said that it will help the girl students, as parents at present were averse to sending their girls to high school at Allagadda. Right now there is no public transport to this village so children going to high school have to walk 8 kms or take the risk of travelling in a rickety auto. The Mandal Education officer was very cooperative. He promised to take up the official procedures that are to be followed in this regard such as sending a proposal to the Zilla Parishad, apprising the District Education officer and so on. The trustees of Sri Pochana Rami Reddy said they would immediately start work on acquiring the required land for the high school. Ravindra Reddy felt that to speed up the process he should contact the ‘higher ups’ - concerned minister and politicians. Later we had we had an interesting discussion on the quality of education in government schools. I talked to them about my work and how ‘activity based learning’ helps children grasp concepts and offered to do a workshop for the teachers of this school.
We collected the following enrolment data from Indiramma the Head Mistress of the school.
|
class |
Obulampalle school |
Private school |
||||
|
|
Boys |
Girls |
Total |
Boys |
Girls |
Total |
|
I |
34 |
30 |
64 |
28 |
18 |
46 |
|
II |
33 |
20 |
53 |
23 |
13 |
36 |
|
III |
25 |
29 |
54 |
15 |
11 |
26 |
|
IV |
34 |
16 |
50 |
24 |
6 |
30 |
|
V |
13 |
13 |
26 |
18 |
6 |
24 |
|
VI |
19 |
15 |
34 |
-- |
- |
-- |
|
VII |
15 |
11 |
26 |
-- |
- |
-- |
Apart from the above two schools in Obulampalle, there is one more government school in the nearby village - Yadavada. Children who complete class five in this school will have to join for class six and seven in Obulampalle and for high school have to go to Allagadda.
At present the school has six classrooms of which one classroom is in a dilapidated state. There are toilets but no water facility. When Obulampalle gets upgraded to a high school, children from not only Obulampalle but Yadavada will also benefit. Children who drop out from class seven usually end up as farm laborers or as stone cutters in the nearby quarries. Girl children who drop out early will work as farm laborers and usually are married off at a very young age. Upgrading the Obulampalle school and improving the quality of education will definitely help a large number of children as well as the village.
Ravindra Reddy introduced me to Keshav the auditor of the trust. He said that he is taking care of the legal procedures and formalities.
So, I see an active and dedicated team forming at Obulampalle, I wish them all the best.
Appendix 3
POST PROGRAMME MONITORING REPORT
ON ACTIVITY BASED LEARNING
In select government primary schools
SAMSKAR-Plan and Movement for Rural Emancipation (MORE) have jointly worked out a strategy to introduce and enhance Activity Based Learning (ABL) in 15 in Nizamabad district in 6 phases spread over the period December 2004 to June 2005. Reports of phase I to VI have been submitted to Samskar-Plan. The following is a synopsis of the interventions:
|
Phase |
Month |
Theme |
|
I |
December 04 |
Thinking and Doing |
|
II |
January 05 |
Reflect (Regenerated Frairrian Literacy through empowering community techniques) |
|
III |
February 05 |
Community Based Curriculum |
|
IV |
March 05 |
Community Based Curriculum |
|
V |
April 05 |
Arts and Crafts |
|
VI |
June 05 |
Prepare your own teaching-learning material |
Having conducted the six-phase programme of introducing Activity Based Learning(ABL) in 15 select government primary schools in Nizamabad district the joint team of Samskar-Plan and MORE carried out monitoring visits from 17th to 23rd June 2005. The team consisted of Madhu, Sailu and Javed from Samskar-Plan and Prasad, Bernard, Beebi, Sheshnath and Ravi form MORE. The team visited all the 15 schools and assessed the impact of the interventions made towards ABL in the past 6 months. The observations of the team are presented below:
MORE would like to thank Samskar-Plan for giving this opportunity of working withgovernment schools. This exercise has given the organization and its team a lot of learning. This will certainly ferlect in its own work in and around Madanapalle.
Appendix 4
Site Visit to Sarada Vidyalayam, Kakinada on 17th June 2005
I finally made it to Kakinada on Friday, 17th June. Reaching Sharada Vidyalayam was not difficult, as Srikiran Eye Institute a part of Sankurathri Foundation is a well know landmark in Kakinada.
I reached Sarada Vidyalayam around noon. This is a beautiful little school with a pretty garden. As I entered the campus it seemed very quiet, I wondered if it was a holiday, then I saw a few kids studying under the shade of a mango tree and the other children were in their respective classrooms. It was amazing to know that a school with more than hundred children can be so quiet.
First I met Rama Rao the administrator of the school, who took me to Dr Chandra Sekhar’s house. After a quick refreshment and introduction with Dr Chandra Sekhar I went back to the school. During the lunch break Rama Rao introduced me to the teachers, the casual chatting led to an interesting discussion on ‘what discipline is?’ how fear obstructs learning and what freedom is for children?’ After lunch break Rama Rao took me to all the seven classrooms. I enjoyed talking to the children they all looked very bright and confidant. We talked about, what they like and don’t like at school, about their daily activities, about films and of course cricket!. They all seemed to show interest in learning computers, I asked them, why? And they said “the future is all about computers!”
What impressed me the most was the children’s handwriting. All the children have beautiful handwriting. The teachers explained that utmost care is give to handwriting, the concerned class teacher corrects every piece of written work. Rama Rao told me that earlier they had a volunteer teaching in the school Dr Shamala who has inspired and trained the teachers. Most of the teachers have been with the school from its inception. Another interesting practice in the school is that the administrator’s (head master) role is by rotation, in this way all the teachers understand the responsibilities and share work. Once in a month all the teachers have a get-together in one of the teacher’s houses. No wonder they are an excellent team. The school has an outstanding academic record, in the recent class seven public exams all the children have got very good marks and there has been no retention at all. Rama Rao is very meticulous in maintaining the school registers. He pulled out the Progress Register and I found that even in the previous years the children had got exceptionally good marks.
I liked the activity room; the walls of this room were covered with colorful paintings, drawings and other craftwork done by the children. The children also help in cleaning the school premises and maintaining the garden. On all Fridays children have a chanting class. I was entranced with listening to the children chant Sanskrit hymns, the rhythm and pronunciation was so good.
The children’s playroom had plenty of toys and games. Next we went into the science lab; I felt the science lab and the library need to be more equipped. Rama Rao showed me the proposed computer room. I also spoke to the teacher who will be teaching computers to the children. What surprised me was that all the teachers were also keen on learning computers; they said that it will help them in their teaching, preparing lesson plans and making worksheets. They said that by showing simulations in science or geography the children understand concepts much better.”
By 4pm the school assembled under the mango trees, after singing the national anthem the children walked in file, bid farewell to their teachers and got into the waiting bus. The school bus will take them to their respective villages.
After the children left I went to Dr Chandra Sekhar’s office, he talked to me about the school’s steady progress and the future plans. As I was curious to see the Eye Institute, he deputed Ramesh the person in-charge of the Community Out-reach Program to take me around the hospital. He showed me every department and explained about all the latest equipment they have in the institute.
I would have liked stayed on for another day but as I had traveled form Adilabad to Kakinada the previous night (a long bus journey about 18hrs and was away from home for a week) I was feeling tired and decided to return back to Madanapalle. Dr Chandra Sekhar kindly sent a vehicle to drop me at the railway station. I reached the station just in time to catch Sheshadri Express, reached Tirupati the next morning and from there I went to Madanapalle by bus.
I am very satisfied with this visit. I learnt a lot and was also inspired by Sarada Vidyalayam as we are planning to start a quality school for underprivileged children near Madanapalle.
Appendix 5
AKESI August Visit Report
I was at Little Star High School on 13th August morning. The school has a huge building with class rooms to one side and a large beautiful lawn facing the building. After the Morning Prayer I met the principal and all the teachers and we had formal introductions. Later I observed some classes in session and was able to interact with a few teachers.
From 12 noon to 2pm we had a short introductory workshop on ABL organized for all the English teachers and for all teachers who were free. We discussed about why learning needs to be activity based, how activities can be included in the teaching-learning process and its importance. We also explored the different areas where ABL can be introduced. Later on I got the teachers to do an activity, which was related to class 3. This worked very well, as all the teachers enjoyed doing the activity and experienced ABL - this lead to a more meaningful discussion. There were some concerns such as: using ABL would be difficult to cover the syllabus and ABL will be suitable only for junior school. I gave them a few examples to illustrate how activities can be designed based on the lessons so that we do not deviate from the syllabus and at the same time ensure that children enjoy learning.
It was made clear that every lesson need not be activity based but we should use this as a tool whenever and wherever applicable. When certain concepts are difficult to understand or when it is too abstract ABL helps to concretize the idea and it also helps the children to learn through doing and experiencing. To illustrate this we did an activity from class 7 mathematics.
On 14th morning I went to the Platinum Jubilee High School. We had a full-fledged ABL workshop for all the teachers. I followed the same pattern as I had done at Little Star High School. Since we had more time I got the teachers to do an activity in all the three areas – Language (English), Mathematics and EVS. After the completion an activity we would debrief and discuss about the pros and cons of ABL. After every activity the teachers were randomly divided into three groups, so that, one group worked on designing activities for the junior level, the second group worked on the middle school level and the third group for the senior level. Each group would present their activity and the other two groups would reflect on this with their comments and suggestions.
On 17th I reached Mundra, finding the school was very easy, it is very popular in Mundra and everyone seems to know about the school. I met Nooruddin the principal in-charge who introduced me to all the teachers. This is a Gujarathi medium school. I observed some classes and later in the afternoon I met the teachers and we had an ABL session. On the following day also we had another session where teachers were involved in doing activities and applying it to their subjects. The remaining part of the day I spent studying the Gujarath State text books.
On 19th I was at Chitravad a very small town, there are no lodges or hotels. Vrajesh the accountant of Chitravad School, was very kind and offered to take me to his house as a guest. Thanks to Vrajesh and his parents I had a very comfortable stay at their house in Talala.
I reached the school at Chitravad at 9am. The Vice-Principal had gone for an interview to Nagpur. I met the rest of the teachers. All of them are young and energetic. I observed the classes during the morning and post lunch we had an ABL session. There were a lot of questions and a good discussion followed. The next day, that is on 20th we had another session on ABL and a general discussion on teaching English.
Appendix 6
MICDA School Visit Report
I was at Puttur MICDA School on 25th and 26th October 2005. On 25th Subbaramaih took me for a long walk and showed me the waste lands that he has developed for the dalits. He explained to me the long struggle they had with the local land grabbers, showed me all the photographs and land records. I was happy to hear that soon the dalits will be getting ownership pattas of this land.
Later in the day I met all the teachers in their respective classes observed their teaching and gave feedback after the class was over. In the afternoon we had a staff meeting which got converted to a language teaching workshop.
The first topic that we took up for discussion was ‘Multi-grade teaching and Classroom management’, we had a general discussion on the problems faced by teachers while teaching different levels at the same time. I shared my experiences in this and gave them a few examples on some other schools deal with the problem. I showed them how certain learning material that can help the teachers in engaging students of different levels. The workshop was focussed on giving language-teaching inputs but there were a few instances where we took examples in EVS and Maths for a few activities.
In the second session we discussed about the techniques of language teaching. We looked at how we learn our mother tongue. The importance we should give to listening and speaking, and then to reading and writing. Unfortunately in many schools it is in the reverse order and they give more importance to writing than to any other skill.
The teachers agreed that we should develop the competencies of students towards attaining basic language skills.
Listening (and understanding)
· stories
· songs
· poems/rhymes
· conversations
· instructions
Speaking (with meaning)
· answering in yes/no
· answering elaborately
· asking questions
· giving directions
· describing objects/pictures
· taking part in conversations
· telling a story heard previously
· narrating an incident
· role play
Reading (and understanding)
· words
· sentences/phrases/paragraphs
· simple stories (folk tales,fairy tales, animal stories, etc.,)
· hand writing
· jokes/comics
· reading aloud
· reading silently
· instructions/headlines/notices etc.,
Writing (with meaning)
· copy (from board/book)
· with correct, shape, size and spacing
· sentences with punctuation
· dictation
· composition
A text book alone will not help a teacher to provide the above competencies, and completing the textbook (syllabus) should not be the only aim. Therefore the teacher has to develop appropriate learning material and activities for attaining the basic language skills. Every teacher should observe the pace of learning of the class in general and an individual child in particular. Only then a teacher has the scope to provide learning material to the students, which is graded accordingly. Based on experience and practice the teacher can develop material for the child who needs more support and for the child who needs a challenge.
Later on we discussed about the various activities that can be taken up for achieving the objectives in language skills. But we did not have enough time to elaborate and prepare the learning material. I promised to the teachers that I would be spending more time with them in the near future and bid fare well to the teachers and to Dr Subbaramaiah.
Appendix 7
AKESI November Visit Report
This is my second visit to Aga Khan School, Chitravad. I arrived at Veraval on 15th morning. It was 10:30am by the time I reached Chitravad. I met Mr Salim Bhai at the school; we had a discussion on the areas we need to focus during this visit. I told him that I would like to work with the teachers so that we can have a closer look at the various language skills and devise activities to enhance these skills. We also felt that there is a need to chalk out a short-term plan to implement the activities. Mr Salim Bhai agreed to this and informed me that all the teachers would be available from 2pm to 5pm.
The teachers who participated in this exercise are Rajesh, Sultana, Razia, Vaheed, Shanuben, Sameera, Iqbal, Asmita, Narendra, Salim and Suleman.
On the first day we discussed in detail the four language skills and listed out the objectives to be achieved in each of the skills.
Listening: (and understanding)
Speaking: (with meaning)
Reading: (and understanding)
Writing: (with meaning)
On the second day we classified the above objectives standard wise and looked for ways of achieving them and came up with the following activities:
Later in the day we prepared sample material for most of the above activities.
I left for Rajkot on 16th evening. On 17th and 18th I worked with REAP team at Basant Bahar. The workshop schedule designed for REAP team was similar to the one we followed at Chitravad, since it was a residential workshop we had time in the evenings also. We used this time for making more learning material, learning new English songs and having in-depth discussions on the activities.
The following REAP team participated in the workshop; Jayashree, Rozina, Yasmin, Pallavi, Sheetal, Harshad, Sameera, Birju, Jatin, Malik, Zarina, Saroj and Yogesh. In spite of his busy schedule Mr Iqbal Sama visited several times and gave us his valuable suggestions.
On 19th and 20th I was at the Mundra school. Mr Noordin had arranged for all the three English teachers to work with me from 11am to 1pm. And after lunch I would meet the teachers individually who were free or observed their classes and give them feedback.
The exercise that we did here was similar to the one that was followed at Chitravad. The teachers who took part in the exercise are Varsha who teaches I – III, Gayathri who teaches IV and Kushbu the new teacher.