Dear teachers How delhi teachers are trying to address the huge gap between the student contexts and the text books.... comments welcome
regards Guru source - http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/delhi-government-schools-teachers-smart-study-pronunciation-education-fun-2872300/ 20,000 govt school teachers in Delhi involved in finding ways to make students learn the right lessons, and have fun Grappling with students who barely know their alphabets in order, teachers find it an uphill task to go beyond the narrative and explain the didactic tone. Written by Sweta Dutta | New Delhi | Published:June 24, 2016 2:35 am “Once upon a time, there lived in Japan a young boy with his parents. Although he worked hard, day and night cutting wood, he could not earn much to satisfy need of his parents. It was cold season and his old father was unable to bear the cold so he wished he could have sake… but a poor man like Taro could not afford to buy the drink.” As Kadambari Lohia, a Class VI English teacher of a Delhi government school, reads out ‘Taro’s Reward’ — a chapter from the NCERT textbook — students in her class stare blankly at her. Even as the textbook suggests Kadambari pronounce sake as ‘saake’, she silently debates how the students, who were taught to pronounce ‘S’ as sa just a few days ago, would tackle a sudden deviation. The story of Taro has often come up as a challenge to teachers. Grappling with students who barely know their alphabets in order, teachers find it an uphill task to go beyond the narrative and explain the didactic tone. “There is an yawning gap between the learning level of students and the difficulty level of the prescribed NCERT textbooks and this makes teaching a big challenge in government schools,” explains Kadambari, flanked by seven other English teachers from different government schools, brainstorming over creating new supplementary material for students and manuals for teachers to bridge this gap. The exercise, initiated by Delhi government’s Directorate of Education and involving 20,000 trained graduate teachers from Class VI to VIII, draws from their own classroom experiences. Over the past month, 500 batches of teachers have been brainstorming not just to simplify textbooks for students, but also to draw up a manual for teachers to ‘make sense’ of them while teaching. The material will be printed and used in classrooms across government schools from July. The initiative comes with the AAP government prioritising education and allocating a lion’s share of the state budget in revamping infrastructure and introducing more extra-curricular activities. “Over the years, we have seen students floundering because their level of understanding is far below the textbooks imposed on them. Teachers have repeatedly complained of this and hence we thought we needed to involve them in the process,” says Shailendra Sharma, principal advisor to director (education). Though the workshops have meant more work during the summer break, teachers are not complaining. “We have to teach in the classroom and we know what works for students. We should teach them what they understand and not what the textbook wants us to teach. This is the first time teachers are involved in the process of drafting study material,” says Deepti Chawla, another English teacher. Tarun Bhasin, a Social Studies teacher, and his colleagues draw up riddles and other play-way methods to explain topics like the solar system and environment. “Instead of making students learn by rote what environment means, if we take them out to green areas and ask them to observe and write down whatever they saw, the impact is much more,” explains Bhasin. IT for Change, Bengaluru www.ITforChange.net -- EnglishSTF Link: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/englishstf -- *For doubts on Ubuntu and other public software, visit http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Frequently_Asked_Questions **Are you using pirated software? Use Sarvajanika Tantramsha, see http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Public_Software ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ಇಲಾಖೆಗೆ ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ತಂತ್ರಾಂಶ ***If a teacher wants to join STF-read http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Become_a_STF_groups_member --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "EnglishSTF" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to englishstf+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send an email to englishstf@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/englishstf. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/englishstf/CANJf2f-sPBwY7tDe8PE%3D5OXiy_PYLWVCUY1xc4wAOxCk22LS5A%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
