Corona lessons

Akshay Kumar

Most education stakeholders have found several issues and challenges in transacting teaching and learning during the pandemic. But all credit to our teachers as they do their best to build some kind of a learning environment for their students despite the several hurdles. In this article, I would like to suggest a few ideas on how primary school teachers can use an e-comic called ‘Kids, Vaayu and Corona’ produced by the Ministry of Health and Welfare to teach their young students not just about the pandamic engulfing the world right now but also certain concepts of learning a language.

Here is a link to the comic. https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/CoronaComic2PGIPU22Mar20.pdf

TASK 1

Task type – Learning to communicate
Objectives

  1. Noticing the vocabulary used in daily life including words like sanitisers.
  2. Becoming aware of information related to the pandemic.
  3. To be able to explain the symptoms of coronavirus to others, i.e., speaking and conveying gathered information in simple sentences.

Materials required – Worksheet (published at the end of the task)
Pre-task

  • The teacher will ask the students –
  1. What appeared on the television at the beginning of the story?
  2. What is the name of the virus that you read about in the story?
  3. What did Vaayu tell you about the virus?

During the task

  • The teacher will try to elicit responses from the students asking about the symptoms of the coronavirus through relevant scaffolding, possibly by enacting them out.
  • A worksheet will be given to the students with pictures and symptoms (their descriptions) of the virus. They will have to match the description with the right picture of the symptom.

Post task

  • The teacher will attempt to elicit precautionary measures that everybody has to take to stay safe by showing them pictures of soaps, sanitisers, masks, etc.
  • The teacher will then demonstrate and elaborate steps of hand washing and the students will be advised to imitate.
  • The teacher will assign them a homework of calling a friend or family and telling him/her about the symptoms and precautionary measures to fight coronavirus.

WORKSHEET – MATCHING THE SYMPTOMS WITH THEIR DESCRIPTIONS

Images courtesy – Google Image Results

TASK 2
Task type – Communication and vocabulary
OBJECTIVES –
1. To familiarize students with action verbs.
2. To enable them to observe and use action verbs in daily life.
3. To familiarize students with storytelling.

Material used– Comic strips from the given magazine (attached at the end of the task).

Pre-task

  • The teacher will attempt to elicit responses from the students by asking them questions by showing them the following pictures –
    (The students will write down their responses in their notebooks)
    1. What is Vaayu doing in this picture?
    2. What are the children doing?
    3. What is the father doing?
  • The teacher will tell them what he/she prefers to do in leisure time and then will ask students about what they prefer to do when they have some free time.

During-task

  • Students will be divided into pairs. They will read the comic strips provided and will try to fill in the blanks taking cues from the following vocabulary bank
    WASHING ATTENDING FLYING GOING
    BREATHING DOING PROVIDING MAINTAINING

A. Work in pairs. Choose the correct answer from the options in the table and the comic strips given to you.

  1. Vaayu is …………………….
  2. How are you ………………………
  3. Are you ………………………. social distance?
  4. Avoid ……………… to crowded places.
  5. …if you have cough and difficulty in ……………………….
  6. …if you are ………………………… care to individuals with respiratory systems….
  7. If you are a health worker and …………………… to individuals with respiratory problems….
  8. Are you ………………….. hands properly?

Post – task

  • Students will be doing role play based on their choice of characters from the comic.
  • Students will be asked to speak to their family members noting down all things their family members do at home.

The author is a second-year master’s student of English Language Teaching at The English and Foreign Languages University. He wishes to empower individuals and the society through his work in the discipline. He can be reached at akshayeflu@gmail.com.

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