Divya Kapoor
Can a flexible assessment system help students to be more engaged and enthusiastic and also benefit from the teaching-learning process? Today’s learners need to be given the freedom to choose their assessment in terms of the mode, time and medium of assessment. This article focuses on effective flexible assessment strategies that can be implemented in the curriculum and the role of the teacher in giving students the autonomy to choose their mode of assessment.
Year: 2020
Meeting the challenge of task-based assessment
Sajit M Mathews
This article outlines the theory and advantages of task-based writing assessment, and provides a set of writing-assessment tasks as an example.
Leave it to the children
K. Gayathri
Self-learning motivates students to learn independently and enrich their knowledge. A teacher writes on her classroom experience.
Reaching head, heart and body
P. Ajitha
The process of teaching and learning becomes more engaging when the teacher decides to meld a classroom experience into a lived experience. Here is how a teacher turned a letter- writing activity in the classroom into an experience where the students learned to value the essential worth of a letter.
English, English and English!
Pooja Birwatkar
Some schools insist that their students speak only in English during school hours and even informal communication between students is scrutinized. Students are forbidden to use Hindi or any mother tongue in school. Isn’t language a unique feature of Indian culture and shouldn’t the diversity in languages also be given a serious thought when we proclaim education systems to be all inclusive?
Triggering creative expression
Arundhati Dolas, Adithi Muralidhar and Sugra Chunawala
Creativity is studied in several disciplines such as the arts, sciences, and language. In the context of language learning, creativity is associated with meaning making, imagination, self-expression, and recreation. This article discusses two activities designed to spark creative expression among primary school students.
Word problems – from foe to friend
Anjana A.R.
What is the role of language in a math class? Most children may not have any difficulty when it comes to numbers, but they begin to falter when trying to understand the words in a problem. The math teacher needs to ensure that children not only understand numbers but also the words. A math teacher thus becomes an English or language teacher to some extent. Here are some techniques to help children understand ‘word’ problems.
Understanding diverse contexts
Usha Raman
How can children be exposed to diverse contexts so that they can understand the complexity of the world — people, places and culture? How can they understand that politics shapes our world just as much as science, technology and economics? For this the classroom can be a safe space to know and accept the different ways of being. Inside the class, they have the opportunity to ask questions freely and also have a teacher to explain what it all means.
Like a tree in the forest
Anandhi Abhi
How do teachers work as a team at different levels —- within the classroom and outside or even through the life cycle of the children? When a group of teachers works pedagogically, the real learning for students lies in the nature and quality of relationships among the teachers themselves. Children learn more from observation and can see if teachers are truly coming together to serve a larger interest or otherwise. Our Cover Story this month seeks to explore how well teachers are teaming up for the sake of students.
Carrying meaning through language
Prakash Iyer
Is experience essential for children to learn concepts or trigger fresh ideas? Can teachers create appropriate experiences that can act as stimuli for children? How does language contribute to this process? This interesting article tackles this topic in the form of a fictional conversation between two teachers.