This is what good education looks like. Reproducing here, an update from the elder one's class teacher. That the teachers would find the time and energy to put together such detailed updates every couple of weeks, is in itself amazing. What is more fascinating is the way knowledge is being imparted to students. The entire focus is on concepts and skills, not subjects and chapters.
If you care about education in general and pedagogy in particular, this post will make for very interesting reading for you. Pallavi Phatak, Sugata Mitra, Priya Nagesh.
Heritage Xperiential Learning School
Grade 5, Middle Programme
14th November – 24th November, 2017
“While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.”
-Angela Schwindt
Dear Parents,
Greetings from the Grade 5 Team!
What would the world look like without children?
The days when students were off because of the AQI, gave teachers a good opportunity to reflect on this question.
Children are the essence of a teacher’s existence. The life of a teacher without children is like – “A bird without wings”, “Sky without Stars” and “A platter without food”.
These were a few thoughts shared by teachers when prompted the question – what would the world look like without the kids around during the non-instructional days – It’s wonderful to have them back!
With these thoughts, under mentioned is a glimpse of what has been going on in the classrooms over the past two weeks, citing progress in all domains.
Children’s Day:
A full day programme was organised to celebrate children’s day. Teachers planned for indoor activities and programmes keeping the AQI in mind.
· A special assembly was organised starting with the prayer followed by teachers dedicating poems for students.
· Magic is something that fascinates all ages. A magic show was organised for students. They enjoyed the show as they expressed their excitement through loud applause for the show man.
· Teacher’s expressed their experiences with students through a musical Qawwali.
· Students were shown “I am Kalam”. It is a beautiful movie that threads together perseverance, friendships, loneliness, class divides, ambitions and the socio-economic differences of our society through chotu. It’s an inspirational tale of a boy working at a roadside dhaba, enjoying his life with all the challenges that comes along each day. He was so inspired by the former president of India - Dr. A. P. J Abdul Kalam, that he used kalam as his alias.
· The day was culminated with teachers giving personalized photo frame/ wall hangings created by them for the children.
EXPEDITION
Culmination of – Whats out there?
It was a delightful sight to see the creative minds at work, through the Travel Brochures prepared by the students as a part of the last lap of the Expedition – What’s Out There?
The Expedition culminated with a talk by the guest speaker Biman Basu, a writer deeply committed to popularize science through print and electronic media. He gave some important insights about satellites and the preparation required for the travel missions. He was left completely mesmerized by the work done by the students on the Travel Brochures. These brochures will be now displayed in the school library for students of middle program to read and explore them during their Reading Programme time.
A revision task sheet was attempted by the students to check their understanding of celestial bodies.
Introduction to the new expedition -Food
A healthy body breeds a healthy mind is a phrase commonly used. Food has a very significant place in our lives because it is our body’s primary requirement. It is a source of our mental and physical energy. Expedition on Food will explore the importance and significance of healthy food leading to a healthy mind, body and spirit.
· Students have been asked to maintain a diet Journal for 7 days and record the meal they are having every day. Through the diet journal, students will trace out the ingredients and its source. The data collected will be helpful in the class discussion to be followed after the 7 days.
· In another experience, students have been asked to collect wrappers of packaged food which they use. They will be examining these wrappers carefully and make notes of some important information and terms printed on the wrappers.
EXTENDED EXPEDITION
The experiences for this fortnight focused on building all the four essential skills. The journey to evolve as a writer has entered into a new phase with the Narrative Writing Workshop.
Listening
· Students were assessed on their listening skills, focusing on the details shared through the story read by the teacher. Students were required to make relevant notes, which subsequently helped them in answering the questions.
· The skill of listening was involved in the discussions of the weekend homework of Contextual Clues.
· Children were fully engaged in listening to the songs and other performances during the Children’s Day assembly and the assemblies of other sections.
Speaking
· Students were engaged in crews and whole class discussions while preparing their models, on various questions allotted to them. They also presented their models to the other crews.
· The story of Merchant of Venice was discussed extensively through the task sheet.
Reading
· Children have been busy and involved in reading through their Novel’s and attempted various task sheets in their study guides. The task sheets are designed to unpack different reading skills.
· Students have also been enthusiastically issuing books from the library, of their preferred authors and genre to read.
· Students were provided with extensive samples of narrative writing for their sample analysis. They used the checklist to analyse the traits used by the writer.
Writing
· After reading and annotating the text “Merchant of Venice”, students penned down their understanding of the characters and the story elements. Students wrote their answers keeping the steps of framing answers in mind.
Reading Programme
· Selection of a book from the school library is always fascinating for the students. During the Reading Programme, they explored new books, especially looking for the authors that were introduced by means of spell list worksheet. It is important that they are encouraged to read their books at home every day.
Novel Study
· Children have been deeply involved in exploring and analyzing the novel in depth with a set purpose. The Novel study is in full swing and children are at the last lap of the Novel Study.
Hindi
· विद्यार्थियों ने 'गोवर्धन पर्वत' पाठ पढ़कर इस पाठ के मुख्य पात्र की विशेषताएँ लिखी तथा साथ ही साथ कहानी में आए किन्ही दो पात्रों की तुलना की |
· कहानी के एक अनुच्छेद का मुख्य विचार लिखा |
· विद्यार्थियों ने 'गोवर्धन पर्वत' पाठ के प्रश्न उत्तरों की कक्षा चर्चा की |
· विद्यार्थियों ने कार्य पुस्तिका संदर्श से गृह – कार्य के रूप में कार्यप्रपत्र- ९ (सेमल वृक्ष पर दावत ) किया; जिसके अंतर्गत विद्यार्थियों ने सेमल पेड़ से जुड़ी जानकारियों से सम्बंधित विभिन्न ज्ञानात्मक प्रश्नों के उत्तर लिखे तथा कक्षा चर्चा की गई |
· विद्यार्थियों ने कार्य पुस्तिका संदर्श से गृह – कार्य के रूप में कार्यप्रपत्र- १० (मैं हूँ दिल्ली ) किया; जिसके अंतर्गत विद्यार्थियों ने अपनी एक यादगार यात्रा का अपने शब्दों में वर्णन किया तथा कक्षा चर्चा की गई |
· विद्यर्थियों ने अपनी पठन कार्यक्रम पुस्तक की कक्षा में चर्चा की तथा विद्यार्थियों को नवीन पुस्तक पठन के लिए दी गई |
· पठन कौशल के अंतर्गत विद्यार्थियों को एक नवीन पाठ 'बिशन की दिलेरी' दिया गया | विद्यार्थियों ने पाठ का मौन पठन किया तथा उसके पश्चात पाठ में आए कठिन शब्दों का अर्थ शब्दकोश से ढूँढ़कर लिखा |
· इस सप्ताहांत कक्षा कार्य के रूप में कार्यप्रपत्र ३५ से सप्ताह ४ के नवीन शब्द अभ्यास के लिए दिए जा रहें हैं |
· अभिभावकों से अनुरोध है कि विद्यार्थियों को हिंदी पठन कार्यक्रम की पुस्तकों को पढ़ने के लिए प्रेरित करें |
Computer
· In grade 5, students have so far continued working on MS-Word, in which they have learned about creating tables and designing forms. They have applied their learning of using MS-Word by designing a Form which will be part of their term 2 Portfolio.
· Recently we have started with Scratch 2.0, it is a programming software that allow students to create interactive stories, animations by using block of codes to build program. Children are acquainted with the software and will require to practice at home as well, therefore please use the link below to download and install it at your home desktop/laptop.
· Link for downloading: https://scratch.mit.edu/download
MATH
Area
• Developing a sense of space to be covered - Introduction of Area
The problem posed by the teacher, “Who has the biggest foot in the class?” prompted children to look at
everybody’s foot and guess who has the biggest foot in the class. Most of the students were under the
impression than largest foot will be the one that is longer in length, A discussion followed on whose foot will
cover more space - one that is long but thin or one that is short but wide. Children came up with idea of
filling the foot space with rope, erasers etc. to know the biggest foot. They came up with different strategies
to compare the foots which were reasoned out and then with consensus of the class, modified according to
the need and efficiency. The class then agreed on using jodo cubes and cheese cubes to find the area of
the foot. The cheese cubes chosen are such that they have an area of 1 sq. cm which will later help them
connect with the unit of area measurement.
The term Area was introduced as a part of language vocabulary and was used interchangeably with word
space. They traced their foot and filled it with cheese cubes. Child with the maximum cheese cubes had the
biggest foot area. A discussion followed where children developed an understanding of area and concluded
that height, weight, and shoe size were not accurate parameters to find the biggest foot.
• Estimating and measuring area using local unit:
Children measured area of different irregular shapes (aam papad, leaves etc) using the local standard unit
which was one flat surface of cheese cube (or jodo cubes) for them. They first estimated and then
measured the area of different objects using cheese cubes.
Through the context of French revolution, we introduced the standard name of the unit for measuring area
i.e. “square centimeter”. Children found out that every side of one flat surface of their cheese cube is
equal to one centimeter, so the name given to it is one “square centimeter”. Therefore they replaced
‘cheese cube’ with the name of .square centimeter’.
• Need of Standard Unit to measure area:
As children found it difficult to put cheese cubes every time and particularly when the surface was not even
like in the case of a leaf, children thought of some other methods they can use to find out the area of the
different objects. After a long discussion the idea of making a square grid of one square centimeter came
up in the class. After this discussion children started tracing the given objects on the square grid and then
counting the number of square centimeters occupied by the objects.
The idea behind doing all the activities mentioned above is that children understand and conceptualize the
meaning of area. They should understand that area involves 2 dimensions – Length and breadth....unlike
weight, length which involves only one dimension. Emphasis on children estimating area and children
deepening understanding of area will be the focus of the next few classes.
If you care about education in general and pedagogy in particular, this post will make for very interesting reading for you. Pallavi Phatak, Sugata Mitra, Priya Nagesh.
Heritage Xperiential Learning School
Grade 5, Middle Programme
14th November – 24th November, 2017
“While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.”
-Angela Schwindt
Dear Parents,
Greetings from the Grade 5 Team!
What would the world look like without children?
The days when students were off because of the AQI, gave teachers a good opportunity to reflect on this question.
Children are the essence of a teacher’s existence. The life of a teacher without children is like – “A bird without wings”, “Sky without Stars” and “A platter without food”.
These were a few thoughts shared by teachers when prompted the question – what would the world look like without the kids around during the non-instructional days – It’s wonderful to have them back!
With these thoughts, under mentioned is a glimpse of what has been going on in the classrooms over the past two weeks, citing progress in all domains.
Children’s Day:
A full day programme was organised to celebrate children’s day. Teachers planned for indoor activities and programmes keeping the AQI in mind.
· A special assembly was organised starting with the prayer followed by teachers dedicating poems for students.
· Magic is something that fascinates all ages. A magic show was organised for students. They enjoyed the show as they expressed their excitement through loud applause for the show man.
· Teacher’s expressed their experiences with students through a musical Qawwali.
· Students were shown “I am Kalam”. It is a beautiful movie that threads together perseverance, friendships, loneliness, class divides, ambitions and the socio-economic differences of our society through chotu. It’s an inspirational tale of a boy working at a roadside dhaba, enjoying his life with all the challenges that comes along each day. He was so inspired by the former president of India - Dr. A. P. J Abdul Kalam, that he used kalam as his alias.
· The day was culminated with teachers giving personalized photo frame/ wall hangings created by them for the children.
EXPEDITION
Culmination of – Whats out there?
It was a delightful sight to see the creative minds at work, through the Travel Brochures prepared by the students as a part of the last lap of the Expedition – What’s Out There?
The Expedition culminated with a talk by the guest speaker Biman Basu, a writer deeply committed to popularize science through print and electronic media. He gave some important insights about satellites and the preparation required for the travel missions. He was left completely mesmerized by the work done by the students on the Travel Brochures. These brochures will be now displayed in the school library for students of middle program to read and explore them during their Reading Programme time.
A revision task sheet was attempted by the students to check their understanding of celestial bodies.
Introduction to the new expedition -Food
A healthy body breeds a healthy mind is a phrase commonly used. Food has a very significant place in our lives because it is our body’s primary requirement. It is a source of our mental and physical energy. Expedition on Food will explore the importance and significance of healthy food leading to a healthy mind, body and spirit.
· Students have been asked to maintain a diet Journal for 7 days and record the meal they are having every day. Through the diet journal, students will trace out the ingredients and its source. The data collected will be helpful in the class discussion to be followed after the 7 days.
· In another experience, students have been asked to collect wrappers of packaged food which they use. They will be examining these wrappers carefully and make notes of some important information and terms printed on the wrappers.
EXTENDED EXPEDITION
The experiences for this fortnight focused on building all the four essential skills. The journey to evolve as a writer has entered into a new phase with the Narrative Writing Workshop.
Listening
· Students were assessed on their listening skills, focusing on the details shared through the story read by the teacher. Students were required to make relevant notes, which subsequently helped them in answering the questions.
· The skill of listening was involved in the discussions of the weekend homework of Contextual Clues.
· Children were fully engaged in listening to the songs and other performances during the Children’s Day assembly and the assemblies of other sections.
Speaking
· Students were engaged in crews and whole class discussions while preparing their models, on various questions allotted to them. They also presented their models to the other crews.
· The story of Merchant of Venice was discussed extensively through the task sheet.
Reading
· Children have been busy and involved in reading through their Novel’s and attempted various task sheets in their study guides. The task sheets are designed to unpack different reading skills.
· Students have also been enthusiastically issuing books from the library, of their preferred authors and genre to read.
· Students were provided with extensive samples of narrative writing for their sample analysis. They used the checklist to analyse the traits used by the writer.
Writing
· After reading and annotating the text “Merchant of Venice”, students penned down their understanding of the characters and the story elements. Students wrote their answers keeping the steps of framing answers in mind.
Reading Programme
· Selection of a book from the school library is always fascinating for the students. During the Reading Programme, they explored new books, especially looking for the authors that were introduced by means of spell list worksheet. It is important that they are encouraged to read their books at home every day.
Novel Study
· Children have been deeply involved in exploring and analyzing the novel in depth with a set purpose. The Novel study is in full swing and children are at the last lap of the Novel Study.
Hindi
· विद्यार्थियों ने 'गोवर्धन पर्वत' पाठ पढ़कर इस पाठ के मुख्य पात्र की विशेषताएँ लिखी तथा साथ ही साथ कहानी में आए किन्ही दो पात्रों की तुलना की |
· कहानी के एक अनुच्छेद का मुख्य विचार लिखा |
· विद्यार्थियों ने 'गोवर्धन पर्वत' पाठ के प्रश्न उत्तरों की कक्षा चर्चा की |
· विद्यार्थियों ने कार्य पुस्तिका संदर्श से गृह – कार्य के रूप में कार्यप्रपत्र- ९ (सेमल वृक्ष पर दावत ) किया; जिसके अंतर्गत विद्यार्थियों ने सेमल पेड़ से जुड़ी जानकारियों से सम्बंधित विभिन्न ज्ञानात्मक प्रश्नों के उत्तर लिखे तथा कक्षा चर्चा की गई |
· विद्यार्थियों ने कार्य पुस्तिका संदर्श से गृह – कार्य के रूप में कार्यप्रपत्र- १० (मैं हूँ दिल्ली ) किया; जिसके अंतर्गत विद्यार्थियों ने अपनी एक यादगार यात्रा का अपने शब्दों में वर्णन किया तथा कक्षा चर्चा की गई |
· विद्यर्थियों ने अपनी पठन कार्यक्रम पुस्तक की कक्षा में चर्चा की तथा विद्यार्थियों को नवीन पुस्तक पठन के लिए दी गई |
· पठन कौशल के अंतर्गत विद्यार्थियों को एक नवीन पाठ 'बिशन की दिलेरी' दिया गया | विद्यार्थियों ने पाठ का मौन पठन किया तथा उसके पश्चात पाठ में आए कठिन शब्दों का अर्थ शब्दकोश से ढूँढ़कर लिखा |
· इस सप्ताहांत कक्षा कार्य के रूप में कार्यप्रपत्र ३५ से सप्ताह ४ के नवीन शब्द अभ्यास के लिए दिए जा रहें हैं |
· अभिभावकों से अनुरोध है कि विद्यार्थियों को हिंदी पठन कार्यक्रम की पुस्तकों को पढ़ने के लिए प्रेरित करें |
Computer
· In grade 5, students have so far continued working on MS-Word, in which they have learned about creating tables and designing forms. They have applied their learning of using MS-Word by designing a Form which will be part of their term 2 Portfolio.
· Recently we have started with Scratch 2.0, it is a programming software that allow students to create interactive stories, animations by using block of codes to build program. Children are acquainted with the software and will require to practice at home as well, therefore please use the link below to download and install it at your home desktop/laptop.
· Link for downloading: https://scratch.mit.edu/download
MATH
Area
• Developing a sense of space to be covered - Introduction of Area
The problem posed by the teacher, “Who has the biggest foot in the class?” prompted children to look at
everybody’s foot and guess who has the biggest foot in the class. Most of the students were under the
impression than largest foot will be the one that is longer in length, A discussion followed on whose foot will
cover more space - one that is long but thin or one that is short but wide. Children came up with idea of
filling the foot space with rope, erasers etc. to know the biggest foot. They came up with different strategies
to compare the foots which were reasoned out and then with consensus of the class, modified according to
the need and efficiency. The class then agreed on using jodo cubes and cheese cubes to find the area of
the foot. The cheese cubes chosen are such that they have an area of 1 sq. cm which will later help them
connect with the unit of area measurement.
The term Area was introduced as a part of language vocabulary and was used interchangeably with word
space. They traced their foot and filled it with cheese cubes. Child with the maximum cheese cubes had the
biggest foot area. A discussion followed where children developed an understanding of area and concluded
that height, weight, and shoe size were not accurate parameters to find the biggest foot.
• Estimating and measuring area using local unit:
Children measured area of different irregular shapes (aam papad, leaves etc) using the local standard unit
which was one flat surface of cheese cube (or jodo cubes) for them. They first estimated and then
measured the area of different objects using cheese cubes.
Through the context of French revolution, we introduced the standard name of the unit for measuring area
i.e. “square centimeter”. Children found out that every side of one flat surface of their cheese cube is
equal to one centimeter, so the name given to it is one “square centimeter”. Therefore they replaced
‘cheese cube’ with the name of .square centimeter’.
• Need of Standard Unit to measure area:
As children found it difficult to put cheese cubes every time and particularly when the surface was not even
like in the case of a leaf, children thought of some other methods they can use to find out the area of the
different objects. After a long discussion the idea of making a square grid of one square centimeter came
up in the class. After this discussion children started tracing the given objects on the square grid and then
counting the number of square centimeters occupied by the objects.
The idea behind doing all the activities mentioned above is that children understand and conceptualize the
meaning of area. They should understand that area involves 2 dimensions – Length and breadth....unlike
weight, length which involves only one dimension. Emphasis on children estimating area and children
deepening understanding of area will be the focus of the next few classes.