BIT 6053

A TASK BASED PROJECT

Introducing a Short Stories to Year 4 pupils Title: Clever Katya ( A story from Russia)

Name Sivanathan a/l Tarusu

Matric No. M20092000819

Lecturer Dr. Raja Nor Safinas Bt Raja Harun

Introduction

The aim of the project is to introduce literature to upper primary classes through task-based approach. The short stories chosen for this project is ‘Clever Katya’. The project would also include many aspect of the English language which will be taught through the short stories. The use of ICT will be emphasized. This project

was planned for Year Four pupils in SK Cator Avenue.

Objective

At the end of the project, the pupils should be able to act out the story by creating their own scripts and present the play through their respective groups.

Instructional Aids

A) Power Point Presentation

The story will be presented to the pupils through slides produce using power point. Besides pupils will also be given chance to use this ICT skills to produce their own power point presentation. This particular lesson will be carried out in the computer lab.

b) Animation

A short animation of the story will be produce through adobe photoshop and director.

c) Worksheets

Pupils will be given a variety of exercises in worksheets form such as matching pictures with dialogues, fill in the blanks, find meaning of words and answers comprehension questions.

d) Sentence strips

The sentences strips will be used when pupils doing matching activity and the matched pictures and strips will be paste on the mah-jong paper. The pasting activity will only carried out after discussion of the answer and exhibit in the particular class.

Duration of the project

The project would be conducted for 5 days. There will be 30 minutes lesson each day(25 minutes for actual lesson) except the final lesson would be 60 minutes. The project would be conducted after the pupils have acquired the necessary skills in the language. It will be incorporated into the pupils daily lesson through the theme ‘World of Stories”.

Participants

The project is for pupils in Year Four. The pupils who are selected would have acquired the necessary skills in English Language.This category of pupils are able to comprehend the short story. Trainers and instructors for this project would be among the senior English Language teachers in the school.

Evaluation

A formative and summative evaluation would be conducted throughout the session. Marks will be awarded to the pupils who perform well in the task given. At the end of the project, all the groups would put up a play. The time allocated for the pupils for the play is 10 minutes. The marks obtained from the task would be used for indicating the success of the project conducted. Since the project design is an ongoing process, the teacher can always rectify any shortcomings.

Storyboard for the Project

Lesson One (30 minutes)- Classroom

Objective

In this lesson the teacher will introduce the story by familiarizing the pupils with some of the characters and words in the story.

(5 minutes)- Guessing game

Teacher introduces the characters in the story by playing guessing game. Two boys will be chosen and given instructions to play the role of the characters.

Other pupils will ask a lot of questions and only get a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. Through the questions and answer they will attempt to guess the character.

Examples: Do you wear uniform?

Do you have a crown?

(12 minutes)- (Arranging the paragraphs to form story)

In groups, pupils arrange the strips of paragraphs to form a story.

When the task is completed, the leader would present it to the class for discussion.

(8 minutes)- Dictionary skills

Each group would be given 3 dictionaries and they will find the meaning of difficult words in the paragraphs. They would write down the meaning in a piece of paper and present to the class.

Follow-up Task (At home)

Write down the meaning of words and exhibit it in the classroom.

Lesson Two (30 minutes)- Computer Lab

Objective

In this lesson the teacher will introduce the whole story to the pupils and use of ICT will be given priority.

(4 minutes) – Matching

Pupils try to match the paragraphs with the picture. The pictures will be shown through the power point. Pupils will read the paragraphs and match with picture by indicating the alphabets.

(13 minutes)-Power point presentation

The whole story is presented to the pupils through animation. (Created through power point or director) Pupils listen and read along.

(8 minutes) – Creative Writing

Pupils in groups would attempt to write sentences to describe each picture from a set of pictures. This activity will be done in the computer in the lab.

The complete story would be typed in the computer and exhibit on the screen.

Lesson Three (30 minutes) (Computer Lab)

Objective

The pupils should be able to comprehend the short story by answering the comprehension question s in their respective groups

8 minutes (Scanning Activity)

Pupils will be presented with parts of sentences in the power point. The leader of the groups will allocate the task to his members. Each group will scan the short story and find the answers. The pupils will write the answer in the worksheet given.

12 minutes (Comprehension Activity)

Each group will be given a worksheet with 10 comprehension questions. The group members will sit and discuss the answer with reference to the short story. The answers will be written in the worksheet given. The leader will present the completed task to the class and the teacher and others will discuss the answer and give comment.

5 minutes (List down Action Words

Pupils will be given a worksheet. In groups they will write down the verb and its root word. The group that can come up with the most number of words in the stipulated time will be awarded marks.

Examples

Bowed – bow, boiled – boil, sowing - sow

Lesson Four (30 Minutes)-

Objective

Pupils should be able to write their own script for the short story.

5 minutes (Role-play)

Pupils read the dialogue presented on the power point. Pupils try to role play it.

One group will be chosen to do the role play.

20 minutes (Creating Interesting Scripts)

Pupils will try to come up with an interesting script for their act based on the short story. The scripts will be typed in the computer and part of it will be presented to the class and teacher will give comment. Each group will consist of 6 pupils. Five will play any of the role created besides the main three characters, ‘The Czar’, ‘Katya’, and ‘farmer’.

Follow up activity

The groups will complete their scripts and will be edited by the teacher. They will be given 2 weeks to train for the act or play. Costume will be prepared by the respective groups.

Lesson Five (60 minutes)- Stage

Objective

The success of this project will be evaluated through the presentation of each group.

Training

The training for the play is carried out by the respective groups during their free time. (The duration given would be two weeks.)

Evaluation

Each group would be given 10 minutes to perform. Judges would be chosen among the teachers.

Closing Ceremony (During school assembly)

Pupils will be presented with prizes.

Appendixes

Strips (Rearranging)

The Czar of Russia was out in his coach when he saw a farmer eating some bread.‘I’m hungry,’ said the Czar. ‘Stop the coach!’ He got out and asked the farmer for some bread. The farmer bowed low and

gave him some

This is the best bread I have ever tasted,’ said the Czar. ‘Who made it?’

‘My daughter, Katya, your Majesty,’ replied the farmer.‘Tell me about Katya,’ said the Czar.

‘Oh, she’s a wonderful girl,’ said the farmer.‘So pretty, so good, so strong such a good worker, such a good singer…’ ‘And such a good baker.’ said the Czar with his mouth full of bread. ‘Is she clever too?’

‘Oh yes,’ boasted the farmer. ‘She’s the cleverest person in Russia.’ ‘What ? Cleverer than me ?’ asked the Czar. ‘Oh no, your Majesty. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean

that,’ began the farmer.But the Czar had jumped back into his coach. ‘I’ll be back!’ he called out.

The next day the Czar came back. He gave the farmer a basket of eggs. ‘If your Katya is so clever , see if she can hatch these eggs into chickens,’

he said .’I’ll be back tomorrow!’

The farmer took the eggs to Katya. ‘But these eggs are hard boiled,’ she said. ‘They won’t ever hatch out.’‘Oh no!’ said the farmer. ‘What shall we do?’ Don’t worry, I know what to do,’ said Katya with a smile.The next day the

Czar was on his way back to the farmer’s house when he saw a girl throwing some beans onto the ground. She was singing a song.

‘Grow, beans, grow!’ she sang.

The Czar stopped the coach. ‘What is your name?’ he asked the girl.‘Katya,’ she replied. ‘So you’re Clever Katya,’ said the Czar. ‘What are you doing?’‘I’m sowing boiled beans, your Majesty,’ said Katya, and she went on with

her song.

The Czar laughed. ‘How can boiled beans grow, you silly girl?’ he asked.‘They can grow just as quickly as hard boiled eggs can hatch out,’ replied

Katya. The Czar laughed again. ‘That‘s a clever reply,’ he said. ‘I thought I could trick you but you were too clever for me. All right, you win. You are the cleverest girl.

Matching Paragraphs with pictures

A

B

C

Comprehension Questions

1. Why did the Czar taste the farmer’s bread?

2. Katya sowed the boiled beans. Why did she do that?

3. Who gave Katya a cup and why?

4. What was in a big chest the servants took to Katya’ house?

5. What was the ending of the story?

Dialogue For Role-Play

Czar : Stop the coach! I am hungry.

Driver : Yes, your Majesty.

Czar : (Looking at the farmer) Can I have some bread?

Farmer : Here you are, your Majesty.

Czar : This is the best bread I have ever tasted. Who made it?

Farmer : My daughter, Katya, your Majesty.

Czar : Tell me about your Katya?

Farmer : oh, she is a wonderful girl. So pretty, so good, such a good worker, such a good singer…….

Czar : And such a good baker. Is she clever too?

Farmer : Oh yes. She is the cleverest person in Russia.

Czar : What? Cleverer than me?

Farmer : Oh no, your Majesty. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that.

Reflection of A Lessson Conducted

Pupils

Some of the boys interviewed after the lesson expressed their excitement in involving in the lesson. Many wanted the teacher to give them the story book.

A few boys confess the lesson was more interesting than usual.

Teacher

After the lesson, many boys requested her to have more literature classes. The teacher wanted to carry out the whole project. The teacher did actual carried out the project. Other teachers who taught Year 4, was interested in carrying out the project after watching the video and the narration.

Headmaster

He was impressed with the whole project and requested the teacher in charge to conduct an in house training.

The pupils did act out the drama during Children Day’s celebration.