using activities alongside teaching an english text: the importance

Teacher Education through School-based Support in Indiawww.TESS-India.edu.in

Using activities alongside teaching an English text: the importance of planning and preparation

Unit 7:

Elementary English

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The TESS-India project (Teacher Education through School-based Support) aims to improve the classroom practices of elementary and secondary teachers in India through student-centred and activity-based approaches. This has been realised through 105 teacher development units (TDUs) available online and downloaded in printed form. Teachers are encouraged to read the whole TDU and try out the activities in their classroom in order to maximise their learning and enhance their practice. The TDUs are written in a supportive manner, with a narrative that helps to establish the context and principles that underpin the activities. The activities are written for the teacher rather than the student, acting as a companion to textbooks. TESS-India TDUs were co-written by Indian authors and UK subject leads to address Indian curriculum and pedagogic targets and contexts. Originally written in English, the TDUs have then been localised to ensure that they have relevance and resonance in each participating Indian state’s context. TESS-India is led by The Open University and funded by UKAID from the Department for International Development. Version 1.0 Except for third party materials and otherwise stated, this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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ContentsIntroduction 1

Learning outcomes 2

1 Using the English textbook 3

2 Creating language learning opportunities 5

3 Creating multiple activities based on a text 8

4 Preparing a lesson plan 11

5 Summary 13

6 Resources 14

Resource 1: ‘The Puri Boy’ 14Resource 2: Activities to encourage speaking and listening inEnglish 15Resource 3: Managing group work 18Resource 4: Lesson plan formats 19

7 Related units 21

References 22

Acknowledgements 23

Transcript 24

IntroductionYoung students love to play and use their imaginations. They like newexperiences, of course, but they also like routines where they can haverepeated opportunities to practise new skills and ideas. They also thrive onvariety. All of these factors mean that you should be ready to plan a range ofactivities around any text that you choose for your English class.

There is so much you can do with a story, poem or even a newspaper article.Any text that you choose for English lessons can be the starting point forhelping students to develop English language skills through a variety ofactivities linked to this text. This unit aims to give you pointers for planninga variety of such activities and also for managing group work.

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Introduction

Learning outcomesBy the end of this unit, you should have developed:

. knowledge of how to extend the potential of a text or a textbook lessonfor teaching and learning English

. understanding of how carefully planned activities can promote learningEnglish

. skills in classroom management.

TDU 7 Using activities alongside teaching an English text: the importance of planning and preparation

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1 Using the English textbookTo learn English well, students need a variety of language experiencesorganised by you. The National Focus Group on Teaching of English(NCERT, 2006) says that a single textbook used over a year is ‘inadequate’to learn and teach English effectively. But in The Child’s Language and theTeacher (Resource 2), Professor Krishna Kumar writes that this is whatusually happens in our schools:

Every teacher in our country is expected to ‘cover’ the textbook; thatis, she is expected to finish each lesson given in the textbook one byone, doing the exercises that the textbook offers, giving homeworkconcerning each lesson, and ensuring that children have a mastery overthe content of each lesson. There is no doubt that these expectations arecounterproductive as far as the teaching of language is concerned.

Activity 1: Using the English textbook

Read Professor Kumar’s words again very carefully. Then think about

these questions in relation to your own experience at school:

. How far did the textbook help you to learn English?

. How did the teacher help you to learn English?

. Can you remember an activity – in school or outside school – that

helped you learn English?

Now think about your experience as a teacher:

. How far do you feel you have to ‘cover’ the textbook?

. How difficult or easy is it to teach English based on the textbook?

. Why do you think Professor Kumar says that in-depth coverage of a

single textbook is ‘counterproductive’ for language learning?

. What has helped you, as a teacher, to better teach English to

students?

Discussion

Both research and experience have shown that fluency in English

cannot be developed by using just one textbook. You may recall

moments when you were a young student where a teacher – or a family

member – augmented your textbook learning with additional activities

such as:

. pointing out advertisement hoardings

. helping you to read additional texts such as newspapers

. encouraging you to look in a dictionary to find the meaning of words

and use new vocabulary in daily conversation.

Fortunately, since 2005, the national curriculum and most state

curriculums have given teachers the freedom to choose and plan

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1 Using the English textbook

additional activities based on the needs of the learners in their

classrooms.

So think of your English textbook as the starting point for a range of

interesting and meaningful language learning activities where you can

use your creativity and teaching skills.


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2 Creating language learningopportunitiesLanguage learning opportunities are available all around you, in your localworld, social relationships, media and wider community. Any lesson or textthat you choose for classroom teaching will have some connection with theworld. Your job is to understand the connections and use them as learningopportunities.

For instance, if you are using Unit 9 of the Marigold textbook for Class IV,you will see that the topic of the language lesson is about ‘Going to buy abook’ and using the library. This topic immediately prompts a number ofquestions and potential activities:

. Who has been to a bookshop or to a library?

. What did you see there?

. Did you see any books or other writing in English?

. Can we make a library in our classroom?

. What kinds of words and sentences in English do we hear or read in abookshop or a library?

. How would we speak politely to people in these places?

. What questions would we ask?

. What information would we find?

. Can we invite someone from a local bookshop or library to talk to theclass?

For every English textbook unit, you can explore these kinds of connections.

There are also everyday opportunities to integrate regular English in theclassroom. When you are teaching you can give instructions in English foractivities such as forming lines or groups, distributing books/materials,moving from one class to another, conducting assemblies, etc. Theseactivities can promote English learning in familiar, routine contexts. Byusing English frequently to give instructions, you create opportunities forstudents to listen and respond to you to English.

Although the textbook is a useful guide and source of ideas, you can alsocreate a variety of activities based on any story or poem of your choice, or astory or poem that students choose. This unit will give you a few ideas forplanning such activities.

Activity 2: Planning activities around a text

There are many English language activities, such as games, craftwork,

role play or peer discussions, you can organise for young students

around any text. For older students you can plan literacy activities such

as writing alternative endings, dialogues and play scripts, book-making,

grouping words with the same sounds, finding information, classifying

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2 Creating language learning opportunities

words and phrases, labelling pictures, picture description, gap-filling,

completing sentences, and writing a review.

It is very important to give students clear instructions when organising

an activity in class so that they understand what is required in terms of

their behaviour and their outputs. It is good practice to repeat

instructions and encourage students to repeat them to confirm their

understanding. Therefore, when you plan activities from a text, you

should consider how you are going to give instructions and recognise

that you have opportunities to practise and speak English for yourself in

this role.

Read Resource 1 for an example of the range of activities you can plan

from a single, simple story. As you read, note how the activities

reinforce:

. the learning of common nouns and simple verbs in English

. sentences and phrases in English that recur in the story.

Do you think your students would enjoy these kinds of activities? Why,

or why not?

Case Study 1: Mrs Suresh adapts a textbooklesson on transport for her class

Mrs Suresh teaches English in Class VI in a regional medium school in

a deprived locality of Bangalore. Her students have been learning

English since Class I, but even after studying English for six years, the

students’ skills in the language are very poor. Although they know some

English vocabulary, they have difficulty framing sentences and are

unable to read independently, despite being able to recognise letters of

the alphabet. Mrs Suresh had recently been transferred to the school

and was determined to improve her students’ speaking and reading

skills. Read her account of how she made a lesson more meaningful to

her students to stimulate their English learning.

The lesson in the English textbook was on transport. I wanted to make

the lesson interesting and relevant, so I started by asking the students

to list names of vehicles that they know in English. They did this without

any problems. The board was filled with the names of a variety of

vehicles, including brand names of cars and motorcycles.

I soon learned that only two students had ever travelled on a train and

that none of them had travelled in the recently commissioned Metro

train. I felt this was unfortunate, since the Metro tracks ran right in front

of the school building and students saw it every day. That afternoon I

proposed to the headmistress that the school should take the students

for a ride in the Metro. The headmistress was enthusiastic and gained

permission for the trip and funding for the tickets from the Block

Education Officer.


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Accompanied by another teacher, I then took 32 very excited students

for their first ride on the Metro. The week before the journey I prepared

the students with a series of language activities by:

. helping students read bilingual pamphlets in Kannada and in

English, with a list of ‘dos and don’ts’ while travelling on the Metro

. teaching them how to ask for a ticket at the counter in Kannada and

in English

. making them practise in English what they might say to their fellow

passengers if anyone asked them why they were riding the Metro

. instructing them to write down in English the regular announcements

that are made in Kannada and English in the Metro station.

The normally boisterous students were on their best behaviour, and they

used what they had learned in English lessons to:

. stand in the queue to buy their own tickets

. say ‘thank you’ to the guard on duty

. read the billboards on the platform

. listened to the station announcements in Kannada and in English

. say ‘Hello’ and ‘How are you?’ to anyone who was willing to strike

up a conversation with them.

Their journey lasted less than an hour but it was a memorable

experience.

I felt the trip was well worth the effort that went into organising it, and

the amount of English that the students learned exceeded my

expectations. Later I found that the textbook lesson on transport was

much easier to teach, because now the students had their own

experiences of transport.

The journey changed the way that I taught English. Before I teach any

lesson from the English textbook, I now look for ways to prepare

students for the topic by giving them a personal experience where they

can practise reading, speaking and listening to English.

Pause for thought

If you cannot take your class to a Metro station, how could you create

these same language activities in the classroom? Role play and drama

are effective ways to practise language for specific purposes. In the

example of the Metro, students can take on the roles of ticket sellers,

conductors, passengers and shopkeepers. Metro posters,

announcements, pamphlets and tickets can be made in English. The

classroom can become a Metro station for a day, with students making

imaginary journeys between lessons and practising their English for

travelling as they go!

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2 Creating language learning opportunities

3 Creating multiple activities basedon a text

Activity 3: Brainstorming around a text

‘Brainstorming’ is a technique used to produce a variety of ideas. The

focus is on rapidly generating as many ideas as possible without being

critical about any of them. People who participate in a brainstorm should

feel free to contribute as many thoughts and ideas as they can, with

other’s thoughts often sparking another idea. These ideas should not be

discussed until the end of the process and all ideas (no matter how

bizarre or irrelevant) should be recorded. When the brainstorm is

complete, there can be a discussion of what emerged and possibly

some ordering or prioritising of the different ideas. Brainstorming is a

technique that encourages everyone to get involved in a task and

generates a rich variety of outcomes.

For this activity, use the short story below or choose one from your own

English textbook.

Raja

Raja called Shyama to come and play with him. Shyama said that

he had to work and could not play. Raja went to a field with a ball.

Raja saw honey bees and called them to play. The honey bees said

they could not play as they had to work. He then saw ants. Raja

called out, ‘Ants! Ants! Come let us play!’ ‘No, we cannot play. We

have to work,’ said the ants. Raja went home. He helped his father

at work. Father said, ‘You are a good boy.’ Raja felt happy.

With several colleagues, brainstorm and list possible activities based on

the story of Raja’s search for playmates. Think about activities that

might involve the following elements:

. crafts

. games

. drama, dialogue or role plays

. reading

. writing.

When you have generated a list of ideas, discuss them in more detail

together, considering their relevance, their practicality and their potential

to be used to teach English. Decide on up to three activities that you

consider most likely to implement – some of these activities could well

combine different elements.

Discussion

Here is what a group of Class III teachers thought of for the story of

Raja:

. Craft activity: Make insect and animal masks.


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. Drama/role play: Act out the dialogue, adding other animals and

friends of Raja using the masks made in the craft activity.

. Reading: Read the story aloud together from the chalkboard or the

textbook, looking at the sentences ‘Come let us play’ and ‘No, we

cannot play’. Substitute and read together other words in the

sentences, such as ‘Come let us dance’, ‘Come let us cook’ or

‘Come let us sing’, and ‘No, we cannot dance/cook/sing’.

. Writing: Draw a series of scenes from the story with speech bubbles

and write in the dialogues.

Think of other simple stories like ‘Raja’ that you could use in your

classroom. To help you, Resource 1 gives you some ideas to try out

with a different story, ‘The Puri Boy’. You will also find Resource 2

(adapted from Krishna Kumar) useful in planning speaking and listening

activities: games like ‘What Did You See?’ and ‘Guessing the Right

Picture’ are easily adapted to any story or English textbook lesson.

When you have chosen a story and thought of some activities, try out

your ideas with your colleagues. Take their feedback and revise your

ideas, if need be. You will be asked shortly to take an idea that you

have generated and make a lesson plan to use it with your class.

Activity 4: Organising group work for multipleactivities

Now watch the video below about a teacher who organises multiple

activities based on a story. The class has listened to, and then read, the

story of The Enormous Turnip. The teacher puts the class into small

groups. and each group works on a different activity related to the story,

such as drawing illustrations and revising key vocabulary. You may also

find it useful to read the video’s transcript.

Now watch the video clip. If it is unavailable or has not been

provided separately, you can find it at the TESS-India YouTube

channel. You will find the transcript at the end of this unit.

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3 Creating multiple activities based on a text

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL9j8y4mGFyIQLvH-PvkghA

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL9j8y4mGFyIQLvH-PvkghA

After watching the video, discuss the strategies that the teacher uses to

organise the class into groups. How does she distribute resources

needed for the activity? What is she doing to manage the class? Notice

how she uses both Hindi and English to support students in the

activities.

What are your strategies for grouping students or for moving students

from one activity to another? Resource 3 offers you some ideas about

how to organise groupwork.


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4 Preparing a lesson plan

Activity 5: Preparing a lesson plan

1 Use the video and your work in Activity 2 to prepare a detailed

plan based on a story or another short text such as a poem. You

can refer to Resource 4 for some formats for writing lesson plans,

but many teachers develop their own format to suit their teaching

style and preferences.

How much time will you need for each activity, including time needed

for giving instructions, grouping students, moving equipment and

distributing resources? For example, for ‘The Puri Boy’ story (Resource

1), you could spend the suggested amount of time for the following

activities:

◦ narrating or reading the text – 20 minutes

◦ action rhyme – 15 minutes (including instructing students to stand

in a circle and listen, repeat, etc.)

◦ mask-making – 25 minutes (including distributing resources and

repeating instructions).

As you can see, one class period is not enough time to do everything

well. Think about planning over two or more periods, depending on the

nature of your activities. Start to split the lesson into different parts and

put timings next to each part.

2 Next think of what English words and phrases can you use for the

activities, to organise students and get their attention? Here are a

few examples:

◦ Turn around and face each other.

◦ Form a circle.

◦ Move around quietly.

◦ Listen to me.

◦ Is everyone ready?

◦ Please stop and look at me.

◦ It’s time to finish now.

Now come up with some phrases of your own related to your activity,

your classroom and your students.

3 Make a note of the English language learning that will happen in

the activities. What words or phrases do you want students to

practise? How will you make sure these are used?

4 Make a list of the resources you will need. How will you organise

the distribution of the resources? For example, you could:

◦ lay out the necessary resources on tables beforehand and instruct

how many students should stand at each table

◦ ask students to group themselves and ask one child from each

group to pick up the resources

◦ call out names of students and ask them to collect the resources.

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4 Preparing a lesson plan

5 If there are multiple activities, how will you organise the students

to change from one activity to another?

6 Lastly, you should plan for contingencies: after all, students may

not be interested in participating or they may not understand your

instructions. You should be ready to quickly reorganise your

activity or rephrase your instructions. Over time, you will find that

activities become easier to organise as students get used to the

routines. What might go wrong or get in the way of your plan?

Discussion

Discuss your plan with a colleague, reworking it if necessary.

You can then try out your lesson plan with your class. When the class is

over, think about these questions in order for you to learn from the

outcome and use this learning to plan activities into another lesson:

. What did you enjoy most? Why?

. What did the students enjoy?

. What could have been planned better?

. How far did the activities give students opportunities to practise

English?

. What opportunities were there for you to practise English yourself?

. What would you do differently next time?

Continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE)

Observe the students while they are doing the activities and note down

in your notebook any one of the following (each week you could plan for

one observation):

. which students are unable to follow instructions in English

. English words used by the students while conversing with each other

. which students are able to use complete sentences in English

. which students are reluctant to participate in activities because they

do not feel confident

. English phrases that students are able to reproduce in different

contexts

. what students say when you ask them to talk about their activities –

note down their vocabulary, sentence structure, confidence and

independence.

This is only a suggested list; you can observe any aspect of English that

you wish to focus on. Even though you will normally select only one

parameter for assessment observation in a week, if you get a chance to

observe any aspect of some other assessment parameter, do make a

record of that in the your notes.


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5 SummaryThis unit has emphasised the importance of planning in organising activitiesfor students to learn and practise English. Initially you may have to plan indetail, including strategies for managing the class and groups; but over timeyou will find that both you and your students will become familiar withbasic class rules for conducting the activities. Students will pick up Englishnaturally, and all of you will enjoy the learning process.

Now reflect and make some notes on the following:

. Identify three key ideas or skills you have learned in this unit.

. Identify your strengths in planning English activities based on a text.

. What skills for planning around a text would you like to develop further?

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5 Summary

6 ResourcesResource 1: ‘The Puri Boy’

Once upon a time, an old woman and her husband lived alone in a littleold house. They had no children. One day the woman made a purishaped like a boy. She carefully rolled out the dough, and cut out avery nice-looking boy. What a fine looking boy he was!

The old woman put him in the pan full of hot oil, to fry. After he wasfully fried and fluffy, she carefully lifted him from the pan. Up jumpedthe puri boy, and he ran out the door saying, ‘Run, run, as fast as youcan! You can’t catch me! I’m the puri boy!’

The old woman and the old man ran after him, but they could not catchhim.

And so the Puri boy ran and ran. While he was running, he met a cow.

‘Moo,’ said the cow. ‘You look very fine! Fine enough to eat!’ and thecow started to chase the little boy.

But the puri boy ran faster, saying, ‘I ran away from an old woman, Iran away from an old man, and I can run away from you!’

And he laughed, ‘Run, run, as fast as you can! You can’t catch me! I’mthe puri boy!’

The cow ran after the puri boy, but it could not catch him.

While he ran, he met a cat.

‘Meow,’ said the cat. ‘You look good enough to eat. I’m going to eatyou, puri boy.’

But the puri boy just laughed, ‘I ran away from an old woman, I ranaway from an old man, I ran away from a cow, and I can run awayfrom you!’

And so he ran singing, ‘Run, run, as fast as you can! You can’t catchme! I’m the puri boy!’

The cat ran after the puri boy, but it could not catch him. The puri boywas proud that he could run so fast.

‘Nobody can catch me,’ he thought. So he kept on running until he meta fox. He wanted to tell the fox how he ran faster than all the others.

‘Mr Fox,’ he said, ‘I ran away from an old woman, I ran away from anold man, I ran away from a cow, I ran away from a cat, and I can runaway from you.’

‘Why would I want to eat you?’ asked Mr Fox. ‘I do not like puris.’

The puri boy was happy to hear this. He stopped running. Immediately,the fox ate him up. The fox said, ‘Sorry, puri boy – I do like puris.’


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Activities

1 Extend the telling of the story by introducing other animal characters,such as a dog, goat, ox, bullock, elephant, etc.

2 For your mask-making craftwork, draw on a sheet of paper any characterfrom the story. Cut out the eyes. Punch a hole on either side of the mask.Thread the holes and knot up the ends. Additional vocabulary can bereinforced through craft instructions, e.g. ‘draw’, ‘cut’, ‘string’, etc. –help the students to associate words with what they are doing whilemaking their masks. Label resources in English.

3 Teach this action rhyme:

◦ Run, run, as fast as you can

◦ Jump, jump, as high as you can

◦ Skip, skip, as far as you can

◦ Walk, walk, as far as you can.

4 Encourage students to come up with other characters like puri boy, suchas a talking car, a talking doll, a talking chapati, etc.

5 Pair up the students. Ask one child to be a talking puri and the otherchild to talk to the puri. They can start by using the words and phrases ofthe story. Help them to form other phrases in English, such as ‘Oh no!Don’t eat me!’

6 Ask students to identify word(s) hidden in these words: ‘catch’, ‘woman’,‘late’, ‘fast’, ‘dough’.

7 Ask students to think what would happen if the fox didn’t eat the puriboy.

8 Ask for six volunteers from the class to play this game.

Draw a box on the floor with five rows. Make a child stand in eachrow. Each child represents a character in the story. The sixth child isthe ‘puri boy’ who stands outside the box. The child in each row canhop only within that row and they have to try to ‘catch’ the ‘puri boy’,who is the only child who can run across all rows. The ‘puri boy’ triesto cross all the rows without getting caught by the students inside theirrespective rows. The game continues with other ‘puri boys and girls’.

Resource 2: Activities to encouragespeaking and listening in English

We have reproduced below some of the activities suggested in KrishnaKumar’s book The Child’s Language and the Teacher (published in 1986).To read the full list of activities, go to Chapter 2 (titled ‘Some activities’) inan online copy of the book.

These are easy language games to encourage speaking and listening inEnglish. They can easily be applied to the topics and vocabulary of Englishtextbook lessons:

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6 Resources

http://www.ashanet.org/library/books/cltk.pdf

. What Did You See?

. Asking the Explorers

. Guess What I Saw

. Doing What Was Said

. Comparing

. How Did You Make That?

. Acting Out

. Analysing a Picture

. Guessing the Right Picture

. Making a Story

. Where Do You Live?

Here is the extract from The Child’s Language and the Teacher:

These are just some of the dozens of activities any teacher can organise inany ordinary classroom. Each time an activity is repeated with some littlechange, it will be received with even greater enthusiasm by the children thanit got last time. So do each activity any number of times, adding somethingnew each time. Keep a record of the variations so that you can introduceyour innovations to a new colleague. Nearly each activity described here canbecome the starting point of a dozen variations.

1 What Did You See?

Stage 1: Ask one child to go out of the room, see what is happening outside,and tell the class what he saw. For instance, he might report that he saw atruck, two shops and a bicycle.

Stage 2: Now the rest of the children, preferably sitting in a circle, will askhim questions, one by one, and one question per child. For instance, a childmay ask: ‘What was hanging from the bicycle’s handle?’ The reply may be:‘A basket.’ The next question may be, ‘What colour was the basket?’

Stage 3: When one round of questioning is complete, the teacher will ask thechild who has gone out: ‘Who asked the best question?’ Supposing he says,‘Shashi asked the best question; the teacher will ask: ‘What was thequestion?’

Stage 4: The next round starts with Shashi. Ask her to see something thatthe earlier child had not seen. When she comes back, ask children to comeup with new questions – not the ones they have already asked.

2 Asking the Explorers

Send a small group of children, no more than five or six, to study somespecific object or place near the school or even inside the school building.For example, they may be sent to examine a cluster of trees, a tea stall, abroken bridge, or a nest. Ask them to explore it carefully and discuss amongthemselves everything they notice.


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While the explorer group is away, tell the rest of the class about the objectin some detail. For example, if the explorers have gone to examine a teastall, tell the class about the things available at the stall, who runs it, wheredo the things available there come from, etc.

When the explorer group comes back, it will face questions from the class.The teacher can also have her turn.

Next time, send a different group.

3 Guess What I Saw

One child goes out, stands at the door or at some distance from the class,and selects one of the hundreds of things she sees around (it could beanything – tree, leaf, squirrel, bird, wires, pole, grass, stones). When shecomes back, she says just one sentence about the thing she has in mind. Forexample, she might say, ‘What I saw is brown.’

Now every child in the class gets one chance to ask more about the thingand guess what it was. For example, questioning may go like this:

Child 1: ‘Is it thin?’

Answer: ‘No.’

Child 2: ‘How big is it?’

Answer: ‘It’s quite big’.

Child 3: ‘Is it as big as a chair?’

Answer: ‘No, it’s smaller than a chair.’

Child 4: ‘Can it turn?’ …

Finally when the thing has been guessed correctly, some children may objectto the answers they got for their questions. For instance, someone may pointout that the colour was not brown but clay-like. In such situations, theteacher’s role is very important, as someone who can help children establishsubtle distinctions between meanings.

4 Doing What Was Said

Ask children to listen and do what you tell them to do. Start with simplethings to do, and ask the whole class to do them together. Examples:

‘Touch your head’.

‘Close your right eye.’

‘Clap on your head.’

Divide the class in two groups. The teacher will give instructions to the firstgroup, and the children of this group will now give similar instructions to

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6 Resources

the second group. Gradually make your instructions more complicated, forexample:

‘Touch your head with both hands, then touch your right ear with your righthand.’

‘Close both eyes, touch your neighbour, ask him to give you his left hand.’

When children of one group give instructions to the other group, they neednot repeat everything they have heard. Encourage them to make up newinstructions.

5 Comparing

Make sets of similar-looking things, such as leaves of two or more trees,flowers of different plants, stones, pieces of paper cut in different shapes etc.

Ask children to listen to the description you give of one of the things in aset, and on the basis of the description they must decide which one you arethinking of. Example:

‘I’m thinking of a leaf that is smooth and long, and it has even edges.’

After doing this activity a few times, ask children to take turns to chooseand describe. Change things each time you do this activity. Identify moresubtle features each time.

Resource 3: Managing group work

Group work can be an effective way to manage large classes, and classes ofmixed ages and mixed abilities. It is also an opportunity for you to separatespecific groups for a more focused reading session with you while the othergroups are engaged in other tasks. In this way, every child will have focusedreading with you at some time during the week. When you read with a smallgroup, you have an opportunity to assess individual students’ readingreadiness and reading development.

It is important to think about what you will be doing while students are busywith their group work. You might go around to each group and monitor theirprogress during the lesson. When you begin group work, it is often useful toensure that students are doing the task, but you should also encouragestudents to try to work independently – even if only for ten minutes. Thiswill build their independent learning skills.

Effective group work in the classroom depends on everyone knowing whatthe rules are. When you develop class rules for group work, make sure theyare simple and easy for students to follow, for example:

. We work quietly on our own when the teacher is working with anothergroup.

. If we need help, we wait for our turn.

. We can ask a friend for help, quietly.

. We make sure everyone in the group contributes.


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. We follow the teacher’s instructions promptly so we do not waste time.

Make time to involve students in creating these rules. If students areinvolved, they are much more likely to follow these rules and see thereasons for having them. Do not have too many rules – not more than fouror five. Display the rules in the classroom. Refer to them frequently. Beready to change the rules in response to students’ and your ownrequirements.

Resource 4: Lesson plan formats

These formats were contributed by teachers. You can adapt them to suit yourown preferences.

Weekly planning format (1)

Day Languagefocus

Activities Resources Time Classroommanagement

Reflections

Weekly planning format (2)

Day Focuswords/sentences

Listeningactivities

Speakingactivities

Readingactivities

Writingactivities

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Daily planning format (1)

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6 Resources

Daily planning format (2)

1 What do I want students to learn today?

2 My plan for the day.

3 What worked? Why?

4 What did not work? Why?

5 Students who need additional help and my plan for them.

Individual lesson plan

Timing Resources Teacher Students Key learning

15 mins Story book Read story oftiger

Listen and notedown charactersmentioned

Listen to storyin English

Make notes inEnglish

5 mins Pens andpaper

Write instructionson board aboutgroups andresources

Listen and followinstructions to sitin groups withresources

Followinstructions inEnglish


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7 Related units. TDU 5, English storytelling: using questions, adapting texts, extracting

learning.

. TDU 6, Reading English: shared reading and guided reading.

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7 Related units

ReferencesKumar, K. (1986) The Child’s Language and the Teacher: A Handbook. UnitedNations Children’s Fund.

NCERT (2006) Position Paper, National Focus Group on Teaching of English

National Council of Educational Research and Teaching (NCERT) (2006) TheNational Focus Group on Teaching and English. Available from: http://www.ncert.nic.in/new_ncert/ncert/rightside/links/pdf/focus_group/english.pdf(accessed 16 September 2013).


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http://www.ncert.nic.in/new_ncert/ncert/rightside/links/pdf/focus_group/english.pdf

http://www.ncert.nic.in/new_ncert/ncert/rightside/links/pdf/focus_group/english.pdf

AcknowledgementsThe content of this teacher development unit was developed collaborativelyand incrementally by the following educators and academics from India andThe Open University (UK) who discussed various drafts, including thefeedback from Indian and UK critical readers: Mythili Ramchand andKimberly Safford.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated, this content is madeavailable under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.

The material acknowledged below is Proprietary and used under licence (notsubject to Creative Commons Licence). Grateful acknowledgement is madeto the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this unit:

CCE logo: http://www.cbse.nic.in/.

‘The Puri Boy’: a traditional tale adapted and developed by the RVEC(http://www.rishivalley.org/default.html).

Extract from Krishna Kumar (1986) The Child’s Language and The Teacher,A Handbook, United Nations Children’s.

Video: thanks are extended to the heads and students in our partner schoolsacross India who worked with The Open University in this production.

Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have beeninadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make thenecessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

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Acknowledgements


http://www.cbse.nic.in/

http://www.rishivalley.org/default.html

Transcript

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Transcript Narrator: In this video the teacher organises group work around the story if the

giant turnip each group does a different task related to the story. Teacher: Yesterday you heard the story. Students: Yes ma’am. Teacher: You liked the story. Students: Yes ma’am. Teacher: Okay. All of you have read it also. Students: Yes ma’am.

Teacher: Yes. अब हम एक ए क क . Four children will make a group and I

will tell you what you have to do like group 1, 2, and 3 will make scene from the story. Scene you remember the scene any words you remember from the story.

Students: Ma’am when the old man was trying to pull that turnip….. Teacher: Yes, very good. Now group 4, 5, and 6 will do, remember words and

draw. Do you remember any words from the story? Students: Ma’am … turnip. Teacher: Turnip very good, yes. Students: The old man. Teacher: Old man very nice, now group 7, 8, and 9 will draw the cover of the

story, क म ब क ह आप?

Students: The girl came and helped them. Teacher: The girl came and helped them, yes you can draw this on the cover

page. Narrator: The teacher organises the children into groups of four. If the furniture

can’t be moved, ask alternative rows to turn around and face their classmates.

Teacher: Okay, this is group 1, this is group 2, and this is group 3. This is

group 4, this is group 5, and your group is 9. Start your work. Students: [murmur]

Teacher: Do you remember any words from the story ‘आपक क ह , प ए क ह ब आपक बक म क क ह , ह , ब ...’

Student: म म क प आ ह (Unclear) ... ह ह ... अ क म क ... ह क ह क ह .

TDU 7 Planning around the text

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Narrator: There are many ways you can use stories or poems as the basis for group work. These include having students read a poem aloud, or answer comprehension questions orally, or getting them to do role plays, or craft activities.

using activities alongside teaching an english text: the importance

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