Teaching Methodologies (English)

CONTENTS

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Our Observations on Children from Ordinary Schools

Levelfield School Methodology

ROTE-LEARNING VS CONCEPTS: ENGLISH (LKG/UKG)

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What kids can doRead familiar words – like APPLE, ELEPHANT

What kids often cannot doDecode simpler, but unfamiliar words (HELP, SAD)

Orally answer simple yes/no questions like:

There are two suns in the sky

Your father is here in this room

Listening comprehension, and ability to decode words are the first steps

ROTE-LEARNING VS CONCEPTS: ENGLISH (I - IV)

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What kids can doRead textbook passages which have been taught in the class

Read paragraphs, but without comprehension

What kids often cannot doRead unseen passages independently, with comprehension

Read books independently

Without independent reading ability, no further learning is possible

THE MAIN PROBLEM:

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A focus on syllabus and textbooks as opposed to

real skill developmentListening comprehension

Reading

Speaking

Writing (Independent expression)

CONTENTS

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Our Observations on Children from Ordinary Schools

Levelfield School Methodology

A FEW KEY BELIEFS

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Belief No 1: In the beginning, learning is a sequential process(that means, when students come without any knowledge, you cannot start teaching them everything together. We need to teach first things first.)

STEP 1: Learning to understand by listening

STEP 2: Learning to speak | Learning to read

STEP 3: Learning to express oneself by writing

A FEW KEY BELIEFS

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Belief No 2: A graded and continuous exposure is needed to build basic skills(Instead of reading 5 stories in a textbook many times over, you will learn to read better by reading 1000 stories in a year! But they have to be finely graded, though)

This makes learning process almost independent and subconsciousHowever, the challenge is to design so many graded activities

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

Exercise 1

Exercise 500

A FEW KEY BELIEFS

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Belief No 3: Follow the natural process of learning languages(Think how you learnt your mother tongue)

We learn a language through a lot of ‘listening’.

When we read and listen to a language a lot, we get a ‘sense’ of what is correct and what is wrong – no amount of grammar exercises can be a substitute for extensive hearing and reading

THE FIRST FEW MONTHS…

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A singular focus on listening comprehension Commands and InstructionsYes/No based on pictures of objects

Things around usThings we eatThings that goThings we wearAnimals-birds-insectsFruits-vegetables

Storytelling

Culture building is very important in this stage – no mother tongue should be allowed inside the school. We do not allow use of mother

tongue by the ayahs and non-teaching staff either

COMMANDS AND INSTRUCTIONS

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Takes 2-4 weeks, depending on ageInitially, simple instructions accompanied by gesture

come here, stand up, sit down, go out etcLater, a little more difficult, involving the objects around, and basic verbs

Touch the wall, stand near the door, open your bagFinally, elaborate activities to learn more sophisticated instructions

Instructions related to forming a queue (concepts of front, behind, between)Ball-picking activity (concepts of give, take, keep, under, on, numbers)Raise your hand activity (if you are a boy, if you are near the window, if you like milk etc.)

BASIC WORD PICTURES

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Word recognition based on pictures, not based on mother tongue

Things around usThings we eatThings that goThings we wearAnimals-birds-insectsFruits-vegetablesBasic verbs

Questions should not be open-ended

Can we see a chair in the classroom? How many legs are there? We sit on it, or stand on it? Are you sitting on a chair? Chair is big or a bed is big?

STORYTELLING

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Simple fables and folktales can be usedUse simple vocabularyUse direct narrationUse ‘visual’ words rather than abstractAct it out

If the character in the story is angry, your voice is angryIf the character is whispering, you also whisper

There should not be any logical gapExplain concepts (e.g. rich/poor) along the way

TYPICAL QUESTIONS AT THIS STAGE FROM PARENTS

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We do not get to know what happens at school!

Notebooks are empty!

What about textbooks?

READING BEGINS ONLY AFTER BASIC LISTENING COMPREHENSION

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STEP 1: Word Reading: Learning phonetic rules (sounds of letters)

STEP 2: Sentence Reading: Automatic reading of top-200 frequent words

STEP 3: Paragraph Reading: Short paragraphs, 400 headwords, readability:1.0

STEP 4: Short story: 2-3 page stories, 1000 headwords, readability: 1.0-2.0

STEP 5: Reading rewritten classics, non-fiction: 40-50 page stories

STEP 6: Independent reading of books and magazines

Step 1 and 2 to be achieved in pre-primary grades (LKG & UKG), and steps 3, 4, 5, 6 by grades I, II, III, and IV

STEP 1 (LKG): PHONETIC RULES

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The first steps are importantShould we teach names or sounds?Should we teach capital letters or small?Should we teach in sequence?

400 most popular words

Phonetic words

Non-phonetic words

Sight words

STEP 2 (UKG) : SENTENCE READING

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A large number of sentence level exercisesSentence matching (high-payoff)Fill in the blanksMultiple choiceArrange in orderKloze test

Objective: Automatic reading of most frequently occurring words (top 200, and top 400)

These exercises involve choosing, so strategies are needed to prevent guessingThere are many challenges to create such a large number of exercises

EXERCISE DESIGN : VERSION 1

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I can read.1. I want a ball.2. Give me a book.3. This is my mom.

EXERCISE DESIGN : VERSION 2

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This is not your book.1. I want to read.2. You took it from me.3. Some books are fat.

STEP 3 (CLASS I): PARAGRAPH READING

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Simple stories, vocabulary limited 400 wordsReadability score of 0-1Comprehension tested by fill-in the blanks within passage, yes/no questions, arrange in orderQuestions need to be phrased well so that they cannot be answered without full comprehensionLimited vocabulary – should not stumble

They do more than 100 such stories before moving to the next stepReading top 400 words becomes fast and automatic

Again, it is difficult to create so many stories with simple vocabulary and low readability

DIFFERENCE IN READABILITY: STORY WITH READING LEVEL 1.0

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I am Jinni. I am a small girl.

Every morning, I wake up, wear my school-dress and go to

school. I come back around twelve. Then I have my lunch.

My mother cooks the lunch. She normally cooks very well. I like

the food she cooks. But today, the food was not tasty. I disliked it.

I did not feel like finishing it.

I asked my mother, “Why was the food not tasty today?”

She answered, “I did not find time to cook it today.”

I said, “Why? What happened?”

She replied, “I was not well. I had to go to a hospital.”

I said, “Who cooked the food then?”

She said, “We got the food from a hotel.”

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I am Jinni. I am a small girl.

Every morning, I go to school. I come back at noon. Then I have

my lunch.

My mother cooks the lunch. She cooks well. I like the food she

cooks. But today, the food was not good. I did not like to eat it. I

did not finish my food.

I asked my mother, “Why was the food so bad today?”

She said, “I did not cook it today.”

I said, “Why?”

She said, “I was not well. I had to go to a hospital.”

I said, “Who cooked the food then?”

She said, “We got the food from a hotel.”

DIFFERENCE IN READABILITY: STORY WITH READING LEVEL 0.0

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I am Jinni. I am a small girl.

Every morning, I go to school. I come back at noon. Then I have

my lunch.

My mother cooks the lunch. She cooks well. I like the food she

cooks. But today, the food was not _________. I did not like to eat

it. I did not finish my food.

I asked my mother, “Why was the food so bad today?”

She said, “I did not cook it today.”

I said, “Why?”

She said, “I was not well. I had to go to a _________.”

I said, “Who cooked the food then?”

She said, “We got the food from a hotel.”

FILL-IN-THE-BLANKS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PASSAGE TO TEST UNDERSTANDING

STEP 4 (CLASS II): READING SHORT STORIES

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Level 2 words are introduced gradually at this stage

Readability score of 1.0-2.0

Stories are not picked from any book directly, but rewritten by us

Fables and folktales from around the world mined

Over a year, they read 1000 pages of reading material, carefully graded, and independently

STEP 5 (CLASS III): READING LONG STORIES

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At this stage, vocabulary expands to about 1500-2000 words

At this level, our materials have readability score of 2.0-4.0Multiple choice questions, yes-no questions with lots of twists, to test sophisticated understanding

They read a lot of children’s classics, rewritten by us Gulliver’s Travels, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, The Prince and the Pauper, The Little Princess, The Secret Garden, The Railway Children, Robinson Crusoe, Oliver Twist, Charlotte’s Web, The Trumpet of the Swan, David Copperfield, Frankenstein etc.

They start reading non-fiction too

STRATEGIES TO CREATE READING MATERIALS

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Sources for 2-3 page storiesFolktales from all around the world To be rewritten in simple languageWithin the limited vocabularyEasy sentence construction

Rewritten children’s classicDo not abridge – just simplify the languagePreserve all dialogue, emotions, plot elementsGive them the full book, not a small part of itGraded reading materials available in the market too

STRATEGIES TO CREATE AND EVALUATE QUESTIONS

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Fill-in-the blanks within the passageSpelling not an immediate priority

Yes-no or multiple choice questionsPrevent guessing – if one or two are wrong, do not tell the child which ones are wrong – ask them to re-read the whole story

Do not ask fact-based questions, ask questions that test understanding

Questions are not an end in itself – they are diagnostic tools for the teachers to see if the students are reading diligently and understanding

STEP 6: THE OCEAN OF BOOKS!

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After a lot of independent reading of rewritten material, and some assisted reading, they are ready to read books

Not any book can be givenComic strips are also useful for a start (Tinkle, Amar Chitra Katha)

Most books in the market do not fit the billA lot of pictures and large font do not make a children’s book

If the school can give its students the gift of independent reading, half the job of imparting learning is done!

TYPICAL QUESTIONS AT THIS STAGE

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Why this excessive focus on reading?

When will my child start writing?

When will he study history, geography etc?

TEACHING WRITING

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What writing is not…HandwritingCopying from booksWriting memorized answersDictationSpelling practice

What writing is…The ability to express your ideas independently through writingIt is actually quite a difficult activity – something even most adults have not mastered

Full-fledged writing activities start after students have developed the ability to read books independently. We believe ability to write comes

from a lot of reading, and an ability to express oneself through speaking

WRITING TECHNIQUE 1: PICTURE STORYBOARDS

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WRITING TECHNIQUE 1: PICTURE STORYBOARDS

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WRITING TECHNIQUE 2: EXPANSION OF POINTS

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I like school

•Friends

•Play

•Tiffin-time, indoor games

•After-school, outdoor

•Fun things

•Story-telling

•Videos and cinema

•Library

•No scolding

WRITING TECHNIQUE 3: CONVERT YOUR READING MATERIAL INTO WRITING MATERIAL

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I am Jinni. I __________(be) a small girl.

Every morning, I go to school. I come back at noon. Then I have

my lunch.

My mother ___________ (cook) the lunch. She cooks well. I like

the food she cooks. But today, the food _________ (be) not good.

I did not like to eat it. I _______________ (not, finish) my food.

I asked my mother, “Why was the food so bad today?”

She said, “I did not cook it today.”

I said, “Why?”

She said, “I was not well. I had to go to a hospital.”

I said, “Who ___________ (cook) the food then?”

She said, “We __________ (get) the food from a hotel.”

OTHER WRITING TEACHING TECHNIQUES

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Rewriting easy storiesGet the class to read a small story like the previous page story for 2 minsAsk them to rewrite it

Peer reviewProject somebody’s writing on the screen with a projectorReview it in front of the whole classAsk the class to comment on it tooThis is better than reviewing everybody’s output individually

THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER IN THE ENGLISH CLASS

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More like a doctor, than a presenterIn all the reading activities, the role of the teacher is to diagnose reasons why somebody is not comprehending

Is he lazy, and not reading well?Are there words he did not understand, and did not ask?Did he miss some twist in the story?Is the question phrased in a difficult way?

In writing activities, the same thing holdsIs the child ready for writing at all?What type of writing activity is appropriate for a child now?Does he have a problem with writing conventions or writing logic?

MISTAKES TO AVOID

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Translation to and from the mother tongue

Memorizing textbooks

A focus on copywork, dictation, handwriting as opposed to reading and listening

Excessive focus on grammatical exercises early on