I taught an interesting poem ‘A string song’ from the Balbharati book to my children in standard three last week. The poem itself was a game where the children have to go shopping for things in the market and convey what they bought to their friends in the group. Children keep adding to what the previous person said.
E.g. First child: I went to the market and bought some fresh and sweet mangoes
Second Child: I went to the market and brought some fresh and sweet mangoes and packet of crayons
In this way, the game goes on. The students thoroughly enjoyed learning the poem as they experienced something new. Next week I had to conduct an activity for formative evaluation. So, as an assessment, I realized this poem can be used to evaluate vocabulary, colour words, number words and collective nouns, which were my objectives of teaching the poem. So, I started framing an activity. In the following period groups of 6 to 7 children were formed. I saw to it that in each group children of all learning levels were included.
My aim of conducting this activity was to bring in collaboration among students and also to develop communication skills and teamwork.
Students formed groups among themselves by turning and facing students on the bench behind them. I went around and interchanged students wherever needed, taking care that each group was well formed.
Instructions given were very simple i.e.
a. They have to imagine they are shopping
b. Each student had to shop for one item
c. Later they had to note down the purchases made
Every student was excited and was thinking independently. Each group was provided with a place to shop e.g. fruit market, vegetable market and D-Mart. Students were all thrilled and had fun shopping in this imaginary way. The assessment put forward to students as they had to note down the name of the thing. A sentence had to be framed using the things they shopped for, keeping in mind that the sentence should have a number word or a colour word and a collective noun. Students constructed sentences brilliantly. To ensure that there is more teamwork. I personally went up to each other and drew squares for each child to create what they bought and encouraged them to colour it. I was amazed to see the students expressing themselves in the space provided to them. Surprisingly, there was no chaos among the students.
As a teacher, I felt fulfilled. My objectives and also inculcated the values of co-operation and teamwork have come out well. Group work in the class made my day.
Reena Babu
Class Teacher, Std. III
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