NIOS DLED Assignment Course-503 Full Answer In English. Here is all the answer to the dled assignment course-503. I hope this can help you through your assignment.
Q1. Explain the meaning of ‘fine motor skills. How these skills can be developed in children?
Ans. Fine motor skills involve the use of the smaller muscle of the hands, commonly in activities like using pencils, and scissors, constructing with Lego or Duplo, doing up buttons, and opening lunch boxes. Fine motor skill efficiency significantly influences the quality of the task outcome as well as the speed of task performance. Efficient fine motor skills require several independent skills to work together to appropriately manipulate the object or perform the task.
Fine motor skills let kids perform crucial tasks like reaching and grasping, moving objects, and using tools like crayons, pencils, and scissors. As kids get better at using their hands, their hand-eye coordination improves. They also learn skills they need to succeed in schools, such as drawing and writing. Developing these abilities helps kids become more independent and understand how their bodies work. And as they learn how to have an impact on the world around them, their self-esteem may grow as well.
To encourage the development of these skills, children should be allowed to manipulate solid objects as they see fit. Holding, turning, twisting, and playing with objects develop the grasping ability in children. Another very important activity that provides children with enjoyment in addition to developing motor skills, essential for writing, is drawing. Therefore, children should be encouraged to draw. Children’s early drawings often resemble meaningless scribbles which later evolve into discernible shapes and figures.
Apart from drawing, some other activities that help develop the motor skills necessary for writing include games such as pouring water into a container, stringing beads and flowers, making objects out of clay or dough, etc. The home environment of the child provides him/her with enough opportunity to engage in such activities. However, this is not always the case. Therefore, teachers must help children engage in such activities wherever required.
Practising Letters, Words, Sentences: Generally, it is believed that the achievement of sentence writing is helped by practising writing letters and then words again and again. This is true to a certain extent, but if children are made to engage in the tedious repetition of letters and words, they may be disenchanted with writing before they even begin to write. Therefore, while individual letters and carnivals are useful in introducing children to writing, they might not be meaningful to children unless their relationship with whole words or sentences is made clear.
Two things – respecting children’s abilities and creating meaningful contexts in which they can learn are of great importance in teaching children to write. It is necessary to appreciate the fact that the child has an immense innate capability to learn the language. They learn their native languages naturally through meaningful social experiences involving speaking and listening. Similarly, they grasp the rules of writing mostly through meaningful experiences involving written material.
In teaching, we often act under the assumption that children need to be told everything and that they would not understand unless they are told. This, however, is not true. It is necessary to get rid of this mindset and to start respecting the capabilities of children. Children have a unique ability to write before coming to school. It is normal for children to create figures and symbols in the sand, on the floor, or on paper and to make up stories about them. For them, these drawings are not meaningless, but rather they represent a unique script through which they express what they wish to say. Children should be allowed to make full use of their abilities. Their learning process does not involve joining pieces of knowledge together to get the complete picture, but it involves the
opposite. The whole picture is formed first, and then the specifics become clear in different ways. Unless a meaningful whole is supplied, the small specifics, such as individual letters of the varnmala or alphabet, will not make sense and will be boring.
Or
Which out of accuracy and fluency in the language, you, as a language teacher, would give priority while facilitating learning of language and why?
Ans. Accuracy is the ability to produce correct sentences using correct grammar and vocabulary. On the other hand, fluency is the ability to produce language easily and smoothly. It is very difficult to choose where accuracy should be stressed over fluency and vice versa.
The level of accuracy of a child at the primary level is different from that of an adult. A child learns language by committing mistakes. A child’s errors help her in learning and simultaneously even while committing errors she is following the rules of language. For instance, a 3-year-old child speaks to express herself: Mummy khilona chahiye hai. khana chahiye hai.
The child knows that every sentence ends with the word “hai” and therefore she uses “hai” after “chahiyee”. As per language rules, “ hai” is an auxiliary verb. Another auxiliary verb “that” is used along with “chahiye”, only in the past tense. Although the child is unaware of this rule she uses it.
About learning proficiency, fluency means the ability through which a child is spontaneously able to express herself by speaking, reading, and writing. In this, emphasis is laid on meaning and context rather than on grammatical errors. Today a language teacher faces a huge dilemma, as to which out of the two should she seriously pursue? Both perspectives are present in front of us.
Traditional teachers give greater importance to accuracy, in language learning. They force the children to read and write in correct grammatical terms. For this, they test the children through various periodic assessments. In most of the classes, children are hardly allowed to improve by recognizing their errors. The examination-centered approach is influenced by this accuracy-based perspective.
Another group of teachers believes that language is the medium for the expression of feelings and experiences. They give more importance to fluency. Instead of grammar, they lay focus on understanding the meaning and reference; along with this, they emphasize that the children speaking fluently should be able to express themselves in such a way that the listener understands it correctly. These teachers believe; that since initiation, the more the child makes use of language, the more her level of fluency will rise.
After having a look at both the perspectives, it seems that both stand correct in their place. To learn language from an overall perspective, children have to be skilled in both. Reaching class 10, children start using language with fluency. It is then that we should focus on accuracy because, in a child’s language development, timely and appropriate help plays a very important role.
Q2. Critically analyze the strengths and limitations of any two methods through which ‘reading’ can be developed as a skill among children.
Ans. Some of the methods of teaching, reading and their shortcomings are as follows:
(1) Knowing the rules of reading quickly: Actually, there are no rules for reading. At least none can be simplified and defined for children. All fluent readers develop the knowledge necessary to read but they develop it from the effort to read rather than by being told. This process is akin to the process of the child acquiring oral language. The child can develop the rules for articulation and comprehension without being taught any formal rules. There is no evidence to suggest that teaching grammar helps in making children develop the ability to speak. There is also no evidence indicating that practising pronunciation or other non-reading tasks helps in developing the reading ability.
(2) For reading, the child has to remember rules of pronunciation and follow them: One view which is widely accepted is that the ability to read comes from being able to link sound to its corresponding symbolic representation. We, however, know that reading does not end or begin with being able to pronounce the text. We have to grasp the meaning even before we pronounce the word; unless we know the word we cannot speak it. Converting letters to sound is not only unnecessary but also a waste of effort. If we look carefully, it is obvious that a fluent reader does not get into changing letters to sounds. Such a process does not help in making meaning; it rather takes one away from it. Despite this, it is often argued that children will have to develop competence in pronunciation of the word, part by part, as per the letters used otherwise they will not be able to recognize words they have not seen earlier.
Some of the enablers for learning to read are as follows:
(1) Contextual reading material: Students need context to learn the language and learn to read. Stories and poems also form interesting contexts. While relating a story a teacher should stop in between and let students complete what would follow. Many important concepts are natural parts of the stories (for example- big, small, near-far, fat-thin, etc.). Students acquire or consolidate them easily through a story. The context of the story introduces these and when enacted their meaning gets clearer. Besides, the student gets an opportunity to place herself in different characters and imaginary situations. Initially, students mimic and copy only the gross visible features of the characters.
(2) Reading must be purposeful and challenging: Reading material for students must be useful, meaningful, and challenging. Whenever we read something, we read it for some purpose. These could be, for example, reading for fun, reading due to curiosity, reading to understand the sequence of events in a story, to know what happens at the end of a story, to learn about, what is happening around and find out whether such materials are even being written or not. If they are given challenges of this kind, challenges that allow them to learn more, talk about what they have learned, and share their experiences, they will learn to read faster. If reaching the meaning of a text to find something that they want to know is a challenge, they will feel inspired to make an effort.
Or
Enumerate the principles to be followed to choose material for language laboratories.
Ans. Some important principles that can help the teacher to use materials appropriately in the classroom are as follows:
(1) To store the materials properly is essential but it is equally important to ensure that they can be quickly distributed to children. If children have to get materials and return them then the system of distribution and collection must involve children. They must feel responsible and helpful. Such participation would also ensure that the total time taken for distribution and collecting back is not too much.
(2) Material should be easy to reach. Even if only the teacher has to use the material, the preparations must be made in advance. It is upsetting for children to wait while the teacher searches for the appropriate material to begin. The continuity and interest in learning get broken.
(3) If we have to use a lot of materials then it is better to use them one by one. Only when there is a need to show a relationship between different materials or show the reaction between them that we can use them together.
(4) Breakage of materials is possible during use, there must be an acceptance of damage and writing off and replacement of materials in the system. When children read books, handle charts, and use chalks or colors these materials will get torn, broken, or consumed. Any system that does not allow for such processes cannot encourage the use of materials.
(5) It is important to remember that the materials must be used for learning and not just for display. Materials will not teach on their own; teachers must know which material is useful in which situation. TLM is only a tool for making lessons meaningful. The work of choosing teaching materials has to be done by the teacher keeping the interest and abilities of children in mind.
The various principles or basis of choosing study material are as follows:
(1) The material should be such that they fulfill the educational objectives. That means they make possible the work that we want to do and the opportunity we want to provide children. For example, if we want children to develop imagination and express their ideas in an organized manner, we need to pick up a picture that can give them this opportunity.
(2) The material should be used for diverse purposes. We should procure such materials and prepare teachers so that they can flexibly use materials.
(3) The materials should be easily available and require no extra effort. It is also necessary that they should be available in sufficient quantity and not be expensive. Children should be able to use it. Models of thermocol that get damaged and break on touching, are not good materials. We must remember that most of the materials should be for use of children.
(4) The material that children have to use must be such that it does not require very elaborate precautions. They should not be a security hazard.
(5) Both teachers and children must be participants in the process of choosing and developing materials. It is not appropriate to pre-decide, choose and then send materials to the school and teachers.
(6) Participation of teachers and children in selecting materials is essential. They must also have the opportunity to learn and think about ways of using the materials in classrooms.
Q1. Enumerate the various methods which can be used to facilitate the learning of language.
Ans. Some important methods of language-teaching methods are as follows:
(1) Grammar Translation method: The grammar-translation method is a method of teaching foreign languages derived from the classical (sometimes called traditional) method of teaching Greek and Latin. In grammar-translation classes, students learn grammatical rules and then apply those rules by translating sentences between the target language and the native language. Advanced students may be required to translate whole texts word-for-word. The method has two main goals: to enable students to read and translate literature written in the source language and to further students’ general intellectual development. The biggest limitation of this method is that the children do not acquire proficiency in listening and speaking the language.
(2) Communicative method: Communicative language teaching (CLT), or the communicative method, is an approach to language teaching that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of study. Language learners in environments utilizing CLT techniques learn and practice the target language through interaction with one another and the instructor, study “authentic texts” (those written in the target language for purposes other than language learning), and use the language in class combined with the use of the language outside of class. Learners converse about personal experiences with partners, and instructors teach topics outside of the realm of traditional grammar to promote language skills in all types of situations. This method also claims to encourage learners to incorporate their personal experiences into their language learning environment and focus on the learning experience in addition to the learning of the target language. According to CLT, the goal of language education is the ability to communicate in the target language.
(3) Natural Approach: The Natural Approach is a language learning theory developed by Drs. Stephen Krashen of USC and Tracy Terrell of the University of California, San Diego. This method gives maximum attention to the fact that in language teaching the focus should not be on the teacher or the teaching-learning material but the learner (student). This fact was also affected by research done in linguistics. From these researches, it also became clear that making mistakes is an essential step in the process of acquiring language. On analyzing these errors, it was also found that these errors are in fact indicators of a child’s knowledge and learning process.
The theory is based on the radical notion that we all learn a language in the same way. According to this method, children have an innate ability to acquire language from birth. A 4-year-old internalizes the rules of her language and does not make mistakes in speaking even before entering school. That is why the Natural Approach focuses on giving the child a tension-free environment for learning language as well as providing interesting and challenging teaching-learning material for their level.
(4) Audio Lingual Method: With the outbreak of World War II armies needed to become orally proficient in the languages of their allies and enemies as quickly as possible. This teaching technique was initially called the Army Method and was the first to be based on linguistic theory and behavioral psychology.
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“Creation of suitable environment is an important prerequisite for language learning”. Discuss.
Ans. Even though we have the sensory organs and the tendency to speak, no child can learn the language until she hears it being spoken and practices speech. Each child learns the language of the group-the way she speaks, the words she uses, and the accent of her speech. A child who grows up without contact with people, cannot speak normally and it will be difficult to teach her later. Also, the children who are hard of hearing or deaf, begin to babble at the same time as other children, but after some time the amount of babbling decreases since they do not get feedback. If not provided a hearing aid, the child will grow up without learning to speak. This brings out the importance of environmental factors in language acquisition.
Research studies have shown that when parents are sensitive to the child’s speech and respond to her utterances, the child’s language develops. A rich language environment leads to better speech development. We know that children living in institutions generally show lower levels of language development compared to children in families. A positive emotional relationship with the parents helps the child to feel secure and lays the foundation for language acquisition.
The child must be ready to learn, speak and must get opportunities for hearing and practising speech. Adults and older children help the infant in acquiring language, especially during the first year of the child’s life, in the following ways:
(i) Caregivers, whether adults or children keep their language simple when they are talking to infants, especially those only a few months' old. They use short and simple sentences, speak exaggeratedly, and do not use pronouns like ‘I’ or ‘you’ since these are difficult for the infant to understand. Adults call out the child’s name rather than saying ‘you’ and call themselves ‘mummy’, ‘daddy’ or ‘aunty’ rather than ‘I’. They also produce nonsense sounds, i.e. those which have no meaning, but which the child delights to hear. They respond to the child’s cooing and babbling by talking to her, imitating her, and encouraging her. Most of this modification in the way of talking is
instinctive. Caregivers also see what type of speech the infant responds to most and then use that in their interactions.
(ii) When the infant is around 4-5 months of age, the caregivers begin to show them toys and household objects. While showing these they refer to them by their names and describe them a little. Siblings delight in such activities with the baby and are untiring in their efforts to attract her attention to an object. By 6-7 months the infant also begins to point at objects, picks them up, and shows them to people. This increases the interaction between caregivers and the child. By the time the infant is 7-8 months old, the family members also begin to talk about what is going on around the child. They refer to their actions and the actions of the child. While walking with the infant on the road the father, on seeing a fruit seller, is likely to say: “Banto, look! Bananas! See, you there! Bento, eats bananas every day, don’t you? It tastes good, mm……?”
Thus, in a normal environment, the child is continuously surrounded by people who talk to each other and her. The infant picks up new words from the context in which they are spoken and in this manner, her language develops.
(iii) Lullabies and songs are a delightful part of the caregiver-child relationship. There is hardly anyone of us who grew up without hearing them. Some of the songs refer to everyday events like eating, bathing, and sleeping. Some of them are about myths and stories. Infants enjoy the rhythm of the lullabies greatly. In addition, they also learn new words. In this way, by 6-7 months the infant begins to recognize the sound and meaning of commonly used words. The infant can understand language not because she understands all the words that we use. She may understand one or two words but she relies on the gestures used; the tone of the voice and the context in which they are spoken. When the father says: “No, don’t touch that!”, the child can understand because he points to the forbidden object, shakes his head, and raises his voice to convey anger or anxiety. This brings us to another aspect of language development that we must keep in mind. At any age, the child can comprehend more than she can speak.
(iv) When children are around 9-10 months of age, parents and relatives begin to play language games with them. They say a word like “bye-bye” and encourage the child to reproduce it. They also teach her to wave by showing her the gesture. Increasing competency in language helps the baby to interact with more people and form relationships with them and this helps in her social and emotional development. Language helps her to learn about people and objects. Thus, we see that language influences the development of cognition and social relationships. This shows how development in one area influences development in other areas as well.
Q2. Critically analyze any two methods which can be used to develop ‘writing skills’ for their strengths and limitations.
Ans. Writing is an important form of communication and a key part of education. It takes time to develop strong writing skills, and it can be a tough task to accomplish. Following are some of the activities to develop writing skills among lower classes:
(1) Picture composition: The teacher can give a picture to students and ask them to write about it. This writing can include a wide variety of compositions. They may be asked to write a story, describe the picture, write a dialogue between the characters, fill in a missing gap in the picture and write about it, etc. When a series of pictures depicting a story is provided, they can be asked to write the story.
(2) Continuing the story: The teacher can tell the beginning of a story and can ask them to write what they think happened next.
(3) Independent writing: The teacher can as to children to write about something that they show great interest in or something that they talk about a lot. This will not only help to develop writing skills but may point the teacher towards more techniques for facilitating learning.
(4) Dictation: The teacher can speak aloud some words and ask the children to write them to see if they can link the spoken sounds to their written forms.
(5) Developing stories from given outlines: The teacher can give a rough outline of a story in the form of a series of words and phrases, and then ask to build a story using these words and phrases.
(6) Last-letter-first: The teacher can make some groups of students and ask them to write down words one by one, such that the first letter of the word they write is the last letter of the word that came before. Through this activity, the teacher can identify the problem areas without pointing them out directly to the child.
(7) Topic of interest: The teacher can let children talk about a topic of their interest and write down what they have said. This will clarify the communicative purpose of writing and will clarify the link between speech and writing.
(8) Rhyming words: The teacher can ask students to come up with words that rhyme with the given word, or are similar in the sound to the given word.
Higher forms of writing are taught in schools for the development of expression, creativity, and communicative ability. Those higher forms are as follows:
(1) Paragraph writing: Paragraph writing remains one of the most important parts of writing. The paragraph serves as a container for each of the ideas of an essay or other piece of writing. It helps children learn how to think and write focusing on one theme. It is a good exercise for encouraging young children to express themselves coherently and also forms the basis for essay writing. It is advisable to ask children to write about things that they find relevant to their lives.
(2) Essay writing: An essay is a short piece of writing that discusses, describes, and analyses one topic. It can discuss a subject directly or indirectly, seriously or humorously. Essay writing is the most important branch of composition. In the process of essay writing, the student has to gather up ideas associated with the topic, analyze them, reject the irrelevant ideas and choose the relevant ones. This process acts as a health tonic to the powers of the mind of the student. His intelligence grows keener, reason sharper and imagination livelier.
(3) Letter writing: Unlike essays, letters have a very specific communicative purpose. Therefore, they do not require the elaboration of points as required in essays. On the other hand, they do require a certain skill in writing to communicate. The style of writing will vary according to the writer’s relationship with the recipient. The writer needs to understand how the recipient will react to the content of their message.
(4) Story writing: Writing stories is something every child is asked to do in school, and many children write stories in their free time, too. By writing stories, children learn to organize their thoughts and use written language to communicate with readers in a variety of ways. Writing stories also helps children better read, and understand, stories written by other people.
Story writing should be introduced when children are beginning to write so that their imagination aids their writing skills and also for older children. In the case of the latter, the aims of this exercise remain roughly the same. However, the promotion of thinking skills and imaginative faculties is emphasized over the learning of language. As children grow, they are expected to regard issues from different perspectives, engage in problem-solving, and appreciate the aesthetic qualities of writing. These skills develop through an affinity with different forms of literature. By the time they get to senior classes, children have been exposed to different forms of literature such as poems, stories, plays, etc., and these further help in the development of thinking and story-writing skills. In turn, story writing helps generate interest in literature and language.
(5) Poetry writing: Writing poetry is a transferable skill that will help children write in other ways and styles. Children in smaller classes usually know only those poems which include rhyming words. Younger children enjoy the rhyme and rhyming words help in generating interest and in giving children an impression of words, because of which they can read easily. Rhyming words can also generate interest in writing and develop the skill of writing based on sound. Therefore, small poem-making activities may be taken up with young children. Children can be asked to make up poems either individually or in groups, with their peers. This can be an enjoyable activity.
Or
“Real assessment of children’s performance should be continuous and comprehensive in its nature”. Justify.
Ans. Continuous and comprehensive assessment (CCA) emphasizes two-fold objectives. These are continuity in assessment and assessment of all aspects of learning. Thus the term ‘continuous’ refers to assessment on an intermittent basis rather than a one-time event. When the assessment exercises are conducted in short intervals on regular basis, the assessment tends to become continuous. In other words, it can be said that if the time interval between two consecutive assessment events can be lessened or minimized then the assessment will become continuous. To make the assessment process continuous, the assessment activities must be spread over the whole academic year. It means regularity of assessment, frequent unit testing, diagnosis of the learning difficulty of the learners, using corrective measures, providing feedback to the learners regarding their progress, etc. will have
to happen maximally.
The second term ‘comprehensive’ means assessment of both scholastic and co-scholastic aspects of a student’s development. Since all the abilities of the learners’ development cannot be assessed through written and oral activities, there is a need to employ a variety of tools and techniques (both testing and non-testing techniques) for the assessment of all the aspects of learners’ development.
‘Continuous’ is generally considered by teachers as regular conduct of ‘tests’. Many schools are practicing weekly tests in the name of continuous assessment in all subjects. ‘Comprehensive’ is considered as combining various aspects of a child’s behavior in isolation. Personal-social qualities (empathy, cooperation, self-discipline, taking initiative, etc.) are judged in isolation and are being graded on a four/five-point scale, which appears impractical.
By continuously observing the learners see what they know and can do, the teacher can make sure that no learner fails. Everyone is given a chance to succeed and more attention is given to children who were falling behind. The continuous assessment process fosters cooperation between the student and teacher. While the student learns to consult the teacher, classmates, and other sources on aspects of her/his project work; the teacher can offer remedial help for further improvement in learning.
A comprehensive component means getting a sense of ‘holistic’ development of a child’s progress. Progress cannot be made in a segregated manner, that is, cognitive aspects, personal-social qualities, etc. After completion of a chapter/theme, the teacher would like to know whether children have learned (assessment of learning) as s/he expected based on the lesson’s objectives/learning points. For that, s/he broadly identifies the objectives of the lesson and spells out learning indicators. The teacher designs activities based on expected learning indicators. These activities need to be of varied nature. Through these questions/activities, she would assess the learners and that data would be one kind of summative data of a lesson/theme. Such assessment data must be recorded by the teacher. Likewise
in one quarter, she/he would cover 7-8 lessons/topics and in this manner, she/he would have substantial data covering varied aspects of a child’s behavior. It would provide data on how the child was working in groups, doing paper-pencil tests, drawing pictures, reading pictures, expressing orally, composing a poem/song, etc. These data would give a ‘comprehensive’ picture of a child’s learning and development.
Q1. With suitable examples discuss the role of drama, theatre, and play in developing students’
core skills in the language.
Ans. The use of drama/play/theater has been used throughout history from the time of Aristotle, who believed that theater provided people a way to release emotions, right to the beginning of the progressive movement in education, where the emphasis was placed upon “doing” rather than memorizing. Integrating drama helps children in various ways. Using plays with children can:
• Improve their reading and speaking skills
• Encourage creativity
• Help them experiment with language – tone of voice, body language, and their lines if they are involved in writing the play.
• Bring them out of themselves – some students like performing or find the script gives them confidence.
• Involve the whole class – non-speaking parts can be given to learners who do not wish to speak or are less confident.
To use drama as a linguistic activity, two features need to be included – freedom and enjoyment. No special preparation is needed by the teacher or children for conducting drama in the classroom. The teacher only needs to encourage the children to share their experiences naturally. At the primary level: any incident, story, or cartoon that children see in their environment can be taken up for acting. For example, any animal, its movement, its complexion, etc. At the upper primary level, the teacher should motivate children so that they form small groups wherein they decide the topic, write the dialogues and act it out. At the same time, children should be encouraged to act out traditional games and folk tales as this will not only enhance their creativity but also connect them to their cultural environments.
We can enact or write the script for any play or drama. What grade would each learner get on the script written by her depends upon whether what has to be expressed is emerging in the dialogues written by him/her? We need to check if the learner can explain his/her ideas? Is (s)he able to use words other than the words already used in the original text of the drama. Are the dialogues simple, crisp, and interesting? These can be the main points for the assessment of drama.
Example 1
Characters:
(1) Rama, the singer
(2) Madhu, Rama’s wife
(3) Neighbors.
Rama: (sits with his harmonium and practices singing).
Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Te, Do
Ist Neighbor: (to Rama’s wife) Madhu, ask your husband to stop singing. It gives me a headache.
2nd Neighbor: He thinks himself to be a good singer but he’s awful.
3rd Neighbor: He hardly sings. He croaks like a frog.
4th Neighbor: He’s indeed disgusting.
(Neighbors go out)
Rama: (Continues singing) Doe, a deer, A female deer
Ray – A Drop of golden sun
Me – A Name I call myself….
1st Neighbor: All our requests have fallen on deaf ears.
2nd Neighbor: We’ll have to teach him a lesson.
3rd Neighbor: He’s as stubborn as a mule.
4th Neighbor: (Throws a shoe at him)
Rama: No one in this village admires my talent.
Madhu: (Comes from the kitchen) Don’t worry. You keep on singing.
That person will throw the second shoe also and we will have a pair of shoes.
The following questions may be asked to children:
(1) What other title would you like to give to this play?
(2) Which character do you admire most in this play? Why?
(3) (a) What is the name of Rama’s wife?
(b) Does Madhu enjoy Rama’s singing?
(4) The 4th Neighbor throws a shoe at Rama. Suppose it falls on his face.
What would happen next? Complete the play in the same form (dialogue from) as given above.
(5) Write a conversation between you and your friend about playing some game together.
(6) Write a paragraph on something or someone that disturbs you in your day-to-day life. Describe how you would tackle the problem peacefully.
(7) Enact the play in groups.
Example 2nd: CLEVER BHOLA
Characters: Bhola, the villager
Bhola’s wife – Diya
Bhola’s child
Dabbu, the robber
Narrator: One day, Bhola was going to a nearby village. He had to cross a dense jungle. Suddenly a voice stopped him.
Dabbu: Stop. Stop I said. If you move I’ll shoot you.
Divya: We are poor people. We have nothing with us.
Dabbu: Nonsense! Everyone says so. Give me whatever you have or I will kill you all.
Bhola: No. No. Leave us all. I’ll give you my wallet.
Dabbu: Ha!Ha! Ha! See how I befooled you. There are no bullets in this gun…. ha ha ha ha!
Bhola: Ha! Ha! Ha. haha!
Dabbu: Why the hell are you laughing?
Bhola: I also befooled you. There is no money in that wallet.
Dabbu: What!
Bhola: You thought yourself to be very smart. Ha! Ha! Ha!
These questions may be asked to children:
(1) What other title would you like to give to this play?
(2) If you were Bhola what would you have done in the same situation?
(3) (a) What was Dabbu carrying with him? Why?
(b) Why did Divya say that they are poor people?
(4) Suppose Dabbu takes out some bullets after Bhola befools him. Complete the play in the same form (dialogue form) as given above.
(5) Write the play in story form.
(6) Enact the play in groups.
Or
Develop a comprehensive plan of activities for language learning using ‘word cards’ and ‘picture cards’.
Ans. One purpose of the cards in the context of language teaching is to help children learn to decode. We can give them picture cards to match with word cards. We can also ask them to take a word card and find a word card that is similar to this one. They can put together word cards and make a story. Similarly, pictures and picture cards can be used for conversations, and discussions, extending imagination, and opportunities for creating descriptions and thinking of stories. These exercises can be initially oral and then can also be written. The cards can be used for any class through activities at different levels with different objectives. For example, think about the use of word cards for class 1 and then for class – 3.
One material can be used for many purposes and their use is informed by the objectives and understanding of learning and teaching. If we consider all this then we can see that TLM is only useful when the person using it understands what the children have to learn, the steps for it, and activities that can be used for it. Children have to be able to engage in these activities. Once this happens then it is not difficult to find materials for it around us.
Preparation of Picture Cards: Find or draw a set of 10-20 pictures of people, places, animals, and objects. Make copies of the picture set on card stock so we have one set for each student in the class. In large letters, print the name of each picture on a separate card.
Step 1: Distribute picture card sets to students.
Step 2: Hold up each name card one at a time. Read the name aloud. Hold up the matching picture card. Cue students to repeat the name and hold up their matching picture cards. Repeat this activity two or three times, if appropriate, for practice.
Step 3: Randomly select a name card from the set. Hold it up and say the name aloud. Cue students
to say the name and hold up the matching picture card.
Step 4: Repeat the activity without showing the name card. Say the name of each picture and cue students to repeat the name and hold up the appropriate picture card.
Step 5: This time around hold up a word card but do not say the word aloud. Students say the word and hold up the matching picture card.
Step 6: For the final go-round do not display the word cards. Simply pronounce a word and ask students to hold up the correct picture card.
“Picture and Word” cards can be used at home, in therapy, and throughout a classroom in multiple activities and learning centers. They are beautiful large picture cards that we can customize to meet children's needs. Following are a few ideas:
(1) Word Wall: These large cards are great for display on a word wall. Word walls may focus on vocabulary and/or sight words.
(2) Class Stories: Display preselected pictures and word cards for students to incorporate into a class story. For example place girl, boy, some animals, and food. As the class writes a story together on large chart paper, children may be called to offer “what happens next” in the story. The cards may offer visual support for ideas of the story such as “There was a girl who met a turtle. The turtle asked the girl, ‘do you have any apples?’….”
(3) Story Characters: Offer the picture and word cards before a story in teaching about characters. “Today we are going to read a story about a girl and three bears”. Or, after a story is read aloud, display picture cards that include the story characters. Ask the students to identify who the main characters in the story are.
(4) Labeling the classroom: Use Picture and Word cards to label items around the classroom. We can use our photos of classroom materials by uploading pictures on the “Our Lesson Pix” page if needed. Labeling creates a print-rich environment that links objects with pictures and with words and gives meaning to print.
(5) Scavenger Hunt: Create groups of pictures that correspond with a unit of study or targeted phonemes. Hide the pictures around a designated area and have the students hunt for the picture cards. When they find the picture, they can share what they found with the group.
(6) Language Master: If we have a Language Master machine, we may print and attach the picture and word cards to blank Language Master cards.
A Language Master Machine is a recorder /player that has cards that slide through the machine. These cards have a strip that has a prerecorded and/or allows the teacher /therapist to record their voice. When the card is put through the machine, the audio is played. Many Special Education teachers and Speech Pathologists use a Language Master to reinforce learning concepts.
(7) Vocabulary Development: Create Picture and Word Cards to teach a vocabulary word(s) of the week. There are Level 1 words which are more concrete and Level 2 words which are more abstract or have multiple meanings. Some early childhood classrooms select one or two words for a week to practice, find, and use. To differentiate instruction, the teacher may select one level 1 and one level 2 word per week to focus on. For example, when talking about feelings at the beginning of the year, a level 1 word may be “mad” and a level 2 word may be “bursting” (burst a balloon, bursting through a door, bursting with anger, bursting with excitement).
(8) Word Hunt: Give each student a Picture and Word Card. Have them hunt through specific books for the matching word.
(9) What’s Missing?: Place 4-5 Pictures and Word cards out for the students to see. Collect them and pull one card out. (Make sure the children don’t see it!) Place the remaining cards out on display and have students guess which Picture and Word card is missing.