ASSETScope April 2015

The Monthly Newsletter

Issue 114 | April, 2015 | www.ei-india.com

MISCONCEPTION Series

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It’s All in Goodbooks!

ASSET

Educators’ Zone

COVER Story

- by Norene Wiesen

Teaching Persistence: How to Build Student Stamina Teaching persistence in the classroom will help learners succeed. Students who have mastered persistence are able to work through challenges, deal constructively with failures and adversity, and achieve the goals set for themselves. It’s like running a marathon. The runners reaching the finish line are the ones who persist in showing up for practices and trainings, learn to anticipate slumps and pace themselves, engage in positive self-talk during tough times, take steps to effectively prevent and treat injuries, and adjust expectations to fit reality – even if “finishing” means having to crawl the last mile. Teaching persistence depends on first developing student stamina as a way of conditioning learners to handle sustained effort.

Help Learners Develop a Growth Mindset Learners need to know that they have the ability to grow and change, and that effort is the key. Praise them when they focus their efforts toward specific, clearly defined goals. By saying: “Those extra 10 minutes of

reading each day are paying off – you are decoding unfamiliar words much more easily now”, you help learners make the connection between effort and achievement. The goal is for learners to become intrinsically motivated to engage in effortful learning now and in the future.

Push a Little Bit – and Know When Enough is Enough Sometimes learners just need a little encouragement to pass a hurdle.

Supportive words, like, “Think of how good you’ll feel when you finish those last two problems and the whole worksheet all by yourself!” can make all the difference. However, a learner may need to know that it’s okay to take a break and come back to a particular task when he’s feeling less

frustrated. But then, it’s important to really come back and complete the work and experience that he truly can “do more” when he persists.

Model Persistence Most learners love to hear teachers’ personal stories.

Telling learners about a weekend plumbing project that didn’t go as planned – and how it was finally completed – helps learners see that everyone feels like giving up sometimes. It also shows how to overcome those feelings and reach a goal – without being preachy.

Teach Positive Self-Talk Some learners need to know how to stay motivated. If a learner’s typical thoughts are: “This is too hard,” or “I don’t know how to do this,” it may help to discover that there are other options.

Giving learners specific wordings, like, “I know I can do this if I keep at it,” or, “If I’m really stuck I can ask a friend or teacher for help,” can begin to change the way they think and act when faced with a challenge.

Expect More Let learners know of your high expectations and confidence that each person can meet those expectations. Be sure they have access to the tools they need to be successful, and that they know how to use them.

Repeat, Repeat, Repeat Students learn persistence in the same way that they learn sight words or multiplication tables – through repetition. Strategies like modeling persistence, connecting effort to achievement, and pushing students to do a little more than they think, when repeated over time. The cumulative effect is likely to be increased stamina, improved persistence, and intrinsic motivation for ever greater learning.

This article is an edited version of original article’ Teaching Persistence: How to Build Student Stamina’ published on www.scilearn.com.

Student Corner It's All in Goodbooks! * You're teaching children about the life and times of India's greatest birdman, Salim Ali. And a student pipes up to ask you, “Did Salim Ali love birds even when he was a child?” * You're having a discussion with your students about the recent terrorist attacks in Kashmir and explain how terrorists are intolerant of other people's views and ideas. “Can you kill another person just because you think you're right?” a student asks you rather discerningly.

What's the best thing a teacher or a librarian can do in situations like this when textbooks cannot answer everything that curious young minds want to know? Reach out for a book, of course! It is an established fact that books of fiction and non-fiction help children better understand the world around them. But hey, which books?

HELLO GOODBOOKS There are hundreds and thousands of books that can answer questions like these and everything else your students want to know.

But choosing appropriate books for children is a challenging task. As an educator, how do you keep track of books available for children of different ages and how do you pick the “good books”?

Welcome to Goodbooks (www.goodbooks.in), a website focussed on children’s books from India. Goodbooks exclusively reviews, discusses and critically engages with books meant for children in the age-group of 3-16 years. Through good quality reviews and a curated collection of articles and interviews, the site aims to reach out to teachers, librarians, parents and all stakeholders interested in promoting books and reading among children.

“For a teacher or librarian faced with dozens of books to read, a good book review website

is as essential as maps are for geographers,” remarks writer Anil Menon. At Goodbooks, books are classified according to subject categories and age-groups, making it easy to find the right one for your requirements. This specialized book-centric information makes it a unique one-stop site on Indian children's books.

According to children's writer Roopa Pai, “Indian children's books rarely get the kind of publicity they deserve in the popular or social media. Websites like Goodbooks plug the gap by not letting a single Indian children's book of merit slip through the cracks. Most people would not even know about the books available in the market if not for a resource like this.”

WHY GOODBOOKS? Book reviews are your best choice when it comes to picking appropriate books for your students. A book review not doesn’t just saves you time and effort, but helps you make informed decisions about choosing the right books. “Book review sites like Goodbooks are a wonderful resource for locating themebased or issue-based children’s books to enrich the learning experience in the classroom,” says children's writer Asha Nehemiah.

Goodbooks promotes the reviewing of children’s books in a professional manner. It is our belief that this creates awareness about the role of good books and reading in a child’s life and encourages the use of books in schools and homes.

“One reason why Goodbooks is taken more seriously than other similar websites is the quality and credibility of the reviewers – it is not random people who can read and write who do the reviews here, it is children's authors, editors of children's books, children's illustrators, and passionate readers of children's literature. Reading these reviews will give teachers and librarians great insights into what good books for children are all about, which will eventually help them choose the best books for their students,” says Roopa Pai, clearly explaining just why Goodbooks is an educator's ideal go-to resource on Indian children's books.

CONNECT WITH GOODBOOKS Check out our site by logging in to www.goodbooks.in. If you are interested in keeping track of what’s happening at Goodbooks, subscribe to our fortnightly newsletter on the site or by mailing managingeditor@goodbooks.in, right away!

News Bite All Bengaluru schools under RTE Act to be compulsory Kannada medium In a move that gives a forceful boost to the mother tongue in Karnataka, the government has passed a bill to make Kannada language a mandatory subject from Class 1 to 10 in schools affiliated to the Karnataka board, and a compulsory medium of instruction from Class 1 to five. According to reports in the media, the bill also makes it mandatory to use only Kannada as the language for instruction till Class 5.

Source: http://www.firstpost.com?

MISCONCEPTION Series Scientific literacy & Scientific methods The time shown in the clock is

D. 7.6%

Q

Class 3: Science

C. 28.8% No. of students P A

between 2 and 3 in the afternoon

B

between 9 and 10 in the morning

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B. 13.8%

C between 2 and 3 in the afternoon or in the night P D

A. 44.5%

between 9 and 10 in the afternoon or in the night Only 28.8% answered correctly

1 Why was the question asked in ASSET test?

In clocks, since there are only 12 hours, a 24 hour day needs the clock to run two complete cycles of the hour hand to record time.

This question was designed to test whether students will apply this logic and figure out that the clock could be showing time for the afternoon as well as the night.

2

What did students answer?

29% of the students answered this correctly, whereas 45% chose the wrong answer, A. Possible reason for choosing A: Students have probably never woken up at this time of the night to check the time and have always associated a quarter to 3 as some time during the afternoon.

Possible reason for choosing B: These students are probably confusing the minute and the hour hands of this clock and think that the time is 9:15. However, they are choosing this option over option D, which suggests that they think 9:15 is a time only observed in the morning.

Possible reason for choosing D: Few students have chosen this option and are probably making a random guess.

3

Learnings Students start learning to read time by class 2. However, even in school, their concept of time usually depends very strongly on their school time-tables or what adults think they should do at a particular time. As a result, although they have been equipped with the skills to read clocks, most children probably don't find the need to do so.

4

How do we handle this?

• Students need to be shown how the hands of the clock move throughout the day. This can be done by showing them a fake clock whose hands can be moved. This clock can then be used for teaching as well as assessment. Start by asking them what time the students wake up and then run them through the day, while changing the hands on the clock to match the time. Draw their attention to how the hands are moving.

• After discussing what they do during the day, tell them a story about a little girl of their age and describe a normal day in her life. Move the hands of the clock according to the story.

• When it reaches the point where the character in the story goes to sleep, ask students what will happen to the clock. Point out to the students that the clock runs on a battery and that there usually is no On/Off switch on it and thus, the clock runs all the time without stopping.

• Let the students give instructions on movement of the hands of the clock while the girl in the story is asleep. Investigate students' thoughts on how the clock moves and how the next day begins. If students are not aware of how many hours make up a day, provide them with the information.

• It might be confusing for students to understand that midnight is the beginning of the next calendar day, but they should realize that as the hours pass, it will become the next day. At this point, link the hours of the day to the rotation of the Earth on its axis.

• Encourage students to keep track of the time during the day starting from 6 in the morning, if possible.

Students are expected to keep in mind that a day has 24 hours whereas the clock shows the time for only 12 hours and hence, there will be two sets of each hour in a day, i.e. 6 o'clock will occur twice and so on.

For more information about ASSET, write to us at info@ei-india.com

EDUCATORS’ Zone Ms. Anurekha Barkakoti Principal, Delhi Public School, Numaligarh Who has most influenced you to become an educator, and how did they influence you?

The nurturing instinct was perhaps very strong in me because from a very young age, I loved to take care of children and pets. I was inspired by my parents and family to develop this quality of patience, love and compassion for others, especially children. Being in the company of children of my own as well of others, I knew it was my calling to do what I was good at – teaching and taking care and being happy in their company.

What is your approach to classroom management and student discipline?

The Classroom is best managed with proper time management. Once the teacher realizes that the 40-45 minute period that is allotted in the time-table in a day, is to be utilized without wasting any time, there would be no issue of mismanagement. The time is to be divided into shorter 5/10 minute slots for introduction of the topic, interaction, explanation, re-cap of the lesson taught etc. The idea is to keep the young fertile minds of the learners interested and involved with innovative teaching methods.

Student discipline has to be internalized, not imposed. Self-discipline should be first practised among the teachers for the children to imbibe it. For this, co-operation from the home-front is extremely necessary.

Parents are to be counseled regarding this issue of self-discipline.

What are your views regarding the ‘Importance of Teacher training and Development’ in educating students?

It is a rhetorical question……Modern pedagogy has taken a 360 degree turn as we all know. Methods of teaching and learning have to adapt with the change in the psycho-social environment of the child. Updating the syllabus, subject and curriculum content have become the growing challenges of the times. Modern technology has added meaning to the changing environment and under such circumstances, teacher training and development is an imperative tool to meet this challenge. Teachers today must understand this and imbibe new learning in themselves to be the 21st century educator and beyond or else lest they miss out on the whole essence of being an educator of the present times.

What is your view regarding the ASSET Test?

I have had a long association with the system of the ASSET test – almost from its inception. I have always believed it to be a wellresearched evaluation system which comes to the aid of not only the student in the learning process but also the teacher. It is a rational and scientific way of assuring the success of learning which is permanent in the child. The ASSET tests have helped my students and teachers to acquire skills that develop learning and teaching with understanding. It stimulates and encourages the pupil to learn. The school is enabled to bring constructive changes in the teaching-learning methodologies.

Fun Zone Count off by the square root of 7!

Uhh...

Deep down inside, Coach Khan had always wanted to be a math teacher.

Bookpost

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