ASSETScope January 2014

Celebrating

The Monthly Newsletter

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Cover Story: New Year Resolutions

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Educators Zone

3 Mindspark World: Free Pilot Prog.

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Insight Story: Peer Tutoring

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Issue 100 | January 2014 | www.ei-india.com

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Testimonials

Video Review: BBC- The Spice Trail

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Misconception Series

8 DukeTIP

COVER Story Simple and Sustainable New Year Resolutions for Teachers It might not be the beginning of a new academic year, but January offers everyone a new start and an opportunity to reflect and refocus.

seem to bond with students with ease and students respond to them in ways in which they won’t for others. It can be incredibly frustrating.

Primary school teachers can make a great start by decorating their classrooms with a colourful banner of resolutions. A New Year PowerPoint can be presented to students to help younger children reflect on their achievements in the past year and look forward to the next. The slides can include‘What would children like to improve? What new skills would they like to learn? Where would they like to go?’ This simple presentation will provide a great opportunity for children to focus and feel good about the year ahead.

The most effective way of getting students to respond in the way you want them to is to build positive professional relationships with them. Get to know their interests outside of school, ask them questions about what they are interested in, and generally find out about them. Tell them about yourself too.

For whole-class resolutions, from ‘no shouting out to avoiding bad moods’, try pinning up some motivational posters to reinforce some essential classroom management principles.

For the staff room, try ‘Keep Calm’ and ‘Teach On’.

Build Fitness into Your Curriculum It wouldn’t be a resolution list without some mention of better health. Make it a classroom affair with healthy eating lessons, integrating

movement into your day-to-day activities and just encouraging you and your students to take care of your bodies.

Learn a New Technology to Enhance Teaching Technology is everywhere, and even the most reluctant teachers to adopt technology into their teaching have to admit one thing: students get excited and relate to technology.

You don’t have to a smart board wiz or record all your lessons as podcasts, but there are plenty of free websites you can use to help students learn. Since the internet is so vast, the possibilities are limitless.

Build Positive Relationships This comes easily to some teachers. They

Revealing aspects of one’s personal life and interests might be uncomfortable for some teachers, but it reveals to students that teachers are actually human beings! Much of this work goes on in the canteen at lunchtime, or in corridor conversations and it can have a significant impact.

So, if you are planning to turn over a new leaf, or intend to change, adapt or refine the way you work in 2014/15, do it for the right reasons and have students’ progress as well as your own work/life balance at the heart of everything you do.

!

EDUCATORS Zone Mr. Tyrone D' Brass, Principal, Sherwood School, Tura, Meghalaya

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Who has most influenced you to become an educator, and how did they influence you?

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My wonderful parents who taught me the value of an education and the principal of my school, Rev George A Hess, he influenced me to take up this vocation, have influenced me to become an educator.

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What is your approach to classroom management and student discipline?

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I believe that building a bond with one's class is an excellent strategy to class management and discipline.

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What are your views regarding the 'Importance of Teacher Training and Development' in educating Students?

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A trained teacher is paramount in today's classrooms. The teacher needs to know how she/he would be able to get the best out of her/ his class. My teachers are also encouraged to use the Teach Next devices in the classrooms. A trained teacher with technology creates a true learning experience.

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What is your view regarding the ASSET Test?

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The ASSET tests have made my students think better and challenge themselves to raise the bar a lot higher. The ASSET tests have exposed rote learning and thrown it into a rut.

SCHOOL Zone INTROSPECTION… Wishing you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2014, I would like to pen down my thoughts, ideas and experiences that have come true in educating children at KRS. Education is indeed challenging. One among those is motivating teachers to keep themselves abreast with the latest development in the field of education. Gone are the days when we introduced the ASSET test, a product of EI. This brought a great change in our teaching practice and approach which gave us a new dimension to achieve excellence together as per our motto. Due to the Detailed Assessment (Diagnostic Testing tool by EI) and Mindspark our ASSET scores have rapidly improved. Our focus is not only on how students are performing in English, Maths and Science but also on their all round development. A new prospect of learning with only understanding began.

The face of education today has undergone a phenomenal change. Old teaching methods are getting replaced by newer techniques. Self learning at their own pace is highly appreciated and recommended.

“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open eye” – Malcom S.Forbes Children are seeds which are to be nurtured. There is a great infinite potential hidden in them. In order to identify and groom up their individual talents to stand at par with the global level we have joined the International School Award by British Councils. Since its inception, it fosters us to think and act as global citizens. The connecting classrooms have made our vision of providing World Class Education come true, broadening the horizons and promoting the spirit among the stakeholders from a National Level to an International Level. The whole academic year is jam packed with projects and activities collaborating with partner schools across the sea. The monotonous system of imparting knowledge

Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself says John Dewey an eminent American psychologist and educational reformer.

Mrs. M. Shanthi, Principal, Krishnamal Ramasubbaiyer School, Madurai

in a day has been transformed with classrooms filled with self learning, involving students in researches, reporting their find outs, script writing, dramatizing, role playing, preparing questionnaires, promoting psycho motor skills etc., which is really awesome.

Kids from Class I exhibited their talents in arranging flowers after being a part of a mini workshop on it. Partnering with a Sri Lankan school, Class V students have got an exposure to work on folktales of various countries. A one-day seminar enlightened the minds of the students to delve on mini research and script writing. It has enhanced their knowledge on the traditional beliefs and customs of various countries. Students of Class VI involved in bird watching expressed their talents through poetry writing and creative writings between native birds and migratory birds. This project on migratory birds inspired the young minds to watch and observe the diverse features found in the biotic environment. Hoping that a sea change would take place in educating tomorrow’s citizens and transforming them as global citizens in the near future.

MINDSPARK World FREE PILOT PROGRAM

EI is a 12 year old organization working with over 1000 private schools and over 500,000 students in India, UAE, Singapore and US; several State Governments of India, The Royal Educational Council of Bhutan and the Education Department of the Government of Maldives. Our vision is that children everywhere *learn with understanding* and we hope to achieve that through a deep emphasis on research and research-driven offerings in assessment and personalized learning.

Educational Initiatives (EI) ei-india.com works primarily in 2 domains - one with private schools and students who can pay for our services and secondly with Governments, Funding Agencies and Organizations like the World Bank.

In terms of offerings we have 3 types of basic offering : 1.

Math e-Learning System – Mindspark http://www.ei-india.com/information-about-mindspark/

2.

Large Assessment Projects with Governments http://www.ei-india.com/partners/index.htm

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School Assessments - ASSET and Detailed Assessments http://www.ei-india.com/information-about-asset/, http://www.ei-india.com/information-about-detailed-assessment/

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Exam Corner – which allows students to customise Math Challenges from diverse question sources such as Hong Kong Board, IB, IGCSE, IIT-JEE and other national and international competitive and high stakes exams

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Customised Monthly Practice – designed for each child individually, based on his/her work over the month.

There are a host of features for teachers too 1.

Customised Topic Activation to ensure synchrony (or synchronicity) between school syllabi and Mindspark

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Formative Assessment Tool to help teachers get formative assessment feedback at the end of every session in the form of common wrong answers

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Over 500 In-depth Research Papers and Research Summaries to help teachers understand student misconceptions related to the topics they are teaching

This is done through a series of triggers that the program offers the learners ONLINE.

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Live Student Data and Reports to track student progress and prepare differentiated learning opportunities in her classroom.

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Well designed, conceptually rich and a diverse set of questions to trigger thinking

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Clear, Illustrated and detailed explanations designed based on research on student misconceptions (over 2 million student responses)

Now here is an opportunity to demonstrate the impact of Mindspark on your students’ Maths learning. Try out our option of in-school pilot programs (free) for one month for any class.

Mindspark – a complete Maths On-line Learning System. Mindspark systematically improves students’ Maths learning by focussing on 1.

Practice

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One-on-One Coaching through Assessment, Support and Challenges

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Modulation of Skill and complexity level so that every child learns at his or her pace.

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Over 250 Maths Games designed by Mathematicians and Math experts based on in-house Math research

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Over 100 Enrichment Modules designed to challenge the above-average learners and stretch them beyond their capacity

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Over 150 Interactive Remedials to provide STEP-LEVEL feedback and remediation for specific concepts and algorithms thatstudents find difficult to master.

CALL US FOR A FREE PILOT PROGRAM NOW! Toll Free Number: 1800 102 8885 You can also contact us on our email address: info@ei-india.com Please do not miss the opportunity to offer you students a world-class MATHS LEARNING SYSTEM that has been used by 50,000 students across 100 schools of India, UAE, Singapore and US.

www.mindspark.in

INSIGHT Story Increase Student Engagement and Achievement with Peer Tutors Peer tutoring links high achieving students with lower achieving students or those with comparable achievement for structured learning. It's an effective educational strategy for classrooms of diverse learners, including students with disabilities, because it promotes academic gains as well as social enhancement.

What Is Peer Tutoring?

In a peer-tutoring program, one student teaches another in a school setting, and tutoring can take a variety of forms: •

In cross-age tutoring, older students tutor younger students.

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In cross-ability tutoring, the student acting as a tutor has already attained greater mastery of the subject or material being taught, while the other student might be struggling.

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In reciprocal tutoring, students of the same age or ability take turns being the tutor.

Peer tutoring also goes beyond pairing students to correct each other's test papers or share reflections in small groups, and it doesn't need to be limited to academic issues. Peer tutoring provides a clear structure for interactions between tutor and tutee and specific goals tied to the teacher's instruction, classroom or school culture, or student motivation.

The structure of a peer-tutoring program is often derived from its goals.

The goals of peer tutoring can go beyond academics to include increasing student motivation, improving collaboration, or fostering a more positive social and emotional classroom atmosphere. Some schools have used peer tutoring to increase friendships and mutual understanding between students of different grade levels, or between students with disabilities and those without. These programs may be less tightly structured, especially among high school students, with the students themselves setting the learning agenda with minimal guidance from teachers.

What are the benefits of peer tutoring?

Tutors •

Help students increase their own understanding of the subject matter as they tutor students, which boosts their confidence and can carry over to their desire to learn other subjects

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Practise students’ communication skills with junior students

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Give tutors great confidence to talk to the staff members while the line of communication is opened up for both of them

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Give tutors an opportunity to develop their own leadership skills

Tutees •

Help tutees feel more at ease, and concentrate better on the subject matter, with a peer tutor rather than a professional teacher or consultant (Ehly et. al. 21)

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According to Goodlad and Hirst (1989), there are four main benefits for tutees when they seek out peer help: > Tutees receive individualised instruction

On the more formal side, the Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) for Reading and Maths are aimed at K–6 learners and require explicit training for both teachers and students, says Lynn Fuchs, who developed the approach with her husband Doug Fuchs. The Fuchs are professors of special education at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. PALS also has secondary-level peer tutoring.

PALS "are more complex and based on validated research," says Lynn Fuchs, noting that students tutoring each other are required to read the text aloud, retell the reading material in their own words, suggest the text's main idea, and do prediction activities that move beyond answering questions about the 5Ws (who, what, when, where, and why) found in other tutoring programs. For example, in PALS for Maths, the player, or tutee, works through a Maths problem with the help of a coach, or tutor. The tutor can pose questions about the problem and check his partner's work during the half-hour sessions held twice a week. Students then switch roles. Teachers designate a new skill for pairs of students to work on for two weeks, and students may switch partners as well.

> Tutees receive more teaching > Tutees (may) respond better to their peers than to their teachers > Tutees can obtain companionship from the students that tutor them Teachers •

Peer tutoring is also beneficial to teachers who may not have the time to spend with each student on a one-on-one communication.

•

Help the subject lecturer break the whole class into small groups so that students have the chance to learn in a more intimate environment, which allow them to take more initiative. For example, students ask more questions at the tutorials and that hardly happen in lectures where there are over 80 students sitting in the lecture theatre.

Celebrating

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“The Newsletter attempts to explore thought provoking and insightful facets of education and learning.

Through ‘Teaching Bite’ the Newsletter influences the psyche of the teachers in an interesting manner. The interviews of educators help us to know more about classroom management and student discipline. Facts about Education, Approach to student Management, Helping struggling Reader, Enhancing emotional Vocabulary in children, all are pointers to enhance the approach of teaching community.

AssetScope is an excellent forum for exchange of ideas and issues faced by the teaching fraternity.

Teachers are provided with an excellent opportunity to exhibit their talents be they poetry writing, story or creative writing. News bite is a section keeps us updated on workshops, online learning courses etc.”

Ms. Valsa Balaji, Vice Principal, PSBB, K K Nagar

“The content is interesting and the emphasis on innovative ideas is particularly good.”

Suniti Sharma, MGDG School, Jaipur “Keep up the good work and let ASSETScope aspire to be the best newsletter in the country for all like minded educators.”

Santosh Kanavalli, High Range School, Munnar “I am able to get the copies in both the forms i.e., electronic and print media. Thanks and congratulations to all the persons involved for this great cause of spreading noble education through ASSETSCOPE.” William Paul, Army Public School Dighi, Pune

“The tit bits of crisp information that touch various aspects from classroom, to student learning, to pedagogy, to school management , have been catchy and enlightening.

Assetscope has appeal for all, students, parents, teachers alike and is a ‘must have’ in all libraries of learning. I have been following Assetscope regularly and it has been a very enriching experience.

Kudos to EI, for being able to touch the school communities, through this humble offering!”

Ms. Shanthi Menon, Principal, The Deens Academy, Bangalore

“Keep up the good work. The Newsletter is very useful to Principals and teachers.”

Mrs. Neeta Kishore, Dr. N. Shankara Adyanthaya English Medium High School, Udupi

“This newsletter is a very good exposure to all that happens in other schools and also gives me an idea as to what I can do in my school.”

"It is informative and very useful for the teaching community. Good Keep It Up”

Pooja Nagaraj, Sindhi High School, Bangalore

Padmini S, Hindu Senior Sec School, Adyar, Chennai

VIDEO Review BBC – The Spice Trail History is not just about kings and dates. It is also about everyday life. Food is integral to our lives. Humans invented agriculture more than 10,000 years ago in the Middle East. For thousands of years it was raw cereal grasses such as rice, wheat and sorghum that had filled the humans’ appetite. Later, however, it was spices that changed the shape of human history.

The Spice Trail is a 3 part series presented by Kate Humble of BBC on spices. Each part is of one hour duration. The first episode features the trade of pepper and cinnamon. Episode two features nutmeg and clove and the final episode is on saffron and vanilla. The series was broadcast in February 2011.

The series is multilayered focuses not just on the botany of spices, but also highlights their history, culture and economy. In the words of Kate, “well it was greed rather than foodie greed, as they wanted to be able to control the spice trade because spices were hugely expensive and the reason they were so expensive was that no one knew their origin.

The spices would come into Europe via a caravan of traders, by boat or overland. People in Europe realized that if they could find out where these spices come from and control the whole trade right from store to sail they would become very much powerful.”

In the first episode, Kate retraces the steps of 15th century explorers on India’s spice coast, Kerala, where she uncovers the story of pepper, once known as black gold and now the most consumed spice of the world. From Kerala, Kate heads to Sri Lanka, the land of cinnamon, a place shrouded in mystery to Europe until the Portuguese accidentally landed on its shore.

In the next episode, Kate goes around the fabled spice islands of Eastern Indonesia in search of two spices that launched epic voyages of discovery, caused bloody wars and shaped empires, nutmeg and clove. These two spices drew European explorers to these islands in search of unbelievable wealth, but

also led to the massacre of local people and the decimation of their culture.

In the final part, Kate moves from the heart of the Atlantic Mountains in Morocco to the plains of Spain to uncover the story of the world’s most expensive spice, saffron. Finally, she journeys to Mexico, the birth place of vanilla.

The series is both entertaining and educative.

Kate Humble is a joy to watch and presents the programme in a fun-filled and approachable way. For schools, the series can be a great resource to teach Social Studies in the middle and high schools.

By Jitu Mishra, Educational Specialist, EI

EI News India-Afghanistan Innovation Partnership Fair Mr. Sridhar Rajagopalan, MD Educational Intiatives and Venkatesh Reddy from LargeScale Assessment Team visited Kabul in the first week of December on the invitation of the Indian Embassy and the Kabul Chambers of Commerce and Industry. About 15 social enterprises - some for-profit and some non-profit - had been invited. Pratham and Educational Initiatives were the 2 organisations from the school education space.

It was an India-Afghanistan Innovation Partnership Fair. It was organised as an exhibition in which both Indian and some Afghan organisations had put up stalls. Visitors included businesses, government representatives, academicians and others from the country.

MISCONCEPTION Series Science

Q

Class 3: Human body Kavitha thinks that the cooking gas in her house is leaking.

Which of these helped her notice the leak ?

D. 8.8%

C. 28.4%

A. 14.1%

No. of students 6026 B. 45.1%

A

B P

P

D

C

Only 45.1% answered correctly

being released can be seen.

1 Why was the question asked in ASSET test?

Students at this level know about gases and air. They also experience certain properties of gases in their day-to-day life, like odour of gases, pressure exerted by gases etc. It is an important safety skill to be able to detect cooking gas leakage at home, by identifying the odour of the leaking gas. We asked this question to check whether students understand that it is generally not possible to see a gas leakage and that the earliest warning of a gas leakage comes mainly from the smell of the leaking gas.

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What did students answer?

Less than half the students chose the correct answer to this question. 28% selected “eyes” (Option C) as their answer.

Possible reason for choosing A: Students selecting this option might have thought that when gas leaks it always makes a sound.

Possible reason for choosing C: Students selecting this option probably think that they can see the leakage from the cylinder or the hose. It is also possible that students got confused by the use of the word “notice” which is generally used for seeing.

Possible reason for choosing D: Students are probably making a random guess while choosing this option.

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Learnings It seems that students are trying to relate their experiences with gases to answer this question. Different gaseous substances may exhibit different properties and possibly students at this level carry the confusion that all gaseous substances have similar properties.

However gases have their own individual properties; they may or may not be similar.

Students may have heard some sound while gas is being released from a pressure cooker or a spray. Students are probably extending this everyday experience to conclude that every kind of gas release must be accompanied with a sound. Similarly seeing steam coming out of a pressure cooker might have led to the notion that a gas

It is important for children to know first that all gases are not the same and that they can have different properties. Second, they should understand that these properties can be exploited for different purposes. It will facilitate appreciation of other properties of gases at higher levels.

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How do we handle this?

Show examples of different properties of different gases to students. Illustrate these properties using different examples. Also mention that some gases have certain properties that other gases do not have. For example• Helium is a light gas that has a typical smell • Carbon dioxide is a gas found in fizzy drinks Give students some balloons, some of which are filled with air and some of with helium gas. Ask them to identify the ones filled with helium gas. They should be able to apply the understanding that if the balloon filled with helium is released, it will rise. Whereas the one filled with air will rise only if pushed up. Even if they do not know this and are able to observe certain balloons rising, they can then be shown that those balloons were filled with a different type of gas – helium.

DUKE TIP Story Academic Acceleration Helps Academically Talented Students Learn •

Although pull-out programs are the most common form of trying to meet the educational needs of gifted students, they are not the only method of supplementing the education of academically talented students.

Numerous reviews have been published listing different ways these needs can be addressed.

It has now been almost a decade since the report A Nation Deceived was published in the United States; the education community has long known that academic acceleration is grounded in strong empirical evidence of positive academic and social development of students.

Types of Acceleration According to A Nation Deceived, forms of academic acceleration include • Early admission to kindergarten/elementary/middle/high school/college • Grade-skipping • Continuous progress (the teacher controls the pace of progress) • Self-paced instruction (the student controls the pace of progress)

Subject matter acceleration (e.g., a fourth grade student taking a sixth grade math class) • Combined classes (e.g., grouping multiple grade-levels together that leads to academic interaction with older students)Curriculum compacting (less time spent on things like introduction, review, and practice) • Telescoping curriculum (e.g., completing a year’s math class in a single semester)Mentoring (partnering a student with an expert for more in-depth learning experiences) • Extracurricular programs (courses and instruction that occur outside the normal school day) • Correspondence courses (these are now typically online courses) • Early graduation • Concurrent/Dual enrollment (enrolling in college courses while still in high school) • Advanced Placement • Credit by examination (e.g., skipping algebra by taking the final exam and scoring sufficiently high) • Acceleration in college (often achieved through dual enrollment, Advanced Placement, or taking additional classes) Obviously, not all schools offer all types of acceleration options and many may not meet the individual educational needs of each student.

For example, grade skipping may partially help an academically talented student, but if she learns material very quickly, she may soon begin to outperform even her older classmates, despite having skipped a grade.

This does not mean that grade skipping is not effective; it just may not be the appropriate accelerative strategy for that particular student.

Similarly, self-paced learning requires the student to know when he should progress and when he needs to spend additional time learning the material at hand. He may have the ability to learn the material while not necessarily having the ability to accurately assess appropriate pacing.

Despite strong empirical support, some school policies still cling to traditional age-grouping. Resistance to acceleration may stem from the fact that it can require substantial extra work for school personnel, many of whom may not have much experience with accelerating students. Because of this, it is very important to work with school personnel appropriately to maximize the match between accelerative strategy and individual student need.

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