ASSETScope July 2014

The Monthly Newsletter

Issue 105 | July 2014 | www.ei-india.com

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Cover Story: Making Your School...

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Educators’ Zone

3 Mindspark World

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DukeTIP ASSET Talent Search

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DukeTIP ASSET Talent Search

Teacher Zone

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Misconception Series

8 ASSET Poster

COVER Story

Making Your School a Better Place Best Ideas for Making Schools Safe and Caring Place to Learn • Create a discipline and responsibility manual that defines behaviour expectations for all areas of the school with the help of students, teachers and parents jointly. An accompanying parent/student booklet can be sent home with each child. It can include a contract form to be returned to the school.

This will help achieve the mission to strive for excellence in education and to nurture responsible, caring citizens.

• Run a self-esteem and relationshipbuilding program that covers problem solving, anger management, expressing feelings, making friends, name calling and teasing in school.

• Organize programs like ‘Learning to Care’, where students can volunteer to work with: integrated special needs students of the school, senior citizens and younger students.

This will help in improving commitment to learning as well as helping each other.

• Conduct workshops on ‘Towards Peaceful Solutions’—in response to school and parent concerns that students are choosing aggressive means to solve

playground problems. The workshop can consist of a series of presentations and discussions with the administrator, a psychologist, a life skills worker etc.

• Assign a mentor - Each student can be assigned to a teacher advisor whose role will be to provide guidance for the student throughout his or her high school career. This big brother/big sister role advocates on behalf of the respective student under his care, communicates with the home and provides a caring, supportive relationship to assist the students with goal setting and career focus.

• Identify students who exhibit the 3 Rs (Reason, Respect and Responsibility) and the 3 Cs (Cooperation, Consideration and Caring).

Reward these students in assembly.

• Have a session everyday or once in a week for 5 minutes at the end of the day.

During this session every staff member can

take a group of 20 students. During these 5 minutes the staff members can do activities which assist in developing positive relationships among all students.

The student groups can be interchanged every few weeks; this will help to break down animosity and develops good student relations.

EDUCATORS’ Zone Mrs. Maheshwari Natarajan, Principal, Vidya Mandir Estancia, Chennai

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Regarding general discipline at school I ensure that all students know what is expected. I also explain the need for uniform discipline whenever there is a veering away, Most often, it is not students who break the rules, but parents!

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

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My Late mother was the person to influence me, though not overtly, to become a teacher. My earliest memories of my mother are of her doing notebook & exam paper corrections and setting question papers. The whole process fascinated me very much. My role play as a child used to be as that of a teacher who used to say something or the other to the children (with a scale in my hand!!).

My mother's side of the family has had many teachers in every generation. So it was no wonder that conversations among them would veer to students, teaching techniques, parent related issues and memorable incidents at school. I used to hang on to these exchanges and was quite determined to join in when I grew up. We have many teachers in our family now, though we teach an array of subjects ranging from science to arts to dance to tennis!!!

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Teacher Training is sadly lacking here in India, We are learning by rote the theories and going through various studies on "teaching, learning, curriculum, assessment, etc." We then manage to get through our B. Ed courses and in many cases that is the end of the training.

Periodic updation, exchange of ideas, peer observation, participation in teacher forums other than in subject meets, experimenting with new ideas, gaining an International perspective ... these are sadly lacking in a large number of our teacher population. Most often we tend to rest on past laurels and are quite happy to stay afloat.

In service training on a continuous basis not only for subject matter but also for trends in education and educational research findings are a must to keep abreast of the scenario. The trend is changing today, albeit slowly!

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The love my mother had for her job and her "children" was something that I decided I must experience!

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What is your approach to classroom management and student discipline?

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I believe that students have a right to set the classroom ethos just as much as teachers do. After all it is more their space than mine and they need to be comfortable! The first thing I do when I meet a new batch is put my cards on the table! I list out a set of definite expectations related to noise, speaking, submission, attendance, etc. Then I invite them to put down their cards. Together we then set out the rules of the class and believe me it works well as they have taken ownership of the rules!

What is your view regarding the ASSET Test?

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ASSET testing is a way of recording student output subject wise over the years and getting a clear picture of progress or lack of it. It also gives me an agenda for improvement/follow up in various subjects and helps in the planning of the syllabus vis- a -vis reinforcement of concepts.

It gives the students an exposure to multiple choice questioning that is concept oriented. Of course the certificates and medals are welcome!!

CONGRATULATIONS EI congratulates Mr. Srinivasan, Founder of The Gear International School, Bangalore for being awarded the Annual Inspired Indian Foundation (AIIF) award 2014 for his contribution in the field of gifted education and also for the honorary doctorate by Karnataka University for his valuable service to society.

Congratulations Sir on this laurel! You are an inspiration to many!

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

MINDSPARK World About Mindspark Developed on adaptive logic, Mindspark is a website based personalized learning tool. It helps a child to explore mathematical concepts at his own pace and level of understanding. Adaptive logic ensures that a more difficult question is asked only if the student answers the easier questions correctly. If a child is continuously answering certain questions wrongly, Mindspark asks easier questions till the child masters them. It is expected that the child learns the topic by

answering these questions, beginning with the most basic concept and working his way up to the more difficult and complex concepts.

Over 55000+ students are already doing Mindspark across 110 schools. There is a clear improvement shown in schools that have taken Mindspark.

For more information, visiting www.mindspark.in

Latest Feature added in Mindspark Mindspark User Feeds

Now students who are logged in, will know what their peers are working on in Mindspark, allowing them to, in the future, interact with each other.

This feature is the first in line of the list of collaborative learning ideas that will be implemented in Mindspark in the next few months. Students will be able to ask their peers for help on difficult questions by posting their queries on a common platform.

Testimonials questions very interesting e ar e er th e us ne asks me Mindspark beca ogress - if someo pr y m h it I personally like w s m le very friendly have some prob say that it is a d ul wo I en put up. Though I th hematics. rk on the whole prove in our Mat im to us s to judge Mindspa lp he site which really Girls, Kolkata Maths-working High School for n er od M B, 6 a, Priyal Bothr teresting and us with many in es id ov pr it e becaus r our practice.

I like Mindspark hs questions fo at M g in ng le al ch chool, Mumbai Activity High S B, 7 , ta up G ha Lees me which ucative program ed d an ve ti va oves inno lems and it impr as I think it is an I like Mindspark easy Maths prob d an t ul ic ff di both s skills. challenges us to our mathematic Lok, Gurgaon chool- Sushant S ic bl Pu i lh De B, Janani Gopal, 8

www.mindspark.in

DUKE TIP

ASSET TALENT SEARCH International Talent Search for Academically Talented 7th and 8th Graders For 13 years now, ASSET has been doing benchmarking, assessing higher order thinking and providing results in an actionable form to schools, teachers and parents so that ongoing learning can take place. Over the course of these years, ASSET has assessed over 10 million students across India, UAE, Kuwait and Singapore and gained insight into the strengths and weaknesses of these children. With this

knowledge and insight into the huge potential among the children, Educational Initiatives (EI) felt the need to make sure these promising students make the most of their academic talents.

With this belief, we are proud to bring to you and to your most academically gifted students

Duke TIP ASSET Talent Search is an International Talent Search meant to identify academically gifted students from grades 7th and 8th and to provide them recognition and educational opportunities to enhance their abilities further.

Through the Talent Search, ASSET would be able to help educators and families find out how advanced their students’ abilities truly are what level of Educational Challenge is appropriate for them. Gifted 7th and 8th graders will be invited to join other gifted students across

India and UAE to take an above-level ASSET test. Students will receive a comprehensive results summary of their performance on the above-level test, as well as numerous additional educational benefits and resources.

Benefits: 1.

Discovery Students receive complete summary of their performance in the above level test which helps the student and families find out how advance the student’s abilities truly are.

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Recognition All students will receive participation certificates. Students who perform exceptionally well in the test will be awarded National ASSET Scholar certificates and will receive special recognition.

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Opportunity Top performing students will get the opportunity to participate in the prestigious three week residential Summer Studies Program by Duke TIP in India and/or USA.

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Experience Bright students are already excelling on tests designed for their grade. The knowledge and experience gained from taking an above-level ASSET test is invaluable. The insight gained from an above-level test can assist families in understanding their child’s potential and in finding appropriate academic challenges through secondary school.

Duke Summer Studies Program At the Summer Program Study Topics like...

• • • •

Forensic science Cryptography Environmental Engineering Entrepreneurial Leadership • Neuroscience and Phychology • International Relations Visit www.eiindia.com/dukepip and/or www.tip.duke.edu for more information.

Call on 079-66211652/600 Mock crime scene from forensic science class

Teacher Zone Great Teaching: Concept Checking Questions Anyone who’s taught a class has been there: for example, you give the test, or say “go” after providing instructions, and stand by shocked and dismayed at how little of what you’ve painstakingly explained actually got understood. Nothing is more frustrating, and nothing causes teachers to heap more blame on their students, than having just said something only to have your students not know it.

Thank goodness you’ve been doing your relaxation exercises, and can handle the situation with grace. Unfortunately, your students still don’t know to number their papers 1 – 10, list their favorite books in reverse alphabetical order, swap papers, and write a paragraph on if they agree with their neighbor, even though you just said it… twice.

Enter Concept Checking Questions. These little gems, mixed with a healthy dose of the ‘No Opting Out’ strategy, will ensure your students understand every instruction or factoid, every time.

Concept Checking Questions are exactly what they claim to be, questions that help you, as the teacher, determine if your students understand any concept.

It’s actually very simple, let’s use the above instructions as an example of how a teacher might explain the issue and check for understanding. First, a standard example of not using concept checking questions: Teacher: Okay class, we’re going to do a fun activity. I want everyone to take out a piece of paper, number it 1 – 10, and write their favorite books in reverse alphabetical order.

When you’re done, switch with your shoulder buddy and read theirs, writing a paragraph about which books you’ve read, if you agree.

Teacher repeats the above, then: Does everyone understand?

Students: [Nodding enthusiastically] Yes! What could possibly go wrong? Well, nine times out of ten, your students will just say yes, half because they know it’s what they’re supposed to say, and half because they’re pretty sure they’ve got an idea of what you’ve asked them to do. No matter what age you teach, it turns out that people are terrible at

self-assessing their understanding, especially young people. They may actually believe they heard and painstakingly memorized your instructions, but in fact, only know to do something with books and then writing a paragraph, or something.

You sit back, expecting to relish in the glory of a job well done, only to see your students’ memories fail as they get further into the exercise and chaos begins to grip your classroom. Let’s try it again with some CCQ’s.

Teacher: [Gives Instructions as before, then] Ryan, what are you going to do first?

Ryan: Number my paper one through ten!

Teacher: Sakshi, is that correct?

Sakshi: Yes! Teacher: Great! Ruchi, what do you do next?

Ruchi: Uhhhmmm. Write a Paragraph?

Teacher: Rohan, is that correct?

Rohan: Shouldn’t he list his books first?

Teacher: Which books?

Rohan: His favourite?

Teacher: What do you think Meera?

Meera: Yeah, that’s right, in reverse alphabetical order.

And so on…

By the time you sit down, you’ve not only

FUN Zone Teacher to Pappu: “Why are you late?”

Pappu: “I started late from home”.

Teacher: “Why didn’t you start early?”

Pappu: “By the time I woke up, it was too late to start early”

gone over the instructions several times but you’ve ensured that every student has had to stay on the alert and ready to answer what comes next, thus making sure they’re all paying their due attention. It can also work with subject matter: Teacher: [Holding up a pencil] How would I say this, in English?

Jena: Pencil?

Teacher: [now putting down the pencil] Great!

Hmmm, but, I wonder, what are pencils made of?

Rahul: Wood!

Teacher: Ahhh, do they have ink inside them?

Class: No! Teacher: Ohh, if you make a mistake with your pencil, what can you do?

Pinky: Erase it!

Now, the teacher has made sure that not only do her students know what a pencil is, they know that “pencil” doesn’t mean anything that writes, especially that a pencil is different from a pen. For pencil and pen this may not seem necessary, but it’s an easy way to show how to use CCQ’s to differentiate and define, and is great for more complex ideas like rich and greedy, solids and liquids, or irrational and imaginary.

MISCONCEPTION Series Reading for Understanding – Grammar

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Class 4: English

Which sentence is correct?

D. 29.6%

Ravi is not as tall as he is.

A P B

Ravi is not as tall than he is.

C

He is taller than is Ravi.

D

He is taller as Ravi is.

No. of Students 4563

A. 39.4%

P

C. 17.4% B. 11.7% Only 39.4% answered correctly

1 Why was the question asked in ASSET test?

Grammar is an integral part of language. It is on these crucial stilts that language rests. Wrong grammar not only creates a bad impression about the writer/speaker, but may also hinder her/his ability to understand concepts in entirety. This question assesses if students have understood how to express “degrees of comparison” correctly in sentences.

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What did students answer?

About 39% of 4,563 students chose the correct answer A, “Ravi is not as tall as he is.” About 30% students chose the most common wrong answer D, “He is taller as Ravi is.”

Possible reason for choosing B: These students have mixed up the positive and comparative degrees. They have not realised that “not as tall than” needs to be actually “not as tall as” or simply “taller than”.

Possible reason for choosing C: These students seem to be confused with sentence construction rules. Since the sentence says “is taller”, they have assumed that “is” is required and needs to precede some word. Students choosing this option seem to be having problems in the correct word order in sentences.

Possible reason for choosing D: These students are possibly confused about the use of the comparative or positive degrees. They have concentrated on “is” following a pronoun/noun and assumed that it is the correct sentence.

They may have assumed that the sentence actually means ‘He is taller as Ravi is.’ (colloquially meaning ‘He is taller than Ravi is.’)and so chose this sentence.

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Learnings There could be 2 reasons why students couldn’t answer this question correctly: • they are not used to finding the correct sentence by differentiating the fine differences in the given sentences • they may not know the exact difference between the positive and comparative degrees in the form of sentences Students who answered correctly may have understood these concepts in entirety and may also be having adequate practice in using these concepts.

Adequate practice in these areas and continuous reiteration of these rules will make it easy for students to use them in daily life.

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How do we handle this?

It may be a good idea to try and explain these concepts in a real life situation and reiterate their value through classroom and homework practice.

Exercise 1 For e.g. You can make two children of the same height and say “Shireen is as tall as Noreen” What does this mean? Who is taller? Children are likely to say that both of them are equally tall. Draw attention to “as tall as” Repeat this activity till they get the point. “Neeta’s hair is as long as Tanu’s.”

“Aarti is as naughty as Varun.” “My Maths book is as thick as my science book.”

Repeat the same activity for the comparative degree. E.g. ask two children of varying heights or varying hair length, etc. to stand up and say, “Ankita is taller than Nayan.” Draw attention to “taller than”. Repeat this activity till they get the point. “It is colder than it was yesterday.” “Maya runs faster than Ujjwal.”

Exercise 2. Then give them practice sentences for both these.

1. Neeta and Rita are of the same height, so Neeta is ________ Rita.

2. Juhi is shorter than Rinku, so Juhi is not _____________ as Rinku.

3. Megha is the neatest girl in my class. My work is also neat, but not _____________ as Megha.

4. Dhruv always comes first in class. If I want to come first, I will have to work __________________ him.

5. I bought a pair of shoes last month, Ayush bought a pair yesterday. So his shoes are _________________ mine.

Exercise 3. You can then present the class with similar questions as in this sheet and see if they are able to choose the correct answer.

1. Choose the correct sentence.

A. Ali is taller as Nazim.

B. Nazim is as tall than Ali. C. Nazim and Ali are as tall.

D. Ali is as tall as Nazim.

2. Choose the correct sentence.

A. Her scissors are sharp than mine.

B. My scissors are as sharp than hers.

C. My scissors are not sharper as hers.

D. Her scissors are sharper than mine.

You can repeat this exercise every fortnight for 5-10 minutes to ensure that students internalize this concept and usage clearly.

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

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