ASSETScope March 2014

The Monthly Newsletter

Issue 102 | March 2014 | www.ei-india.com

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Cover Story: Enhance Public Speaking...

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Educators’ Zone

3 School Zone

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Insight Story: Forums in the Classroom..

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Mindspark World

For Students

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Misconception Series

8 DukeTIP

COVER Story Enhance Public Speaking Skills at a Young Age Ever seen your confident, outgoing kid freeze when all eyes are on her? Stage fright is a common occurrence in children. Experts estimate that up to 75% of the people feel anxious about speaking in public..

Here are some tips to help students speak confidently in public: • Practice with Peers: Create a group of students about the same age to hone their presentation skills, because every speaker needs an audience. Have students present speeches, and then listen to feedback from fellow participants. This exercise helps them feel confident in front of a crowd, understand areas they are struggling with, and share their own thoughts with other shy speakers.

If the group has trouble beginning this exercise, offer advice about how to keep your cool while speaking in public.

• Stay on Schedule: Make sure that the same group meets at least twice a month for an hour each time. It’s crucial to have at least three or four children present to ensure they’re able to practise addressing an audience. Your students’ improvement may be slow initially, but after six or more mock presentations, you’ll notice them speaking loudly, clearly and confidently.

• Reward Hard Work: Create a list of goals for the group, and reward them appropriately when they complete each milestone. A goal can be anything from reciting a speech from memory or giving productive feedback to completing six presentations. Recognizing their progress with certificates, gold stars, or a sticker chart fosters a sense of pride for their efforts—and motivates them to continue practising their speaking skills.

• Develop a Definite Program: Each group assignment must focus on fulfilling at least one objective. Outlining a list of objectives must be done before the group is formed.

They are for example points like: type of presentation, the objective of the speech, the structure of the presentation, and the use of audio or visual materials. This will familiarise students and their peers with the elements of a speech presentation before they address a crowd.

• Give Feedback: While learning to give and receive constructive criticism is an important life skill, it can sometimes lead to hurt feelings or arguments that may prevent students from growing from small mistakes.

Show the group how to critique using a positive tone, such as saying “How about

saying…” instead of “You shouldn’t…” Tell them that these suggestions are meant to help one another become better speakers, not to put each other down. Oral or written comments can be given, depending on what students feel most comfortable with.

• Observe Public Speakers: Sit down with your students and watch the President recite a speech to the nation on TV, beauty pageant contestants answer questions, or other public figures address the masses. Talk about what the speakers say, how loudly they speak, whether they enunciate, the kind of body language they use etc. Paying attention to their actions helps students identify which strategies are effective and which ones are distracting.

Efforts to help students become effective public speakers, will create confident, selfreliant speakers, and will provide the tools they need to communicate clearly with others, whether at the playground now - or in the boardroom later in life.

EDUCATORS’ Zone Ms. Shakuntala Jaisinghani, Principal, RIMS International School, Pune

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

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I entered the education field by default. I had gone for my daughter’s admission in 1975 and the Principal of the school offered me a job of a teacher as they were looking for people who could speak good English (It was a Convent school). At first I was hesitant but thought of giving it a shot. That was the beginning of my passion for teaching and I am proud to say that it has not diminished one bit even after 38 years!

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What is your approach to classroom management and student discipline?

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I have changed my approach as per the demands of the generation, I have been teaching through the years. Earlier it was oriented towards teaching and now it’s focused on training my teachers. The present day generation cannot be handled with the old adage of 'Spare the rod and spoil the child'. Today they need valid reasons from the older generation

as to why they need to do different things in a certain way. I always tell them that every action has a reaction. If they are willing to do something they have to be ready to face the consequences.

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

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I strongly believe in CPD, continuous professional development, for teachers to keep pace with the changing times and to equip themselves with tools that are relevant to the time in which they operate.

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What is your view regarding the ASSET Test?

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I have been a promoter of ASSET in whichever school I lead because I have found it to be not only analytic in nature but also remedial in approach as it provides the necessary suggestions for the same.. As an Inspector of schools in Dubai for Quality education, I feel it meets International standards and is a well researched and constructed test. I have closely followed the efforts made by EI to understand the needs of the students and its focus on Assessment, whether it is ASSET, or Detailed Assessment (DA) or Mindspark, it is really commendable.

THOUGHTFUL Story Thinking "Out of the Box” Many hundreds of years ago in a small Italian town, a merchant had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to the moneylender. The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the merchant's beautiful daughter so he proposed a bargain. He said he would forgo the merchant's debt if he could marry the daughter. Both the merchant and his daughter were horrified by the proposal.

The moneylender told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble into an empty bag. The girl would then have to pick one pebble from the bag. If she picked the black pebble, she would become the moneylender's wife and her father's debt would be forgiven. If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father's debt would still be forgiven. But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail.

They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the merchant's garden. As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles.

As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick her pebble from the bag.

What would you have done if you were the girl? If you had to advise her, what would you have told her? Careful analysis would produce three possibilities: 1. The girl should refuse to take a pebble.

2. The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the moneylender as a cheat.

3. The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to save her father from his debt and imprisonment.

The above story is used with the hope that it will make us appreciate the difference between lateral and logical thinking. The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all

the other pebbles.

"Oh, how clumsy of me," she said. "But never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked." Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one. And since the moneylender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an advantageous one.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Most complex problems do have a solution, sometimes we have to think about them in a different way.

SCHOOL Zone Our Roots – Our Future

History is often treated as a subject of less importance in the middle and high schools. The key factor for this is the lack of a rightful approach. Students are asked to recall facts and write answers in the class and board exams. To break away this perception of learning of history, the social studies team at Educational Initiatives has designed a series of thought-provoking modules for teachers in the form of a oneday workshop. The objectives are on prioritizing problem solving and enquiry skills using primary and secondary sources in history.

The broad agenda of the workshop is based on two main themes: Time and Sources in History in the first half and Cultural Diversity of India in the second half. Both are engaging, filled with thought provoking activities, audio-visual demonstrations and group presentations.

In the first workshop that was recently conducted in Bengaluru, 43 teachers representing 25 schools of the city participated.

After an introduction and discussion on primary and secondary sources we focused on how historians use primary sources in their enquiry of a historical problem. The case study used was, Mahabalipuram, South India’s earliest experimental lab for a religious architectural movement which later gave rise to the famous classical temples. A documentary film on ‘Mahabalipuram’ produced by Marg under the title ‘Fast Forward’ was shown to the participants. In-between we paused and discussed how historians interpret historical themes.

The case study was followed by group activities. 6 groups were formed and each group was asked to design a year calendar using a particular theme for example, two groups were given a bunch of colonial paintings (1814) representing various aspects of life in Calcutta, the then capital of India under the East India Company rule. The groups had to research, plan and write on each of the primary sources and then design a calendar. There was also considerable use of technology while the

A Day Workshop for Teachers on Culture History and Heritage Studies

teachers were working on their project.

The group activity was summed up through presentations. Teachers presented their research findings and interpretations and later discussed how this could be used in class room situations.

The second half of the day focused on India’s cultural diversity. We discussed the significance of cultural diversity and then switched over to history. Through visuals we analysed how the Islamic architecture in India has a rich diversity.

This was followed by a brief session on the Social Studies questions in ASSET, why they are asked and what the general misconceptions are.

The modules were summed up well. Given below is also the gist of the feedback from teachers.

“Conducted continuously without wasting time; Presenters were cool and cheerful throughout the session; All the participants were active” – Ms. Radhika, Edify School “I interacted with many teachers of other schools and learned many things.”

– Ms. Manjuri Mukherjee, Euro School Chimney Hills “We made a lot of presentations and activities which enhanced our confidence levels” - Seema Shah, Sishu Griha School Our next workshop is going to be held in New Delhi on 5th April, 2014.

For more information regarding the workshop, please write to us at jitu.mishra@ei-india.com by - Jitu Mishra, Educational Specialist

FUN Zone Teacher: “Which is more important to us, the sun or the moon?”

Shyam:

“The moon”.

Teacher: “Why?” Shyam:

“The moon gives us light at night when we need it but the sun gives us light only in the day time when we don't need it”.

INSIGHT Story Forums in the Classroom; Enhancing Student Learning & Engagement As the use of computer technology in education expands, participants, administrators and observers continually wonder what is effective and what is a distraction. Unfortunately, many applications of technology in the classroom serve only to dilute the learning experience as students misuse resources or engage in unproductive diversions.

As a learning aid, discussion forums, on the other hand, have shown to stimulate critical thinking, improve communication skills, foster a sense of community among students, and encourage collaborative problem solving. Further, online forums enable students to work together on projects and participate at-will in evocative dialogues centered on course content.

Students will, however, have different reactions to text based discussions. Some may be frustrated by having to type everything they want to say while those with superior writing skills will have the advantage. Ironically, strong writers may not be the same students who exhibit verbal superiority in the classroom. Consequently, those who are ignored or interrupted during class discussions will often avail themselves of the expressive opportunity and display stronger "voices" in discussion forums.

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Instructors can easily update/modify project goals by groups or individuals.

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Instructors can statistically monitor participation levels of students as well as review their individual contributions.

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Links to specific resources can be shared individually or with the group.

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Student interactions can be closely monitored, measured and assigned credit for their efforts.

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Quotes from students can be included easily in subsequent threads (recognition stimulates engagement).

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Knowing others will read their posts, students will typically prepare their reference course materials more thoroughly before submitting responses for scrutiny.

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In discussion forums, students often interact enthusiastically with little prompting from instructors.

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Learning power and responsibility is transferred to students as teachers take more passive roles as moderators.

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Students are often more willing to openly and vigorously debate instructors and each other in discussion forums.

Forum characteristics that may benefit students are...

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Forums can be empowering for reserved students who prefer more "space" to formulate responses and opinions.

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Forums allow for different learning styles. Those students more focused and effective after school hours can engage at times more suitable to their learning aptitudes.

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Students can immerse themselves in alternative viewpoints and view how others develop their conclusions.

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Students can learn to communicate collaboratively and form relationships around academic goals.

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Active forum participation can improve students writing and communication skills.

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Participation in forum "discussions" demands that students actively engage in the course content.

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Individual knowledge and understanding is increased through shared student abilities and reasoning.

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Students can elect to receive (or not) email notifications of new posts or when threads they've posted in have responses.

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Students can brainstorm together, plan future projects, share research ideas and rough drafts, study as a group for future exams, and much more!

For instructors, the most convenient attribute of online forums is the asynchronous nature of the communication. As ongoing forum discussions are logged, administrators aren't "put upon" to immediately and cleverly facilitate engagement. Rather, they can take their time to consider effective ways to guide and intervene in student interactions.

This applies to students as well, providing each with time to ponder and construct their responses.

Some of the benefits of forums as a learning aid are...

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Instructors can create unlimited forum discussions to support the course or project efforts.

Summary To successfully incorporate discussion forums as a learning tool, teachers should be knowledgeable in their administration and be committed to the necessary level of engagement. Once acclimatised, when students are able to combine and coordinate lessons from the classroom and the discussion forum, a deeper, broader understanding of the subject matter will result. Further, once students are comfortable in the new forum environment, instructors will find themselves in more passive roles as students take greater interest and assume more responsibility for the discourse.

With proper management, discussion forums can dramatically enhance the student learning experience. To quote educational research scholars Harman and Koohang; "A discussion board as a learning object is a prime candidate for adopting the constructivism learning theory.

Constructivism learning theory includes elements such as collaboration, cooperation, exploration, higher-order thinking skills, knowledge construction, learner driven goals and objectives, multiple perspectives, multiple representations of content/idea/concept, negotiation among learners, learners’ previous experiences, real-world situations/problems, social disclosure, social negotiation, and the use of primary sources of data.”

Source: http://www.proboards.com/free-forum-articles/forums-in-theclassroom

MINDSPARK World How is Mindspark unique?

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Students learn by answering questions Mindspark focuses on understanding of concepts Questions, based on Adaptive Logic, are tailored to the child's knowledge level It addresses common errors & misconceptions Answers include in-depth explanations It uses visuals and animations for effective learning

Introductions in Mindspark Some topics in Mindspark start with an interesting introduction to the topic. The idea is to get the child engaged and interested in learning this topic by showing its applications in real life, how this can be useful in day to day life (if applicable), etc. These are usually short 5 minute activities.

An introduction to Simple Interest and Prime and Composite Numbers

An introduction to Simple Interest was made available to students in February. The module is a departure from the rote textbook definition of S.I. = P x T x R/100. A possible first on the internet, the module actually talks about why interest is needed in the first place. Through real life examples, it introduces one-by-one, the variables of the formula and allows a child to play around with them to understand how interest varies in direct proportion with each of these variables. All this is encapsulated in a good looking two-tone module.

An introduction on Prime and Composite Numbers was made available to students in February. The aim of this introduction is to ensure that the student gets introduced to the topic in a non-textbookish manner. The intro tries to inculcate a sense of awe and beauty for prime numbers and is available to students of Grade 6.

TESTIMONIAL

“

Our children are really benefited by Mindspark where they get different types of question that enhance their thinking ability and their understanding skills. Questions are very interesting and application based. Overall their performances in Maths have improved a lot. Thank you so much.

”

- Mrs. Jhumur Gupta Mindspark Co-ordinator, Sarala Birla Gyan Jyoti, Guwahati

www.mindspark.in

For Students

Don't waste your

Summer Holidays, 30 mins of Maths with

will make a difference

3 month pack at just `1685/What is Mindspark?

Work on topics covered in your school and catch up on concepts.

• • • •

for classes 1 - 10 Curriculum integrated program across all education boards Clear improvement in scores Challenge Questions, Revision Tests, Sparkies and more... www.mindspark.in www.facebook.com/Mindspark.EI www.twitter.com/mindspark_ei

Mindspark is computer based self-learning program that help the child improve his/her skills in Math. It allows each student to follow a learning path that is based on his need.

Where can I do Mindspark?

You can do Mindspark at home.

To register visit : www.mindspark.in/registrati onform.php Or mail us at mindspark@ei-india.com

MISCONCEPTION Series

Q

– 6 = 14 + 5 What number comes in the empty

Class 3: Maths A . 7.3%

Arithmetic Operations, Order of operations, Properties

?

D. 27.8%

A

6

B

8

C

19

B. 15.4%

P No. of students 12022

C. 40.5%

D 25 P

Only 27.8% answered correctly

some who answer 11 (5 + 3 + 4, just seeing the numbers and the operations). Such responses indicate that students have an inadequate understanding of the “equal to” sign. Research shows that students having problems with understanding of the “equal to” sign also have problems with understanding algebraic expressions and solving algebraic equations, in later classes. Therefore developing an understanding of the “equal to” sign and working with numerical equations is very important from this stage itself.

1 Why was the question asked in ASSET test?

The question was asked to test whether students are able to understand the meaning and significance of the “equal to” sign i.e.

Do they understand just the traditional meaning of the sign as 'announcing a result' or do they understand its actual 'relational' meaning that two expressions have the same value? At this level, students are expected to understand the question and substitute the options to find the number in the box.

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What did students answer?

Only about 28% of the students answered the question correctly, whereas about 40% of the students chose the most common wrong option, C. Possible reason for choosing A: Very few students have chosen this option and are probably making a random guess.

Possible reason for choosing B: These students probably saw the two numbers on either side of the equal-to sign and did “14 – 6” to get the answer as 8.

Possible reason for choosing C: These students are probably considering the meaning of the “equal-to sign” as ‘announcing a result’ and though the box is not immediately next to the sign, they are doing “14 + 5” to get the answer as 19.

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Learnings The “equal to” sign is treated by most students as something giving a result rather than as a sign to indicate that the expressions to its left and right are the same. There are other questions like 5 + 3 = ____+ 4 in similar tests. The response data on these questions show that many students answer 8, and some answer 3. There are

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How do we handle this?

Problem - Exposure to just the traditional meaning of the sign: Generally, students get exposure to the “equal to” sign only through the equations like 2 + 3 = 5. No other forms are really introduced to them, in the initial stages (such as 5=2+3, for instance). And by the time they are introduced to other forms of usage of the 'equal to' sign, they might have already internalised just the traditional meaning of it deeply. Hence, it becomes difficult for them to appreciate other meanings of the “equal to” sign.

Possible solution: A good thing would be to start doing balancing activities with numbers - activities demonstrating equations of all types like 5 = 5, 3 + 4 = 7, 3 + 4 = 2 + 5; demonstrating the equality and asking students to find the missing number to equate/balance.

Based on this intuitive understanding of the equality, students can be introduced to equating numerical expressions using the “equal to” sign. This would help students relate the sign to its actual meaning rather than only to its traditional meaning.

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

DUKE TIP Story Once a Genius, Always a Genius?

Few would argue against people knowing more about the world as adults than when they were children, but whether people become smarter as they age seems less universally accepted.

Research reports about IQ changes in individuals and across entire populations have been discussed in the mainstream media, but the numbers often lead to confusion and controversy.

The Research Findings A recent study published in the prestigious journal Nature showed that verbal and nonverbal IQ can change over time in teenage participants.

The authors conclude that their findings are good news for people whose IQ has the potential to grow and a caution for those showing early potential that their future achievements are not guaranteed.

Implications for Giftedness What does this mean about giftedness? Can a student who is identified as gifted eventually become “non-gifted?”

First, let’s review how an IQ score is calculated.

An IQ score is not the same as a score on a test at school. In school, a 100 is the highest you can get. On IQ tests, the average is set at 100.

Scores are also given relative to age peers and do not represent “the number right” on an IQ test. Thus, if a 10 year old and a 12 year old get the same number of questions right on an IQ test, the 10 year old will have a much higher IQ than the 12 year old.

If you view giftedness as a need for special educational opportunities because the student’s needs aren’t being met in the regular classroom, then yes, there is a chance that a gifted student could later no longer be “gifted” in that he or she no longer needs special accommodations to be appropriately challenged. The tallest student in fourth grade may be of only average height in eighth grade, and the student who is far ahead in Maths in the fourth grade may not be so far ahead by the eighth grade.

Research has shown that both biological and environmental factors play a role in both types of outcomes.

Generally, an individual’s IQ remains relatively stable over time. One study measured the intelligence of individuals at age 77 who had been tested when they were in elementary school and found that, in general,

performance stayed relatively the same. But that doesn’t mean there are never any changes. Environmental factors can play a large role in IQ. For example, the delayed onset of schooling (for reasons like war, disease, or lack of available teachers) leads to lower IQ scores. Moreover, many researchers believe that as we get older, genetic differences begin to play a bigger role in our lives. This is because as we age, we have more power over our lives than in childhood, when family and society are more likely to shape our environments.

Other Changes in IQ IQ is slowly rising across the globe. Commonly referred to as the Flynn Effect after James Flynn, the researcher who initially discovered the phenomenon, group average IQ scores are rising about three points per decade.

This doesn’t mean our great grandparents weren’t smart, but rather that people today are generally better at particular tasks than previous generations. For example, verbal scores have remained relatively stable while problem solving skills have been slowly increasing. These increases are not limited to improving the lowest scores because of the basic standard of living improvements. A TIP study has shown that scores are improving for students at the high end of performance as well. Researchers believe in living in more complex environments with more sophisticated stimuli and ease of access to information.

Although findings of individual and group changes in IQ get attention in the news, the general findings are not particularly new and both have been documented for over 20 years.

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