Best practices in teaching

novel ideas Instead of indulging your students in rote learning and falling into a rut, try out new methods that can interest them, says Srijaya N Cha

Teaching can be made innovative and fun by using unconventional teaching methods in class. Let us look at two examples to see how a classroom can be made livelier.

A democratic test

A teacher is teaching English to class II. There are about 30 children in the class. The English textbook that the teacher is using consists of 15 lessons and five poems. For Term I, the teacher might have completed about five lessons and two poems with them. There will be a Unit Test by the end of the term.

The teacher takes a poll. She gives a blank sheet of paper to every child and tells them to list three lessons and one poem that they would like to learn for the test. A ballot box is kept on the teacher’s table. They need not write their names. They should fold the papers and insert it in the box.

The teacher opens the box in private and makes a list of the most number of votes that a particular lesson has received and sees the name of the poem that the majority of them have liked.

When she meets the class again, she writes down the name of the prose lessons and the poem that has got the maximum votes and tells them that she will prepare a question paper based on only those lessons and poems. I have also tried this personally and the children loved it.

Students as teachers

This involves two classes: VI and VII

 Day 1

Class VII: The teacher collects passages ranging from 300 to 500 words from various magazines and newspapers that are relevant, comprehensive and interesting for children aged 12-13. S/he cuts and pastes them on a chart. There should be enough for all the students of a class. Each student will get one passage.

Each student is instructed to write their names behind the chart on the top left corner.
The passages are distributed among the class VII students for ‘silent reading’ and comprehending. The students are then asked to prepare a question paper for the passage in the following order-

 5 questions to be answered in one sentence (1 mark each)
 5 questions to be answered  in two or three sentences (2 marks each)
 5 fill in the blanks (1 mark each)
 5 words to be picked for making sentences (1 mark each)
 5 adjectives in the passage to be picked up. (1 mark each)

Day 2

This same test is administered to class VI students as well. Passages collected from class VII students are distributed to class VI students at random as a test. Now they will write their name behind the chart at the bottom. They read their passages and complete their tests. The teacher collects all the sheets from the students.

 Day 3

Back to class VII: The teacher distributes the passage sheet, the question paper sheets (prepared by them) and also the answer sheets collected from class VI. They have to be distributed to the same student who had prepared the question paper. Class VII students are now the teachers. They will evaluate the answer scripts. This should take one class. The teacher collects all the sheets by the end of the period.

Day 4

Class VI: The corrected answer sheets are now distributed to the class VI students. The name will be found at the back of the chart at the bottom.

It may not be practical for the teacher to read all the passages and judge the questions set by the seventh graders to the sixth graders. It may not even be necessary. This is just to encourage the students to do some work and they do it with enthusiasm. As of now, the students know which class VII student has corrected his/her paper. They will then discuss their evaluations  when they have some free time.

Good teaching is often about humour. It’s often about making innocuous jokes that is not at the expense of anyone so that the it acts as an ice breaker and students learn in a more relaxed atmosphere. Students also enjoy when you narrate some of your own personal experiences. It is true that really good teachers get into the profession of teaching only because they truly enjoy it.

Go ahead and try to involve your students in some unconventional teaching practices that haven’t yet been tried. You will see a world of difference in the results.