Examination Blues – How to set question papers and give instructions during exams?

April 2010

It is examination time at most schools in India during this period and hence there are many invaluable experiences that we get during these days which must be shared for managing the examination blues! This post would therefore be a rolling post and I would be updating this as and when I learn about more such valuable experiences.

In a short discussion with the teachers during the lunch-break today,  I found the following important ideas or lessons learned that can be used to make the examination process smoother with less stress on teachers and can provide students better clarity on what is expected from them during the exam.

Lesson-1:[7th April 2010]: When making the question papers be as specific on what return is expected from the question. Having a clearly laid out marking scheme even before the test is administered helps in explaining to the students, at the beginning of the exam,  that what is expected on each question that has been asked. Students can also be made aware of common pitfalls or mis-understandings and therefore, would have a better clarity when attempting the paper.

Lesson-2:[7th April 2010]: When the teacher goes to the class to read the question paper to the students, the teacher must ask all students to listen to him/her carefully as the instructions if missed may lead to wrong/unexpected responses given by the students. i have seen that while the teacher is reading the paper many students tend to ignore the instructions just because they are busy in attempting the questions or getting ready for the exam.

 

Lesson Research – Let’s go the JAPANESE WAY!

April 6th, 2010

While browsing the internet to understand how to make lesson plans that can really get the teachers’ intended instruction on key concepts across to the student, I found the JAPANESE WAY of achieving this.

The story dates back to 1993, when a researcher-cum-author, Catherine Lewis, went to Japan to work on her book – Educating Hearts and Minds: Reflections on Japanese Preschool and Elementary Education (1995). While researching for her book, Catherine Lewis sat in Japanese elementary classrooms for months although she was not focused on science instruction, she discovered that, without any intention to do so, she was learning much science. When she asked Japanese teachers how they actually learned to teach science, the answer she heard again and again was “kenkyuu jugyou” - means research lesson (or study lesson), and refers to the lessons that teachers jointly plan, observe and discuss.

Research lessons are actual classroom lessons with students, but typically share five special characteristics -

1. Research lessons are observed by other teachers.

2. Research lessons are planned for a long time, usually collaboratively.

3. Research lessons are designed to bring to life in a lesson a particular goal or vision of education.

4. Research lessons are recorded.

5. Research lessons are discussed.

Details of Catherine’s research paper are published at http://www.lessonresearch.net/aera2000.pdf

 

Mathew Effect: Are We bridging the gap?

29th January 2010

We had a professional development session in our school, where I lead a session on strategies useful in teaching maths and the reasons why students failed – more specifically in math.

We explored the reasons for low-performance overall for the school – This year, out of the 300 students in our school 29% students have scored less that 25% on average in all subjects put together, whereas last year this number was ~ 10%.

Here is an excerpt from the presentation that shows us the current reality for the state of education in our country and then talks about the effects of the achievement gap and how it manifests.

According to India’s largest educational non governmental organization (NGO) Pratham, in 2006, nearly 47 percent of children who were in school and studying in grade 5 could not read the story text at grade 2 level of difficulty. In arithmetic, 55 percent of grade 5 and 25 percent of grade 8 children could not solve a simple division problem (3 digits divided by 1 digit). The data is presented at http://i22.tinypic.com/2r4n0o4.jpg.

The above figure is self-explanatory, but let’s highlights the findings. Look at the following groups of primary grade Indian students and their reading skills.

1. At Grade 2, only 8.3 percent read at grade level.
2. At Grade 3, only 19.9 percent read at grade level.
3. At Grade 4, only 37.6 percent read at grade level.

4. At Grade 5, only 53.0% of Indian students read at grade level
In other words, an average Indian student (defined as 50 percentile) is almost 3 years behind in reading by the second grade.

Matthew Effect

There is a line in the Matthew’s Gospel that says, “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance:  but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath” (XXV:29).

Like the line in Matthew’s Gospel, the rich students get richer, and the poor students get poorer.  Hence, in 1983, Walberg and Tsai first coined the term the “Matthew Effect” to describe the fact that, without intervention, some students rapidly develop and build upon strong literacy foundations, and other students languish behind their more fortunate peers.

The gap that separates the “haves” from the “have-nots” is small but detectable in the early grades.  Without intervention, that gap widens over time, until, by the 4th grade, it is nearly insurmountable.  Research indicates that past the 4th grade, literacy intervention and remediation programs are only successful with about 13% of struggling readers. What the Matthew Effect tells us, then, is that early intervention is much more effective than later intervention or remediation.

- In education the term “Matthew effect” has been adopted by Keith Stanovich, a

psychologist who has done extensive research on reading and language disabilities. Stanovich used the term to describe a phenomenon that has been observed in research on how new readers acquire the skills to read: Early success in acquiring reading skills usually leads to later successes in reading as the learner grows, while failing to learn to read before the third or fourth year of schooling may be indicative of life-long problems in learning new skills. (Summary from Wikipedia)

(source: http://www.balancedreading.com/matthew.html)

Are we bridging the gap?

The achievement gap cannot be completely closed, however, by simply carrying out more intensely some program that zealous adherents claim will close it. Certainly, some whole-school reforms have shown positive long-term effects when administered consistently over time. Nevertheless, to deal effectively with the gap means that we must deal with the underlying problems of society.3

As any inner-city teacher can tell us (and many rural and suburban teachers as well), to pretend that schools can single-handedly overcome a lifetime of deprivation through a “whole-school action plan” or through rigorous and intensive adherence to a particular reading program is more an exercise in ritualistic magic than a realistic solution to social, economic, and personal problems.

 

Design For Giving

 

The Secret Formula for becoming a ‘Chart-buster’

March 13, 2010

I was in the staff room, when Omkar came and submitted his math project book with multi-colour pies drawn in it. Before leaving he said, “Bhaiya do let me know how much marks I score on this project.” The project was about finding articles with numerical data from the newspapers, making a pie chart from it and later, reading the article and commenting on how useful was the pie chart in understanding the article. And looking at the colorful pies on Omkar’s project book I travelled back in time, when I had started teaching in June last year.

In June, I was given a set of grade specific standards in an excel workbook. My love for excel and an itch for automation made me change the excel workbook so that I could pull out the standards from multiple grade specific sheets and put them in a certain order (as per the chapters in the SSC textbook). By an error of reference for the STATISTICS part of the learning goal I pulled out the standards for grade-7 instead of grade-5. And so, now grade-5 students know a grade-7 skill of reading, creating and interpreting a pie chart.

As if that wasn’t enough that at least some of my students were way above their grade level, that I turned over the pages of Omkar’s project to find ‘mathematically correct’ work (as I had explained in the class). And finally, on the last page was a Secret Formula – A secret formula that used higher algebra and the stepwise knowledge of making a pie chart to create a formula that any one could use to make a pie chart. Well, my little chart-buster managed to bring tears of joy in my eyes.

 

1% Potable water, 99% Communication Gap

March 20, 2010

Cling, Clang, Clung!!! I heard the sound of the bottles of water being thrown out of the class where as a class teacher I teach the students Science and Social Studies. And, so I came out of the class, where I was teaching math, to see what happened just to be greeted with a few more water bottles of children being thrown out the window of the class. The Marathi teacher seemed really miffed with the students’ habit of drinking water during the period, so without asking the students to put away their bottles, he decided to throw the bottles out of the class window as a gesture to show his displeasure. Well, I decided that it wasn’t appropriate to interfere and so came back to the class where I was teaching math. After, sometime I heard the Marathi teacher shout and he sent a student out of the class. Well, since I am the class teacher of this class I found it hard to stop my self from intervening into the matters of the class while another teacher was still in class. But, I couldn’t control myself from speaking to Ashfaq (the student who was punished) to understand why was he taken out of the class. I went up to him and asked him, “Ashfaq what happened? Why have you been asked to stand outside the class?” To which Ashfaq responded, “Bhaiya, when I saw that our marathi teacher threw out water bottles outside the class, I felt very disappointed that he wasted so much water. So I just told him that he should not waste water. And so, he took me out of the class.” Well, I was both happy that my student knew so much and sad because the child didn’t know why he was taken out of the class. Before, I could open my mouth to explain him why he was punished, he said, “Bhaiya you have only taught us that there is only 1% of potable water on earth, even then our marathi teacher did not understand what I said and wasted water.” To this, I smiled and wrote Ashfaq an apology note for the Marathi teacher and asked him to go back to the class.

 

“My life is my message”: Teach For India fellows Live the life of the Mahatma for three days

Ahmadabad, 25^th October 2009

“Waking up” to a slight chill on a bright sunny morning 87 young leaders were initiated into the life of the mahatma for three days at Ahmedabad. This was a thread ceremony to gear them up for the next stage of their leadership experience at Teach For India fellowship – Community Project. At Teach for India we believe that the community is a leader’s best learning ground and this is where he can draw the biggest inspiration during his highs and can fallback for motivation during his lows. Therefore, the community project is a means of personal transformation through the transformation of the communities towards the end goal of building leadership potential.

On the first day, the fellows met Jayesh Bhai, who heads the Manav Sadhna initiative, at the Environmental Sanitation Institute (Sughad). Standing on the prototype of a toilet, Jayesh bhai began his discourse on the Gandhian principle of eradication of untouchability. To him, he said “Temple and toilet are equal and opposite – you go to the temple to cleanse your inner thoughts similarly you go to a toilet to cleanse your body, why then should you not have immense respect for the toilet and for those who practice scavenging, or manual removal of faeces?” These thought provoking questions asked and answered by Jayesh Bhai not only challenged the fellows’ core fundamentals of life but also left the fellows in a state of contemplation by creating enthusiasm for leadership through the Gandhian way. Later, the fellows went to the Gandhi Ashram to know the mahatma a little more deeply.

On the Second day, the fellows stepped out of their comfort zone to embark on the journey of self discovery through the “Livelihood Project” organized by Manav Sadhana at the Tekhra Community. The fellows were to live ,for a day (from 9AM – 4 PM), the life of an individual from the community by working with them on their livelihoods – from rag picking to skinning the cows for meat – and later sharing a simple meal with the community. The day elicited strong reactions from the fellows, while some felt a dire need for the transformation of the community – “This is such a tough job to do, I wish I could buy the community a machine for automatically creating bundles of junk”, said Ivan Dias, A banker from USA and fellow Teach for India 2009 – others were transformed personally in more ways than one – “I had the hardest time of my life today, I am not going to eat non-vegetarian meals any more”, said Anoop Errakil, fellow Teach for India 2009 after he skinned the cows for meat.

As the day unfolded the fellows’ fundamentals were further broken up and remade, it was as if the fellows were reborn every single moment they spent at the community.

On the last day of the retreat, the fellows spent a day at a conference that brought together fellows from Teach For India, Indicorps and Gandhi Fellowship on a common platform thereby giving them an opportunity to share and discuss their experiences. It was both inspiring and humbling to meet each fellow embodying the Gandhian principle of “Be the Change you wish to see in the world”.

On being asked about how the three fellowships strike a synergy amongst themselves, one of the fellows said, “We look forward to an India where we engage all the stake holders towards creating educational equity by having a Gandhi fellow to work with the school head masters, by having a Teach For India fellow in the classroom and by having an Indicorps fellow in the community. This to us will truly lead to educational reform in India.”

Three days of retreat, a few rebirths and the fellows saw a spark of Gandhi light well within them. I believe that’s what the fellows gained from our Ahmedabad “Re-Treat”.

 

Excerpts from Leadership Forum with Rahul Bose – A Bollywood Actor

Mumbai, 28, June 2009

There is a theory which says that there is finite Pain & pleasure in this world.

There has to be some Alchemy through which this pain can be converted into pleasure. We human beings are capable of becoming the “lightening conductors of pain”. And its only when we become the lightening conductors of pain that we can make a contribution this society by taking pain and giving back pleasure.

Our lives revolve around fame, wealth and power. Let us see 3 examples who have enough of one of them – Fame – Naseeruddin Shah, Wealth – Mukesh Ambani & Power – Dr. Manmohan Singh.

Our Skills, time and money is all that we can contribute. And when you contribute it should be like these have fallen through your back pocket, without you being aware of it. Be Generous. And whenever you help a needy individual tell to yourself, “I have created this space in my heart for you only because of my personal happiness and pleasure that I may draw out from this action of my mine.”

Rahul said, “I don’t remember even a single teacher in my life and that is because I never had good teachers. I wanted my teachers to be compassionate, intelligent and ones that possessed a sense of humility and humor.” The best gift that you can give your students and the lives you touch is feeling of belief and confidence in them.  A simple line “I believe in you” makes wonders in the life of anyone. Just be generous with it.

Think!!! – With the knowledge that you are sharing with your kids what should they do ?

He then discussed and advised us to read a Good book  – Letters to Amee by Saeed Mirza.

He then narrates an incidence or states an example – “Suppose you see an old tribal women with a sick child in her hands and she is standing right outside your car. Will you turn your 45 degree into the car and stare at her breathe-in breathe-out but do nothing? How have we reached this condition? Does the Prime Minister know about this?”

“Believe in unconventional giving. And reach closure to the pain that you feel by looking at the old woman right there and then.”

Always ask yourself  “How much slower have I made the process of degradation? Never think of affecting a change.” India is in a process of degardation compare it to a boulder falling from the mountain. Because you are there you only reduce the pace with which the boulder is falling, you can never stop it from falling. But remember one day this boulder will stop, you may or may not be alive to see it.

“Do you guys read the magazine Tehelka? If not then you all must read it. The last week’s issue has a story by a person name Binayak (the article is related to Naxalites).”

“Suppose you are in middle of a shot and you are called out for a break. You pick up a magazine and as you are going through it you happen to read the review of your last film. And you feel worst reading the review as the film has been badly criticized and your role has been completely disliked. What is that makes you go back for your next shot as humble, as true, as charismatic and as your magical best that you were before you had read the review ? Find the answer within yourself. Each of us will have a different motivation for this. Find yours.”

“You are massively famous, wealthy and powerful for 90% of India. You are huge in their eyes. If you hadn’t taken this step, if you hadn’t done it no one else would have. There are 3 parts of India — Africa: Bastar, India: Gorakhpur & America: Mumbai.”

“As soon as you step in, when you are married your biggest weakness will come alive and will hit you in your face.”

Rahul told us about himself and how he had been a lightening conductor of pain in his life? – “I was a brilliant academic performer in school, so I had declared to everyone that I will go abroad for higher studies. In 1985, India lacked self esteem, we all wanted to become white go abroad to study,etc. I applied to 36 US colleges and was rejected by all of them. Finally, I did my B.COM from Sydenham College, India. My first movie was English August. I spent time with my mother when she was ill. I Sponsor the education of 6 children from Andaman and Nicobar at Rishi Valley school every year. “

“I always ask the children that i interact with to do 1 act of willful kindness and one act of willful destruction and then I ask them after doing which of these acts did you feel more powerful?”

“I wonder to myself – What connects India ? And then I realized that when you go and stand on any cross road on a highway you will find – the same smell of a dhaba, the same taste, you see the same bells on animals, the same pollution and the same music.”

“Le Courbusier designed 2 cities – Chandigarh and Manhattan. Where as in Manhattan forward moving people live and where each row and column of houses will take you exactly where you want to reach following the linear psyche, In India for years people didnot go and settle down in Chandigarh. This is because we Indians want places to hangout(a city with a soul). We never answer the questions to the point and take us where the way takes us. We want to explore and find ways instead of being withholded in a place which takes us no where. Therefore when people who built houses in Chandigarh realized that they decided to make shopping complexes, cinema halls and eating joints where people could sit and chit chat. And only then the people started settling in Chandigarh. That’s the beauty of Indians. And we say Americans are forward moving. “

*Disclaimer: Please note this is the version of the discussion with Rahul I recall of my memory so it may have some discrepancy between what he said and what i recollect.

 

A Testimonial

Two months in Teach For India, a month into the school with my students and as a class teacher, I want to share my sentiments for my experience at Teach For India hitherto.

Franklin D Roosevelt in his inaugural Presidential Speech on March 4,1933 said, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyses needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

It reminds me of my days in Delhi when I was taking this decision of joining TFI. I was torn apart by the dichotomy between a “known world” that had a corporate career path for years to come, a well paying job with the comfort of staying at my home and an “unknown world” where I was to work for a social cause with no fixed direction after 2 years and a job that paid enough for frugal living with the discomfort of relocating to another city. These fears were certainly NOT nameless, unreasoning and unjustified then.
Now, in retrospect, i see a rationale behind those fears and I am able to perceive the difference between conventional wisdom of living your life and what goes well in 99% of cases and the Alchemist-kind of contemporary wisdom which asks you to explore, think and reason out the purpose of your life and what may work in your case.
Joining TFI was a decision provoked by contemporary wisdom. And though I still cannot say what will happen two years hence what i can say is that I have been exposed to sensitivities of children from low income households and humbled by the behavior of these children, have worked my way through the administrative issues at school, have nurtured my creativity through designing simple & understandable lessons for my children, have thought on my feet numerous times to answer witty questions from students and difficult questions from parents, to fix discipline issues at school and to juggle with multitude of issues right when they stare in my face,  have interacted with great men like Dr.Mashalkar, Rahul Bose and Nachiket Mor, have added value by applying my skill sets for the betterment of school, have improved my knowledge of history because my teaching warrants that and lastly have learned to cook food and have appreciated my family a thousand times for i now realize their worth and importance in my life much more than ever. Could I get these virtues, these skills, this exposure and this ability of thinking on my feet by staying back in the “known world” and living my life as per conventional wisdom? I think not, it is here that i feel that fears are circumstantial and therefore now nameless, unreasoning and unjustified. And as Franklin D Roosevelt once said, “Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live.” I am sure the experience has made me more confident and sure of my abilities as a person with a growing sense of purpose and satisfaction through this experience at TFI.

I wish we have more young people joining us in this movement towards reducing educational inequity in our country. And so to summarize my thoughts and to end it with another great line by Franklin D Roosevelt, “Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy, the moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days, my friends, will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves, to our fellow men.”

 

Nachiket Mor – Talk on Inclusive Growth in Education sector

Excerpts from chat with Nachiket Mor (ICICI Foundation for inclusive growth)

A good book to read: John Hold- “why children fail?”

Net enrollment at primary school level (06-07) – 92.75 %.

ASSET Test- When on this test students were asked the question ababab/ab = ? Most students answered that it is equal to “1111″ & When asked what is the formula of steam – most students across India answered that “Steam has NO formula”.

Teaching is an art and a skill, you have to learn it. you don’t need a formal educational degree for it.  You should know how to make the child understand the concepts.

Skills have benchmark- I have demonstrated to you a certain school level.  Standards as per subjective relativity. Therefore, every teacher should know the standards.

Cognitive resonance reduction – all things look good in retrospect.

Incomplete contracts Theory – Tells about the difference between what i should evaluate a person on and what the person thinks he should be evaluated upon. The best people in the organizations are the ones that do more than what contract says (i.e. what they are supposed to do).

Poverty action lab website of MIT. Sewa mandir schools.

55 lakh teachers are in India.

There is a well known theory that says that What you teach other people you retain 90% of it. Then why is that the   teachers fail in tests on the level of students they are teaching even after teaching for 5 yrs ? There should sure something fundamentally wrong somewhere.

Kids must get out of this nonsense-a black parent south american foundation.

1. Standardised tests

2. Inclassroom support

3. Head master as school leader

4. Strengthen public schools

5. Regulate private schools – structure, pressure & support.

Parents participation in performance of child in school-fixation on ranks, who can reproduce, emphasis on competition.

Reaffirm to the child that his knowledge has a value – parent can be involved.

Frustrated in learning stuff that is well below his mental level.

DIET.

For Last mile delivery – codify & creates stringent rules. For any large system to run successfully some rules have to be there.

For e.g. Jet airways has pretty stringent rules.

Moment of truth score- ask branch client right outside the branch just one question ‘how did he like the bank?’

Taj hotels-smile,crumbled paper

Starbucks-high quality service- A Waitress at Starbucks – “Mr.mor you look sad what happened ?”

It is a conversation that you need to enter in with your customers and not just a simple service. You have to create a culture of respect, of humility and of value-add that you are bringing to the customer’s life by serving him.

Teaching is a volunteer activity.

‘No child left behind’ program by George Bush was a fantastic initiative. But he did not execute this in the right manner.

When asked on how do you think changes can be brought about in big organisations ? He said that ” Changes take their own time to happen and for every one to embrace them. Therefore, Take baby steps.  If today is even iota better than yesterday than be happy that the change is happening. Don’t expect too much to happen in a short while.”