Collaborative Approach to Holistic Learning (CASE STUDY)
Arjun, a student of grade six
stood staring at the floor of the classroom, while Seema, the class teacher,
continued urging him to read the lesson on the Solar System. It was the Science
class just after lunch time and Seema always used to find it difficult to gain
the attention of the students in all her classes post lunch. “What’s the matter
Arjun, why don’t you read the lesson on Solar System? You have your Science
book in front of you. Why can’t you read it?”
“Miss, Ravi has torn a few pages
from Arjun’s Science book, because Arjun had refused to lend his video game to
him.” piped in Shashank, who used to sit beside Arjun in the classroom.
“Arjun, when did this happen?”
asked Seema.
“Miss, during Mathematics class,
when we were to do a class work….” Arjun’s voice trailed off and he continued
look at the floor.
“Your first morning classes are
Mathematics class isn’t it?” asked Seema.
“Yes miss...” Arjun merely
murmured his response and stole a quick look at Seema to see her reaction.
Seema remained silent and keenly
observed each and every student in the classroom. Just then the school bell
rang marking the end of a day at the school.
The following morning the students
were amazed to see Seema enter the classroom instead of the Mathematics teacher
and she asked the students to keep their mathematics book away.
She kept a pile of books on her
desk and said, “No Mathematics today! We will have fun today. I am going to tell you a story and
you will make a note of the names of all the Gods I mention in the story.
Agreed?”
A spirited chorus of “Yes Miss!”
echoed in the class.
Seema picked up a book and began
reading a story from Greek Mythology that spoke about all the Greek Gods. From
time to time she would look at her students who were engrossed in the story and
were not distracted by any sound from inside or outside the classroom. Seema
completed reading the story and asked her students, “So, how was the story, did
you like it?”
“Oh yes Miss, it was really
interesting!” replied all the students.
“Have you written down the names
of the Gods in the story?” asked Seema.
“Yes Miss, there are good many of
them replied the class.
Seema smiled and picked up the
books she had kept on her desk and handed a book each to two students seated
together at a desk. It was a picture book on Solar System that Seema had got
from the school library. As soon as they students got the book, they began
admiring the colour pictures of the planets in the book.
Seema smiled and after having
distributed the books to the students, she said, “Now, I want you to identify
the Gods, whose names you have written down with the planets in the book. You
have only five minutes to complete it.”
No sooner had Seema finished giving the instructions, the students got
busy noting down the name of the planet beside the name of the Greek God they
had listed while enjoying the story and they completed the activity much before
the allotted five minutes. Seema smiled and in random asked the students to
name the Greek God whose name was given to a planet begin with ‘Mercury’ the
first planetary member of the Solar System. Seema was happy with the lively
response she got from the students. Entire class seemed happy doing the
activity. After they had named all the Greek/Roman Gods for each planet of the
Solar System, Seema smiled and addressed the class, “I want all of you to do a
project on Solar System and it is going to be a team project. I want a Research
Team, a Scribe or Report Writing Team, an Art Team, and a Review Team. Listen
carefully. Two members from each of these four teams will be members of each of
the four main teams A, B, C and D.”
“Miss, we always do any project
by ourselves. How are we to do this project in teams?” asked Anima, the most
inquisitive student of the class.
“Good question Anima that is what
I am going to explain to you. Listen carefully. You all know each other very
well. Now name your classmates who like to read and like to do reference work
for more information. You have to give me eight names, who will be the member
of the Research Team. Then you will name eight of your friends for the Report
Writing Team; then eight members for the Art team and finally eight members for
the Review team, who are good at checking the work as per the review guidelines
I am going to give you. I am going to give all the guidelines to each of the
four teams.” Seema picked up a sheaf of paper while addressing the class. Students
enthusiastically named their classmates for each of the four teams. Once the
list of members of all the four teams was complete, Seema once again spoke to
the class, “Congratulations! You have done a wonderful job! Now, I want you
name Leaders of Group A, B, C and D. There was pin drop silence in the class
and as usual Anima once again stood up with her query, “Miss, why do we need
these four groups?”
Seema smiled and replied, “Anima,
there are nine planets and including the Sun and the Asteroids, that makes
eleven members of the solar system. I want each group A, B, C and D to work on
members each of the solar system so that the work will be equally distributed
among you.”
Encouraged by Seema’s cool and
patient response to the queries raised, Dinesh got up and asked, “Miss, already
we are members of the four teams we have just made, then who will be the
members of the teams A, B, C and D?”
Amused by Dinesh’s query Seema
replied, “Thank you Dinesh for a relevant question, the members of Research,
Report Writing, Art Development and Review team will do their respect work for
the team A, B, C and D they are member of. For instance, Team A has to prepare
project report on Sun, Mercury and Venus. So, the respective members of the
team will do the research, report writing, Art and Model Development and review
work. I am going to give the work guidelines to the Research, Report Writing,
Art and Model Development and Review team and I am also going to give the
working guidelines to the teams A,B,C and D. I hope no you have understood the
objective of the four teams?”
“Yes Miss!” the classroom reverberated
with the students’ response.
Once the Leaders and members of
teams A, B, C and D were nominated, Seema then handed over the written work
guidelines to the function teams along with teams A, B, C and D. She asked them
to carefully read the guidelines and discuss them with her. They had five
school working days to complete the project work.
While reading the guidelines the
students found that they had to prepare reports on the following for each of
the members of the Solar System:
1. History
of the Solar System, How it was discovered?
2. Story
of the Greek/Roman God and why his or her name was given to the respective
planet
3. The chemical composition of the planet
4. Can
the planet and its satellites support life form (living organisms found on
Earth)? Substantial reasons were to be furnished to support the response.
5. If
they would be on the planets they were preparing their project work on, what
would they need to do to survive there?
6. The teams had to submit a list of materials
needed for the Art and Model Design and Development work. All the four teams A,
B, C and D would work together on the first activity of the project work
(History of the Solar System) and then continue working on the respective
members of the Solar System assigned to them.
7. The
Guidelines for the Research Team had the links to the websites, CDs and
reference materials available at the school library. The Research team and the
three other functional teams were to collect more guidelines along with
constant guidance from their English Language, History, Geography, Mathematics
and Science (Biology, Chemistry and Physics) teachers.
8. The teams A, B, C and D were to submit the
list of materials needed for the project work only after they had completed
working together on the first activity. The students were given a day’s time to
complete the first activity together.
9. At
the end of each day, the Team leader of each team A, B, C and D would submit a
project activity progress summary sheet reviewed by all the subject teachers.
10. On
the sixth day, all the four teams would present their project to the class.
On the sixth day, Seema along
with all the subject teachers attended the project presentation of the four
teams. Each member of every team participated in the presentation and
discussion.
After all the four teams had
presented their project and extensively discussed among themselves about each
member of the Solar System, Seema, with the help of the subject teachers, shuffled the students into four new teams and
the teams then participated in games: WHO AM I, Riddles and Treasure Hunt. The
students enjoyed the games and were least aware of the fact that these were
assessment and evaluation activities to assess their success in achieving their
learning objectives through the project work.
NOTE:
Refer to the following posts on Collaborative Learning:
Mosaic: A Collaborative Method of Learning: http://sunipslearning.blogspot.in/2017/02/mosaic-collaborative-method-of-learning.html
Solar System and Navrasas: Self Awareness Activity: http://sunipslearning.blogspot.in/2017/02/solar-system-navrasas-self-awareness.html
Multidisciplinary Studies Using Mythology: https://www.scribd.com/document/27712519/Contemporary-Studies-Through-Mythology
VARIATION:
Team of students can be assigned to make Real Models and Video
as part of the project presentation.
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