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:
VARIATION:
Team of students can be assigned to make Real Models and Video as part of the project presentation.

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