The Final Test

9^th October ’11,

After 3 odd months of teaching at JSS, it was time to reflect upon our as well as student’s performance. So Salil, Sagar, Varun and Priyamvada went to JSS on Sunday to carry out the tests. The test focussed on English writing and reading abilities and understanding of Mathematics fundamentals. The questionnaire was the same as given for benchmark test taken earlier. This was done to maintain the clarity in showing the improvement achieved.

A common test on basic mathematical operations was given to the children irrespective of the class in which they study. A separate test with increase in difficulty level was given to children of std. VI and above. It was nice to see each kid making efforts to complete the test correctly.

Everyone was asked to write a short composition on the topic ‘My Best Friend’. In oral test, each kid was asked to read few paragraphs of a story. The paragraph for everyone was same.

When asked about the test ‘how was it?’ it felt good to see the enthusiasm when the kids said they liked it. Significant improvements are seen in the performance by kids, in some case by more than 100%, in both English and Maths. Quantified exact improvement will be reflected in the comprehensive report being prepared.

15th August- A visit on Independence Day with a purpose

On Independence Day Sagar, Salil, Maitree,Mohit, Dhiren and many other volunteers visited JSS to administer a test for the children.

The test aimed at assessing the basic capabilities of the children in written and spoken English and certain areas of Mathematics. The assessment was to be made using some pre-defined parameters on which their performance was evaluated. For English, children were tested on parameters such as comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, with focus on algebra, arithmetic and geometry in case of Mathematics. The test was administered for nearly an hour and half.

Besides the test some of the volunteers interacted with the children on the importance of Independence Day. They sang patriotic and devotional songs, and we had a fun session interacting with everyone.

On the whole, it was a few hours spent well on the occasion of I-Day!

Teaching time at JSS

We have made a number of visits to JSS teaching the kids during last one and a half month. Brief description of the same is provided below.

On 21^st August, Varun and Mohit made visit to JSS for their session with kids.

Varun preferred to help kids with computers. He explained them about the basics of Input and Output devices of a computer. He helped them in using keyboard. Along with learning to type on keyboard, kids also enjoyed learning English. This improved the efficiency of the exercise as it served 2 purposes.

Mohit took care of solving their doubts in Maths. He took a session of whole batch on Algebra dealing mostly with Squares and Prime Numbers.

With these 2 sessions, the day ended with adding value to these kids.

Next week, on 28^th August, Maitree and Sagar went to JSS for their session with kids.

For their convenience, they divided the batch in two groups such as kids of 4^th and above in one group and rest in other group. They took turns to teach them within their limited time frame.

Maitree took English as the agenda for the day. The focus was on three aspects of English language – grammar (noun and verb), vocabulary and pronunciation- by means of involving the children in a story exercise. She took a small story with the senior kids, working on the three aspects as she went ahead with the story. A similar exercise was followed with the junior children as well.

Sagar took up computer and made efforts to make kids comfortable with the components and basic concepts of computer and how input/output devices work. For the group of junior kids, he tried to make them acquainted with the keyboard by asking them to type their names. While for senior group, he extended the exercise by asking them to write the story they studied in the session with Maitree.

The following Sunday i.e. 4^th September, Salil and Priyamvada visited JSS for the session.

Priyamvada took English class with children this time. She preferred to teach them the topic which was coming for the students of 5^th standard in the exam they had next day. She read out few lines from the story given in their English book and made them read it aloud. She also further explained them the meaning of the sentences word by word. Since Maitree taught them Noun in the last session, she asked them to identify noun in the sentences. She helped them identify if they failed to. She also introduced them with the idea of pronouns and verbs. Thus children did split the sentence in the noun, verb and the few adjectives present in the sentences.

She also separately taught 5^th standard students about letter writing since it was coming in their exam. The response of the children was good. They enjoyed studying story, would follow the pattern most probably.

Salil taught Computers in the meantime. All the students up to class 5^th were made accustomed to mouse and keyboard. They tried to type anything they like for a span of 5 minutes. Also they made merry working with the mouse for the first time. Some students had nice control and could paint in MS- Paint while others did find it difficult and required some help. The enthusiasm and confidence of all the students were worth applauding.

Next Sunday i.e. 11^th September, Varun and Maitree visited JSS for the session.

Maitree proceeded with her English as agenda for the day. This was in continuation with the previous session on 28^th of August. Similarly, the batch was again divided in two groups-Seniors and juniors.

She focused on same three aspects of English language – grammar (nouns and verbs), vocabulary and pronunciation- by means of involving the children in a story exercise. She took a small story with the senior kids, working on the three aspects as she went ahead with the story. She also indulged junior kids in an exercise involving story building with animals, where she emphasized on nouns and verbs using their own choice of animals.

Varun again took Computers at hand to make kids comfortable with the use of keyboard. Using the same method as before, he continued with the teaching.

This session turned out to be the last session before out End-Sem Exams. We continued with our sessions after the exams from 2^nd October.

This day, Maitree and Sagar went to JSS. Maitree took up the task of teaching Computer skills to 40-odd children. Keeping in mind the differing comprehension and ability of the kids, divided them into seniors(class 4 and above) and juniors (class 3 and below).She took up typing specifically as agenda for the session .Starting with the senior children, she gave them a small typing exercise involving words, punctuations and special characters. The children attempted the same on her laptop one by one and by the end of the session were able to identify some of the keys apart from the alphabets. She repeated a similar exercise with the junior kids and by the end of almost two hours the children were able to recall some of their learning during the session.

Sagar took session on maths covering aspects of algebra and basic arithmetic. Students showed interest in learning and their doubt clearance even pushed the class beyond its stipulated time.