At Manana our senior students (Class 9-12) have been revising grammar topics such as Tenses, Active Passive, Prepositions, Noun, Adjective ,use of the Pronouns May/Might, Can/Could, Will/Would etc. Along with doing a comprehensive study of the chapters in their school textbooks, they have also completed the exercises at the end of each lesson. We assess the students on their understanding at the end of each topic and chapter.
We have introduced techniques such as story telling sessions and short essay writing to the students and now they enthusiastically participate in it. We encourage students who are strong in a topic to partner with a younger/ weaker student and they participate in quizzes and presentations to the class together. This serves not only as a fun activity, but as they teach each other their understanding of topics and ideas become stronger, as does their empathy for other students. We make it a point to have balanced teams with both strong and weak students and it is in the best interest of the students to help each other and work together as no student can present or answer until every team member gets a turn. Healthy competition has made them thrive.
We employ the use of worksheets after we introduce a new topic; these are a good method of checking their levels of understanding and ability to follow written instructions. Oral practice and presentations as well as role playing are also activities put in place to foster confidence in not only school work but everyday situations they might encounter. In order to check that they are retaining lessons, we test them on concepts at regular intervals, not only after covering a topic but a few weeks later.
This academic session we have six new students of differing abilities, including several who are not familiar with the grammar topics that our other students have already learnt. They have begun to learn these and require a few extra sessions. Often they are asked to join the junior students (Class 6-8) as they are taught. Our newer students get extra one to one time along with exercises and worksheets tailored to their ability. Our only Class 12 student comes to us lacking the basics in grammar. She is eager to learn and we are confident she will catch up quickly.
Our junior students are from Classes 6-8. Some students have been with us several years and they continue to do well and improve, as they are familiar with not only with our teaching techniques but the basics we insist upon. The newer ones, are quite weak. They are however sincere and hard-working and willing to work to catch up with their peers. They get extra lessons with the teacher as well as worksheets to complete. We try to engage all of our students through word games, worksheets, quizzes etc. They read stories and try to make up short stories. We build their vocabulary not only through reading new stories, but by insisting on strong skills in using a dictionary. They have learned very quickly how to use a dictionary to search out unknown words and their uses. The junior students have completed Noun, Pronoun and its uses, Pronoun chart, use of is/am/are, use of was/were and now they are heading towards the tenses.