Learning language through activities and games

Highlights:

• The manner in which language-learning takes place through activities and games.
• Word maze activities enhance problem-solving and motor skills.
• Merry-go-round game can enrich the vocabulary of students.
• Role-playing helps children to build confidence in producing language.

Background about the school:

Our school has 310 students, who mostly hail from a poor background. the students often face the lack of attention and care from their parents. Many students are non-residents of Karayamputhur village, who stay with their relatives in a nearby village and come to school.

Some key areas of interest:

• Using activities, games, and drama as key tools for the classroom teaching.
• Sharing new teaching ideas.
• Understanding the challenges faced by other teachers and learning from the peers.

Summary of things tried last year:

I planned various activities and games for my students last year to make their learning easy and joyful. These activities also proved helpful for me to connect with the students easily.

Introduction:

Play-way method is a means to enhance subjective and emotional development of the child, that is, it facilitates development in terms of intellect, skills, and feelings. This method is structured around activity-based learning, and it encourages creative thinking and self-expression among students. It aims to introduce the spirit of playing in all educational institutions. Through this method, children can work in an atmosphere where they can act freely and spontaneously. Many educators have proposed such a child-centric system of education to facilitate learning amongst children.

The Kindergarten method, Montessori Method, Dalton plan, and Project method are all attempts at imbibing the play-way method in education. I base my teaching on the Montessori method of teaching and learning, since I feel that the play-way method is the best way for children to learn about the world around them. When children hear, see, touch, taste, or smell something, messages are sent to their brain and important mental connections are made.

Some games and activities from my classroom:

1. Mazes

Objectives: (i) to develop visual-motor skills and fine-motor skills; (ii) to develop problem-solving ability.

Planning: Before the activity, I taught the lesson using simple English. Following this, I directed the students to stand in rows and asked them to turn left and walk two steps ahead. Then, I asked them to turn to their right and go straight. When this was done, I asked one of the students to listen to my instructions and draw on the board. I directed that student to draw a straight line; turn right; draw a straight line again; and then turn left. This exercise helps to understand the about the prior knowledge of the students pertaining to directions (left, right, and straight).

Execution: I distributed worksheets to the students and asked them to complete the maze. I guided them to draw a line through the maze without touching the outer walls.

Outcomes: This activity was an exercise given for the lesson titled ‘The Yellow Butterfly’ in English. In addition to learning the English language, the students learnt about directions as well. All the students comprehended the activity quite easily and were able to complete the worksheets by themselves.

2. Merry-go-round

Objectives: (i) to develop vocabulary; (ii) to learn the sounds of animals.

Planning: Before commencing with the activity, I taught the new words to the students using flash cards. I gave flash cards, having the pictures of animals and their sounds, to a few students and made them recognize the pictures and the words in the cards. Then, I explained the game to the students.

Execution: I drew two circles on the floor and made four students stand along the outer circle, while making another four stand along the inner circle. I gave a picture card to the students in the outer circle and asked them to go around in a circle until I blew the whistle. When the second whistle was blown, the students in the inner circle were to show their flash card to the student on the outer circle, who is to identify the card that matches the sound and move towards them.

Output: This game needs prior explanation from the teacher, and the students need to have a clear understanding of the game. At first, 2 out of 4 students were not able to match the words correctly. But, I guided them to find the answer. It is then that the students were able to understand the game, and they matched the words correctly.

3. Role Play:

Objective: (i) to develop creativity and imagination; (ii) to care for animals and improve self-confidence.

Planning: I had thought of using words from the lesson  which could be used in the conversation. I used flash cards for the words, such as “vegetarian”, “ship”, “king”, “desert”, and “forest”. I directed the students to ask their nearby friends questions, such as “Who are you?” and to reply in the manner of “I am Vignesh”.

Execution: I called up 2 students to the front of the class and gave masks of the lion and the camel to them. I guided them to ask simple questions and reply using simple answers.

Conversation between the Lion and the Camel:

Lion: Who are you?

Camel: I am Camel, the ship of the desert. Who are you?

Lion: I am Lion, the king of the jungle.

Camel: I am a vegetarian.

Lion: I am a non-vegetarian. (I already discussed with students about who are vegetarians and non-vegetarians.)

Camel: Let’s be friends.

Lion: Ok. Good bye!

Camel: Ok, Bye.

Outcome: At first, the students required my help to ask questions and provide replies. However, they were later able to make these sentences by themselves. A few students were unable to ask all the questions. So, I helped those students and made them ask all the questions and provide the appropriate replies, since I wanted all the students to be able to converse in English and, thereby, improve their self-confidence.

Reflections on this method:

Previously, I used to teach using the chalk-and-talk method, the board method, or the lecture method. However, my students showed less involvement and were not able to remember the things that I taught in the classroom. After using the play-way method, I made the following observations:

• Teachers are able to involve the students in the activities with full interest, and the students, in turn, are able to remember the themes and concepts of the lesson.
• Peer and group learning enabled the sharing of ideas amongst students, and it also inculcated different values among them, such as giving a chance to others and waiting patiently for one’s turn.

Teacher: G. Komathy, GPS Karayamputhur