The Magic Garden

CBSE, English, Class - III, Unit -1

Rose, red rose, Beautiful redrose...

D.Hemamalini, GPS-Ecole Anglaise

A new academic year, new students, a new classroom. In my class (Standard III), there are 26 students. Among the 26, 4 to 5 children are able to read a book, 10-15 students are able to spell words, and 5-6 students are not able to identify alphabets. So I felt that the usual method of talk and chalk would not work for my class. So I set aside the standard lesson plan and designed a game plan for my class of children at different levels. This plan will be in place till September.

 I also decided that finishing the portions was not a priority unless the children started mastering the language in a joyful and fear free environment. I had to be systematic to achieve this and hence have planned it in stages.

Sight word reading:

I analyzed the lessons and the word lists and identified a few important words. I categorized them into two, three, four and five letter words. These letters were made into charts and hung where all children could see easily. They have to read these words every day for 5 to 15 minutes. They start with two and three letter words and slowly move on to 4/5 letter words. As a follow up, the children are made to write these words in their notebooks.
The children from higher classes have been asked to help the class II children read the sight word charts during lunch break. This peer learning has been found to be very effective. I analyzed the lessons and the word lists and identified a few important words. I categorized them into two, three, four and five letter words. These letters were made into charts and hung where all children could see easily. They have to read these words every day for 5 to 15 minutes. They start with two and three letter words and slowly move on to 4/5 letter words. As a follow up, the children are made to write these words in their notebooks.
The children from higher classes have been asked to help the class II children read the sight word charts during lunch break. This peer learning has been found to be very effective.

Phonics sounds through songs:
The English letters and their phonic sounds are available in the form of a song. The song helps them correlate the alphabets to the sounds.

When I sing
A says aah ‘a’ - apple, alligator, aunt
B says buh ‘b’ – bat
C says cuh ‘c’ cake, cat, cot,
Homophone cards:
Words that have the same pronunciation but have different meanings are called homophones (For example, rose – the flower) and rose – the past tense of the word rise are homophones.) I introduced a few such words through word cards.
Eye - I
Bare – Bear
Bee - be
Brake – Break
Buy – by
Flour – flower
Hair - hare
Magic garden: The lesson had words related to garden like flowers, trees, birds and garden tools. I created picture cards to help my students get started in reading. The picture cards withthe names written under it helped the children identify the names; they first identified the picture and then began to read the words.

Challenges: Despite giving the words through pictures, the children could not remember them in the next class. This has to be repeated multiple times in the class. The effort we put in the 1st
lesson will benefit them in subsequent lessons as the vocabulary gets repeated in subsequent lessons.
Clapping game:
I tried a different strategy to teach describing words. Tall boy, long hair, lean girl, beautiful box, long pencil, wooden bench, green wall, round table, red pencil, Blue pen, long tail, blue bag, bright sun, clear water.
I was surprised to see and hear the children come to me voluntarily use describing words to connote to small pencil when I asked them to bring me one.
Creating sentences:
Using these picture cards I slowly introduced describing words. If the rose was red, then they will say

 Rose
Red rose 

Beautiful red rose
One beautiful red rose
This is one beautiful red rose.
I went near the school wall which was recently painted in two shades of vibrant green colour. I went near the wall and said
Wall
Green wall.
The children said
Long green wall
This is a long green wall.
This was an interesting activity and the children caught on to it. This needs practice and by giving regular practice children will become familiar in sentence structure. At first we can write the sentences on the board, make them write it in their notebooks and read them aloud. Reading corner: Initially I had a big dream about the reading corner. I lay down the rules to handle the books. "Only three persons can come at a time; Handle the book carefully; Don’t tear the book." After the instructions were given, I thought the students would read the books with interest. Few minutes passed and they started looking at others' books. They were not willing to read, they just wanted to see the pictures of the book. So, I have decided to build their reading habits, only then would it be possible for them to read with genuine interest. It will take some time. At the end of this year, they should be able to read a book. Let's hope for the best!