Engaging learners in EVS classroom

A workshop was conducted on 7th July 2018 at Nonankuppam Educational Resource Center for government school teachers handling EVS for primary grades. Poornima, from Marudham Farm School, Thiruvannamalai, facilitated the session. The workshop highlighted multiple pedagogical ideas that can make EVS classes interesting, engaging and most importantly create a sense of curiosity and sensitivity towards our plant and animal counterparts.

Experience sharing and discussion as a tool for learning

Most children love to talk about and share what they have seen, with their peers. Providing a space for children to share the experiences they have had with plants, trees and animals helps them to widen their understanding of the world around them. Teachers gained familiarity with this pedagogical approach by sharing in the workshop, interesting personal experiences they have had with animals, plants and trees.

A picture that was captured during a visit to a rural area in Puducherry was used to initiate a discussion. The sharing of the story that was gathered from the locals about the ‘divine’ tree, further led to a discussion on the cultural practice of worshipping trees. As the conversation kept building, and the participants began sharing their experiences, there were some common ideas or themes that linked one idea to the next. This provided the scope to discuss broad topics and improve the general awareness of the environment.

Here are some excerpts from the discussion –

• “While cutting a tree to expand the width of the road, milk started flowing out of the tree. Immediately the axing of the tree was halted. The tree was protected and people started worshipping the tree.”
• “I remember another incident when roads were being laid. Snakes, being highly sensitive to vibrations, come out of their burrows in large numbers.”
• A question was raised – “Why do snakes live in termite mounds? As the interiors of the termite mounds are cooler, snakes rest there. Also, people with a certain cultural belief system, pour milk into it, thus keeping it moist and even cooler.”
• Another question was raised – “Do snakes take revenge?”
• “If snakes take revenge, I would not have been alive, as I have killed many snakes in the school campus to avoid mishaps.”
• “Should snakes be killed on sight? Shouldn’t we be more sensitive to snakes and let them live?”
• “Snake bites lead to a lot of trouble.” Participants began sharing their personal experiences of their encounters with snakes. “It is important to identify the type of snake that has bitten the victim to administer the right antidote.”
• “We came across a situation where the snake that had bitten was not identified. Hence the patient was kept in observation to monitor the symptoms.”
• Why do we keep facing such human-snake encounters? For that matter, we can take into account all human-animal encounters. Why do they keep happening?”
• “Humans encroach upon the habitat of animals, i.e. forests; having no place to go, such human-animal conflicts become frequent.”
• “At this rate of deforestation, in the name of development, where are we headed?”
• “Although there has been rampant deforestation, there have also been instances of hope. There is a very inspiring story on Wangari Maathai, an African woman who has won the Nobel Peace Prize” [https://storyweaver.org.in/stories/13814-a-tiny-seed-the-story-of-wangar...

Story reading as a tool for learning

Poornima demonstrated the process of facilitating reading sessions for children, that could be implemented in classrooms.  A child was asked to read the story on Wangari. As the character journeyed through the story, the child was asked whether she had had a similar experience. E.g. The character in the story had walked through the fields. The child was asked if she had walked through the fields too and was encouraged to share more details about her experience.

There was an instance where the character in the story was travelling out of her country, Kenya. The child was asked if she knew where Kenya was. She was given a globe and was asked to locate it. Then she was asked to identify what lied east of Kenya. The session had temporarily turned into a lesson on Geography.  As and when the child told the name of a country she was asked to identify other countries that were located further east. Proceeding eastwards and naming different countries, one after the other, the child at one point mentioned Sri Lanka. She was then asked which country was located to the north of Sri Lanka for which the response was India. The child was asked what she thought about the distance between India and Kenya. Asking such questions enable children to gain a lot more knowledge beyond the basic content in a book.

In the story, there was a mention of how Kenya was not a free country back then. Poornima asked the child on what makes her feel free and what makes her feel restricted. This can be an opportunity to understand children and give them a space to express their feelings. By engaging in a dialogue with children, they would be able to relate to the experiences of the character in the story better. Connecting to one’s own feelings would also enable the child to be more empathetic to the character in the story.

Story-telling and experience sharing as a tool for learning

Utilizing the power of storytelling in EVS classes can keep children hooked to the narration. Stories involving animals, those based on personal experiences or other people’s experiences, can be highly entertaining and informative at the same time. It further deepens their curiosity and awareness about those animals.

Poornima narrated two interesting stories based on personal experience. She shared her experience of how a person who intended to play a trick on her, had placed a chameleon on her head. The colour of the long spiralled tail of the chameleon had camouflaged into black, the colour of her hair. She was carrying the creature on her head for a long time as the colour wasn’t different to her hair colour and hence didn’t realise its presence. As soon as she became aware of it, she shrieked and was shocked.

Incorporating dramatization while narrating incidents grasps the attention of children and it also becomes a means of making students aware of the nature of the animal in the story. It was pointed out that anything a person shares as an experience will linger for a longer time in their minds.

Poornima shared another interesting experience. She was challenged not to move until a skink, a common garden lizard, moved. She waited for 1½ hours before she lost patience and gave up. The participants shared that the lizard, as well as many reptiles, use a similar strategy of staying still in order to hunt their prey.

It was shared that there are many things happening in the environment around us that can be used as a starting point for making children more aware. We can use the relationship that children have already developed with animals and insects as an opportunity for learning. A teacher shared that her students were sometimes cruel in handling insects like butterflies: they would pluck out their wings. Poornima suggested that insects could be introduced as a being with feelings and emotions by talking about it as a character in a story instead of asking children not to be cruel towards them. Such narrations would help children develop sensitivity towards insects and animals.

Learning through exploration

Providing students with opportunities to explore their surroundings would help improve their observation skills. When students by themselves collect specimens from their environment, they would find it much more engaging and relevant than the content in the textbook. A stock of ‘must have in the classroom’ items, namely magnifying lens, scissors, twig and twine, help in exploring small flowers, insects, etc. Over a period of time children start building a relationship with them and would naturally stop harming them. Children can be given some information about ants and insects through stories or through a short snippet of facts narrated as an experience, for the purpose of generating interest and curiosity among students. It is important to allow students to explore, so that they gain ownership over their learning.

Dealing with the language barrier in the EVS classroom

A sentence table is a novel method of reinforcing EVS facts while also familiarising children with the use of proper sentence structure. Some samples are shown below:

Children can be asked to say sentences in full by combining the right facts about animals.

Examples: A lion has four legs. An elephant can’t swim. A monkey can climb trees.

Games in the EVS classroom

A few game ideas were shared that can be used in the classroom.

Guess it: A student can think of the English name of any animal or plant and mark short blank lines for each letter of the word. Others can call out an alphabet and the student can write down the letter in the corresponding position if the alphabet called out is a part of the word. A limit is set for the number of guesses allowed within which the other students should find the word.

Find it out: A student can think of a plant or an animal. The others can ask few questions to which the student responds with yes/no answers. A maximum of 10 questions can be allowed within which the other children should deduce the plant/animal thought of by the student. As a variation of the game, a word written on a paper is held as a display on the forehead by a student who should deduce the answer based on the clues given by others.

Such games help in improving the reasoning skills of children. Learning EVS can be so much fun!