Rahul studies at Nyalkaran School in Class 7th. His father is very proud that his child goes to an English Medium school and is doing well. At Nyalkaran, the teacher comes into the class and reads aloud the chapter from the book. She then asks a student to stand up and read aloud a paragraph. The next student then gets to stand up and read aloud the next paragraph. This goes on till all students have read or the chapter is over.
Assuming that being able to read means that students have understood, the teacher then either dictates answers to the book-back questions or writes them down on the blackboard. Rahul copies them down and then commits them to memory. Come the term exams, he mugs up the answers and then goes and answer the questions. More often than not, he gets 70% marks or a B / B+ grade making his parents believe that while their boy is not a topper, he is in the top half of the class and therefore, doing reasonably well.
Give Rahul a book of Class 7th and he would read it with reasonable fluency. Ask him what it means and he draws a blank. Last time, I met Rahul, I asked him to bring his Science book. I opened it to the chapter on Motion and asked him if he had read it in school and completed it. He nodded in the affirmative. I asked him to read it for me. 'Oscillory Motion', he read 'is when an object moves to and fro from a mean position' referring to Oscillatory Motion. I asked him: what does this mean? He looked at me blankly. 'Can you show me oscillatory motion', I asked. Again blank. I said, 'Hindi men samjha do'. Blank, again. 'Nahin aata to koi baat nahi' I said soothingly. 'Nahi aata' he admitted.
I asked him to bring his Maths book and tried the same thing with word problems. No comprehension. His English books and Social Studies books have the same challenge. He can read but doesn't understand. Since he can't understand, he just mugs it up. Commits the answers to his short term memory and then vomits them out during his exam.
The challenge with students such as Rahul is that by memory and sight reading, they are able to recognise letter shapes, break up words and read text. But since they do not have the vocabulary and haven't learnt inferencing, they are unable to make sense of their reading. It is something like we being able to read a French text because we are familiar with the script but can't understand because we are not familiar with the semantics of the language. Reading Fluency is necessary but not a sufficient condition for Reading Comprehension.
Most teachers and educators do not understand this. Even those who know, do not apply it enough in identifying student challenges. Most problems that are seen as IQ problems or 'not good in science', 'not good in Maths' or 'not good in ICT' are actually problems of literacy - specifically of reading comprehension.
Mohit, another Class 6 student, was scratching his head in his class when I visited his school. The teacher had just given a unit test for formative assessment and most students had finished and left while he was still grappling with the questions. The teacher was mouthing soothing homilies such as: 'It is ok Mohit, concentrate'. 'Read the question carefully beta, it is ok, you can answer'. Poor Mohit would just stare harder at the test paper and then pretend to solve the question.
As I got closer to him and looked over his shoulder, I saw that he was merely copying the question to appear to be trying. I got down on my haunches to get to his eye level and asked him: Can you read this question to me? He read: 'The following are the steps in no particular order that one needs to follow, in order to prepare soup. Convert these steps from a bullet point order list into a numbered list in the correct order.'
Below it were written 6 steps like:
I put my hands over his shoulder and asked: Have you seen this question before?
No, he shook his head.
Do you know what does this question means?
He said: 'The following are the steps in no particular order............' and went on to repeat the question.
I said: Question samajh mein aaya?
He nodded his head in the negative.
I said: Ok, let's break it up. What does convert mean?
Don't know he indicated with a shake of his head.
Convert means change, I said. Does this list have bullet points?
Yes, he said.
So we need to change it. Change it into what, I asked? I pointed towards the phrase 'numbered list'.
He said: Change it into numbered list.
Second, what does correct order mean? Like 1,2,3,4 is correct order. Is 4,2,1,3, correct order?
No, he said.
So correct order means 'things are in the place they should be in'. Now look at this list. Do you know how to make soup?
Yes he said.
So check if this list is in correct order?
He read it. Then questions started tumbling out: What does ingredient mean? What does stir mean? As I explained the meaning, he started to put numbers on the list and slowly he had ranked the list in an order that made sense to him.
Does this look like the correct order of making soup? I goaded him.
Yes, he nodded.
Ok, now what do you have to do?
Write it down? he enquired.
Yeah, go ahead.
He went ahead and wrote down the list in the correct order as per him in a numbered list.
I wasn't keen to correct him on the order, just wanted to make sure he got a fair chance at attempting the question. Robbed of his strategy of mugging up answers to familiar questions, he was struggling. Armed with the ability to understand, he could solve.
If you give the same book back questions, the answers to which you have dictated in your class, don't be surprised if your students score well. And don't act surprised when the same students struggle in an ASSET or an external exams where they are not able to use the strategy of mugging up answers.
Most knowledge areas need a language to access them. If the student has not built up the language ability of that Grade level, he will have to resort to mugging up, because the other faculty - of making sense and understanding - is unavailable to him. This is especially true for students whose mother tongue is not English (which is majority of India!). Making learning experiential is another strategy to drive understanding but it cannot completely compensate for literacy gaps.
Do check if your students' literacy levels are at Grade level. We often think of English as a subject and we forget that it is actually a gateway to access other subjects. Without solid reading fluency and comprehension, students will struggle to understand other subjects. Fixing literacy gaps of your students is of paramount importance before you start fixing their Maths, Science or ICT knowledge through remedials or tuitions
If you need help in checking Literacy levels, let me know.
Assuming that being able to read means that students have understood, the teacher then either dictates answers to the book-back questions or writes them down on the blackboard. Rahul copies them down and then commits them to memory. Come the term exams, he mugs up the answers and then goes and answer the questions. More often than not, he gets 70% marks or a B / B+ grade making his parents believe that while their boy is not a topper, he is in the top half of the class and therefore, doing reasonably well.
Give Rahul a book of Class 7th and he would read it with reasonable fluency. Ask him what it means and he draws a blank. Last time, I met Rahul, I asked him to bring his Science book. I opened it to the chapter on Motion and asked him if he had read it in school and completed it. He nodded in the affirmative. I asked him to read it for me. 'Oscillory Motion', he read 'is when an object moves to and fro from a mean position' referring to Oscillatory Motion. I asked him: what does this mean? He looked at me blankly. 'Can you show me oscillatory motion', I asked. Again blank. I said, 'Hindi men samjha do'. Blank, again. 'Nahin aata to koi baat nahi' I said soothingly. 'Nahi aata' he admitted.
I asked him to bring his Maths book and tried the same thing with word problems. No comprehension. His English books and Social Studies books have the same challenge. He can read but doesn't understand. Since he can't understand, he just mugs it up. Commits the answers to his short term memory and then vomits them out during his exam.
The challenge with students such as Rahul is that by memory and sight reading, they are able to recognise letter shapes, break up words and read text. But since they do not have the vocabulary and haven't learnt inferencing, they are unable to make sense of their reading. It is something like we being able to read a French text because we are familiar with the script but can't understand because we are not familiar with the semantics of the language. Reading Fluency is necessary but not a sufficient condition for Reading Comprehension.
Most teachers and educators do not understand this. Even those who know, do not apply it enough in identifying student challenges. Most problems that are seen as IQ problems or 'not good in science', 'not good in Maths' or 'not good in ICT' are actually problems of literacy - specifically of reading comprehension.
Mohit, another Class 6 student, was scratching his head in his class when I visited his school. The teacher had just given a unit test for formative assessment and most students had finished and left while he was still grappling with the questions. The teacher was mouthing soothing homilies such as: 'It is ok Mohit, concentrate'. 'Read the question carefully beta, it is ok, you can answer'. Poor Mohit would just stare harder at the test paper and then pretend to solve the question.
As I got closer to him and looked over his shoulder, I saw that he was merely copying the question to appear to be trying. I got down on my haunches to get to his eye level and asked him: Can you read this question to me? He read: 'The following are the steps in no particular order that one needs to follow, in order to prepare soup. Convert these steps from a bullet point order list into a numbered list in the correct order.'
Below it were written 6 steps like:
- Add ingredients to water
- Chop vegetables
- Stir the mixture
- Add salt and spice to vegetables
- Warm water
- Serve it in bowls
I put my hands over his shoulder and asked: Have you seen this question before?
No, he shook his head.
Do you know what does this question means?
He said: 'The following are the steps in no particular order............' and went on to repeat the question.
I said: Question samajh mein aaya?
He nodded his head in the negative.
I said: Ok, let's break it up. What does convert mean?
Don't know he indicated with a shake of his head.
Convert means change, I said. Does this list have bullet points?
Yes, he said.
So we need to change it. Change it into what, I asked? I pointed towards the phrase 'numbered list'.
He said: Change it into numbered list.
Second, what does correct order mean? Like 1,2,3,4 is correct order. Is 4,2,1,3, correct order?
No, he said.
So correct order means 'things are in the place they should be in'. Now look at this list. Do you know how to make soup?
Yes he said.
So check if this list is in correct order?
He read it. Then questions started tumbling out: What does ingredient mean? What does stir mean? As I explained the meaning, he started to put numbers on the list and slowly he had ranked the list in an order that made sense to him.
Does this look like the correct order of making soup? I goaded him.
Yes, he nodded.
Ok, now what do you have to do?
Write it down? he enquired.
Yeah, go ahead.
He went ahead and wrote down the list in the correct order as per him in a numbered list.
I wasn't keen to correct him on the order, just wanted to make sure he got a fair chance at attempting the question. Robbed of his strategy of mugging up answers to familiar questions, he was struggling. Armed with the ability to understand, he could solve.
If you give the same book back questions, the answers to which you have dictated in your class, don't be surprised if your students score well. And don't act surprised when the same students struggle in an ASSET or an external exams where they are not able to use the strategy of mugging up answers.
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| Courtesy: teacherpayteachers.com |
Most knowledge areas need a language to access them. If the student has not built up the language ability of that Grade level, he will have to resort to mugging up, because the other faculty - of making sense and understanding - is unavailable to him. This is especially true for students whose mother tongue is not English (which is majority of India!). Making learning experiential is another strategy to drive understanding but it cannot completely compensate for literacy gaps.
Do check if your students' literacy levels are at Grade level. We often think of English as a subject and we forget that it is actually a gateway to access other subjects. Without solid reading fluency and comprehension, students will struggle to understand other subjects. Fixing literacy gaps of your students is of paramount importance before you start fixing their Maths, Science or ICT knowledge through remedials or tuitions
If you need help in checking Literacy levels, let me know.
3 comments:
I stumbled on your blog from a comment you'd left elsewhere. This post brought back my memories from school as well. I completely agree with you on the language barrier being translated into an access barrier for other subjects as well.
However, I feel that you could understand the language well, and still stumble. I went to a Convent school where people were reasonably good with English, atleast to the point where it wasn't a barrier. This one awkward incident from class 10 concerned a question in a biology examination - "What are some forms of female contraception?". This classmate of mine had written condoms, and haggled with the teacher for marks, having no idea for a while that he had missed it, till the teacher got exasperated and said out loud - "But Vineet, condoms are not female contraceptives!". Revealed so much :)
Dear Mohit - I agree. Language is a necessary but not sufficient condition for understanding. The other requirement is teaching to the students' learning style. Both these however assume that the students' cognitive ability has been developed to Grade level. If that is assumption is not true then remedial action is needed to build the cognitive gap.
Mohit as I read through your article , your observations are to the mark.A teacher's reading of a lesson then giving question-answers is an incorrect way of teaching. The teaching of any lesson should be part by part, paragraph wise and definitely by explaining meanings of the new terms or words one comes across by referring to dictionary or by giving example. No teaching can be comprehended without citing similar examples. If it is Mathematics the title of the topic needs to be explained followed by local examples.
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