Take your subject to an inspiring & interesting arena where the students will do something & involve themselves fully which will result in the excellency of the children, popularity of both the students & teachers, & automatically the percentage of success will be increased. Just follow some tips to extract the level of confidence & spirit always hidden within the children.

Group based learning system is surely an interesting method of teaching to uplift even the lowest grade child as group tie each other to improve otherwise there is a chance of the looser by the group. No soul wants to face the failure. Every soul wants to keep their self-esteem. The teacher’s job is to inspire them & change them for the positive competition & grow.

In the group/house based quizzing the quiz-master may be the teacher or one among the children. No matter. But the rules of the quiz must be clear-cut. Before starting a chapter or after the completion of the same the quiz can be held. Within 40 minutes of a class total 40 numbers of questions can be asked (provided that the class is divided into four groups. The round like General, Bonus & raising hand round are very essential to increase the level of interest. As we cannot go for the buzzer round in the class, the raising hand round can be utilized. Declaring the rules, topics, groups before one or two days has the best outcome in holding quizzes.

The topics where the students have their prior knowledge, the lecture of a teacher is very boring In a lecture, the children have their no alternative/choices but to accept the sitting position silently & nodding before the teacher. They feel bored so classroom became dull one.

The title of the quiz can be given in an interesting way so that the students will be more encouraged. The style of KBC can be applied in any subject e.g. in history ‘KAUN BANEGA HISTRY PATI’. The popular word can be taken such as ‘ CHAK THE HISTORY/CIVICS/GEOGRAPHY’ quiz etc. The rules for these quizzes can be made by the teacher very interestingly. The following rules can give one example:-

1. All total 10 questions will be asked to every house. The three group leaders will be called to face the questions.

2. Question types-

Q1-10 marks, Q2-20 marks, Q3-50 marks,

Q4-100 marks, Q5-200 marks, Q6-500 marks,

Q7-1000 marks, Q8-2000 marks, Q9-5000 marks, Q10-10, 000 marks.

3. Lifelines-If the leaders are answering either 4th or 5th question then they are getting 3 lifelines. They are (a) Consulting group (b) Options (c) Flip the question.

4. To make other members of the same house active & attentive 7th & 8th questions will be asked to them. If they cannot tell, the same question will be asked to the leaders. But only half of the marks of the question they will get.

The next best method to engage the pupils in the class is holding class seminar/demonstration. Children are the main participants. Student leaders demonstrate the topics here. Two three leaders are chosen in every group. The whole chapter is divided into four parts for four groups. After every demonstration there will be a question answer session where other three groups/houses ask questions. If any slow learner gives the answer the group gets full marks. If he fails the question will go to the leaders to answer but the marks some how will be reduced. The marks of the class seminar may be divided in the following ways: -

•Presentation of topic-30 marks
•Use of Maps & Charts-10 marks
•Questions & Answer session (6 Questions)-60 marks
•Total marks-100

“A common teacher teaches but the best teacher inspires & plan to arrange the methods in such a way that the children enjoy in his subject.”

We also say, “If the children listen in the class, they forget but if they do the things, they remember & learn.”

Interchange of copy checking after a class test heightens the learning more among all & especially among the weak students. The weak students try to find out other students’ mistakes by the journey of a student examiner post for the time being. By the process of the finding out the mistakes & checking they learn the chapter more. The norms of copy checking must be told to the children before the inter change copy checking after the test.

Homework & class work can be checked on the basis of groups/ houses. The children should mention the name of their house/group on the cover page of the copy. Any child of any group/house if fails to submit the copy on the stipulated date 10 marks can be reduced from the house mark. The record of the marks of every competition should be recorded in one corner of the black board. After a stipulated time period the winner group may be given some prizes & the other groups some consolation prizes, which will encourage their efficiency.

Group/house wise seating in the class is benefited to every subject & teachers to conduct any activity/competition among the children.

Now–a–days my class became very active & the pupils are also enjoying the subject. Once upon a time I just asked other teachers to enquire about the effectiveness of my method of teaching. The followings are their sayings: -

Punit of class IXA says, “ Sir, because of this interesting quiz only I read history continuously for three hours yesterday remembered all facts”.

Aditya of class VIB says, “Sir, because of Him only history is now a days no boring subject, very interesting”.

Saba of class XB says, “ His method of teaching is enough for our learning things in History & Civics”.

Yes, it’s true. Pl. teachers!!! Do it. & see the difference.

Thus, in the above methods the teacher would really be a facilitator to the activity of the students inspite of playing the role of a lecturer. Burden of the classes over the teacher can be reduced be the teacher himself if he follows these methods in the class. The proper planning for the group based learning makes the classroom more interesting & lively, which helps the students to speak spontaneously, “those class is a different class & our teacher is a different teacher”. The children will get more scope by this ‘learning by doing’ method, which is a creation of the clever teacher. The boredom of 8 periods sitting & listening by the students will be no more. Rather they will be dissatisfied at the ringing of the school bell. They will demand more time to express themselves through activities.

Harekrushna Behera - Teacher in Social Science
E-Mail - hare_321ku(at)rediffmail.com
Qualification- M.Phil,B.Ed,Vedanta