Sunday, April 15, 2018

Ms. Mithila Dalvi’s workshop on ‘Learning Styles and English’

Ms. Mithila Dalvi,
Educational Consultant
                                        
Date / Time – 9th April, 2018 between 8.00 a.m. and 1.00 p.m. 


Attendees – Teachers from English Secondary, 
English Primary and Balodyan

Ms. Dalvi literally burst into Bhai Surve hall with an enthusiastic ‘Good morning’ at ten to eight and started setting up her laptop and ppt., telling us all the time to give her five minutes. Everyone relaxed. This was the first lesson: Give students time to chat, to relax and settle down. Ms. Dalvi was introduced by Ms. Honkote.
At the outset, Ms. Dalvi checked the retention and recall capacity of the teachers and made them realise what aspects are easier to remember. She told them to vary their tone of speech in a way that all become attentive and can decipher what is read or told. Avoid long, complicated sentences, she said.
             “Boys need several hours of free play to release their testosterone, their excess energy so please do not take away P.T. periods to teach other subjects,” Ms. Dalvi pleaded, “The more they play, the more they can concentrate on studies.” Madam went into the details of the topic for the day.
            Depending on the way we comprehend data, we have 3 learning styles - Auditory, Visual and Kinesthetic. In order to make learning more effective it is important that teachers learn to identify the different learning styles. A questionnaire was given to all the participants to help them identify their own learning style. A simple game was also played so as to identify behaviour of individuals belonging to different styles. With the help of an audio clip, a shadow play and several slides madam sensitized the teachers towards the different learning styles.
Auditory – These people talk a lot, they prefer listening to instructions, have good vocabulary, like songs, music and meeting people. The present teaching style is largely auditory but only 30% of people are auditory. Thus teaching-learning is not effective enough and doesn’t cater to all the students. To increase auditory skills, one needs to move around with friends and relatives, participate in group or creative activities.
Visual -  These individuals are very comfortable with forms, instruction manuals and written matter. They need to see to understand. Their imagination is good. They can be very disciplined, precise and organised. They don’t like a barrage of words, in fact they are not very friendly and prefer to be aloof. Being introverts, they love to work alone and have issues with social skills. They form pictures in their mind so they need more visual inputs in order to comprehend. Teachers need to provide a plethora of visual experiences to students as 65% of individuals are visually inclined. Use flash cards, charts and other visual aids to facilitate learning. Visual people can control their emotions. They think a lot so they are good at mental work, thus games such as chess, carrom and cricket wherein you need to plan strategies are preferred. Encourage students to put together a jigsaw puzzle, to build with blocks and to study maps.
Kinesthetic – These children rely on touch and even sometimes smell. They need action and movement thus they move around a lot. Physical activities, constant change in situations and variety appeal to them. Their facial expressions change easily so they are fond of acting, dancing, singing, fancy dress and role play. Adventure stories appeal to them. A magic kit would do wonders. Kinesthetic people find it difficult to focus for long, to construct sentences and to find appropriate words. They get distracted easily and become aggressive quickly. They dare to dive into situations without thinking too much therefore they can be the best firefighters or commandos. They love animals. 5% of individuals are kinesthetic. Educators need to play games, introduce skipping, juggling, swimming, skating, playing drums, tabla, dhol or similar activities as they would be exciting.
Why do educators need to know learning styles?
-         To increase learning capacity    
-         To overcome hurdles in class
-         To expand horizons of comprehension
-         To increase self confidence and belief in students
-         To teach in a way that suits maximum students
-         To improve the approach to examinations
-         To change yourself consciously and meet the greater goal
-         To improve communication
-         To become more accommodative

Points to remember
Never label children
Understand emotional intelligence
Bring in variation
There is fun in mental activities
Kinesthetic children need more acceptance
Learning styles can consciously be changed
Don’t pounce on children, Give them time

Ms. Dalvi’s effectiveness lay in her deep knowledge about the topic, her style of speaking, her delivery, her expressions and the citing of real life examples from drawn from a wealth of experience. The teachers were very impressed. Hope it has a lasting impact on all.

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Date:  10th April 2018  Timing: 8.00 a.m- 1.00 p.m
                        The 2nd day of the workshop started at 8.00 a.m. Ms. S.S. Tharval ( Headmistress English Secondary Section ) welcomed the guest. Madam Mithila Dalvi introduced the topic ‘English’and also spoke about the fun-loving English language games which can enhance the knowledge of the subject  and also help to improve the vocabulary and grammar too. To begin with the session the teachers were divided into 9 teachers per group. Total 5 groups were formed. The teachers group were  rated according to the speed , performance and participation in the game. All the games played were group activities. 


 What are language games?
Language games are designed to make the teaching-learning process easier. It can be the best tool for the teacher. Teaching-learning process can be done in a relaxed atmosphere. The teachers’ dynamic teaching method can help her create an overwhelming response in the class. Thus, the English language teachers can value games to sustain fluency of the subject.
              Ms.Mithila Dalvi introduced the following games to the teachers:
1. Antakshari of living things   
2. Write the names of living things. 
3. Prepare words from the given word taking first two or last two letters of the given word.  
4. Prepare words using group of alphabets in the same order.  
5. Grow on a word.
6. Dictionary of alphabets.  
7. Memory Chain  
8. Prepare a new word after changing one letter at a time. 
9. Make sentences using the pair of words given.  
10. Prepare a short story from the given theme.
Importance/ Outcome of English language games:

  •  Students can interact and communicate well.
  •  Learning language games can help the child use his auditory, visual and kinesthetic skills.
  •  It caters to the needs of the present generation.
  •  It helps to improve the acquisition of language.
  •  It helps the child to build his self-esteem and self-confidence.
  •  It helps the teacher to have novelty in her teaching style.
  •  The fear factor of learning the subject can be removed.
  •  It helps the child involve in any creative and collective class activity.
  •  There can be variations in teaching methods and teaching style.
  •  It helps to increase the learning capacity of the child.
  •  It makes the classroom atmosphere lively.
  •  It helps to increase to concentration level of the child because the more the child plays the more he can concentrate.
  •  It helps the child to be more accommodative to each other.
  •  It helps to increase to physical movement of the child.
  •  A better language practice and revision can be given by the teacher.
  •  It helps to reduce the stress and anxiety of the students.
  •  It helps the child to speak the language fluently due to continuous practice and regular usage of it.
  •  It helps the shy and introvert students of the class to be more expressive.
  •  It helps to add a welcome diversion from the normal activities of the class.
Thus, the second session of the workshop was more informative and practical. The language games would work more for pre-primary and primary section as the base of the subject can be strengthened in the roots. It can make the teacher too enthusiastic for her subject and help her design her subject to the best of teaching-learning style. The session was concluded at 1.00 p.m .Ms. Shravani S.Patankar an assistant teacher of English Secondary Section gave vote of thanks to the dynamic personality, Ms. Mithila Dalvi for her energy and spark  to make the 2 days sessions a grand success.Such innovative and informative programs should be conducted by Vidya Prasarak Mandal in future too.