The Progressive Teacher Vol 06 Issue 04

on what they are going to work on for their
English project. I divided the students into
groups. Having discussed the task, they came up
with different ideas. In class IX, the ideas they
came up with were not different from what they
had already done in the past. So, I suggested that
they should act as their favorite authors in a wax
museum. They liked the idea. In class XA, out of
noisy storm, came an idea to do TV commercial,
which they had done in class IX while doing pun.
They know how pun is used in advertisement
for humorous effect. And in class XB, there were
lots of ideas, but we decided on making a short
film based on the crimes of passion. I took the
advantage of their craze for Crime Patrol! In both
classes, IX and X, I thought that they should do
a short documentary film on some social issues
like slum dwellers or street children. However, I
humbly sacrificed my idea to their interest.
Now comes the most important aspect
of project work: planning, which is time
management and resource allocation. Usually,
we don’t stress much on this aspect. Usually, we
just give them some general guidelines, but when
we assess their work, we know something went
wrong somewhere. So, what I did this time is that
I spent some sessions in the class as lessons on
forming groups with mixed talents, assigning
specific roles to every member according to their
interest and strength, making a rough plan of the
task, dividing the project work into manageable
chunks, setting deadlines to finish the different
parts of the plan, self monitoring and self
assessment of their work in progress on a regular
basis and monitoring their work continually by
asking the group leaders to report the progress
they have made in the class.
We had a discussion on the criteria of
assessment so that students know the expected
learning output which will guide them in regular
self assessment of their work in progress. Their
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individual project files were evaluated on the
basis of completion of work, details and reflective
elements in the report writing. Likewise,to assess
their contribution to the team work, I checked
the responsibilities they have taken, ideas they
have shared, leadership qualities they have
displayed and regularity of their attendance in
the group task-which is reflected by the group
leaders’ overall comment-from their report they
have submitted to me.
To keep track of the contribution they have
made on a daily basis and to help them avoid
procrastination, I made it mandatory for them to
maintain an individual file, not a group file which
is common practice, to record their daily progress
report. I showed them a simple template with
three questions: What did we do today? What
was my contribution today? What needs to be
done tomorrow? The daily report of each student
is signed by their group leaders with his/her
remark. And then every 2nd or 3rd day, before the
start of a lesson, group leaders inform the class
how far they had progressed, what challenges
they had faced and how they had overcome them.
Three days before the deadline, I took stock
of the final progress of their work. A day before
the final day, we discussed how and when we
were going to display the project work in the
class room. For class IX, it was not possible
for everyone to do the role play of their favorite
authors. So, they chose the best among their
respective groups and they rehearsed in front
of the class. The rest of the students presented
their project every day before the start of lesson.
Regarding Class XA, who worked on TV
commercial using pun, and XB, who had been
shooting short films based on crimes of passion,
screened their projects in the class. There were
some glitches like the absence of casting and
some minor language errors. But it was too late.
I felt I should have checked their films a couple
I spent some
sessions in the
class as lessons
on forming
groups with
mixed talents,
assigning
specific roles to
every member
according to
their interest and
strength, making
a rough plan of
the task, dividing
the project work
into manageable
chunks, setting
deadlines
to finish the
different parts
of the plan, self
monitoring and
self assessment
of their work in
progress on a
regular basis and
monitoring their
work continually
by asking the
group leaders
to report the
progress they
have made in the
class
THE PROGRESSIVE TEACHER
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