Lesson integrated with ICT on question tags.

ICT in education improves engagement and knowledge retention: When ICT is integrated into lessons; students become more engaged in their work. This is because technology provides different opportunities to make it more fun and enjoyable in terms of teaching the same things in different ways. The successful integration of ICT into the learning environment will depend on the ability of teachers to structure learning in new ways, to merge technology appropriately with pedagogy, develop socially active classrooms, and encourage co-operative interaction and collaborative learning and group work.

November month, mostly it is for the revision month. I too have the revision for class IV English. I did the revision on question tags. On 2^nd November during the 1^st period. Firstly I took them in the ICT lab and show the video on question tags. This video refreshed them on the topic that they have learnt before. They liked the way I re- introduce the topic and they enjoyed learning. The link for the video is given here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDo3ZNId8TE

In between the video I explained them and re-taught some of the question tags which was little difficult for them. As a follow up of my activity I paused in between the video and ask them to answer to the question tags examples shown in the video. Then I showed some examples of question tags written on the charts. There we discussed and child could understand better. I made them in groups of four and let them write the question tags for the question that I have given in a printed form. After the writing activity, the same question tag was displayed in word documents that I have written and we looked for the correct answer. There itself assessments were done and those who have got wrong answer, we corrected together. The group who got all the correct answer was given cheers by teacher and friends.

As a closure part of my lesson I ask few children to come in front, one should tell the question and another by listening to the question, need to give correct responses. The lesson was interesting and every child was involved in the activity. So to make more excited, I promised them that in next class they will be in the ICT lab and type five question tags individually. Children were so happy that they will have opportunity to use desktop and type themselves.

Some few challenges was faced while doing this lesson, due to small ICT room, all the students are were not comfortable and I had little difficult in time management. There was net fluctuation and the video sometimes got blur in image. Children faced little discomfort while writing as they have to sit down and write. Over all teaching with ICT is fun. With the change in learning environment from regular classes to ICT lab, it create different learning atmosphere and children really love learning the lesson with ICT integrated.

 

 

 

 On 7^th of the October, I taught English lesson in class I through ICT tools. The topic was on comparative noun. I had block periods and it was convenient for me to teach with more examples and can do follow up activity. With the integration of ICT in lesson now many children were aware of the ICT and its uses. Children now a day are found of ICT and they take interest in learning using ICT. They learn faster and its fun learning.

In introduction parts I taught in the class using charts. They learn different comparative noun words. After that using the comparative words they are taught to write in sentences by looking at the pictures drawn on the green board.

As the children were in smaller grade I could only give them two comparatives noun. (  tall taller, big bigger) I can evaluate for some children but some children face difficulties in finishing the writing part in given time period.

After that I continued in next period,  I took them to the ICT lab. I wanted to teach my lesson through different strategies using ICT and I want them to learn by doing themselves. They were given one computer to two children as the resources were limited in my school. Before they come inside the lab, with the help of my teacher friends we have arranged and computer were ready in the morning for the child. I have downloaded some pictures from internet and made the activity.https://www.google.com/search?q=comparative+noun+pictures+for+grade+1&rlz=1C1RLNS_enBT774BT774&oq=com&aqs=chrome.0.69i59l2j69i57j69i59j0i512l5j0i131i433.4059j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

With the instructions received, children typed the sentences by looking at the picture given in the screen. They were in peers and they typed collaboratively. I could see that they were hunting for the words in key boards and were doing the work interestingly. For those students who have finished typing earlier they were given another similar activity to type.

Few challenges always occur while teaching in a smaller grade with large numbers. I have to let children sit in one chair which was inconvenience for the children but the ICT lab was small with less number of chairs so I have to make the adjustment. Some children took time in typing as they are not so much use to it in using the keyboards but I was happy that they could recognize all the letters from the keyboards. At the end teaching was good and I am happy for that.

 

Video on parts of speech

 

Lesson on parts of speech 

As per the studies conducted by scholars, and my own experience of having worked in school, I can endorse that the schools with sufficient ICT resources achieve better results than those that are ill-equipped, as ICT brings significant improvement on learners’ performances. 

According to a document entitled teaching and learning with ICT, G. Galea (2002), states that with the change in students learning behavior, ICT can change the lesson pace where learners will develop sufficient potentials and skills. ICT allow for a higher quality lessons through collaboration with teachers in planning and preparing resources. ICT technologies encourage independent and active learning, and students’ responsibility for their own learning which truly constructs the teaching- learning process.

Having mentioned above statements, on 13^th of the September, I taught English lesson in class IV through ICT tools. The topic was on parts of speech. I covered only three parts of speech on that day. The topics are Noun, pronoun, Adjectives. I will be covering the rest topic on consecutive days. To teach this topic I used varieties of ICT tools.

In introduction parts I taught through power point presentation. To make power point       presentation I used different slides, different animation to arouse curiosity and interest, and I downloaded pictures from the face book and inserted in my presentation. All the children were learning and having fun. They cheered when I use the slides and presented with the animations. Some children were asking me how to make such animations. I have even inserted images as an example for the topics for the Google. https://www.google.com/search?q=noun+examples+with+pictures&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwio2rWR__3yAhXHcX0KHUCqDc0Q2-cCegQIABAA&oq=Noun+ex&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQARgHMgQIABBDMgQIABBDMgQIABBDMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIECAAQQzIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEUKnlBFjl7gRg35QFaABwAHgAgAG0A4gBywWSAQcwLjIuNC0xmAEAoAEBqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWfAAQE&sclient=img&ei=IFZAYajKDsfj9QPA1LboDA&rlz=1C1RLNS_enBT774BT774

Then I showed the YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqLeGm4k6CU video on parts of speech. They learnt more on the part of speech.  We had a good interactions like questioning, reading, telling examples when we learn. In video all the parts of speech were shown but I focuses on three parts of speech and I introduced the topic that the other topics, they will be learning next days.

After the class I demonstrate the parts of speech that have been printed before going to the class. I told them that I will post in the class telegram group and they have to copy, write and bring in the next class for evaluation.

I had few challenges while teaching the topic “Parts of speech.”  Firstly the internet connection was very slow. I have to restart several times. Secondly the weather was too hot on that day and finally I have to ask one student to operate the laptop when I teach, we had little coordination problem in starting and pausing the video and in power point presentation when I teach them. At the end all went well and we had a great interactive learning.

 

 

Lesson with ICT Integration on singular and plural noun.

A study conducted by Blanskat, Blamire, Kefala (2006) in national, international, and European schools  to draw an evidence regarding the advantages of ICT in school learning achievement, it has been  found out that ICT has positive impact on students’ performances. In this context, Education ministry in collaboration with colleges of education is trying their best to let us teachers to realize the roles of ICT in modern teaching and learning process. Therefore, we as a teacher need to give our students a platform to explore and adopt as per the demand of the environment.

The lesson I taught was on “Singular and plural noun” in class I. On 23^rd August, I taught the topic without integrating ICT, I drew the pictures on the green board and I was trying to teach. I had many challenges while teaching like

a.       I took some times in writing and drawing on the board.

b.      I had to gain attention timely while teaching.

c.       Some children had to rush in copying the notes from the green board as there was little time for the interval.

 

I re-taught the topic as an extended lesson.  I found that ICT integration lesson was unexpectedly different in terms of participation and learning on 24^th August, 2021. When I announce that I will re teach them in a conference hall using projector, children were so excited and they came running toward the hall.

In the hall I could see the vast difference in children’s learning comparing to traditional method of teachers teaching. While through the ICT integrated teaching, students were found very active and energetic throughout the lesson. They are overwhelmed when they see the power point presentation on singular and plural noun. The classroom was lively as students see the singular and plural noun via video as it is a rare event for them to see the video to teach the concept. I also used energizer clips in between the lesson to break their boredom to increase the learning efficiency when activity instructions are on the screen. As mentioned earlier, it just not helped in increasing the curiosity of children when teaching but also it reduced the work load and lecture process.   

Despite having uncountable benefits of integrating ICT in teaching learning process, limited resources, and lack of IT expertise were some of the manageable challenges that we have in schools. Never the less, I started to believe that ICT really plays a vital role in making our lesson better and achievable.

 

                           Images on teaching of weeks days through power point presentation

 

Days of a week through ICT

 

During the teaching learning in the class, the pace of teaching learning process was affected owing to lack of ICT. This is because ICTs plays the potential to accelerate, enrich, and deepen skills to motivate and engage students. Now with the availability of the resource in my school, I can generate meaningful and engaging learning experiences to my students; strategically using ICT to enhance learning. I realize that my students have developed new found joy in learning through independent enquiry which can occur due to innovative and appropriate use of ICT.

On the other hand, brain-based research also shows that the period from birth to the age of eight is a critical phase. So primary students of class I are of age 7-8 which particularly falls in the researched category and the quality of pre-primary education need to be enhanced for them to perform better in various fields of mathematics, arts and languages. Therefore integrating ICT is one of the strategies that can be replaced the traditional way of teaching and learning processes.

 

 

On 9th August, I taught a rhyme titled ‘Days of the week in class I (revision lesson).  I conducted the lesson in school conference hall. The lesson started with the recap of the previous lesson learnt, followed by video screening.

 

Before I showed the video clip on the rhyme, I have instructed children to first listen and watch carefully. After that I allowed them to sing and do enact simultaneously. While I monitored children’s I could make out they really enjoyed my lesson. I could successfully grapes the attention for all the children and all the children despites their learning ability, they could understand and participate actively.  I was very much satisfied that the lesson went very fruitfully and children enjoyed the lesson a lot.

 

Finally, I realized that the lesson through ICT saved not only time but also resources. Using ICT in the class enhance children to learn by looking at the real pictures and words in different patterns and with beautiful colour. I could reuse plan and the materials which are saved using ICT facility and I could teach again as the follow up lesson.