MODULE II – YEAR 2017

ENGLISH AT THE
UPPER PRIMARY
LEVEL

Research Development and Consultancy Division

Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations
New Delhi
Year 2017
__________________________________________________________________________________

Published by:
Research Development and Consultancy Division (RDCD)
Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations
Plot No. 35-36, Sector VI
Pushp Vihar, Saket
New Delhi-110017

Tel: (011) 29564831/33/37

E-mail: [email protected]

© Copyright, Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations

Introductory Note
The Curriculum for Preschool to Class VIII, developed by the Council for the Indian School
Certificate Examinations aims to bring about uniformity in the syllabi being transacted in
all schools affiliated to the Council and to ensure that the basic minimum standards are
maintained. In addition to providing guidelines to schools that are newly affiliated to the
Council, the curriculum also endeavours to provide a strong foundation at the elementary
level and to facilitate upward mobility so that children derive full benefit of the ICSE and
the ISC curriculum.

This Resource Material has been prepared to develop a better understanding on the CISCE
Curriculum. It will serve as a supplement to the Curriculum and act as a ready reference
material and guide for all stakeholders, including Subject Teachers, Master Trainers,
Academic Coordinators and Heads of Schools.

The Resource Material includes a set of documents, which provide a broad understanding
on the Curriculum, besides dealing with the teaching-learning strategies related to specific
subjects at the Primary and the Upper Primary levels. We have made a beginning by
preparing modules of Resource Material for selected subjects included in the Curriculum. It
is hoped that over time, we will be able to supplement this Resource Material by developing
subject specific modules on more subjects.

I would like to express my special gratitude to Prof. Manju Jain (Former Head, DEE,
NCERT), Prof. Sandhya Paranjpe (Senior Consultant), Prof. Anup Rajput (Head, DEE,
NCERT), Prof. Kirti Kapoor (DCS, NCERT), Prof. Dharamprakash (DEE, NCERT),
Dr. M.S. Dahiya (Senior Lecturer, Retired, SCERT, Delhi) and Dr. Satyavir Singh
(Principal, SNI College, Pilana, Baghpat) for their valuable contribution in developing this
Resource Material.

I would also like to acknowledge the teachers, from schools affiliated to the Council, who
have been an integral part of this exercise, whose inputs and feedback has helped shape this
document.

Last but not the least, I appreciate the efforts put in by Mrs. Shilpi Gupta, Deputy Head
(RDCD) in preparing this document along with her team of Dr. Manika Sharma,
Dr. M.K. Gandhi, Ms. Mansi Guleria and Mrs. Roshni George.

Gerry Arathoon

Chief Executive & Secretary

 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice

MODULE II

Content Outline

Section 7:
Section 1:
Essential Tips
Overview
for Practitioners

Section 6: Section 2:
Recording and English
Reporting Curriculum in
practices context

Section 5:
Assessment of Section 3:
Learning and Features of ELT
reflection on curriculum
action

Section 4:
Exemplars in
English
 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice

Structure of the Module

1. Overview: Why, What and How to use this module?

2. English curriculum in context
3. English curriculum for upper primary classes (VI to
VIII)
3.1 Salient features of the English curriculum
3.2 Pedagogical practices in English classroom
3.3 What should an English classroom look like?
4. Exemplars in English
4.1 Need for exemplars
4.2 Planning for the teaching learning process
4.3 Exemplar I
4.4 Exemplar II
5. Assessment of learning and reflection on action
6. Recording and reporting in English learning
7. Essential tips for practitioners.

Expectations of this Module

After reading/using this module the user/teacher will be able to:

 understand the need and significance of this module.
 understand the nature, status and salient features of English Language
teaching.
 understand pedagogical processes involved in language teaching and
learning.
 discuss the need for exemplars in the curriculum and use them in practical
situations.
 relate and frame learning based tasks for assessment.
 understand some essential tips for using exemplars in a classroom
situation.

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice

An Outline Framework
Planning and Organisation of the teaching learning process

Pre-reading

Whole class activities, Brain storming with children and with peers

Selecting activities for Selecting material

vocabulary in context Discussing and sharing

- Grammar in
context
- LSRW

Pair work Group work

Assessment for/as learning

While reading

Reading with Comprehension

comprehension activities
- Pair work
Post-reading - Individual
work

Going beyond the text Working with Global

Writing
language Comprehension

Assessment for/as learning Assessment for/as learning

Assessment of learning
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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice

1. An Overview
Why, What and How of this module

Why this module:

This module aims at providing an understanding on various aspects of the English Language
Teaching (ELT) curriculum such as its status in India in the multilingual context, salient
features, pedagogical processes for English Language teaching & learning and what makes an
ELT classroom a happy classroom. It also provides a broader understanding on various
components of the ELT curriculum such as learning outcomes, selection of the materials,
transactional processes and learning resources. To understand all the components of the
teaching learning process, a few exemplars have also been included.

What does this module include:

This module has seven sections. The first section provides an overview that explains about the
why, what and how of this module. Section 2 discusses about the status and nature of English
Language Teaching in context. Section 3 explains the salient features and pedagogical processes.
Section 4 focuses on exemplars which cover planning, implementation and assessment during
the teaching learning process. Section 5 deals with assessment and reflection on assessment of
learning (assessment after completion of theme/unit) and suggestive practices. Section 6 deals
with details of recording and reporting in ELT, Section 7 provides tips to practitioners/users.

How to use this module:

This module is meant for all stakeholders working at the upper primary level in general and for
ELT practitioners in particular. In each section of this module, some text assignments/activities
have been given. While reading/using each section, assignments are to be done. Two exemplars
have been given, which need to be used during training either in simulation or in actual
classroom situations. After using the exemplars, peer reflection should be taken which would
help to further improve the module.

Activity-1
Discuss in groups what benefits of this module can be envisaged
for teachers, administrators and master trainers.
Let us do Make a list.

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice
2. English Curriculum in Context

Nature and Status

English Language learning is a key area in school curriculum. It aims at developing proficiency for
effective communication and knowledge acquisition. It is central to children’s intellectual, social,
and emotional growth. We need to remember that each child is unique in her/his own way. Each
child has her/his unique likes, dislikes, interests, skills and behaviour. Since children are unique
individuals, they will learn and respond to learning situations in their own special way.

Language learning does not necessarily take place only in the language classroom. It cuts across the
curriculum. The content of the language curriculum should be broad enough to encompass
children’s needs and interests. The activities need to be linked to life outside to create socio-cultural
contexts that would encourage children to participate actively in understanding and creating
appropriate communicative practices. It is to be viewed as a key element in curriculum. Children’s
language should be developed through meaningful experiences rather than mere drill. We need to
look at language learning as a whole and not as isolated activities.

Skills

Receptive Productive

Listening Reading Speaking Writing

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice

Objectives of teaching–learning of English

The broad objectives of language teaching and learning are to develop:

(a) Developing listening: Children listen to verbal and non-verbal cues in a non-linear way to
comprehend and draw inferences.
(b) Developing speaking: Children develop effective communication skills and are able to hold
meaningful conversation in a variety of situations. They engage in discussions in a logical,
analytical and creative manner.
(c) Developing reading: Children develop the habit of independent reading and are able to
construct meaning by drawing inferences and relating the text to their previous knowledge. They
also develop the confidence of reading the text critically and ask questions while reading.
(d) Developing writing: Children develop the confidence to express thoughts effortlessly and in
an organized manner. They follow the process approach to writing that enables them to write for
a variety of purposes and situations, ranging from informal to formal.
(e) Enhancing creativity: Children develop creative expressions from their context.
(f) Enhancing sensitivity: Language classroom is the place where children develop sensitivity
towards their immediate physical and social environment, e.g., keeping the surrounding clean,
girls’ education, etc.

Activity-2
 Why do you think English needs to be taken up as a
whole and not as an isolated activity? Give two reasons.
Let us do  What are some of the features of the whole language
approach?

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice
3. English curriculum for Classes VI to VIII

Salient features

An input rich comprehensible communicational environment is a prerequisite for any language

classroom. The two main goals of English language teaching are to communicate effectively and to
be able to use language to acquire knowledge. Some of the salient features of English teaching and
learning are:

Classes VI to VIII

• To help children develop linguistic ability.

• To enable children think, communicate and express themselves fluently in English.
• To help children arrange and express their thought process sequentially.
• To help them read and speak with the right pronunciation, intonation and tones.
• To stimulate creativity and imagination through extended reading and to express himself/
herself in words.
• To encourage extended reading through the use of library, internet, films, videos and other
available resource material.
• To help children retrieve and reproduce clearly stated actions, events and feelings.
• To help develop critical thinking and analysis.
• To help children make inferences about attributes, feelings and motivations of main
characters.
• To be able to integrate textual and visual information to interpret the relationship between
ideas and events.
• To help them evaluate content and textual elements to make generalizations.
• To enable children recognize language features and styles.
• To enable children write grammatically correct sentences,
• To help children develop skills of planning, organising, revising and editing the written work.
• To help them organise thoughts in a sequential manner with a proper introduction and
conclusion.
• To help children express ideas logically and convincingly using appropriate examples and
quotations
• To familiarize children with the use basic imagery and figurative language that enriches the
flow.
• To enable children to identify, distinguish and interpret complex information from various
sources.
• To help children access and process data and use it effectively.
• To make children understand the difference between research and plagiarism (active
cheating) and to develop an original style of writing.

The language classroom is a place where contemporary concerns and issues can be included as the
curriculum ranges from non-literary to literary texts, from local to global, covering a wide range of
areas, like environmental issues, ‘cleanliness drive’, ‘save the girl child’, ‘educate the girl child’,
sustainable development, maintenance of resources, concern for animals and plants, human rights,
etc. The selection of material may draw upon the following and additional themes in an integrated
manner:
Self, family, home, friends, neighbourhood, environment, animals, plants, arts, sports, games,
travel, media, science and technology, health and hygiene, peace etc.

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice

Integrating Language Teaching with other Areas

Our Neighbour
and
Community
Self, Family,
Our Country
Home, Friends

The World Animals and

around us Plants

Adventure & Health and

Imagination Hygiene

Themes

Physical
activities and Art & Culture
Sports

Science &
Transport
Technology

Peace &
Media
Harmony

The themes listed above will help the teacher contextualise learning experiences of children. Along
with this, different registers of language should be introduced to the children.
The choice of texts should also focus on myths, legends, and folktales in order to develop an
appreciation for socio-cultural and linguistic heritage in children. Translated texts from Indian
languages and the other languages of the world may be included in classroom teaching to encourage
children to experience the rich diversity of cultures.

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice
Learning Outcomes:

For English, learning outcomes at the upper primary level have been given skill wise. These
outcomes cover different aspects of the child’s learning of language, i.e., reading, writing, listening,
speaking, grammar in context, vocabulary in context and creativity along with values, life skills, etc.
These learning outcomes are suggestive and may be developed according to the expected level of
learning for a particular class.

Transactional
Processes

Learning
Outcomes

Learning
Skill/area Resources

 The curricular components of ELT have been dealt with in three columns.
Suggested Learning
Suggested Areas/Content Suggested Transactional Processes
Resources
  

 In the first column the name of the skill/area has been mentioned. In column 2, suggested
transactional processes have been mentioned. These transactional processes have been
identified keeping in view the following:
 Age/ Class
 Nature of the text (poem/story/drama)
 Skills/areas
 Learning Outcomes
 Learning Resources

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice

Pedagogical practices in English Classroom

• Learning language as a whole in natural settings and in a holistic manner has been
highlighted. The four skills –listening, speaking, reading and writing work better in the
company of each other.
• The purpose of English teaching is to enrich multilingualism among children and to allow
diverse languages to flourish in each other's company. Therefore, English is learnt best
if learnt along with and not at the cost of other languages.
• Creating Input-rich communicational environment: It is always important to provide
children with an input-rich-communicational environment to facilitate language
learning. These inputs include textbooks, learner chosen magazines, newspapers,
radio/audio cassettes, learner-chosen texts (of different genres) and other authentic
materials.
• Language cuts across the Curriculum. Every class is, at first, a language class and then a
subject class. It is not necessary that all the activities conducted in the English class be
based only on the English textbooks; textual material from the EVS or Mathematics
textbooks can be selected for organising and conducting activities.
• Vocabulary and Grammar should be learnt in context.

What should an English classroom look like?

An English classroom should be child centered and a happy classroom

where children would get opportunities:
 To observe, explore, question, do activities, share experiences in
the learning process.
 To do tasks/activities on listening, speaking, reading, writing,
creativity, critical thinking
 To do a variety of activities ranging from cognitive (head), affective
(heart/emotions) and conative (hands/ manipulative).
 To construct their own knowledge by using their own experiences and a variety of learning
resources inside and outside the classroom.
 To work individually, in small and large groups, as per the need of the activities/ tasks.
 To reflect on their own work and on peer group/ others’ work (Assessment as learning).
 To appreciate others’ work and learn to respect others’ point of view.
 To become aware of their own learning process.

Activity-3
 Write any two salient features of English learning which
can go across the curriculum?
Let us do  Why is there a need to go beyond the text?

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice

4. Exemplars in English

Need for exemplar

 The underlying idea for exemplars is to apprise practitioners on

how to translate the curriculum into practice in the classroom.
 It would help teachers to understand the different components of
the teaching-learning processes in a sequential manner.
 It would help them understand how to develop learning outcomes
of the selected texts/areas/skills.

Planning for teaching-learning process

Organizing activities and tasks

What do we mean by ‘tasks’? Why do

we need tasks?

Children learn by doing.

Children learn by making mistakes.
Children learn by creating situations.
Children learn in context.

How can understanding be built

through a variety of tasks? What is the
relation between ‘tasks’ and
‘syllabus’?

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice

Learning through activities/tasks

Learning Context

Eagerness to Challenge
Level
know/inquisitive

Participation of all/active Inclination – Interest - Pleasure

Questioning –Thinking - Mental agility

Pleasure of learning Activity/task Solution/ Discovery

Suggestions:
 A kind and sensitive approach should
Points to consider:
be adopted.
 Whether the learning context is  Children should be encouraged to
appropriate; participate.
 Whether it involves all (participants/  Do not immediately accept or reject
children); answers with words or facial
 Whether children are taking an expressions - let the class reach some
interest; consensus on whether the answer is
 Whether the pedagogical processes acceptable or not.
are clear;  Children can be seated in a circle in the
 Whether the language is appropriate classroom, for greater participation.
as per the level of the children;  While using group-work:
 Whether the task leads to language − Each member of the group should
learning; be involved in the discussion.
 Whether it is apt for the class and − One of the children in the group
number of children. can act as the group leader and
group leaders may be chosen by
rotation on different occasions.

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice
The teacher should conduct the activities which not only promote language learning but also
reinforce it. The activities which help us in teaching English in contextual and meaningful way are
as follows:

Group work
Role Play
Pair work

Debate Discussion Assignments

Projects Portfolios
Oral and written
compositions

Before conducting such activities, you should be absolutely clear about the following fundamental
issues:

What How
It is usually the following items which are expected to be taken
up through the tasks/activities as mentioned above.
- Listening
What language content do - Speaking
you want to teach? - Reading
- Writing
- Vocabulary in context
- Grammar in context
What language skills do you You may take up one or two skills together and develop them
want to develop in your through pair work, group work, debate, discussion etc.
children - listening, Reading and writing skills should be taken up as a whole class
speaking, reading and activity first and then individually.
writing?

What competence do you We should take up language items in such a way that their
want to develop in your forms as well as meanings are put across to children in socially
children through these appropriate and acceptable contexts/situations in order to
activities? enable them to construct linguistically correct and appropriate
Linguistic competence sentences and communicate appropriately what they have
Communicative competence decided to communicate in the context.

How do you want to teach as Conduct pair work, group work, discussions, role plays, etc. to
the language content? help the children to learn the language content.
How do you identify the text
and develop the basic Identify/select as per the syllabus and then develop the specific
language skills? language skills of children in a holistic manner.

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice
What How
What resources are
available with you in order You may use CDs, radio, charts, word and picture cards, etc. for
to do what you have decided conducting pair work, group work, discussion, debate, role
to do in class? play. The audio aids would help you in establishing audio
images and visual aids in establishing visual images in the
blackboard minds of the children. This would provide them with both audio
TLMs visual stimuli and help them to come up with desirable
audio aids responses.
visual aids
audio-visual aids
print rich materials
What roles do you want the
children to perform before,
during and after the activity
you are going to conduct in
the class? Children may be motivated to play a host of roles to be able to
Children as active listeners learn the language, both at the receptive and the productive
Children as passive listeners levels. The class should be on the whole learning centred.
Children as speakers
Children as active readers
Children as passive readers
Children as active writers
What is going to be your role
in the class?
teacher as listener
teacher as speaker You may have to play the roles of listener, speaker, reader,
teacher as reader writer, etc. depending on the objective of the task at hand.
teacher as writer
teacher as monitor
teacher as facilitator
teacher as participant
teacher as guide
teacher as overseer

Activity-4
How can tasks/activities be developed holistically? Give
examples.
Let us do

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice
4.3 Exemplar 1 Class VI
Theme: School and Home
Topic: Homework

HOMEWORK I LOVE YOU

Homework, I love you. I think that you’re great.
It’s wonderful fun when you keep me up late.
I think you’re the best when I’m totally stressed,
preparing and cramming all night for a test.

Homework, I love you. What more can I say?

I love to do hundreds of problems each day.
You boggle my mind and you make me go blind,
but still I’m ecstatic that you were assigned.

Homework, I love you. I tell you, it’s true.

There’s nothing more fun or exciting to do.
You’re never a chore, for it’s you I adore.
I wish that our teacher would hand you out more.

Homework, I love you. You thrill me inside.

I’m filled with emotions. I’m fit to be tied.
I cannot complain when you frazzle my brain.
Of course, that’s because I’m completely insane.

– Kenn Nesbitt

For the teacher:

This poem is about a child who is talking about what a great pleasure
it is to do homework! The tone of the poem is sarcastic and it takes a
light-hearted look at how children hate to study and how they find it
so difficult to do their homework every day.
The teaching point is irony and sarcasm. Make sure that the poem is
read aloud in a tone that is sarcastic and that the class listens and
enjoys the poem.

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice

Transactional Process
Learning Outcomes Strategies Classroom interaction
• Listen to the poem Begin the class by asking children to list all
and appreciate the Pre-reading that they like to do or have to do at home after
humour their school. Let them speak by turns the
• Read and Brainstorming tasks they do at home. Make a list of all the
understand the activities on the board. Homework is sure to
poem be one of the activities that they detail.
• Speak about their Resources required:
own experiences • Picture of a child
• discuss the central doing Homework.
• Another short poem Play with Watch TV
idea in the poem friends
• Use vocabulary in “The School Boy” by
context William Blake. After
• Use grammar in • Another poem by the
Kenn Nesbitt ‘- ‘My school
context
Mother does my Do
(antonyms,
Homework’. homework Help Mom
adjectives, figures
of speech – irony, • Comprehension
hyperbole) questions (by the
teacher and by the
• Now you can organise a debate in groups
students)
whether they like to do homework or not.
• Peer Discussion
(Speaking activity)
• Class Discussion,
etc. Simultaneously assess the children on
their speaking ability and
keep/maintain a record.

• This activity can be taken up as pair

work. (Speaking activity).
The children can be asked to categorize
homework into the kind of homework they
like/ dislike

Homework I Homework I
like dislike

Encourage them to share and discuss their

preferences.
• Begin the conversation by asking the
learners to give reasons why homework is
necessary.
You may ask the following questions:
1. How do you feel on the night before a
test?

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice
2. What do you think the following words
mean:
• Boggle
• cramming
• Frazzle
3. Can you think of
• a ‘mindboggling’ situation?
• a time when you felt ‘frazzled’?

4. Let us talk about holiday homework:

Waste of interesting
time
holiday
homework

Keeps us
busy
boring

Write on the blackboard the ideas that the

learners use to describe their feelings about
holiday homework.
This would help develop vocabulary in
context.

Assessment for Learning

A lot of talking and listening has taken place in the classroom while doing the
activities. This is the time for formative assessment. The objective of the pre-reading
tasks/activities is to develop children's speaking skills and to make them familiar with
the lesson and new words. The activity encompasses skills like ‘listening’, speaking and
critical thinking. You can assess the children on these skills and how they co-relate the
ideas, express their likes and dislikes coherently, logically and confidently. If some
children are unable to participate, encourage them to speak. When a learner is unable to
express herself/ himself, you can step in by asking a few leading questions.
This information gathered by you may be used for assessment for learning. For example:
if some children do not participate in the class discussion you may record, 'Rekha can
speak in her home language but needs practice/opportunities to speak in English. If
some children are making grammatical errors such as ‘does not goes’, ‘did not went’,
make a note of such errors and help children practice correct usage.

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice

Assessment as Learning
You can provide a checklist to children to assess themselves on the following points after the pre-
reading activities.

YES NO
1. Able to listen and interact with peers and thereby get  
different types of information.
2. Able to converse with peers and teachers.  
3. Able to express likes and dislikes.  
Strategies Classroom interaction
While reading Model reading by the teacher.
Read the poem aloud with proper stress, tone,
intonation, actions, expressions and props
etc.
Ask children to recite the poem either in pairs
or as a group recitation.
For the teacher:
Encourage children to read the poem on their
You might have to explain own.
the terms ‘irony’ and Discuss the ideas/expressions given in the
‘hyperbole’. Take examples poem.
from the poem or from real
life. Explain the terms ‘irony’ and ‘hyperbole’
with the help of examples from the poem.
Irony is a literary
device. The deliberate use • Homework, I love you. I think that
of irony, especially in you’re great.
literary works and speeches, • I love to do hundreds of problems
is used to emphasize a point. each day.
It is a language that in some • You’re never a chore, for it’s you I
of its forms understates
adore.
facts, denies the contrary of
the truth, or states the • I cannot complain when you frazzle
opposite of the truth. my brain.
You may give some more examples of ‘irony’
and ‘hyperbole’ and ask the students to
Hyperbole is a figure of identify.
speech. It is an exaggerated • Soft like a brick
statement or claim not • I’ve told you a million times!
meant to be taken literally. • It was so cold, I saw polar bears
wearing jackets.
• Hard as putty
• I am so hungry I could eat a horse.
• She is as polite as a shark.
• I had a ton of homework.

(Pair Work) Now ask children to make

statements using irony and hyperbole and ask
them to do a light hearted role-play.

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice
Eg. Child comes home with zero marks in a
history test and the mother says, “Well done!”
Draw the attention of the children towards
the use of figurative language. Give more
examples

Suggested Activities:
You may ask the following questions:
• Was the child happy doing
Homework? If yes, why? If no, why?
• Pick out the words from the poem that
describe feelings of elation and
despondence.
Elation Despondence
Ecstatic boggle

• Pick out any two emotions that you

relate to and explain with examples.
• Why did the chid in the poem feel
completely insane at the end?

Assessment for Learning

Pose more questions/ give activities to the children to assess their understanding of the
poem. Children should be able to read the poem on their own and do the activities.
Children who are not able to read the poem on their own can be given only one stanza to
begin with, engage in some activity and gradually help them to read the whole poem with
comprehension.

Assessment as Learning

You can give the following checklist to children to assess themselves.

Self-assessment checklist

YES  NO 
1. I can name five things that make me feel elated.
2. I can name five things that make me feel dismal.
3. I can write five sentences depicting irony.
4. I can give two examples of hyperbole beyond the text.

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Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice
Strategies Classroom interaction
Post reading WORKING WITH LANGUAGE
Vocabulary in Context:
Given below are some words that express
feelings:

Delighted, glad, pained, screamed, rejoiced,

furious, grieved, shouted, sad, cried, howled,
pleased, etc.

You can ask the children to express their

feelings with the help of the given words in
the following situations*: (They can use more
than one word for each situation and the
same word can be used in other situations
also).
• The night before English/Maths Exam
• The day the results are to be announced.
• The last day of the school before
summer vacations
• The first day of the school after summer
vacations
Grammar in Context:
Complete the sentences and develop into
paragraphs of 100 words each
• When do I feel ……………
• Why do I feel………………
• How does it feel to be……………….

Give the antonyms of the feelings that you

have listed.

WRITING
You must a have noticed that the poem has
rhythm and the poet follows a rhyme scheme.
Draw the attention of children towards the
rhyme scheme, e.g. say, day; blind, assigned,
etc.
Encourage them to write a cinquain poem on
the topic ‘Homework’. A cinquain poem is a
five line poem.
In the first line write one word−‘Homework’
(noun).
In the second line write two words describing
the homework −‘adjectives’.

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice
In the third line write two action words −
(verb+ing).
In the fourth line write two more describing
words related to the words given in the third
line−adjectives.
In the last line write a synonym of the noun in
the first line.
Now you have short poem. Cinquain means
five (5) in French.

Assessment for Learning

The learning situations created by you will help children with language development. While
doing the activities you can assess them for their use of language/words. You can conduct
these activities as pair work or group work to ensure everyone’s participation. If some
h ld d h k d f ff ld d d h
Assessment as Learning
Now ask children to assess each other on the use of vocabulary in context

Peer Assessment-Checklist

*Described___________

Used 5 words from the Used 10 words from the box Used words beyond the
box box

Strategies Classroom interaction

Going beyond the The question is, whether we should make our
text children do homework or should they learn
and do all their work in school itself?
Children, parents, teachers and educationists
have their own opinions and beliefs about
homework. Let us bring them together to
debate on the issue of homework through a
role play.
The topic is ‘Homework is
necessary/unnecessary’
You can divide the class into groups of four
and allot roles based on the following:
1 Sumit, a student of class VII
2 One of Sumit's parents
3 Mrs. Basu, Sumit's class teacher
4 Mr. William, a Principal

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice
You ask the children to hold a discussion with
the group members and develop the
dialogues for the different roles. Two children
can speak that ‘Homework is necessary’ and
two children can speak that ‘Homework is
unnecessary’. You may give clues/ideas to the
children for each role. Encourage them to
come out with creative expression. They enact
their part and assess other groups.
Through role-play you have used all the
skills—reading, listening, speaking, writing
and thinking. While preparing the dialogues,
the children were listening to the other group
members and speaking. While enacting, they
were listening to others as well as speaking
their own parts.
Thereafter, you can ask the children to
present their views in the form of a written
paragraph. Assess them for writing keeping
in view the process approach to writing. This
can become part of their portfolio.

Assessment for Learning

Post reading exercises aim at connecting learning to real-life situations. These enable the
children to go beyond the text. Activities like role play provide you with the opportunity to
assess children on inter-personal qualities as well. When each group of children performs
in front of the class, ask the children to assess the performance (the technique of group
assessment). Give the children the criteria for assessment such as, dialogues, presentation
etc.

Activity-5
 Prepare at least five activities on which you would like to
assess children for listening, speaking, reading, writing
Let us do and critical thinking from this story.

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice
4.4 Exemplar 2 Class VIII
Theme: Dreams and Ambitions
Topic: The Dream Comes True (An extract from Man of Everest,
The Autobiography of Tenzing)

The Dream Comes True

For complete story, refer to

Handout

For the teacher:

The excerpt is about the conquest of Everest by Edmund Hillary
and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. It is a graphic description of the
dangerous landscape, the perils of the climb and the sense of
shared achievement as they reach the summit.

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice

Transactional Process
Learning Outcomes Strategies Classroom interaction
Children will be able Begin the class by showing pictures of various
to: adventure sports like mountaineering,
Pre-reading rafting/canoeing, surfing, skiing, etc. Ask
read the passage children to find out what is common among them
with and what qualities are usually demanded of
comprehension. Resources/material people who practice such sports:
speak about the required:
central idea of Picture of Mount
the passage. Everest
connect the main Pictures of various
idea with their adventure sports like Can you name these sports?
own mountaineering, What is common to all of them?
achievements. rafting, canoeing,
surfing, skiing
develop
Blackboard
vocabulary in
Chalk
context (eg.
Discourse questions
Words related to
(by the teacher and by • What are the similarities and differences
mountaineering
the students) between the sports that we usually play and
and weather)
Peer Discussion these sports?
develop Class Discussion, etc. • Which qualities should sports persons have to
grammar in
win any game?
context
write a
descriptive piece. Perseverance
Strong
body
Qualities
of sport
person
Simultaneously
assess the children
on their speaking
ability and Confidence team work
keep/maintain a
record.

Show the pictures of the important accessories

used in these adventure sports.

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Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice
You can then elicit from the children which
adventure sports are associated with the
accessories. Children may proceed to answer the
questions as to what is common to all of them
and which qualities are also common.

You can then discuss about the qualities - in

addition to the physical ones, the inner qualities-
that one needs to a have to take up these
adventure sports.

Never
Patience
giving up

Inner
Qualities

Positive
attitude perseverance

You can ask children what scaling a mountain

would entail:

Team Equipment
spirit

Mountaineering

Discipline

Going across the curriculum:

You can ask children that they must have read
about various mountains in Geography and
particularly about ‘The Himalayas’. Discuss in
pairs the features of mountains.
Now play word chain game- each pair will
say/tell two words related to the features of
mountains and you can write the words on the
board/chart paper. You may write words such as
precipice, etc., which are part of the text.

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice

Assessment for Learning

The objective of the pre-reading tasks/activities is to develop children's speaking skills
and to make them familiar with the lesson and new words. The activity encompasses
skills like ‘thinking’ and ‘listening’ skills too. You can assess the children's thinking and
speaking skills and how they co-relate and express their ideas coherently, logically and
confidently.

This information gathered by you may be used for assessment for learning. For example,
if some children do not participate in the class discussion you may record, 'Nitika can
speak in group but hesitates to speak in front of the class. She needs to be given more
opportunities to speak in the class’.

Assessment as Learning
You can provide a checklist to children to assess themselves on the following points after the
pre-reading activities.

YES NO
1. Able to listen and interact with peers and thereby get  
different types of information.
2. Able to converse with peers and teachers.  
3. Able to express ideas related to the topic.  
Strategies Classroom interaction
While reading Model reading of the text by the teacher. This is
to be followed by individual/ pair reading.
Divide the text into chunks.
Encourage the children to do the silent reading
of the story. Ask comprehension questions
between paragraphs to gauge and ensure the
children’s comprehension of the content.

Invite children to read Para 1 to 4 and you may

For the teacher: ask the following questions:
Q. Why were they carrying oxygen with them:
While reading the text, you can
divide the text into manageable • Lack of oxygen in the atmosphere
chunks for better • It was clean and windless day
comprehension. This would • That was the only load they had to carry
also help you with assessment • It was compulsory to carry oxygen
for learning of children about Q. Where were they heading towards?
the comprehension of the text. • South summit
• South east ridge
• Vertical white wall
• The mountain
Once they have gone through Para 5-8, the
following questions can be further asked:

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice
• Why was it not easy to climb?
• Which one was last obstacle?
• Why were they having trouble in
breathing?
• What did they see from the top of the
mountain?

For the teacher:

While-reading exercises focus on the development and assessment of the comprehension level
of the children. For this purpose, a number of questions such as true-false, gap-filling, sentence
completion, web-charts, tables, MCQs, match the column and sequencing etc. can be asked. This
wide variety ensures that each child in a heterogeneous group gets ample opportunities to
participate. These activities can be done as peer work/group work. Ask children do the activities
together, peer assessment takes place simultaneously.

Assessment for Learning

You will be able to assess whether the children are able to read on their own or not and
comprehend the text. They read the texts with ease and understanding, understand the
central idea and follow the sequence of ideas and events in the text.

This provides you with criteria of assessment for learning. If some children are struggling
with reading you may record for example, 'Rahul cannot read fluently. He needs practice.'
He needs to be given smaller chunks to begin with.

Strategies Classroom interaction

Post reading You may ask the following questions as post

reading activity. These are inferential
questions. This would help you with
assessment for learning of the text as a
whole.
You may ask the following questions. These are
open-ended questions where along with other
skills, thinking skills, life skills can also be
assessed.

• What had they conquered− a summit

within or summit outside? Justify your
answer.
• These days many people are scaling
different mountains, what type of footsteps
are they leaving behind.

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice
• You must have heard about ‘Cleanliness
Drive’. How can we keep our mountains
clean?

Now ask children to enlist the qualities of the

mountain and the mountaineer in the form of a
table like this-
Qualities of the Qualities of the
mountain mountaineer
Rugged Love for adventure
Rocky Physically exhausting
___________ ____________
___________ ____________
___________ ____________

WORKING WITH LANGUAGE

Vocabulary in Context:
Write a paragraph about a mountain using the
For the teacher: following words:

Encourage the children to A ridge, a precipice, a cornice, a hump, etc.

use a dictionary. Teach
them how to consult a Grammar in Context:
dictionary.
Read the following sentences. Underline
transitive and intransitive verbs from the text
and make a list.
For example:
• It was not easy
• They climbed the mountain

Writing Activity

Write ‘The autobiography of a mountain’.

This activity is to bring out the power and the

majesty of the mountains and the qualities
mountaineers should have in order to trend on
and tame these mountains.

For the teacher

The learning situations created by you will help the children with language development.
While doing the activities you can assess the children for their use of language/words. You
can conduct these activities as pair work or group work to ensure everyone’s participation.
If some children are not doing, it means that some kind of scaffolding is needed. You can
use other children as a resource to help children who are below the level.

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice
Strategies Classroom interaction
Going beyond the Speaking
text Ask children to discuss a situation where they
had an aspiration, the struggle they had to make
it happen, the success/failure of the endeavour
and its aftermath. Ask them to list their
aspirations. It can be more than one.
You can ask the following questions:
• Have you ever struggled to succeed at
something?
• What obstacles did you encounter?
• How did you deal with them?
• How did you feel when you finally succeeded?

Which Indian woman climbed the Mount Everest

Project Work
twice. Read her biography and write its review.

For the teacher

Assessment for Learning
Sample of a rubric to assess
Post reading exercises aim at connecting
children’s’ writing
learning to real-life situations. These
enable the children to go beyond the text.
You can assess children on their writing
and speaking. You can assess children for
their presentation skills, coherent and
logical rendering of ideas. For writing,
assess the children on spellings, grammar
and expression as well. If some children
are making mistakes in spelling and
grammar, etc. you may have to draw their
attention to use the correct spellings and
grammar.

Assessment as Learning

You can give the following Checklist to children for self-assessment:

Checklist
To a great extent To some extent Very less
Used the idea properly

Flow in ideas

Grammar usage is
appropriate 

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice

After the completion of the lesson you may assess them on the following criteria for assessment
of learning,
• They speak and write about themselves.
• They infer meaning and understand the text.
• They relate the ideas to their personal experience.
• They respond in English to specific contextual questions.
• They use critical thinking to go beyond the text.
• They listen to dialogues, conversations and narration with understanding.
• They participate in debate, class discussion and role-play.

The data collected by you can be used for reporting purpose.

Activity-6
 Prepare a lesson following the whole language approach,
along with assessment for learning and assessment as
Let us do learning.

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice
5. Assessment of learning and reflection on action
Assessment is a continuous and ongoing process. It goes hand in hand with the teaching and
learning process. Assessment helps us to know the progress children have made and to use this
knowledge to develop the children’ proficiency rather than just giving grades or marks.

Assessment of children based on paper pencil tests focuses largely on what the children have learnt
by rote-memorization. This often does not give us a complete picture of the children’s performance.
As teachers, we need to assess children for a range of tasks/activities which also include creative
writing/ expression, role play, story-telling, project work, etc. This will enable us to assess them in
a holistic manner and help in providing constructive feedback.

Understanding Language Assessment

It is important to note that assessment is not
just about giving marks but giving insights.
Points to ponder over:
We need to remember that no single
assessment tool or method is capable of Language assessment is not only related to the
providing information about a child’s performance of the child with respect to a
progress and learning in different areas of particular syllabus. It should be based on assessing
language development. Assessment on a daily the language proficiency of the children.
basis helps in interacting with children.
Learning can also be assessed through routine
Continuously assessing them in situations
activities and exercises in the classroom.
both inside and outside the classroom helps in
assessment for learning. Periodic assessment The types of questions that are prepared and used
which may be take place once in every 3 to 4 for assessment need not be restricted to those
months helps teachers to check and reflect on found in the textbooks.
the information collected. This however,
should not be only in the form of a paper Individual and group activities can be designed to
pencil test/exam but should be based on enable the children to reflect on and assess their
different assessment practices such as picture learning experiences.
reading, oral test, projects, portfolio, etc.

Assessment should be primarily based on:

 Observation – the teacher’s observations and assessment of the children’s work through a
variety of assignments/tasks. Individual assessment may focus on individual work and
accomplishments.
 Oral presentations — answering questions, picture reading, storytelling, reading aloud,
describing things, actions, etc.,
 Written work – writing tasks such as paragraph writing, letter writing, process description.
 Portfolio – a collection of written tasks of the child over a period of time, rather than a single
writing sample. This shows the stages of writing and can help the children reflect upon their
work and hence improve it.
 Group work – discussions, debates, making projects, role play, etc.

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice
Types of Assessment

Individual Assessment:
Focus on one child at a
time when she / he is
doing an activity or task.

Group assessment: The

learning and progress of a
group of children working on
Peer a task together with the
assessment: Types of objective of completing it.
One child This method is found to be
assessing the Assessment more useful for assessing
social skills, co-operative
other. learning processes and other
value related dimensions of a
child’s behaviour.

Self assessment: A child’s

evaluation of her/ his
own work.

Assessing Listening and Speaking

Different types of activities/tasks can be used for assessing the skills of listening and speaking. These
tasks/activities can be conducted formally and informally while children are engaged in the
classroom work.

The teacher can informally assess their performance while they participate in different activities by
conducting question-answer sessions during:

 tasks/activities,
 group work,
 pair work,
 role play, etc.

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice
Assessing Reading
Reading skills should also be assessed continuously. You can use various types of passages like those
listed below.

A story From a newspaper, a local folk tale, etc.

Time table Based on a railway/bus time-table, school time-table, weather chart
Instructions How to perform an activity like planting a tree, drawing some object
Small poem Based on themes like self, community, environment, etc.

Keep in mind that the selection should be based on children’ interest, age and their cognitive level.

Types of questions that can be prepared for assessing reading can be:

 Comprehension and inferential questions

 Gap filling
 Completion type
 Word attack questions
 Table completion-type questions
The questions should not require lengthy writing. For classroom use, quick tests of comprehension
can be made using true/false, match the following type of questions, but these should not be used in
examinations as children can guess the answers.

Assessing Writing
The process approach to writing needs to be followed. Assessment for writing takes place from the
first draft to the final draft. Encourage children to follow the process approach to writing to inculcate
the habit of self-assessment, i.e. assessment as learning. Class work and assignments/home-
work involving written work should also be used to assess children’ writing ability. Writing tasks
should be accompanied by hints/guidance so that children know what they are supposed to write. It
is important that a proper context is provided for the task. A writing task can be based on:

 a verbal stimulus
 a visual stimulus

While assessing children’s written work, there are three aspects that need to be focussed on:
content, accuracy and fluency.

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice
Types of Questions and Tasks
The following tasks/activities could be used quite effectively to assess different language skills:

True / False

This type of question is mainly used to assess reading and listening comprehension. It can also be
used to test grammar and vocabulary. A true/false question can be given as a question instead of a
statement, and children write their answer in a yes or no.

Match the following

This kind of exercise mainly tests vocabulary.

Multiple Choice

A multiple-choice question consists of a stem and a number of options (called distracters), from
which the children have to select the right one.

Multiple-choice questions can test grammar, vocabulary, and reading and listening comprehension.
Children can be asked to give the answer in one word/sentence.

Gap filling

Children fill a gap to complete the sentence. Gap-filling questions are useful for testing vocabulary
and grammar. They can also be assessed for listening for specific words.

Transformation

Here children are required to change a sentence according to the instructions. Transformation
questions usually assess the children’ ability to transform grammatical structures and
understanding of grammar or grammatical constructions (forms).

Rewriting
Children are required to rewrite a given sentence after making necessary changes as instructed, but
without changing the basic meaning of the sentence.

This is helpful in finding what a child knows or doesn’t know.

Translation
Translation can be used in a variety of productive ways, particularly in multilingual classrooms.
When a child understands two or more languages, translation may be used as assessment. Children
can be asked to translate sentences or passages to or from English.

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice
Open ended questions

Open-ended questions are generally asked after listening or reading activities to assess
comprehension. They can also be used to assess oral/speaking and writing skills. Open-ended
questions can have multiple answers. Children may answer these in their own way. If they are based
on a text, the situation in the text is used as a take-off point and children can write answers according
to their individual thinking and experience.

The Cloze Procedure

The Cloze procedure is a well-established test of language proficiency. It has also been found to be
very effective for testing grammar, vocabulary and intensive reading. A cloze test can also be based
on articles, prepositions, verbs etc.

In a Cloze test, children are given a text in which every nth word has been deleted. The child is asked
to complete the text by filling in the deleted words.

Making a Cloze test is very easy. Take a passage which will be interesting and challenging. Keep the
first and last sentence intact. Start counting words from the second sentence. Delete every 7th word.
Keep the length of the blank constant. Children should not be able to guess from the blank whether
a small or a big word is to be filled in.

Dictation

Dictation is one of the most widely used assessment tools in a language classroom. However, are you
aware that the present-day dictation is significantly different from the traditional dictation test
which was mainly to test spellings? The modern dictation can also test, to some extent, punctuation
and listening, comprehension as well as writing, reading and grammar as chunks of language as
opposed to single words are given for dictation.

A useful source for dictations at all levels is the class textbook itself. Dictations must be selected
according to children’s abilities, and the usage and style should be similar to what the children are
expected to produce on their own in the course, both verbally and in writing.

Assessing children’s work

Throughout the term, the teacher should periodically collect the children’ notebooks to evaluate the
kinds of errors being made. While evaluating the teachers must differentiate between
comprehension errors and spelling errors. Comprehension errors include both phonological
mistakes and grammatical mistakes. A phonological mistake would be spelling the word physics as
fysics; a grammatical mistake would be transcribing Yesterday he worked as Yesterday he work.
Spelling errors would be like accommodation/acomodation. By doing this the teacher gets an
insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the children and she can help them accordingly.

Teaching for successful learning cannot occur without high quality assessment. Assessment,
therefore, needs to be integrated with the process of teaching and learning. The greater the
integration, the better will be the outcomes of learning. In order to undertake holistic assessment,
all aspects of learning need to be given due recognition by the teacher. Though the methods may

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice
vary, teachers should regularly observe the progress of children; this will help them in maintaining
a profile for each child, which can help in reflecting upon, giving feedback, planning and
implementing measures to enrich and enhance children’ learning.

6. Recording and Reporting in English language

Recording and Reporting are essential parts of assessment process. School based formats are
commonly used to record and report the progress of a child. However, these may not reflect the
actual teaching-learning process for providing inputs for improving child’s learning.
Recording

The information to be recorded helps in assessment for learning.

• The information/data collected during the teaching-learning process is for teacher’s own record
and is used to improve children’s learning and to provide feedback. The focus of this assessment
is to improve children’s learning (assessment for learning). The teacher compares a child’s
progress with his/her previous performance. This can be seen/ observed while doing all the class
activities such as oral, aural and written tasks, projects and portfolio.
• The second kind of information is related with the data collected after completion of a
theme/chapter/unit. This is reported by the teacher at the end of a quarter/term/session, and is
called assessment of learning based on the learning outcomes identified by the teacher.
Recording should bring out a comprehensive picture of children’s development. Thus, the record
of a child’s progress should be maintained in a qualitative manner and not in quantitative terms
only (marks). Anecdotal records are important features of both recording and reporting.
Let us take the example of writing: You can comment on children’s progress and development
as writers depending on the task such as: children’s pleasure and involvement in writing both
narrative and non-narrative pieces; confidence; the range of vocabulary; variety of writing in all
areas of the curriculum; individual or collaborative writing; the influence of reading on
children’s writing; growth in understanding of the written language, its conventions and
spellings. Teachers can adopt peer-assessment and self-assessment as techniques for evaluating
writing.

For example, Siddhartha makes spelling mistakes but is able to identify

the mistakes when told. He enjoys writing short stories.

Activity-7
 How will you record the child’s performance for different
aspects of language learning such as vocabulary,
Let us do grammar, listening, speaking, reading and writing?
 Create a page for your reflective diary.

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice

Reporting process

The information to be reported is part of the assessment of learning. In other words, the progress of
the child needs to be reported to the parents in a way that it is easily understood by them.
• Reporting is one of the activities of child’s learning process. After completion of a
chapter/unit/theme a teacher must assess children keeping in view the learning outcomes and
keep this data as a record. Schools generally conduct assessment (assessment of learning) once
in a quarter or on a half-yearly basis, by using paper-pencil tests. A variety of ways of assessment
must be used to assess the progress. Oral, aural and written tasks, projects, and portfolio need
to be included in this process.
• Very often, the child’s progress is reported in the form of ‘grades’ such as ‘A’, ‘B’, ’C’ without
giving any remarks/descriptions/feedback which neither communicates to children about their
strengths or areas of interest nor communicates to parents/elders about the progress of the
child.
• While preparing a report the teacher needs to communicate and share the feedback with the
child and parents. This aspect is important and needs to be done carefully and in a constructive
and positive manner. Anecdotal remarks should become part of the reporting process.

Points to remember while recording and reporting:

 Prepare a child’s profile for recording and reporting

 Assessment is a part of teaching and learning process.
 Make a special effort to write qualitative description of the child’s work along with her /his
learning level.
 Keep samples of a child’s work in a portfolio and assess them.
 Make a conscious effort to note down important observations, incidents, strengths of children.

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice
7. Essential tips for practitioners

Language learning is essentially meaning making

 Make your class learning centred
 Make the class contextual
 Create an input rich communicational environment
 Move from easy to difficult, simple to complex, known to unknown
 Follow the whole language approach
 Always begin your class as a whole class activity and then do group work, pair work and
individual work.
 Use play /activities as the basis/strategy for learning
 Follow age appropriate pedagogy
 Involve all the children.
 Try to design activities that involves all the senses that
are essential for learning Always Remember
 The themes which have been given in the curriculum All children are not good in the art
are suggestive in nature, one can add/select other of questioning; some children
themes as per the need and context of the children. might not be good in framing
 Follow across the curriculum approach, linking questions or their questions might
language teaching with other curricular areas. be irrelevant. Do not encourage
 Always remember that in upper primary classes, the other children to laugh or
focus of learning is not on coverage of stories/poems comment when such situations
but on language learning. arise, as this would discourage
 Children’s learning experiences should be used to them and damage their confidence
create the environment for brainstorming/
discussion.
 Brainstorming can be done to capture the main/key
concepts, vocabulary and grammar in context for the
children to be able to understand the given text.
 Allow children to talk/discuss while doing activities.
 Be flexible in your approach. If any strategies does not work, switch to the next one.
 Be practical in your planning.
 Ask questions during interaction with children and provide opportunities for them to raise
questions. Try to encourage them to ask, explore, discuss in the class. Questioning not only
develops confidence in children but also develops analytical and critical thinking.

The successful implementation of classroom transaction is one which involves all children in
the classroom activities. It however, does not mean that all children should be kept engaged
in similar work. Heterogeneity in learning levels is inevitable. In order to give attention to all
children in the class, multilevel grouping may be used.
Multilevel grouping is that setting which engages children of different learning levels. This
grouping may include 5-6 children in small group settings. This would help you in many ways:
 Provide space for children to learn at their own pace.
 Pair learning and group learning would be encouraged
 You (teacher) would get time to monitor groups rather than pay attention to every child
 This would facilitate self-learning, self-assessment and peer assessment.

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 Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice
Assessment during teaching learning process (assessment for learning) is an essential component
of transactional process. This assessment needs to be used as a developmental and diagnostic
strategy for learning. While developing any concept, you need to follow certain strategies such as
organising discussion, role play, debate, picture reading, etc. After employing these strategies, it is
pertinent to know whether the children have understood or not, therefore, during this process,
questions may be asked, work sheets and assignments can be given. All these would be check-points
to know the level of learning. Such assessment helps in the following ways:
 To identify gaps in learning
 To provide timely inputs/intervention
 To modify your teaching learning plan/strategies
 To identify strengths of children
 To perform assessment for learning
 To do recording
 To make checklists/rubrics, teacher reflection
 To use anecdotal record
 To maintain portfolios
 To help children prepare projects

Summing Up
Let us recapitulate what we have shared so far.

We need to teach English keeping in view the multilinguality of our country. A

comprehensible input rich curriculum lays the foundation for spontaneous language growth,
and different language skills develop simultaneously in communicative socio-cultural
contexts rather than in any linear order as reflected in the traditional LSRW approaches.
Children can receive meaningful language inputs that is appropriate to their age, context and
interest and through a variety and range of English-learning contexts. Language classroom
is a place where children get an opportunity to develop their creativity and can be sensitised
to their immediate physical and social environment, Assessment needs to become a part and
parcel of the teaching learning process.

Let us share best Practices

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Unfolding the Curriculum: English Curriculum in Practice

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