Ignited Minds of India

When students are offered engaging, challenging and authentic learning engagements they automatically enjoy the learning process and what they learn 'sticks' with them. Third, fourth and fifth grade students at varying levels of Hindi had to design an interactive poster based on an Indian personality of their choice, who has had a significant impact on society and has been a source of inspiration for people. They started by researching the information and learning how to interpret and select the information they come across. A number of students raised queries regarding the availability of so much information they have access to at the press of a button and how can they decide, what they should believe. An excellent example of student generated inquiry and how one can address that in the classroom to teach a life skill.

The next step was to synthesize the information they had gathered, use guiding questions posed by the teacher and start giving their thoughts and research some structure through paragraph writing. Spelling quizzes and discussions along the way helped build up vocabulary and refine written text. Self, peer and teacher edits were excellent mediums to reflect and take ownership of their work with the teacher guiding, facilitating and empowering the students to carve out their journey of learning.

They also added questions tags for the reader to engage with the poster and seek the answer to their questions in the written piece created by them. Contrary to the student writing a sit down exam in paragraph or essay writing and not knowing it's purpose, students were engaged actively in this project from the very onset. Their goal was clearly defined and certain parameters were added on to give them a framework. The rest was student led and teacher facilitated. Last but not the least, they enjoyed making their presentations and quizzing each other.

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