Decide, Design, Do

Our statement of inquiry "the form and use of play spaces reflects our culture" provided the conceptual framework for Hindi students of grade 6 and 7 to study the forgotten games of India and eventually design a play space for their fellow students from the pre-primary classrooms. Unlike a traditional Hindi classroom, which would have begun and ended with a study of this sort by picking a suitable lesson from the text book. reading the passage, answering comprehension questions and completing grammar exercises, our students began on a completely different note. To initiate inquiry related to this topic and also for me to gather information on how much prior knowledge they had on this topic, they were asked to interview their parents and grandparents about the games they played and also bring samples of board games that have become redundant today. The result was very rewarding. We re-lived moments of the past with 'Lattus' (replaced by the bay blade today), "Saanp seedi" (snakes and ladders), "Chaupad" (there is probably no English name that matches) and also students sharing about how their grandparents created new games to play on the playground. "Langdi", "kho kho", "saankli" and "luka chupi" of course remaining the all time favourites. It is essential that students engage with the topic by making personal connections so that learning seems relevant to them. This provocation beautifully achieved this goal.

The beauty of backward planning by a teacher lies in the fact that students know, from the very beginning, what they will be working towards. It puts their anxiety to rest and they know that the research involved and tests taken are natural components of studying. In terms of deliverables - will it be a product, a presentation, would they work individually or in collaborative groups etc.? The GRASP model (Understanding by Design - Wiggins and McTigge) is a very comprehensive method of explaining the objective to students and lends itself beautifully to project based learning methods. They received the following project specification sheet when we began the unit and a journey of learning that was meaningful, engaging, relevant and service oriented unfolded.

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Task Requirements:

Goal - The goal is to understand how play spaces reflect local culture and serve as a medium of bringing people together socially, practice inclusion and how language plays a role in keeping games alive.

Role - You are a playground architect specialist and are working with a co-playground architect specialist. You have been asked to design a play space or play equipment that reflects aspects of Indian culture / art.

Audience - Your target audience is school children up to 8 years of age in your school community.

Situation - You need more social play opportunities on your school playground. The challenge involves working with another play-ground architect specialist assigned to you and collaboratively make decisions and present a design proposal.

Product / Performance and Purpose -

1. You will create a sketch or a 3D model of your play space or play equipment and write an instructions sheet on how the space can be used / played or how your play equipment can be used. (Hint: - Like you have instructions in board games). Word count should be between 200 - 250 words.

2. You will also make a 5 minute presentation of your equipment or space, which will be video recorded and posted on the school you tube channel to gather likes. The maximum number of likes decides what goes into implementation. We may have some surprises too!

Standards and Criteria for Success -

Your 5 minute presentation (video) in Hindi must explain the following -

1. What/Who inspired your design?

2. How can this play space / equipment be used and how it encourages social play?

3. How does it reflect local culture?

4. Your written work must be neat, keep the word count in mind and effort put in to achieve maximum accuracy.

Feel free to ask any clarifying questions you may have. Good luck!

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Hindi or learning of any additional language feels most successful if students are able to connect with the topic or idea, engage with the assignments and tests that seem relevant and apply their learning in a real life context. This journey of learning was rewarding not just for the students but also the teacher, who may have had to make continuous adjustments and take diversions based on what students inquire and want to learn but knew that the students benefited from it and achieved the desired objectives in the process. It also included a service component for the school community that further enhanced its relevance for students by providing them with an authentic audience, which is an integral component of project based learning. The slide show attached showcases evidences of this incredible journey of learning.

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