National Curriculum Framework -Ep 2- Foundational Stage I Toys, Stories & Music I Devika Nadig

This is the second episode on the National Curriculum Framework for the Foundational Stage. And in the first episode, we have talked about the content, that is the what. That means the curriculum goals, the competencies, the learning outcomes, as have been articulated in the NCFFS. This episode will cover both the pedagogy, that means how to teach, as well as the assessment that has been clearly mentioned and written about in this document, NCF for Foundational Stage. So what's being said really, and again, once again, the Foundational Stage is the first five years block, ages three to eight. We talked about five domains of education in the previous episode, which talked about the physical domain, the cognitive domain, the socio-emotional domain, art and cultural domain, as well as the language and literacy domain. And we also gave examples of each of these for curriculum goals, competencies, as well as the learning outcomes. We're now proceeding to see what does the NCF say about the how. That means, how should I teach? The first thing that they're mentioning over there is very popular and also very apt for this age of three to eight years, is teach them through play. Learning by doing, activating with doing, joyful learning. We know all of these things earlier. In that sense, it's not new, but yet there are some beautiful nuggets there in the NCF. First thing they say is, well, even if it is played, let there be conversations in L1, that's the language of the instruction. In the conversations also, they give a beautiful flow, free conversations, structured conversations, and they give clear indications to the teachers about how exactly she must go about that. The second thing that they talk about is, under this learning through play, is storytelling. Again, it's not new for the ECCE teachers, because we know about conversation and stories and toys and music. However, this document articulates it in a beautiful, seamless kind of a flow. Now, again, stories, they're seen, we have said, socio-emotional domains. So, to be told with feeling, gestures, animated expressions, and basically become magical in the class, so that you engage the children in whatever you're doing. There's a huge discussion going on in education circles about toy-based learning. I want to say here, by the way, do subscribe to the Shiksha Angad Education Initiative channel. We bring you the best content in the simplest and easiest way that teachers can understand, and directly take it into practice in your class. So, I was in toy-based learning. Now, this is the pedagogy. There's a lot of confusion. People ask us about how do I do toy-based assessment. Toy-based learning, that means using blocks, puzzles, dolls, balls, pretend toys, all of that which children enjoy and imitate and play at that age. They continue to say that when we are talking about learning through play, can we also look at the songs and the rhymes. Once again, in the ECCE curriculum, we are not unfamiliar with, you know, teaching with songs and rhymes. So, they give a lot of actions, gestures, to jump, to imitate. So, basically, model something that you want students to learn, and you will see them following you through very, very easily. There's a beautiful section on music and movement, because there is a lot of emphasis on rootedness in Indian values, traditions, and culture. And they talk about, you know, can we get them to also play Indian instruments, like the glajim, the manjira, the chiplya, the dhans, all of these instruments, the dhol, which has been famous in India for centuries. And they were singing, clapping, dancing instruments, etc., for teaching them. In art and craft, we have the usual paper folding, pasting, molding paper, and so on. So, that was about one of the sections of pedagogy, which is about learning through play. There's another one on language learning, and then yet another one on mathematics learning. Now, for language, what they're saying is the medium of instruction should be L1. We've talked about this even in episode one. What is the meaning of L1, the medium of instruction? Ho sakhe toh vernacular hi hona chahiye, bachche ki mother tongue. But if that is not possible, then well, English, or Hindi, or Bangla, I mean, whichever medium your school seems to be running in. So, medium of instruction, and they're saying what to do with L1, and when to do with L2. And basically, right from the NEP 2020, ye baad baad baad dohrahi jaadi hai, to immerse children in multiple languages, because we have such a rich and varied cultural heritage of beautiful languages in India. But more than that, you know, I feel that physiologically, jo hamare neurons fire karte hain, the more languages we know, the more they fire. And therefore, the better we learn, and the better we are, in terms of information and interaction with the world. Reading skills ke baare mein baat ki hai, through picture books, look at the gradation, see how beautiful it is. First through picture books, then through story books, then the read aloud books, then the guided reading, then independent reading, then interactivity, poetry, stories, literature, drama. So, har taraf, we will find a very seamless flow of progression in this NCF for Foundational State. Also, the NCF draft, which has come out for the rest of the classes. For writing skills, through drawing, labeling, spelling, workbooks, yaha pe bhi you will see that there is a gradual flow from drawing to complete sentences. Ek waha pe safar hai, journey hai about writing. It's not as if the children will do it immediately at the point of entry to the school. I particularly liked this four block approach that they have for literacy instruction. So, what they are saying actually, is that learning of the language must be oral language, then the word recognition, then the reading, and then the writing. So, it's sort of mapped to our own understanding of LSRW, listening, speaking, reading, writing, in this order. First the picture conversation, then sharing experiences, then storytelling, and then told play. And then you move to word recognition after you speak a lot. So, in the word recognition, again there is a gradual progression. First phonological awareness, then the letter recognition, then sound-symbol connection, then letter and word. And the third block is the course about reading. Here also, first the read aloud, then the shared reading, then the guide reading, guided reading, and independent reading. In writing, which should be last, modeled writing first, shared writing next, guided writing, and independent writing. So, these are the four blocks of language and literacy learning. We'll remember that language and literacy is a separate domain. Unhone usko cognitive domain mein nahi dala hai. Cognitive domain mein, they have put science or environmental awareness and mathematics. Language and literacy ko separate rakha hua hai. Itna dhyan, itna maan pe diya hua hai. So, it's very, very important to focus on these four blocks of language development. Similarly, there are four blocks of mathematics also. And they're saying that they must, to become automatically proficient, children must have these four things or five things. One, conceptual understanding, then procedural understanding, strategies for application, communication and reasoning, and of course, a positive, fearless attitude towards mathematics. Now, all these strands of mathematics mentioned in the first few lines can be designed in, again, these four blocks that the NCF for foundational stage has articulated. Pehla hai experience with oral math. Second, spoken language in math. Verbalize the way you teach. Third, with pictures and skills practice for procedural information. And lastly, again, the abstract written symbol of math. Jaise language bhi, the letters came last. That's an abstract idea. Ae kya hai? Vaise hi teen kya hai is an abstract idea. So, you come to that last. There are one or two more ideas which are very good for mathematical teaching at the foundational stage. That means, ages three to eight. The first block of five years. So, again, maybe the math teachers are already familiar with this idea of CRA. Concrete, material, manipulators in math. Pehle dijiye. Waha se representation karna hai. Waha se we need to go to the abstraction with numbers. So, from concrete to representational to abstract. And the sweet spot for learning mathematics lies somewhere between these three. CRA. Okay. So, we should move to then, how do we know whether our students are learning? So, one of the things that they're saying that all assessment needs to be iterative. Like a cycle. So, we begin to observe, get the evidence of the children learning. Then we make sure that we analyze and interpret these evidences. And lastly, we actually act upon the evidences. We get some evidences, we act upon that, and we make sure that everybody is on the same page and learning. So, basically, assessment, assessment hi word hi bada strong lagta hai for this tender age. But, okay, assessment or evaluation should give us some insights into the child's learning. And that should help us change our pedagogy, design new ways of reaching to every child with all the interests. They have given a beautiful, I mean, there are a couple of examples there. Har subject se hai, math se hai, EBS se hai. About how do you differentiate teaching? Because what is assumed, like I showed in the previous slide, that all the children in your class is not the same. This is a fact. And therefore, I need to reach out to every child. They've given this example about, maan lejiye aap titliyon ke baare se sikha rahe hain, if you're teaching about butterflies, then plan a lot of activities so that children can pick something which is of their interest. For example, some children might want to work in a group, some children might just want to see the actual pupa and the chrysalis and kis tarah se butterfly ka musli se emerge hoti hai. Some children might be happy doing some activity and craft with paper cutting with the butterflies. Some might be happy with the data, ki kaunse kaunse butterflies kaha kaha maujood hain. Some might be simply happy with paper folding and creating some craft out of butterflies. Others might like to actually feel and touch butterflies, making sure that you don't really harm them, okay, and let them fly into the free wild world. And some children might simply like to do a role play or dramatization. You will see that this maps to Howard Gardner's idea of multiple intelligence, waise yaha zikr nahi kiya hai, but differentiated teaching is all about reaching out to the variety of interests available in our class and making sure that we plan our activities. Khushi ki baat toh yeh hai, that NCF mein iske kayi examples aapko milenge, at the foundational stage. Here is a beautiful idea again about gradual release of responsibility, yaanein, we can't be teaching the children all the time alone. Sooner than later, we need to make them take charge of their own learning. Toh yeh shuru se hi kar de. So what they're saying is scaffolding. Scaffolding ki main nahi hai, we provide support and then leave them, okay. So we start something new by going to the prior knowledge, what is available in the child's long-term memory. Once that prior knowledge is activated, we then create a platform for new knowledge and that's how we are able to teach. This is ek takhiya kalab, hum isko baad mein. I do, first I demonstrate, then we do together and after that you do alone. Gradual release of responsibility or GRR, that is what has been mentioned a lot in this national curriculum framework for the foundational stage. Then again for assessment, they have given many tools which we are all familiar with, magar yeh, you know, because this is mentioned there, I have that on one slide. So let's just at a glance see what the NCF for the foundational stage was saying. There are curricular goals, there is pedagogy and there is assessment. We talked about curricular goals, five domains in the first episode of this NCF series on the foundational stage. Today on this episode we talked about the pedagogy, learning through play, differentiated learning as well as how do we teach the four blocks of language and the four blocks of mathematics, what is the NCF saying about that. For evidence of learning, we just simply need to be observing and it is an iterative process. The NCFFS also says that all this needs to be flexible, multi-faceted as well as multi-level, especially when our government schools are concerned, where there are many children and few teachers perhaps, okay. Now we've talked about this, the physical and motor development, that's one of the domain, cognitive development, second domain, socio-emotional development third, language and literacy fourth, cultural and artistic fifth, iski baat humne pehle episode and we have actually explained each of these domains with examples. For the teaching methods, we have talked about all of these and probably some of them are still not talked about in this episode but most of them, conversation, storytelling, toy-based, play-based, art and craft and so on and similarly, that's the pedagogy. Similarly, we need to see the learning outcomes through evidences of learning which is the assessment. Most of these outcomes are picked up from the NCF. What is it that we need to see at the foundational stage? That sort of concludes the second episode of the series of National Curriculum Framework. Do like and subscribe to our channel. The third episode will take you into the draft NCF from grade 4 onwards up to 12. We'll do couple of episodes then. Keep watching, stay with us, like, subscribe, share. Thank you for watching.