Lesson 1 How Teachers Learn
Qno1:Who was Nora? How did she become friend of the teacher?
Ans:Nora was a small five year old girl. The teacher used to pay a visit to her family over a weekend. Nora used to come to the teacher with a book in her hand and practice reading infront of him. She would also ask for his help if needed. This is how the two became friends.
Qno2:How did the teacher observe Nora while learning?
Ans: The teacher would sit still and silent and observe Nora read the easy ones in one go and struggle with the difficult ones. He tried to observe by letting Nora do the entire job and only hint her when she seemed badly stuck.
Qno3: What odd thing happened with Nora? Why was the teacher puzzled?
Ans:Nora misread a word that previously she had read correctly and this happened many times.The teacher felt puzzled at how she could know a word at one page and not know it at the next.
Qno4:Was Nora a careless child? How do you know?
Ans:Nora was not a careless child at all. She was a bright girl and as the teacher could see, she was not bluffing. She was putting all of her concentration in figuring out the words.
Qno5:How should a teacher understand the problems of the children?
Ans:A teacher should understand the problems of the children by being in their boots and try to see things through their eyes. It is very easy for a teacher to remember the shapes of words and recognize them but not that easy for the children. So, a teacher must acknowledge this fact and be patient.
Qno6:What experience popped into the teacher’s mind after Nora’s learning problem?
Ans:The teacher remembered his forgotten experience that he had had a few years before. One day ,he took a sheet of paper with some Indian language printed on it and tried to figure out the words that occurred frequently on the page.He found it amazingly difficult because he was not accquainted with that language and was so unfamiliar with the shape of its words. Even when he tried to pick out one short word from the rest, he couldn’t do that with all perfection. He would go right by it without noticing its presence.
Qno7:Why are children of unlettered homes at disadvantage?
Ans:Children of unlettered homes are at disadvantage because they don’t get exposure to the look of words at home which is very essential for familiarizing them with the shapes of letters. They don’t get enough time to spend with the words.Since they receive less input ,they produce poor output.
Qno8:How did the teacher learn from Nora?
Ans:The teacher learnt from the difficulties that Nora encountered while learning. He tried to understand the actual problem behind Nora’s misreading of the words that previously she had read correctly and thus got the experience that the learning process of a child is a time consuming process and the teacher ought to bear with the lapses on the children’s part.
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