Improve learning for 6000 underprivileged children

Report to Global Giving

Intervention Period – November 2012 – November 2014

Project – Whole School Turnaround

School: Goodwill English School, Heganahalli, Peenya II Stage

Reporting Period: December 2013 – February 2014

No. of teachers/heads covered under the Programme - 1 head, 1 Coordinator and 18 teachers

Work done in 3 months (Dec 2013 to Feb 2014)

Midline Audit –

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Midline audit was conducted in November after the completion of one year of “Whole School Turnaround” project in the school to assess the impact of intervention.

The audit report shows improvement in all domains i.e. Leadership Management, Teaching Learning Assessment, Student Environment and Community Involvement. Assessments in Maths and English were also conducted for the students of Std III, V and VII. Audit report shows a positive impact of training on their increase of scores of assessment too.

Head Support -

The school heads have been supported in formulating and finalizing action plans for 4 months i.e. Jan 2014 to April 2014. These action points have been shared with the school teachers too. Since school heads' role is not limited to administration, they are encouraged to monitor teaching, learning and assessment processes. The action points on which the school will work collaboratively are –

• The school heads will observe at least 2 classes per week.

• Lesson planning and co planning will be institutionalized in the school.

• Notebooks will be checked regularly to encourage error free correction by teachers.

• Teaching strategies learnt from the training workshops will be implemented in classroom teaching.

• Teachers will encourage students to participate in activities in the classes through group work, pair work and peer learning.

• Home assignments will include a few activities or work which will help students to explore on their own and it should be not be mere repetition of classwork.

• The students will be encouraged to express their views, opinions in the school assembly as well as in the classes.

Teachers Training –

12 modules on Prerana on classroom teaching strategies are completed successfully and teachers are implementing their learning in the classrooms effectively. They have been trained on writing lesson plans and their enthusiasm to plan their lesson brings happiness to WST team.

Teacher Support –

The teachers were supported by doing 2nd round of demo classes by TTF facilitators. Demo classes were given in the Maths, English and Social Studies. The teachers found these classes very useful as they could see the effective use of various teaching strategies and the increase in students participation and engagement.

Teachers’ classes were also observed for the second time. They were supported with feedback at planning level too which helped them to execute the classes quite effectively. The teachers were provided one on one constructive feedback after the classes. They were quite open to the feedback and assured that they would work consistently towards helping students to learn better through their effective teaching. A few teachers still need to work towards improving their classroom teaching skills for better learning. Questioning skills of the teachers also needs improvement as most of the questions asked are still of low order and does not help students to have higher order thinking. Standard of written and spoken English language both among students and teachers is a concern.

Positive Outcomes after a year of intervention -

1. The school heads are proactive, positive and are open for suggestions and communication with all stakeholders.

2. Teachers' opinion and suggestions are incorporated in school policies.

3. The teachers have started articulating the objectives of the lessons to be taught however co planning is not evident in the school.

4. There has been a significant improvement in teaching learning methodology however this is restricted to the prescribed text book.

5. Teachers are also trying to pose higher order questions and demonstrate the concepts through visuals, role plays, group work and other

teaching aids.

6. Students are active participants and are seen to interact with their peers to discuss learning.

7. Most of the teachers have improved remarkably in using blackboard effectively by using it in an organized way with a clear flow of

lesson.

8. Teacher student interactions have improved significantly. Teachers are positive in their communication with students and they agree that

they are not scared of teachers anymore.

9. Corporal punishment has reduced substantially across the school as a measure to reinforce discipline.

10. The school has provided clean drinking water to the students through water purifier.

Going Forward –

1. Last module of HeadLamp will be conducted for school heads in April 2014. This module will help them to define roles and

responsibilities for teachers and institutionalize the process of performance appraisal in the school.

2. The teachers will be supported to plan their lessons for next academic year.

3. Lesson planning and co planning will be scheduled in the time table of the school.

4. Mentors will be training on the coaching and mentoring process.

A few photos -

Report to Global Giving

Intervention Period –December 2012 – December 2014

Project – Whole School Turnaround

School: Goodwill English School, Heganahalli, Peenya II Stage

Reporting Period: Sep 2013 – Nov 2013

No. of teachers/heads covered under the Programme - 1 head, 1 Coordinator and 18 teachers

Intervention

Objective of the Intervention

Actual Outcome

Heads Support

Action Points 

• Review of action points of 8 months

• Discussion and planning of action points for Sep – Dec 2013

• The school has successfully completed below mentioned action points with the help of TTF. These positive changes need to be monitored by the schools heads to make these changes sustainable.

1. Maintaining cleanliness and hygiene in the school

2. Positive disciplining using appreciation chart and ground rules in place or corporal punishment

3. Formulation of school vision and sharing the same with all stakeholders

4. Parent Orientation

5. Time Table – School and Teacher Time Table

6. Student Council

7. Maintaining school records
8. Use of Blackboard and display board effectively

9. Use of positive verbal and non verbal communication

10. List of library books

11. Staff Room

12. Installation of water purifier

13. Students participation in school assembly

14. Awarding classrooms as best classroom based on various indicators

15. Class observation by the school head

Intervention

Objective of the Intervention

Actual Outcome

• The school will work on the following action points during September 2013 – December 2013

1. Regular and democratic staff meeting with proper agenda and

documentation of minute of meetings.

2. Teachers should be empowered by allowing them to share

their suggestions and views and incorporating the same in the

classrooms as well as school policies.

3. The class teachers will plan and motivate the students to speak in the

assembly in English on any topic for at least 3 – 4 minutes which will help

them to develop confidence to speak in English on topics.

4. All the classes must have a class monitor/leader, a cleanliness- in-charge

and a language leader.

5. Teachers will practice their learning from Prerana workshops in the

classes.

Prerana Modules

1.Tool for

teaching 1

2.Tool for

teaching 2

3. Assessment

4. Designing Learning 1

• The teachers will be able to use different type of graphic organizers in the classes to help the students to understand the organization or structure of concepts as well as relationships between the concepts. The learner does not have to process as much semantic information to understand information.

• The teachers will start using varied methods of assessment instead of conventional methods to assess the learning of the students at various stages.

• The teachers will start writing objectives of the lesson in the format – Audience, Behavior and Condition

• Teachers have started using KWL and “Clearest and Muddiest Point” in the classes.

• Teachers found their learning on “Formative Assessment” quite useful and felt that understanding of “Bloom's Taxonomy” will help them plan the blue prints to set their question papers in a better way.

• Teachers tried to write the learning outcomes in ABC format for the classes which were observed by TTF facilitators in Oct.

• The teachers were clear that they are not supposed to use words” understand, comprehend, know, learn, appreciate” etc. while writing the objectives as these cannot be measured.

Intervention

Objective of the Intervention

Actual Outcome

School Based Support

Classroom Observation and one on one feedback to the teachers by TTF Facilitator

2^nd round of Demo classes by TTF facilitator

• To provide support to the teachers by observing their classes and by providing constructive feedback on teaching strategies used by them in the classes

• To help the teachers to observe and understand as how to use of different tools for teaching for example – KWL sheet, graphic organizers and different forms of formative assessments in the demo classes

• Classes of 15 teachers were observed during 2^nd week of September 2013 by TTF facilitators.

• The aspects observed were based on 6 Prerana modules and these were – positive demeanor of the teacher, positive verbal and non verbal communication, effective praise, effective use of BB and display boards and questioning skills and group/pair work and how to help the students to think.

• Teachers’ effort was evident in the classes. However a few teachers were quite nervous during observation as their classes were observed for the 1^st time during their teaching career.

• Organized BB work, legible handwriting, word wall, positive demeanor etc came up as strong points for most of the teachers.

• The feedback was provided to the teachers to help them to reflect on their strength and areas of improvement.

• This exercise will help the teachers to make teaching learning more effective in their classes.

• The teachers could see the strategies like KWL, clearest and muddiest point, questioning skills, use of maps in social studies etc in the demo classes. Demo classes also demonstrated as how various assessment methods can be used during class to gauge students' understanding.

Going forward:

1. Midline audit will be conducted to assess impact of intervention after one year.

2. Teachers will start writing lesson plans for units with clear objectives.

3. Mentors will be identified among the teachers to monitor classes of the peers and share constructive feedback with them.

4. Mentors will be trained for successful institutionalization of coaching and mentoring process in the school.

Photos to show improved teaching learning in the school:

Photos (PDF)