NaliKaliAnita

National Conference on Enhancing Learning in Elementary Schools, Bangalore, 23-25 July 2004 1

Nali Kali: The Joy of Learning

"This school, -its timings, textbooks, curriculum has been made to suit which child? Whose school is it anyway? For the child who 'has'. But it is being run in the name of the child who 'has not'. I feel our schools should be re-structured from the perspective of the deprived child" Latif

"The school is actually meant for the poor. People with money always find a way for their children to learn. We have to ensure that poor children learn. We must design textbooks, learning material to ensure that these children learn". Kodanramareddy

"The education system should reach out to children from the most deprived families. The whole system needs to change to make this happen". Vijaya Kumari

'Before we begin the lesson' A series of films on primary education DPEP, Karna aka tAnita Kaul


The Nali Kali approach to learning began in 1995 with Unicef assistance when a group of 15 teachers and administrators from Heggade Devana Kote (HD Kote), a remote tribal block of Mysore district, visited the rural schools run by the Rishi Valley Education Centre in Madanapalli, Andhra Pradesh.

'We saw that those children were working entirely on their own. Our children were not so active in the classroom. Maybe, because we were not teaching through activities. When we saw how actively children were participating, we realised how hard teachers must've worked with them. We thought if we use the same methods, we might be able to bring our children up to the same level' said Mahadevaiah, a schoolteacher from HD Kote.

'We returned from Rishi Valley after observing what the teachers and children are doing in the classroom. What kind of learning material are they using? How are they using these learning materials? How do they conduct group activities? How does the teacher manage the class? Would we be able to make their method work in our schools?' asked MN Baig, the Education Officer of Mysore district.

Inspired by the principles of pedagogy, which are entirely based on child centred, activity based learning, and this group of teachers set into motion the processes for adapting the Rishi Valley pedagogy to their own classroom reality. The pedagogy evolved gradually over the years, from insights and experiences of the teachers, DIET faculty, administrators and children involved in the programme. Four years since the programme started, Lily Joseph, a school teacher says:

"Previously we were given a syllabus and a textbook. I was teaching that. Children sat and listened like mute dolls. They talked, only if asked. I was doing all the work. It was a one-way process. I talked, they listened. Though it didn't feel like much work, I didn't know what methods to use to make them understand. However hard I tried, it was impossible. In this new method, I know the content areas. I have given materials based on this to children. Children learn by doing activities with the material. This process makes them learn on their own, happily. The class atmosphere is not frightening. He doesn't learn,’ because of pressure from the teacher. Learning is now a game." says Lily Joseph, schoolteacher.

The Nali Kali team grew from the 15 teachers who initially visited Rishi Valley to 36 cluster resource persons, and thence spread to all 270 schoolteachers in HD Kote block of Mysore district. Since then it has further spread to 1500 schools in Mysore district, and another 2000 schools in selected DPEP and Joint UN systems blocks and clusters outside Mysore district. In all there are 4000 schools in Karnataka where this pedagogy is being practiced.1

The process - What Teachers Did

Drawing on their own experience of the education system, the teachers and resource persons:

Made an analysis of the 'ills' of the education system that hinder children from fully accessing and participating in the school system and achieving pre-determined levels of learning.

Identified which of these 'ills' they could directly address as a team. (Concluded that given the circumstances, there is precious little they can do to improve, for example, the quality of infrastructure,

1 All quotations in this paper are from the series of films 'Before we begin the lesson...' developed for DPEP Karnataka by D&N Productions.


furniture or equipment 'supplied' to them, but they can, as a collective, playa more interventionist role in the whole area of what and how a child learns, thereby draw in more children into the schooling system and enable them to 'like' school)

This analysis and reflection led them to undertake the following activities:

Review the curriculum; re-organise the curriculum according to what a child can learn at a particular levelBreak the curriculum into small manageable learning units Sequence the learning units into a comprehensive learning ladder Develop activities and a teaching methodology for each learning unit to facilitate readiness for learning, instruction, reinforcement and evaluation Build into the learning ladder an evaluation system which is non-threatening, continuous and comprehensive Evolve a more democratic, classroom management system, which is not based on the child's gender, caste, age or ability, but on the nature of activity taken up by the child Develop a system for making the classroom attractive -display of children's work, Children’s blackboard, weather charts, arogya charts, etc.

The Curriculum, Learning Units, Learning Ladder and Material

'We talked about our visit to Rishi Valley with other teachers in HD Kote. We discussed with them whether we could do this here, and if so, how? We consulted department officials and DIET faculty' says Kendaganaswamy. Initially, discussions on the curriculum revolved around the content of MLL and the traditional textbooks. Breaking away from the prescribed curricular content was hard. But as Baig observed 'When practicing teachers say, you're asking us, so we're doing it, but we can't do it. And when teachers say this, there's no point in forcing them'. Continuous review of the curriculum and learning materials in all subjects has been a crucial feature of this experiment. Every six months teachers and resource persons meet together to revise the curriculum, activities and learning materials. Teachers collectively arrive at a consensus about content areas, materials and activities to be retained, modified or dropped.

'Initially we used the alphabet strip to teach letters. But now in 1998-99 we have changed our methods. We introduce words first and teach letters later through these words. This method evolved after discussions with teachers. If all teachers decide that there is a more effective way, we accept and apply it. There's no debate on that!' The process is therefore marked by trialing and re-trialing at each stage, -grounded in a spirit of openness -to constantly debating issues, to re-organising the curriculum, re-sequencing the learning ladder, re-designing the activities, -to be convinced that it works.

When a group of teachers from other districts visited the Nali Kali schools in HD Kote, they asked: 'It is difficult to teach some topics to a class I-II child. Some topics are impossible for the child to learn. Do you face such problems here? Are there... examples that you feel are impossible to teach?' Nali Kali teachers recalled some of their experiences in response to the question:

'We're told to teach 'more-less' in class I. We can teach that easily. But to teach 'minimum-maximum' with three objects was a problem for us and for the children. Now we teach only less-more in class I. We've shifted 'maximum-minimum' to the next.'

'In the traditional system, compound letters were introduced in class I textbooks. Whether children learnt them or not, I had to move on with the lesson. If I asked them to read the first lesson, at best 5 children were able to read. The others could not. I had to proceed to the next lesson. I knew children were making mistakes. I knew they hadn't learnt compound letters. It was impossible to give them a chance to learn it properly. I couldn't even


help them individually catch up. Here it is not like that. A child can proceed to the next level only after he has learnt the first.'

'MLLs are the learning outcomes that a child is expected to learn by the end of an academic year. Our activities are designed to achieve the MLLs. If some competencies cannot be achieved at the end of class I, these are shifted to class II. Similarly, if some competencies cannot be achieved in class II, these are shifted to class III. In the long run, we can guarantee that all competencies that need to be completed will be achieved by the end of class IV.'

'Earlier, while doing simple addition and subtraction children also did borrowing and carry over. This was hard for them. Children now learn addition and subtraction without carry over and borrowing. But that doesn't mean we have perfected our system. We have to continue this process.'

These responses emerge from an understanding that there is a certain cognitive sequence in learning. The curriculum must be in consonance with the cognitive levels of children. The Nali .Kali system therefore allows a flexibility, which facilitates the shifting of learning units to different levels and different grades, depending on the local situation.

The sequence is learning is broken up into the smallest possible units. One teacher says: ‘If we use more than 5 letters in the first level of language learning, we would be reverting to the traditional system where we used to teach 10-12 vowels. Here the principle is that the smaller the learning unit, the easier it is for the child'. The curriculum is seen as a continuum from class I-IV -graded into learning tasks along a 4- year continuum. A child who has had to remain absent from school for several days or weeks - be it because of seasonal agricultural work or illness or temporary migration -can re-enter the learning continuum at the level where she left off without having to go through the distress of catching up large chunks of portions missed out.

Nali Kali recognises that all children do not learn at the same pace. Usually a teacher has to handle children at different levels in the same class and also children in different grades at one time. In such a situation the teacher has to divide her time between children of different levels and grades. While the teacher is teaching one grade, children of other grades are left to their own devices. The learning units, learning ladder and learning material in Nali Kali have been designed keeping this ground reality in mind. 'Here, children of different ages and learning levels, learn together in the same classroom at the same time. In this system a teacher is able to handle about 40 children on her own' says Kenchamaraiah, Block Education Officer, HD Kote.

Nali Kali teachers decided in the very early stages to dispense with the prescribed textbooks as they found that when asked to combine the textbook with activity based teaching they restricted themselves only to the textbooks. Teachers felt that textbooks made teaching learning transaction teacher centred. It also made the child dependent on the teacher.

The Language Curriculum: Class 1: The 10 Levels

1. Ra Ga Sa Da A 2. Ja Va Ma Ba Na 3. Pa Ya Uu Da Ta Ch 4. La Sha Ee Uu Ka : 5. Ae Aie E As Ta La : 6. 0 Ao H Sha : 7. Aae Rhu Tra Chha Au. 8. Dha Tha Da Bha 9. Tha Gha Fa Jha Kha 10. Am Ah


The language curriculum is made up of 10 levels broken into the smallest possible units, and beginning with the most frequently used letters of the alphabet to instill in children a sense of confidence that they can make 'so many words' with 'so few letters' (same principle as in the literacy campaign's IPCL pedagogy), -and thereby spur them to further learning. At the end of level 1 (Ra Ga Sa Da A) itself, the child can make, read and write 15-18 words, as well as a couple of2-3 word phrases (not full sentences). The number of words that the child can form increases hugely as she/he moves on to other levels. By the end of the 10 levels the child can master 540 words and can read and write 4-6 word sentences.

For each of the 10 levels there are activities, which fall into the following categories: (i) preparatory, (ii) instructional, (iii) reinforcement and usage, (iv) evaluation.

The sequence of these activities makes up the learning ladder. To illustrate, activities for level 1 -Ra Ga Sa Da A -are described below:

(i) Preparatory activities for Ra Ga Sa Da A include:

Songs A series of five songs. These are preparatory activities to create a feeling of joyful togetherness in the classroom at the beginning of the academic session

Stories A series of six stories, to create a sense of curiosity and wonder in the first month of school.

Craft Spray painting with rubber letters

Seethaphal & Tharanatha Stencil in the shape of a 'seethaphal' -for finger movement, pre-writing.

Stencil in the shape of a 'tharanatha' -for finger movement, pre-writing.

SimpleConversation

Conversation between a crocodile and a deer -a shadow play

Story (all competencies)

A story covering all the letters of the alphabet and the words to be introduced at various stages in the language ladder. The teacher narrates the story only for the listening competency.

(ii) Instructional activities for Ra Ga Sa Da A include:

Picture train A series of nine cards designed to enable children to distinguish shapes. Each card has two simple pictures, one of which matches a picture on another card. The child matches cards with identical pictures (shapes) and places them in sequence like a train. These pictures (shapes) are chosen to facilitate learning of letters in level, name~ Ra Ga Sa Da A.

Letter train Also a series of nine cards. Each card has two letters, one of which matches a letter on another card. The child matches cards with identical letters (shapes) and places them in sequence like a train. The letters on the cards are Ra Ga Sa Da A.

Picture words The child is given flash cards with pictures only. The teacher creates a situation (story) around the pictures, to enable the child to associate the word with the picture. Words and pictures are chosen to facilitate learning of Ra Ga Sa Da A.

Rubber letters The child touches and feels rubber letters Ra Ga Sa Da A in order to learn to recognise and


pronounce these letters.

Writing letters Letter cards Ra Ga Sa Da A with arrow marks indicating the direction of movement. The teacher demonstrates the manner in which the letter is written. The child arranges pebbles, tamarind seeds along the letters as per the direction indicated. After adequate practice -perhaps over several days -the child is encouraged to write the letter on the children's blackboard or the floor.

(iii) Reinforcement and usage activities for Ra Ga Sa Da A include:

Letter strip The child is given five sets of the letters Ra Ga Sa Da A. The child sorts them out and arranges each letter one below the other. All Ra below Ra, Ga below Ga, etc.

Match the picture to the word

The child matches with the help of colourful strings a series of pictures on the right hand side of the card with words derived from the letters Ra Ga Sa Da A on the left hand side.

Find the missing letter from the picture

The child identifies the missing letter Ra or Ga or Sa or Da or A from the word by looking at the picture

Picture word A car with pictures and their names, all with the letters Ra Ga Sa Da A. The pictures and names on this card are the same as III the pictorial word card. The child recognises the picture and reads and writes the word below it -either on the children's blackboard or on the floor for practice, and finally writes the words in the notebook

Picture Sentence The cards have simple pictures and two word sentences/ phrases with the letters Ra Ga Sa Da A. Children read and write them.

Word game A game like checkers. A number of letters -Ra Ga Da Sa A -are placed on a checkers board. The centre square on the checkers board is empty. Children jump squares, collect the letters jumped to their kitty, and make words out of the letters collected. The game instills a feeling of competition among the children. The child who makes the largest number of words wins. As the children make the words, they also write them on the floor or in their notebooks

Sadhana (achievement card)

The child reads and writes the words on the sadhana (achievement cards), all with letters Ra Ga Sa Da A. These are abstract cards because there are no pictures. The child is entering into the abstract world of words for the first time. Most of the words chosen are from the immediate environment of the child. The child practices on the children's blackboard or the floor, and finally writes in the notebook.


(iv) Evaluation for Ra Ga Sa Da A

Aasha Atta An evaluation activity to associate sound with the shape of the letter, for an assessment of the child's listening and reading skills. Aasha -' Aa' stands for 'aakar' (shape) and 'sha' stands for 'shabda' (sound). 'Atta' means play. The activity is played in groups. One child has the master card, from which she/he reads the letter, while the other children (maximum four at a time) locate the letter on their respective cards, and place a pebble seed against it. The cards are designed to see that one child 'wins' at a time, and the process ensures that all children complete their respective cards one after the other. The child who finishes raises his/ her hand to shout Aasha!

The content area to be taught is vast. It is important therefore to break up what is taught at any one time into smaller proportions (learning units) to enable the child to feel, 'I have learnt something today, I should be able to use it immediately'. As Baig says, 'That's why in language we don't teach words after we have taught the alphabet. First we teach five letters. Using those five letters, we teach words with pictures, words without pictures, word building, sentences with pictures and finally short stories. What has he learnt with the words based on 5 letters? He has learnt to listen, speak, read and write them. He has learnt all the four language areas at this first level'.

Thus, for each of the 10 learning levels in class I language (from Ra Ga Sa Da A to Am Ah), there are preparatory, instructional, reinforcement and evaluation activities for each of the language areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing. 'It is like climbing up a hill and climbing down. The preparation she (the child) needs before climbing the hill and the drilling and evaluation that follows it. All these processes make up a learning level'. By the end of class I, across the 10 levels the child would have played 151 language activities. Since there is a pattern in the activities, the child learns to understand the rules of the game, and play the activity more independently as she moves from level to level. At the end of every third level, there is a recapitulation activity in addition to the evaluation activity.

The pattern described above has emerged after much trial and error. But it is not as if this is the final pattern. There is scope for change. Some teachers who visited Nali Kali schools pointed out: 'Some words in the achievement cards are meaningless to children. For example, 'indigo' or 'attained the feet of the lord'. A child may read these aloud. Can he understand them?' Nali Kali f' teachers say that they will further revise the cards to remove words, which are not appropriate for the child. But as a resource person also pointed out 'there may be words which are not used in here, but are common, say in Virajpet. We may have to include them in our pool of words'.

Mathematics: Class I

1. Preparatory activities 2. Numbers 1-5 3. Number 6-94. Numbers 1-9 5. Concept of 0 6. Number 10, 7. Numbers 11-19

The Mathematics ladder comprises 7 levels and 100 activities. Preparatory activities at level 1 are pre-number activities for enabling children to identify and classify individual objects with same shapes, sizes and colour, as also objects with different shapes, sizes and colour. Concepts of position, including –above/below,


left/right/centre, behind! in front/middle, near/far, size - big/small, height -tall/short, weight -heavy/light are introduced through a variety of outdoor and indoor games.

Number begins at level 2 in the Mathematics ladder, initially with 1-2, then 3-5 and then 1-5. Within the level (1-5) the child learns to count in ascending order, descending order, understands which number is more or less or equal. She also does addition, subtraction and mixed operations at this level. Starting with the smallest unit of number learning is important: 'If we take numbers 1-9 to do operations like plus-minus, ascending/ descending order, more-less, we will be overloading the child... To teach plus-minus, more-less within 1-5 is easy. As the numbers are fewer they (children) master the processes. Once mastered, the same operations in 6-9 are easy'.

For each operation there is a variety of activities further classified into outdoor and indoor activities for preparation, worksheets for reinforcement and drilling and dice games for evaluation. As illustration activities in level 2 for numbers 1-5 are described below:

Numbers: 1 & 2 (Outdoor)

Teacher points to parts of the body, which are only one in number: one head, one stomach, one mouth, etc. She then points to parts of the body which are two in number: two hands, two legs, two eyes, two ears, etc

Preparatory

Numbers: 1 & 2 (Indoor)

Here, the teacher uses objects, like stones, pebbles, seeds, sticks, etc., for teaching numbers I & 2.

Preparatory

Rubbernumbers

This activity requires numbers 1 & 2 made of rubber and flash cards with the same numbers, and arrows marks indicating the direction of movement. Children touch and feel the rubber numbers. They match the rubber numbers with the numbers on the flash cards, and place the rubber numbers on the flash cards. Children also arrange pebbles and seeds along the direction of the arrow mark on the flash cards I & II. After adequate practice children are encouraged to write the numbers 1 & 2 on the floor or the children's blackboard. Children also identify 1 or 2 objects, as the case may be, and place them on the flash cards 1 or 2.

Instructional

Numbers: 1 & 2 (work-sheets)

This activity has a series of two cards with pictures of 1 and 2 Objects. Children count the number of objects in the given picture.

Instructional

Numbers: 3,4 & 5 (outdoor)

Teacher points to objects, which are only 3 in number: 3 wheels of and auto-rickshaw, 3 wheels of a tricycle, 3 wheels of a wheelbarrow, etc. She then points to those objects, which are only 4 in number: four legs of a cow, four legs of a horse, etc. She moves on to those objects, which are essentially 5 in number: 5 fingers of the palm, 5 toes of the feet etc.

Preparatory

Numbers: 3,4 & 5 (indoor)

Here, the teacher uses objects, like stones, pebbles, seeds, beads, sticks, etc., for teaching numbers 3,4 & 5.

Preparatory

Rubbernumbers

This activity requires numbers 3,4 & 5 made of rubber and flash cards with the same numbers and arrows marks

Instructional


indicating the direction of movement. Children touch and feel the rubber numbers. They match the rubber numbers with the numbers on the flash cards, and place the rubber numbers on the flash cards. Children also arrange pebbles and seeds along the direction of the arrow marks on the flash cards 3,4 & 5. After adequate practice children are encouraged to write the numbers 3,4 & 5 on the floor or the children's blackboard. Children also identify 3,4, or 5 objects, as the case may be, and place them on the flash cards 3,4, or 5.

Numbers: (worksheets)

This activity has a series of four cards with pictures of 1,2,3,4 or 5 objects. Children count the number of objects in the given picture. They also write the number against the picture.

Reinforcement

Numbers: 1-5 This is a simple jigsaw puzzle in the shape of a tortoise -cut into five pieces, each numbered 1 to 5. Children arrange the pieces sequentially to foffi1 the complete tortoise. .

Reinforcement

More-less-equal (outdoors)

The teacher draws two circles on the ground/floor. 5 children stand in one circle and 4 children in the other. The other children count the number of children in the circles and identify which circle has 'more', which circle has 'less'. Teacher then asks one child from the circle with 5 children to come out of the circle to introduce the idea of 'equal'. This exercise is repeated with all the numbers 1-5.

Preparatory

More-less-equal (indoors)

The teacher uses rubber numbers and flash cards with numbers 1-5. She picks any two numbers; children identify which of the two is -'more' and which is 'less'. She repeats this exercise with all the numbers 1-5.

Preparatory

More-less-equal (worksheets)

This activity has a series of three cards with pairs of objects of different numbers 1-5. Children circle the bigger number in each pair.

lnstructional

Song A fun song, entitled 'Caw, caw' to reinforce learning of numbers 1-5, and preparatory to introduction of addition.

Preparatory

Addition(outdoor)

Teacher asks two children to stand in the centre. She asks another child to join the two; asks what is the total. She repeats the activity as long as it seems necessary, each time adding one more child upto 5. The teacher also tries this in another way. She asks how many more should be added to the 2 children standing in the centre to get the number 4 or 5 or 3.

Preparatory

Addition(indoor)

The teacher uses rubber numbers and cards with numbers 1-5. The child keeps, for example the rubber numbers 2 and 3 on the floor. She also identifies seeds or pebbles or beads of

Preparatory


the same number and places the objects below the rubber numbers. The teacher introduces and explains the + and the = signs to the child. The child solves simple operations, like if there are 3 stones and two more are added, how man will there be? etc.

Addition(worksheets)

A series of three cards with addition sums for 1-5. Instructional

Addition(mentalMathematics)

Cards with some oral questions to assess whether a child has mastered addition from 1-5. For example, 'Janees has 3 sheep. Joseph gave him one more. How many does Janees have now?' The teacher can make supplementary cards with similar questions.

Reinforcement

Addition- a dice game

A board with a pattern of flying balloons each numbered 1-5. Children roll the dice

Evaluatory

Song A fun 'Song of the Hen' to reinforce learning of numbers 1-5, and preparatory to introduction of subtraction.

Reinforcement

Subtraction (outdoor)

Teacher asks 5 children to stand in a circle -children identify the number of children. Teacher asks 2 children to move away from the circle; children identify how many are left. The game goes on till the teacher feels that the children are be inning to understand.

Preparatory

Subtraction (indoor)

The teacher uses rubber numbers and cards with numbers 1-5. The child keeps, for example, the rubber numbers 2 and 3 on the floor. She also identifies seeds or pebbles or beads of the same number and places the objects below the rubber numbers. The teacher introduces and explains the -and the = signs to the child. The child solves simple operations with objects: if there are 5 stones, and 2 are taken away, how man will remain? Etc.

Preparatory

Subtraction (worksheets)

A series of five cards with simple subtraction operations for numbers 1-5, which the child solves.

Instructional

Subtraction (mentalMathematics)

Cards with some oral questions to assess whether a child has mastered subtraction from 1-5. For example, 'Krishna has 5 marbles. He shared 2 with Suma. How many does Krishna have now?' The teacher can make supplementary cards with similar questions.

Reinforcement

Subtraction a dice game

Evaluatory

Aasha aatta This is a game, which five children can play at a time. There is a master card with numbers, which children have learnt so far, and children's cards, in which some of the numbers from the master cards are repeated. Each of the children's cards will have a different set of numbers from those, which are given in the master card. One child reads the number from the master card. Other children place a stone or a seed or a


pebble on the number, if it is present in their respective cards. If a child can place the stone correctly on the number called without any hesitation, it is an indication that the child has mastered the numbers. In a sense aasha aatta is like an evaluation game.

As in the case of the language activities, these activities in Mathematics also follow a pattern. As children become familiar with the pattern and the rules, they do the activities more independently.

The system does not encourage meaningless rote learning. It provides an opportunity for children to understand mathematical concepts by intense interaction with concrete objects.

Environment Studies Class I:

The environment studies curriculum is made up of a series of activities revolving around the 11 themes of: 1. Our village

2. Our surroundings 3. Near and far 4. Animals and insects 5. The body 6. Cleanliness7. I and my family 8. Fairs and festivals 9. Food, play and work 10. Transport 11. Sun, moon and stars

For each theme there is a preliminary discussion in which the teacher introduces the idea of a survey and suggests to the children that they conduct a survey in the village. The survey is followed by a craft and exhibition session where children either display some of the material collected during the surveyor colour pictures of what they have seen. The craft and exhibition session is further followed up by a detailed discussion,and with song and some miming activities. To illustrate, the sequence of activities for the theme 'our village' is described below:

Activity Theme: Our Village

Discussion (preliminary)

The teacher takes up the 'Our village' card. This is a card with pictures of the school, houses, huts, tiled houses, health sub-center, temple, bore wells, open wells, electric poles, roads, post office, a person riding a cart, shops, etc. The teacher asks children to describe the pictures in the card. At this stage, it is likely that only a few children would respond; a large number may not answer at all. The teacher introduces the idea of a micro survey on 'our village', suggesting that all children participate in it. She explains how the micro survey is to be conducted, and the information to be gathered in the village. Discussion card also interspersed with riddles

Micro survey Depending on the number of children in the class, the teacher divides them into survey groups of 5-8. Each group has a leader and a micro survey card. The children in the group go around the village, looking for the required information in the card, and elicit/gather information with the help of community members. If the particular item, for example, a bore well or an open well exists in the village, the children put a tick mark against that item. If the children are not


Activity Theme: Our Village

able to find a particular item in the village, perhaps a health sub centre, children put a cross against it.

At the initial stages, the survey requires very intensive support from the teacher. As the children get used to the idea of micro surveys they do it more independently with the help of older peers.

The teacher accompanying the children for the micro survey is able to interact with the community to emphasise the importance of learning through exploration and for each child to discover things on her/his own. At the same time the teacher is able to dispel doubts and fears among the community members that the children have not come out of the school merely to waste away their time, but to fulfil an important purpose.

This activity is an important element in bringing the school, teacher, the children and the community closer together and to give a first hand experience of exploration to children.

Craft/Exhibition This activity is in continuation of the micro survey on ‘our village’. This time more children come back with material available – for example, samples of different tiles, paddy grass, coconut, leaves, etc. The children display material collected in the classroom. In some cases however, it may not be physically possible for the children to collect and bring the material – bore well, post office. Thus, they do a craft activity in the class – for example, fill colours in a picture of a school, or a post box, bore well, temples etc.

Discussion (detailed)

This step has a series of two cards – one with a picture of ‘our village’ and another with the questions for discussion on ‘our village’. The picture card is by and large the same as the picture in the micro survey card. The teacher initiates discussion in continuation of the preliminary discussion. The discussion is enriched by the participation of all children in the micro survey and in the craft activity. The children talk about what they have seen and/or collected during the discussion with the children. Depending on the children’s responses the teacher asks more questions, which may or may not have been listed in the card, but keeping the overall objective of the discussion card in mind. The discussion also provides scope for the teacher to give supplementary information, or to frame questions in a manner that children share their experiences from another village that they may have seen. For example, if during the micro survey the children did not come across a post office, the teacher may frame her question in a manner that excites or provokes a child who has seen a post office in another village to talk about it and share information with other children.

The discussion on ‘our village’ can be spread over one-two days till the teacher feels reasonably sure that all children have understood the main ideas.

Simpleexperiment

This is the first of the simple experiments. Fill a plate with plain water and another with salt water. Put a fresh egg in it. Does it float or does it sink? It is too early for the child to make note of the outcome of the experiment or to understand why the egg sinks or does not sink. But it creates a sense of excitement in the classroom. Such activities pave the way for instilling a sense of enquiry in the child.

Song ‘My village’ ever green, lush and green, -to develop a sense of pride in one’s own village

Mime A series of four cards, each with a different situation – drawing water from the open well, putting a letter in the post box, praying to god, pumping and filling water from the bore well. All children perform the mime activity one by one or in groups.

This sequence of preliminary discussions, surveys, craftwork, detailed discussions, song, mime goes on through the year. Children are encouraged to explore and experience the world around them. These sessions -highly activity oriented -are timed to take place in the afternoons, when motivation levels are generally low, to attract even the most 'recalcitrant' kid to school!


In addition to the above, each school also identifies one project for itself, in which all children in the class participate. This activity is carried out through out the year. In the project work on 'Our village' for example, the teacher explains with help of pictures cut from magazines, etc. about facilities in an 'ideal' village. She involves them in discussion about materials required for creating a model of a village in the classroom -like strawboard, grass, clay, sand, seeds, empty matchboxes, matchsticks, thread, dry sticks, etc. She gives responsibility to children to bring some of this material. The work on the project is taken up through out the year. The teacher uses the time slots available for craft activity to carryon with the requirements of project like constructing houses with tiled roofs, RCC, thatched roofs during one craft session, using another craft session for preparing electric poles, yet another craft session for enabling children to create overhead tanks, bore wells etc. and so on till the entire project is completed by the end of the year. The objective of project work is to develop a sense of working together as a team among children. It also aims at bringing the school closer to the parents/ community.

Developing a classroom management system

Classroom management has for long been viewed as an administrative problem -most discussions on classroom management have revolved around issues like availability of space, rooms, furniture, equipment and teaching learning material. Classroom management also focuses on maintenance of 'discipline' -discipline being construed to mean 'silence'. (A silent classroom is a hardworking class!). Some discussions on classroom management have also included group formation techniques. But, by and large, even these are seen from the point of view of the teacher -how best the teacher can group children to divide her time, -without giving sufficient thought to making optimum use of the time available to the child for learning activities.

Nali Kali teachers realised that classroom management has to be seen as an administrative, but more importantly as a pedagogy issue. Lily Joseph says:

'We can't make a child achieve a competency only through activity based teaching. Classroom management is very important. One can understand by looking at the classroom organisation how effective the teaching is, and how the child is learning'.

Lily adds: 'First of all, whether we teach Mathematics or language, we create five groups. On what basis are these groups created? Firstly, a group that needs total guidance from the teacher; partial guidance from the teacher; guidance from an older child; partial guidance from an older child. Lastly children (who are) working on their own, unassisted. The teacher-assisted group is the beginners' group. The teacher is constantly with this group. The teacher only gives instructions to the second group. In a peer assisted group a child who is at level I 0 will help a child with level I work'.

What makes the Nali Kali classroom management system unique is that teachers have classified all the activities in the language and Mathematics learning ladders into the five groups. For example, all language activities, irrespective of the level, using 'rubber letters' for the child touch, feel, recognise the letters fall into the fully teacher assisted group. 'Picture rail', 'letter rail', 'letter strips' are activities which fall into the partially teacher assisted group. 'Picture words', 'picture sentences', 'match the picture with word' fall into the fully or partially peer assisted groups. Evaluatory activities such as 'recapitulation game', 'my achievement' are in the self-learning groups. In addition, there is a general group, irrespective of the child's level, for all songs, stories, shadow puppet plays, craftwork, etc. Thus, the groups are dynamic -their composition changes depending on the activity that the child is doing/playing. All children periodically move back and forth from the fully teacher assisted to the partially teacher assisted and to the fully/ partially peer assisted groups, depending on their level and activity card. And all children periodically receive individualized attention from the teacher; at the same time have the freedom to do things on their 'own'. This system has emerged from the belief that real and meaningful


learning takes place through a dynamic interaction, not only between teacher and child, but also between child and child.

How does the teacher initiate the group formation process? Initially, all activities require the teacher's help. Thus at the beginning of the class I academic year there are no groups. The teacher begins with songs and stories with all children in a general group. The teacher observes children who have picked up the songs and stories and forms them into a separate group. This is the partially teacher assisted group -the very first group to be formed. In this group, children are able to perform language activities, such as 'picture train', 'letter train', 'craftwork', 'seethaphal' and 'taranatha' with a little assistance from the teacher. As some children in the partially teacher assisted group progress, they move into the fully teacher assisted group to take on activities, like rubber letters to touch, feel and recognize the shape of the letter.. ..In the meantime more children from the general group join the partially teacher assisted group, while others from the partially teacher assisted group move on to activities in the fully teacher assisted group. And so on... The self-learning group is not a permanent group -it is constituted only when there are children at that stage of activities. Thus, it takes approximately two months for the group management system to become operational in the classroom.

Some activities are grouped as either fully or partially teacher-assisted in language, but are categorized as fully or partially peer-assisted in Mathematics. For example, the picture and letter train activities are partially teacher assisted in language, but a similar activity like the number train is peer assisted in Mathematics. This is because activities in the language ladder move faster than in the Mathematics ladder. The child gets sufficient exposure to the rules of the activity in language, and applies the same rules with peer assistance in the Mathematics session.

The class management system and the activity cards enable the child to learn at her own pace. A child who has not been unable to attend school, say, for the last 10-15 days, because of illness, or because of groundnut harvesting work in the field, can re-enter a group at the point where she left off and proceed from there. She does this without any sense of shame or humiliation, -she does not experience a sense of insecurity, of failure -at not having kept up with others-, because the system does not require that, all children maintain a uniform pace. There are other children working playing at different levels of the learning ladder in the groups. Moreover, the grouping system ensures that all children mingle together- irrespective of caste, gender, age, ability -thus creating a more equal environment, a more democratic relationship among children in the classroom.

All activity cards are numbered according to their type and sequence on the learning ladder. In addition, each type of card is also given a pictorial symbol (logo). Children are encouraged to identify their learning cards independently, initially through the pictorial symbol, and later through the numbers. Children identify their respective activities for the day/ session through the pictorial symbols on the cards and join up with the group to which the pictorial symbol on the card belongs. For example, all language cards for the pictorial word activity have a 'dog' as the symbol; all letter strips have a 'calf; rubber numbers can be identified by the figure of a finger on a letter, etc. In Mathematics, all outdoor number activities are symbolised by a 'ball'; all indoor number activities have a 'hut' as the symbol. The symbol for worksheets is 'a hatching egg'; the symbol for songs is 'koe1', for mental Mathematics is 'mouth' and for evaluation activities 'a rolling dice'. Similarly, in environment studies, there are symbols: discussion cards are symbolised by a butterfly, micro-surveys by a magnifying glass, craft and exhibition work by a pencil, songs by a beetle and mime by a magic wand. But environment studies activities are not conducted in the five groups; all children do these activities together in a general group. How this works in a multigrade system is discussed later in the paper.

Much however, depends on the teacher and the children understanding the systems of grouping and the symbols. Getting used to the group formation system and understanding the pictorial symbols is initially tough. There are of course some teachers who prefer to take the line of least resistance and conduct all activities in a


general group, rather than making the effort of understanding the system -or the principles underlying the system. But, as one teacher, recently exposed to the system, said:

'Initially, it's difficult. After a little practice, it'll become as easy as drinking water. If you ask the child to bring a card, he brings it. This year we trained class I children, Next year, they'll be in class II, and they'll help the new children. When they start helping, it'll become easier.'

The evaluation system:

The evaluation system is built into the learning process -children are not aware that they are being evaluated. In a meeting of teachers at a cluster resource center, teachers said:

'Earlier children were afraid of exams. On exam day, the child would say 'I won't go to school'. Now, as we teach and evaluate through games, children are happy to participate. Previously, exams were held once-twice a year. Now the child constantly tells the teacher, 'I want to play this game'.

'Evaluation is continuous here. In Mathematics, all activities that enable children to count, read, write using the numbers 1-5 have to be completed and evaluated. We use the 'aasha' game as an evaluatory game to find out if the child can identify the shape and sound of the number, is able to count and write the number from picture cards, and can assemble objects according to a given number. Each competency is evaluated.'

'Most of our evaluation is through games. For example, 'Aasha atta' to identify the shape and sound of a number. If the child puts the seed in the correct number slot after hearing it once, we know she has learnt it fully. This is an evaluation game.'

In the traditional system, children are periodically given tests. Evaluatory procedures in the traditional system make general assumptions about the child's progress, and provide (at best) an inaccurate input for the teacher to remedy her methodology. For example, in the traditional system if a child gets an addition or a multiplication sum wrong, the teacher can only assume that the child does not know addition or multiplication, as the case may be; in reality the problem may lie elsewhere, namely that the child may not know counting, and that has to be remedied, before the teacher makes the child proceed to addition or multiplication. In the Nali Kali system, evaluatory tools, through the Aasha atta, the Nennepinna atta, the dice games, the Sadhana cards are comprehensive, continual and accurate -teachers can therefore sequence the learning package to suit the individual child's needs.

In class an achievement chart (pragati nota) showing each child's progress in language, Mathematics and environment studies is pasted on the wall. The achievement chart does not have all the activities in the learning ladder, but identified activities, as milestones. The child plots her own progress by marking it on the chart. If smaller children are unable to mark it themselves, the teacher or older children in the class help them.

'If the child has completed, for example, the 49th level, an evaluatory level, the child puts a mark against his name on the chart. He knows how much he has learnt and where he stands. When parents visit school, they can consult the chart to see what level their child has reached.

Since children learn at their own pace, the achievement chart keeps track of each child's progress and enables the teacher to ensure that the child has achieved mastery level learning. What is most important is that in this system no child needs to be afraid of failing!


'If the child is at the 7,151 level in language at the end of class I, in class II he will proceed from the 72nd level. In our learning continuum, there is no chance of long jumps and high jumps. He has to move sequentially from level to level.

Making the school attractive

What makes the Nali Kali school attractive is that everything -whether it is the floor or the wall or the verandah or the ceiling is used as learning and playing space. The floor is used to practice writing and drawing, as is also the children's blackboard which teachers have created with support of community members. All along the walls, there are charts -the learning ladder, the progress chart, the weather chart, the health chart. Special mention must be made of the weather chart. This has been designed for each day of the month with pictures to show whether it is a sunny or a partially sunny day, a cloudy or a partially cloudy day, a rainy or a partially rainy day. Children put a tick mark against the relevant picture everyday, and at the end of the month talk about whether it was a predominantly sunny or cloudy month, as the case may be. All learning cards are also arranged according to the pictorial symbol in a bag and hung on the wall. All the charts and learning cards on the wall are constantly being referred to by children -to check their positions on the learning ladder, to pick out the relevant card from the bag and return it after the activity, to mark their progress on the achievement card, etc. An interesting innovation of the Nali Kali school is the criss-cross of wires at the lintel level. Here the work done by children- particularly in the craft sessions, whether in language or Mathematics or environment studies -is displayed and, most importantly, changed periodically as children create new material.

Many teachers also approached the community to support them clean up/ whitewash the school, plant trees -these have, of course, varied from school to school according to the initiative taken by individual teachers and community members.

In the multigrade classroom

The discussion till now has shown how the system works in a multi-level class. But the classroom reality is multi-level and multi-grade. Does the system work in a multi-grade situation as well? Teachers in Nali Kali addressed the issue of multigrade teaching through the classroom management and the pictorial symbol system.

Class-wise activities for language and Mathematics falling into the six groups are listed below:

Language Class Mathematics Class

Group Activity I II III Activity I II III

Songs * * * Songs * * *

Action Rhymes * Preparatory Activity * * *

Song of all competencies

* * * Outdoor (for all operations)

* * *

Stories * * * Brain teasers *

GeneralGroup

Story of all competencies

* * *


Simple conversation * * *

Picture words * *

Activity Game *

Picture Rail * Counting * * *

Letter Rail * More-less-equal * * *

Letter Strips * Addition * * *

Seethaplal * Ascending and Descending

* * *

Taranatha * Back, front and middle * * *

Gunitakshi (matras) * Maximum Minimum * *

Swarachinha parichay (Vowel Symbol)

* Multiplication * *

Partiallyteacherassisted group

Craft * * Mental Mathematics * * *

Rubber Akshar * Writing Numbers *

Letter and Stress Words

* * Indoor (for all operations)

* * *

Alphabet *

Narrating a story from a picture

*

Fullyteacherassisted group

Patha *

Picture Words * * * Subtraction * * *Fullypeerassisted Achievement * * * Mixed Operations * * *


Picture Sentences * * * Odd, even *

Read and Write * Division *

group

Fraction *

Match the picture with word

* Recap Game * * *

See the picture, write the word

* Craft * * *

See the picture, fill in the blanks

* * Tortoise game *

Picture Crossword * * Number rail *

Fill in the letter, Complete the word

* Computer Game * *

Crossword * * Measurement * * *

Word game/aasha aata

* * *

Partiallypeerassisted group

Padagalatta (a game like checkers)

*

Geluvina atta (a game like scrabble)

* * My achievement * * *

My achievement * * * Aasha Atta * * *

Recapitulation game *

Evaluation word building

*

Selflearninggroup

Evaluation Material *

Totals Totals


Activities 151 176 142 Activities 100 79 100

Cards 309 281 214 Cards 173 126 182

The system undoubtedly needs getting used to as Nagaraj, a cluster resource person, reported: 'In some schools there was a lot of confusion. They hadn't formed groups. They were sitting helplessly. Then I told them to recall how we had formed groups (during the training programme)... Then they said, 'Sir, we don't know how to do it'. I only gave them suggestions. If I had made the groups for them, it wouldn't have helped, as they have to do it on their own eventually. '

Vertical rather than horizontal division

To-date, nowhere in the country is we anywhere close to a one-class one-teacher situation. All schools follow a multigrade system. In traditional schools if there are two teachers for classes 1- IV, the normal division of classes between the two teachers would be horizontal, i.e. that one teacher handles classes I & II and the second teacher would handle classes III & IV. Alternatively, one teacher would handle classes I & III and the second teacher would handle classes II & IV. There are several problems in such a division: if one of the two teachers is absent, children in her classes would be left to their own devices -at best, the teacher present would give them a reading assignment and ask them to 'keep quiet put your fingers on your lips'. Moreover, in the I & II and III & IV pattern, the teacher handling classes I & II always has an overload, since enrolments in these classes are generally higher than in classes III & IV. Thus, there is an uneven distribution of work among teachers.

Nali Kali teachers have devised an alternate arrangement, namely that both teachers handling classes I-IV be trained in the Nali Kali approach and sets of instruction and learning material be available with each of them. Having done this, teachers have made a vertical (rather than horizontal) division of classes. Thus, if there are say, 30 children in class I, 28 in class II, 24 in class III and 20 in class IV, rather than one teacher handling 30+28 children in classes I & II, and the second teacher handling only 24+20 children in classes III & IV, there is a vertical division. In the vertical division all children in the different classes are equally divided between the two teachers at the rate of 15 in class I, 14 in class II, 12 in class III and 10 in class IV. The advantage of a vertical division is that the workload between the teachers is equally divided. If one teacher is, absent due to unavoidable circumstances, children from her class join up in groups with the children in the other class for the day.

How does the system work in a large multigrade class?

Experience has shown that this system works well with a group of approximately 40 children, the overall teacher pupil ratio for Mysore district is 1:34. But there are inter-block and inter- school variations in teacher pupil ratios. Most urban schools and schools in larger villages have adequate, if not surplus teachers. The position in some upper primary schools is however, distressing -with classes I-VII some of these have only 3 teachers. In such schools classes I-IV function virtually as single teacher schools. The whole issue of teacher re-deployment is being separately addressed, and significant (but not yet adequate) work has already been done in this area.

As with all other systems, the Nali Kali system also does not work too well in a large class of 50+ children. There is the problem of space and the problem of availability of activity cards to go round. One teacher said 'This method is difficult in a large class of 80-90 children, If there are only 30-40 children they can sit comfortably. We can give them the cards easily. But with so many children, there is too much commotion. It's like mental torture for us!' Nali Kali teachers I are trying to address the issue by creating, wherever necessary two sets of


activity cards for children. Block and cluster resource persons try to make the best of a bad situation: 'When I look at this school, the corridors are large. We can do activities there. Groups doing activities, which don't require a blackboard, can be made to sit outside. I feel they can make use of the beautiful grounds to conduct activities successfully'.

Multigrade teaching will continue for many years to come -this is an accepted fact, but interventions for re-deployment must take place -and very soon before the present sense of confidence and optimism among teachers peters out -to ensure that every teacher has a manageable number of children to handle.

How Nali Kali addresses social reality

HD Kote is a remote tribal block, primarily comprising people belonging to the Jenu Kuruba community. There are a small percentage of people belonging to the agricultural landholding groups -Lingayats and Vokkaligas, and some belonging to the scheduled castes. The tribals depend on forest produce for their livelihood. Often they as well as the scheduled castes migrate to neighbouring Kerala state in search of work, particularly in the cotton-picking season; they also migrate to the coffee plantations of Kodagu and Chikmagalur districts during the coffee plucking season. In addition, there is groundnut harvesting in their own villages.

School calendar and timings, as in all parts of the country are inflexible, since it is uniformly prescribed for the whole state. Children therefore tended to be irregular in school, especially during the peak agricultural season. Even if children did not accompany parents to other places for work, left to their own devices, they preferred not attend school. Against a prescribed 230 day academic calendar, on an average a child attended approximately 110-115 days of school in the year. In many cases, attendance was even more irregular.

Attendance of girls tended to be even more erratic as they were entrusted with the responsibility of looking after younger siblings as also domestic chores.

Given this social reality, the approach in the Nali Kali project enabled children to participate more regularly and happily, since –

Learning in Nali Kali is seen as a continuum from Class I-IV; it is not compartmentalized into class-wise content areas

The activity cards and the class grouping patterns enables a child to learn at her own pace

The system allows the child to re-enter the learning curriculum at the level where she left off without any sense of shame or humiliation

Given the fact that children are burdened with household chores as also the fact that children are not likely to get support from parents, the Nali Kali approach does not prescribe any homework. All learning is done in the class.

How Nali Kali addresses problems teachers face in traditional teaching

As one teacher observed ‘teachers equate curriculum only with textbooks. So when we meet to talk about the curriculum, we end up concentration only on the textbook’. Traditional teaching is dominated by the textbook, and multigrade/multilevel teaching is not possible in a textbook driven syllabus. Moreover the chalk and talk


method followed in traditional teaching creates necessarily a non-participatory classroom. In Nali Kali teachers felt that textbooks make teaching learning transaction teacher centered. It also made children dependent on the teacher. The fact that textbooks were not used in Nali kali made child centered learning possible. Teachers also realised that ‘if we were to bundle up all our learning material, it would form a textbook. The reason for splitting up the material into cards is to allow each child to learn at her own pace.’ Moreover, the classroom management system allows for children of all different levels, age and abilities to work together in groups and individually.

As already stated in the traditional system, evaluatory procedures provide only very inaccurate inputs for the teacher to remedy her methodology. In Nali Kali, a non-threatening, continual and child-by-child evaluation system enables the teacher to ensure that each child has achieved mastery level learning.

The most precious part of Nali Kali is that the system is designed to develop self-confidence, self-esteem and a sense of security in the child. Firstly, learning is broken up into the smallest possible units and at every level; there are a variety of activities for drilling, reinforcement and usage to enable children to feel ‘I Know It, I can do more!’ The environment studies curriculum allows children to learn through exploration and discovery. Secondly, there is no pressure on the child to rote learn huge portions without comprehending the concept. Thirdly, there is a classroom group management system, which does not create discrimination on grounds of gender or caster or age or ability, but provides for all children to intermingle. Fourthly, the evaluation system is built into the learning process and is entirely non-threatening. No child needs to be afraid of failing – she moves to higher levels of learning at her own pace and according to her own achievement ladder. Fifthly, there is an atmosphere in the classroom that is informal, non-hierarchical and friendly.

Indicators of an effective Nali Kali classroom:

No formal evaluation of learning outcomes has as yet been undertaken for the Nali Kali programme. With the expansion of the programme to all blocks in Mysore as well as some blocks outside Mysore, it became imperative to evolve indicators to assess whether the programme is functioning in its true spirit. The Nali Kali teachers therefore, developed a set of indicators for assessing their own performance. A few of these are listed:

1. Are all activity cards arranged as per the ladder, subject and pictorial symbols?

2. Are children able to identify their learning activity in the pictorial achievement ladder? 3. Are children independently able to pick and replace the activity cards in their respective pouches? 4. Are children able to independently identify and participate in groups according to their learning level? 5. Are all learning activities taking place in groups? 6. Are children able to identify their learning achievement in the progress chart? 7. Have all children acquired learning ability in accordance with the programme of work? 8. Is the teacher participating in-group learning? 9. Are children filling in the weather particulars regularly in the weather chart? 10. Are the shadow puppet plays performed in the class? 11. Are children able to sing the songs and narrate the stories? 12. Are children able to demonstrate mime activities? 13. Is the children's blackboard used? 14. Are the craft activities completed by children displayed in the classroom? 15. Are the micro-survey cards

used by children preserved?

Expansion

From HD Kote to all schools in Mysore district in 1998-99, and from there to an additional four DPEP blocks and eight clusters outside Mysore district has been a long journey. The process included (i) visit to HD Kote schools by groups of persons from the expansion blocks, the groups being a mix of teachers, trainers and administrators


(ii) further exposure of the same group to Nali Kali through a series of film based training programmes developed by DPEP (iii) more detailed training in the Nali Kali principle, curriculum, learning units, learning ladder and learning material. In this third round of training the group sat down to create/write the cards on their own; creating/writing on their own became an important step in enabling the group to develop a sense of ownership for the material developed. These were done at different stages for class I (April 1999), class II (October 1999) and class III (April 2000).

Training of all teachers in the selected blocks was conducted by the same group, along with 1-2 identified teachers/resource persons from Mysore district for support and handholding. Conducting teacher training on their own helped in a big way to develop confidence among the groups. It also helped break down hierarchies between teacher and trainer, between teacher and inspector/block education officer, between trainer and inspector/ block education officer.

In a series of experience sharing workshops that followed the introduction of class I material, a demand arose from the groups in the expansion blocks to adapt the Nali Kali material to their own local situations. This process of revision/adaptation is currently going on. This, in fact, is the spirit of Nali Kali -to constantly adapt and revise the material to suit the local needs and meet the newer challenges. For as Lily Joseph says: 'Education is not like stagnant water. It can only be true education, if there is possibility for change'.

NaliKaliAnita

Documents

remote tribal block

nali kali approach

nali kali system

nali kali teachers

partially teacher assisted

environment studies curriculum

make supplementary cards

classroom management system