A Good Academic Program for School

School and Education revolves around a good academic program. The development and mental growth of a student depends upon calculated risks and proper educational training taken during the schooling days. During the primary school days academic program would include good reading and math classes. Only good schools focus on a proper reading and writing and mathematical skill development program.

I would focus the blog content on three pillars-Reading, Writing, Grammar and Mathematical Ability.

Developing Reading skills among the school children-

Sight Words-The famous 100 word list of English is very important and helps the children to develop their reading skills. By merely keeping these words as sight words in the classrooms the teachers or facilitators can ensure development of good reading skills among the children. In the western countries a lot of stress is laid on these 100 word lists as it regularizes the reading skills among the students.

Once the children are familiar with the words, daily reading and repetition will ensure that the student is able to gain momentum in the reading skills.

Story Narration: Stories are a great way of expressing thoughts. All the incidents, all the thought processes, all the experiences, all the facts and much more can be very well woven and presented in the story form. Stories are a great way to arouse emotions, bring lifeless things to life, learn empathy, emulate and narrate. Narrating stories to the children at a very young age is very beneficial because it arouses their interests towards the characters, the settings and the plot. This also makes them curious and they want to start reading at the earliest. In this attempt, they actually pick up on their reading skills fast. The students are able to know more about the world in the small age that they are in.

Modular reading by teachers: The teachers should demonstrate reading to the children in the classroom in the school. This familiarizes the children to the different nuances of reading like correct pronunciation, pauses and expressions on different punctuation marks, etc.

Reading in Groups by the students: The students should be encouraged to read aloud to their own group of peers. This gives them a lot of confidence and helps them develop their public speaking skills also. The smart children of the group will immediately correct the child if he or she pronounces the word in an incorrect manner. At times this is positive behavior because the children tend to take the correction by the peers in lighthearted manner and they easily learn the correct pronunciation.

Individual read aloud sessions-These sessions help the children to read correctly and fluently. These are known to be very beneficial. They bring in good results as far as reading skill development in school is concerned.

Think aloud session: Immediately after reading, think aloud sessions should be conducted. The children should be asked to think aloud their thoughts about the behavior of the character or why the particular character reacted in the way it did, or what would have happened if the character had behaved in a different manner. These type of questions teach them how to think which is very important. Only a school can develop such a wonderful thinking pattern among the children.

Developing Writing Skills in School:

A lot of time and efforts have to be invested in school to teach writing skills to the students. Merely laying down guidelines does not help. The teachers have to be given a set pattern and then monitored on a daily basis by providing them feedback and then guidance where there are shortcomings.

Handwriting skills: All the schools must first stress on developing the handwriting skills of the students. Writing correctly and neatly both are prerequisites in teaching and learning. To teach Handwriting properly to the students, the school must follow a particular format of writing alphabets and numbers. The students must be given a sample format at the beginning of the session which they are supposed to follow. The teachers themselves will need to practice handwriting because each teacher uses a different font. Uniformity in handwriting of the teachers will be percolated to the students and they will learn good handwriting skills.

Creative Writing: The next important juncture is teaching creative writing to the students. The students must be taught what is a subject and what is an object. Understanding subject, verb and object and their placement in a sentence will help the children to write correct sentences.

Though it takes time to understand this part, but once done the students make sentences easily. Different topics should be given to the students on a daily basis by the English Language teachers. This will develop their creative writing skills and the students will be able to write on any given topic within a few months or weeks depending upon their intelligence level.

Grammar:

Grammar and Mathematics run almost on the same lines. Teaching grammar becomes very important when we have to teach writing skills to the children. There have been numerous debates related to the importance of grammar in spoken language. True that learning grammar does not guarantee perfection in spoken English, but it is important to know the correct sentence structures of the language. While teaching Grammar a rigid scale of high importance or a lowly scale of no importance should not be used. Grammar should be dealt with from a relatively important point of view. Reading and Grammar should be combined to give the necessary output.

Mathematical Skills:

Math is a logic based subject. The students must be taught tables, and the four basic calculations-Addition, Multiplication, Subtraction and Division.

Mathematics teaches children the conceptual skills, reasoning and logical skills. It helps them in their day to day life, helps them across their curriculum and creates a joyful learning environment. The students are delighted to use calculations. They get excited when they discover something new. As their confidence grows they look for something new, they search or point out patterns, apply logical reasoning in every part. The students are able to explore and explain their ideas using shapes and diagrams. They discover how Math has evolved and helps us in our daily life. Mathematics stimulates their creativity, fosters their spirit and prepares them to deal with many challenges beyond the classroom.

Mathematics should be related to real life while teaching. Many everyday transactions and real-life problems, and most forms of employment, require confidence and competence in a range of basic mathematical skills and knowledge – such as measurement, manipulating shapes, organizing space, handling money, recording and interpreting numerical and graphical data, and using information and communications technology.

A good school should focus on these pillars to reap a success story alongwith their students.

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