Addressing Low Proficient Learners - 4

1.       A Day Begins  

One day morning

The sun was rising up in the sky.

2.       Grains on the ground 

The ostrich was walking on the ground.

There were food grains lying on the ground.

He started pecking them.

3.       A  Big Sound

 ‘Thud!’

He heard something heavy falling down.

He was so scared.

4.       What is that?

He turned his head.

‘What is that?’ He wondered.

5.       A Big Round Stone

He saw a big round stone lying on the ground.

‘Where did it fall from?’ he wondered.

6.       The Confusion

Is it a piece of the sky?

Or is somebody playing with big stone balls?

7.       Another Stone

‘ Thud!’

Another big stone ball came down.

‘Oops! That was close.’

8.       Thank God

             ‘Thank God it didn’t fall on me.’

9.       The Flying Stone

At that time another stone ball was flying toward the ostrich.

10.   Stones from the Sky

The third stone also fell near the ostrich.

‘I must escape from here,’ thought the ostrich.

11.   The Fast Runner

The ostrich started running.

More stones came down.

He ran faster and faster. 

As can be seen above, there were altogether 11 pictures that were selected for the whole class activity. However, only three of them were used for interaction to generate the first part of the story: Grains on the ground, A big round stone, The flying stone and The fast runner. The other pictures were left out from the set in the beginning and were used at a later stage (Please see my previous post). The maximum number of sentences related to each frame was rstricted to three so that the learners would find themselves in a comfortable zone. All the four skills were addressed in an integrated manner. Most importantly, the activity is in conformity with the parameters of Discourse Oriented Pedagogy as the craft of writing a narrative is inbuilt in the process. 

(To be continued)

Dr KN Anandan