Au Revoir

 Au Revoir 

The crucible moment came for me when, 16 years ago, I pulled my 7 year old son from school. Once again. Thrice in four years. Was something wrong with him? With me? Or was it just that the schooling system was rotten? 

The Indian schooling system is, by far, a highly teacher directed, chalk and board, exam oriented system. There is no place for individuality or creativity. And I was blessed with a brilliant boy - one who recognized the alphabets at one and a half years, and started reading fluently at three. And was utterly utterly bored being made to relearn reading, given baby sums and forced to write. 

As I homeschooled him and two younger ones for the next 3 years, I realised the damage I was protecting my children from - physical and emotional abuse, stress and despair and an internalized notion of the self as a “grade-grabbing” machine. We had fun as our system devolved into unschooling. We were free. Lazed around and read. Baked. Kids pottered about in the yard digging for earthworms. Raced like little Mowglis down the narrow alley adjoining our very suburban house. And astonishingly enough, they taught themselves - reading, maths, geography, history, ecology, biology, - you name it. Voracious readers do that. My method for unschooling was pretty much that - surround them with books, and they’ll educate themselves. We went off on holidays when other kids were busy with exams. Cheap deals, too. I mean who waltzes off to Kodai in September? 

However, over the years, the children craved company of their peer group. Kids like themselves. Oddly enough, they wanted to be “normal”, not freaks who didn’t go to school. So back I went with my eldest into the same system. He was old enough by now to hold his own and not succumb to the mechanistic, soul deadening system we call schooling. 

But for my younger ones - NO! I didn’t want to risk their entire groundwork I had laid to be washed away. No school seemed to fit - most loaded kids with pointless homework, had tests regular like clockwork, forced children to sit and listen at an age when kids need to be talking and moving. Then, all of a sudden, one February morning in 2009, I woke up with an insane idea - “Start a school! A school that fits your definition of a school”. I tried to evade the onslaught of thoughts, wriggle out of my own head, shut metaphorical doors in my brain. But that deep burning desire to just go and start a school would simply not go away. It kept me awake, made me daydream. Forced me to confront myself. “Yes, if I didn’t like the way schooling was done, what was I doing about it?” 

I tentatively tested out the idea with Hauroon, my husband, who by now was thoroughly used to my mad schemes. Surprisingly, he concurred. And that started us off on the journey that was Al Qamar. 

“Paagalon ka school”, “The Motley Crew’, “The Rag-Tag Army” - one would have thought we had started a rock band, not a tiny little school with 9 children and grand ambitions. “No exams,

no homework, no tests, no schoolbags” was our motto. Naively, we assumed everyone and everyone would concur. It was an eyeopener as we struggled to garner admissions with this slogan. Imagine - a school where children roamed free. Played all the time. A school with no desks or chairs. But instead with lots of bookshelves. And paints, crafts and board games. A lovely little sand pit and a tap which gushed water at high speed. “Toys” to learn maths. Maps to draw. “Yakkity Yak” in every classroom. 

Early years were tough. We stuck to our philosophy of pressure free, child centred education - never matter the financial pressure from low admissions, insistence from parents about homework or tests, complaints about kids coming home mudstreaked. Our philosophy was that children are natural learners. Remove the curbs, pressure and the adult control and surround kids with learning opportunities, they’ll learn. And they did. Our Montessori started churning out avid readers who penned short stories at the age of six. Who liked to add or subtract in millions. Who composed poetry or created artwork, alongside giving a lecture on the continents and oceans. 

With the older ones we went many steps further. We had an array of speakers constantly coming to give talks to the kids. Kids sprawled on the floor, listening intently, questioning, arguing and clarifying with a Supreme Court Judge, a nuclear scientist, a lawyer, a hafiz. Anyone whom I could inveigle into popping in and interacting with the kids, came. 

And we went out - at the drop of a hat, we went out. Trips, excursions, treats. We partied - that too at the drop of a hat. Eid party, another Eid party, beginning of the year party, end of the year party, just a party - kids planning the whole shamboozle, managing and running the entire show. And for quiet times, we had books. Lots and lots of books. Board games. Art in every classroom. Kids could freely go off, curl up in a corner or a bean bag with a nice book and tune the world out. Often found them in the most bizarre postures deeply immersed in books. 

Montessori was a law unto itself. We used Montessori all the way up to 4th grade.Teachers had complete freedom to run their environments in complete adherence to Montessori principles. Children “chose’ to work, if and when they wanted to. Teachers gave presentations to individual children or in small groups. Children collaborated on projects. The cohort had children across three year bands. It felt like a family. No pressure, no exams, no homework, just learning for the sake of learning. No, it didn’t work for all children. Especially those with parents on steroids - gunning for exam success who felt they had wandered into an alternate reality. Those parents left soon. 

Our older classes defied description. Classes were held sometimes in a classroom, sometimes in a common room, sometimes outside under trees. It depended on the mood of the teacher and the mood of the kids. The teaching involved a lot of discussion where children happily put forward their points of view, questioned and argued. Science classes had us looking for bugs, examining pond water, smelling garbage and going off yet again on one of our jaunts. Kids don’t learn as much within the four walls of the school as they do outside. That was our philosophy anyways.

Kids painted the facade of the school. Took three weeks and a lot of hard work. They ran businesses everytime we had a school event - grasping fellows they were! No one was immune to their charming sales pitch. We didn’t have a playground, just a narrow strip in front of the school. That was sufficient. Don’t ask me how they all knew who was playing cricket and who was playing tag. They just did. We had a “Me-Time” - the last hour of school where kids could do just what they wanted. “Me-Time in Al Qamar is tautology” a parent commented sardonically. They baked, made cakes and pizza, played chess and checkers, inventing rules all along the way, fought - oh yes they fought! But Me-Time was their time. And we teachers respected it. Then, two years ago, they started their own system of governance - their legislature sat down and made laws which were duly transcribed into a “Law Book”. Their judicial meetings were a treat to watch. Kids brought cases against other kids. As teachers, we wondered if something as trivial as “He put his books on my table!” was serious enough to warrant a court case, but then kids are kids. A judge and jury were elected. The plaintiff and defendant dragged friends in to be their lawyers. It was a Town Hall model - so everyone participated. Gaps in laws were rapidly remedied as new laws were passed, with a speed that would have given any constitutional expert a heart attack! 

And they were good kids - they had a heart. Every year, in Ramadhan, they would earn money through chores, pool in the monies and donate to charity. Their businesses set aside profits for donation. This year they raised money for the migrant workers who were stranded in Chennai due to the COVID lockdown. They helped each other. Through an intense 3 year outdoors ecology program, these kids learned to love nature. Their trips to beaches, wetlands, birdwatching, organic farms, meeting activists and participating in recycling programs, gave them a rare perspective on the importance of nature conservation. They drew, wrote and spoke for nature. I don’t think anyone can take away that from their hearts. 

What about the academics? Surely, children having so much fun, no homework, and no exams - all the way upto 8th Grade, would surely wear dunce caps at regular schools. Aha! That’s the nub! These kids outshone regular school kids. The school was routinely placed among the top 10 schools in a national benchmarking exam. They won writing awards. Cracked the Cambridge IGCSE and the Edexcel Achievements. Won laurels at online international math competitions. Someone or the other kept qualifying for gifted programs offered by top American universities. Last year, 75% of the upper graders were invited for the national Gifted exam. One girl created a divisibility rule for 7 from scratch. And to cap it all, one of our alums was the only Asian selected for the prestigious International Mensa Scholarship last year. 

“Impossible!” you exclaim? 

No, a reality! 

Revisit the vision I laid out at the beginning - “Kids are natural learners. Remove the curbs and not only will they learn, they will shine!” 

To create this weird and out-of-the-world institution (institution - what a misnomer for Al Qamar) needed deep committment. It was our passionate belief in the “rightness” of this system of education that drove us day in day out. We knew that kids needed this kind of schooling to blossom and develop their inner potential. 

Hauroon and I had to sell our dreams to teachers - to come work for us. Working in alternative schools is extremely difficult. Kids have you on your toes all the time! These teachers needed to drastically change their worldview about teaching and learning. We ensured they got opportunities for professional development and forums to air their views and discuss their misgivings. It helped to be open, to share, to discuss and persuade. Teachers could walk into my office anytime. We all sat on the floor and ate together. Teachers felt confident enough to challenge me if they felt I was straying from our principles. And I really appreciated that. Relational transparency based on mutuality and respect was crucial. 

Changing parental attitudes and getting their buy in was our biggest challenge. We constantly faced pressure to compromise our values. “Be a little strict with her!” “Give some homework at least?” “Can’t I teach at home?” It was tiresome hearing these barbs year on year, but we hung on. We stopped teaching a child at school, if we heard the parent was trying to teach at home. Or if a child went for out of school tuitions. Called the parents in and steamrollered them. Iron fist in velvet glove approach. It worked most of the time. We had to walk the walk and talk the talk. Hauroon was the tough guy there. Me, I was guilly of slipping them some homework now and then. But Hauroon created procedures to track the amount of work teachers assigned. And came down heavily if he felt we were exceeding our limits. He constantly reminded us about brain based teaching - kids need downtime for their brains to be fresh. Thinking is learning. No spoonfeeding. Let them work out problems themselves. Its about working smart, not working hard. So, no homework. None. Nada! No tests. No exams (except Asset). Eventually, I started seeing the importance of his values which were reflected in his behavior. And became mine too. 

One area where we stubbornly adhered to our values was the refusal to pay bribes. It hurt us in the end. We didn’t get our governmental recognition to run the school. But we slept easy. It took a lot of self discipline not to cave in. But we felt that we couldn’t ask students to be honest, when we were not being above board. Kids sniff out when you’ve been guilty of subterfuge. They’ll know from your face. Consistency! That’s what is required every time you work with kids. And it takes a lot of self discipline. 

And finally a heart full of compassion. For a teacher who had to take leave to tend to a sick child. For a parent who couldn’t pay fees, because his business had collapsed. For the children for whom a trivial spat with a friend could be heartbreaking. Sometimes I felt emotionally exhausted at the end of the day. All I could do was come home and curl up with a book. 

So did this all work? Unfortunately no. 

Today the school is closing down because as leaders, we could not handle the external challenges of government regulations. We couldn’t acquire the necessary land, or raise capital to build the infrastructure. We started seeing shrinking admissions as parents doubted the viability of a school, which after 11 years still doesn’t have a place to call its own. Yes, it's heartbreaking. Heartbreaking when I hear children worry about being beaten in the next school they go to. Worry about not having freedom. Worry about how their next teacher will deal with them. Heartbreaking when I consider the loss of human potential due to the mind-numbing, soul-deadening school system which sucks the creativity, originality and confidence out of our young ones. May Allah protect and strengthen these children. Ameen. 

So was I successful? All I can say I tried. But at the end of the day, I pray my Lord judges me with mercy when it comes to Al Qamar. Ameen. 

To learn more about this unique school, visit www.alqamaracademy.in

Visual Critical Thinking X: What's happening with all the carts?

Photographed by K. Ramnath Chandrasekhar

Today’s class was interesting as I had decided to bring awareness about a topic that was close to home using this picture.  The children had to observe the picture and come to a conclusion as to what was happening and give evidence to the claim they make.

Shahul observed that these looked like poor villagers transporting sand to build mud houses as they couldn’t afford concrete houses. Cessie agreed with Sal and mentioned that they transport mud to make their home and wet sand was needed for it.  When questioned what is the difference mud and sand and do they use sand to build mud houses, they thought maybe clayey soil or sand mixed with water is mud. 

Izzy mentioned that they were transporting the sand as construction material to other places. Saharban told that it looked like they were collecting even wooden planks to help construct their houses or they were using the wood for making more carts. That’s when Mooz jumped in with his observation that one cart was empty and turned in the opposite direction which meant that they kept going back to get more and more sand. Ruqayyah observed that they seemed to have travelled far away for transporting the sand and were just in the middle of a vast plain where it had rained as there were water puddles and agreed with Mooz’s observation of one cart going to get more sand perhaps.  On closer look, they all agreed that the wooden planks were in place to hold the sand, filled to the cart’s brim, from slipping off.

The caption of the picture was revealed and we zoomed in on the picture, we could see the blurred images of at least three earthmover equipment mining sand.  I referred them to the photo story by noted conservationist and educator, Ramnath Chandrasekhar, on how monsoon failure and dry rivers leads people on a sand mining spree. We discussed the dire consequences of this environmental imbalance which sometimes even leads to the river changing course or disappearing entirely not to mention how people lose life in this illegal sand mining incidents.

The children were shocked to know the details and had many questions on why does the government not intervene, how can someone continue to destroy natural resources despite knowing the consequences and how were they permitted to wreak such havoc in society. Does the construction industry deploy such means to procure their material and are they not aware of the illegal sources of their material?  Questions, that are very difficult to answer by any one person. 

The impact this activity has on these young minds is tremendous. Some of the outcomes are the ability to observe, analyse for evidence to back their observations, form thoughts and voice their opinions, accept others’ perception even when it did not align with one’s perception along with learning to take a stand for what is right.  All this not mentioning the awareness created about social issues. Can I ask for more in an English class for grade 7 as I foresee influencers being shaped out of my students?  

- Naqeeb Sultana

Middle School English Teacher

Nanowrimo and the Reluctant Writer

For the past two years this kid never took part in Nanowrimo. Last year's Nanowrimo writing class was no different despite going through the process. This year also the child started with, "Do I have to attend the nanowrimo class as I am not writing a story."

I told this child to join me on this rollercoaster ride to pick a few skills while enjoying the process.  The child agreed. 

Although a little skeptical in the beginning, I gave up my English classes for this creative writing workshop. We've been going through all the elements of creative, narrative writing in depth and assignments to implement the learning.

 Last class this kid asked me, "Aunty! Is it too late to start the nanowrimo. As I am writing this story and want to develop it, can I use it for my Nanowrimo."

"It's not late yet," chorused the class drowning my voice in answer to the query.

The back and forth discussion, suggestions, corrections, modifications, improvisations - SubhanAllah! I am looking forward to each of these classes now.

Waiting to read this story of the fussy twins caught in a parallel dimension of their routine world and their adventure which brings them closer to each other despite their love-hate relationship.

Alhamdulillah online or offline, lockdown or no lockdown, this child's transformation to writing a novel spanning thousands of words is my treasured take away from this entire process. 

Masha Allah thoroughly enjoying this journey, Alhamdulillah.

- Naqeeb Sultana

Middle School English Faculty

Teaching Critical Thinking through Big History - The Big Bang

There's got to be a million reasons why I love teaching Big History to my 8th graders. But the first and foremost is that it leads to wonderful discussions in the classroom - which afford me a peek into the minds of my students and how they are developing various skills. Another facet of the course is its strucutre and how it develops vital academic skills in students - critical thinking, evaluation, argumentation based on evidence, deep reading and high quality written communication.

We recently started up the 2nd Unit on the Big Bang. The first activity required students to think up of a natural disaster and then list causes that led to it - in the short, medium and long term.  The students worked for this assignment using the Breakout Rooms feature in Zoom. As I kept popping in and out of their rooms, I witnessed interesting discussions. One of the teams had chosen the 2004 Tsunami - they listed the earthquake in Indonesia as the immediate cause but were able to go back further into continental drift to use plate shift tectonics as a core reason. They were further back into the formation of the earth's crust and mantle to explain how plates were formed and are constantly moving even today - which led to the earthquake and therefore the tsunami.

The Vocab Wall activity was an incredible way to help students and deepen enhance their understanding of word meanings. Each student was assigned 2 words which they had to research - meanings, synonyms, antonyms and context. Words ranged from "parallax", "evidence", "intuition", "astronomical" & "hydrogen".  Then they had to browse the BH unit to find their word's usage in articles or activities. Finally we had a WORD WAR - where students had to justify using evidence why their word was the most important word in the entire unit. For this, the students really had to understand the context in which the word was used. Next, they had to identify another word in the list which was connected with their word. Again, they had to justify their connection. Students readily challenged each other's arguements. Some also stepped into to support a flailing classmate - which reflected a sense of empathy and connection. 

From there we dived deeper into understanding what the Big Bang was through videos and discussions. The article on Complexity provided a context for how each Threshold emerged through Goldilocks conditions which provided increasing complexity.  

Today we worked on understanding a graphical representation of the first threshold and students had to come up with interesting hashtags to briefly summarize their understanding. Hashtags ranged from #beginnings, #allmatter, #lifebegins, #whereallenergywas released.

We watched the Big Bang video and classified learning into the S-E-C model - Support - Extend - Challenge. For this activity, use used the Zoom Whiteboard where students could collaboratively add their ideas in real time. We discussed how it was easy to identify ideas which "Supported' our thinking and also those which "Extended" our thinking, but extremely difficult to find ones which "Challenge" our thinking. I told the students that they should constantly be aware and analyze the readings for such ideas and tease them out - a good pointer on metacognition and deeper thinking.  

For next time, they have to do a "Literature Review" by finding and reading articles on the latest scientific understanding of the Big Bang and make a group presentation. They have to use their newly learned skills on Claim Testing to evaluate the authenticity of the article and website by assessing whether the author of the article is an "authority" on the subject or not.  We discussed how "authority" can be achieved - through education, experience and reputation in the field, but how also, "authority" is sometimes attributed implicitly and incorrectly based on race, gender or socio-economic condition. This led to a discussion on how women scientists and mathematicians often have a battle on their hands to garner equal respect and authority for their work as men. 

Truly, teaching Big History can give any educator a well deserved buzz, especially in these trying times of school lockdowns. 

Workshop: Teaching Reading Comprehension

A child who can comprehend what s/he reads is well on the way of becoming an independent learner across disciplines. Such a child usually performs well academically and does not need much intervention in their learning process. However, it is a common misconception that reading comprehension will automatically develop with improvement in reading fluency. Another fallacy is that reading comprehension is a "natural process" for all children.

Children's learning can be scaffolded in different ways which will help them understand and extend what they read, a process which is especially for students who are struggling academically. Improvement in reading comprehension can help the children become independent learners and enable them to focus on higher order thinking skills, rather than wasting precious time memorizing what they haven't understood. This is especially relevant these days when online classes have become the norm and teachers struggle to help each and every child with their academics.

The workshop "Teaching Reading Comprehension" will cover a number of strategies and techniques which adults can use to help children with comprehension. The facilitator, Aneesa Jamal, is the founder of Al Qamar Academy, and has over 10 years of experience in teaching English effectively. Her students have rank in the top 10 percentile in national benchmarking exams, are often published in national weeklies and have authored books. Al Qamar Academy is well regarded for its robust English teaching program.

The online workshop will take place on 14th-17th October 2020 from 4:30-6:00pm.  Last date for registration is 11:00am on Tuesday 13th October 2020.

Registration Link: 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScdBYvRcqMjpPmRdj1QqphNF9ERZ7H1UU0lGl1lH7sOaj2DtA/viewform?fbclid=IwAR0TroBrArzCViEjSe48bARbmaUuuZWt4zlgXzvIDXUJa-ozE87UhVIiIsk

EXCURSION TO A CARDAMOM ESTATE

We went off on an excursion to a cardamom estate yesterday during our Small Science class. Virtually ofcourse, but highly enjoyable nevertheless. The cool breeze, swaying trees, scudding grey clouds framed the background of our visit to Shameema Farms in Peermade, Kerala.

We have been studying “Where our food comes from” in Small Science and learning about food, its constituents, how it is grown, farming, harvesting, pesticides etc. Had it not been COVID times, this would have been the right time to go visit a farm to actually see the process of farming. But a virtual visit was the only possibility. The one advantage of a virtual visit was that we could leave the confines of urban Chennai and travel to Kerala to our student Rafan’s family farm.

Rafan’s dad kindly took us around the farm showing us plants, pods, soil and the machinery through his mobile phone.  We learned about the entire lifecycle of cardamom farming. Planting is done in sections using new shoots from existing plants. The fertilized soil is left fallow during April and May until the rainy season in June/ July. The cardamom plant takes almost 18 months to give the first yield and 3 years for a proper harvest. He showed up the beautiful flower and the plump green cardamom seed pods. 

Abu Rafan explained how there are approximately about 4-5 harvests in a year starting from July and going all the way to December. The best harvests are the middle ones.  The children were astounded to know that the entire process of planting and harvesting is completely manual and there is a skill involved in recognising the seed pods which are ready to be harvested.

Abu Rafan told us that the cardamom plant is very delicate. It can be easily mowed down by strong winds and rain. He showed us how a bunch of plants had broken due to a recent storm. The plant is also very vulnerable to fungus and great care has to be taken to protect it from insects. Rats and frogs apparently love to eat the seed pod. Snakes abound. 

In the distance we could see tall tree trunks covered with pepper vine. Abu Rafan zoomed in to show us the pepper pods - a new experience for our students.

The children were busy asking questions in the chat box of Google Meet - “How much water is required?” “What insects come to the plant?” “What pesticides do you use? Don’t they harm the soil?”

We then moved onto seeing the machinery involved in processing the cardamom pods. The pods are dried at high temperatures for 14-16 hours and then rolled in a drum to remove extra stems and leaves. Thereafter the pods are packed and ready to go to the auction site. Abu Rafan explained how auctions take place since that was a burning question for the students along with the economics of the cultivation.  

Later Rafan shared some beautiful pictures of the wildlife at the estate - a shield tail, stingless bee and eye catching birds. This was a wonderful experience for our students especially those confined in their homes during COVID times. A little innovation and out of the box thinking can still make science learning highly engaging despite current constraints.

By Aneesa Jamal

Teaching Visual Critical Thinking IX - Is that an Idly Grinder in a lab?

Our classes on Visual Critical Thinking continue, adding an incredible dimension to teaching and learning at Al Qamar Academy.

Today I used this picture for the visual critical thinking skills discussion in today’s class.  Please do click on the llink and see the picture before proceeding.

The students  were given 2 driving questions to ponder over - What they thought was going on in the picture with evidence to support their ideas, & To use observations and inferences to explain what they thought was happening in the picture.

Shahul observed that the picture showed a group of people working on a rotating grinder and not like scientists.  

Izzy stated that it looked like a factory setting where the people were sanitised and wore masks. He concluded that they were making cheese in a factory and all were looking at ripe cheese.  They looked like Asians while one looked Chinese as observed from his facial features.  

Ruqayya concurred with Izzy that it looked like a cheese factory as the people all wore gloves as they were handling cheese.  The big container looked like where the whey and curd/cheese were separated.  She observed that the parts sticking out from the big container looked like spinners on which the container spun around.  She noticed the racks at the back which could have been used to store the cheese and that the cheese wasn’t done yet.  She noticed that the visitors were taking down notes but was unsure about what.  She also had no idea on the purpose of the posters and bottles seen in the background.  She also observed one of the people wore headphones while few wore masks and gloves.

Mooz declared that they looked like scientists visiting a science lab in a different country for they had visitor badges on their coats.  Although they wore masks, there was  no social distancing and they might be testing and checking a cure for some kind of virus.

Cessie said that they looked like medical students or maybe scientists with two of them being visitors while the others were doctors and volunteers. She assumed the two visitors were from another lab or university who had come to observe an exhibit or some new discovery as they wore masks and gloves and took notes while the others observed.  She noticed some posters in the background on the walls that mentioned something about a Cold Box, Tail and Product but had no idea about it.  

Afrah disagreed with Izzy and Ruqayya.  She mentioned that the men looked like chemists with two among them being visitors from maybe a university as the badges on their coats revealed.  They seemed to be observing and writing what seemed like an experiment.  The setting was more like a lab which consumed electricity as there was a big electric box in the background.  There may be something contagious, the reason for their wearing gloves and masks, for they may be looking for a cure for some disease.

When I asked them to observe what was sticking out of the machine with what looked like an opening or outlet in the big container, only Afrah articulated that they looked like huge copper nuts and bolts.  She believed that it was part of some circuit and couldn’t be a grinder or cheese separator.  She remarked that the people were not lookng inside but away from the machine, probably observing some output on a screen in the distance.

I asked the students whether it was possible that a factory could have one machine without any other machinery in sight and whether the door behind the room could be open if the process  involved dairy products.  Afrah also noticed that the sign on the wall about a cold box had a yellow triangle which usually meant something hazardous which is only possible if the setting was a lab rather than a factory.

At the end of the class, I revealed the caption to them that they were inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency at a nuclear site south of Teheran. The article mentioned that Iran had begun to conduct work on advanced centrifuges- the equipment that spun at supersonic speed to purify Uranium, a fuel for nuclear power and nuclear weapons.

We concluded that in all probability what was seen might be a centrifuge used to purify uranium.  Ruqayya was sad that she couldn’t guess accurately because of her lack of knowledge on history or nuclear power.  Mooz, Cessie and Izzy weren’t too happy either that they hadn’t been even close to guessing the right answer.  Afrah was sure that she knew from the beginning that it was some kind of a lab with chemists working and was well pleased that she was close to the outcome of this activity but was surprised to note that what looked like a huge Idly grinder could actually spin at supersonic speed.

To be able to keenly observe and modify one’s thought process, based on different perspectives presented by peers, is a skill.  Today, I was impressed by Afrah – she demonstrated critical decision making which involved calmness, clarity, and conviction in her inference. Additionally she was able to explain her observation, reasoning and conclusions in plain language to her peers.

Note : Student chosen aliases have been used instead of real names.  The link to the article with the actual picture has been provided below: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/20/learning/whats-going-on-in-this-picture-oct-21-2019.html

Al Qamar Alumna awarded Mensa Foundation International Scholarship

MashaAllah, Aisha Jamal, Al Qamar batch 2017, is one of the 5 students worldwide to be awarded the International Mensa Foundation Scholarship.

The scholarship which is awarded to Mensa Members, is decided solely on the basis of a personal essay. Aisha's essay also mentioned how her Al Qamar experience shaped her interest in Science & Math. Aisha is the only Asian to win this award this year.

Teaching Visual Critical Thinking VIII : Parkour here?

Language teaching integrates a number of different facets - in fact, taught well, it leads to development of metacognition skills in students. Recognising this greater goal of language teaching, we teachers at Al Qamar Academy have been working with our Middle school students to develop their Visual Critical thinking skills by using resources from the New York Times Learning Network, specifically, the What’s Going On In This Picture.

This time, I selected a mesmerizing photograph which juxtaposes several contrasting elements.  Before reading further, do view the photograph here. 

I asked my 8th graders to carefully study the photo for a few minutes and jot down their observations and thoughts.  What could be happening here? What could be the explanation?

Initially, several of the students thought the photo was a scene from a movie. Or photoshopped. The surreality of the picture lent itself well to this explanation. They observed the contrast of the background with the flippant activity (pun intended) of the man. Why would anyone be doing perfect flips in this completely bombed out locale. They noticed the fire still burning in one of the buildings and the rubble and concrete that littered the street. Two kids quickly identified that the man was doing parkour. The angle of his position was professional - he wasn’t just jumping around - he was good! 

Somebody wondered if this was a military training camp. That kind of explained the casual nature of the two boys in the picture - the rubble and destruction seems normal. But then another student pointed out that children wouldn’t be allowed to wander around in a military training camp. 

What about a construction site? Where the destruction of the buildings was a planned and normal event. Nothing horrific associated with that. But then other kids commented that a demolition in construction sites would be more planned. This area clearly looked as if it had been bombed. 

The children were trying to reconcile the apparent and widespread destruction with the casualness of parkour. Nothing else seemed to fit.

Then a child commented “What if there was a bomb blast. And the boy was thrown by the impact. But again - that didn’t work. The flip was deliberate and professional. The feet were pointed at the correct angle. The other boy in the picture too seemed calm and collected. No fear or panic.

What if there was an earthquake? And the buildings had collapsed. But then other children pointed out that the buildings in the background were still standing. They would’ve also collapsed or been damaged in an earthquake.  

“Maybe he’s doing the parkour to post on social media” guessed a student. Another student took up the thread “There must be something important enough happening if this photo was taken to be posted on social media.” 

The children finally concluded that this was a picture from a war torn zone. The bombing had probably not been recent - the onlooker was not in a panic. Additionally, the photographer had the time to frame a high resolution picture of the scene. So s/he must have planned to take the picture.  The children guessed that the location must have been somewhere in Afghanistan, Lebanon or Iraq.

Finally, one student guessed the correct place - “Palestine”. Another student explained the rationale behind the picture - “A  picture of a bombed out neighbourhood wouldn’t catch attention. But this kid doing parkour here would!” I revealed the story behind the picture - where a group of young Palestinian boys do parkour and post pictures on social media to garner attention about the life under colonization.  The final question posed by a student should give a lot of us adults food for thought “The Promised Land doesn’t deserve war. Religion doesn’t deserve war!”

The entire exercise took an hour. It was a testimony to the endurance of the children that they kept noticing further details and trying to reason out an explanation. I  was impressed how the class was working together building on each other's observations. Even when the students contradicted each other, it was respectful. They offered evidence to back up their claims. It was a team effort here.

So what do students get out of such a class. Superficially, they enjoy the conversation and sense of solving a puzzle. But on a deeper level, this exercise hones their observation skills. They learn to articulate their point of view and justify their claims. Pictures from different parts of the world adds to their repertoire of learning about cultures, politics and social realities. And finally, its not boring!!

Note : Due to copyright restrictions, the actual picture cannot be reproduced. Instead a link to the actual picture has been provided in the article as well as below:

https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/17/whats-going-on-in-this-picture-nov-17-2014/

Teaching Arabic in Online mode

 

It's been  seven years of joy working with children and teaching them Arabic in a Montessori way, at Al Qamar Academy, Alhamdulillah. I completed two cycles of the Montessori three years periods, and have seen the wonderful outcome in Arabic language learning. Alhamdulillah.

Things were going smoothly, then this pandemic occurred.  The world was turned upside down by the virus. Everything changed. Especially teaching. And in response to the new scenario, we had to embrace technology as a medium to continue children's learning.  Challenges were ahead, we had to retain the child's interest in learning, keeping him moving in digital space. 

In the regular Montessori school, we provide a conducive physical environment for children to explore and understand the concepts of languages, driven by their own urges, making their own choices, working by themselves. Now, we had to create a digital environment where the child could achieve his goals in the same way. Was that even possible?

At first, we sat with our planning sheets to understand what could possibly be presented to Elementary children in Arabic. We divided the children into small groups where we could provide personalised attention.  Then we gathered a bunch of online resources which would be interesting and engaging for children. Finally, as both teachers and students had to adapt new way of learning and teaching, we kept our expectations low. 

Classes began. The chidlren were delighted to see me again and I was overjoyed meeting them, despite not being physically together.  Alhamdulillah because of the deep connections created between children and adults in a Montessori environment, I could connect with the children based on my past experience and relationship with them.  

Within few classes, children  had transitioned smoothly into a different mode of learning.  Children started working with the basic Arabic presentations at first as there had been a long gap of 3 months in schooling. They brushed up their vocabulary first and then individually we  started introducing the parts of grammar. True to the Montessori philosophy of language learning, classes had a lot of oral conversation in Arabic so the language can come "alive" for the chidlren.

I restarted my read alouds - choosing Arabic story books which was relevant to concepts which had been introduced. Reading books has always been a great source of effective learning for the children, we have seen how it has a positive impact on understanding the concepts . Children learn the structure of the sentence, grammar along with vocabulary, with the minimum effort and great interest.  Many books were available online and I made full use of that resource. Especially wonderful is the Unite for Literacy with books in English and narration in Arabic. Another resource is Pratham's Storyweaver where several levelled Arabic story books can be found. 

The written work was regularly submitted by the children through WhatsApp - they wrote in their notebooks and their parents uploaded photographs of the writing. The work was done independently by the children and I was delighted to see they hadn't forgotton how to write!

Then came the time where I felt I needed a confirmation - had the children understood the concepts, could they use the learning of the past two months

To make it sure, in an afternoon class, I asked a boy who was accompanied by his mother, " من هذه؟ "( who is she? ) he replied" ....  ،هذه امي،اسمها"( she is my mother, her name is....), it went on, I  asked questions based on whatever had been presented to them, Alhamdulillah, most of them were able to answer. Alhamdulillah. 

That gives a sense of success, and satisfaction, that despite of all the challenges, we are moving smoothly in digital platform. Thankfully , the online learning/ teaching experience has generally been positive.. Alhamdu lillah..

Nikhath Ara, Montessori & Arabic Teacher

Grammar lessons are boring! Or are they?

 I had tried the inductive approach to teaching grammar with my 6 th grade which was very successful and now I wanted to experiment with my grade 7.

I gave a set of 16 sentences as an assignment to my grade 7 and wanted them to group them based on their similarities to have further discussion during the English class.  I had their submissions where they grouped them as statements and questions, simple, compound and complex sentences.  I was thrilled that the kids were able to discover the differences and similarities based on their prior knowledge which now got activated as well as consolidated.  So, can I say two birds with one stone?

During the class I told them that we were not looking at sentence structures, so I wanted them to look at other similarities.  They spoke about figurative language, adjectives, adverbs, imagery because we had completed a chapter on descriptive writing.  

I narrowed down the scope for them and informed the lesson is going to be on grammar.  They responded - statements and questions.  I told them to pick the four interrogative sentences and find how they were different from each other.

I read the sentences loudly to the students and wanted them to pay close attention to a grammar concept which I planned to teach them.  As I was impatient for their answers, I felt butterflies in my stomach but I continued to wait.  

The first contribution came from Sal when he referred without going into detail that it was in the present tense which triggered the conversation.  I applauded the effort and they were all now looking at the sentences with a fresh perspective to discover new information.

Afrah, Izzy, Mooz, Sal and Ruqayya engaged with the material and now actively discussed the sentences among themselves about tenses, present and past.  I did not intervene until I saw them getting stuck or deviating from the topic in discussion.  The learners were able to come up with a clear understanding for simple present and simple past in their own words which was not very different from the conventional definition.  They were now able to not just come up with examples but were able to convert some simple sentences from past to present and vice versa on their own.

We then noticed a few other sentences where the action was not just happening in the present or past but was continuing.  We came to identify the present continuous and the past continuous and then create examples.  There were a few more sentences left to identify, label, define and make examples  - this work has been assigned for the next interesting session.

If students are actively engaged, then learning happens effectively.  Although the inductive approach takes a longer time, I believe it is more efficient in the long run.  In this approach of inductive reasoning, the student is relying on critical thinking to figure out the language rules with active interaction and participation and gain deeper understanding of the language which will be used in their own writing in the future.  Is there anything more a teacher wants from a grammar class?

Naqeeb Sultana