OER 3 Language and gender: learning and equality in participation

4.2 Teachers – Activity 2

Have students say or write it in their own words

Teachers can lecture students and have them repeat what we say or repeat the textbook, but it is only when they speak or write in their own words that we can find out what they know.

Two girls in a classroom in Nepal writing in their text books — **Figure 2** A student writing in her own words (EMEGen project: Nepal)

A good way to check student understanding is to have them tell it or write it in their own words.

Have students rephrase a topic that you have taught them, using their own words. Give them time to talk or make notes before rephrasing and have students find words that have the same meaning. This is a useful method in any subject lesson that helps students to learn the subject content and subject language at the same time.

For example:

‘A cell is the smallest unit of living matter.’

Ask students if they can think of different ways to say this.

Students can work on their own or with a partner, to come up with different ways of expressing the same fact. They can use a textbook, a dictionary or an online search. For example:

‘A cell is…

the smallest unit of every living thing

a fundamental unit of life

a basic building blocks of humans, animals and plants.’

You can vary this by having students give their own examples. For example, to describe a fraction in different ways:

‘Cut the bread into thirds to share it with three people.’

‘My exam result is expressed as a fraction. I got 18/20.’

You can vary these activities by having students translate or rephrase textbook passages from one language to another (for example, from English to the local language, or vice-versa).

As students work, you can circulate, ask them questions, check their understanding, and make corrections as necessary.

You are likely to see that some students understand partially. When many students misunderstand one idea in particular, this is an opportunity for whole class teaching to correct the misunderstanding.

It is good practice to listen to students. Of course, you may not be able to listen to every student in every lesson. But you can plan to listen to groups or pairs over the course of a week.