2 Discussing ideas through groupwork
If students are not used to writing by themselves it can be quite a big step to ask them to try this. But by working in small groups, students can support each other in understanding a text, develop their ideas and practise the language that they can then use in their written responses.
Activity 1: Try in the classroom – answering textbook questions in groups
In the textbook passage called ‘The Summit Within’ from NCERT’s textbook Honeydew, students are expected to write answers in English to a number of comprehension questions.
The next time you teach a lesson with an activity like this, ask your students to answer the comprehension questions at the end of the lesson in groups. This will allow them to develop their ideas with each other and find the language to answer the questions together.
- In class, divide the students into groups of four. If they are sitting on benches, ask the students on the first bench to turn around so that they are facing the students on the second bench. Repeat that with the other rows so that groups are formed without too much noise. Ask one student from each group to be the ‘secretary’ who writes down the responses. For more on groupwork see Resource 1.
- Ask students to discuss their answers to the questions and write them down. Tell them that they should not copy sentences directly from the lesson. Give them a time limit for this task (ten minutes, for example).
- Move around the groups and monitor their work. This ensures that the students understand what they are doing, and feel more confident to discuss problems. Make sure that all the students have an opportunity to contribute to the discussion.
- When they have finished, ask a representative from two or three groups to read aloud an answer. Discuss the answers as a class, and how they can be improved. If it is possible, check each group’s questions and answers.
 Pause for thought Here is a question for you to think about after trying this activity. If possible, discuss this question with a colleague. After the lesson, think about your students’ learning. Did this activity engage them in communicating what they understood to each other? |
Having students work together to answer questions about passages in the textbook can help them build up the skills and confidence to write answers to these questions. One way to extend students’ understanding further is to ask them to compose their own comprehension questions about a text.
Activity 2: Try in the classroom – using groupwork to help students write questions and answers about a text
You can try out this activity with any lesson or passage, and any class.
- Set up groupwork as in Activity 1.
- Ask different groups to read through different paragraphs of the text. For example, Group 1 could look at the first two paragraphs; Group 2 could look through the third and fourth paragraphs; and so on. It doesn’t matter if several groups are looking at the same paragraphs.
- Ask each group to work together to write three questions about the section of the text they have read – these questions should check the students’ understanding of the text. Provide some examples to the whole class of the kind of questions you mean before they start working in groups. Give a time limit for the activity (for example, ten minutes).
- Ask your students to discuss their questions and what the correct answers to the questions are. Have the group secretary write these questions and answers down.
- When the students have finished writing their questions, ask the groups to exchange their questions, so that every group gets a different set of questions to the ones they have written.
- Ask students to discuss and write answers to the questions. Tell them that they should not copy sentences directly from the textbook. Once again, give a time limit.
- Move around the groups and monitor their work. This ensures that the students understand what they are doing and feel more confident to discuss problems.
- Ask two or three groups to read aloud one or two questions and the answers; discuss the answers, and how they can be improved. If it is possible, check each group’s questions and answers.
Pause for thought Here are some questions for you to think about after trying this activity. If possible, discuss these questions with a colleague. After the lesson, think about your students’ learning. Were there groups that found it difficult to write questions? How could you help them the next time you do this exercise? |
There are ways that you can help support your students’ writing by giving them some of the language that they need to write their responses. You will find out more about this in the following case study.
Case Study 1: Mr Singh uses student discussion with comprehension questions
Mr Singh teaches English to Class VIII. He recently tried a technique to help his students to answer comprehension questions without copying directly from the lesson, and this involved getting his students to work in groups. The lesson was ‘The Summit Within’ from Honeydew, NCERT’s textbook for Class VIII.
After doing a pre-reading exercise, we read the passage ‘The Summit Within’ together. When we finished, I first asked students what the text was about to get a general sense of whether they had understood. I then moved to the post-reading activity, which was answering the comprehension questions at the end of the lesson. I decided that we would answer the first question together as a class.
I asked my students to read the first comprehension question: ‘What are the three qualities that played a major role in the author’s climb?’ I made sure that they could understand the question by asking them to give a translation. Then I gave my students a list of useful phrases to begin answers, such as: ‘The three qualities that played a major role are …’.
I asked them to read the first paragraph and underline the sentences that contained the answer. The students underlined the following:
The simplest answer would be, as others have said, ‘Because it is there.’ It presents great difficulties. Man takes delight in overcoming obstacles. The obstacles in climbing a mountain are physical. A climb to a summit means endurance, persistence and will power.
I asked them to locate the exact words that would describe the three qualities. Most of the students answered ‘endurance’, ‘persistence’ and ‘will power’, but a few asked me whether ‘overcoming obstacles’ wasn’t another important point.
I was happy that the students could narrow down their search for the most appropriate words that would answer the question. I then asked them to find a way to include ‘overcoming obstacles’ in their list of three qualities.
I showed them how to organise the points into an appropriate answer, with a proper beginning and ending. I also made sure that they noted the change of the tense of the verb when writing an answer: ‘are’ would change to ‘were’, and so on. After making the necessary changes in the sentences, this is what they got:
The three qualities that played a major role in the author’s climb were endurance, persistence and will power for overcoming obstacles.
I showed them other ways of writing the same answer, such as:
Endurance, persistence and will power for overcoming obstacles were the three qualities that played a major role in the author’s climb.
I wanted the class to answer the rest of the questions in groups. I asked the class to work in groups of four, and to work together and compose answers to the rest of the questions. I gave them some words and phrases from the lesson to use in their responses. But I reminded them that they should use their own words, and not copy sentences directly from the lesson. I gave them some time to write their answers, and moved around the room to help any students that needed it.
When the time was up, I asked a different group to answer each question. I wrote the answer that the group gave on the blackboard and we discussed whether it answered the question, and whether the group had used their own words in addition to the important words and phrases from the text that they needed to complete their answers. I also corrected any mistakes that the group had made.
By the end of the class, my students were getting better at answering the questions. I really noticed with discussion and a little help with their answers, students were much better able to do the activity, and they felt a lot better about themselves too.
1 Using discussion to support student writing