english part

Why was the question asked?This simple question tests whether children are able to read a passage and reproduce the facts mentioned in it. The basic ability to decode a sentence and diligence in reading the passage are sufficient to answer this question.

English: Class 3ASSETTM

11

How OFTEN does the humming bird eat?

every fifteen minutes

every ten minutes

every five minutes

fifty times a second

Question

Options

A

B

C

D

P

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The humming bird gets its name from the humming sound made by its fast beating wings. The speed is so great that the tiny bird can move like a helicopter while drinking

nectar from a flower. It can fly right, left, up and down, backwards and even upside down.

The humming bird moves its wings about fifty times a second. And the speed of the wings allows it to fly backwards whenever it feels like it.

Most humming birds are bright in colour. They eat every ten minutes. They eat insects. There is a line on the side of the tongue, which helps

them to catch insects.

The beak of the humming bird is very long and pointed. It licks about thirteen licks a second, of nectar.

If a humming bird needs to get clean, it uses a shallow pond, or rain or a sprinkler that may be watering flowers. It dips its chin and belly into

the shallow pond. If it is raining, it gets soaked and gets clean everywhere easily.

Can Birds Fly Backwards??

Reading for Understanding – Literal Comprehension

Only 52.2% answered correctly

P

Educational INITIATIVES

No. of Students6579

B. 52.2%

A. 9.5%A. 9.5%

C. 7.8%C. 7.8%

D. 21.8%

2 What did students answer?52% of 6,579 children chose the correct option B, “every ten minutes”. 21.81% children chose option D, “fifty times a second” which was the most common wrong answer.

Possible reason for choosing A: Children have probably been impatient and chosen the first option, not trying to confirm their answer by going back to the passage.

Possible reason for choosing C: Only a few children chose this option; it is possible that they may have guessed the answer and not tried to verify their answer.

Possible reason for choosing D: There are two time frequencies mentioned in the passage – “the humming bird moves its wings fifty times a second”, “the humming bird eats every ten minutes.”

Children probably selected option D because “fifty times a second” was the first number they came across, not realizing that it referred to the “flapping of wings”. It is possible that they stopped reading the passage after that, and did not reach the sentence “They eat every ten minutes”.

3 LearningsFrom the student response data, it appears that children do not have the habit of reading a passage in its entirety. In this case, the question was very simple and direct. Yet a substantial percentage of children have not been able to answer the question correctly. It indicates that children need to be actively taught to read the passage fully and verify their answers.

4 How do we handle this?

• Use the same passage in class. Ask children to read it carefully.

• Draw four boxes on the board and label them as – description, flying habits, eating habits, cleaning habits.

• Ask children to list all the information about humming birds. Ask them under which box should a characteristic be written.

• Look at the figure below to see how the diagram on the board will emerge. This will help children to list all the facts and see that the two characteristics of flapping wings fifty times a second and eating every ten minutes fall under two separate categories.

• You can use short passages about birds and animals of 75-100 words and repeat the exercise in class from time to time.

Useful resources:

Websites:

E3-0908-14

1. http://www.fctel.uncc.edu/pedagogy/basicscoursedevelop/BloomWritingObjectives.html (Bloom’s Taxonomy - Objectives of Reading and Writing from basic to complex)2. http://edhelper.com/language/Reading_Skills.htm (a website with exercises on reading comprehension skills)

Description• Tiny bird• Mostly bright in colour• Long and pointed beak• Have a line on the side of

the tongue which helps in catching insects

Eating Habits• Eats insects• Eats every ten minutes• Drinks nectar• Thirteen licks per second

while it drinks nectar

Cleaning Habits•

rain water, or a sprinkler to clean itself

• Dips its chin and belly in to the water

• If it is raining, it can get c l e a n e d e a s i l y everywhere.

Uses shallow pond, or Flying Habits

•down, backwards and even upside down

• Can fly like a helicopter while drinking nectar from a flower

• Moves its wings about fifty times a second

Can fly right, left, up and


A weary traveller once bought seven cakes. Tired and hungry, he gobbled up the first three. But this hurried eating did not make his hunger any less.

So he decided to eat another cake. Thereafter, he quickly ate a fifth and a sixth cake. He was no longer mad with hunger. Yet, he was glad he had one cake left.

Next, he started on the seventh cake. This time, he ate more slowly. And, as he finished the last mouthful of the last cake, he felt very pleased and satisfied.

Then he began to feel very sad. It had taken him so long to satisfy his hunger. The man said: “What a fool I've been. I should have eaten the seventh cake first! Then, my hunger would have gone away at once. Besides, I could have saved the rest of the cakes.”

Listening to the man babbling, everyone laughed at him.

Why was the question asked?Most stories have a very definite sequence of events. Students understand the story by exploring this sequence. The ability to visualise and logically sequence events in a story is an important skill in comprehending stories. Only when a person is able to decode sentences and place them in the correct sequence, will he be able to understand the deeper nuances of the story.


11

When did the man begin to eat slowly?

after eating the third cake

after eating the fifth cake

after eating the sixth cake

after eating the seventh cake

Question

Options

A

B

C

D

P

P.T.O.E3-0908-04

A Man and His Cakes

Do write to us at [email protected], using the feedback format provided to your school. Formats, Useful Resources Links, and other details are available online at http://www.ei-india.com/teacher-sheet/




B. 5.9

%B.

5.9%

D. 38.6%

A. 4

.7%

A. 4

.7%

C. 47.8%P

No. of Students6763

2 What did students answer?48% of 6,763 students chose the correct Option C, “after eating the sixth cake”. 39% of the children chose option D, “after eating the seventh cake” which was a common wrong answer.

Possible reasons for choosing A and B: Only a few children chose these options (4-6% each), probably indicating that they have guessed the answer or simply chosen any option.

Possible reason for choosing D: The phrase “This time he ate more slowly” appears just after the sentence “Next he started on the seventh cake”. The proximity of “ate slowly” to “seventh cake” in the passage might have led children to blindly match these two and answer D.

3 LearningsThis question is an attempt to find out if children are able to understand the sequence of facts in a story. The correct answer Option C has been deliberately worded as “after eating the sixth cake” instead of repeating the words from the passage “started on the seventh cake” to test if children understand that both these phrases refer to almost the same moment in time. Option D was used as a distracter to see if children would miss this point and choose this blindly by matching with the word ‘seventh’. Those who have related these two expressions have been able to answer correctly. The question is not difficult to answer if children understand what happens first and arrive at what happens next in the correct order. They need to understand how many cakes the man had, how many he ate fast and exactly when he started eating slowly.

4 How do we handle this?• Read out a story once to them and help them focus on the events that take place and

the order in which they occur.

• Then list the events on the blackboard in the order identified by the students.

• After listing as many events from the story as possible introduce the concept of sequence to the class and explain that this is a strategy that they are going to use to understand what they have read. Explain that they are going to build a timeline to review the sequence of events in the story..

• Begin the timeline process by having students divide themselves up into three groups based on when the event in their sentence happened in the story: BEGINNING- MIDDLE- END

• In each group, have students work together to decide the sequence of events. When the group has a tentative order, ask them to sit in a line in the right chronological order.

• When the class has decided on a sequence, have each student attach their sentence to the chart paper timeline hanging on the wall using glue or a stapler or ask them to read out their sentences in order of the story to reinforce the sequence of events.

• Arranging events in a chronological order and talking about this, will help to understand the story structure, cause and effect and characters. (See the example with the story of ‘The man and His Cakes’).

Websites:

E3-0908-04

Useful resources:

1.Haydn Perry, Once a Week Comprehension, Book 1, Oxford University Press. (A set of comprehension passages and questions)2.Tips to Strengthen Reading Comprehension (K-3), Article provided by Sylvan Learning Center -http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/departments/elementary/?article=strengthenreadingcom

Time Line: The Man and His Cakes

A tired traveller bought seven cakes and greedily ate up three of them.

He was still hungry. He ate another three cakes.

Now he was not very hungry.

So he started eating the seventh cake very slowly.

He was very happy and satisfied.

He thought he could have saved six cakes if he had eaten the seventh cake first.

People saw him talking to himself and they laughed at him.

BEGINNING MIDDLE END

1 2 3 4 5 6 7


The headmaster of our school was very fat and short. We made fun of him behind him but in front of him we were all like little rats in front of a cat. He never smiled but caned us often to discipline us. One day he came to our class and told us to do the five sums on the board before the period was over. He then sat down on the chair, put his turban and his feet on the table and fell asleep. Everyone finished the easy sums quickly. The headmaster looked so funny. I drew a picture of him with his round face, his bald head, his huge belly, his legs and the funny sleeping position. After the class I showed it to my friends. They could not stop laughing. The teacher for the next class reported me to the headmaster who caned me twice and told me not to attend school for two weeks. I waited in school till lunchtime to go home. The headmaster came home to inform Grandfather of my mischief. I hid behind the door to hear their talk. The headmaster showed Grandfather my drawing. Grandfather, Grandmother and Uncle looked at it and laughed loudly. Grandfather asked if I was wrong to draw the picture. The headmaster angrily said that it was wrong to draw him while he was teaching a lesson. Grandfather said, "But I like this picture very much. I never thought the boy was so clever." The headmaster waited for a few minutes and then laughed and said, "Of course he is clever. That is why I brought the picture to you."

Why was the question asked?The basic level of reading comprehension lies in understanding texts on the surface, wherein the reader is expected to identify what is explicitly stated in the passage. Developing this skill depends on primarily decoding words to understand what is read – as words have a context and contexts have meaning. This question is aimed at finding out whether students are able to use these strategies to identify the facts directly stated in the story.

11

According to the passage, the headmaster often

gave the children a funny smile.

gave the children easy sums to do.

whipped the children with a cane.

went to sleep on a chair.

Question

Options

P

P.T.O.E4-0908-14

Life at School



P

No. of Students1924




B. 35.4%

A. 6

.8%

A. 6

.8%

D. 24.9%D. 24.9%

C. 29.8%

A

B

C

D

2 What did students answer?30% of 1,924 students chose the correct answer, ‘whipped the children with a cane’ while Option B, ‘gave the children easy sums to do’, was a common wrong answer.

Possible reason for choosing A: Very few students chose this option, indicating that they may be making a random guess. It is also possible that students have not been able to read or understand the passage or the question.

Possible reason for choosing B: Students may not have re-read the story after reading the question but may have answered the question based on their memory of the facts of the story, following an initial reading of the same. It is possible that the idea of ‘doing easy sums given by the headmaster’ stayed in their minds as it was something that was easily achieved. They seem to have missed the word ‘often’ in the question which is the key to the right answer, thus failing to recognise the fact that this was not a frequent occurrence but a chance occurrence on one day.

Possible reason for choosing D: Students seem to have selected this option, ‘went to sleep on a chair.’ because that may have been the most enjoyable part of the passage and so was foremost in their minds. It also means that students have not referred to the passage again after reading the question. If they had, they would have understood that this action did not take place often but took place only on one particular day when the Maths teacher was absent.

Students seem to be struggling with reading and understanding simple passages and identifying facts directly stated in the passage. This seems to be on account of the following difficulties-

1. Visualizing the story in sequence 2. Identifying the who, what, when of the people and events comprising the story

The sentence in paragraph 1 of the passage, 'He never smiled but caned us often to discipline us.' very clearly states a habitual action of the headmaster along with the reason for the same. The subsequent paragraphs highlight the event that took place on that particular day along with the consequence of that event. The one-time occurrence is confirmed by the phrase 'One day…' in paragraph 2, which also signifies the series of actions connected with that event.

In stories, direct facts about a person's habits lead to building a correct character sketch of that person, which will help in comprehending the story or the motives of that person in the story much better. If students had identified that the headmaster believed in disciplining the students by caning them, they would have understood the spite with which he took the picture to Grandfather, even after caning the author!

Good readers focusing on detail and sequence have been able to make the right decisions about relationships or events in the text. They have been able to understand the sequence and the implication of signal words like, 'often' and 'one day' to identify the correct answer.

4 How do we handle this?Get the students to read the story carefully and then identify information related to the who, what, where and when of the story. Help them to make a story map to understand this better.

The figure given below is an example to help clarify the action points for this story:

Websites:

E4-0908-14

Useful resources:

3 Learnings

What? (Events that took place)

Habitual actions:

• Students made fun of the headmaster

• Headmaster caned the students

Actions of one day in sequence:

• Headmaster went to the classroom- gave easy sums- slept on the chair

• Author drew the sleeping man like a cartoon

• Students laughing - teacher complained

• Headmaster complained to grandparents but Grandfather praised the author’s drawing skills

• Headmaster also praised the author in the end

Who? (characters)

• Headmaster

• Author

• Teacher

• Classmates

• Grandfather and grandmother

When?

• Story took place in the Maths period when the author was young.

Where?

• Classroom in a school

• Grandfather’s house

Story: Life at School

Conclusion:

• Headmaster often caned the students

• Incident of the cartoon of the headmaster sleeping, on the day the Maths teacher was absent

1. http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00000737.shtml (Teaching Tips: Reading Comprehension Strategies)2. http://edhelper.com/ReadingComprehension.htm (Reading Comprehension Stories and Worksheets!) Educational

INITIATIVES

I think of all the things I have

I like my pockets best.

Pockets hold just everything

And they give your hands a rest.

I never know just what I'll find

What special things I'll see

To put inside my pockets ~~

These are treasures just for me.

When Mommy's doing laundry though

She says sometimes it's scary

Finding rocks and frogs and beetles

And my spiders that are hairy.

Why was the question asked?Understanding a poem requires a line by line interpretation followed by an appreciation of the theme of each stanza to grasp the message of the poet. This message is often hidden or implied, and not direct. This question presents a simple poem to the students, and a key hidden idea of the poem, and checks if children are able to spot the clue that leads to the hidden idea.


1

‘The child in the poem didn’t decide before handwhat to put into his pocket.’

Which of these lines from the poem shows this?

I never know just what I'll find

These are treasures just for me.

Finding rocks and frogs and beetles

I think of all the things I have

Question

Options

P


POCKETS

P




B. 24.9%

D. 15.3%D. 15.3%

A. 37.7%No. of Students

4563C. 20%C. 20%

A

B

C

D

2 What did students answer?Only 38% of 4,563 students chose the correct option A, “I never know just what I’ll find”. 24% of students chose B, “These are just treasures for me” which was a common wrong answer. Overall 59% of students answered the question wrongly.

Possible reason for choosing B: Students have either not read the poem carefully, or they have read the poem but still missed the point. The word “treasure” appears in the last line of the second stanza. Students may have thought that a treasure is something that one finds or discovers, so the poet may be putting random things in his pocket and later discovers them, like a treasure.

Possible reason for choosing C: Students have clearly not read the poem carefully. They have simply looked at the wording, “finding rocks and frogs and beetles” and probably decided that since these are rather unusual items to put into one’s pocket, they must not have been put in consciously.

Possible reason for choosing D: Students may have selected this option because they feel that the child in the poem is taking stock of all the things he has in his pocket, because he does not know what he had put in there. However, they seem to have missed the point that when the child says “of all the things I have”, he is talking about the pocket and not what is inside the pocket.

3 LearningsThe student response data indicates that many students are unable to read the poem carefully and understand the implications of the phrases in the options by referring to the poem.

Interpretation of a poem often requires understanding the meaning of each line by processing its relationship with the lines before or after it. Students choosing options C and D are clearly not able to do this. This may be owing to the fact that they don’t read poems in their entirety, or don’t understand that lines have connections between them. If they were able to do so, they would have realised that C refers to the poet’s mother and D refers to the poet talking about liking his pockets the best, among all the things he has.

4 How do we handle this?This section will focus on helping students develop strategies to effectively interpret poems by teaching them to connect one line to the others in the same stanza.

• Present this poem to students in the class and ask them to read it for 5 minutes.

• Ask them what the poem is mainly about.

• Present them with the question and ask them to choose their options.

• Then ask students to read the poem two lines at a time. For e.g. “I think of all the things I have, I like my pockets best.” Ask students what these two lines are saying. Ask them if they would have been able to understand the meaning of line 1 without reading line 2.

• Ask them to do the same thing for every two lines to identify the emerging meaning.

• After the class is through with reading the poem in parts of two lines each, you can ask relevant questions like – Why does the poet like his pockets the most? Which lines in the poem support this fact? What does the poet’s mother find scary? What do the four lines in the second stanza tell us? Does the poet decide from the beginning what he is going to search for to put in his pockets? Which line in the poem tells us that?

• You can repeat this exercise in class while teaching poetry from the textbook to help students appreciate poems as a form of writing.

Websites:

E4-0908-04

Useful resources:

1. http://www.readwritethink.net/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=152 (A lesson plan on how to teach poetry in the class. Links within this site lead to poems you could use for teaching poetry.)2. http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/lessonplan.jsp?id=836 (A lesson plan on teaching poetry) Educational

INITIATIVES

Why was the question asked?

2 What did students answer?

Learnings


Grammar, punctuation and spelling are the pillars of spoken and written English communication. Poor spellings are, usually, the first things noticed by teachers in school, and by employers in later life. This could create a poor impression as a misspelled word often destroys the effect of an entire document.

This question assesses whether students are aware of correct spellings and whether they are able to recognize errors in familiar words.

43% of 4,830 students chose the correct answer, ‘memorabel’, while 26% chose D ‘repetition’, the most common wrong answer.

Possible reason for choosing A: Students choosing this answer may have mistaken the sounds of the syllables ‘com’ and ‘pet’ in the word

‘competition’ to sound like ‘come’ and ‘pit’. Many are probably just making a random guess.

Possible reason for choosing C: Students choosing ‘professor’ as the misspelled word are probably not aware of the rule of doubling the consonant when

the vowel sound is short as in ‘fess’. They may have thought that the spelling requires only one ‘s’, in the word. If that were so the pronunciation of the word would be

‘profeesor’ with a long ‘e’ sound. Normally a word with a short vowel sound takes a double consonant after the first vowel as in ‘scissors’ while the same vowel takes a long sound in a word

like ‘miser’, where the consonant after the first vowel is not doubled. Many students may have just made a random guess too.

Possible reason for choosing D: Students choosing D are probably making the same mistake as the ones who chose A, mistaking the sound of ‘pet’ in the word to be ‘pit’. This may also be because they are pronouncing the word as

‘repitation’ like ‘recitation’.

Students do not seem to be associating spelling conventions like syllables, suffixes/prefixes or phonic sounds when responding to a spelling question. Most often, students tend to spell words phonetically. In India especially, English is the taught as the second language, where, words gain ‘colloquial’ or ‘regional’ accents leading to common words being misspelled for life. The words ‘competition’ and ‘repetition’ are some such examples. Correct spellings will not only lead to correct pronunciation, but will also provide the opportunity to refer to the meanings and usages of new words in different contexts. Exceptions to the rules, are taught as exceptions – but mostly each rule can only be internalised through active practice and frequent usage of these words in different situations.

Good readers are able to retain the spellings and meanings of the words that they see as they read. So they are able to use it, confidently, to compose their sentences in any kind of writing task they are given.

E5-0908-14

One can spell well by understanding the sequence of letters that compose a word and the sound-sequence relationship of letters in a word. The procedure outlined below can be given to students, when helping them to correct their spellings.

When you are learning to spell a word, here are some things that you can do:

• Look at the shape of the word. • Make a picture of the word in your head. • Say it slowly, sound by sound. • Find a rhyme with another word. • Look at it carefully, cover it up, write it down and check if you were right. • Try this exercise with the words in this question and you can learn these words with their possible prefixes and suffixes.


Useful resources:

1

3

Spelling English: Class 5

Which of these words is misspelled?

competition

memorabel

professor

repetition

Question

Options

P


P

Websites: 1. Spelling Skills: Builder By Susan Cason, 2002 (64 pages) (Available as an e-book also, it contains 56 worksheets for spelling) 2. http://www.zozanga.com/grammar/spellingtext.htm (Some tips and spelling rules)

ASSETTM


No. of Students4830

A. 13.8%A. 13.8%

B. 43.3%C. 13.9%C. 13.9%

D. 26.1%

A

B

C

D


Why was the question asked?Processing basic facts and inferring certain key points from them is a crucial part of reading comprehension. Sometimes, facts are stated and the reader needs to identify the reason. It is not essential that the reasons will be stated in the text. The reader may have to infer these by using her/his prior knowledge, experience or common sense. This question assesses if students are logically able to infer the answer in this case.

English: Class 5

1

P.T.O.E5-0908-04

Snake Charmer


Only 54% answered correctly

Why do snake charmers probably perform at market places?

because more people can see snake charmers at work

because snake charmers can hide their snakes in the crowd

because snake charmers can get free food for the snake

because snakes will obey the charmer in the presence of crowds

Question

Options

P

Most snake charmers live in India and in countries of the Far East. Generally crowds come to watch them do many interesting acts at fairs, or at the market place.

A snake charmer carries his snake, usually a cobra, in a large basket. He places the basket on the ground, takes off the lid and then starts to play a special kind of tune on his bin or pungi. The snake slowly uncoils itself, puts its head out of the basket and moves from side to side, in front of the charmer. Most people think that the snake is happy to hear the music. But a snake may not hear most sounds in the air like we do. It mainly picks up the movements on the ground through the bones in its head. So what probably happens is this: the snake picks up this movement and moves in the same way as the snake charmer does. But experts are still not too sure about why the snakes actually move .

Most people think that a snake charmer is a very brave man - if he makes one wrong move as he performs, he could be seriously hurt or killed by a bite from his snake. But this is not the case as the snake charmers actually remove the poison glands from these snakes much earlier.

P

ASSETTM


No. of Students10543

A. 54%

B. 6.7

%B.

6.7%

C. 14.9%C. 14.9%

D. 21.6%A

B

C

D

2 What did students answer?Only 54% of 10,543 students chose the correct answer A, “because more people can see snake charmers at work”. Option D, “because snakes will obey the charmer in the presence of crowds” was a common wrong answer chosen by almost 22% of students.

Possible reason for choosing B: Very few students chose the option, indicating that they may have made a random guess, without reading the text.

Possible reason for choosing C: Students may have simply equated marketplaces and crowds with “many people” and the excess availability of food, thereby choosing this answer. They may also have recalled the religious sentiment of feeding snakes with milk and chosen this option.

Possible reason for choosing D: Students may be thinking that animals are generally scared of humans/ people and hence the snake obeyed the master out of an increased fear of all the people standing around. They might also choose this option because the word ‘crowds’ appears in it and the word also appears in the opening lines of the passage. This suggests that the children may be paying more attention to matching words rather than understanding the meaning.

3 Learnings• Students who answered this question correctly may have taken the cue from the first paragraph and immediately drawn on their prior knowledge of marketplaces and fairs as being the central place to

attract crowds and perform entertaining acts. These students may also have understood that it is in such places that a snake charmer earns his living by showing off a supposedly daring feat – making a dangerous snake dance from a close distance. Thus, they may have been able to infer that if a snake charmer has to make more money, he would need to be at a place which automatically attracts people in large numbers.

• It is only through an analysis of student responses to factual texts, that we can understand the gap that exists in their real understanding. A continuous exposure to unfamiliar texts will help students gradually develop the ability to understand basic facts and develop strategies like inferring answers, instead of trying to look for them within a given text.

4 How do we handle this?• Present the same passage in class.

• Ask students to read it carefully.

• Present them with the question and ask them to choose their answers.

• Make a skeleton of a diagram on the board (see fig.)

• Ask students to make the same diagram in their notebooks and fill it with the details from the passage.

• Then ask students to give their points and fill the diagram on the board. Allow students to complete their diagrams by adding points that they may have missed before.

• Ask students if they wish to change their answers.

• Let them explain by turns why options B, C and D are incorrect and why option A is correct.

Website: http://www.ops.org/reading/literal.htm (A link which has teaching and learning procedures for inferring ideas from different types of passages)

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Useful resources:

What Snake Charmers Do?

1. Snake charmers operate in public places like fairs and market places

2. They place the cobra in a basket on the ground and they play a pungi or a bin and move from side to side, the snake also sways just as they do

3. They remove the poison glands from the cobras

Why?

1. Public places and markets are crowded. More people will gather to watch the snake charmer. More people means more money for the snake charmer.

2. The snake picks up the movement, not the music, and moves according to the snake charmer’s movements.

3. The poison of cobras can kill a human being. Snake charming can prove to be dangerous.


Reading for Understanding - Extended Reasoning

Why was the question asked?An author’s purpose refers to the reason why the author wrote a story or passage. Authors normally do not directly state why they have written any piece; it is up to readers to infer this based on the text. Clues to the author’s intention are found in the way events and characters are portrayed- certain details may be exaggerated or subdued for instance, depending on the intention. Authors may have a variety of intentions such as trying to amuse, educate, caution, or inform readers. This question checks whether students are able to identify what was the author’s main aim in presenting this story.

English: Class 6


1

What is the writer's intent in telling us this story?

to indicate that funny people raise monkeys as pets

to engage the readers with an amusing incident

to describe people’s opinions regarding animals

to discourage passengers from travelling with pets

Question

Options

P


Toto is a monkey who causes destruction in the house. So Grandfather is forced to take Toto along with him to neighbouring Saharanpur where he had to go to collect his railway pension. Now read on to see how the trip went.

A black kit-bag was provided for Toto. When the strings of the bag were tied, there were no means of escape from within, and the canvas was too strong for Toto to bite his way through. His initial efforts to get out only had the effect of making the bag roll about on the floor, or occasionally jump in the air – an exhibition that attracted a curious crowd of onlookers on the Dehra railway platform.

Toto remained in the bag as far as Saharanpur, but while Grandfather was producing his ticket at the railway gate, Toto managed to get his hands through the aperture where the bag was tied, loosened the strings, and suddenly thrust his head through the opening.

The poor ticket-collector was visibly alarmed; but with great presence of mind, and much to the annoyance of Grandfather, he said, ‘Sir, you have a dog with you. You’ll have to pay for it accordingly.’

In vain did Grandfather take Toto out of the bag to prove that a monkey was not a dog or even a quadruped. The ticket-collector, now thoroughly annoyed, insisted on classing Toto as a dog; and Rs.3.50 had to be handed over as his fare. Then Grandfather, out of sheer spite, took out from his pocket a live tortoise that he happened to have with him and said, ‘What must I pay for this then, since you charge for all animals?’

The ticket-collector retreated a pace or two; then advancing again with caution, he subjected the tortoise to a grave and knowledgeable stare.

‘No ticket is necessary, sir,’ he finally declared. ‘There is no charge for insects.’

Grandfather's Experience on his Trip From Dehra to Saharanpur

PB. 23.8%

C. 36.9%

D. 20.1%D. 20.1%

No. of Students5214

A. 16.8%A. 16.8%

ASSETTM


A

B

C

D

2 What did students answer?24% of 5,214 students chose the correct answer ‘to engage the readers with an amusing incident’ while 37% of the students chose Option C, ‘to describe people’s opinions regarding animals’, the most common wrong answer.

Possible reason for choosing A: Students choosing this answer have probably been excited with the vision of Toto’s head peeping out from the bag as he managed to get his hands through the aperture in the bag. They may have found Grandfather’s reasons very funny and so concluded that this passage was to show that only funny people can raise naughty monkeys as pets and travel everywhere with them.

Possible reason for choosing C: Since the highlight of the passage is about the unreasonable conclusions of the ticket collector with reference to animals, students may have thought that the author had actually intended to describe people’s opinions through this passage. Also, the fact that the opinion refers to only one person, the ticket collector’s, seems to have skipped their minds.

Possible reason for choosing D: Students may have felt that the problem that Grandfather faced with the ignorant ticket collector could be the author’s message to people, to avoid travelling with pets.

3 LearningsStudents seem to be looking at the passage from different perspectives. They are probably looking at it from the point of view of one of the following- the ticket collector, the bystanders, Grandfather or the general public (readers). It is also likely that their mental disposition and values in life influence their thinking, compelling them to focus on the part that interests them the most or matters to them the most, when selecting an answer.

Able readers have been able to understand that the author has written this piece only to humour the readers as it is not likely that ticket collectors are so ignorant that they cannot differentiate a tortoise for an insect. However, many students, including those who have performed fairly well on the overall paper, have been swayed by the particulars of the incident and chosen Option C as the answer- indicating that they have not been able to get at the “hidden” intent of the writer. (Note- the statistical data indicate that many of the 37% of students who chose Option C, have done fairly well on the overall test).

4 How do we handle this?1. Teach students this is what the author does when he presents a passage:

• He entertains when he tells a story to amuse the readers or make them laugh.

• He informs when he tries to teach the reader something that he did not know earlier.

• He persuades when he tries to convince the readers to believe something by appealing to their emotions.

2. Allow students to practise by giving them some short passages of 2-3 lines and ask them to say why each of these were written. Help them to identify the correct purpose by asking them the following questions and making them write the purpose at the end of the question:

• Did the author try to make you laugh? (to entertain)

• Did the author give you f acts or try to teach you something? (to inform)

• Did the author try to convince you to change your opinion? (to persuade)

3. After they are familiar with the three categories, distribute other forms of passages like: wrappers of biscuits or any familiar product which have texts, notices, descriptions of animals/ birds/machines, jokes, stories, recipes, letters, craft procedures, school rules etc.

Useful resources:

Websites:

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Ask them to identify the purpose behind the content of each of these items.

4. Then return to the story here and ask them similar questions like the ones above to lead them to the purpose of the story.

5. Finally get them to conclude with answers to the questions given below:

a.) What was the author's main purpose in writing?

It is to entertain and amuse us with something funny

b.) What details in the story helped you decide what the author's purpose was?

• the description of the way Toto was kept inside and how he got out of the bag,

• the different animals Grandfather travels with,

• the silly arguments with the ticket collector and Grandfather, and the ignorance of the ticket collector

1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/reading/typesoftext/quiz.shtml (A 3-level quiz to test your knowledge of different text types, to understand the purpose of different text types and the main differences between them?)2. http://www.algebralab.org/lessons/lesson.aspx?file=Reading_AuthorsPurpose.xml (Teaching tips to understand the author’s purpose) Educational

INITIATIVES

Why was the question asked?

22 What did students answer?

Learnings


Words are used to communicate ideas and the more words we know, the better we would be able to communicate. To develop proficiency in vocabulary, students would need to be involved in a deeper processing of words by thinking of: similar material, similar classes of words, analogies and associations. By establishing the right connections of these words, based on their conceptual meanings, we can actually understand how they can be used in different situations.

41% of 9,787 students chose Option B ‘a large company’, as the correct answer while a common wrong answer was Option D, ‘a friendship’

chosen by 25% of the students.

Possible reason for choosing A: Students, who chose this answer, may have thought that a large house has many rooms and these rooms could be

compared to the branches of a tree.

Possible reason for choosing C: Very few children chose this answer indicating that it was probably a random guess.

Possible reason for choosing D: Reasons for this should be investigated by the teacher. Possibly, students choosing this answer think that friendship is like an institution which

branches out in different countries in the form of different associations and is thus something which has branches. Their thinking may also have been coloured by the fact that there are friends of

different kinds like: best friends, school friends, friends who live in the same neighbourhood as them boy friends, girl friends, pen friends etc. The fact that the word, ‘friendship’, is an abstract noun, conceptually

different from nouns which are more concrete and visible, seems to have escaped them.

Students do not seem to have understood that certain words can be associated by relating the meaning of these words to some aspect of relevant objects or by applying the meanings of these words to different situations. For example, the word ‘a leaf’ can refer to the pages of a notebook, thin sheets of precious metals like gold and as a part of a plant. The word ‘base’ can be used for the lower part of anything like a ‘triangle, a foundation, the bottom of something, the ground’ etc. In this way, the word ‘branches’ refers to: limbs, boughs of a tree, lateral extensions of a river, railway, family, local office, businesses, etc.

Skilled readers are able to use different contexts to infer and confirm the meaning of the word and its multifaceted use in real life situations. They may be able to visualise the options: ‘a large house, a large company, a note book and friendship’ in the way they exist in real life and so are able to clearly identify which of these could have ‘branches’.

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• Put up a word list on the board and ask students to first create a mental picture of the meanings of these words and then identify the different situations where these can be used.

• The words you can use for this purpose are: book, pages, hand, watch, plates, case etc.

• Put up a word-web, write the main word in the centre and then ask students to write words to show where, or how else, the word in the centre can be connected. An example is shown here:


Useful resources:

11

3

Question

Options

Which of these can be said to have branches?

P

a large house

a large company

a note book

a friendship


P

strip orloop

music

ring

wavelengthgroup ofpeople

bracelet

band

Websites: 1. http://a4esl.org/q/h/vm/m-assoc.html ( A quiz in word association)2. http://www.youthink.com/quiz.cfm?action=go_detail&sub_action=take&obj_id=537 ( a quiz on word association)

3. www.lcnv.org/tutors/docs/vocabulary.doc ( Strategies for vocabulary development)

Reading for Understanding -Vocabulary English: Class 6

B. 40.9%

D. 24.5%

C. 9.8%C. 9.8%

No. of Students9787

A. 15.1%A. 15.1%

ASSETTM


A

B

C

D

Reading for Understanding – Extended Reasoning

Why was the question asked?A key component of reading comprehension is the reader’s ability to understand what different characters feel under different circumstances. It is essential that readers read the entire passage or poem before drawing their inference about the mood presented in the literary material. To infer about mood and tone, it is necessary to pick up on word clues through the entire text. It is possible that a particular mood is dominant in some part of the material, but it shifts as the theme progresses. This question assesses if students accurately follow these mood changes by reading carefully and processing word clues.

English: Class 7


1

The poem ends with a feeling of

peace.

irritation.

triumph.

pain.

Question

Options

P


My computer ate my homework.

Yes, it's troublesome, but true.

Though it didn't gnaw or nibble

and it didn't chomp or chew.

It digested it completely.

It consumed my homework whole,

when I pressed the Shift and Enter keys

instead of Shift-Control.

It devoured my hours of typing,

every picture, chart and graph,

and it left me most unsettled

when I thought I heard it laugh.

I would guess it was a virus,

or it could have been a worm,

that deleted every bit

but didn't prompt me to confirm.

I suppose I might have pressed Escape

instead of pressing Save,

but, regardless, my computer

now will never misbehave.

For I found a good solution

and I smiled to hear the crash,

when I chucked it out the window

and it landed in the trash.

MY COMPUTER ATE MY HOMEWORK -Kenn Nesbitt

PNo. of Students

6878

A. 43.6%

D. 12.9%D. 12.9%

C. 29.5%

B. 13.1%B. 13.1%

ASSETTM


A

B

C

D

2 What did students answer?Only about 30% of 6,878 students chose the correct option C, “triumph.” Almost 44% students chose A, “peace” which was also the most common wrong answer.

Possible reason for choosing A: The question stem, “the poem ends with a feeling of…” – may have led students to read only the last two lines of the poem – “For I found a good solution and I smiled to hear the crash, when I chucked it out the window and it landed in the trash.” Students may not have registered that the smile on hearing the crash of the computer probably breaking into pieces, was related to a sense of joy on getting rid of a troublesome thing and not to the feeling of peace at having solved a problem.

Possible reason for choosing B: Students may have begun to read the poem and registered the poet’s frustration upon losing his homework. However, they may not have continued to read till the end and based their answer only on the first part of the poem. Also, only a few students have chosen this option indicating that this may be a random guess.

Possible reason for choosing D: It appears that these students have misinterpreted the information in the poem completely. They may have felt bad that the computer had to be chucked out! They may have thought that throwing a costly thing like a computer would naturally cause pain rather than any of the other emotions. The statistical data show that students choosing this option have done poorly on the overall paper.

3 Learnings• Students do not seem to realise that moods and tones can change as the story or theme progresses. To understand these shifts, one needs to actively read and engage with the material. It is

also important to associate each mood with the connected events to discern the change in mood and tone.

• It seems, from the data that students began reading the poem, registered moods of “irritation” and “pain” which were relevant till the last two lines of the poem. But they missed the shift in emotion at the end, either because they did not finish reading the poem, or because they had a problem with interpreting the text.

• The error in interpretation could be because they have not been able to accurately pick up on clues to differentiate between “peace” and “triumph”.

• The lines “I smiled to hear the crash” and “when I chucked it out the window” are clear indicators of aggression or anger. Students who answered correctly have picked up on these clues and realised that the poet threw out the computer in a fit of rage and desperation and when he smiled after the crash, he felt finally more powerful and victorious than the machine.

4 How do we handle this?• Use the same poem in class. Present the same question to students and ask them to choose their respective options. Ask for a show of hands and put down the number of students going for

each option on the board.

• Then ask students simple questions – What is the main theme of this poem? What would you feel if you were the poet and you found that a file got deleted? The poet thought that there were two possible reasons for the deletion of the file – what were they? Did the poet find out what was the true reason for the deletion of the file? How do you think you would have felt in such a situation? How do you think the poet is feeling? The poet said he found a solution – what was it? Why do you think he did that? Why was the poet smiling after he threw the computer?

• Ask them if they would like to change their answers after this discussion.

• Repeat this activity frequently with different material – poetry and fiction – which have such shifts in moods and emotions.

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Useful resources:

Website: http://mdk12.org/instruction/lessons/reading/grade7/3A4d.html (A lesson plan of how to teach mood and tone of poems to students)Educational INITIATIVES

Reading for Understanding- Literal Comprehension

Why was the question asked?When reading a passage, often the motives behind the actions of characters are not directly stated, but hinted at subtly, sometimes through dialogue leading up to the actions. However, in most cases, an inference based on the contextual clues has to be made, which requires reading between the lines. This question tests the student’s ability to understand the soldier’s motive behind the killing of Archimedes by picking up contextual clues.

English: Class 7

1

Choose the MOST LIKELY reason for the Romansoldier to become ENRAGED.

Archimedes was drawing circles.

Archimedes was a great scientist.

Archimedes invented war machines.

Archimedes was rude and disobedient.

Question

Options

P


Archimedes was the original absent-minded professor, never able to remember whether he had eaten or not or

whether he was going out or coming in. When he accidentally discovered the answer to a problem given to him by the

king of Syracuse, he jumped out of the bathtub in which he was sitting at that time and ran all the way to the palace

shouting; "Eureka, Eureka!" which in Greek means "I've got it, I've got it!" - not realising that he was completely naked.

He could not have known that very soon his single-minded devotion to his work would cost him his life.

In 209 BC the Romans attacked and surrounded Syracuse where they came up against the genius of Archimedes.

The scientist invented war machines that confused and terrified the invaders. As a result, what should have been a fairly

easy task for the Romans took three years to accomplish. When the city finally fell, the Roman general Marcellus gave

orders that Archimedes should be taken alive and treated with the utmost respect. A Roman soldier came upon the

scientist bent over geometrical figures he had drawn in the sand. So absorbed was he in his thoughts, he did not realise

that an enemy soldier was standing there. Perhaps he did not even hear the soldier tell him to get up and follow him,

because when the man drew closer Archimedes without looking up, said to him: "Don't disturb my circles,

fellow." This so enraged the soldier that he drew his sword and slew him.

ARCHIMEDES

Name: ArchimedesDate of Birth-Death: 287 BC-212 BCCountry of Birth: Greece

Major Discoveries: • Discovered how to find the volume of a sphere and determined the exact value of p.• Principle of buoyancy • Formula to find the area under a curve

FACT FILE


PNo. of Students

8906

C. 18.1%C. 18.1%

A. 29.5%

B. 14.5%B. 14.5%

D. 35.9%

ASSETTM


A

B

C

D

2 What did students answer?About 36% of 8,906 students chose the correct answer D, ‘Archimedes was rude and disobedient.’ while Option A ‘Archimedes was drawing circles.’ was a common wrong answer.

Possible reason for choosing A: If a student doesn’t read between the lines and understand the contextual clues, then the obvious answer for the soldier’s rage is that he was drawing circles. Students may have merely read the phrase “Don’t disturb my circles, fellow” and assumed that Archimedes was killed because of that. It is also possible that students looked for the part where it is stated that the soldier killed him and read the immediate part preceding it, to arrive at this answer.

Possible reasons for choosing B and C: Students were probably influenced by the fact that Archimedes was the great scientist who invented war machines that confused, frightened and angered enemy soldiers. The already angered soldiers were asked to capture the scientist alive and treat him with respect. Those choosing Option B attributed the soldier’s rage to Archimedes being a scientist and those choosing C attributed it to Archimedes inventing war machines which the soldiers probably hated. Given that only a few students chose these options, it is possible some of them just made random guesses.

3 LearningsA look at the percentages of responses shows that:

• a majority of students made wrong inferences

• their reasoning and analysis was incorrect

• they were unable to choose the right contextual clues

• they interpreted the clues wrongly

If students had used their own experience (direct, through reading, hearsay) to interpret clues and arrive at reasonable and logical conclusions they would have been able to appreciate the irony that the disobedience of the scientist, who was so involved in his work, cost him his life at the hands of an ignorant soldier.

Students require a lot of practice in developing and applying this skill, because at higher levels they will be expected to make inferences and draw conclusions based on statistics, random statements and contextual clues both in their academic and work life.

4 How do we handle this?Here are some ideas that can be used:

(a) When showing videos and children’s movies in the classroom, stop or pause the video at a critical juncture, and then get the class to predict what happens next, giving reasons for their predictions. These predictions should be noted on the board. They should then watch the rest of the programme and compare their own predictions with what actually happens. The teacher should discuss what clues in the previous part indicate the direction of the happening.

(b) Put down statements/ short paragraphs taken from different sources on the board and get the students to predict or identify the motives of the happenings mentioned. Mentioned below is such an example.

Website: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/skill-builder/reading-comprehension/48611.html (Explains inference making with examples)

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Useful resources:

Extract of a passage

He took his umbrella from its usual place, said good bye to his wife and started his walk to the station. But he stopped to watch a small boy playing in his garden and was two minutes late. The two minutes’ delay saved his life as his usual train was destroyed in a bomb blast

Questions that can be asked Prediction/Conclusion

(I) Why does the character take an umbrella? To protect him from the rain./It was a habitual action./ They lived in a rainy place.

(ii) Where do you think he goes every day by train – work? College? He was going for work.

(iii) Is he usually late? He is usually punctual.

(iv) What do you think would have happened if he had been on time? He would have been killed in the bomb explosion.

(v) Does he usually stop to watch happenings on his way? All the actions seem to be habitual, well planned out actions, What makes you think he does or doesn’t? emphasized by the fact that he was just 2 minutes late.


Reading for Understanding – Extended Reasoning

Why was the question asked?Analysis is interpretation of information. It involves ‘reading between the lines’, ‘understanding the hidden meaning’ and ‘drawing conclusions.’ For analysing information, a thorough reading of the text is required. This question assesses if students are able to present an analysis by interpreting what is already stated in the text.

English: Class 8


1

The suffix '-zoic' in Cenozoic, Mesozoic, etc.probably refers to what?

rocks

time

life

earth

Question

Options

P


The history of Earth is recorded in the igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks of the outer crust called the outer lithosphere. The science of Geology studies these rocks. Over the last two centuries, geologists have created a man-made classification of 'time', based on the succession of rock layers. One type, fossil-bearing sedimentary rock, reveals a long and wondrous history of past life. The name of an 'era' describes the stage of development of the fossils' life-forms found in rock. The word 'period' refers to a specific duration of time.

P

No. of Students3077

C. 49.1%

A. 16.1%A. 16.1%

B. 26.8%

D. 5

.8%

D. 5

.8%

ASSETTM


A

B

C

D

THE GEOLOGICAL TIMELINE -A REPRESENTATION OF TIME ON EARTH

2 What did students answer?49% of 3,077 students chose the correct option C, “life” while almost 27% of the students chose B, “time” which was also the most common wrong answer.

Possible reason for choosing A: Students may have read that Geology is the study of rocks. The first two lines of the text talk about different rocks. Students may not have read further and assumed that the different eras described further in the text were in fact different types of rocks.

Possible reason for choosing B: The information describes a particular time period. Students may have been misguided by this element. They have probably not registered the focus of the question itself which asks for the meaning of the suffix – ‘zoic’. They may have simply assumed that because the information describes a time period, the answer would be ‘time’.

Possible reason for choosing D: A very small percentage of students have chosen this option and it is possible that they have made a random guess.

3 Learnings• The information in the first column clearly indicates the meaning of the names of the various eras. Students who have answered the question correctly may have read the table completely and thereby

been able to identify that the only term in common, to explain the names of the eras is the word, “life”.

• The high percentage of students that has answered the question wrongly seems to suggest that students may not be reading the text. In this case, it is possible that the format of the information was unfamiliar to them and therefore they either did not read it completely or had trouble looking for the relevant information.

4 How do we handle this?The main issue to be addressed here is that of unfamiliarity with certain types of texts or forms of content. Students are mostly used to answering questions based on lessons from the textbook and therefore when presented with authentic text, are seemingly at a loss of strategies to deal with it.

• Present students with the same table of information.

• Ask students to read it carefully. Ask questions such as – what is Geology? How many kinds of rock formations are there? According to the table, which was the oldest era? What were the major developments in that era? Which era followed the first and what were the developments? In which era did the reptiles start living on land? When did the first jawed fish appear? What were the other developments during this period? What is the meaning of the term Cenozoic Era? Where did you find this information? What does the term Paleozoic Era mean? How can you say that? What does the term Mesozoic Era mean? Which part of the table tells you that? What does the term Precambrian Era mean?

• Ask students what is common to the meaning of all these terms? What do they together describe?

• Present them with the question again and ask if they wish to change their answer.

• Repeat this exercise with texts like notices, circulars, advertisements, time tables, etc, once every fortnight. It should take about 20 minutes at the most to complete such an exercise.

Useful resources:

Website: http://dnr.louisiana.gov/sec/execdiv/techasmt/ecep/english/r/r.htm (Short exercises on how to infer on reading general material) E8-0908-04


Reading for Understanding - Vocabulary

Why was the question asked?Arriving at the correct meanings of unfamiliar words based on the passage requires careful reading and assimilation of key facts that revolve around the original word. This question assesses if students are able to deduce the meaning of a word based on the context in which it has been used.

English: Class 8

1

What does the word 'level-headedness' indicate to you?

to hold one's head high and walk with confidence

to treat everyone as equal and to try to please them

to always have the freedom to do as one pleases

to have a balanced approach and be self-assured

Question

Options

P


It's almost amazing how some people manage to walk into any room and almost own it! “Power, popularity, adoration - call it what you want - but the way people think of you is an important element when you decide to do some self analysis,” says Allina Singh, a practising psychologist.

Get ready for some psycho-babble that might seem confusing at first "People react to you in a certain way. The way they react to you depends on the way they perceive you. The interesting part though, is that their perception of you is based on the way you project yourself! And of course, finally the way you feel about yourself is a combination of common reactions you get from people. I know it is confusing, but it's a full circle that moves between you, your projection, people's perception and what you finally derive from what people think of you,” Singh tries to explain.

If you're scratching your head wondering what this means, the basic thrust of the entire self image versus people's perception theory is that it comes to a full circle. “That's why it's important to be someone who has high self esteem. Because this entire perception begins and ends at you. So, if you ooze confidence people will perceive you that way. And when your confidence receives validation from other people, your self image will be that much stronger,” says Singh.

The key lies in building up such a strong level of self confidence that you don't stop to seek validation. “The moment you become someone who does not try to please others, your self image will grow stronger and stronger. Because then you don't judge yourself by the way people react to you. In fact if anything at all, you reverse the process. And that's the beauty of it all. When you try to please people, you'll end up being upset. And you can't possibly please everyone you meet. The idea is to do what you think is right, and the correct people will never miss the level-headedness of yours,” sums up Singh.

WHO ARE YOU LOOKING AT?Nicholas Bakalar - New York Times News Service


PNo. of Students3147

A. 24.8%

B. 23.1%B. 23.1%

C. 9.5%C. 9.5%

D. 41.4%

ASSETTM


A

B

C

D

2 What did students answer?Only 41% of 3,147 students chose the correct option D, “to have a balanced approach and be self-assured”. Option A “to hold one's head high and walk with confidence” was a common wrong answer, chosen by almost 25% of students. A fairly high percentage of students (23%) chose option B, “to treat everyone as equal and to try to please them”.

Possible reason for choosing A: Students may have chosen this option because the word “head” appears in it. They may not have attempted to look for the contextual meaning, but merely tried to match familiar words in the question and the option. They may have also been swayed by the phrase – “The idea is to do what you think is right” – and assumed that this means being confident and therefore, ‘level-headed’. They seem to have latched on to the first part of the option which says “hold one’s head high” which can refer to being proud of oneself as well.

Possible reason for choosing B: Students choosing this option may have understood that ‘level-headedness’ relates to “doing the right thing” and seem to have been swayed by the author’s statement that “correct people will never miss this correct behavior of a person”. They may have equated this with treating others equally with being “on the same level” and therefore assumed that this was the answer.

Possible reason for choosing C: Very few students have chosen this option and it is possible that they made a random guess without referring to the text.

3 Learnings• Students do not seem to be reading the text to understand new words. This is clearly seen in students choosing B, since the passage clearly states that “When you try to please people, you'll end up

being upset”. It is also possible that students do not read options completely and ‘jump to conclusions’. It is possible that students read option B incompletely as – “to treat everyone as equal” and choose this as the answer. They may have completely missed – “and try to please everyone” which is clearly refuted in the passage.

• Students who have answered correctly may have clearly picked on clues in the passage – “the moment you become someone who does not try to please others”, “don't judge yourself by the way people react to you” and “do what you think is right” – and inferred that ‘level-headedness’ refers to having acting in accordance with one’s beliefs.

4 How do we handle this?It is important to help students see the mistakes that they commit during the process of reading and assimilating important points from the text. Unclear and faulty strategies often lead even good students to make wrong judgments and answer even simple questions incorrectly.

• You can present the same passage and question in class and ask students to choose their answers. Ask them how they arrived at the answer.

• Then ask them to read the passage carefully, especially the paragraph in which the word “level-headedness” appears.

• Ask them to explain each line of the paragraph one by one. Allow them to change their answers in the end.

Understanding hyphenated words:

• Present students with hyphenated words appearing in a sentence. For e.g.

o Ramya told her Anu in a light-hearted manner that she didn’t like the way she sang. But Anu took it seriously and began to cry.

o Mehul was dumb-struck when he saw the view outside his hotel on the Himalayas.

• Ask students to guess the meanings of the underlined words. Allow them to explain which words in the sentence helped them to arrive at the answer.

Websites: 1. 2. http://cwabacon.pearsoned.com/bookbind/pubbooks/seyler_ab/chapter1/deluxe.html (A site which has multiple choice vocabulary exercises related to different topics)

http://www.english-zone.com/vocab/vic01.html (A site which explains vocabulary in context and has sample multiple choice questions for practice as well)

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Useful resources:


Reading for Understanding - Vocabulary

Why was the question asked?While reading, often readers have to infer the meanings of certain words based on the context in which they appear. To answer this question correctly students either had to identify 2 synonyms directly or arrive at the answer by eliminating the wrong options.

English: Class 9

1


Which word in the passage is closest in meaning to 'crafty'?

gossiping

scheming

rampant

doddering

Question

Options

P


THE BEST OF LAXMAN

P

A. 12.7%A. 12.7%D. 19.5%D. 19.5%

No. of Students591

C. 25% B. 39.1%

ASSETTM


A

B

C

D

2 What did students answer?Only 39% of 591 students chose the correct option, B “scheming”. 25% of students chose C “rampant”, which was a common wrong answer.

Possible reason for choosing A: Students may have thought that housewives are engaged in creative pursuits or crafts, so they may be “crafty”. They may have chosen “gossiping” as their answer, which is the only word used in the passage to describe housewives.

Possible reason for choosing C: Students have probably understood that the word “crafty” has a negative connotation. The word “rampant” has been used to describe “corruption” – which students are very familiar with, so they may have linked “crafty” with “rampant”. It is also possible that “rampant” appears first in the passage, before all other option words, therefore students chose it blindly.

Possible reason for choosing D: Students probably thought that “crafty” refers to the man in the cartoon and since that is the only word referring to the man in the options, they may have chosen “doddering” as their answer.

3 Learnings• Students should have used elimination to arrive at a particular answer, but have failed to do so.

• Students should have known that the word “crafty” is an adjective which means “cunning” and can be used to describe only an individual. The word “rampant” has been used to describe a practice (an abstract noun) in the passage. Hence students who chose A have made an erroneous connection, and have failed to see that “crafty” cannot be a suitable adjective for “corruption”.

• The word “doddering” follows the word “meek”, which should have been a clue to eliminate it as something that might mean “crafty”.

• The word “gossiping” is a very common word and students should have been able to eliminate it easily.

• Students are possibly not verifying their answers by registering the connections or the clues by referring to the text, which has led them to choose wrong answers.

• Students who have answered correctly may have known the exact meaning of “crafty” and therefore easily picked its synonym. They may also have verified their answers based on the context.

4 How do we handle this?• Present this passage and question in class and allow students to choose their respective answers.• Ask students to write their own sentences using the words crafty, rampant, doddering, scheming and gossiping.

(You can also let them do it for other unfamiliar words as well)• Draw a table on the board and have students draw it in their notebooks as well. Ask them to fill the first two

columns now. (see fig.1)• After this, you can divide the class into smaller groups and ask each group to use the dictionary and find the exact

meanings of each of these words.• Let them fill the last column of the table now.• Ask them to identify the difference, if any, in the meanings that they had assumed and what they found later.Tip: While teaching any new lesson, give an opportunity for “deducing meanings” of unfamiliar and somewhat familiar words, during the first reading itself. Ask students which words helped them to arrive at the answer. This will help students in building vocabulary while paying constant attention to the text, which is a strategic reading skill.You could also add a column to the above table, to jot down why students think that a word has a particular meaning. This could also be discussed, to help children think systematically about deriving word meanings from the context.

Websites: http://www.literacymatters.org/content/readandwrite/vocab.htm (A compilation of websites that provide links to other sites about strategies to teach and acquire newer vocabulary)

http://www.justreadflorida.com/conf-03-lead/ppt-pullen.pdf (A presentation on the importance of developing vocabulary, methods and approaches – useful for teachers to help students acquire, maintain and develop vocabulary)

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Useful resources:

Word What I think it means What it actually means

crafty someone who is good in arts and crafts someone who is cunning or who tries to take advantage of others

rampant mean or bad widespread

doddering crafty or cunning trembling or shaking from old age

gossiping talking ill about others in their absence, idle talk or rumour, esp. about the personal or spreading rumours or stories about other people private affairs of others

scheming planning, cunningly, plotting given to making plans, esp. sly and underhandones; crafty.


Spelling

Why was the question asked?Good usage is based on a mastery of the meanings, pronunciation and spellings of words and phrases. Consequently proper spelling becomes a key component of great writing as it creates a good impression on the reader.

This question aims to find out if students are able to recall the correct spellings of words that they come across in the other subjects, given the right contextual situation.

English: Class 9

11


effervessence

effervescence

effervescance

effervesense

Question

Options

P

We had too much to eat at the Annual Day picnic. The afternoon found us reaching for soda water,sipping the soothing ______, the bubbles tickling our noses.

Choose the option with the correct spelling of the wordthat would appropriately fill in the blank.


22 What did students answer?41% of 6,988 students chose option B, the correct answer, ‘effervescence’, while 25% chose Option D, ‘effervesense’, the common wrong answer.

Possible reason for choosing A: Students have probably chosen A, ‘effervessence’, as the correct spelling because they are likely to be mixing it up with the more familiar word ‘essence’. Since the sound of this word ends in more or less the same way as ‘essence’ they may have felt that this could be the correct spelling.

Possible reason for choosing C: Students choosing, ‘effervescance’ may not be clear about the difference in the phonic sounds of ‘a’ and ‘e’ and probably pronounce the ‘a’ too as ‘e’. It is also likely that they are making a random guess as only a few students have chosen this option.

Possible reason for choosing D: Students choosing this option, ‘effervesense’ seem to have been swayed by the word ‘sense’ which they must be seeing and using frequently. They probably thought that ‘sense’ is a suffix for the word and in that sense made the spelling seem right. They may not have tried to recall the spelling based on their knowledge of the word which could have appeared in their chemistry textbooks.

P

No. of Students6988

C. 11.2%C. 11.2%

A. 19.9%A. 19.9%

B. 40.8%

D. 25.1%

ASSETTM


A

B

C

D

3 LearningsWords are often misspelled when they contain a letter that is not pronounced, for example, the silent ‘p’ in ‘psychology’ ‘e’ in ‘presence’ etc. Some letters like ‘c’ are likely to be troublesome and it is possible to forget this point in spellings.

Many words are spelled with a silent ‘c’ following an ‘s’: for example, ‘abscess, science, descend, reminiscence, convalescence, effervescence’ etc. A silent ‘c’ may also occur before ‘k’ or ‘q’ for example, ‘acknowledge’, ‘acquaint’ and ‘acquire’.

Added to this is the fact that students are probably not paying attention to spellings, as a result of which they do not focus on spelling conventions like: syllables, silent letters and phonic sense.

Students who have answered the question correctly seem to be not only strong in spellings, but also in the meanings and usage of complicated multisyllabic words.

4 How do we handle this?It is common knowledge that correct spelling creates a good impression while frequent spelling errors create a less favourable impression. Some spelling errors may be mere slips while some may occur because of lack of knowledge. In the first case, careful checking is needed and in the second, it is important to use a good dictionary.

Encourage students to play word games like: Hangman, Crossword Puzzles, Word Building etc.

Help students to understand that ‘c’ has a soft sound when followed by ‘e/I’ and a hard sound when followed by ‘a/o/u’. For example words like ‘science/ascertain’ take the soft sound of ‘c’ like an ‘s’ while words like ‘scout/ scary/ scum’ take the hard sound of ‘c’ sounding like a ‘k’.

Now ask students to identify all the words from any 2-3 lessons which have an ‘s’ and ‘c’ together and which may end in ‘scent/scence’. Then ask them to look for words which have a double ‘s’ and which may end in ‘ssent/ssence’. Ask them to put these words in two different columns and then say these words aloud. Then ask them to find out the meanings of these words and make sentences with a few of them. Using them in sentences would help retain the correct spelling.

Useful resources:

1. http://hospitality.hud.ac.uk/studyskills/writing/spelling/spellingTips.htm (Spelling tips through spelling rules)2. http://hospitality.hud.ac.uk/studyskills/writing/spelling/spellingQuiz.htm ( A quiz on spellings)

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Websites:

Words containing

‘sc’

scent

Words containing

‘ss’‘

dissent

Words containing

‘sco/sca/scu’

scarf

What these words meanand their use in a sentence each

scent: a good smell

Jasmines have a good scent.

dissent: a difference of opinion

My views on the subject faced severe dissent.

scarf: a cloth piece used to cover the head

The silk scarf was so light it flew away in the wind.


english part

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