Learning the difference between a Dog and a Wolf
The capability to compare is an important one. It gets us to look at the details and identify similarities and differences. It is an important capability which is required in all subjects whether it be the comparative analysis in history or the scientific skill of categorising specimens. When do you think children should start developing this capability?
In our classrooms of primary government schools in Khekra Block, Bagpat District, children are on a path to develop their capabilities as early as possible.
There are multiple learning opportunities to develop capabilities in our everyday classroom processes, and our teachers are experts in identifying and creating these opportunities. In the Grade 2 Hindi textbook of ‘Kalrav’, there is a story called “ ‘Poonch hilane wale bediya’ (Wolves that wag their tales)”. Teachers from both Primary Government School, Subhanpur 1 and Primary Government School, Sakhrod 1 decided to use this story as a tool to develop the capability of comparison.
Vibha Mam from Primary Government School, Sakhrod 1, got her children to enact the story and gave chances to all students to play the two characters of wolf and sheep’s young one. The wolf tries to fool the young one into believing that it is a dog and harmless. And it is only through the tail, that the child is able to differentiate. The teacher used this as an opportunity to get children to list the differences between a dog and a wolf.
In another classroom, Vinita Mam from Subhanpur 1, used this story as an opportunity to differentiate between different kinds of animals based on their eating habits. She divided the class into different learner groups and asked children to list out carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores animals. They had to name animals and their young ones.
Every child was engrossed in the activity and nobody was found wasting time or running around. Some children had added birds to their list and were corrected by each other and their teacher.
Through these learning experiences, children brought into the classroom their existing knowledge and got an opportunity to develop the capability to differentiate and classify the information they had about animals. When children get these opportunities every day, they develop the capabilities required to learn. And we believe this is where the focus should be, not on “what to learn” but rather on “how to learn”. And the early we start, the better it is for our children.
If you resonate with our work, want to implement this model in your community, want to support this initiative, support crowdfunding campaign, or just want to drop in some encouraging words, we invite you to write to us at tarkeybein@gmail.com :) Thank you Deepthi for scribing this story!
