How Teachers Learn
(John Holt)
Class 8th -
English : Prose - Lesson 1 -
WORKING WITH TEXT
Q1. Who was Nora? How did she become a friend of the teacher?
Ans: Nora was a five-year-old girl child. The teacher visited her family over a weekend. This is because of this visit they became friends.
Q2. How did the teacher observe Nora while learning?
Ans: Most of the time the teacher sat still and silent but when she seemed badly stuck sometime he either suggested her to figure out or told her to skip the word, but sometime he told her the if she asked to tell her the word.
Q3. What odd thing happened with Nora? Why was the teacher puzzled?
Ans. While Nora was reading, an odd thing happened to her. She misread a word that previously she had read correctly. This made the teacher felt annoyed and puzzled because she had read the same word correctly earlier.
Q4. Was Nora a careless child? How do you know?
Ans. No, Nora was not a careless child because she was very good at learning. She was putting all her concentration in reading the book.
Q5. How should a teacher understand the problems of the children?
Ans. To understand the learning problem of the children, a teacher must try to see things through their eyes. For a child who has just only seen the word for the first time, it is not easy but difficult for him to remember the word.
Q6. What experience popped into the mind of teacher's mind after Nora's learning problem?
Ans. The experience that popped out into the mind of teacher was sheet of different languages unknown for him. The page looked like a jumble of words for him. Whatever the teacher did to overcome that problem he resembled the same with the Nora's learning.
Q7. Why are children of unlettered homes at a disadvantage?
Ans. Children of unlettered homes does not have the familiarity with the shapes of words and letters from the beginning of their learning. Since there is no one to watch and observe them, there so they are at a disadvantage.
Q8. How did teacher learn from Nora?
Ans. The teacher learned about the problems faced by the children by observing Nora while her reading and learning, and from that experience, he learned how to tackle these problems while teaching.
LANGUAGE WORK:
1. In the text the, author keeps using the American expression, ‘to figure out’. Which of the following word or phrases is closest in meaning to the expression as it is used in the passage?
(a) To guess (b) to recognize (c) to reason out (d) to decide
Ans. Mostly the meaning of the given expression ‘to figure out’ is ‘to understand’. But when we read the passage of the lesson, the teacher makes the child to recognize the words by suggesting her to figure out. So in this way we can say the meaning of the expression may ‘to recognize’.
2. Second sentence of each of the sentence is written below:
(a) He loaned me some clothes. I lent them.
(b) He sold me an old piano. I purchased it.
(c) He chased me. I ran away.
(d) I gave him a glass of water. He received it.
(e) We conquered the enemy. They were defeated.
3. Suffixes of given words are given below:
Alphabet……………… Alphabetical
Angel…………………. Angelic, Angler, Anglican
Shape…………………. Shapeless
Book………………….. Bookish
Man…………………… Manhood(n), Manish(adj)
Government…………… Governmental
Minister………………… Ministerial
Elephant……………….. Elephantine
Tiger…………………… tigress
Day…………………….. Daily
College…………………. Collegiate
4. Message to Asif:
Message
Dear Asif,
Khalid had called me that he will be 1 hour late for dinner, which you and Khalid have planned to have at Ahdoo’s at 9 pm. He will be late because he has to complete an assignment at office.
Rauf
GRAMMAR WORK:
I. Fill in the blanks by using the past participle forms of given verbs:
Write, Rent, Forget, Break, Cook
1. I am living in a rented house.
2. It is not safe to sit in a broken chair.
3. Some people do not like cooked vegetables.
4. The headmaster wanted a written report.
5. That is a forgotten quarrel.
II. Using the words and phrases given, make sentences like in the example given below:
Example: we/ the doors/ have/painted/ shall.
We shall have the doors painted.
1. made/ I/ a new suit/ had.
I had made a new suit.
2. she/ heard/ has never/ spoken/ French.
She has never heard spoken French.
3. respected/ makes/ his knowledge/ him.
His knowledge makes him respected.
4. I/ your names/ heard/ called.
I heard your names called.
5. work/ we/ want this/ quickly/ done.
We want this work quickly done.
We shall have the doors painted.
1. made/ I/ a new suit/ had.
I had made a new suit.
2. she/ heard/ has never/ spoken/ French.
She has never heard spoken French.
3. respected/ makes/ his knowledge/ him.
His knowledge makes him respected.
4. I/ your names/ heard/ called.
I heard your names called.
5. work/ we/ want this/ quickly/ done.
We want this work quickly done.