SUMMARY OF HOW TEACHERS LEARN CLASS 8TH

There is no denying of the fact that children learn from teachers but sometimes while talking or dealing with children teachers too learn some useful things from children. This intriguing lesson ‘How Teachers Learn’ talks about the same fact.

In this lesson, the narrator explains how he learned some good things from a five-year-old child named Nora. The narrator who is a teacher says he learned from Nora more about the things children do while they teach themselves to read, the problems they face, and the ways they solve or try to tackle them.

The teacher visited Nora’s house over a weekend. Nora came up to him with a book in her hand and asked him for help. They soon became friends.

Most of the time the teacher sat still. He just observed Nora how she was reading words. However, on rare occasions when Nora was badly stuck he would say anything to help her. Even at that time, he didn’t tell her the word but suggested her how she might figure it out. If she still could not get the word, the teacher would tell her to skip the word and proceed on.

On the day the teacher observed an odd thing happened with Nora. Nora misread a word that she had read rightly previously. Nora performed the mistake a number of times. The teacher was puzzled and upset. The teacher was puzzled because Nora was very smart. She was reading the book with full concentration. Therefore the teacher wondered how could she know one word on one page and forget on the next. It was a puzzle.

The teacher then realized that it is not easy but hard for a child to remember the shape of a word if he has just seen the word for the first time. For a child, it is very difficult to recognise which words on a page are the same or which words are different. We have the expert’s eye for significant detail and can figure out words easily; the child does not have. To explain this the narrator shares one of his wonderful experiences. He says that once he took a sheet of printed paper in some Indian language and tried to find the words that were repeated on the page. It was surprisingly difficult. At first, the page looked nothing but a haphazard jumble of shapes. The narrator found it extremely hard even to concentrate on one short common word. It took him a long time before he could figure out that a word at sight and picked it out of the other. In the same way, it takes some time for a child to get used to the shapes of letters and words, to the point where he can recognise at a glance that this word is like that word.
It is, therefore, necessary that we must try to see things as if through the eyes of the children.

One of the reasons why children from illiterate homes are at a disadvantage. Children of unlettered homes lack familiarity with the shapes of words and letters from the beginning of their learning. They have is no one to watch and observe who could guide them. So they are at a disadvantage.

NCERT SOLUTIONS OF HOW TEACHERS LEARN CLASS 8TH

Q. 1. Who was Nora? How did she become a friend of the teacher?
Ans: Nora was a small girl child. She was five-year-old. The teacher was visiting her family over a weekend. Nora would come to him with a book in her hand and the teacher guided her to read it. This regular practice soon makes them friends.

OR

Nora was a five-year-old girl who was learning how to read. When the teacher arrived at her home, she asked him for his help. As she was a sociable girl, she made friendship with him.

Q. 2. How did the teacher observe Nora while learning?
Ans: The teacher just sat still and silent most of the time. He would open his mouth only when he found Nora badly stuck on anything. Even then he didn’t tell her the word, only suggested her how she might figure it out. If she still not understand the word, he told her to skip it and proceed on.

OR

At first, the teacher didn’t help Nora reading the text. He just observed her struggling with the words. When she was stuck, the teacher would give a clue. But if that didn’t work, he would read the word for her.

Q. 3. What odd thing happened with Nora? Why was the teacher puzzled?
Ans. While she was reading a strange thing that happened to Nora. She misreads a word that she had read correctly before. This did not happen once but a number of times. This made the teacher feel upset and puzzled because she had read the same word earlier correctly.

OR

The odd thing was that Nora misread a word that previously she had read correctly. It puzzled the teacher as he could not understand the problem with Nora and with his own classroom children.

Q. 4. Was Nora a careless child? How do you know?
Ans. No, Nora was not a careless child. She was very motivated to learn as she came voluntarily to the teacher to help her with learning. The teacher himself said that she was reading the book with complete concentration and interest. She was not pretending or guessing or trying his teacher to do her work.

OR

No, she was not a careless child. The teacher himself admitted that she was reading with full concentration and was not guessing or bluffing.

Q. 5. How should a teacher understand the problems of the children?
Ans. To understand the learning problem of the children, a teacher must strive to see things through their eyes. In other words, he must be able to put his feet in the shoes of the child which is very difficult. 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. However, for a teacher, it is a very easy task. So a teacher should give the children enough time to learn and not be puzzled or annoyed by what looks like slowness or odd things.

OR

A teacher should look at the problems of a child from the child’s point of view and try to solve them accordingly. He should give them plenty of time to recognize the word and not be upset by their slowness and stupidity.

Q. 6 What experience popped into the teacher’s mind after Nora’s learning problem?
Ans. The teacher has once taken a sheet of printed paper which was written in some Indian language. He had tried to find the words that were repeated on the page. It was surprisingly difficult. At first, the page looked nothing but a haphazard jumble of shapes. The narrator found it extremely hard even to concentrate on one short common word. It took him a long time before he could figure out that a word at sight and picked it out of the other. In the same way, it takes some time for a child to get used to the shapes of letters and words, to the point where he can recognise at a glance that this word is like that word.

OR

The experience was that the teacher had once taken a sheet of printing in some Indian language and tried to mark the words that recurred. It was amazingly difficult.

Q. 7 Why are children of unlettered homes at a disadvantage?
Ans. Children of unlettered homes are at a disadvantage. They lack familiarity with the shapes of words and letters from the beginning of their learning. They have is no one to watch and observe who could guide them. So they are at a disadvantage.

OR

The children of unlettered homes are at a disadvantage because they are not familiar with the shapes of words and letters. Therefore it takes them more time to comprehend and read a word.

Q.No.8. How did the teacher learn from Nora?

Ans. The teacher learned about the children’s problems by watching Nora while she was reading and learning, and from that very experience, he learned what problems the children usually face and the ways with which they solve or try to solve them. In this way, he learned how to deal with issues and problems while teaching the children.

OR

The teacher learnt a great deal from Nora. While teaching Nora, the teacher came to understand a child’s problems, the reasons behind the problems and more importantly the problem as seen from the child’s perspective. The teacher learnt that one can devise a way out if he understands the nature of the problem.

I. GLOSSAR

Word Meaning

Figure out = Understand, comprehend, appreciate, grasp, apprehend

Badly stuck = Finding it very difficult to go on

Skip = To leave, omit

Bluff = To pretend in order to deceive, deception, fake, feint, hoax, fraud, charade

Ad. = Advertisement

Oriental = of the eastern part of the world, e.g., countries such as India and China

Trivial = Unimportant, insignificant, minor, paltry, frivolous

Unlettered = Illiterate, ignorant, unschooled, untutored

Formal instruction = Regular teaching in the class

II. Language work

1. ―to figure out means

a) to guess b) to recognize c) to reason out d) to decide

Ans: b) to recognize

2. Write the following expressions from a different perspective.

a) He loaned me some clothes.
I borrowed some clothes.

b) He sold me an old piano.
I bought an old piano.

c) He chased me.
I ran away from him/ I overtook him.

d) I gave him a glass of water.
He took a glass of water from me.

e) We conquered the enemy.
They lost the battle/ They were defeated .

III. Form adjectives from the nouns.

Ans:-

Noun Adjectives

Alphabet = Alphabetical

Angel = Angelic

Shape = Shapely/shapeless

Book = Bookish

Man = Manly

Government = Governmental

Minister = Ministerial

Elephant = Elephantine

Tiger = Tigerish

Day = Daily

College = Collegial/ Collegiate