WORKSHOP - RAPPORT BUILDING

(MARCH 18, 2023)

An interesting virtual workshop on Interaction on “Student Engagement and Rapport Building : The role of English teacher” was held on Saturday, March 18, 2023. It was conducted by Ms. Rohina Shah of G D Goenka Public School, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi. 

True to being a language workshop, Ms. Shah took the session through the letters of English alphabet, with each letter denoting a rule, a value or a quality that the teachers of English must possess.  She emphasized on building intricate values and encouraged public speaking through the daily classroom sessions of English for classes IX to XII. Debate, Extempore, Elocution and Drama (DEED) or DEAR - Drop Everything And Read,  kind of activities incorporated into daily teaching. Learning through Flip classes (letter F) or teaching Gender neutral language (letter G) or Highlighting Heroism (letter H)  were some of the learning outcomes which were emphasized upon during the workshop.   Examples from selected chapters of classes IX -XII were taken up to drive the point home.

 Ms. Shah also stressed upon the importance of bringing humour into the classroom to ease out the anxiety caused by other stressful subjects.  Just-a-minute, Interactive interjections were to be constantly encouraged in the classroom scenario, built cleverly into the learning pedagogy. Question banks with answers based on the marking scheme devised by the CBSE and making the students aware of strategies of answering were to be done on a regular basis.

Topics on social awareness or a friendly joust of words on the trending topics of the social media to stay connected with the senior secondary students would prove beneficial and elicit maximum participation in the class.  She expressed the desire that the English period should be on the most popular agenda of the student itinerary of the day.  Mood boards, spaces on the white boards should have a dedicated space for the young adults for their free expressions.

The ending of the session saw suggestions on collaborative learning.