Sindhura and Rushil attend an international school. I recently joined the mailing list for the 4th grade class, a bit late in the year I know but better late than never. I started a thread with some of my concerns about the curriculum and homework which triggered a flurry of responses. Many of the parents including myself are not used to the IB curriculum.
I've been on Rushil's Prep2 (kindergarten) mailing list for sometime but the concerns in kindergarten are so different from the 4th grade. On Rushil's mailing list, I would post about the bus being too hot, or that they are letting the kids out early too often, or asking the teachers to apply sun screen on the children before they go out. They are learning to read and write, they are learning the basics of math, they do monthly presentations in class on the topic they learned about and they are encouraged to express themselves in class discussions. Rushil has been happy at school especially after he was moved to a new class in the new year so I generally don't have many concerns.
Sindhu is happy too but the content of the curriculum is important to me. Here are some of the positives and negatives I have seen in 4th grade:
Positives:
- The school has a good service learning program. The children visit a local orphanage or a local school and this is part of their curriculum.
- There is a focus on presentations to see if the student understood the topic they were studying and also the student gets feedback on their presentation skills.
- They are provided with opportunities to participate in multiple school programs throughout the year.
- Sports and hobbies are part of the overall curriculum.
- UOI - they combine science and social sciences so the students get practical experience on what they learn. They tend to spend a month on each topic so there is a lot of discussion, homework, activities that surround the topic so they get a good grasp of it by the end of the month.
Negatives:
- Although they are given assessment tests in school for math, the parents are not aware of the tests and how their child fared. We only get a general idea at the end of the semester.
- The same applies with writing. They do a lot of writing at school but I was not aware of it. The homework doesn't require them to write long paragraphs on a regular basis.
- Homework focusses on research but sometimes I worry that they are copying or rewording rather than learning. They had to learn about the various Systems of the Human Body and had to write a mini project for each system. Sindhu was so focussed on getting it done as it was a lot of work that I'm not sure how much she learned.
- The homework is either overwhelming or too little.
- UOI combines science and social sciences and some months they focus on science and others on social science like this month the topic is the judicial system so no science is taught. I'm concerned that they may fall behind in science.
8 comments:
Mythili,
thanks for this - I've been trying to get a pro/con comparison of Intl school curricula in India, for a while now, without success! Need an engineer, yeah! :-D
I talked to friends who moved back but mainstream-school their kids - two in B'lore and one in MDS. All feel that mainstream schools were given a bad rap, that the older, good schools (Sophia and National Public School in B'lore, PSBB in MDS) do a lot of what the international schools do. They agreed that admission into these older schools was more of a crap-shoot, seemingly dependent on whom you know, whether you were an alumnus etc.
As far as one con you listed, here in TX, the public school curriculum does combine Science and Social Studies into one "Integrated" curriculum. My son is in third grade this year, and that was of concern to us as well (we moved into the public school system this year from a parochial school). So far it seems OK, though I am still concerned about the impact of this approach on High School. Our High school is the one that offers IB in our district, so apparently this curriculum feeds well into it - time will tell.
The overemphasis on research...we felt it too - seems like there are projects due almost every week :-) We had to issue a moratorium on internet research, requiring library (book) research, so that we could be sure he wasn't simply regurgitating what he read someplace.
Do the kids learn a second language? That is something I would like for the kids to learn, if we ever live in India for a while...I realise as an adult, what a gift it is that I know the languages I do - but then jumping into an Indian language at 4th grade level isn't easy, when the rest of the class has been at it from first grade...so wanted ideas in advance.
M
Maith,
Yes they are learning a 2nd language. Sindhura is learning Hindi. I'm not that pleased with their teaching methodology, they are so focussed on reading and writing and I don't feel she has learned any significant amount spoken Hindi yet. Since she is going to an international school, they have different levels and so Sindhu is in the beginner's class and is not expected to be at a 4th grade level.
I was looking for the term "Social Studies" last night and kept using " Social Sciences", thanks for reminding me :-) It's interesting that your public school in TX also has an integrated science/social studies program so it's not as unique as i thought that's good to hear.
Mythili,
Does the school test on spoken Hindi? My kids' Spanish classes in montessori/pvt. school also focused on the written form, with some songs and a play (in the pvt. school) - sadly the public school curriculum doesn't include Spanish until middle school (I know - in TX! Makes no sense!)
Apart from language classes geared towards business travellers (like the berlitz thingies), I haven't heard of any language instruction that focuses on spoken language - an interesting point...
M
I feel that international schools should focus on spoken language, most of the children are not there long enough to become experts in a 2nd language. Maybe they can have two trains, one that focusses on the academic one and the other on learning on how to speak. I find all this reading and writing somewhat useless and painful when I all I really want is for her to understand a Hindi movie without the subtitles :-)
To answer your question, I don't see them getting tested on spoken Hindi. I think they have reached a stage now where the teachers have started only speaking Hindi in class so maybe she'll pick up something more. I even hired a tutor but he is not able to get past focussing on reading and writing.
It would be interesting to se what % of kids in your school are really expats, there for a short while, vs. those who will probably finish their school life in that school, and who attend for various reasons (US citizens, so want a foot in both cultures is the most common reason I've heard) - I know that some schools thata re now International schools were mainsttream schools about 10-15 years ago - Aditi is one that immediately comes to mind. Gopalan too started as a normal school and changed tracks once they saw where the money was :-)
I'd say, make friends with some N.Indians who speak Hindi at home - IME, most of them automatically expect everyone to understand/speak Hindi and Sindhu will be forced to learn! :-D :-D
M
I liked your comparison and pros and cons and I struggle with the right balance as well
Nina and Anika attend what is called a lab/progressive school which also has its roots in the practical approach. This year we have a new principal who is attempting to combine both elements - introduce traditional methods as well as keep the practical approach. I think we are ok for now but I agree with you - somehow there seems to be a lack of depth because of all the areas that get covered in "social sciences"
Nina has gone through a number of thematic units this year but I am convinced that she lacks depth and rigor in any one of them - they have done lifecycles of various things (plants and animals), the weather cycle, rocks and minerals, systems and organs in the human body, markets and money and what not but I am concerned that because these projects are broken up and the team just presents their portion, they do not deep dive into the other areas.
I wonder if this is needed in order to do a deep dive in middle school.
As far as Hindi is concerned, I have struggled to find spoken language guides in India - I realize that unless you speak to your kid as a baby, later on in life - it becomes that much harder to teach using "just spoken" language. I am having a tough time because I have taught Nina basics (numbers, colors and some words) but she lacks the ability to string words together to make a sentence and because no one else speaks it, you have to resort to a written form for the material to reinforce itself..
Would love to get your perspective on how to best deal with this. I would love for Nina to learn Hindi but have not found a good solution
Maith,
I don't know what percentage of children only stay for a short while at the school, but it's quite a large number. There are a few locals and they send them to this school so their children can go abroad for college and others because they like the teaching style.
Teju,
Should we expect there to be depth at our kid's age? Last year, I remember Sindhu had to memorize science and social studies concepts for tests. This year, no memorization required but I think Sindhu actually understands what she is learning since they spend a month on it and they often have a field trip to reinforce what they're learning. This week, for homework, she had to write two essays, one on Children's Rights and one on Social Issues. I'm really happy that the school is engaging her to think about these topics but my concern was that Sindhu did not know what structure to follow for the essay. I would have thought that would be clear, last year in California, there was no ambiguity in this, she knew exactly how to structure her essays. It's important for them to know how to take notes and put an essay together but they seem to let the child choose. Sindhu decided to write it as if she was speaking to an audience. She started it off with "Hi, my name is Sindhu..." and for a conclusion, she end with goodbyes to the audience. She happily filled 2 pages with her hellos and goodbyes :-)
Folks,
just had to pass this on: Arun Krishnan has a series of Podcasts called "Learn Hindi from Bollywood" - they can be downloaded from cuttingchai.com - I listened to one at random and it was very funny. I think you may need to know some of the references to get what's saying, but worth a try.
They also seem geared more toward adults than children, but you could pre-screen them for your kids. I plan to for mine :-)
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