I just came back from class.
I feel proud of associating myself with these women sometimes. They have begun to stay up till late and finish up their lessons with me even after a hectic day.Even when i can notice sleep and weariness in their eyes, they want to continue learning so that they move one step ahead from the previous day.Respect!
So now coming back to the fun filled class we had today.
We have already done Nouns, Verbs , Adjectives, Articles and basic Tenses ( present, past and future) in the last one week. I keep giving them exercises to write sentences using the above and simultaneously give them a little hint towards using prepositions and conjunctions. ( a complete new chapter for it will still take a little while as we haven’t really begun exploring complex sentences.). Tonight’s exercise was on holding a conversation through questions. The basic setting was made for a vegetable seller and a person who wants to buy vegetables.
so, A goes to B to buy vegetables.
A: Hello B, how are you?( understanding the use of ‘how’ )
B: I am fine, Thank you. How may I help you today?
A: I want to buy vegetables. Which vegetables do you have? ( Notice the use of ‘which’)
B: Today I have onions, potatoes, tomatoes, lady fingers, garlic and ginger. Which vegetable do you want?
A: I want to buy onions.
B: How much do you want? (using ‘how much’)
A: I want 1 kg onion.
B: OK. I will give it to you.
A: How much does it cost?
B: Twenty Rupees, Madam.
A: Please take this money and put the vegetables in the packet.
B: Thank you and i will do that.
A: Thank you.Bye and Have a good day.
B: Same to you. Bye.
The above exercise was re- enacted in three pairs and each person got a chance to be both the vegetable seller and the lady who had come to buy the vegetables.
It was fun to see how the group engaged themselves in this exercise and went on to extend it in their own ways. Like one of the sparrows added the fact that she could not put the vegetables in the plastic packet as its illegal so the other should ask for a cloth bag, or in the next group, one sparrow asked for five rupees in exchange for the cloth bag.
Also today we set a few ground rules too: No one is allowed to speak in any language other than English Language, So it was fun looking at my sparrows trying to weave the words together in their broken English. But with the efforts they are putting in, I see a lot of progress on the cards.
All the best for tomorrows class.
P.S: the home work is to make 10 Questions using the words- How, what, how much, which and Do.