[IAEP] 90% fluency Re: Granny Cloud

[K. K. Subramaniam]

On Wednesday 03 Nov 2010 3:43:35 am Yamandu Ploskonka wrote:
> hmm, sure..., sorry   What does it mean? 90% of the children get 100%?  
> Is there a sliding scale / bell curve?  what is "fluency", anyway?  
> fluency in what?
I can share my experience in helping out Sikshana (www.sikshana.org). Sikshana 
sends out people (mentors) to assist public school teachers to do a dip stick 
check at 4th and 7th in four areas:
 * expression - does he/she speak freely? do he/she open out to teachers and 
peers for help in getting supplies, seek clarifications etc?
If so, check
 * writing - can he/she write down thoughts and needs? Spelling and grammar 
errors are ok as long as the meaning comes through clearly.
 * reading - can he/she read (unseen) sentences, paragraphs, written requests, 
understand and be ready to act upon it?
 * numeracy - can he/she perform division (arithmetic) of three or larger 
digits and verify the result?

These checks take only a few minutes per student and serve to indicate if 
he/she has started learning and build a foundation for life. We do this for 
the primary language in 4th and check bilingual/trilingual skills in 7th. A 
list of students who fall short is drawn up. We don't spend time on analyzing 
why the gap occurred but ensure that each student  is "adopted" by an adult - 
a teacher who has stepped forward to take up this challenge or a local 
volunteer or a teacher assisted by a local volunteer. 

In a typical cluster of 15 schools (~1500-2000 students) around 25-30% fall 
short even with tech infusion. But with personal attention, the numbers drop 
below 10% in a matter of months. The bar is then raised slowly so that no 
student is left behind. The exact method used to attain fluency is left to the 
teacher.

Subbu