INTRODUCTION OF THE PROJECT
It is said that “Unity in Diversity” and it is known for India. India is a diverse country including different states, different regions, different people with different culture, different languages and different clothing and different food. Indian culture is a colourful combo of each colour with its importance. People of India are known for their food, their culture, and their everyday routine. This projects aims to incorporate activities of self-expression, acceptance, and creativity in order to explore how individuals with differences contribute to building a stronger unit. It demonstrates that individual differences can work together to form a positive whole and enable students to
celebrate the diversity among class members following the adage “Go global ,act local”.This shall be explained by the teacher through an office mix.
Project Plan - National Unity in Diversity
Name- Ms. Arti Chopra
Designation- School Head
School Name-Amity International School, Sector 46, Gurgaon
Unit Title -Protection on National Unity
Grade level- XI
Subject- General Studies, Civics, 21ST century learning skills, Environment Studies
Approximate - 4-6 periods
time needed
Project Description
India is a country of heterogeneous people.While watching the TV channels, browsing the net, sharing with friends and reading the national dailies, I found that children of today are getting exposed to too many harsh realities. They are growing in a world that is facing the challenges of terror, poverty, ignorance, greed etc .The importance of India as a large nation lies in its Unity. Unity is India’s strength and Unity in Diversity is the most important feature of India.In India, national integration alone can be the foundation of a strong, united and prosperous India, especially in these days of extremism and terrorism.I thought it pertinent to takeup this issue with the students to creatively engage their minds into research, synthesize and analyse to conclude thatin the midst of all such diversities of character, there is an underlying unity among citizens. Though, there are Bengalis, Punjabis, Maharastrians, Tamilians in our country. The fact remains that regardless of divisions and distinctions, caste or creed, we have lived together for thousands of years. Educating young minds, the significance of living together in harmony is pertinent for the schools of today.That is the unity of common culture and tradition, common historical growth, common fight for freedom against oppression, common allegiance to India and common loyalty to the India national flag. In the independent India, this unity of the Indians proved its might during the wars with Pakistan and China. All the people of Indian soil, sinking down all their differences, stood as one integrated whole against the Chinese and the Pakistani aggressors.
The lurking dangers to national unity of India are the narrow communal feelings. In India, there are some anti-social elements and political self-seekers who are fanning narrow communal feeling in order to meet their own selfish interests. The purpose of taking up this topic was to instil in the minds of students that we are the children of Mother India and we are all brothers and sisters irrespective of caste, creed, language and religion. It provides a natural forum for teaching students to recognize and respect differences within the classroom and beyond.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES
1.To appraise the factors that unite Indians
2.To understand, appreciate and celebrate the feeling of being a proud Indian
3.To find factors that cause a threat to national unity
4. To find solutions to the cause of national unity
5. To raise concerns socially to aid the cause
6 To learn in collaboration and think beyond the classroom boundaries and envision a united community, nation & world
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Students who complete this requirement will-
1 Analyze the factors that unite Indians collected through survey.
2 Projection of Unity in diversity through PREZI presentation.
2 Drawing on personal experiences of exchange students(foreigners) to identify ‘what binds Indians’.
3 Assimilate new creative expressions on ‘UNITY IN DIVERSITY’ in the form of a blog.
4 Skype for unity with People from global community.
5 Launch a petition on social networking to raise affirmation for national unity.
6 Depict through posters, the factors that cause a threat to India’s unity.
7 Celebrate the unity with diversity by taking part in the festival of European languages held outside the school.
8 Incorporate activities of self-expression, acceptance, and creativity through a ppt by a group in order to explore how individuals with differences contribute to building a stronger unit
9 HACK THE CLASSROOM by recording a video by a group of students to showcase the diversity in languages spoken in Indian states, yet being united in thoughts and actions, to be shown to other groups and taking their feedback classroom presentation by students.
10 Experiential Learning-Students will experience the Unity in diversity by threading the beads of different size and denominations.
Procedure-
The following methods will be adopted
Flipped classroom - This method will entail letting the students do prior preparation of the lesson to be taught next day by browsing on net or reading at home a day prior so that the class could be ready to answer basic questions. The following links
Brainstorming- The topic will be discussed at length by discussing the cultural attributes of India, identifying the factors that cause a threat to our unity by getting provocations through Bing.
Problem based learning- Delivery of instruction in PBL involves active peer teaching-learning in an open communication style. Division of roles amongst students will help them to focus better on the immediate goal. The students will be asked to delegate responsibilities under the following heads: 1 Data Research 2 Helper 3 Keyboard operator 4. Graphic Organizer 5 Power point/ Sway Assimilator 6 Noise monitor/Class controller 7 Presentation In charge 8 Research Validator 9 Survey/Interview In charge 10 Skype Capturer 11 Aesthetics In charge through MS Word
CollaborativeLearning-Students will be divided into groups and they will themselves be accountable for research and knowledge creation depicted through SWAY
Assessment- There will be three types of assessments:
1 MCQ’s based on prior knowledge of the topic
2 Descriptive answers marked after the learning of the main topic
3 Rubrics based on project presentation to be done by students of other groups
Design of the Learning Environment
The project is designed to integrate 21 century learning skills like interpretation through data collected, research skills and practices in identification of factors causing a threat to unity and synthesizing information by listening to students on student exchange program from Slovenia.The collaborative mode of learning is used throughout .For all the collaborative activities assessment is done through rubrics and MCQ’S or essay type questions.
Knowledge Building & Critical Thinking
The students have penned down articles on ‘unity in Diversity’ and started their own blog, in which they will continue to write. The identification of factors harming Unity of the nation have found creative expressions in the form of aesthetically prepared posters.
Extended Learning Beyond the Classroom
The students have raised petition on social networking site,facebook,inviting affirmations for the love for Unity in Diversity in the form of Pledge.
Collaboration
All the activities have used collaborative efforts of students in SWAY, Ppt, prezi, skype etc and made them think in critical manner. The analysis depicted by them in them in the form of bar graphs is interesting. They have worked within school with IT teachers and taken help from other community members too.
Cutting Edge Use of Technology for Learning
The students have used MS Word, One Note, auto collage, office mix, SWAY, skype , PowerPoint presentation, moviemaker etc to present the project.Students have developed an APP to check whether the members of community promote unity. It is titled “Are you a promoter of UNITY”? This activity is compiled in the form of a SWAY.
Educator as Innovator and Change Agent
As an Innovator ,I am actively taking workshops and integrating technology in the classroom:
-SWAY making for Grade 1 teachers
-Started a Blog- Book Reading club for educators
-Took part in Skypathon, Hour of Code,Tweetmeet etc
-Undertook to do Hour of code with 1500 students approximately
-Lead the EDUTALKS on YAMMER & Twitter
Taking technology to underprivileged section is a drive ,I feel strongly connected to. Educating Amitasha students about personal hygiene with the help of provocations in the form of videos is one of the recent endeavour.
Assessments
Assessments were done in formative manner through Rubrics for all the presentations. Student groups dis self assessment and peer group assessments.
MCQ’s and Long answer type questions were graded by the teacher to assess the level of learning.