Education drive@Yousufguda Public school@Every Saturday@ 1pm - 5pm @ Hyderabad
Hi Friends,
We have named the Education drive of SIMPLE THOTS Team as "ABHYASI". We are going to continue our efforts at Yousufguda Govt High school.
Anybody interested to join us can send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (You can directly join us at the school).
We started the ABHYASI drive with spoken english classes. We call it "TALK A LOT" course.
This course is written by SIMPLE THOTS TEAM. You can edit it to your convenience and add few more stuff to it.
All the interested people who are coming to the education drive.If you want a doc of the course, send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Reference training material available in the below link:
http://simplethots.com/TalkaLot-Reference.pdf
TALK A LOT
Each lesson focuses on a specific topic e.g., Town. For each lesson, the teacher can use the following activities:
Lesson Test
Sentence Blocks
Discussion Questions
The class may be structured in the following way:
(i) Introduce yourself and then have a small test on the topic covered in the previous lesson. Just give them around 10 words in telugu based on the previous lesson and ask them to write those words in English.
(ii) Introduce the topic of this lesson. For example, if the topic is “Home”, then tell the children something about Home. Make different sentence blocks, that is questions based on that topic. Make sure that the student understands those sentences
(iii) Introduce the discussion questions. Make sure that the students understand the vocabulary that is used.
(iv) Clear any doubts that the children may have regarding English. Encourage them to ask doubts.
STEPS to be followed while doing this programme:
- Write these sentences on the black board….Make them read these sentences…Prompt them wherever they find difficulties.
- Now introduce the existing W’s
- Ask them to frame a few sentences by changing few words.
Note: “There are multiple things in each sentence WHERE, WHAT ,
WHEN, WHY, WHICH etc”
Once you are done with the sentences …repeat them with the existing other W’s
Lesson 1 : Town
Sentence Blocks:
1. Pavan walks two kilometres to his School every day.
Who
2. We’re waiting patiently for the bus at the bus
stop opposite the church.
Where
3.Lakshmi bought a couple of eggs at the store, then
ran to the post office.
What
4.The department store was open until 10 o’clock
because they were having a massive sale.
Why
5.I’ve agreed to meet Ram in the old market place
outside the library.
Who
6. We could drive to the lake and go fishing.
Where
7. Amar will come next Friday.
When
8.If the cricket ground is busy we can go to the gym
instead.
What
Discussion Questions:
1. Do you live in a town or a city?
Tell me more about where you live.
2. What do you like about where you live? What don’t you like? How could it be improved?
3. Who is in charge of your town or city?Do you think they do a good job?
4. What are the best things to see and do in your town or city?
5. Describe your journey from home to school.
6. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live and why?
7. What are the main problems in your town or city (e.g. Traffic, Pollution, Crime, homelessness.)? What is being done about them? How can you help?
8. Talk about your favourite towns or villages.
LESSON 2:HEALTH
Sentence Blocks:
1. Being healthy is very important to me.
What
2. Siri is sitting in the waiting room with her
mother and brother.
Where
3.I phoned my doctor this morning to make an
appointment.
Why
4. Shanti was telling about her husband’s job.
Who
5.I’ve taken two tablets three times a day for a week,
but I still don’t feel any better.
How many
6.Kamal has to take his prescription to the pharmacy
tomorrow.
When
7.Simran is going to visit the optician’s for an eye
examination.
Why
8.If you ask the doctor she will give you some good
advice about your problem.
What
Discussion Questions:
1. Have you ever been to hospital? Tell me about it.
2. What would you do if a member of your family, or your best friend, had an accident?
3. How healthy are you? How often do you get ill? Do you go to the exercise regularly?
4. What is the name, address and phone number of your dentist?
5. How would you tell your doctor about your illness – in English?
6. Who is the unhealthiest person you know? Have you tried to encourage them to be healthier? Tell me more.
LESSON 3:TRANSPORT
Sentence Blocks:
1. I usually get the train at 7.28.
When
2. Gita is driving to the airport to pick up her
grandmother.
Where
3. I flew from Hyderabad to Delhi last night.
What
4. Amit was crossing the road when he was hit by a
bus.
Who
5. We’ve cancelled our flight because our daughter is ill.
Why
6. All passengers must show their tickets at the gate.
What
7.The next train to arrive at platform 8 will be the 9.49
service to Bangalore.
Which
8. If we cycle to work we’ll get there in about an hour.
When
Discussion Questions:
1. What is your favourite mode of transport?
Why?What is your least favourite mode of transport? Why?
2. Can you drive? Tell me about learning to drive (or why you
can’t drive).
3. If you had the choice, where in the world would you visit that you haven’t visited before?Why? Who would you take with you? How long would you go for?
4. Can you ride a bike? Tell me about learning to ride a bike
(or why you can’t ride a bike).
5. Tell me about a terrible journey that you’ve taken, e.g. you had one of these problems: cancellation / accident / lost luggage, etc.
6. What is the biggest problem with public transport in your town or city?
7. How do you think transport will be different from now in fifty years’ time?
8. Would you like to fly in a aeroplane? Why? / Why not? How would you feel if you had this opportunity?
How did we start it in Hyderabad?
We started the SIMPLE THOTS Education drive on 21st June @ 10:45
It's not a regular drowsy...sleepy saturday morning for us. We felt quite energetic, eyes filled with passion, legs eager to make a move to the world of change that we desire, we were 3 in number. We were confident about the change we are going to make today. We entered the school at around 9 ‘o clock, we spoke with the primary school teacher regarding our interest in taking classes to the children.
Information on Yousufguda Public School:
- The school runs in shift system, 1st – 5th standard from morning 7:30 – 12:30.
- Mid-day meal programme starts at around 11:45
- The school infrastructure is good and is located at the yousufguda junction, which is a very easy place to be located and well connected.
“School needs some more teachers, the strength of the teachers is very less compared to the 1000 odd students studying in the class”.
We were waiting for our friends to join us, Finally 20 of us grouped in a class room.
We did some initial preparations to know our individual approach towards the students, so that we can learn the good things from each other. There were some very useful conversations.
This was our Simple Agenda (We had some chocolates as gifts and carried few charts with us)
We implemented all the events as per the planning but the teachers had their individual approach on implementing them. The timings that were mentioned were not maintained because of circumstances.
What Children Want ? (This is a write up based on the information written by the children about something that they like, dislike and some little wishes of them.
List of events:
Exercise on teaching them the pleasure of making friends –
- We will begin the day by introducing us…
My name is Rajesh… I work as an engineer
What do u know about engineer…what will an engineer do
I like writing songs…listening songs…playing cricket..
How many of u like them… same pinch for all the similar tastes……
How many friends …u have to tell the count and their names…. The one with maximum friends in class a special chocolate..
10 mins to go across the class… introduce u r self to as many as u can… know their names.. if u don’t remember … write them… one who makes more friends win a special prize.
So by 10-45 … u know children… children know u…
Now a small session on a topic –
Topic will be decided depending on the class addressed.
Ex – Digestive System… we will take lot of photo copies… print outs… given to groups of children.
Session will be for 30 mins
11 - 15
Learning in a group is encouraged here…
We asked them to draw pictures and text about - what they like and dislike at home and school? What they want to be in future and how they are going to serve the society?
They have to collectively do it.
They will tell us why they liked it…
By 11 – 50 the task is completed
12 – 12 : 15
Some songs and dances by children
By 12 – 30 they go for lunch
1:30 (Story telling …)
We tell them a story that we frame … with some questions on moral behaviour following it.
It will be for 20 mins
2:00
Now students frame stories….every student tells a story for 1 min…other friend follows it for another 1 min.
After 5 mins…the better story formed wins prize
2:30
Again a session on one of the topics
Indian Geography or Mathematics or History
3 – 3:15 Good bye to students
(We will take their experiences about the day… what they liked in the day… what they remembered)
If you want to know about these experiences in detail, email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
We are planning to conduct classes in the schools on a regular basis, if you want to join us, email us.
