Rapt attention by listeners in a classroom situation necessarily signifies the impact of narration.
And for the narration to be interesting, the thought process has to be unhindered. In fact, school students looking forward to cultivating speaking skills to the level of delivering extempore talk can comfortably give a sound start to their initiative by narrating to their peers interesting incidents in their lives. For, the thought process is generally smooth while recalling past experiences.
Standard VII students of Cauvery Matriculation Higher Secondary School had cause to feel satisfied after experimenting with this approach during a session of The Hindu – Newspaper in Education. Handling the module ‘It Happened to Me', a component of the theme: Spin a Yarn, turned out to be an interesting experience for the NIE resource person Sharada Mowli herself.
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With students seizing the opportunity to narrate three aspects: memorable incidents in life and embarrassing incidents in jocular vein, the classroom bustled with activity.
For instance, one student spoke of how she lost her way on Marina Beach and went straight to the nearby police station from where she located him, thanks to her memory of his mobile phone number. There was another who had after a bout of bargaining with a cucumber seller paid an amount that was more than what was demanded. Shedding inhibitions, students kept speaking one after the other, keeping the classroom in splits.
The students were unconsciously imbibing speaking skills through the narration technique, fulfilling the purpose of the session, Ms. Sharada said.
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