This is account of my experience while teaching history and civics to grade-4 students. Whatever, I have said here has been well-researched and has worked in my class, but still you may tweak it according to your requirements. I hope this is useful to all new grade-4 teachers and acts as a document that gets them started on a “High” note.
Teach History First!
I taught this subject last year and realized that if you are targeting the scholarship exam then it’s best to start with History (of Shivaji) and then move on to Civics. I say this because the history portion of the syllabus never undergoes a change, but the Civics syllabus may change (when the new textbooks arrive) and also because history carries much more weight-age and takes more time to teach than civics. Your pace should be at least 3 chapters per month.
How to teach History & Civics efficiently?
For teaching History, since the last two or three chapters summarize the history of Shivaji, you can cover these while you teach the first 17 chapters.
Also, most of the goals in Civics can be taught very well by reading newspapers articles (related to the Civics text) every morning and having an open discussion about these articles while tying them back to the CIVICS goal (or chapter) – A mind map graphic organizer is very useful in this case.
A Project at the end of the first four months (before the Diwali Break), can help students summarize their learning during the break and also gives you a kick start for your subsequent chapters.
How to create lessons that engage students in the history lessons?
1. Teach history like a story – ask students of ending they anticipate – ask them to narrate personal experiences
2. Get them to imagine or act like soldiers, Mavlas, Shivaji, Maratha Sardars, etc. -
3. Make a fort with mud/clay and show them how the war may have taken place –
4. Take them for a field visit to Lal mahal and Sinhagad fort (Kondana fort) – this will cover two chapters of history and 2 goals in Civics
5. For the chapter – Work of the Saints – Write resumes for saints and ask the students to interview for the job of saint (lets say in ashram – whatever, try to make it look cool!)
6. Get them to make cartoon scripts of Shivaji – a student-made cartoon book of Shivaji could be then used in the library for other students to refer to – I wanted to do it in the first year but couldn’t.
7. Work on the concept of timelines, eras, calendars, etc.
8. Lastly, you can refer to this website – it gives a whole lot of ideas of teaching history – http://www.kamat.com/
