Many of the tasks in the class draw on the students’ experiences, and at the same time are aimed at broadening their horizons. During the course piloting, these situations arose:
- “Unfortunately, we had total failure with unraveling the names of the rivers. For fifth-graders this task was impossible” (we are talking about the search for the names of rivers in the “magic square” during class No. 7, topic “Flussbreite messen”).
- “The problem arose during the first stage of the class “Einstieg ins Thema”. Not all names of Internet games were found because students did not know some of the games. They had to look for clues” (search for names in the “magic square” during class No. 8, topic “Internetspiele”).
- “It turned out to be difficult to remember from which countries cartoon characters came to us due to a lack of general knowledge and outlook. If most of the characters were named by the guys, it was harder to say where they came from” (“live memory” during class No. 9, topic “Internetspiele”).
All the tasks performed by the students in the extracurricular activities course are not an assessment of the knowledge and skills already available to students, but are aimed at increasing knowledge and skills. If children do not know the names of the rivers, then it is not a problem, and not a reason for “frustration”, but a statement of fact, an identified shortcoming that needs to be worked on. Children come to extracurricular classes to develop and learn new things. The teacher must be able to quickly adjust in such situations. What can be offered here? It is possible to organize a “treasure hunt” using a geographical map of the world. The teacher names a large river, and teams of students search for the river on the map (to see who is faster). Or you can all together create an “alphabet of rivers” with the help of the map.
The same applies to cartoon characters. This task is aimed at broadening their horizons, meaning that it should go beyond the existing knowledge that students already have. If there are problems, someone can go to the Internet to quickly “Google” the issue, or allow children to use their smartphones and look for the missing information together on the Internet.
Always consider the purpose of the task. For example, when you search for the names of computer games in the “magic square”, you do not have to find all the games. This task is necessary to determine the topic of the class, and two or three names are enough to accomplish this.
Many creative tasks, such as folding figures for a shadow play show where the students use their hands (class No. 14, topic “Schattenspiele”), require a certain agility and coordination of movement, which we can not always expect from younger students. The main objective of such tasks is to develop the students, including their motor functions. In this case, “difficult” is good. What comes easily does not foster development.