Mission Ankur baseline with one teacher and a two-hour Shiksha Mitra
You are the only regular teacher for Class 3 in a government primary school in Vidisha block, with 38 children on roll and a Shiksha Mitra who is present from 10:00 to 12:00. In the first week of August the head teacher hands you the Mission Ankur baseline: 14 children read fewer than 20 correct words per minute, 9 read 20–40, and 15 read above 40; in oral maths, 19 cannot identify numbers beyond 99. The Class 3 Hindi textbook is on Chapter 5, the block office wants the fortnightly test on schedule, and periods are 45 minutes with six periods a day. At the parents' meeting, two fathers object that 'extra groups' keep children away from the syllabus, and one mother asks whether her daughter will be 'downgraded'. You have no spare room, the Shiksha Mitra has never been trained in foundational literacy activities, and the head teacher wants a written plan by Friday.
1. Plan the next four weeks. How will you group the 38 children, and how will you use the Shiksha Mitra's two hours without abandoning the Class 3 textbook?
Read the worked answer
Keep the whole class together for the first 20 minutes and differentiate only the 25-minute practice block - that is the only way one teacher plus a two-hour Shiksha Mitra can serve three levels without dropping the textbook.
- Group by need, not rank. G1 (14): letter-sound recall, two-letter words, oral comprehension from pictures. G2 (9): fluency at 20–40 wpm plus simple who/what/why questions. G3 (15): grade-level paragraph plus written answers. Groups are reviewed every four weeks.
- Whole-class core (20 min): shared reading of the Chapter 5 text with pictures and three oral questions, so every child meets the syllabus.
- Rotation (25 min): I sit with G1 on Mon/Wed/Fri and G2 on Tue/Thu; G3 works in pairs on a written task with a clear product. The Shiksha Mitra takes repeated reading of a 60-word card for G2 and G3 on alternate days, after 30 minutes of training on the card routine.
- Syllabus: Chapter 5 exercises are differentiated (G1 label or draw, G2 fill in, G3 full sentences), so the fortnightly test is not disrupted.
Ten Shiksha Mitra hours a week are enough for practice, not for new teaching; she must never be the only adult with a group learning a new skill.
2. What will you record, how often, and how will you present it at the next parents' meeting so that it does not become a rank list?
Read the worked answer
Record three things only, or the record will not survive the week:
- Weekly one-minute oral reading of a fresh 60-word card - correct words per minute plus two oral questions, one literal and one 'why'.
- Biweekly oral maths check - number recognition beyond 99, bundling, one subtraction item.
- A simple grid holding each child's baseline and current level, not a class position.
Present it as movement between groups: '11 children moved from G1 to G2, 6 from G2 to G3', with names visible only on individual cards handed to parents. A rank list invites comparison and pushes parents to demand group changes; a movement chart shows the programme is working and is also defensible to the block office. On each card add one next step in a sentence ('Riya reads 32 wpm; next she answers why-questions') and the review date. Never print the group on the report card: that remains the Class 3 competency-based card, so no child carries a label home.
3. How do you answer the two fathers and the mother in the same meeting?
Read the worked answer
Separate the two concerns and answer each with evidence rather than reassurance.
- To the fathers: the textbook is not being dropped. Show the plan with Chapter 5 and 6 dates and the differentiated exercises, and explain that 20 minutes of shared reading is whole-class while groups run for 25 minutes only. Invite them to sit in one session; objections usually shrink when the 'extra group' turns out to be 25 minutes of reading, not a parallel syllabus. Add the harder point: 14 children cannot read the Class 3 text, so finishing the syllabus without them is not finishing it.
- To the mother: her daughter is not being downgraded. The report card stays Class 3, groups are temporary and skill-based, and G3 children have their own needs in comprehension and writing. Show the specific item her child missed - concrete evidence is less threatening than a label.
Then fix a review date four weeks away and put it in writing, so grouping is visibly provisional and no parent leaves feeling the decision is permanent.