Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) – Secondary / Senior Secondary School English

Conversation among a teacher (T) and students (after a poem is read aloud):

T: Sheela, what literary device has the poet used while talking about the car? 

Sheela: Personification. 

T: Rajesh, what is personification? 

Rajesh: It is used to give human characteristics to non-living things.

Which follow-up question can MOST deepen Rajesh’s understanding of personification?

In which of the following cases is ‘bottom-up processing strategy’ being used to understand the meaning? 

After reading part of a play about four characters,  the teacher divides the class into groups of four and each student is assigned one of the characters. 

Which of the following exercises would be most suitable for her to assess the students’ understanding of character emotions?

Mr. Sangma gives the following exercise:  ‘Flying kites on sunny days was their favourite childhood hobby’. Without changing the meaning, is it possible to rewrite this as another simple sentence in the simple past, using ‘were’ instead of ‘was’? Why/why not? If possible, what else will need to change? Below are the explanations provided by four students: 

Anant: Yes, possible: The gerund can no longer be the subject; ‘they’ will have to become the subject. 

Beena: Yes, possible: The gerund will have to be converted to the plural form to align with the verb. 

Chhavi: No, not possible: Even if ‘they’ becomes the subject, ‘hobby’ being singular prevents this. 

David: No, not possible: ‘Flying kites’ is always singular; therefore the verb too has to be singular. 

Which of them is showing the GREATEST GAP in conceptual clarity?