CBSE Code 402 Information Technology Class 10 Skill Subject Level- 2 Based on OpenOffice/LibreOffice (Suitable for Windows & Ubuntu) CONCEPT: Gagan Agarwal Founder & M.D. COMPOSED BY: David Singh CLDP, MCA 25 yrs experience in IT REVIEW PANEL Vinita Sharma (HOD- CS) St. Teresa School, Indirapuram MCA, B.Ed & PGT 20 yrs experience in IT Ranjana Gandhi (HOD- CS) Vishwa Bharati Public School, Dwarka, Delhi MCA & B.Ed 27 yrs experience in IT Zeba Ayaz (HOD- CS) Rabea Girls’ Public School, Delhi, Branch Humdard Public School B. Com (Hons.), MCA, MBA(IT) 21 yrs experience in IT EDITED BY: Hitesh Saini 8 yrs experience in IT DESIGNED BY: Gareema Balwani 10 yrs experience in Designing
Contents X PART A: EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS of an Entrepreneur 68 Term 1 Session-3 : Myths Related to 69 Entrepreneurship Unit-1: Communication Skills - II Session-4 : Entrepreneurship as a Career Option Session-1 : Various Methods of 70 Communication 5 Unit-5: Green Skills - II Session-2 : Providing and Receiving Session-1 : Understanding Sustainable Feedback 12 Development 73 Session-3 : Communication Barriers and Session-2 : Importance of Sustainable Its Measures 16 Development 74 Session-4 : Principles of Effective 19 Session-3 : Sustainable Development: Communication Challenges and Solutions 75 Session-5 : Basic Writing Skills 21 Unit-2: Self-Management Skills - II PART B: SUBJECT SPECIFIC SKILLS Session-1 : Stress and Its Effects Term 1 Session-2 : Stress Management 30 Unit-1: Digital Documentation ( Advanced ) Techniques 33 36 Session-1 : Document Styles 80 Session-3 : Ability to Work Independently Session-2 : Working with shapes and Images 82 Session-3 : Document Template 89 Unit-3: Information and Communication Session-4 : Creating Table of Contents 94 Technology Skills-II Session-5 : Mail Merge and Labels 96 Session-1 : Operating System & Basic Unit-2: Electronic Spreadsheet ( Advanced ) File Operations 42 Supplement : Ubuntu Operating System 47 Session-1 : Subtotals, Data Consolidation, Session-2 : Apply Basic Skills for What-if-Analysis (Scenario, Goal Seek & Solver) 107 Care and Maintenance Session-2 : Referencing and Linking of Computer 53 Sheets 113 Supplement : Computer Maintenance in Session-3 : Share and Review Sheets 119 Ubuntu 56 Session-4 : Working with Macros 124 Session-3 : Computer Security and 57 Unit-3: Database Management System Viruses Session-1 : Database Concepts Supplement : Antivirus in Ubuntu 63 Term 2 138 Term 2 65 Session-2 : Data Storage 141 Session-3 : Manipulating Data 145 Unit-4: Entrepreneurial Skills - II Session-4 : Creating a Database 146 Session-1 : Characteristics of an Object Entrepreneur Session-2 : Role and Significance
Session-5 : Creating and Working with Session-4 : Chatting with a Contact- Session-6 : Google Talk (Hangout) 202 Session-7 : Tables 147 Session-8 : Session-9 : Relationships and Session-5 : Creating and Publishing Session-10 : Referential Integrity 158 Web Pages-Blog 203 Create and Manage 160 Session-6 : Using Offline Blog Queries Editors 207 Structured Query Language 168 Session-7 : Online Transactions 212 Building Forms 174 Session-8 : Internet Security 216 Design Reports 181 Session-9 : Workplace Safety 220 Session-10 : Maintain Workplace Unit-4: Web Applications and Security Safety 223 Session-1 : Accessibility Options in Session-11 : Prevent Accidents and Windows 190 Emergencies 226 Supplement : Accessibility Options in Session-12 : Various Workplace 231 Emergencies Ubuntu 192 Projects 242 Session-2 : Networking Sample Questions Term-I 243 Fundamentals 195 Sample Questions Term-II 245 Session-3 : Introduction to Instant Shortcut Keys 247 Messaging 200
CLASS – X SESSION 2021-2022 Total Marks: 100 (Theory-50+Practical-50) INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (402) Class X (Session 2021-22) TERM UNITS NO. OF HOURS MAX. MARKS for Theory and for Theory and Practical 200 Practical 100 Employability Skills 5 Unit 1 : Communication Skills-II 10 5 10 10 TERM I Unit 2 : Self-Management Skills-II Marks Unit 3 : Information and 10 8 Communication Technology 10 Skills-II 02 10 TERM II Unit 4 : Entrepreneurial Skills-II 15 10 Unit 5 : Green Skills-II 40 05 20 Total 50 10 30 Subject Specific Skills Theory Practical (In Hours) (In Hours) Unit 1: Digital Documentation 12 18 (Advanced) TERM I 15 23 Unit 2: Electronic Spreadsheet 04 07 (Advanced) Unit 3: Database Management System TERM II Unit 3: Database Management 14 20 System 15 22 Unit 4: Web Applications and Security Total 60 90 Practical Work Practical Examination Advanced Documentation: 5 Marks Advanced Spreadsheets: 5 Marks Databases : 10 Mark Viva Voce Total Project Work/Field Visit 10 PORTFOLIO/ PRACTICAL FILE 10 Total 200 20 GRAND TOTAL 100
Unit PART A: Employability Skills 1 Communication Skills- II Session-1 Various Methods of Communication Communication is the very basic need of the living beings to live and survive. All living beings communicate. Human beings have even developed numerous languages over the period of vast history that helps them communicate with other fellow beings. Communication is a process to give to and receive information from others. Interacting with others while exchanging information is called Communication. Every communication has a purpose. If that purpose needs to be met, right skills need to be exercised. The way you communicate decides the course and progress of the communication further whether it will reach the desired purpose or not. Process of Communication Communication process involves the following elements: Sender: Primary source of originating information or idea is sender. This could be an individual or a group which conveys their message across to the intended receiver. Message: The actual content communicated by the sender is the message. Encoding: The way message is communicated to the receiver is called encoding. Encoding relies on 3 key features: Clear, Complete and Correct. A message encoded in simplest of the form, covering all details and correct information is considered as a well encoded message. Communication Channel: The medium of communication is called communication channel. It could be as simple as two individuals conversing with each other in person or as advanced as two groups interacting across the globe through a sophisticated communication technology like video conferencing. Various possible communication channels are: oral face-to-face, written and technology-based through telephone, email, chat, video conferencing etc. Receiver: Individual or party that receives the sent message is called receiver of the message. Receiver is supposed to decode the received message. Decoding: Interpretation of the received message and deriving the intent of the message is called decoding. It directly depends upon how well the message has been encoded earlier by the sender. Parts of Communication Process Communication process relies on following 3 functional parts: Transmission: Transmission of the message to be communicated is taken care of by the sender and it is sender’s responsibility to determine the suitable mode and channel for communication. The purpose is to transmit the message across to meet the purpose of the intended communication without any interruption. 55
Receiving: The transmitted message id received by the recipient of the message. Receiving depends on the mode and channel. It may be in the form of listening (oral communication), reading (written communication) or watching and listening. Feedback: Response to the received message is called feedback. If the response is as desired that means receiver has decoded the message correctly and responded accordingly otherwise there could be a need of resending the message with better encoding. Communication Methods Communication is something we do even when we think we are not communicating. Speaking, writing and gesturing only is not communication. We communicate even when we do not speak, write or gesture. Sitting quiet and still is also a mean of communicating message to others that probably you need to spend some time with yourself welcoming no external interventions. Good communication involves suitable choice of the means of communication. Depending on the requirement, we resort to different methods of communication. 55% of entire communication occurs in the form of body language, 38% through voice and tone while 7% communication is done using words. The basic methods of communication are: ¤ Verbal ¤ Non-verbal ¤ Visual Verbal Communication The tools of verbal communication are words and grammar of the language used in communication. Verbal communication has 2 forms: Oral Communication This kind of communication occurs face-to-face while words are spoken. It is the easiest and effective way of communication. The message travels fastest to the receivers, encoded quickly and feedback is given almost in real time. A fundamental protocol of speaking and listening in turns is followed by the sender and receiver. Factors that determince effective oral communication are: Proficiency of language: The senders and receivers need to have workable command over the language for smooth decoding/ encoding of the messages exchanged. This also includes correct pronunciation, desired vocabulary and knowledge of basic grammar of the language. Accent, pace and clarity: People from different regions have different ways of speaking which is called accent. How fast or slow the person speaks makes the pace for speaking and how clearly the words are delivered makes for the clarity of the speech. Volume, mood and emotions: What is the pitch of the speech, harsh delivery or higher volume may affect the communication negatively. Fundamental set of emotions during the communication makes for the mood of the sender and receiver. Right kind of emotions steer the communication in the right direction. Duration of communication: For how long the communication must and is going on affects the interest level of the participants. Too long a duration of oral communication will leave the receiver disinterested. Oral communication should be clear, simple and short. 56
Advantages of Oral Communication ¤ It involves no or least expenses. ¤ Saves a lot of time. ¤ Immediate feedback is collected, and messages can be encoded accordingly. ¤ Interpersonal nature develops relations. ¤ Most effective in resolving conflicts or difficult situations. ¤ Promotes cooperation and team work. ¤ Helps in making decisions and persuasive. ¤ Useful for all kinds of audience. Disadvantages of Oral Communication ¤ It has no legal value. It has no importance in the court of law. ¤ No liability, accountability and reference value on what has been agreed upon during the communication. ¤ Greater scope for errors due to poor comprehension and forgetfulness. ¤ Not useful for longer duration. Written Communication This type of communication involves written word. Most of such communication is formal. Letters, reports, notices, newsletters, resume etc. are the examples of written communication. Email, SMS and chat are other modes of written communication. Written communication needs to be clear, to-the-point and correct in order to convey its right meaning and intent to the receiver. Advantages of Written Communication ¤ Writing has the advantage of having time for the choice of suitable vocabulary and tone of the message. Message can be reviewed and revised before sending. ¤ It is legally acceptable in the court of law if executed in proper way. ¤ Longer messages can be conveyed in written form. ¤ Written messages can be saved for later reference. ¤ Written messages can be duplicated and distributed. ¤ Written messages help building up goodwill and image of the sender. ¤ With written messages comes accountability. Disadvantages of Written Communication ¤ Written communication is time taking. ¤ Takes long for taking decisions. ¤ Sometimes they can be misinterpreted due to lack of emotion and personal touch. ¤ May involve costs in drafting and sending the messages. ¤ It is unsuitable for illiterate people. ¤ Confidentiality can be compromised with written communication. 57
Effective Verbal Communication Active Listening: Oral communication demands listening attentively and sincerely. This directly helps us to understand the communicated message as desired. When we listen sincerely, we can ask correct questions for better understanding. Listening better minimizes the chance of misinterpreting the message and avoiding misunderstanding and conflict later. Clarity on the background and purpose of communication: For a smooth and successful verbal communication, sender/ speaker and receiver/ listener should be clear on the agenda and purpose of the communication. They should share common understanding as to why the communication is taking place. This also ensures mutual understanding between the sender/ speaker and the receiver/ listener. What receiver/ listener needs to know is very important. Concise, clear and direct message: The speaker/ sender of the message should ensure that the message sent should avoid unnecessary details. It should be suitably short. It should be direct without complicated inferences. It should not leave any room for confusion for receiver/ listener. Language and vocabulary: Command over the language and choice of appropriate words that justify the context is very important. Both sender/ speaker and receiver/ listener should share common understanding of the language being used as medium of communication. So, it is important to keep in mind certain important points before communicating or responding to the message such as: ¤ Be prepared before communicating. ¤ Anticipate responses for better communication. ¤ Ensure that everyone involved in the communication process has the background of what needs to be discussed. ¤ Avoid out-of-context references. Activity Activity 1: Importance of context knowledge in communication Activity Conduction: Ask a few students to speak for 3 minutes on an entirely strange and difficult topic about which they are not likely to know much. Debriefing: Debrief the students about the importance of knowledge and background awareness of the context of communication. Activity 2: Oral vs Written Communication Activity Conduction: Think of a topic like Reminder for upcoming practice exam. Ask 2 students how will they announce this reminder going into each class room? Let others observe when they stand up and speak to show how they would do it. Then ask the students to write the same reminder or notification as a formal note to be rotated in all the classes. Debriefing: Ask the students about their observation about two kinds of communication – oral and written. Discuss the comparison of both with the students. 58
Non-Verbal Communication Non-verbal communication occurs along with non-written verbal communication (oral, telephonic, video meeting) and greatly affects the verbal communication. Verbal communication refers to what is said while non-verbal communication is how it has been said. The factors that constitute non-verbal communication are in general referred to as body language that includes our posture, gestures, expressions, tone and quality of voice, and our movements etc. Body Language The factors that constitute non-verbal communication are in general referred to as body language. They are discussed below: Voice or Paralinguistics: Unknowingly or subconsciously our voice affects our communication negatively or positively. Our emotions govern the tone of our voice. Our accent (the way we speak) determines the clarity of what we speak. Pitch, speed (pace), pauses and intonation determine how sincerely we are involved in the communication and how we develop a connection with the other people. Eye contact: Eyes are the window to the soul – we have heard this often. Eye contact reflects sincerity or lack of it. Direct, frank eye contact reflects confidence, truth and sincerity. Eye contact engages others in your conversation. Looking away reflects insincerity, falsehood and carelessness. Posture and Gestures (Kinesics): The way we sit, stand and walk tells others about our mood, attitude and interest. Erect stance reflects confidence. If you are really interested, you will lean in the direction of the person speaking. Looking away, changing posture quite often, leaning away - this all indicates your disinterest in the conversation. Gestures that we do subconsciously give us away. Pointing finger seems aggressive. Fidgeting (making small movements with fingers or feet) shows disinterest or getting bored. Shoulder shrug seems careless or aloof. Folded arms mean defensive or disagreeing. Sitting slump shows lack of interest. Gazing into space reflects total lack of attention and interest. Relaxed, straight posture, attentive eye contact, sincere nod with the face, sitting with open hands, straight shoulders are signs of positive postures and gestures. Facial Expressions: Frown, grimace, tense facial muscle, sad eyes, lack of smile are some negative facial expressions. Suitable smile, understanding, sincere eyes, composed and calm face make for positive facial expression and encourage people to connect with you subconsciously. Physical space or Proxemics: We make use of an invisible boundary of space around us while communicating. The span of this space varies from culture to culture. Approximately 7 inches from us is intimate zone meant for people who are really close to us like spouses or mothers and their infant child. Up to 1 meter is friend zone that we maintain in public gatherings. Up to 12 feet is Social zone and Audience zone. Breaching or moving into these spaces makes the person uncomfortable. Being respectful to other people's personal space creates a good impression and people open with you quickly. Reverse of this leads to people becoming wary of you and become less receptive of what you must communicate. 59
Activity Activity 1: Nothing Emotional About This! The Activity: Ask 2 students to participate in this activity. Ask the first participant to speak about his/ her hobby for a few minutes without smiling or showing any emotions or expressions and a plain voice. Then ask the second participant to do so in a natural way. Debriefing: Discuss with class what did they observe in the two speeches. Which one was interesting and why? Activity 2: Our School and Proxemics Ask the students to come up and share their observation about sense of space or kinesics in various places of school. Touch or Haptics: Friends touch each other casually in a way which is different from formal. Formal touches are very few such as, handshake and pat on the shoulder or back or on the side of upper arm. Firm handshake reflects confidence and positive energy. Loose, clumsy handshake is called dead-fish handshake reflects lack of confidence and disrespect. Touch plays major role in certain fields like sports and performing arts like theatre, dance and acting. Affectionate hug by mother or friend, a casual peck on the cheek, friendly pat on the back, high-five etc. are examples of touch. Advantages of Body Language ¤ Positive body language supports and reinforces oral communication. ¤ Suitable body language helps develop conducive relationship among the communicators. ¤ It helps during the noise or any other barriers in communication. ¤ Many times it becomes a mean of visual communication (traffic policeman signals). ¤ It complements the verbal message and helps communicate clear and correct intent. ¤ It helps in dealing with language and cultural boundaries. ¤ It helps in quicker transmission of the message. ¤ It helps people with physical challenges or literacy issues. ¤ It saves time and easily helps in repetition of the message. Disadvantages of Body language ¤ Body language alone cannot be used to transmit message. ¤ It is prone to be misunderstood and misinterpreted. ¤ It conveys different meaning in different cultures and regions hence difficult to master. ¤ It is a continuous process and cannot be stopped. ¤ Body language is vague and imprecise. ¤ All signals sent through body language cannot be caught due to several distractions. ¤ It does not follow any precise set of rules. 5 10
Visual communication Visual communication involves visual symbols, pictures, graphics, signs and charts etc. Traffic signs and public signs are the most common examples of this. Some other instances are: ¤ Your teacher often uses visual aids to explain certain concepts. ¤ Use of presentation software with graphics and charts during a meeting. ¤ Signs in the hospitals. ¤ Icons and symbols In media and on computer, social platforms and other web sites. ¤ Icons, symbols, gifs and emoticons in smart phones. ¤ Symbols on public places. ¤ Company logos, trademarks and signs. As you can figure out from these examples, visual communication is instant, specific, clear and with zero ambiguity. Visual symbols support what we communicate such as teaching learning aids support the explanation of the concept and help in learning, visual presentation conveys more content clearly and saves a lot of time, people follow visual communication easily, quickly and with least chance of misinterpretation. It serves the purpose of a quick, brief message top be communicated. For example, school ahead, left turn, do not smoke etc. Visual communication engages our interest easily and quickly. The creativity of symbols, charts and graphics make the communication interesting and break the monotony of speech and written word. However, visual communication has its limitation in that: ¤ It has its usefulness up to some extent. ¤ It cannot replace the content of speech and written word completely. ¤ It plays supporting role in communicating our ideas. ¤ Symbols which are not accepted as standard are difficult to understand or may be misinterpreted, like, everyone knows that red light means stop and wait while an insignia of a company or a vehicle might be difficult to understand and remember. 5 11
EXERCISE Answer the following questions in brief: 1. What do you mean by oral communication? 2. List the things we should keep in mind while communicating orally. 3. How does body language influence our communication positively? 4. How does body language influence our communication negatively? 5. Explain the role of non-verbal communication in our day to communication. 6. What are the importance and limitations of visual communication? 7. List the meaning of any 10 signs and symbols you have seen around in public places. Session-2 Providing and Receiving Feedback Feedback in Communication Cycle We have already learnt about communication process and its elements. Let us have a quick look at them again. Sender: Primary source of originating information or idea is sender. Message: The actual content communicated by the sender is the message. Encoding: The way message is communicated to the receiver is called encoding. Communication Channel: The medium of communication is called communication channel. Receiver: Individual or party that receives the sent message is called receiver of the message. Decoding: Interpretation of the received message and deriving the intent of the message is called decoding. Feedback: Response to the received message is called feedback. If the response is as desired that means receiver has decoded the message correctly and responded accordingly otherwise there could be a need of resending the message with better encoding. Response from the receiver tells the sender if his/ her message has been understood as desired and accordingly sender gives the response next. Similarly, receiver also observes how his/ her response has been received. This process goes on until the communication cycle ends. Meaning and Importance of Feedback In addition to the dynamic feedback that helps in progression of a communication cycle there is another kind of feedback which makes a major and formal part of communication. This kind of feedback is different from that used in communication cycle. The feedback that is given to people has one common purpose an that is to help the person improve his/ her performance, productivity or output. Some examples of providing feedback are: ¤ Teachers discuss student's performance with his/ her parents in school meeting. ¤ Team lead giving feedback to the team mate about what went wrong, what could have been better and what went well. 5 12
¤ Coach feeding the players back on the observations he made after watching their game in the previous match. ¤ Employer giving feedback to the employee and establishing expectations of the company and how employee can contribute in it. ¤ Parents advising children about pros and cons about something out of their experience. In certain cases, feedback is collected to gauge the understanding of the listener. For example ¤ Teacher asking specific (to a particular student) and broadcast (open to all) questions after explaining a concept in the classroom to gauge the understanding of the students. ¤ A restaurant floor manager gathering experience of the guests after the dinner. ¤ Views of all the participants are collected in a review meeting about a new product. ¤ A TV channel collecting viewers' feedback through SMS about their channel content. ¤ A doctor enquiring with the patient asking specific questions to decide further course of treatment. ¤ An army commander asking the troops – “Koi Shaq?” (Any doubts?) after briefing them about the mission they are going to embark upon. So, what do you mean by feedback? A feedback completes the communication cycle. Feedback also helps communicators adapt to the changes in communication. Feedback helps communicators devise their next response and ensure that actual purpose of communication is met. Feedback brings about the fruitful end of the communication. Feedback enriches the quality of communication, productivity of the people and creates a conducive environment for performance and achieving the goals. Positive Feedback Some characteristics of a positive or good feedback are: ¤ Feedback should be multi-dimensional. It should give enough data to the person receiving the feedback so that he may understand it correctly. For example, teacher gives different feedback through class tests and preparation exams. ¤ Feedback should be non-evaluative. It should not tell how person has been compared or j u d g e d . It should simply tell what the candidate should do to do even better. For example, teacher does not compare one student with the other. All are individually performing according to their capacity. ¤ Feedback should be supportive. Recipient of the feedback should not feel criticized and bad about it. For example, a coach tells the player exactly how to deliver a service or make a throw or kick the ball or finish the run or what to do to build stamina. ¤ Feedback should be consistent. Feedback should be related to the details concerning candidate's performance. It should not be out of context. If multiple feedbacks are given then they should not contradict each other. For example, current feedback is related with the previous feedback and previous performance so that a progress can be evaluated. ¤ Feedback should be constructive. They should help the candidate feel confident and determined to do even better instead of feeling disheartened or discouraged. Teacher encourages you and motivates you to do better and gives you certain helping tips. ¤ Feedback should be timely. Timely feedback helps candidate correct the performance timely and with lesser efforts. For example, teacher gives you the feedback right after the test or coach does not wait for ten more matches before giving the feedback on the first game of the player. ¤ Feedback should be specific. It should not mix details and data of any other related performance or activity. For example, feedback is given in very short, precise sentences or even phrases. It is not unnecessarily elaborate like a story. It is clear, precise and compact. 5 13
Negative Feedback and its Impact Negative feedback is the process of conveying what should not have been done and how it should be corrected. It depends a lot on from whom the negative feedback is coming from. If it is coming from a respected individual such as elderly person, parents, effective team leader or admired senior then it will be welcomed but in many cases, negative feedback does not serve the purpose. ¤ Negative feedback is useful where corrective actions are needed to be conveyed. ¤ Negative feedback is also useful where processes are running in strict discipline such as medical operations, defence operations and very formal setups. ¤ In general communication, negative feedback needs to be given very carefully and should be supported with the suggestions and solutions to resolve the negative aspect. ¤ The attitude and the receptivity of the feedback taker determines whether negative feedback suits him/her or not. Negative feedback is useful for emotionally mature people. ¤ In cases where non-performance is a big issue, negative feedback is a must. ¤ Negative feedback should be given in private and respecting receiver’s privacy. ¤ Avoid comparisons in a negative feedback. This will only put a negative impact on the receiver. No one likes to be compared with others in such situations. ¤ Do not criticise. Structure the negative feedback with a constructive approach, useful suggestions and effective examples. ¤ If possible, combine negative feedback tactfully wih a positive feedback to ease down the receiver. Some examples of negative feedback are given here. ¤ ”Would that be fine with you to take up multiple projects or should you focus on one project at a time? What do you say?” ¤ You accomplished these targets as desired, let us see what were the barriers in achieving these targets which were left out. Let’s discuss.” ¤ ”Its not that you cannon accomplish this task but there are certain things you need o keep in mind.....” ¤ ”There are certain performance standards we need to meet to make this project acceptable by the clients since it is theior requirements. We do not have the liberty to compromise with them.” ¤ ”This the third time we are discussing on this issue and as we look deep into it , we come across same corrective actions needed to be taken. So, its necessary to not miss these actions and work with all determination in this direction. We might not get more chances to make it right again.” Descriptive Feedback – Oral and Written In certain cases, there is a mechanism of descriptive feedback which is a detailed exercise to train and improve the candidate or participant. This feedback is not very frequent but they are given at certain important time intervals. ¤ Descriptive feedback is the result of keen, objective observation and evaluation. For example, your teacher gives you feedback on you performance in the previous test so that you do better in you exams. The purpose of the feedback is to help the individual improve on what he/ she has already been doing. Hence, providing feedback is a very sensitive and delicate job. It should not sound like criticism or accusation. Tips for Providing Feedback ¤ First emphasise on positive feedback. ¤ Feedback should be about behaviour and attitude not the personality. ¤ Present the negatives tactfully and suggestions for improvement. 5 14
¤ Do not make personal comments. ¤ Provide solution to each negative finding. ¤ For detailed feedback, chose a calm, closed place where no one should disturb. ¤ Receive the response to feedback with an open mind. Tips for Receiving Feedback ¤ Do not interrupt the feedback giver. ¤ Listen to the feedback attentively, if possible make quick notes for later reference. ¤ Keep positive body language - posture, eye contact, facial expressions and voice. ¤ Understand that purpose of feedback is not criticism but help in further improvement. ¤ Be self-aware and in self-contro (emotional intelligence). Do not let emotions spoil the process. ¤ Ask short, specific questions if you have doubt in understanding some thing. If needed and possible, ask time to prepare for your response. Non-specific and Specific feedback Feedbacks are given in two modes: non-specific or general and specific feedback. General feedback is given at short terms or durations for quicker improvements. General feedback is also given to a group of candidates instead of individual (this could be done for specific feedback too sometimes). General feedback covers only the details which help you in improving and adapting quickly to what is required to perform better. For example, sports teacher says: You need to practice a little more about your backhand. Here, teacher has not specifically told you what is wrong with your backhand (when ball or shuttle comes at the hand with which you are not holding the bat or racket) but feedback told you to play more shots at backhand. Specific feedback is usually given to an individual or a small group of candidates. It specifies the information in detail and provides solutions for improvement. Specific feedback is suggestive also, that means, with the feedback you get the advise and suggestion to eliminate the problem and improve better. For example, teacher says: Bring your hand a little down with wrist bent upwards while playing backhand. Here, with the problem, a solution is provided too. Another example is when teacher says: If you revise the answer sheet before submitting, you can secure at least 10 more marks. Activity Give and receive feedback: A few students should prepare and present a topic in classroom for 5 minutes. Rest of the class will note down their observations to provide some positive and negative feedback to the speaker after presentation. Students must use the feedback giving skills in doing so. Teacher must intervene where ever required. Presenter must show feedback receiving a skills and questions to the feedback givers to clarify any doubts. Debriefing: After the above activity, teacher will again reinforce about feedback giving and taking skills as well as how the activity went. EXERCISE Answer the following questions in brief: 1. What is the role of feedback in communication cycle? 2. How should we perform feedback gathering during communication cycle? 5 15
3. List 4 examples of providing feedback. 4. List the advantages of feedback in brief. 5. List 4 major skills of giving and receiving feedback. 6. What is the basic difference between specific and general feedback? Session-3 Communication Barriers and Its Measures Communication Barriers We have learnt about barriers to effective communication earlier. To quickly summarise it, let us do a short recap. There are several factors that constantly function as barriers for better communication. Physical conditions constitute the environment of communication. Hot or cold room, bad seating, poor light, defective communication medium, slow speed of internet while interacting online are environmental barriers in communication. These can be anticipated and taken care of in most of the cases. Noise, distractions of any sort, distance, undesired turn of events during the communication process are situational barriers which are sometimes difficult to anticipate and need to be handled deftly as they occur. We tend to jump to conclusions. Mind wanders while listening. Emotional state, patience level, temperament, liking and disliking of the communicators are some barriers in effective listening. Unprejudiced, fair and attentive listening is a skill that can be developed slowly for successful receiving and decoding of the message. The parties or groups involved in the process of communication may exhibit following behavioural or personal traits which act as barriers to effective communication: ¤ Behaviour due to age difference, attitude, gender, cultural difference, professional and social differences etc. ¤ How proficient are the sender and receiver in the language in which communication is being done? ¤ Ailments, disappointments due to some other reasons, personal grudges against people, hidden intentions, hostile agendas. Where Do Communication Barriers Come From? No matter what kind of communication is taking place, there are always certain barriers which arise. Let us understand the reasons that cause these barriers. Language: Not using simple, non-ambiguous, clear and relevant language. Think of a doctor briefing a patient in pure medical terms or a lawyer doing so in legal terms with his client? Why do we need teachers when we have books already? Teacher explains the concepts in simple manner so that when you read the book, you understand what is written. Inappropriate emotions: Think of explaining your point to your angry friend. Would he/ or she understand? No. He/ she is not in the state of mind to understand reason so wiat for the things to calm down. 5 16
Lack of attention: We get distracted easily. As a listener it is our duty to listen to what is being told attentively. Do you remember a instance where you were distracted by something happening outside the window of your classroom and could not get what teacher had been saying? Perceptions and prejudice: The image and impression of the other person makes us prejudiced towards him and we judge according to it what he/ she says. If we think that the other person is dishonest or liar, we shall not trust what he/ she says. Prejudice towards race, religion, region, gender, age and castes are greatest barriers of communication and should be avoided. Physical challenges: Disability in hearing or challenge in speech are physical condition barriers. Body language and non-verbal cues: Many times we avoid or misinterpret posture, gesture, expressions and voice intonations. A person looking dull may be ill or not well but still be interested in what you have to say. A person giving cold handshake may still be prepared for meeting and confident. Cultural and language differences: Difference in accent, pronunciations, customs, use of idioms and phrases, use of figures of speech and differences in body language create barriers in encoding and decoding the messages during communication. Over expectations: Sometimes we expect more than what is required from the communicator. If teacher says Tomorrow we will have little fun. then we expect that he/ she will not teach tomorrow while actually he/ she planned to do an interesting activity to teach a new concept. Noise: This refers to the physical noise as well as any reason that creates difficulty in getting the message clearly such as bad handwriting, incomplete message, difficult language or vocabulary, poor telephone connection, misprints, torn or old papers bad internet connection etc. Physical barriers: Distance, location and physical setup of the place where communication is taking place make communication difficult. Sometimes teacher needs to shout at the din created by the students in the class. In a big hall, it becomes difficult sometimes for the audience sitting at the back to hear what is said by the speaker. Overcoming Barriers to Communication If you understand the reasons that cause communication barriers, you can easily overcome them. Let us see how we can overcome communication barriers: Be prepared always: Every performance needs preparation and practice. Effective communication is no less than a performance and you need to be very clear what should be discussed about. All participants of a communication cycle need to be clear on the agenda and objectives of communication. Lack of preparation leads to misinterpretations, misunderstandings, lack of self-confidence and incomplete messages. Language competency and usage: Communicate in clear and simple language. With suitable language we connect with others easily and people understand us easily. This builds better trust among people and the environment of communication becomes comfortable and conducive for successful communication. Right mood, attitude and behaviour: Every kind of communication requires a particular mood and attitude. Our emotions should not spoil the communication process. We should show emotional intelligence during communication and avoid being to emotional or showing negative attitude. Think of an attentive class. It will always be more receptive of what teacher is explaining than a class which is not ready to listen. Drop prejudices and assumptions: Do not let earlier impressions and unnecessary assumption affect the communication. Come above the differences of caste, region, religion, gender and age while communicating. 5 17
Careful handling of cultural differences: While communicating with the people from different culture, country or region, if possible, do some homework on their customs and general etiquettes before beginning with the communication. Be very polite and humble. Respect and humility are the major qualities people seek in such scenarios. Knowledge of local customs and preferences help a lot in cross-cultural communication. Handling physical challenges: Be wary of the physical conditions of the participants like challenges in hearing and speaking. This also needs careful and polite handling. Make good use of your speaking skills, suitable pauses and clear pronunciation of keywords. Pace of the speech and volume can be adjusted according to the need of the receiver. Show patience to such participants. Setting up expectations and agenda: Before starting with the communication, establish the reason and purpose of communication so that people should not over or under expect. Doing this helps in smooth communication and easy understanding of the messages exchanged. For example, teacher lets us know the learning outcomes of the topic to be learnt so that we know what we are going to achieve after the topic is over. Body Language: While observing the body language of others, take care of your own body language too. Is you posture right as you sit, walk or stand? Is your eye contact reflecting confidence? Are you expressions complimenting your speech? Are your gestures polite, confident, open, comforting, supporting or going against what you are speaking? Is your voice commanding, too demanding, too polite, rude, reflecting lack of confidence, too loud? Overall, your body should not betray what you communicate. Condition and use of medium of communication: Ensure that communication medium is suitable and works well. In oral, in-person communication there should not be distraction and audible noise. In other kind of communications the equipment, connection medium, technology, and network should work as desired otherwise they spoil the purpose of communication. Activity Activity 1: Language as Communication Barrier Prepare a topic so that you present using toughest and rarest of keywords, terms and examples. After explaining, ask the students if they have understood it. Those who have not, ask them the reason. Then explain the same topic in a simple language. Ask the difference and elaborate on the importance of language in communication. Activity 2: Unpreparedness as Communication Barrier Display on the board certain tasks to be done by the students. Keep the details of the tasks incomplete or missing. Let the students come up with natural questions to understand the tasks. Later explain them drawbacks of unprepared communication and importance of asking questions. EXERCISE Answer the following questions in brief: 1. Is it true that every communication may have certain barriers? How? 2. How do communication barriers adversely affect communication cycle? 3. List certain major communication barriers in day to day communication. 4. List major ways to overcome common communication barriers. 5. List some day-to-day real life communication barriers you have observed. 6. How does body language pose barriers in communication? How can we take care of it? 5 18
Session-4 Principles of Effective Communication Effective Communication Ability to express ideas in the most effective way to bring out desired results is the core of communication skills. Effective communication promotes understanding, aids in decision making and developing good relationships with others. Do the following for effective communication: ¤ A communication code is mutually agreed. How and in which manner the communication should proceed is very much important. The language, environment and mode of communication also constitute the code of communication. ¤ When the message is encoded well. Clear, complete and correct message is the strength of communication. This ensures right intention and purpose of the message is communicated. ¤ Receiver of the message is responsible for how well message is being received and interpreted. Better listening, suitable attention, understanding of the purpose of the communication and a considerate temperament are the keys to correctly decode the message and avoid jumping to conclusions or falling prey to misinterpretations. ¤ How suitable is receiver's response to the communicated message? This decides further progress of successful communication. Characteristics of Effective Communication ¤ Communication should be clear in content and purpose. ¤ Communication should be complete with least scope of questions. ¤ Communication should be based on right facts and should not be vague. ¤ Written communication should be concise and to-the-point. ¤ Good communication develops relationships, promotes confidence and creates goodwill. ¤ Effective communication leads to desired output and achievements. ¤ Effective communication establishes responsibility and accountability. ¤ It provides right kind of persuasion, guidance and consultation. 7 Cs of Effective Communication In the vast sea of wisdom about communication let us find out the pearls of 7 Cs of effectively communication. An effectively communicated idea or message has following qualities: Complete Message (avoids confusion, ensures desired response) What could happen if communication is incomplete? How do you determine that message is complete? it sounds difficult but, in fact, it is fairly simple. If you can answer following questions regarding your message, you will never encode an incomplete message: Who this message is meant for and who all will be affected by it? - Recipients/ audience What exactly do you need to convey through your message? - Agenda or objectives When is the right time to communicate the message? - Time and duration Where are the participants of this communication cycle? - Location and availability Why do you need to do this communication? - Purpose How are you going to communicate? - Method 5 19
Concise Message (saves time, promotes understanding) Concise means to-the-point, appropriately sized. Depending on the kind of communication, the duration and contents of the messages need to be determined. A too long message leads to confusion and misunderstanding. A too short message leaves doubts and questions. Concise message contains necessary and relevant information. Considerate Message (promotes good relationships, develops good rapport) Consideration is an important quality for a good communicator. Keep the recipient of the message in mind when you communicate. When we convey a message to someone, we keep the kind of person and audience in mind. Your message should be encoded in such a way that it meets the requirements of the recipient. Clear Message (promotes understanding, avoids repeat messaging) A clear message has simple language and it avoids ambiguous, confusing terms. Sentences are short and simple. Facts are informed in a language easily understood by all. If there are instructions, they are in right logical order. A clear message leaves less room for doubts and any questions to be asked. Concrete Message (prevent misinterpretations, promotes clarity) A concrete message mentions expected outcomes of the communication. Concrete message focuses on the central idea and purpose of the communication and avoids unnecessary details to prevent distractions. Courteous Message (develops good relationships, promotes mutual benefits) Regard and respect for others is the inherent quality of being a human. Politeness, humility, regard and respect in communication promote healthy relationships and mutually beneficial outcomes. A courteous message many times wins over the situation and leaves a lasting good impression on the recipients. Correct Message (promotes trust, enriches relationships) All the above Cs fail if message is incorrect. Incorrect message is considered as a lie told and may lead to serious implications. In personal life it leads to misunderstandings and mistrust. In professional lives it may lead to lawsuits and loss of goodwill and business. Before communicating, check the facts. Confirm the data before sending it across. If a message is conveyed incorrectly and you discover it later, your immediate corrective action should be to broadcast an apology to all and place the correct message. In first place, this should be avoided by ensuring that correct message is being communicated. Activity Group discussion on Qualities of a good communicator. After discussing the 7 Cs of effective communication with the students, create groups of 4-5 students and let them discuss the above topic. Later the group leader should present the main facts and findings of the discussion. Teacher must play the role of the facilitator in this activity. 5 20
EXERCISE Answer the following questions in brief: 1. How can you say that a communication done is effective? Take a small example. 2. What factors determine an effective communication? 3. List any 5 characteristics of effective communication. 4. List 7 Cs of effective communication. Session-5 Basic Writing Skills Verbal communicating in written form is one of the most effective ways to convey your message. Written communication requires time to shape your message before sending. This makes written communication formal in nature. Writing messages needs care since they can be used as evidence and are the proof of any commitments we make. An effective written communication needs suitable vocabulary, suitable sequence of ideas, right flow of language and cohesion in overall message. Basic writing skills can be developed by working on a basic idea first. The command on the language of communication is a must. If it is not there, we must learn it. Basic writing skills involve ability to: ¤ Understand and use basic grammar. ¤ Describe people, situations, experiences, weather, incidents etc. ¤ Framing simple, short sentences. ¤ Expressing feelings, ideas. likes, dislikes etc. ¤ Beginning or opening the piece of writing. ¤ Ending or concluding the piece of writing. Phrase A set of words that indicates some object or action but does not makes complete sense is called a phrase while a group of words that makes complete sense is called a sentence. A phrase is a part of a sentence. For example: Phrase: a red bicycle Sentence: Lata is riding a red bicycle. The monkey is sitting on the tree. Phrase: is sitting Sentence: Rita has composed a poetry. They are planning a trip to Goa. Phrase: has composed Sentence: Phrase: Planning a trip Sentence: Types of Phrase Phrases can be noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase, adverbial and prepositional. Noun phrase: Indicates a noun. E.g. The child is playing with his toy car. Verb phrase: Indicates main and helping verbs. E.g. He is eating his lunch. Adjective phrase: Includes adjectives and/or articles. E.g. Keep this red hat on the metal chair. Adverbial phrase: Indicates adverbs. E.g. The thief jumped through the window very quietly. Prepositional phrase: Includes a preposition followed by a noun. E.g. The cat is under the hat. Understanding Parts of Speech in English Consider this paragraph: Ravi looked intently at the red book kept on the wooden table. He quickly picked it up but thought of reading it later. Noun, verb, adjective, adverb and preposition etc. are called class or part of speech. 5 21
There are 8 parts of speech explained here: Noun: Name of a person, place, thing, event, animal or idea. For example, in the above sentence, Ravi, book and table are nouns. Names and titles are usually proper nouns. Rest are called common nouns. Pronoun: Pronoun is used in the place of a noun. For example, in the above sentence, he and it are pronouns as they refer to the book and the table respectively. Verb: An action or state of being is called verb. Like, looked, kept, picked, thought and reading are verbs in the above sentence. Adjective: It describes a noun or pronoun. In above sentence, red and wooden are adjectives. Adverb: It describes a verb, another adverb or adjective. Intently and quickly are adverbs in the above sentence. Preposition: It shows the relationship of one noun, pronoun or noun phrase with other. In the above sentence, at and on are prepositions. Conjunction: It connects two words, phrases or sentences. In the above sentence, but is a conjunction. And, or are also examples of conjunction. Interjection: It reflects strong emotions, followed by exclamation sign (!). Like, Oh!, Hey!, Wow! EXERCISE A. Identify the types of phrase in the following paragraph: Lata was pleasantly surprised on meeting her friend Anu at the airport. Anu had been sitting in the waiting lounge when Lata spotted her. They both shared a lot of experiences of their exciting lives after marriage. Anu said that time flied very fast. They boarded the same flight bound to Mumbai. B. Identify the parts of speech in the following paragraph: There was a girl named Anna who lived with her poor mother. On the occasion of new year, her mother thought of buying Anna a set of colourful ribbons since Anna had beautiful, long hair. Anna loved her mother very much. She was also thinking of buying a beautiful gift for her mother. Her mother used to sew clothes for the villagers. She had a set of needles and threads which was too old. Anna wished to buy a new set of needles and threads encased in a shining new glass box for her mother but she did not have enough money. Suddenly, she got an idea. On the eve of new year, Anna’s mother called her and said, “Look Anna, what have I got for you, a set of hair ribbons!” Anna said, “Wow! mother, they are really beautiful but alas!” Saying this she removed her cap and showed her short hair and said, “Mother, I bought this set of new needles and threads for you by selling my long hair to the barber.” Sentence When a group of words are arranged in such a way that it conveys the complete meaning of an idea then such group of words is called a sentence. Examples: 1. Bird flies. 2. What is your name? 3. I am going to the market. 4. Please give me a glass of water. 5. We have made it to the finals! Kinds of sentences Sentences are basically categorised into 4: Assertive sentence state the fact. They are also called declarative sentences. E.g. His name is Ravi. Sun rises in the East. 5 22
Interrogative sentence asks a question or enquires about something. Such sentences end with a question mark. E.g. What do you want? In which class do you study? Imperative sentence makes a request or issues instructions or command. E.g. Please get aside. Submit the assignment by end if this week. Exclamatory sentence expresses strong emotions. Such sentence end with an exclamatory mark. E.g. I am so excited about tomorrow’s match! You did just great! Kinds of sentences - on the basis of their structure On basis of their structure, sentences are of following 4 types: Simple sentence talks about one particular thing. It has only one main clause. E.g. i. Goa is a beautiful travel destination. ii. I study in class tenth. iii. Chandigarh is a union territory. Note: An independent clause provides complete meaning of an idea and stands out as a complete sentence while a subordinate clause does not fully express an idea. Compound sentence has at least two main, independent clauses and may have subordinate clauses. All clauses are separated by conjunctions (like and, but, while, when, which, whereas, therefore etc.) E.g. I would like to have a coke or a cold coffee. (two main clauses joint.) I own the hotel which in the center of the main market. Here, own the hotel is main clause and is in the center is subordinate clause. Both are joined by the conjunction which. Some other examples are: I will try to finish the meal but I am not feeling hungry. We reached the restaurant but it was already closed so we went to a highway dhaba. [first clause is independent, second is subordinate and third is independent] Though he prepared well for the exam he could not appear in it as he fell ill. [first clause is independent, second is subordinate and third is independent] Complex sentence has only one main clause and at least one subordinate clause.. E.g. She was not happy with Ravi because he was late for work. [first clause is main and second one is subordinate] Because Ravi was late for work she was not happy with him. [first clause is subordinate and second one is main] Note: If a complex sentence has only one main clause then it is called principal clause. Some other examples with main clause italicised are: He did not get the book issued after he noticed it was damaged. Trees are a boon for us because they release carbon dioxide. As he was hard working he was quickly promoted to next rank. Compound-complex sentence: A compound-complex sentence is a combination of a compound and complex sentence. It has two or more independent clauses and at least one dependent clause. E.g. i. My car broke down so I took a taxi because I was getting late. Here, my car broke down is dependent clause and I took a taxi and I was getting late are independent clauses. ii. Although I got late but I kept running, in fact, I caught the bus just in time. 5 23
Subject and Predicate A sentence is composed of two main parts: subject and predicate. Subject is usually the noun about which sentence is talking about and rest of the part is called predicate. For example, Dogs bark Here, dogs is subject and bark is predicate. The sun rises in the East. The sun - subject, rest is predeicate. A subject can be elaborated using a qualifying word like a noun or adjective. E.g. The red chair is kept in the lawn. Here, chairs are described red. A predicate can also be elaborated using a qualifying word called extension. E.g. He ran disparately to catch the leaving bus. EXERCISE A. Identify main clause and conjunctions in following Complex Sentences: 1. The science show was very interesting, as I expected. 2. Now that he's rich and famous, people like even his idiosyncrasies. 3. Even though he trained thoroughly, he still could not win the race. 4. Since winter is coming, I think I'll knit a warm sweater, because I'm always cold. 5. When she was younger, she believed in fairy tales. B. How can you say that following sentences are compound sentences: 1. She walked to class, but Ravi ran. 2. I like pizza, but my brother likes green vegetables. 3. The nurse held up a doll, and the little girl giggled. Articles Articles modify a noun. Articles could be indefinite and definite. Indefinite articles: A and an are indefinite articles which are used with singular noun. They signify a noun generally not in particular or specifically. For example, There bought a book. I saw an aeroplane. Note: Article an is used before vowel sounds and a is used before a consonant sound. For example, He eats an apple daily. Butterfly is an insect. Definite Article: The is definite article. It is used before a specific or known noun. It is also used before the names of non-living things, religious books, newspapers and magazines etc. For example, Ram is riding a bicycle. The bicycle is red in colour. (specific noun bicycle). Anu is the head girl of her school. (specifically Anu). Washington, D.C. is the capital of the United States of America. Note: The is generally not used before abstract nouns, plural nouns, proper nouns, names of metals, colours, games etc. Examples: Diamonds are precious than gold. Both Ravi and Raj went on a picnic today. I like to play tennis on the weekends. She is wearing blue jeans. 5 24
EXERCISE A. Fill in the blanks with the suitable article: 1. He picked up ________ book kept on the table. 2. ____ Indian Ocean is a huge water body. 3. My uncle is ___ MP. 4. My father gave me ____ hundred rupees note. 5. I am staying in ____ Taj Hotel. B. Is there anything wrong with these sentences? Why?/ Why not? 1. My brother plays cricket. 2. She likes chocolates. 3. Everything that glitters is not gold. 4. I returned the book to Ram. 5. Breakfast is ready. 6. My favourite colour is blue. Capitalisation Capitalisation usually means keeping the first letter of the first word in a sentence capital. As the basic rules of English, you know that first letter of a new sentence is capitalised and proper nouns are also capitlised. Let us see capitalisation rules in a little more detail. 1. Names and proper nouns are capitalised. E.g. We visited the Taj Mahal at Agra. 2. Capitalise the first word if text is enclosed in quotation marks. This is applicable if whole text is a quote. 3. Capitalise pronoun “I”. 4. Capitalise relationships when used with proper nouns. E.g. Uncle Raj visited us yesterday. 5. Salutations and titles (only before names) are capitalised. E.g. President Kovind, Prime Minister Sri. Narendra Modi. 6. Capitalise directions. 7. Seasons are not proper nouns hence should not be capitalised. 8. The words except articles, conjunctions and prepositions, are capitalised in a title. E.g. Fundamentals of Paragraph Writing in a Nutshell. 9. Time periods and events should be capitalised. E.g. The impact of World War II was drastic. 10. After colon, capitalisation is not necessary. Punctuations Punctuations make the text readable. Even a basic, simple text needs a punctuation. Examples of punctuation marks are full stop or period (.), comma (,), questions mark (?), exclamation marks (!), colon (:), semi-colon (;), hyphen (-), en dash (double the length of hyphen), em dash (slightly bigger than en dash, various types of brackets (square brackets - [], braces - {}, parentheses - ()), apostrohe (’), single quotes (‘’), double quotes (“”). Some common rules of punctuations are discussed here. 1. Full stops mark the end of a sentence (long pause while reading). 2. Commas and semi-colons are used to separate pieces of text or items. (Short pause while reading). E.g. I visited New Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai and Nainital. 5 25
I visited Jantar Mantar, New Delhi; Hazratganj, Lucknow; Juhu beach, Mumbai and Bhimtal, Nainital. E.g. Marks of both the exams, Term-1 and Term-2, will be counted. 3. Main clause can be followed by a colon. E.g. You have to choices here: Chocolate milk or Banana smoothie. 4. Parentheses complete the information or sentence in certain cases. E.g. Programming languages (Python, C++) and Operating Systems (Windows, Linux) form major part of this course. 5. Possession and omissions are indicated by apostrophe. E.g. This is entirely Ramesh’s responsibility to finish this task. She visted her parents’ house last week. This doesn’t seem to be a good idea to stay out late in rainy season. Brief Introduction to Direct and Indirect Speech When we report the message in the words of the speaker then it is called direct speech and when we do so in our own words then, it is called indirect speech. E.g. Direct: Ravi said, “I am reading.” Indirect: Ravi said that he was reading. Converting Direct to Indirect Speech 1. Convert all present tenses into past if reporting verb of the speech is in past. E.g. Mother said, “I am having dinner.” Mother said that she was having dinner. 2. Do not change the speech if it is a universal truth or accepted practice. E.g. The teacher told us, “Sun rises in the east.” The teacher told us that the sun rises in the east. 3. Change present perfect tense to past perfect, simple present to simple past, simple past to past perfect, past continuous to past perfect, future to present conditional. E.g. i. The peon informed me, “The file has been missing.” I was informed by the peon that the file had been lost. ii. She told me, “I am going to the market.” She told me that she was going to the market. iii. The carpenter said, “I have painted the door.” The carpenter said that he had painted the door. iv. He said, “I was playing chess.” He said that je had been playing chess. v. “I will be reaching the town by sunset”, she informed us. We were informed by her that she would be reaching the town by sunset. 4. Change can to could, may to might and must to had to or would have to. E.g. i. I said, “I can create a website.” I said that I could create a website. ii. Raj said to Anita, “I may consider your proposal.” Raj told Anita that he could consider her proposal. iii. Ajit said, “I must speak to mother.” Ajit said that he had to speak to mother. 5 26
5. Do not convert could, would, should, might, ought to. E.g.Anu said, “I should get up early tomorrow.” Anu said that she should get up early tomorrow. 6. Some other conversions: i. “Which class you are in?”, uncle asked me. Uncle enquired which class I was in. ii. She said, “Are you free on this weekend? She asked whether I was free this weekend. iii. Raj says, “Anu paints well.” Raj says that Anu paints well. iv. He said to the students, “Submit the answer sheets.” He asked the students to submit the answer sheets. v. The counsel said to the witness, “Stand up.” The counsel ordered the witness to stand up. vi. He said, “Hurrah! We won the match.” He exclaimed cheerfully (or happily) that they won the match. Some conversion tips are – Now > then, Here > there, Ago > before, Thus > so, Today > that day, Tomorrow > the next day, This > that, Yesterday> the day before, These > those, Hither > thither, Hence > thence, Next week > following week (same for month or year) Rules for converting Indirect to Direct Speech · Use comma before the statement and the first letter of the statement should be capitalised. · Ensure to use the reporting verb in its correct tense. · Where ever required, remove the conjunctions. · Change past tense of reporting verb to present tense. · Change the past perfect tense either into present perfect tense or past tense. · Use question mark, quotation marks, exclamation mark and full stop suitably. Brief Introduction to Active Voice and Passive Voice The voice of a verb in a sentence denotes whether or not a subject has performed some action or any action is performed on the verb. E.g. i. Sarla cooks food. ii. Food is cooked by Sarla. Active Voice: When the subject in a sentence performs some action then it is called active voice. Here, the focus is more on the subject. E.g. i. The cat drank all the milk. ii. The children are making a lot of noise. Passive Voice: When the subject in a sentence receives some action by the verb then it is called passive voice. Here, the focus is more on verb (action). E.g. i. All the milk was drunk by the cat. ii. A lot of noise is being made by the children. Some more examples are: · Raj sent an email. (Subject + Verb + Object) An email was sent by Raj. (Object) + (auxiliary verb) + (past participle) + (by subject). 5 27
· She plants a tree. (Subject + Verb + Object) The tree is planted by her. (Object) + (auxiliary verb) + (past participle) + (by subject). Converting Active to Passive Voice 1. Interchange subject and object. E.g. Ramaa (subject) sings a song (object). The song is sung by Ramaa. 2. If it is obvious or if the doer is not important then doer can be omitted. E.g. We should follow the traffic rules. The traffic rules should be followed. 3. Use “to” or “with” besides “by” E.g. I know Mr. Verma from my school days. Mr. Sharma is known to me from my school days. 4. Change the pronouns usually like this: I > Me, We > Us, He > Him, She > Her, They > Them. “You” and “It” will remain unchanged. 5. Use suitable auxiliary verbs. E.g. i. He was riding the bicycle. The bicycle was being ridden by him. ii. He watches a movie. The movie is watched by him. iii. They both kicked the ball together. The ball was kicked by them together. iv. Has Ravi finished the homework? Has the homework been finished by Ravi? v. Have they taken the dinner? Has the dinner been taken by them? vi. We had asked him to stay calm. He had been asked by us to stay calm. vii. They will board the bus in a while. The bus will be boarded by them in a while. viii. Father will have taken medicine. The medicine will have been taken by father. Paragraph Writing Paragraph is the fundamental unit of composition. A paragraph is a set of sentences arranged in a logical sequence. A paragraph describes a topic or a subject. While writing a paragraph we must consider the following: Topic of the paragraph: The topic on which the paragraph needs to be written should be clear. Opening sentence: A paragraph should begin with the main or topic sentence that clears about the title of the paragraph. Expansion or explanation: This part includes the sentences which elaborate on the topic more. Conclusion: Paragraph should end properly with a closing sentence or conclusion. Here, the first sentence is topic sentence and last one is the concluding sentence. 5 28
Rules for Writing A Paragraph ¤ Keep the paragraph focused on the topic. ¤ Arrange the sentence in a logical sequence. ¤ Avoid longer paragraphs. ¤ Avoid repeating sentences. ¤ Topic sentence should be relevant. ¤ Concluding paragraph should cover the central idea of the topic. Activity Write a short paragraph about Importance of English language in modern world. EXERCISE Write a paragraph with a topic on the following hints: traveling... a good hobby... opportunity to visit new places.... make friends in far places... to learn about various cultures.... good for health.... can write about places travelled.... blog... articles.... develops understanding.... inculcates good habits... patience... care.... love and concern... improves personality....expensive hobby... needs a lot of time... 1. Describe briefly how we can ensure effective verbal communication. 2. How is active listening important in verbal communication? 3. How does body language affects our non-verbal communication? 4. List some positive body language signs concerning body posture, gestures, expressions, eye contact, touch, personal space and voice. 5. How is visual communication different from general communication we do day-to-day? 6. What important role does feedback play in effective communication? 7. List certain ways of giving and receiving feedback. 8. How are general and specific feedback different? What is the advantage of specific feedback? 9. What do you mean by communication barriers? How can we overcome these barriers? 10. Describe some important principles of effective communication. 11. Describe any 7 Cs of effective communication. 12. What do you mean by complete, concise and concrete message? 13. How is a phrase different from a sentence? Give 2 examples. 14. Giving 2 example each, explain compound and complex sentence. 15. How does articles differ in usage for consonants and vowels? Explain with 2 examples. Download MCQs and more questions from https://www.eduitspl.com/teachers-corner-2 5 29
Unit Self-Management 2 Skills - II Session-1 Stress and Its Effects In last class, we have already discovered about the importance of self-management, its key elements and self-confidence. Now we know that managing oneself in order to achieve desired goals and targets is called self-management. Understanding Stress A person practicing self-management is actually following a highly disciplined regime which needs a great deal of will power, determination and positive outlook. In this highly competitive world and strenous life style, even students are not spared from the negative influence of stress in their lives. Day to day stress is the outcome of many reasons such as covering the curriculum to study, co- curricular activities, preparation for exams and competitions. On professional front too, if you observe your elders, they go through a lot of stress. How Stress Management Helps Us? If you learn to manage your stress well it would be beneficial in many ways. Managing stress can help you in following ways: ¤ Sleep is necessary for health. Managing stress helps in having good sleep. ¤ Stress leads to unhealthy eating habits and the problems that accompany it such as weight gain. Managing stress in a proper way helps in controlling weight through improved eating habits. ¤ Healthier mind and body can be gained with stress management. ¤ Good health and good sleep brings confidence and energy to do better. ¤ Lesser physical stress leads to improved productivity in everything you do. ¤ Personality becomes cheerful, happy and attractive. ¤ Person gets along better with family and friends. Types of Stress Stress is always bad is not true. There is something called good or positive stress is also there which is known as eustress while negative form of stress is called distress. Response to stress differs from person to person. Eustress is identified by excitement, elation and charging up of emotions. How did you feel when you got promoted to the higher class? 5 30
Happy, excited, elated. That was eustress. When we achieve something, say, promotion, winning a match, passing an exam, meeting an old friend, buying new possession, receiving a surprise gift, getting a new job etc. lead to eustress. Eustress promots positive feelings like motivation, positive energy, excitement. But eustress is generally short term. The negative stress i.e. distress takes a nasty form if it is not identified in time. We shall be discussing distress in detail in coming sections. Activity Let students recall when last they were distressed and let them write down the possible reasons behind it. If some students wish to share their list they can. Then teacher should elaborate and explain on the findings. Common Effects of Stress Positive feelings from eustress lead to positive consequences like increased performance, good focus on the tasks at hand, feeling rejuvinated, eagerness to do better. This increases productivity and chances of bigger achievements. Distress is the reaction of our body to the harmfull situations. These situations could be real or they could be out of our imagination only. Distress affects us physically as well as psychologically. Common physical effects of distress: Headache, Muscular tension, Fartigue, Chest pain, Upset stomach, Disturbed sleep and Low energy. Common psychological effects of distress: Anxiety, Feeling demotivated, Loss of attention Depression and frustration, Angry outbursts, Drug and alcohol abuse, Social withdrawal, Over reaction. Consequences of Long Term Distress Impact of stress depends from person to person. Some people are able to handle good amount of stress while others are not. It depends on age, profession, living conditions, health and will power. Stress steps in very silently in our life style. What we take as the normal routine of our daily life is actually the invitation to stress. A little distress is of little concern. It goes as easily as it comes. Long term distress, however, affects us adversly. Long term distress is also called chronic distress. Distress Due to Work The kind of profession you are in determines the amount of stress you experience. Similarly, for students, the amount of study and tasks at hand determines stress for them. As children grow up and as responsibilites and discipline step in, some sort of distress steps in too. The number and depth of the subjects increase, performance expectations go up, so does the competition. A growing up child has a lot to cope up with physically and mentally. But most of this stress is not long term. Anxiety for stress remains for a few days. Pressure of studies is balanced by school timetable and self-study timetable. Other activities are planned accordingly and the overall stress situation can be handled. But, certain unfortunate events like death of a loved one, cyberbullying or bullying at school, ragging in hostels, accident, fatal disease, emotional distress sometimes cause long term distress and spoil child's mental and physical health. For professionals, stress goes hand- in-hand. Some common reasons for work related distress are higher performance expectations at work, closer deadlines, insecurity of job, internal team conflicts, relationship and differences with supervisor, travel conditons, lack of competency in doing the job at hand, delayed or held up salary, 5 31
nature of job like touring, longer or odd hours, concerns related to job satisfaction. Stress for working mothers is more. Taking care of domestic front - children and home making becomes challenging. Balacing with relations, friends and work causes a great deal of stress. That does not mean that there is no distress casued to the women who do not work outside. Daily domestic chores demand a lot of physical stamina. Internal Distress Anxiety, fear of impending disaster such as huge financial loss like bankruptsy, repeated and overflowing thoughts of worry and concern, unrealistic or irrelevant expectations, worries related to future happennings such as a diagnosis of a fatal desease. Internal distress is dangerous as it keeps building up inside and slowly, it takes the form of a sort of habit. If not taken care of timely, it goes beyond control and leads to physical conditions like head, heart ache, insomnia, memory loss, chronic anxiety, high blood pressure and loss of focus. Stress Due to Surroundings Our surroundings and environment can be the cause of eustress or distress. It depends on the quality of environment. When we talk about environment, there are following two aspects: Quality of surroundings: ¤ Noisy/ Quiet - whether you stay in a noisy place like market, main road etc. or not. ¤ Clean/ Dirty - how clean or dirty is the place. ¤ Polluted/ Clean - air and water quality of the place. Especially air (near or far than any industrial area etc.). ¤ Crowded/ Organised - whether you live in a well organised colony of houses or not. ¤ Quality of life (food, water, electricity and other amenities). Work and living conditions: ¤ Quiet/ Distractions - you work among distractions or on a suitably placed seat. ¤ Congested work place/ Spacious or Ergonmically desgined. ¤ Interaction and relationship with people (coworkers/ family members/ neighbours). ¤ Tidy/ Shabby - place is well kept or how tidy are you yourself. Stress Due to Sudden Need of Survival In certain cases, disaster strikes suddenly. For instance, accident, earthquake or any life threatening situation. In such emergent situations, our nervous system instantly kicks into action as an autonomous fight (face), flight (defence) or freeze (surrender) response. One part of our autonomic nervous system - sympathetic nervous system takes control of fight-or-flight response by activating the release of a hormone epinephrine (pro: epi-nef-reen). This prepares the body for violent response. Body energy boosts up and body muscles prepare for the action. Entire body is influenced by this - limbs shake, heart beat increases, muscles become tense, mouth gets dry, liver function boosts up, blood vessels constrict, eye pupils dilate and reflexes become sharp. After the response is through, parasympathetic nervous system helps body to return to normal condition called homeostasis by activating the release of acetylcholine (pro: aset-il-kolin). 5 32
In freeze response, body is unable to respond for certain duration until the danger passes or the victim succumbs to the danger. This response triggers when impending danger seems too much to deal with. It also triggers during certain very normal situations too such as public speaking, and answering questions orally during tests. EXERCISE Answer the following question: 1. What do you mean by stress? What is the difference between eustress and distress? 2. List some common symptoms of physical and psycological stress. 3. List some distress symptoms due to over-work or over-study. 4. How does stress affect working women? 5. What do you mean by internal stress? 6. What is fight-flight-freeze response? Session-2 Stress Management Techniques Stress is a phenomenon which cannot be eradicated. We need to learn how to manage it. Certain professions such as police, defense forces, fire fighting etc. train the individuals to deal with all kind of stress. School time table and schedule is prepared in such a way that various kinds of periods in a day include classroom activities, laboratory, outdoor activities. Movie shows, science exhibitions, story reading sessions, contests and competitions, sports events, performing arts (singing, drama, dance) events are the examples of stress busting activities which also help in personality development and creativity promotion for students. The ABC of Stress According to Dr. Martin Seligman's (professor, University of Pennsylvania and former president of the American Psychological Association) book, \"Learned Optimism.\" Stress management involves 3 aspects summed up as ABC, which stands for: Adversity: It is any scenario or event we face. Such events activate our nervous system to respond to the stress caused by them. Beliefs: How we deal with the adversities and hardships and how we think about them develops our belief system. Consequences: This belief system influences our actions in near future and due course of life. Pessimistic people deal with adversities taking them as temporary phases and plan to counter them methodically while optimistic people take adversity as a permanent phase and lose confidence. With proper focus on the achievable goal, critical analysis of the situation and by dealing with each adversity specifically as per its nature helps develop positive attitude and confidence in dealing with the stress caused. 6 5 33
Understand the Origins of Stress Now, you know a lot about stress - what it is and where does it originate from in different scenarios. Identify the source of stress: This is the first steps to deal with stress. Ask these simple questions to yourself: ¤ What are the real reasons of my anxiety? (Are they real or imaginary?) ¤ Am I working under pressure for long? (Do I need a break?) ¤ Do I really feel right? (Am I not well or need to take medical advise?) ¤ Am I emotionally upset at something or someone? (Do I need to talk to someone?) ¤ Are my activities time-wasting? (Do I need to review my working or study plans?) For the imaginary threats, you yourself are responsible so it will be easier to handle. For real threats, you need to devise appropriate stress management techniques. Healthier Lifestyle Combination of positive habits and discipline prevents or reduces stress. In addition to this, indulgence of anything is harmful too. What are some common negative habits? ¤ Avoid smoking/ alcohol/ drugs. Ask yourself - is it very frequent or occasional? Smoking, drugs and alcohol should be quit. It is a myth that a quick smoke or a small peg or one shot of drug will provide relaxation. These are not medicines. ¤ Good eating habits. Do you overeat or undereat and when? What is the food quality? ¤ Develop good sleeping Habit. How much do you sleep? Is there a balance between being online, watching TV and sleeping? Are you ensuring at least 7 hours of sleep? ¤ Inculcate healthy hobbies. Pick up some creative hobbies that boost health and activate mind. Painting, creative arts, joining gym or any sports activity, yoga, laughter clubs, even spending quality time with your family and friends help relieve your stress. ¤ Keep good company. Try keeping away as much as you can from the people with negative thoughts, who always discourage or talk low-esteem. Healthier Working/ Study Habits ¤ Bring discipline in work and study. As yourself - am I planned? Is there a study time table? Am I on schedule? Time-bound goals and avoiding procrastination (not prioritising the tasks according to their importance) need to be practiced. ¤ Do not try to please everyone. Leant to say no if you really cannot help something. ¤ Plan to keep a work-family balance. For scholars, keep a study-recreation balance. ¤ Plan your breaks and holidays. ¤ Stick to your delivery deadlines or self-study timetable. ¤ Do not over-work or over-study. Exercise Eustress Against Distress ¤ Utilise your positive stress that is eustress to counterbalance distress. For instance, if your are depressed for sometime die to some reason and suddenly get a chance to go out with friends then do that to distract yourself from the negative stress. ¤ Celebrate even the small good news. If you achieved something small, share it with your friends and feel proud and good about it. 5 34
¤ Enjoy every small-term eustress to the maximum. Managing Environmental Stress In most of the cases, it is not possible or it is difficult to change your surroundings, environment, working conditions, school or college. We can still do certain things to adapt well in such case. ¤ Take nature walks or early morning walks to relax your mind and re-energise your body. ¤ Go for vacations for a change of place and climate and return with boosted energy. ¤ Adopt yoga, fitness training, activity club to boost your eustress. ¤ Participate in community activities that help in improving environment and surroundings like anti-pollution drive, swachhta abhiyaan activities etc. Managing Internal Stress Most of the internal stress is due to our own doings and our unreal fears and imagined threats. If you have read the section: Understand the origins of stress then you know how to identify imagined fear. Here are some tips to deal with internal stress: ¤ Keep the positive attitude because your unreal fears survive on your negativity attitude. ¤ You cannot control everything. Learn to adapt to the changing situations as much possible. ¤ Learn to distinguish between being angry, being aggressive and being firm. ¤ Keep fit. Fit body fights stress better. ¤ Keep track of your time. Learn to distinguish between relaxation and wasting time. ¤ Do not cut on sleep, laughter, hobbies, good meal. ¤ Quit smoking, alcohol and any such vice. ¤ For physical symptoms of stress (long headaches, body pains etc.) seek medical advice. Activity Stress Consultants: Teacher should think of certain stress scenarios of different types and note them somewhere. Activity conduction: Present the scenarios one-by-one in the class an let the student come up with the stress management techniques for that scenario. This way students are playing the role of Stress Consultants. Debriefing: Explain the students how this activity has helped them explore various stress management techniques suitable for various types of stress. EXERCISE Answer the following question: 1. Being a student, list some common stress symptoms you feel. 2. List the sources of this stress. 3. List some good working or study habits. 4. How will you manage internal stress? 5. How does going on vacations, morning walks and following a hobby help in reducing stress? 5 35
Session-3 Ability to Work Independently Importance of ability to work independently Most of the tasks are accomplished through teamwork or combined efforts of more than one person such as sports like tennis, football, cricket. But there are many cases where your ability to work independently plays important role in achieving goals. Working independently is often mistaken as working alone. This is not correct. Being able to work independently means accomplishing the tasks assigned to you without unnecessarily claiming the time of other people. For example, if you are a part of the Green Club team in your school which has planned to plant certain tress in a locality. You are assigned to collect funds for procuring seeds for 20 tress by next Sunday then no other team member should help you in this. It is something you need to do independently. What Does Being Independent Mean? You are able to work independently shows when you: ¤ are aware of your strengths and weaknesses. ¤ are able to prioritise your tasks. ¤ deliver your best always. ¤ are able to adapt to the working pace of the team. ¤ own your task and take responsibility of any mistakes. ¤ carry a positive attitude towards what you do. Skills to Work Independently Following are the skills needed in an individual to work independently. Organisational skills: Ability to understand the requirements of what you need to deliver, organise your work accordingly as the needs arise or requirements change. Personal Character: An honest approach to do the things, maintaining integrity and trust and meeting the commitments as required. Multitasking: Ability to handle multiple tasks, prioritise them according the change in situation and finishing all the tasks at hand successfully. Knowing oneself: Knowing what and how much you are able to do. Being aware of both, your abilities and your limitations. Self-discipline and self-regulation: Ability of self- management. Able to identify time-wasting activities. Knowing how to regulate yourself to utilise the time at hand for completing tasks timely. Communication and negotiating skills: Command over the verbal communication and ability to argue and negotiate without any aid or intervention. Agility: Able to adapt to the changing situations and managing time accordingly. Delivering with short time lines and knowing how to utilise time effectively. 5 36
Handing failures and setbacks: Ability to look at the failures as great source of learning and in the form of feedback, not letting setbacks like rejections and criticism discourage you. Ability to take responsibility of failures. Interest vs Ability We generally tend to do the things often that interest us. The interest on makes us things do better but sometimes focusing only in the things that interest us makes us procrastinators. We tend do ignore more important things. Many important things or tasks do not interest us but we need to accomplish them. For this, we need to develop the ability and right skill set. To be able to do something we need our strengths and awareness of our weaknesses. Being aware of weakness helps us overcome them by developing our ability to do perform. Self Awareness and Its Type Knowing your strengths, weaknesses, beliefs, abilities, limitations, likes, dislike etc. is called self awareness. Self awareness helps you in staying happy, productive and confident. When we turn inwards, focusing on self, we identify our values, behaviour and standards. Depending on our self analysis we either feel proud or feel not very good. Self awareness brings self motivation and self control. Let us look at 2 major types of self awareness. Internal self awareness: Our values, beliefs, passions and standards are revealed when we do internal self awareness. Also that way these traits help us in interacting with our surroundings and environment. Internal self awareness tells you your favourite subject, your favourite sports, what you aspire to become, what you do not like doing or achieving, how you look at other people, how your attitude is built up on your values. External self awareness: Ability to assess or see how other people view you is called external self awareness. External self awareness brings self-improvement, good leadership skills, better understanding of people and it determines people’s liking/ disliking you in one way or other. External self awareness helps you deliver tasks in a better way. Self Awareness Assessment Being self aware is a high level of intelligence. Knowing oneself is half the battle won. Most people do not know what they want or need. Most of us are blind to our strengths and weaknesses. Ask these questions with yourself to assess how self aware you are: 1. Am I able to create an image of myself in my mind? 2. How much am I in control of my feelings especially when angry, emotional or sad? 3. What triggers my passion of doing what I like? 4. What sets me off? 5. Can I list my personal life values and beliefs? 6. Can I list what I cannot do? 7. What do I think of this world around me? 8. Can I list my inner conflicts/ confusions? 9. Can I list some of my negative traits that come in my way to success? 10. Can I list the traits I inherited from my parents? 11. Can I list some details which I think people have about me are correct? 12. Can I list some details which I think people have about me are incorrect? 5 37
Activity Do your self assessment Students are supposed to answer the above 12 questions in very specific terms. Teacher should facilitate by explaining the meaning of the question if required. Students are prohibited to interact during this activity. How To Become Self Aware? Spare some time and travel within yourself by applying following tips: ¤ Find out some quiet time with yourself. Reflect on your thoughts. Retrospect what you have been doing in past days. ¤ Practice good listening and become a good listener to what people speak to you without interrupting them. ¤ Ask for feedback from others about yourself, about your work and what you do. Make notes of feedback in your personal diary. ¤ Think in terms of “what” instead of “why”. For example, What could be the possible reasons that prevented me from getting good marks in last test? What was the situation that made me fight with my best friend? What are the reasons that make me reach college late often? Knowing Your Strengths and Weaknesses Analyse your work, outputs of what you do, speak to your parents and reliable friends and teachers, pay attention when you perform a task. This will show you how well or not you do the things. Feedback from teachers and parents will let you list down your strengths and weaknesses. Ask yourself too. What motivates you and what does not? What are your common fears? What are you good at? What are your qualities or their lack? Weaknesses could be related to your personality, the way you work or study, in interacting with pthers, in organising yourself and regarding your emotional-self. How emotionally stable you are is the question you must ask yourself or reflect on any past incidences where you overreacted in any situation. Self Motivation and Self Regulation Motivation is the ability to move - from an idea to practically implementing it, from plan to action, from thinking to doing. Self-motivation is your inner ability to do move from thought to action. Your strengths trigger your self-motivation but some of your weaknesses may dampen your passion. That is why, for self- motivation, self-awareness is necessary. Right kind of self-awareness motivates you to take action on your thoughts but how do you complete this difficult journey from thought to action? The answer is self regulation. Your weaknesses are obstacles. When you look at a task we think it is too challenging to take up but when you analyse it keeping your self awareness in mind, you see the light. One example is preparation for your final examination. How do you manage to prepare entire book? At first it seems too difficult. Then you command all your strengths to help you. You begin working on your weaknesses (getting up early, eating right, sleeping timely, utilising time, cutting down on TV and time with friends). This automatically brings in self regulation. Self study timetable, a planned daily routine, working on your emotional intelligence (keeping calm in irritating situations), thinking straight, anticipating obstacle and working to overcome them to reach the set goal. Your self awareness, self motivation and self regulation create a self realisation and self acceptance. This makes you capable to work independently. 5 38
Working Independently and S.M.A.R.T. Goals At the core of working independently is setting up your goals. Set the goal by writing it down. Keep it specific and concise. For example, I shall gain more marks than earlier in all the subjects in the coming exams. Split your goal into monthly, weekly or daily targets. Targets are the milestones to achieve one at a time in a systematic way. S.M.A.R.T. Targets Plan out what will you do to achieve daily target. On real grounds, many unanticipated barriers arise in your plan like illness, guests at home, vacations, marriage in family, urgent travel etc. How will you measure your progress? You can only manage what you can measure. Your goals should have following characteristics which make them S.M.A.R.T. goals: Specific: Target should mention what are you going to finish precisely. For example, I will prepare 4 main topics of Chapter 4 in Biology on Jun 13th. Measurable: A specific target itself will tell you how it should be measured. Consider the above target. It tells you that if your prepare 4 main topics of 4th chapter in Biology, your target is met on June 13th. Achievable: Targets should be made considering your ability and circumstances that allow to achieve them. Preparing more than 4 topics in a subject may not be possible. Set a target which you can achieve with hard work but it should be in the range of your achievement. Setting up achievable targets encourages us to do more. Realistic: This related to the previous point but here the focus is on your ability considering the available time limit. Think about the target if it is really achievable in the available time and circumstances. For example, I will prepare 4 main topics of 5 chapters in Biology on Jun 13th. – this could be an unrealistic target. It may not be possible to prepare 20 topics in a day given that you need to go to school and do others chores besides studies. Time-bound: Setting up a deadline brings you in discipline to work towards your goals. It also helps you in measuring your progress. After a week's time you can easily calculate how many topics in which subjects you have prepared in just 7 days. What was the original target and what is achieved? How to modify your plan for improved progress? How much time is needed to cover the gap if you are falling behind your targets? After reaching each target, analysing your achievements at set intervals (weekly, fortnightly), looking for gaps and delays, thinking to refine the plan, finding out better ways to achieve the goals, incorporating new ideas, ensuring self-discipline, handling distractions and temptations, motivating yourself and keeping up the self-encouragement are certain actions that you need to do to keep the things in control. Compare the outcomes of your efforts with the set targets. Since targets are specific and measurable, the comparison will clearly show you the positive or negative difference. In case of negative difference, you shall look for what went wrong, where did you lack in your efforts, where is the gap needed to fill, how much time you have left, how can you improve the strategy to cover the gap. Positive difference will motivate you into thinking how you can do better, how you can raise the bar of performance, what little more can you do to make it even big and bigger. Time Management and Its Importance No one would command you for self-management. It comes from within. Self-realisation is the initial step leading to self-motivation and suggesting yourself that you should begin managing yourself. The purpose of this chapter is exactly this. It will tell you all you need to learn about self- management and inspire you to do it. How far you can take this is your own initiative. 5 39
Effective Time management Time is of the essence in any effort for achievement. Every goal needs to be achieved in a predefined time span. Time management involves deciding deadlines for achieving targets and then managing the decided time so that all the required tasks are accomplished as planned. Time management needs the understanding of importance of time, avoiding activities that waste the time, deciding a time table or schedule for all important activities considering all the other liabilities and responsibilities. The time bound targets help you in measuring and managing the time easily. Following are the main ingredients of successful time management recipe: Prioritise: You should know what is more important at what is least. In what sequence the tasks need to be done. Time allocation: How much time each task should be given? Which are the time-wasting activities and who are such people to avoid? All these questions need to be answered. A time table needs to be in place preferably in writing. Self-discipline: It is directly related to time management. Self-discipline takes care of time management. If your efforts are sincere and your concerns are genuine about your goal, self- discipline will prevail. A self-disciplined person always takes care of time and punctuality. Time Management and Responsibility Sense of responsibility and constant reminder that you have to do this to achieve your goals is a must. Share your plan and desire of self-management with your parents or elder siblings who will guide, help and support you in your efforts. This will motivate you in staying responsible. Many a times we tend to keep on doing the tasks we like and ignore the other important ones. This is called procrastination. This unknowingly leads to wastage of time and irresponsible behaviour. Keep provision for recreational activities and hobbies in your plan so that your regime of self- management does not get dull, monotonous and too challenging to follow. Find time to spend with friends, family and entertainment. A right kind of balance in all these makes your efforts easier, relaxed, more natural and stress-free. EXERCISE Answer the following question: 1. What do you mean by working independently? 2. List the skills required to work independently. 3. What do you mean by multi-tasking, self discipline and agility? 4. Can you cite any failure which became a learning experience for you? 5. What are internal and external self awareness? 6. List some ways to become self aware. 7. How self motivation and self regulation help you achieve your goals? 5 40
1. What do you mean by the term self-management? 2. Why is self-management important for us? 3. Differentiate between eustress and distress with example. 4. Discuss how stress affects us physically and psychologically. 5. What is chronic distress? Discuss stress in professionals due to work. 6. What do you mean by internal distress? How will you manage it to reduce its adverse effects? 7. Explain the distress effects due to environment and surroundings. 8. Explain fight-fight-freeze response during mortal danger. How does our nervous system handle this response? 9. How can we identify the source of stress? 10. How can healthier life style help us manage stress well? 11. What are the healthier working or study habits that help reduce stress? 12. How can you say that sometimes eustress helps in counterbalancing distress? 13. List some tips to manage environmental stress. 14. Despite the importance of team work, how does the ability to work independently helps an individual? Give example. 15. List some major traits of an individual able to work independently. 16. Write a note on personal skills discussing their benefits. 17. How can we say that one is self-aware? Explain two types of self awareness. 18. What will you do to become self aware? 19. What benefit do you draw by knowing your weaknesses and strengths? 20. How does self awareness help in achieving self motivation and self regulation? Download MCQs and more questions from https://www.eduitspl.com/teachers-corner-2 5 41
Unit Information and Communication 3 Technology Skills - II Session-1 Operating System & Basic File Operations Operating system manages the functioning of entire computer system including hardware and software. It also works as an interface between the computer system and the user. Functions of Operating System There are 3 main functions of an operating system: ¤ Managing applications and giving them access to hardware services. For example, if you give a print command to print your document, operating system manages the printable data to be sent to the desired printer. ¤ Managing data and system resources. For example, you create folders and save files, install new software and hardware and access files and devices over a network. ¤ Providing user interface to work with the computer system. For example, opening programs, deleting files, searching on the computer are done by the help of operating system. Important tasks of an operating system 1. Managing applications running in the computer. 2. Handling input and output. 3. Handling data and signal transfer among the devices and software. 4. Managing memory – allocating/ deallocating memory to programs to run. 5. File system management – keeping track of all the files and folders. 6. Network management – communicating with other computers and devices over a network. 7. Computer system security. 8. User interface. Types of Operating System Single-tasking OS: A single tasking operating system executes one task at a time. It does not allow launching a new task until the task at hand is not finished. Examples of such operating system is Disk Operating System (DOS) from IBM and Microsoft, Windows 95 (in 80s and early 90s) and PalmOS for mobile devices. An instance of such functionality is, if you have given print command in DOS, then until the printing is over, you will have to wait to issue the next command to do another task. Multi-tasking OS: A multi-tasking operating system handles more than one task at a time. User can perform multiple tasks simultaneously. All modern operating systems are multi-tasking OS. Examples are Microsoft Windows family (Win XP, Win 7, Win 8, Win 10, Win 11 etc.); Unix; Linux; Apple MacOS and iOS; and Google Android. An instance of such functionality is you are listening 5 42
to a streaming song and at the same time given a print command for a multipage document yet chatting online with a friend while still a file is being uploaded. All these four tasks are occurring at the same time. Single User OS: Operating system that allows only one user to work at a time is called single user operating system. Examples: MS-DOS, IBM-DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Classic MacOS (1 to 9), PalmOS for handheld devices. Multi-user OS: Operating system that allows multiple users to work at the same time is called multi-user operating system. Examples: Unix, Linux, Windows NT, X-Window system and MVS Operating System for Mainframe computers. Such operating systems are installed on a main powerful computer system and other computers connect with it over a network. Users log on to the main computer and its operating system manages all the users. User terminals are called clients or workstations. Other Types of OS Real-Time OS: Such operating systems are used to control the activities which need to be done precisely at a given specific time. For example, launching a satellite in the designated orbit at a precise time interval or an aircraft control system. RTOS are normally found embedded in the devices themselves. They are not like general operating systems which need to be installed on the computer. Some RTOS are VxWorks, FreeRTOS, Integrity, Ecos, Cocoon etc. Mobile OS: Operating systems that runs on handheld devices like cellphones and tablet Pcs. Examples: iPhone OS, Android OS, Windows Phone OS. 5 43
Distributed Operating System: This OS manages multiple computers over a network and manages users and resources on them. Examples: Windows Server, Linux Server, Ubuntu, Amoeba. Windows Desktop Once the computer is started, the screen which appears on the monitor is called the Desktop. Various components of a desktop are: 1. Wallpaper 2. Icons 3. Gadgets 4. Taskbar Let us discuss about these parts one by one. Wallpaper: The wallpaper is the background picture on the desktop. Icons: The small pictures on the screen are called the icons. Gadgets: Gadgets are the small and helpful objects in a computer. They have their specific functions. They are used to watch time, calender, weather, world time, etc. on a computer. Taskbar: This is a horizontal bar at the bottom of the desktop. Now, let us learn about the various parts of the taskbar. Start Button: The Start button is found on the left side of the taskbar. When we click on the Start button, a menu appears which is known as the Start menu. We can find and open all the programs from the Start menu. Middle Section: The middle section shows the programs and files we have opened and allows us to quickly switch between them. Quick Launch toolbar: The Quick Launch toolbar provides a fast and easy access to our favourite programs. These programs can be opened in single-click. System Tray: The system tray is used to show the date, time and various other notifications. Files & Folders A file stores our work in the computer. Each file is given a file name, which is useful to identify it. Every file name has 1. Primary name which is the first name of a file given by the user and 2. Secondary name which is the extension of the file like ‘.docx', ‘.jpg', etc. It is given by the program (where it is created). Primary and 5 44
secondary names are separated by a dot (.). Folder or directory stores files and other folders. A folder within a folder is called a sub-folder. Sub Folder Files Folder Computer Window Whatever files or folders you store in your computer, they are accessible from the Computer window. It is also used to access and manage the files and folders stored in various external memory devices. For example, CD, DVD, Pen Drive, etc. To open the Computer window, click on the Start button → Computer or double-click on the Computer icon on the Desktop. Left/navigation Pane: It is located on the left side of the computer window. Here, storage drives and directory tree can be seen. It contains the list of storage drives (hard disk, DVD drive), folders and sub-folders that you have on the computer. It does not show/lists the files. Right Pane: It is located on the right side of the window and it shows the content of the folder which is selected at the left side. Computer Window 5 45
Creating a File or Folder 1. Open the Computer window. 2. Open the location/drive (or folder) where you want to create a file or folder. 3. Right- click on the blank area, the context menu appears. 4. Select the New option. A submenu appears. 5. Click on the File or Folder option. A new file or folder is created and appears. Type a name for the file or folder and press the Enter key. This way, various types of files can be created like LibreOffice Calc, Writer, MS Excel, MS Word or Notepad etc. 1 2 5 3 Right-click on 4 the blank area. Creating a new file or folder using a right-click Opening a File or Folder 1. Open the location in the Computer window (where the file or folder is located). 2. Place the mouse pointer on the required file/folder and double-click on it. It will be opened and you can view its contents. Renaming a File or Folder 1. Select the file or folder that has to be renamed. 2. Right-click on it, a context menu appears. 3. Select the Rename option. 4. Type the new name and press Enter. (You can also use F2 function key to rename files or folders). Deleting a File or Folder 1. Select the file or folder that has to be deleted. 2. Right-click on the required file/folder and select the Delete option. Or Press the Delete key on the keyboard. The Operating system (Windows) confirms before deleting the file or folder by displaying a dialog box. 3. The Delete File or Folder dialog box appears. Click on the Yes button to delete or No to cancel deleting. 5 46
Note: Shortcut Deleted file or folder move to the Recycle Bin. To delete a file/folder permanently: Shift+Delete Restoring the Deleted File or Folder 1. Open the Recycle Bin window (by double-clicking on the Recycle Bin icon on the Desktop). It displays the list of deleted files and folders. 2. Select the file or folder that has to be restored. 3. Click on the Restore this item button on the toolbar. The selected file or folder moves back to the place from where it was deleted. Copying and Moving a File or Folder 1. Open the Computer window and select the file/folder that has to be copied or moved. 2. Click Organize list box on the toolbar and select Copy/ Cut (to move) option. Or Right- click on the file or folder and select the Copy or Cut (to move) option. 3. Select the destination (drive/folder) from the left/navigation pane. 4. Click on the Organize list box on the toolbar and select the Paste option. Or Right-click on the blank space and select the Paste option in the context menu. Shortcut Cut : Ctrl + X Paste : Ctrl + V Copy : Ctrl + C LAB EXERCISE 1. Start Your computer and find out which operating system is installed on it. 2. Locate the icons of Computer and Recycle bin. Open them and observe how different they look. Write any 3 major observations. 3. Locate the Taskbar. Using mouse try to move it to other corners of the desktop. 4. Open notepad from Start menu, type some data. Save the file on the desktop. Now delete and restore the file using Recycle bin. Then, permanently delete the file. 5. Create a folder on drive D: by some name. Now, using notepad create and save a file in this folder. Now, create another folder on desktop. Copy the file in the desktop folder. Supplement: Ubuntu Operating System Ubuntu Desktop (Gnome) Ubuntu is an open-source variant (distribution) of Linux. It is developed by a UK-based private software development firm named Canonical and it is supported by a community of developers. 5 47
The Desktop Ubuntu desktop is called GNOME 3 desktop. GNOME is an open-source standard desktop environment for consistent look across various versions of operating system. The desktop has following major components: The Top Bar: The top bar provides access to windows and applications, calendar and appointments, and system menu. System menu helps in setting up properties such as sound, networking, and power. In the system menu in the top bar, you can change the volume or screen brightness, edit your Wi-Fi connection details, check your battery status, log out or switch users, turn off your computer and lock the computer. 5 48
Activities Overview Button: Activities overview allows to type names to search applications, files and online resources. Below Activities, there is a bar called dash. It lists the icons of frequent applications and the currently running applications (with a dot below the icon). Clicking on the icon launches the corresponding application. At the bottom of the dash, there is a grid icon. Clicking on this icon displays all the applications on the screen. Application Menu: This menu displays the names of currently active applications. It is located just next to the Activities button at the top. Useful Keyboard shortcuts to work with Ubuntu Desktop Note: The Operating System Key (that has operating system logo icon) is called Super key. For example, in Windows, it is called Windows key. Alt+F1 or the Switch between the Activities overview and desktop. In the Super key overview, start typing to instantly search your applications, contacts, and documents. Alt+F2 Pop up command window (for quickly running commands). Use the arrow keys to quickly access previously run commands. 5 49
Search
Read the Text Version
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
- 36
- 37
- 38
- 39
- 40
- 41
- 42
- 43
- 44
- 45
- 46
- 47
- 48
- 49
- 50
- 51
- 52
- 53
- 54
- 55
- 56
- 57
- 58
- 59
- 60
- 61
- 62
- 63
- 64
- 65
- 66
- 67
- 68
- 69
- 70
- 71
- 72
- 73
- 74
- 75
- 76
- 77
- 78
- 79
- 80
- 81
- 82
- 83
- 84
- 85
- 86
- 87
- 88
- 89
- 90
- 91
- 92
- 93
- 94
- 95
- 96
- 97
- 98
- 99
- 100
- 101
- 102
- 103
- 104
- 105
- 106
- 107
- 108
- 109
- 110
- 111
- 112
- 113
- 114
- 115
- 116
- 117
- 118
- 119
- 120
- 121
- 122
- 123
- 124
- 125
- 126
- 127
- 128
- 129
- 130
- 131
- 132
- 133
- 134
- 135
- 136
- 137
- 138
- 139
- 140
- 141
- 142
- 143
- 144
- 145
- 146
- 147
- 148
- 149
- 150
- 151
- 152
- 153
- 154
- 155
- 156
- 157
- 158
- 159
- 160
- 161
- 162
- 163
- 164
- 165
- 166
- 167
- 168
- 169
- 170
- 171
- 172
- 173
- 174
- 175
- 176
- 177
- 178
- 179
- 180
- 181
- 182
- 183
- 184
- 185
- 186
- 187
- 188
- 189
- 190
- 191
- 192
- 193
- 194
- 195
- 196
- 197
- 198
- 199
- 200
- 201
- 202
- 203
- 204
- 205
- 206
- 207
- 208
- 209
- 210
- 211
- 212
- 213
- 214
- 215
- 216
- 217
- 218
- 219
- 220
- 221
- 222
- 223
- 224
- 225
- 226
- 227
- 228
- 229
- 230
- 231
- 232
- 233
- 234
- 235
- 236
- 237
- 238
- 239
- 240
- 241
- 242
- 243
- 244
- 245
- 246
- 247
- 248
- 249
- 250
