Traveling and learning on the train through the Bačka landscape!
On May 27, 2021, I held a lesson on the train on the route: Novi Sad - Odžaci - Novi Sad. The lesson was conducted in the Hungarian language in classes VII-7 and V-7. There were a total of 15 students from both classes. On the train, the students had the opportunity to have a lesson in fine arts, mathematics, and the Hungarian language.
Before the trip, we agreed to follow the fifth-grade and seventh-grade curriculum, harmonize our teaching contents with the possibilities of traveling by train, and implement the following ideas.
The math teacher, Đerdi Mendrei, and I worked together with a group of fifth-graders to Odžaci, while the Hungarian language teacher, Eržebet Rokvić, was having her class with seventh-graders at the other end of the train.
To correlate mathematics and art, the fifth-grade students had 15 minutes of a math lesson, and the rest of the time, they had an art lesson. In mathematics, they covered the teaching unit: measurement and counting.
Students were divided into smaller groups, and based on available resources, they measured the dimensions of the passenger car in steps, calculated the area of the passenger car in steps, counted seats by applying the elements of the set of natural numbers, and used the scale to determine the number of occupied seats in relation to the total number of seats. The students were very active and motivated. While some of them were measuring the length and width of the passenger cars in steps, others were recording the obtained numbers, then continued all the actions and soon got the results.
After 15 minutes, I distributed the printed pictures of the passenger cars to the students, and on those photos, the students wrote their results in mathematics. Then we started the class and processed the teaching unit: the mediums of visual communication - poster, illustrations. I handed out colored thick papers and dry pastels to the students.
I pointed out that in class at school, we will incorporate all the products obtained from all subjects on the thick papers as posters.
While the fifth-graders were solving challenges from two subjects on the route Novi Sad - Odžaci, at the other end of the train, the Hungarian language teacher was working with the seventh-grade students on the teaching unit: impressions from the train - synesthesia.
Based on the observation of the constantly changing landscape, the students independently searched, recognized the stylistic form of synesthesia, and created their songs using word formation by synesthesia. They worked extremely well with the teacher, who drew a parallel between Impressionism in painting and literature. She guided them to find appropriate words through their impressions of the landscape, using synesthesia, words that reflect the experience of the Bačka landscapes.
The train arrived in Odžake after an hour of driving. There, fifth-grade and seventh-grade students exchanged their experiences. After less than 20 minutes, the train for returning arrived. They got into the passenger cars: the seventh-graders entered the math and art class, while the fifth-graders followed the Hungarian language teacher to the other part of the train.
The train continued on its route as well as the lessons. The seventh-graders had a math lesson for 15 minutes, and after that, an art lesson. In the math class, they worked with the teacher on the teaching unit: measurements - distance, time, speed with elements of assessment.
The teacher formed two groups and distributed a geographical map with the railway network to the students. They had the task to estimate approximately how many kilometers Novi Sad is from Odžak based on a one given distance. With the teacher, they checked their assessments and, if necessary, corrected them based on the given table. At the same time, they measured the time spent on the road in minutes. They recorded the duration of each stop. They calculated the total number of minutes spent in motion and the average speed of the train expressed in km / h. The students also discussed the amount of wheel diameter of the locomotive and then came to the results. They even calculated how many times the wheel turned on the road from Novi Sad to Odžak!
In the end, they harmonized the results and entered the data in the appropriate places in the already prepared printed text. The text was then incorporated into the work from the fine art lesson.
I suggested that while those students who want to make tourist maps can work in pairs, other students can draw an aerial perspective based on their impressions and incorporate songs created in a Hungarian language class on those works. I divided the students who applied to make tourist maps into two groups, and I gave them printed geographical maps with the Novi Sad - Odžaci railway network. I instructed them and explained with visual examples how they could include sequences of seen landscapes on the maps in the form of houses, buildings, trees, or painted surfaces and then emphasize the results they had gotten in math class. While two small groups worked on the maps, other students first photographed parts of the landscape and then used pastels to draw the desired landscape. At the very end of the class, they rewrote down their songs on the drawn landscape.
In the second part of the train to Novi Sad, fifth-grade students studied the teaching unit in Hungarian: the landscape from Bačka - a description of the landscape with the help of a poetic expression.
Observing the scenery from the train, they gained their experience and impression of the landscape. The teacher reminded them of the previously studied teaching content and suggested that the students express on paper impressions of the landscape using poetic means. First, they worked individually and then formed small groups. In agreement with the teacher, they then chose the most successful word structures created by poetic means. The groups then came up with a short text based on their collections. At the end of the class, they wrote the songs to the previously created artworks.
As the classes approached the end, the train reached Novi Sad. After the join photo shoot, children full of impressions went back to their homes together with curious parents, who were waiting for them at the train station.