I have a class of really rambunctious 3rd graders at Shanlin Elementary School. By rambunctious I mean they are so bold as to literally stand on their chairs and scream in unison at the start of class. That was day one and I never looked back. I decided to make a behavior game for the month. Each student has their own cup at the side of the room with their name on it. If they behave well, speak in English first, or do something worthy of applause, they receive one chip in their cup. If a student refuses to participate, refuses to speak English, or interrupts a teacher or student, they lose a chip. At the end of the month, the student with the most chips wins a “prize.” I still haven’t revealed what the prize is because I don’t know. And yet, even though my students are only sort-of getting the behavior game and they don’t really know WHAT they are trying to achieve, winning is really everything to them.
During our review game between two teams, Team 1 lost. Team 2 got two chips in each cup for working together to get the answers and Team 1 got one chip in each of their cups for participating. Cue the waterworks. Half of Team 1 was crying in the front row, angry grimaces on their faces and the other half were slamming their books on the table while staying verbally silent. Meanwhile, Team 2 beamed across at the other team, enjoying the fact that they had won nothing but gloating privileges.
Should I be proud of this moment or disappointed? Team 1 is learning a hard lesson right now: sometimes you try, but you still lose. But Team 2 shouldn’t get to bask in the glory of someone else’s faults. So I asked my co-teacher, Sam, to directly translate for me as I tried to rein in some of the damage I had done. “In the United States, when we lose as a team, we don’t get angry or cry. Instead, we tell the other team, ‘Congratulations,’ and we work harder to win next time. This is called ‘sportsmanship.’ Don’t cry, we have the whole year to play many more games. This is just one game.”
Maybe this monologue would’ve landed in a room full of 10th graders, but these 3rd graders continued to shoot laser-like glares at me. Nothing had changed except that now they were quiet. Clearly, this was more than a game because it literally shook their world. I better not fall asleep around these kids, I thought to myself.
*~*~A few classes later*~*~
My second most-misbehaved class is the 4th graders. There’s only four of them, but that makes it easier to rebel because there’s no sense of group unity or competition. They just yell. Before I continue, I should preface that I usually wear pants or a long skirt when I teach classes because I have a left leg deformity that is quite distracting to little kids who are typically at waist level and have no question-impulse control. Yesterday, I forgot about my pants-only rule and wore shorts. Normally, wearing shorts is no big deal around adults because they ignore it, but around kids, oh jeez. ALL day I had kids staring at my leg, distracted and confused. It’s not that it’s uncomfortable to deal with their leery eyes, it just makes it hard to teach English. I explained my condition to some of my classes (“some muscles never developed,” “no it doesn’t hurt.”, etc.), but the best explanation was in the 4th grade.
Out of nowhere, a student (who had been eyeing my leg all afternoon) interrupts the lesson speaking Chinese, “Laoshiiiiiiiiiiiii, LAOSHI ARE THERE ZOMBIES IN AMERICA?!” Sam had to translate the word “zombies” for me, and I immediately realized this was an opportunity of a lifetime. “Zombies? Yes. Lots.” Sam was a bit surprised and switched to English, “What? Are you really going to tell them…”
“Yes, yes I am. It’s okay, I’ll use English.”
Student 1 (all in Chinese): Really?! Fay laoshi, are there really zombies in the U.S.?! *All students eyes focused on me*
Me (in English): Of course, where else would they be?
Student 1: Have you ever seen them?
Me: Sure, they mostly come out only if they are hungry.
Students: O_O
Me: okay, let’s go back to English class—
Student 1: LAOSHI!! Have you ever been bitten by one?
**Sam quickly translates for me**
Me: Yes, twice.
Students: O____O
Student 2: Where? Show us the bite!
*I proudly show the class my left calf in all it’s deformed glory*
Student 1: So you’re a zombie?!?!
Me: Well, not right now, but someday I will be….and when I’m hungry I’ll bite you!
*Student 1 screams and runs away*
Me: Okay, Sam, I think they are ready for English class now.
The last few minutes of English class had suddenly become more serious now that they “knew” the foreign teacher was a zombie.
—
At Ximen Elementary School, the “wild ones” are the 4th and 1st graders. It’s not that they are exceptionally loud or that they interrupt all the time. It’s the way they interrupt. One minute you’re facing the board and the next you’re turned around to find one kid half outside the door picking his nose and another under the table literally rolling-on-the-floor-laughing. For no reason! And they are always sweaty. These two classes are usually so hyped that finishing a lesson seems literally impossible. And yet….
My LET, Justin, and I tried to brainstorm some ideas to get students motivated enough to learn English in their free time. Justin had the idea of sparking students’ interests by allowing each student to select their own English picture book from the library. My idea was to use the computer to give students “digital language” skills so they could look up English things on their own. But we both realized that most of our students are far behind in phonics and reading, and that both ideas weren’t feasible at that moment. We decided to try out a simple phonics lesson with the 4th grade to see how it would go.
All 4th graders already know the alphabet, but few know how the consonants and vowels sound like within a word, let alone how to sound blend on their own. Whenever they speak English, they’re usually mimicking the way they heard it pronounced before without knowing how to pronounce it on their own. So we made up a new lesson on the spot: “-at” ending words with easy starting letters, “B, C, F, H, S,” (“bat, cat, fat, hat, sat”). Yes, this took more than 20 minutes, but why was it so amazing? Because for the first time, these students weren’t copying the sounds they heard said by me or Justin, they were trying to sound them out. And with these words you can actually make a WHOLE SENTENCE! “The fat cat sat at the table with a bat.” Okay, some preposition issues and a new vocab word, but with the help of some pictures they can actually see the words they learned on their own.
Tomorrow is another long day, and this year is still just beginning, so I know I shouldn’t harp too much on today’s tiny victory. But if you don’t celebrate the little achievements, then you won’t be able to truly appreciate the big accomplishments, right? After the past few classes, I adjusted my personal goals for the classes I’m teaching this year. Initially, I was hoping to make at least the 5th and 6th graders somewhat computer literate in English so they could use it to their advantage. Now, I hope that from 3rd to 6th grade in both schools, all students will be able to pick up an English text and at least sound the words out. They don’t have to know what they all mean, but at least they have the skills to sound out the word and look it up in the dictionary. Small goals, small goals.
Let’s see how it goes.
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