Today, the students learned (I hope) question words and phrases: who, what, when, why, where, how.
Today, I learned that teaching kids to question can be very, very dangerous (as in Pandora’s Box).
To eliminate the noise factor, one of the Haitian teachers stood “on guard” at the window of the classroom. The kids sat in relative quiet for the duration of the class. The challenge, then, became coming up with plausible and understandable practice examples. I had a sketchy lesson plan but of course wanted the kids to come up with their own examples too. There’s the rub!
After going over the meaning of each question word (French ESSENTIAL here), I laid out some basic examples of each. I wrote out and asked several questions and then had the kids to try making some questions up themselves. For each question I posed, there came a smattering of responses from the logical to the illogical, from the poorly structured phrase to the relatively eloquent but poorly pronounced phrase. Finally, they practiced a little themselves.Here is basically how it went and followed by the resulting profound realizations:
“When do you have class?” – my question
“At 8 o’clock.” – good response
“When do you leave Haiti?” – their question
“I leave Haiti in 6 months.” – my response
Sociological analysis: kids here often want to know when people are leaving because they are accustomed to abandonment.
Lesson learned: Mean what you say.
“Why are you sad?” – my (stupid) question
“Because my mother is dead.” – response 1
“Because I have no money.” – response 2
Sociological analysis: The teacher, not yet in a “Haitian” frame of mind, asked a profound question only to find the kids surprisingly honest in their responses to a heartbreaking degree.
Lesson learned: The American manner of obfuscating conversational responses for the purpose of social appeasement does is not in style here in Haiti.
“Why do you love Haiti?” – student question
“Why do you love the boy?” – student question
“Why do you love the Haitian boy? – student question
Sociological analysis: Why is a dangerous line of questioning in any language and adolescent boys only think about one thing. As for the first question, “why do you love Haiti?” well, that’s a common question Haitians ask of visitors. One can only begin to understand why.
Lesson learned: Uhhh, change the subject.
“How are you doing?” – my question
“I am fine.” – student response
“How do you _____?” – my unfinished question, which I quickly filled in…
“How do you dance kompa?” – my brilliant epiphany
a boy near the front stands up and begins dancing, to show me, then asks me if I’ll dance with him.
Sociological analysis: How is a dangerous line of questioning in any language and adolescent boys only think about one thing.
Lesson learned: Uhhh, change the subject.
Overall lesson learned: I am so painfully under-qualified to do this.
Teaching a class of Haitian eighth-graders becomes a greater learning experience for the teacher than the students. While I struggle to find new and better ways to make my instruction clearer, my mind works in overdrive to simultaneously take in the little lessons my students will teach me. If only I, like my spanking brand new MacBook Pro, had a dual core processor. Instead, I will have to make time for reflection some time this week… Maybe after the shrimp feast tonight.
1 comment:
And I thought teaching English to 9th grade boys was interesting! Hang in there - it sounds like you are doing exceptionally well, Portia! As long as they respect and (although critics may disagree) like you, the learning experience will come, and usually in surprising ways.
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