Week four is over and it is amazing how fast
it went. I have tried to take the chaos in stride and just focus on what I am
doing. There are definitely things that drive me nuts about the school system
here, like the totally unpredictable schedule of when classes start, end, break
times, or even if we are having school that day. Last week one of my classes
was shortened from an hour and a half to 30 minutes because the students had to
work on the maize. The next day that same class did not happen at all because
all classes were cancelled for a teacher meeting. So my stage 6 class only got
1.25 classes last week, stage 5 got all three, stage 4 two. I am learning to
write down what we did each day to remember what class is where.
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| On my walk home from school |
I think I am the first volunteer to actually teach regular
classes for the whole term. Lots of other volunteers help with reading and
other subjects but more as a supplemental tutoring, like what I am doing with
the junior high school. I have to give these students tests, homework and their
grades for the term. Since all the students I am working with were picked to be
in a special, small class because they were far behind in reading, the
difference between the stage 4 and stage 6 is negligible. This makes it easy to
plan lessons since they are all doing the same thing, but when the schedule
gets messed up it is hard to remember who has learned the long vowel A and how
is still on
Pat the Hat.
The one thing I have to learn quickly is how much and how
fast I can teach and expect them to learn. One of the reason I think this was
difficult is because the verbal, reading and writing are all at wildly
different levels. Most of them speak and understand English very well since that
is the language everything is taught here. But with limited use of textbooks
and no handouts, learning is almost all listening to a teacher or copying
verbatim the notes on the board. So reading is far, far behind the other English
skills. I was disappointed/surprised that when I have my students a simple
vocab quiz using the four words we learned: big, small, heavy, tiny (adjectives
we read about in a dinosaur book) It was a fill in the blank and even when I
read the sentences out loud several times, they all got the one wrong comparing
small to tiny, and most got only 1/4 or 2/4. So I am taking a step back and
focusing on reading comprehension in verbal exercises and not having written quizzes.
When they do not know the difference between “b” and “d”, maybe writing and
understanding a full sentence and thinking about how to fill it in is too much.
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| My stage 4 students taking their first quiz |
This also brings up the idea of giving these students
grades. They are the ones failing regular English so I am backing up and giving
them work that they should have learned three or four years ago. Do I grade
them on what I teach them, which is tailored to their current level of
understanding, so they will get much better grades than they ever have before?
Or do I still grade them against what their stage should know? I am going to do
the former but I am worried that when they continue onto the next two terms
they will have very uneven grades. But maybe, hopefully, with the small and
individual attention they will have caught up a bit so they can do better in regular
class.
Except for the occasional US volunteer, there is no regular
help/tutoring for students that are slipping behind. Repeating a grade is not
uncommon but that happens when they are failing in more than half the subjects.
If they are consistently failing just one or two, they stay woefully far behind
and there seems to be no system to help them catch up. It is too small a school
to have different tracks but too large of classes, or too poor of teaching, for
teachers to be able to give the help needed to the ones falling behind.
So far I have made this sound like nothing is working but
that is not the case at all! I have had a lot of luck with other lessons. The
oral reading, round reading and sounding out words is going well. I try to have
at least one game/group activity that involves rewarding them with stickers.
They get super-duper excited about these games and came up with great team
names like Team Eagle vs. the Red Devils. Or Chelsea (the favorite team here)
vs. The Lizards. Maybe these games are not as efficient as more drilling or
reading but I really think if they see English as fun they will have an easier
time in the future.
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| Selase vs Cofe in a word competition, Selase went 2 and 0 |
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I am also having fun exploring the library and finding books
to use in class. They have a pretty great selection of books and I have been
using them daily either reading to them or having them read. I try to find
books easy enough for them to understand but also with some semblance of a
story that students as old as 13 may find interesting. We have been reading a lot
of nonfiction books like about dinosaurs and African wildlife. Though simple
they are not as silly. Although I love Madeline or Harold and the
Purple Crayon, I felt it was a harder sell to the older audience. I also am
borrowing books for myself to supplement the kindle. So far I have read The
Hobbit, Loser, and a book about the women’s professional baseball league. (Full
reading list so far below)
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| Love the poses they chose for pictures |
I certainly remember idolizing certain of my teachers but it
is surprising and interesting to see which students are latching onto me and
which are not. I am sure now there is still the novelty factor of having an
American teacher. I have several of my students and some of the younger ones
that seek me out at break time and seem to want to be around me whenever
possible. There is one student who has been labeled a “problem student” who has
been an absolutely great student in my class so far. He always shows up, helps
to extra little things like bringing chairs or collecting assignments and he
always shows up which is the big problem with his other classes. I also love
all the super quiet students and think I will be able to get them out of their
shell. These are mostly girls, but not always. In my small classes of five to
seven, everyone participates, reads and answers questions. This is not the case
in most classes where they just yell out or raise hands so only the eager ones
participate. Or, if these shy, quiet ones are called don it is humiliating. I
sit with the students around a table and if a student is having a hard time I
speak with them one on one, and quietly figure it out. I hand out tons and tons
of verbal reinforcement for these shy ones when they do talk and figure out
something. This morning a new girl that was just demoted to stage 3 from my class
since she did not understand English at all. She still came in with a new stage
3 friend at break and sat with me and read a little book together. She would
not look me in the eye or say a word to me the first two weeks. So I hope the
small class is a good experience for the super shy and not just helping with
the reading.
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| Some of the junior high kids, hanging out |
I also love the
little ones who are not reading yet just grabbing handfuls of books and making
up their own stories based on the pictures. “See, see!” is a common phrase in
the library instead of saying “look” to point out something they want their
friends to look at. “See, see! A shark!” “See, see he is eating it!” was the
story this morning.
So far this is what I have read on my trip. I’m averaging
about a book every two days but considering half are YA this is not that
impressive:
Adult Fiction
American Wife
Far-Seer
Foreigner
Fossil Hunter
Gold Boy Emerald Girl
Lilith's Brood
The Fellowship of the Ring
Young Adult Fiction
The Extraordinary Adventure of Ordinary Boy
The Secret Garden
The Hobbit
Maniac McGee
Loser
Animorphs #1
Nonfiction
A Whole New Ballgame
