11/26/09

11/26/09

Tuesday is when the Patronage kids in the middle group come for an English lesson. Sr. Charlotte asked me this morning if I would help her teach them, and I agreed. Now during this exchange, I was under the impression that I'd be HELPING, but deep down I had a slight idea that this meant, "you'll teach the class. ok?" So I was prepared to take the reigns. Good thing, because that's exactly what Sr. Charlotte meant. I figured I could just use the same first lesson I did with the secondary school class – "How are you?" other responses besides "Fine, thank you." "What is your name?" etc. This group was a lot more challenging than the older kids. Sr. Charlotte had to chime in a lot with Kinyarwanda explanations. Kids again confused "how are you doing?" with "what are you doing?" So I tried to explain the difference by writing the two sentences on the board and putting their respective responses beneath each one, but they didn't really get it.

Also, one thing I didn't account for is that you need to tell the children to copy down the things you write. They won't just do it automatically. I should have expected this, since they're only about 10 years old, but I just hadn't thought of it. So at the end of class I re-wrote everything we talked about, and we gave them a good 20 minutes to copy everything.  Sr. Charlotte reminded me that in school, they're still perfecting the skill of writing, so each letter they copy with great care and precision. Just the act of writing down what we discussed is a big task in itself, but it really helps them remember it.

We spent at least 30 minutes learning "what is your name," "how are you" and responses other than "fine, thank you" (that's the only response they're taught in school, I've discovered.) I would toss a ball to one student at a time and ask them their name and how they're doing, and this was mildly effective. Many kids were just silent when I tossed it to them…its not such a good idea to put young ones on the spot. Having the class as a whole repeat things worked much better. To fill the remaining 15 minutes, we learn the days of the week. They are super excited about this because they already know it. When I write "Today is ______." about a third of the students jump up and start waving and snapping their hands (instead of simply raising their hands, they all do this kid of snapping thing…its like they're snapping their fingers, but they're actually flicking their wrists really hard to make a noise…its weird.) So everybody wants to say that today is Tuesday. We review "tomorrow is _______" and "Yesterday was _________," which they had not learned yet. Sr. Charlotte had to explain that. Well, after my hour of teaching, Sr. Charlotte taught them an English praise song with hand motions and movements. I sat in the back and participated with them. It was so awesome to see them sing and dance – they really love this type of stuff. They're very loud, not at all shy or reserved with their voices! And they like the motions too. It was quite a blessing to watch them all sing "This is the day that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."

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