Last week I assigned all my English classes a 1-2 minute speech on a World Leader they liked. I teach S4 S5 and S6 which is somewhat equivalent to 10, 11, and 12th grades. To be honest, I was a little scared. I thought that the main issues would be volume and the actual English. I was wrong. The children had fairly well-formed ideas and were generally audible. I graded on Volume, Content and Audience Behavior. The worst part by far and away was the audience. The kids chatted non-stop and were generally annoying. The second problem was the kids who hadn’t done the assignment and either bs-ed or tried to write in class.
My S 4’s are generally my favorite year. The class is jammed packed with 50 or 60 kids (I don’t have a class list yet) and there 3 kids in most of the 2 seater desks. But for some reason, they are the most polite, ask great questions and are quite well behaved. My S4 MCB class gave great speeches on a variety of leaders but the audience talked like crazy the whole time. Half my PCM class gave well thought out speeches and the other half hadn’t prepared anything. When the entire class had reached zeros for audience participation, I started sending kids up to the blackboard to stand while other people spoke. Everyone who spoke about Paul Kagame (Rwanda’s President), which was about half the class, sited his ending the genocide as one reason they liked him (sort of a DUH). But they also said they liked him for ending school fees for the first 9 years of school, helping widows and orphans and caring about technology.
My S5 MCB class is my absolute favorite, mostly because there is one boy in it called Eric who captured my heart early on. Their speeches were pretty good. There were a couple of people who admitted to being unprepared and got zeros but on the whole, I was very impressed. PCM was similar, if not slightly higher quality. One group spoke about Kagame but sited the fact that he brought English teachers (‘Like our Teacher Jane”) to Rwanda as one of their reasons for liking him. Luckily, sucking up totally works. Again most kids chose Paul Kagame or another African leader. Their knowledge of other African leaders (Presidents of Congo, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa) is really good when you consider that most American children couldn’t name the Prime Minister of Canada. Again, the chit-chat was unreal, even when I was sitting next to them! It actually made me feel that at least when I am talking they are more respectful.
My Senior 6’s PCM and MCB were abysmal. Both entire classes got zeros for audience and generally half marks for content. No one had prepared anything and they all stood up and bullshitted the entire time. The audience was so horrendous that had trouble listening as I started fantasizing about all the possible punishments I could inflict. One thing about being in a country where corporal punishment is accepted is that is makes me tempted to use it. Not serious beatings… Just kneeling on the concrete for an hour or standing in the courtyard with their arms stretched out for an hour or three. I didn’t actually do it, but I was calmed by the image of the entire class standing in the courtyard being shamed. One kid wrote on the board while he was standing up as punishment and I had to take deep breaths to keep from dismembering him. I threatened to send him to the Discipline Master which is bad news bears as they get “points” plus whatever punishment he doles out. If you get a certain number of points you get kicked out of school. But in reality, it was a mildly empty threat as my kids really aren’t “bad” enough to warrant the Discipline Master, they are just teenagers who have more freedom in my class then any other and won’t be tested on English in the national exams at the end of the year.
So, our first speeches were a mixed bag and so exhausting for me that I will need to build up some serious strength before we attempt to tackle again.
No comments:
Post a Comment