Thankful!

This Thanksgiving I wanted to address some issues of injustice and inaccuracies involved with the "traditional" American Thanksgiving narrative. Though difficult in a second language, I think its important to always tell the truth as an educator, even when its hard.

So, we spent this month in the EFL classroom learning about Native American history and the real "first Americans." We played traditional games and discussed differences between tribes. My older students even discussed stereotypes and cultural appropriation when it comes to Native Americans in popular culture.

The unit culminated with a more traditional, but still quirky Thanksgiving party a la Charlie Brown! We ate bread and popcorn and jelly beans and made a "thankful tree" for the classroom.

I'm certainly thankful for the students I teach and the lessons about kindness, curiosity, and joy that they teach me every day.

Here's our video!

Thanksgiving from Maeve K Wall on Vimeo.

6th Grade Lesson: I'm Faster than You!

6th grade has proven the most challenging for me to teach. With most of my prior experience in Early Childhood and Early Elementary education, I'm used to singing songs and leading cheers and happily engaging with my class. The 6th grade (12 year old) students in their last semester of Elementary school clearly respond to my teaching differently than a group of 5 year-olds. Thus, I've had to make a lot of adjustments to my teaching style and method to meet their needs. I'm also learning that with older children, respect is gained largely from close, personal relationships. And so I'm working to show my students I trust and respect them in the classroom and working to find opportunities to get to know them better as individuals. While we're not there yet, I'm proud of what we've accomplished together and am excited about what I'm learning.

This Chapters's Topic: "I'm Faster Than You" was another excellent one for providing authentic practice (with a little creative thinking.) Though we still have some kinks to work out, I'm proud of what we studied the past two weeks.

Lesson 1: Introducing New Vocabulary and Phrases

To get the kids excited, (and in a desperate attempt to be cool) I began the unit with a Korean class' cover of Daft Punk's by "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger." Students were amazed with the performance and were able to correctly identify our target language by the end of the song. Then, I continued eliciting vocabulary in an exciting way- with a race in the classroom! I asked two students to perform several tasks- running and jumping, in front of the class. We determined the winners and I asked students to tell me in a complete sentence who was faster. Then, after learning key vocabulary and phrases, I asked students to line up in the back of the classroom from tallest to shortest. BUT they had to do it silently, in one minute! They loved the challenge. I then had them practice "I'm taller than A and I'm shorter than B" down the line. We continued practicing at our seats with a partner speaking game and some partner competitions to determine who was stronger, younger, etc.

Lesson 2: Speaking and Reading Practice

Students picked up the speaking phrases quickly and so I was eager to apply those skills in more complex situations in our second class. Per the recommendation of my brilliant co-teacher, I made a lesson using the fable of the Wind and the Sun. After a quick warm up activity, students watched a subtitled video of the parable and were asked to pick out the comparative and past tense phrases. Here's the lesson.

After discussing grammar points, students then answered the question "who do you think is stronger, the wind or the sun" in discussion groups. I was happy to see them talking and more eager to share than usual.

Lesson 3: Reading and Writing Practice

Having now discussed the topic of myths, I thought that an excellent way to engage students from a new angle would be through the introduction of a traditional Native American folk story. I was hoping to teach students a little bit about a new culture while continuing to practice comparative language. Thus, I re-wrote one myth, "The Heron and the Hummingbird," as a readers-theatre piece! It was my first time using reading practice in this format and I was very pleased with the results. The structure allows students to gain confidence and practice comfortably and had them engaged and speaking for almost the entire 50 minutes. You can get the piece here. 

Lesson 4: Language Creation

In the last lesson of the unit, I like to give my students projects to complete in order to apply the language they've learned meaningfully. This week, we had SO much fun doing so! After a quick "Word Lotto" review, students were asked to create a storyboard/comic strip using the target language (3 comparative words and 3 past tense verb forms). They could make a creation myth similar to the ones we had read or make an entirely new story. The students had a blast and I'll let the creations speak for themselves :-)

Trusting the Process

For the past two years my teaching has mostly been defined by rules. My students followed rules regarding how to sit,how to walk in a line, how to write, how to ask questions, how to speak. As their teacher, I was charged with just as many. There were strict expectations telling me how to write a lesson plan, how to instruct, how to incorporate the textbook, how to ask questions, how to speak.

In fact, at times I felt that my teaching and lesson content were so restricted that I lost sight of my own vision for learning in the first place. I began teaching because I believed whole-heartedly that educators could make a difference in the lives of students and communities but questioned what impact I could make given such narrow and confining circumstances.

I believe that good schools recognize the self-worth of their teachers, but more than that, their students, and operate on the premise of trust and appreciation for each member of the school community. Responsive schools recognize the wealth of experience and talent each individual holds, and then creates spaces for those gifts to be refined and expanded.

I'm happy to report that while I still need time to un-learn and re-learn and heal, I am invigorated every day in my Korean school. Given more autonomy, trust, and confidence as a teacher here has allowed me to be creative in the classroom again and I think the students and I are both reaping the benefits.

Here's a little bit of what we've been up to in my less-regulated classes lately!

1. International Clothing Design

My 3rd and 4th grade after-school classes are stoked about having pen-pals in NYC and so we're beginning a cultural comparison of Korea and the US. We started with clothing- after learning about some traditional American clothing and clothing of American immigrants from cultures around the world, students were asked to complete 1 of 2 tasks. They could either create a side to side comparison of Korean and American clothing (see: Jeans vs. Hanbok) or they could create a new set of clothing using ideas from the fashion we studied.

It was amazing to see the kids light up with creativity and as always, I was stunned by their talent.

Left:International pants and "Naver Man" Right: A Modern Hanbok and Korean leggings :-)

2. Food Combination Creations

My 1st and 2nd grade classes are so fun! Students are JUST learning English but there is a wide enough range of skills in the class so that strategic partnering and student leadership has allowed us to be very successful in learning. This week we studied food. I had originally planned what might have been a boring lesson reviewing food vocabulary and then drawing a favorite food. However, inspiration struck in the form of "Do you like broccoli?" a kid's ESL song that combines gross food combinations (broccoli ice-cream, donut soup) while teaching food words. 

Thus, students sang the ever-hilarious Broccoli Ice-Cream song and then came up one by one to ask the class if they would like some other funny food combination. Each time, they had to practice asking "do you like ____" with the names of the foods they picked. Finally, they went wild with food combos of their own and labeled each! 

She's actually happy. 

3. Creatively Comparative 

In 6th grade, we're working on comparatives like bigger, faster, and stronger. Though I use the textbook for a guideline, I'm given the freedom to go rouge when I think it's more fitting :-). So this week, we started with Daft Punk's "Harder, faster, stronger" song, and then after learning key expressions, played a Comparative Olympics game to practice. Students arm wrestled, raced, and thumb warred all over the place, giving them real-life opportunities to utilize the phrases "I'm faster than you," etc. with guided practice. We also worked on community building by silently lining up from tallest to shortest and then trying to say "I'm taller than ___ and I'm shorter than ____" for each person in line in under a minute! We didn't quite make the challenge but we had fun trying!

In the follow-up lesson, I recognized that students had a fairly good grasp of the key expressions so I added some cultural exchange elements to make the class more exciting and productive. After briefly talking about Native Americans in the US, I told students that we would read a Native American folk tale. I'm excited to say that I rewrote the story "The Heron and the Hummingbird" with comparative adjectives in a reader's theatre format! And so my students then read, rehearsed and performed the folk tale for their classmates. A difficult age group to please, I was happy to see them actively participating for the entire class period!

You can get my lesson materials here!

Native American Heritage Month

Social Justice and English Language Learning

"The world becomes what you teach."

I believe that a good educator should not only presents facts and content knowledge, but help to strengthen students' sense of justice, citizenship, and empathy. Indeed, helping students understand themselves and their worlds often means stepping away from text books and confronting current social and political realities.

When teaching a home-room class, it can be easy to find times to discuss these issues (if they are not already integrated into your curriculum). Read-alouds, holiday parties, class conflicts, recess, bathroom trips, can all serve a higher purpose.

During my limited blocks of language instruction, however, this task has proved more challenging. Students have less language to work with in explaining and discussing issues and also have a variety of cultural contexts.

So while this is a challenge that I'm still working to address, here are some ways I've tried to tackle social justice in my ELL classroom:

1. Featuring people of color predominantly in my lessons. Many of my students have learned that White= American, White=English speaker, White=leader, actor, singer, etc. I try to give them a more realisitic picture of society- in which people of color play a huge part.

2. Working with key phrases. This past week, my students learned statements of ability (think: I can run, I can jump, etc.) I seized the lesson as a chance to discuss gender roles. Students were ask to make a list of what they have heard that boys and girls can or cant do. I gave some examples of stereotypes as well- "Boys can run fast," "Girls can't play sports." I asked them what they thought and watched as they talked (sometimes in Korean) with each other about the realities of gender differences, Eventually, we made posters with one surprising statement about gender on each. The boys: "Boys can wear pink," was maybe less inspired, but I was amazed with the girls who eventually said, "Can we just say, girls can do everything?" Yes, yes you can. :-)

3. Dialogue. I'm currently working on a pen pal exchange program between my friend's 2nd grade class in Harlem and my after-school club. I'm hoping that this exposure to new ways of thinking and ideas will help both groups have a better understanding of our world.

6th Grade: Lesson 9 "How Often Do You Exercise?"

Health, habits, Michelle Obama... this chapter lent itself to some authentic speaking practice and fun projects. Here's what we worked on. 

Lesson 1: 

We watched this video on my made-up friend "Ryan Teacher" who has many bad habits. Though a very "low budget" production, my kids thought it was hilarious. 

Then we played a dice game where students had to roll dice and tell each other they did an activity that number of times a week. This was good for engaging students in repetitious speaking practice.  

Lesson 2: 

This class focused on reading and writing but I like to make sure students' had some authentic practice/ practical application of the content we're learning. So after reviewing with a quick discussion of Ryan Teacher and his horrible habits (one that built some community in the class), we analyzed a graph comparing the difference between Spongebob and Patrick's health habits. Students were engaged and I was happy about the cross curricular component. 

After these relatively quick checks for understanding, we spent the majority of the class conducting health surveys! I was pretty proud of this exercise- my co-teacher said I "tricked" my students into learning, and I have to agree, the best learning happens when students are so interested that they don't realize how hard they're working. In this exercise, students completed questionnaires about what their seat partner does by asking "How often do you ____" and then completing a graph. Then they got to give their peers healthy recommendations. "You should ____ more often!" The second time, students mingled around the classroom to survey which was especially fun. At the end we shared recommendations with the class. Get the worksheet here. 

Lesson 3: 

This lesson was centered on reading and writing, but again, I wanted students to have some authentic practice. Thus, in lieu of the textbook material which was very repetitive and a little dull, I created an article about Michelle Obama's child health initiative. Very simply written, it uses all of the text language with a little bit extra to stretch my students' learning. First, I taught students who Michelle Obama was and used a Sesame street video which they loved (a little surprising for 6th grade!) to explain her focus on healthy habits. Then, they read the article with a partner and answered questions about Michelle's recommendations for their health. Finally, they were asked to give themselves a recommendation for improving their health i.e. "I should exercise more often!" The lesson premise was exciting for me, but in the future, I'd like to do something a little more interactive at first to get students more excited for the article. You can get the article and power points here! 

Lesson 4: 

In the final lesson of the class, my students and I were both feeling pretty confident in their ability to use the target phrases comfortably. So after reviewing with a class discussion of our health habits, and a "clue game" where students tried to interpret my picture clues in order to guess one of the key phrases, we got to work on group projects! Students had to survey each other on an assigned question, "how often do you eat breakfast," etc. and then they assembled in groups to calculate totals and then display the information on pie charts. This was a great opportunity to practice speaking for a purpose and then presentations asked students to perfect their phrasing. I was so impressed with the graphs they came up with and I'm hoping that it gave those students who are stronger in subjects other than English a chance to shine, too! 

Get my worksheets for Lesson 2 and 4 here and feel free to ask me any questions! 

Happy learning! 

It's Okay to Be Different!

There are a lot of stereotypes about the Korean education system. Before I came to the country, I worried about the alleged insistence on rote memorization, teacher-centered instruction, harsh disciplinary methods and how these practices would converge with my own. Since I have arrived at my school, however, I've been amazed at the variety of progressive methods implemented. My school has an emphasis on collaboration and a focus on the "STEAM" subjects (Korea's version of STEM with art included!). Students have a lot of room to talk and a fair amount of opportunities to express themselves.

So while I've been pleasantly surprised for the most part, one infamous cultural difference has stood out to me so far. Korea, with deep roots in Confucianism, is a collectivist society. The concept of an individual is a foreign one and working cohesively within your community is much more important than self-fulfillment.

There are some really beautiful aspects of that mindset such as a focus on "nunchi" or the ability to read social context so as to not make anyone feel uncomfortable, and very close and caring relationships, to name a few. However, one issue that seems to arise from collective thinking is a fear of difference. When everyone is working to fit together, different opinions, values, or forms of self-expression are threatening. This is especially troublesome when applied to growing kids whose sense of self is fragile and whose character is vulnerable. Many students who vary from the norm (and really, who doesn't?) can feel excluded, unappreciated, or worse. In fact, Korea has the highest teen suicide rate in the world. 

In an effort to show students that even within their close-knit community, they are free to be themselves, the theme of my after-school class this year is going to be "It's Okay to Be Different!" I had my students read Todd Parr's book by the same name as an introduction to the idea. We then reviewed the vocabulary "same" and "different" and played some community-building activities like "Just Like Me" where students could recognize how their likes and dislikes, interests and talents, were similar and different from one another.

The next class, we made our own class book. I showed them an example of an "It's Okay to Be Different" page. Mine was "It's Okay to have a nose ring" :-) and then they got to work on their own. I was amazed with what they came up with- one student with a large red birthmark on her face wrote "It's okay to have a mark on your face" and proudly showed the group. The next class, we recorded ourselves reading our pages for speaking practice and made the video below. 

We even e-mailed the author Todd Parr and he responded saying he loved our movie! The students were so proud.

As a closing activity, I had students tell a fact about themselves according to the colors of Korean M and Ms. We all enjoyed learning about each other more. Then I asked them how the candy looked on the outside- different- and how it looked on the inside- the same! We're all the same and we're all different! 

Overall, I'm really proud of this start to the school year and can't wait to build upon this lesson! 

All Set! Back to School Basics

Setting up my classroom in Korea, I tried to anticipate a lot of my students' needs so that we could start the year strong. Here are some pieces I made sure to include: 

1. Class Rules 

We brainstormed ideas together and then consolidated them into the following four rules. As a teacher who sees the whole school, making collective class rules can seem intimidating, but I found that some guiding questions allowed me to take students' ideas into account while still ultimately creating only one set of rules for the English classroom. The first few weeks, we have been reading the rules as each class begins. 

2. Habits of Discussion

 Before school started, I tried to think of reasonable expectations for habits of discussion in the classroom. I wanted to elevate my students' language skills while still meeting them at their current ability. I decided on "silent signals" to increase class participation,  a phrase of the week for conversational practice, and conversation skills to work on throughout the year. I plan on teaching signals for each of the conversation skills so that students can remind each other to make eye contact or speak loudly. 

3. Behavioral Supports: 

I have been working on setting expectations consistently to eliminate conflict in the classroom. I made a "noise-o-meter" to manage student volume during activities, and chose "give me 5" as my attention-getter this year because it gives students some time to finish their work or conversation before pausing and also makes expectations for listening very clear. 

4. Community-building decorations!

 I found these amazing diversity posters buried in a closer in the classroom when I arrived (thanks Elaine or Micia?) and immediately put them up. If anything, I think that adding your own decorations to the classroom makes you feel more comfortable as the educator. Then, during the first week, I had all of my club class students make puzzle pieces with pictures and phrases that described them and then we assembled them on the wall. (They made it into a heart on their own!) The theme was "We all fit together perfectly" and though I think the language was lost on them I hope the sentiment wasn't. This week I also added little superheroes with "I can..." statements that the first graders made this week. I hope they feel proud when they see them and a little more invested in the space. 

5. Kiddos! 

The classroom isn't really complete till they get in and messy it up! Happy to have these guys! 

 

Culturally Responsive Teaching (In Korea!)

If you are an American educator, you've probably heard mention of "Culturally Responsive Teaching." When training with Teach For America, the concept a culturally responsive classroom, one in which the teacher seeks to understand her students' cultural context and tailor your teaching to fit the diverse strengths of your student body, was an essential tenet of effective teaching.

I fully agree with these precepts, but when came to my day to day teaching in Bushwick, Brooklyn, my practice sometimes fell short. Though we often celebrated my students' cultures, it was a constant challenge to both see how my students' unique backgrounds sculpted them as learners and identify how their particular strengths played out in the classroom. 

Coming to Korea, I again had those buzzwords of Culturally Responsive Teaching at the forefront of my brain. If responsive teaching was difficult in the US, I wondered, how much more challenging might it be in Korea, where the culture and context are foreign to me in all senses of the word?

What I've found is that the complete foreignness of the school, the students, and even the language they speak, has actually given me a really good insight into how culture affects learning and what cultural responsiveness can feel like in the classroom. Here's what I've found out:

1. Cultural Responsiveness has nothing to do with your students and everything to do with you.

When you've got a clear sense of where YOU are coming from, you can more accurately see your students' cultures and adjust accordingly. The first thoughts that crossed my mind when  I started teaching in Korea were comparative. The classrooms here are louder than mine were, the students here call out and students in my class raised their hands, kids have breaks between periods here and did not have them in my school. When you find yourself comparing your values and your students ' while teaching,  take the time to recognize your cultural bias. What value judgments are you putting on raising your hand or walking in straight lines.

2. Cultural responsiveness means reflecting before reacting.

Stopping to understand your own cultural influences is the first step in being a reflective teacher. Initially, when I saw that students in Korea had slightly different attitudes- more playful, light-hearted, boisterous in class- I thought I had troublemakers on my hands. I rushed to devise stronger management systems, put on my stern teacher face, and squash out all of those "problem behaviors." What I got in return was a group of silent, disinterested, and slightly annoyed students. When I took the time to reflect, I saw that I didn't have a class of trouble makers, but a group of kids with personality, used to a more playful learning environment.

3.Cultural responsiveness is messy. It involves adapting, adjusting, re-planning and redoing.

After reflection comes adaptation. Be OK with the messiness of culturally responsive teaching. If something's broken, no problem, just fix it. In my classroom, I shifted the tone from that of a disciplinarian (a role I was taught to play frequently back in the States) to one as a moderator. I gave my students  more turn and talks, allowed them to practice with partners before having to speak to the whole class, gave them mingling exercises so they could chat with friends (in English!). And slowly, I am seeing the class come to life in a way that suits both me and my students.

4. Cultural responsive teaching begins outside of the classroom.

Students are so much more than students- take the time to understand their lives beyond school walls. This statement is so intuitive, but perhaps easier said than done. To truly understand your students' cultures, you need to witness it outside the classroom. Attend a sporting event, a festival, ask your students about the movies they watch and games they play. It may seem like "extra work" but I think it is not only beneficial to your classroom but requisite for creating a strong, responsive community.  Now excuse me, while I ask my host brother if I can join in on the cartoon marathon- it's all in the name of good teaching!