Vicky Loras posted a blog challenge called “What’s Your Story” . I was able to identify with her story of immigration as I moved to Israel from the United States when I was eleven years old.

Back in mid 1970s there was no Internet and the world wasn’t quite as globalized as it is today. Fashions spread slowly then and my new classmates stared in shock at my brand new bell-bottom pants. Unlike today everyone wasn’t watching the same T.V. shows and food products from the States (such as peanut butter) weren’t available in the local, small town supermarket.

I wasn’t particularly attractive to my new classmates. They had all been together since kindergarten. I was a poor student as I knew Hebrew, but not on grade level. To make matters far worse, I was a complete klutz in the playground and could not contribute to team sports. Couldn’t sing well or dance well either.

My knowledge of all matters American seemed suspect. I claimed that there were 50 states in the United States.  The teacher (BIG sigh!) and the pupils all said there were 51 states. We took a class trip to the Kennedy Memorial. Each state there has a plaque and SO DOES THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA! That adds up to 51…

But at least I knew English. That is, until “Mull of Kintyre” became a huge hit.

The kids were wild about foreign music. As there was no Internet to get the lyrics from, the thing to do was ask a native speaker to write down the lyrics while listening to the song. I often had trouble doing that as singers don’t always enunciate clearly or the music is  too loud. But “Mull of Kintyre” was the worst. As a kid I had no idea what a “mull” was or that “Kintyre” was a name of a place. In fact, I couldn’t even tell where one word began and the other ended, I tried to make sense of different sound combinations (mulling on tyres / molliking on rye) and drew a blank every time.

I know there were other songs during those years that caused me angst but this  one stuck in my memory because it took me a long time till I learned the meaning. By then I had become proficient in Hebrew and gotten over a lot of the problems that had plagued me as a newcomer.

This song always triggers memories.

This is a “whodunit” mystery that takes place in 16 century Prague.

At first I thought that it was a bit too “educational” and “preachy” but then I got into it and got totally hooked. The characters and the descriptions are rich with detail and there is humor and a good suspense story.

Enjoyed it!

This post is a continuation of the previous two posts about a 3 day course I’m teaching to deaf middle-school children whom I barely know.

I made a lot of mistakes today.

True, there were those elements I couldn’t control. Some different students came today, students who hadn’t participated in the lead-in activities to our planned visit to the Magic Kingdom in Orlando. There were distracting things going on outside the room’s windows and in the building. The tech I had hoped to use to show some pictures of Disneyworld didn’t work.

Nonetheless, two days in a row of learning based on imagination was too much. I couldn’t relate well enough to stories they told about amusement parks they had been to in Israel as I wasn’t familiar with the rides (though one boy had been to Disneyworld and one girl had been to Euro Disney) and the kids were not listening to each other – they only wanted to tell. I thought we could work on descriptors (such as scary, exciting, fun or whatever reaction they cane up with) as we imagined going on rides – I told them about the rides based on movies such as Toy Story, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc. because I was sure they had seen them. They are old movies now, only a few remembered seeing them. Most of the students said they would go on everything and that’s that (though some said they wouldn’t go to the haunted house).

Basically, there was too much new information about a world outside their daily life. They need it in small doses. The bit about asking for Chips in a U.S fast Food place and getting a bag of potato chips (not French Fries) was too much for some of them. Just lost them.

I should have known better.

Just me, 8 students and a whiteboard. And one imaginary millionaire (one student suggested “billionaire”) who is sending us on an all-expenses-paid trip to Disneyworld, Orlando.

Overall I think the lessons went well. The main issue that needs improving is the pace.

The ‘’problematic” 8th graders didn’t bother to show up. There was only one tall, lanky, hyperactive boy who kept moving either his chair, the desk, rolling a water bottle or doing something else. But he was participating too.

We started off with a discussion in Hebrew (which I didn’t even try to add English to) just to set the framework of the story. I “introduced” our benefactor and asked what you need in order to go the States. Some kids didn’t know the difference between “a passport” and “an identity card”. Many didn’t know what an embassy was or that you needed  a visa for such a trip. They didn’t know the words for these things in their L1, it wouldn’t be effective to work on these words in L2 when others are more commonly used.

The “action” began when I asked them what they would pack for their trip. I wrote what each student suggested on the board in a full sentence, asking them whether to add “has to take” or “wants to take” . That may sound a slow process but for that part the pace was actually fine. This is because a lot of discussion was needed whether some of the suggestions were logical  or not. For example, one student suggested bringing a winter coat. I pointed out that I had told them that the weather in Orlando is hot and rainy. He replied “See! You said it again! You said it is rainy so I need a winter coat”, In Israel it only rains in the winter, when it is cold, rainy and hot is a difficult combination to imagine!

At some point they all started giggling and one boy handed me a note, saying this is what he wanted to take. They all looked at me to see my reaction. It was a word badly spelled in Hebrew and I thought it said “hay”. I told them I don’t understand why they want to take food for cows. There was some consultation and the note was corrected. Turns out they meant “bra”. “Of course” I said, “very important item to take! Don’t forget underwear too”! There was a lot of positive laughter and that was good but I didn’t cooperate when they hyperactive boy wanted to drag on the topic and learn the words for different kinds of underpants (remember, these are 13 and 14 year olds!).

But now that there were all these sentences on the board I couldn’t go on – there was a lot of new vocabulary there.

So, I pulled out a travel game called “trouble” whose main appealing feature is that the die is encased in a plastic bubble. Fun to press (you have to press hard!). One by one each student pressed the die, and I erased a corresponding number of words on the board. That student had to come and fill the words back in. The student at the board could ask the others for help.

Here was the problem with the pace. On one hand, the students liked the activity and did help each other. But it took a long time and there was a lot of unrelated talking in between.

I didn’t want to split them into groups for two related reasons. I don’t know them well enough to build balanced groups AND it is much safer not to encourage competitive behavior. Some of these children respond badly to pressure and I don’t know which ones. So I really don’t know how I can improve this part. I’d be most grateful for suggestions!

I read about this in The New Yorker magazine. This person had a crazy / fantastic idea, worked on it and IT WORKS! These creatures ACTUALLY WALK!

The story of turning fantasy into reality and the fact that it is so visual made me want to share this with you! Enjoy!

P.S. – Just finished the Erri De Luca book from last week. So good!

I had better start with a clarification here – its not there won’t be any conversation, it is just the conversation won’t be in English, at all.

For the next three mornings I have to teach at a kind of “filler” program that is being given to the deaf children in junior high to keep them a bit busier during the vacation (special ed, you know. They are often very lonely at home and its easier on the parents).

I don’t really know the children, I don’t know how many will come in on any given day (kids may join on the second day) and DO know they will be mixed together, 7th,8th and 9th graders. I also DO know they are all pretty weak students. The atmosphere where I’ll be teaching is decidedly not conducive to teaching (I’ve taught there before but only during the summer) – the kids get long breaks and there are all kinds of things going on in the background. What bothers me the most is when they want to make food for the kids at the kitchenette there and the smell of scrambled eggs with tomatoes or toasted cheese sandwiches fills  the air. Even if we’re playing fun games it is hard to keep the young teenagers concentrated.

Isn’t this what teens would rather be doing? Nothing?

So, I have decided to just set a framework – we’re going to pretend that a millionaire has invited us to Disneyworld, Florida, all expenses paid, and we have to plan our trip. We will start discussing what we need for the trip and I will deal with the language as it comes up.

We only talk in Hebrew and Israeli Sign Language. Even if a child remembers how to say something in English his /her speech may be pretty unintelligible in English and we have to write it down.

The way I see it (has worked with my own students, count on it working with these students) I’ll see which stage of the planning process captures their interest and work with the language that emerges from that situation. If I can get them interested in deciding what to pack for the trip I can introduce “have to “ (as in things we have to take) as opposed to ‘want to” or “can” / “can’t”. The I put the sentence each pupil says on the board (some like to say it in English, you just can’t understand some of the kids’ speech). Or things you can or can’t do during the long flight. Maybe that will lead to the names of the films they like and wish to see on the flight and we can compare the different names films get in Hebrew and in English. When we “get” to Disney we could discuss the order in which to do things (first, later , etc.) or descriptions of rides (scary, exciting, boring, etc). It depends how our imaginary trip will proceed, which stages of it interest them and what language emerges. We can do things with the sentences on the board such as the disappearing text ( I prefer to call it the friendly eraser strategy) and more.

In light of what I have described above I see the lessons as dealing with emergent language even though there will be no conversations in English.

I have used a lot “if” in this post because I am somewhat apprehensive based on previous experience with summer programs. Even though I bring in movie-activities and games from the USA in original attractive packaging, some kids begin signing the word BORING at me before their bottoms have properly been placed on the chairs. SIGH… I hope this flight into fantasy will work with them. School IS different from this setting.