A good friend of mine called Dan gave me some advice recently for teaching children. He said ‘Just say everything the way it isn’t‘. In other words, if it is Tuesday, say, ‘Hello everyone, today is Friday, isn’t it?‘. Then step back as the children shout back at you, ‘No! Is Tuesday!‘. Or if Pablo has dark hair, brown eyes and is wearing a red T-Shirt, say, ‘Felipe has blond hair and blue eyes and he’s wearing a green T-Shirt. Is that right?‘
I suppose that this is a substitution for the standard classroom question. We ask, ‘What day is it?‘ or ‘What is Pablo wearing?‘, etc. For children it is an opportunity for interaction and it is the idea that underlies a song that has become very popular on YouTube:
Children must know that you are being silly but they can’t help reacting. In a way, it is a very basic form of humour. But adults would never get invloved with such primative humour, would they?
1 response so far ↓
1 Dan // Nov 24, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Hi Jamie,
The other quirky thing that’s happening with the very little people I teach is illustrated in the following witty bit of repartee:
Dan: What’s your name?
Nicole: What’s your name?
Dan: My name’s Daniel; what’s your name?
Nicole: My name’s Nicole.
Dan: Well, hello Nicole.
This happens repeatedly around the class, and while it’s time consuming and seemingly frustrating, I sort of like it, firstly for it’s comedy value (I’m the only one laughing, but you have to amuse yourself somehow) but also for it’s authenticity. What I mean is: here are people genuinely bemused by this weirdo speaking nonsense at them. What they have learnt is that I seem to respond positively when they copy what I say. Repetition is definitely an important element in our relationship. In this instance, though, copying me then gives me the opportunity to answer their question appropriately and at the same time model the answer (”My name’s…”). And although they don’t really mean it, for once it seems my students are genuinely interested in me! If I just asked them how their weekend was, we could get some real banter going…
Leave a Comment