Thursday, April 28, 2011

English Club

Began English Club today with six students, Chiky's, and a stack of Question of the Week cards.  Relying on my experience with helping Academic Team, the kids had to slap in to answer the question correctly.  "What is your name?" Slap. "Dara."

"Where do you study?" Slap. "I study at Colegio La Senda."

"What chores do you do at home?" Slap. "I make my bed."

The next two competitors face each other and tensely hold their hand a few inches above the desk, willing it to be the first to make contact.

"What do you like to do on the weekends?" came the next.

Slap. "Clean my room!" yelled Alvaro. 

The other five students nearly died laughing.  Eduardo laughed so hard tears streamed down his face.  Alvaro looked a little confused, until one of the others pointed out the question was about the weekend, not chores. "I guess you could like cleaning your room on the weekend," I said, making the students laugh all over again.  Alvaro shook his head and sat down, a little perturbed, but in good spirits nonetheless.

Every Thursday, starting today, I look forward to working with these students after school.  They are the ones who are below the language level of their peers and who are, I'm afraid, many times in their own little world for the English portion of the day.  Through English Club, I hope to boost their language skills by covering the basics that they have not yet mastered and help them study for their Friday quiz.  I also hope it continues to be a lot of fun.  I have found that my lowest language level students really show more of their personality when they aren't in the presence of their more intimidating, nearly fluent classmates.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What a great idea. Sounds like you all had fun. You are such a good and creative teacher - lucky kids.