Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Journey to Minnesota

Today was the final lesson of the grid activity series; the questions revolved around their journey to Minnesota. All of the students were quite candid in their responses, and I felt like I was able to connect with some on a deeper level as they relayed their stories to me.

The first question asked how they got to Minnesota. We explained the word “route” and had the students list all of the cities they traveled to before finally arriving in Minnesota. No student had journeyed through less than three cities prior to reaching Minneapolis. Faizah had gone to nine cities, starting in Mogadishu, Somalia and traveling to Nairobi, Kenya by bus, and then by plane to New Delhi, India to Bangkok, Thailand to Taipei, Taiwan to Los Angeles, California to Chicago, Illinois to Washington, D.C. then finally to Minneapolis! Maria wrote that she had walked and taken a bus all the way from Ecuador to Guatemala to Mexico to the United States. Fareeza had come from Iraq to Syria to France to New York to Minneapolis.

They then wrote about when they arrived in Minnesota. The length of time varied from three months to forty years. Juan arrived in 1970 and worked on a cattle ranch in Texas. Bekele, from Ethiopia, came in January 2009. I was shocked to find out how long some of the students had been here because the length of time in the country did not correspond to their English level in many cases.

They wrote about who traveled with them to the United States. Many said siblings, family members or friends. Makda came with her five children ten years ago and told me that now one of her children has graduated from college with a business degree and the other four are currently enrolled at the University of Minnesota.

I was surprised by the amount of detail each person recalled about their trip to the United States. Their stories were as varied as their backgrounds. People reported being sick, tired, happy and depressed about what they were leaving behind. One student recalled hating the airplane food and another said they liked watching the movies on the plane.

We ran out of time before doing the final question, which was a shame because it asked about what they brought with them to the United States. I think their responses would have been fascinating.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Spring energy

Today my students seemed to have a case of spring fever. The staff teacher in my classroom had to ask students repeatedly to put their pencils down while she was talking. She firmly explained that when the teacher is talking, it is time to listen. All of the students nodded and said things like, “Yes, teacher. Sorry!”

We also do an activity where everyone stands up, mingles, and asks other people a question we have just worked on answering. The expectation is clear that all students need to stand up and continue asking people until a teacher tells them it is time to move on to the next question. Some people need to be told to stand up when the activity starts, and many times people sit down before it is over. Today the staff teacher stopped the class to explain the importance of speaking practice.

Clearly not everyone in the class was acting this way, and the people who were doing it didn't do it in a defiant manner. On the contrary, students are overwhelmingly positive, grateful and respectful to other students and teachers. It seems the impeding spring weather is making everyone, students and teachers alike, a bit antsy. It would have been nice to have done an activity where we could have gone outside, though that is not possible logistically for our class.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Caves versus graves

Geography was woven into the grid activity again this week. We talked about caves, a new vocabulary word for all of the students. After showing a picture from an encyclopedia, some students said they had seen caves while others had not. One woman asked if caves and graves were the same thing. I explained what a grave is used for, which she knew, and then said that graves were only for deceased people. I told her living people like to explore caves, but it was hard to explain that caves could also be used as graves.

We talked about mountains, valleys and deserts and learners had varying options on whether they liked these regions. Many people said they did not like deserts because of the dry climate and snakes. Aziza, the brave one of the group, said she would like to go because she enjoys seeing new places. This brought to mind the time when we were talking about flying airplanes, and everyone in the class decided they’d be too scared to be a pilot, except for Aziza!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Where in the world

Today’s topic was traveling. The questions alternated between "have you" and "would you like to":
• Have you been to South America?
• Would you like to travel to Antarctica?
• Have you seen the Pacific Ocean?

We used the globe to point out various countries and continents. Nearly everyone decided they wouldn’t like to visit Antarctica expect for Aziza and me. Many cited the cold weather as their reason, but Aziza was determined to see the wildlife. It was interesting because sometimes the students didn’t grasp the concept of imagining, in that they thought that they had to answer based on if they had the financial means to travel to that place at this time. I had to explain to them that we were only thinking in theory and that it didn’t matter if we literally were able to go to those places.

One thing that impacted me was when the students were asked if the weather in the north and south poles was hot or cold. Some students repeatedly answered hot for one of the poles. It was a good reminder of the disparate previous educational backgrounds of the students in my class.