Today was much better, having planned lessons that acknowledged the approach to learning that we observed yesterday we were able to work with the children in a way that felt familiar to them whilst allowing opportunity for us incorporate aspects that we believed would be beneficial. Really we wanted the teacher to see how combining drama with other lessons is a great way to keep the children engaged whilst educating them at the same time.
According to the South African 'freestyle' approach to timekeeping we
arrived at the school 30 minutes late for our 8am lesson. When we walked
into the classroom they were all sitting patiently, waiting for us to
begin. We jumped straight into it feeling quietly confident, Chanika was
to write down the work on the board, Sophie was to lead and I was to
assist.
Our lesson was pretty repetitive and very simple. Sophie would do an
action, for example, she would jump, she then repeated the phrase 'I am
jumping' with the class joining in as a whole. Each action required them
to actively 'do' something, which appeared to give them great pleasure.
Then it was my turn: 'Millie is .....'
I soon realised that the higher I jumped, or the stupider I laughed, the
more engaged the students were. The looks exchanged between the
students were a mixture of delight and shock- it was clear this was not
the type of lesson they were used to.
The lesson went extremely well and the 10am break was filled with
excitement and discussion that the previous day had lacked. I learnt a
lot from our work, aside from refreshing my memory on the technicalities
of present progressive tense, I began to really understand to need for
repetition. I noticed the teacher yesterday doing it and it was clear
that repeating the answer is an integral part of their learning a new
language, but it felt like a tool that forced the children to memorise
rather than understand. However, it felt today that through the use of
active engagement that the students wanted to repeat the tasks and their
enjoyment allowed them to subconsciously learn.
After the lesson had ended we were quickly passed to a different teacher
who asked us to lead a fitness class. Of course we recruited Caitlin to
do this and said we would assist. The class revolved around relay races
which were enjoyable but highlighted how unfit we all are- even Caitlin
got outrun by some students. After some team appreciation time which
included shouting 'Su-per He-roes' for a prolonged amount of time,
taking group photos, and generally just disturbing the rest of the
school, it was time to re-group and begin our second and last workshop
before tomorrow's performance.. *gulp*.
We played some warm up games that built upon exercises from yesterday,
and although the language barrier was still restricted their
comprehension of the tasks they still managed to creat some great work.
It was lovely to see that through the use of images language barriers
can be broken. One boy wants to be a pilot and so the whole class crated
a plane around him; a plane looks like the same no matter what language
you speak- it was clear that there was ways in which we could share
common ground.
After a positive start the workshop almost came to a full stop. The heat
and the fitness class were beginning to take its toll and the pressure
of creating a performance for tomorrow was draining us all. Finally in
one last bid to engage the quickly distracted class we asked if anyone
had a story they would like to tell us, after some persuading D.J
(that's not his real name) began to talk. With her pen at the ready
Chanika listened carefully, hoping to make note of anything that we
could turn into a performance.
'There was a young boy and his nan' he said, we were excited, 'one day
the boy asked if they could cook each other', excitement quickly turned
to confusing but Chanika continued to write. D.J carried on his story
which concluded with the boy killing his granny and feeding her to his
unsuspecting friends. We were in no position to be fussy, and Chanika
still feeling positive powered on encouraging the group to act out the
story, the group speaking in their own language and D.J playing the role
of translator.
It actually worked well as a piece of theatre, and so, with no time to
spare, we finally had a piece to show for the following day.
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