6th grade superstars...Shopping, Shopping!

I was bursting with pride, excitement, and overall happiness during and after 6th grade today.  I love them!  I mean, they are too much fun!  On Thursday, they had gotten finished with the lesson a little early (and since it's the last class of the day, the length of class depends on how many people run into me on my way there and whether they decide to ring the bell at 12:10 or 12:20), so I went ahead and played the song for them for the upcoming lesson (today's).  They listened and obliged.  Songs are key to foreign language learning; I know that from my own teaching in Nashville, but I've seen it here as well.  Something about teaching your own language and hearing new learners attempt to piece it all together makes you see things in a new light.  It's really neat.  (For example today in first grade, we did a quick review of family members and when I showed a brother and they would say sister or dad, I found myself thinking how in the world could you think either of those?  In Spanish, I understand the connection my students have and why they make the mistakes they do.  Here I have to stop and think: sister is the same level of family, just the wrong word and father is the same gender, just the wrong level)  They eat up the songs.  

Today was the day of the song lesson.  I actually didn't expect it to last the whole time.  They just had to listen and sing the song.  Then they had to match some pictures to the verse in the song.  Piece of cake, right?  The additional practice was group work which tends to eat up time, so I changed it to individual work.

The song basically mentions a store name (toy store, housewares store) which is their vocabulary for this unit.  Then it mentions some items found in the store and colors to go with.  The verses followed the same format.  The song included only three stores and they have learned 8 so their task was to choose one of the unused stores and write about it, including items to buy within it and their colors.  The song rhymed, but I wouldn't expect my students in Nashville to make Spanish rhymes.  I told them to rhyme if they could, but no biggie if they couldn't.

I am big on not making kids participate.  Especially in the beginning.  Foreign language is scary enough; no need to add fear of rejection when speaking, etc.  Basically I require that they do all silent work.  From there, I take volunteers for oral work.  I try to be overly enthusiastic about any positive utterance.  I scream, I shout, I wave my arms frantically and jump up and down.  This usually makes them laugh, which brings about a bit more comfort, but it's actually intended to encourage.

Sixth graders are a weird breed.  (Typical)  They are a perfect cross between know-it-all, biggest kids on campus and insecure adolescents.  There are many English-gifted kids in the class.  Some have English-speaking parents or relatives, some lived in the US for awhile, and others are just good students who want to learn.

I asked for some volunteers to give me their songs.  Since there was a format, all I had to do was erase a few choice phrases and write the new ones on the board.  Jordan (his English name of choice) is a very enthusiastic English student.  He always wants to participate, and he has lots of questions regarding spelling and meaning.  He's a teacher's student that's for sure.

Jordan was the first to eagerly volunteer to share his verse.  In a moment of teacher ingenuity, I played the CD again, stopping after the first verse.  The class continued singing the chorus and then as a whole, we sang Jordan's new verse.  I was grinning from ear to ear.  Truly.  They were so cute and so engaged!  And with so little effort.  It was amazing.  Of course three or four followed suit.  

I intend on getting them on video tomorrow, assuming the cooperate, though moments like that are hard to reproduce.

In yoga yesterday, I had an aha moment.  In Nashville, I play my CDs from Spain and Guatemala for my students while they work.  Here, I have not been doing that.  I decided to make an "English class CD" with a wide variety of songs, but an emphasis on country (so they can understand some words and to represent Nashville).  I plan on playing a song a week for every group.  That should allot for around 30 songs at this point.  After class today, I think this is the golden ticket (not that I need a golden ticket for 6th grade).

On a funny note, I went into a Spanish speaking tizzy for a minute with them (I can't recall why) and one of the 6th grade boys asked me if the first graders understood me.  I got frustrated thinking he was yet again commenting on my Spanish, but I said, what do you mean?  He said, "Well, they don't know English yet.  Do they understand you?"  Phew.  I explained how they're beginning to learn words and phrases and that English class isn't about understanding every word.  Blah blah blah.