(Want to read the other posts in the series? MAD Monday Series)
When we first set out to run the Make a Difference program at the Vivekanand camp, we really had no idea what we were in for, what we were doing, or how it would all look.
We created three classes for the 32 students to be placed in. 1/3 of them went into the official MAD class. They had all of the workbooks and worksheets ready for them (courtesy of Cambridge Universal Press) and had the curriculum all laid out for them.
The middle 1/3 went into a class that we called Almost Mad - Level II. They did not have the ready-made curriculum, but have been (for the most part) able to use a varied rendition of some ready-made internet resources (though I haven't been able to sit in on their class, so I'm not quite sure what they've been able to come up with, or how easy/hard it's been).
The last 1/3 went into a class that we called Almost Mad - Level I. This is the crew that I'm responsible for - along with 5 other lead teachers
... and we had NO curriculum to work with.
Right from the beginning, the other teachers and I (for Level I) were very excited about the task laid out for us. We had two days per week with the students and a total of four hours. Wow! Can you imagine FOUR WHOLE HOURS a week to teach these kiddos?
We set in motion a flurry of activity, brainstorming and lesson planning.
We set in motion a flurry of activity, brainstorming and lesson planning.
Since we had tested and assessed the children using the official MAD program, we felt very confident in knowing at what current level they were at, and how much command of the English language they had.
We put together - with great ease (not to be mistaken for quickly ... it took a LONG time to create that first lesson plan!) a plan for our second class with the students.
And then reality set in.
These kiddos barely knew their alphabet. They could speak common phrases like "Hello, ma'am!" and "How are you?" yet that was where their understanding stopped. If you responded and said something like "I'm good, how are you?" they did not know how to answer.
We struggled through that first week of classes and left at the end of those two days exhausted, exasperated and frustrated. How on earth were we going to get them from Point A to Point B, when we now realize that they are nowhere near ready to even start at Point A?
We reconvened. We shared thoughts and stories about how to better serve these kids. We spent time over coffee ... and time over wine ... and labored over what to change in our lesson plan.
The second week of class came and we had a NEW plan in place. We had taken out some of the 'overkill' of arts/crafts and instead added in more alphabet work. We focused more on the theme of the week and realized that took away too much time from the alphabet. We pressed onward through the class and made it work.
After all, the kids were showing up ... ready to learn and anxious for what the two days of instruction would bring them. So we would also simply show up. Not 100% sure of what we were doing, and definitely not sure whether WHAT we were doing was useful or helpful.
We kept notes after each week of class, and we exchanged emails like you wouldn't believe. How could we make these four hours a week more meaningful? How could we make the alphabet stick? Should we use more phonics? Should we split up the class into groups that were level based? Should we pull out the two kids who were seemingly more advanced than the rest?
Should we read more? Should we engage in normal conversation more? Should we have one lead teacher and the rest just sitting with the kids? Should we move Pinky and Sanjana to separate tables since they seem to be best buddies?
Should we do more singing? Or more manipulatives? Less books and less talking? Does arts and crafts help them learn? Maybe we should add in sight words that match the theme for each week instead of focusing on the Dolch words?
Remember earlier when I mentioned that we had FOUR WHOLE HOURS per week to work with the students? Four hours is NOTHING. Four hours goes by in the blink of an eye. Four hours per week of English instruction, with nearly NO practice or immersion at home ... oh boy.
At the end of three weeks, all we knew was that we didn't know what we were doing.
We were going to need to do some major adjusting, flexing and bending.
In the above picture, I believe Ann is demonstrating what the phrase "raise your hand" means. We realized just two classes in that we took for granted that these little guys and gals would understand "get in line" or "just listen" or even "shhhh!"
Participating in the teaching of this Level I class feels a bit like parenting. You love the children unconditionally, but it doesn't mean that the job is easy. It doesn't mean that you don't have sleepless nights, or stressed out days.
It has meant that instead of waltzing through a lesson plan that was prepared for us (by someone much wiser, knowledgeable and likely not quite as invested in matters of the heart) ... we were struggling to make it through two hours of solid teaching and instruction ... all the while looking into these huge pools of brown eyes, who were trusting us to teach them the English language.
We realized early on that we were building relationships with these kids ... and if nothing else, they would be more confident when attempting to use the English language, but at the end of the day --- it was not our mission to simply teach them conversational English.
Our goal was to teach them to read, write and speak English at a beginning level, so that they could graduate into the Level II class at the beginning of August.
(Can you hear my sigh from where you're sitting?)
We were going to have to seriously invest in bending. Madly commit to flexing and majorly be wiling to adjust ... to get these students ramped up and working towards a successful Almost MAD session with us.
Stay tuned for more on the process of creating a workable curriculum -- from scratch -- for the Level I MAD kids of Vivekanand Camp.
