This is blog entry number four from my fearless former eighth grade student who has been sharing her views of studying French as a ninth grader in her high school. (Search “A Blow To His Confidence” for the preceding three blogs.) In this blog, the author bravely interviews her teacher:
O.K. not to continue talking about the same subject over and over again but today I found out exactly how little my teacher knows about my classmates. She asked me why she should stop complementing me in French and I explained the feelings it caused the other students. She had absolutely no idea that this was going on and wanted to know how she could make it stop. I replied “get to know your students in depth”. Her response was, “It’s half way through the year – I know my students pretty well.” So, I asked her some questions:
1, What level of cumulative vocabulary understanding does each student have? Teacher: I don’t know – I haven’t done a cumulative test yet.
2. Reading comprehension? – with many kids yes, but not all.
3. Writing (more than 2 sentences)- not sure again. (Teacher has done a few times, not a ton. We seem to do ok with a given topic.)
4. Freewrites? never tried a freewrite.
5. Vocabulary tests – tests are pretty good.
6. Cumulative vocabulary tests – not done a cumulative test yet.
7. Student learning styles? no, never thought about that – I’ll do one Tuesday.
Questions about students personal likes and dislikes also didn’t go well. I know that all TPRS teachers know the answers to these questions, which is great, but consider the next set of questions:
8. How many of your students speak a language other than English already? – my teacher knew this.
9. Why did your students take French? – don’t exactly know. All IB kids have to take a language though.
10. If the school offered a different language how many kids would switch to a different language? – never thought about it.
11. Likes and dislikes of students? this is KEY. – knew a few things but not really in depth.
Other information – hard to get. (students are very protective around teachers and sometimes other students). After I did the foot race with this kid he said, “No one has really told me ‘good job’ in a school environment before. I will be the first one in my family to graduate from high school.” I didn’t know that before (didn’t know anything about this kid before) but knowing that information made me decide that I wasn’t going to let any teacher discourage him because he’s already going against the odds.
You have to be the change in your world. And if you want change, you have to take risks. All great things in this world have come from a person who takes risks and goes against the status quo to accomplish what they would like, continuing despite obstacles. That is the definition of a pioneer. All TPRS teachers are pioneers. If I would like to see any change in my French class (not even as far as changing to TPRS) it would be that all kids have a better relationship with the teacher because everything good with learning starts with good relationships. I have to take risks. Knowing that I have the support of my family regardless, I have decided to be fearless!
[ed. note: it is hard to get to know a group of kids well when they are not the most important thing in the room.]