The best way to disrupt the traditional Vietnamese classroom is to get everyone moving around. After being in teams writing one-word-at-a-time stories, I posted each on the back wall.
They were to then check out the stories and decide which was the funniest and which had the best grammar. There was a three-way tie for funniest but the best grammar story won hands down.
We just finished practicing the pronunciation for the Lord's Prayer and then used it for the end of class. Brought a tear to my eye.
Now I'm being subversive by having them peer edit. I had to actually stop them or they would have continued through the break.
Often, they erupted in laughter when the realized what they had written. A misplaced word can make a sentence seem completely random.
What was most interesting was how they took apart each others' writing and no one got upset. The students valued what was said and quickly rewrote. I have to say I am darn proud of all of them.
In the summers I spend time with my good friends in Phat Diem, Vietnam, a small country village with a world famous cathedral. Here are some of my musings. If you would like to correspond, please email me: garymeegan@gmail.com.
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Each year after graduation, the students eishing to enter university must take entrance examinations. They have been studying the past few w...
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Feeding three meals a day to over 200 starving girls and boys is difficult at best. Here is the dining room filled for breakfast. As usual ...
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I was blessed to have a visit from my good friends from Hanoi. This is their family around the table: Nam Vu is 6, Nam is 16, then their dri...