How to Keep the Attention of Fifteen Kids Without Speaking Their Language

Our day two class

We have started our English lessons for the small ones who live in neighboring slums. We started yesterday, Monday July 24th. It was a quiet beginning in every sense of the word. We had only three students. An eight year old and two four year olds. We recited the alphabet so many times I lost count. We sang songs with hand motions. We counted. We went over names of body parts. Not one of the children said one word the whole hour and a half no matter how much they were encouraged. Even bribing with caramel chocolates did not work. One of the four year olds fell asleep and almost tipped out of his chair.

The shorter of the two is one of the three students from yesterday.

Such beauties!

Then there was today. Again the first students did not show up until after 9:30 even though we have been telling everyone it starts at 9:00 (India time). Everything else was very different though! We had fifteen students in an age range of two to ten years old. One of the older boys has already learned some English and helped to get a good number of students to repeat after us. Again we sang lots of songs, using "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" to move into more body parts. (By the end, two of the older boys could correctly name what I was pointing to most of the time.) We went through the alphabet over and over. One of the older boys was restless and picking fights with the others so I dragged him up and made him be my pointer as we went through the letters again. This amused them greatly and all the older boys insisted on having their turn as the pointer.

Faye (on left) continuing to go through the alphabet (she is signing the letter P in ASL) while I distract them by taking pictures. The woman on the right is a local who will be taking over the teaching when we leave.

The age range makes it a challenge. The older ones get bored with too much repetition, and are ready for more challenges. The young ones do not speak, and some cling to parents afraid of the strangers. We are working bravely to find the way to keep them engaged and behaving, while also getting them to learn English. There is the added pressure of having many parents watching and evaluating us.

Hiding behind Mama's beautiful skit.

Pastor cares so much for these kids.

There was a school here last year that I thought we would be assisting at. However, most of the children who were going to those lessons lived in an area that was demolished over summer holidays. The people in slums are more or less squatting on government land without permission. Some slums have houses made of scraps of wood and tarp roofs. Other more permanent ones have concrete structures with second floors, electricity, and running water. Whether a slum has been "notified" or recognized by the government can make a big difference, because notified slums are far less likely to be bulldozed for new building developments, and by law the government has to supply running water and sewage to notified slums. The slum that children were coming from was leveled to make room for a new high rise apartment building. Once it is finished, all the former slum families will be given an apartment for free. They just have to wait five years for it to be built.

 

The kid on the right is the most outgoing and the one who already has English skills. When I snapped this it was probably right after he had said "Teacher! Teacher! Another photo!" for the seventh time.

The new school will be different in more than just which students are coming. The school will be in English instead of the local language, Marathi. Most adults I have met here speak at least three languages, their local language or mother tongue, the national language, Hindi, and English, the language used in all colleges and most books. If these kids can learn English well, they have a much better chance of getting into college and building a future better than what their parents had.

 

One of the silent ones.

For tomorrow, we are planning to do more of the same. Lots of "action songs" (what they call songs with hand motions) to keep their attention, with some of them, such as the alphabet song and "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" also being useful for English and some of them mostly just to keep them awake and engaged. We will also introduce more body parts. Neck, face, and fingers will likely make their debut. We will go through numbers and letters. And finally, we will introduce vocabulary based on objects in the room, door, chair, whiteboard, table, book, etc. I hope by the time I leave they can answer "What color is the floor?", "How many fingers am I holding up?", "What is my name?", and other similar questions.

Pastor Diwakar thanking everyone and inviting them to come tomorrow.

Trying to get them organized, facing the right way, and smiling was no short task.

Until next time.

Teacher Yana

Please lift up:

• Good teaching sessions for the kids.
• More kids to join.
• That the quiet kids would start to talk more. An English lesson will be much more useful if you are speaking.
• General safety and health (so far so good!)
• That we would be a help and encouragement and not a burden to our host.