Yes, We Can!

There are two sections of every class here at Chumbageni, each of which has between 40 and 60 students. The exceptions to this are Kindergarten which has only one section, and 7th grade which has three.

After teaching section 5A yesterday I went with the English teacher to go teach the other section. I thought they would be doing the same Thief! story that I worked on yesterday, but it turned out they were actually working on the expressions can and can’t. Without any preparation or heads up, the teacher told me to start teaching. I had to take 30 seconds to read the first few examples just to figure out what was teaching, and then have them read a few of the exercises as I frantically tried to put a lesson plan together out of nothing.

I quickly learned that the students have little trouble understanding when to use can and can’t, but have significant difficulties determining the subject (not to mention understanding whatever it is that they can or can’t do).

To keep it simple and keep their attention I devised a scenario for them to act out. I told them that two of the students and I want to go swimming together at the beach. Before going, I needed to know if they can swim because I don’t want them to drown. “Can you swim?” “Yes, I can swim.” After determining that my swimming buddies could swim, I told them to go ask some of their friends if they could swim. The dialogue went something like this:

Swimming Buddy: “Can you swim?”
Friend: “Yes, I can”

After determining that their friend could swim, they came to me and said:

Swimming Buddy: “I want to bring my friend”
Chelsea: “Can she swim?”
Swimming Buddy: “Yes, she can.”

After we had about a third of the class up at the front of the class ready to go to the beach we did some summarizing that required different pronouns. I pulled individuals out of the group and asked the class, “Can he swim?” “Can she swim?” Then I stood with the group going to the beach and asked “Can we swim?” I finally went and sat with the remainder of the class and asked, “Can they swim?”

By the end of the class they were more or less able to determine the correct pronoun when responding to the questions. I then switched it up with some other questions like, “Can girls run faster than boys?” which, of course, inspired a relay race, and “Can they sing?” which required a performance. I probably should have avoided that one since a student in the back raised his hand and asked me, “Can you sing us a song?” I guess I deserved it for putting them on the spot for the whole afternoon, so I said okay and taught them all how to do the Hokey Pokey. I think they appreciated my excellent dancing.