This week was a really tough week for me. I created a role playing activity based on illnesses and doctor's suggestions for my 5th graders:
• ‘I have a ________’
• stomachache
• fever
• headache
• cold
• runny nose
• earache
• toothache
• Take some medicine.
• Drink a lot of water.
• Go to bed early and get some rest.
• Wash your hands.
The students (in pairs) were given a symptom card and a doctor’s suggestion card. They had to play the role of a patient and a doctor. I wanted to give my students some creative license in role playing. Many of the students did a fine job, but there were some students who fought me every step of the way. One example was a student (girl) who refused to participate with her partner (boy). She wanted to role play with her friend. I told her that she needed to work with the partner next to her. She suddenly threw the papers on aside and ignored what I was saying. Out of frustration, I yelled at her saying “Why are you acting like this!?” That definitely was a ‘great’ way to start the Monday. The problem is that my Korean skills are limited and I cannot communicate normally with students in these situations. I know that yelling wasn't the best move on my part, but having patience on Mondays is not my strongest suit. Next time, maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to let the students partner up with the friends they want, and the remaining students can be assigned partners.
Yeah, I know the feeling of trying to get students to work with people they don't want to work with. Usually when students ask to partner up with another close person I'll have them switch. I try to keep it on the DL so that everyone doesn't ask to switch. But usually like you mentioned, other students are working so they aren't paying attention if you slyly let the non-participant to work with who you want.
ReplyDeleteAs you suggested, maybe letting students partner up will be a good idea if their friends are not nearby. As long as you give them a time limit to get a friend. I could see this taking a long time if students were allowed.
*work with who they want.
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ReplyDeletePersonally I have always found it difficult to get Korean students to work with partners or sit with people who they don't want to sit by or partner. In England, when I was at school we had to sit boy-girl-boy-girl in alphabetical order so I thought that it would be easy for me to adopt a similar policy here in order to get students to focus. Instead, what happened was that the students refused to move and the coteacher in some classes wouldn't force them to move (other coteachers had seating plans but even they had to check the seating plan every class as the students would just sit by their friends instead). Nowadays, I don't try and split students up from their friends at all, although I do move groups of friends around so that the students who want to misbehave can't hide at the back and so that shy students get a chance to be sitting closer to me in some classes so that they can ask questions without feeling embarrassed.
ReplyDeleteI generally don't like letting them pick who they want to work with too often as there always seems to be that one student who no one wants to work with. Also I have issues of when friends are together they will play instead of do what they are asked to do. (In fact I will be splitting up a pair of friends after midterms.) However, I understand your situation as well. In those cases I make a bargain with them, they either have to do the dialogue with the partner I picked one time first before they switch or more often I make them do the dialogue with me first before they switch. Then if I need a 'volunteer' to demonstrate that student or the pair are the first selected. I don't normally have issues with those students again, either they don't ask or they readily take the bargain. It may or may not work for you, when I was in the elementary school my co-teachers dealt with that in their own way.
ReplyDeleteThis happens to my classes too which they violently refused to pair with the classmate they don't like or hate. What I do is to follow them to avoid fighting and disinterest throughout the class.
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