Storytelling

Running to Chazam

Class 3 Reading Group

With lessons in hand

from loneliness to oneness

darkness to brightness

-Haiku from “The Stranger”

I am now a published author! The book my friend Linnea and I have been working on went public at Art-A-Whirl in Minneapolis. I wrote the poem partly in Minneapolis, partly in Bhutan.

Here’s a link to the work: The Stranger

Publishing my poetry was a goal for this year, and it has happened already. It’s only May, let’s see what other goals see the light of accomplishment this year…

I want to take some time in this post to share what I’ve been doing with my classes at school. After trying many different approaches to teaching the vocabulary and grammar structures outlined as part of the syllabus, I realized that the problem was in the readings given for context. The readings in the curriculum are usually over the heads of my Class 3 and Class 4. Bhutan has a national curriculum, so I knew I couldn't diverge from what the students were required to learn. I was feeling frustrated and felt like my teaching was disorganized and had no routine. I also saw little progress with my students. I had to try a different way  (as my mom says “if you can’t get there from here, you have to go start somewhere else”). So I turned to a tried and true method for language teaching and learning I had used with French during my student teaching: Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS).

I take the vocabulary and structures they are supposed to gain from the curriculum, then as a class we make up a hilarious story using them. After we make the story, the kids read it, act it, retell it through drawings, and then in their own way in writing. What is amazing is that they have actually retained the vocabulary and structures. They go around saying lines from our story. What a feeling of success! After we are done with our silly story, I read the actual reading from the curriculum with them, we go over it, and they tend to understand it a lot more since we’ve learned the difficult vocabulary in an easier and repeated context. 

Here’s an excerpt from Class 4’s “Tshering the Lark”:

Once upon a time, there was a lark. The lark’s name was Tshering. Tshering was good at singing. He was not timid. Tshering’s dream was to sing on Druk Superstar. But there was a problem! Creatures like larks were not allowed to sing on Druk Superstar. But Tshering was not timid. He went to Thimphu. He wanted to ask Kencho Wangdi to let him sing on the show. Tshering went soaring to Thimphu as fast as his wings could go.

And some of “Dorji the Orphan” from Class 3:

Once there was a child named Dorji. Dorji did not have a mother. Dorji did not have a father. Dorji did not have a family. Dorji was an orphan. Dorji lived in a meadow. She lived in a meadow with her cows. The cows liked the meadow. The meadow had a lot of grass. It did not have a lot of rocks. Dorji did not live in a house. She lived in a bago. The bago was made out of moss.  

(side note for those familiar with Class 3 curriculum: the Dorji story is for vocabulary for a book we are reading called Aunty Mouse that is not part of the required curriculum)

It is so fun to ask my students what should happen next in these stories. Their imaginations are fabulous and make me double over with laughter. 

Another successful routine I’ve implemented in Class 4 and 5 is “Breaking News”, inspired by Noorin who is teaching Kuruthang. I used to do news article summaries with my ESL students in the US, but didn’t know how to do it here without a newspaper or student access to the internet. Noorin reminded me that most of the kids watch TV and so could get the news from that source. I began by teaching “The 5 Ws” with a chant (The 5 Ws: Who What When Where Why!) and actions with our hands. Then I brought in news articles from the Kuensel online, the New York Times, or the BBC. Once the students had the routine down, I handed it over to them. After our 2 minutes of Mind Training (or “Eyes Closed” as we call it in Class 3), the student who is assigned that day writes up their article in summary form using the 5 Ws, then gives an oral report of the news item. My shyest students have stood in front of the class and said their news in a loud and clear voice. Though we are still having confusion over “What” and “Why” (effect and cause, respectively), the students are using their writing and summarizing skills and clearly showing improvement.

In our literary club, we are working on a school newspaper which we will print using the “cycloster” (1 copy per class- it is a difficult machine to operate and we have limited paper and ink...). The club is really excited to share their stories, so we are hoping to print our first edition this Saturday, complete with news of our Nobding Sports Competition victories.

So, in the midst of a spell of darkness and frustration, I have found ways to pull myself out and up; start from a different vantage point. And this has in no small part been aided by the support of the other BCF teachers in the field here. Feeling alone in this experience is just a feeling. The truth is that there are 20 some other teachers here who are dealing with the same issues who I can reach out to. I have appreciated being able to process through problems with them over the phone, to come to new ideas (or come back to old ones I’d forgotten). So a big THANK YOU! Teaching is not a job we can do effectively without support.

In non-teaching news: Joe is coming to Bhutan! His visa has been approved. He will be coming at the end of July and staying until the end of August. I am looking forward to showing him my village and school and sharing this experience with him.

There are some characteristically "Bhutanese" moments I’ve experienced here in the last week that I want to end with:

-My student Vim showing up at my door at about 7am with a bunch of bananas for me, just because.

-Walking to the top of a hill, being surrounded in a cloud, and staring down at my village  and the river through the mist.

-Watching my Class 3 boys stuff all their books, pencils, water bottles, snacks into the fronts of their gho before leaving for home at the end of the day.

-My students telling me I look nice in the “national dress of India” (jeans and a sweater).

-Picking tiny strawberries on the road as I walk students home.