Recruiting Pupils in The Year of the Dog

Power Point Presentation - Lunar New Year

      On Tuesday, January 31, 2018, I was at Pei-Hsin Junior High School. There were forty-five student recruits from elementary schools and a few high school interns. I was asked to do a four-period program on the topic of “Lunar New Year.”
        The week before, I  began a power point presentation about Lunar New Year for a middle-school recruitment  I was asked to teach by the Kang Shin publishing agent. I divided it into four parts: "Western" Gregorian calendar,  Lunar New Year around the World, Customs and Traditions in Taiwan, and The Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson. I would introduce myself using reported speech and then practice comparison, verbally and on the board. After a break, the second part would be a group reporting activity, and the third part would be listening comprehension and retelling of chapter one of the novel. We were driven to the school behind Hola Home Furnishings in Beitun, Taichung, at eight o'clock and went to the library.
        I  requested from the school no more than internet access on

a projector, and white or chalk boards. I was given one white board on wheels on which writings couldn’t be erased and a laptop that hadn’t been updated  for on-line power point. To bring this winter-break program back from potential disaster, we all had to think fast.

The children sat patiently. There was only one white board. I would need more. As some teachers hustled to find and deliver another chalk-board, another went to get a laptop to show the eighteen-slide power point presentation I had prepared. While they hustled, I went ahead with an introduction using reported speech walking around the room chatting with the students. “I am from America; what did I say?” I asked individual students. The tables stretched from the screen like four three-car trains in a stock yard. I did all that I could to divide the “passengers” into nine teams of five each, but I needed another white board or I couldn’t conduct the four activities I had planned. I am very happy the way things turned out. I used the three boards around the projector screen. The students had maximum participation because of the nine teams of five each I created.

The first slide introducing  popular American New Year activities began with a choral listing of the Western month names (January, February, etc.) and then a classic New Year’s Eve ten to one countdown and explained  "resolution," asking the children what theirs was ("My resolution is to get higher test scores.").We then looked at a slide which  showed how the New Year dates were different in  lunar calendars.  New Year activities  around the world was introduced comparing the “Western” Gregorian calendar with Lunar New Years from Asia and the Middle World.   They were all interested as I digressed with a slide about my faith in Judaism and Rosh Hashanah. They were impressed that while they lived in year 107 of the Republic of China I lived in year 5778 of Jewish history. They loved it!   

Our first exercise was based on pair work comparisons. It was based on the Chinese Zodiac I had on a power point slide. I demonstrated by asking the boys and girls by show of hands, who was a “Dog” person or “Who was born in the Year of the Dog” That began the exercise. It concluded with one or more member of each group, with a microphone, using "and, too, or either" in responses (“I am a ‘dog’ and she is, too.” “I like math but he doesn’t.”) Next, we went back to the different New Years around the world and randomly called on each team to come up and write a comparison (“Taiwan’s New Year is in February but the Jewish New Year is in September.”   

    All the children came up to write answers on the board at least three times each in addition to conferring with each other on group work. The third contest concerned Chinese Lunar New Year. I had prepared two slides about the preparation and fifteen days of the Lunar New Year the children observed in Taiwan. I then divided the holiday into nine groups and each group had to give a report teaching me about their New Year festivities. They passed the microphone in their group and most added details about the day or topic they were assigned to discuss.

The last period was dedicated to The Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson, by Bette Bao Lord. The young adult novel, used in my high school’s ESL classes in Brooklyn, was perfect for the occasion especially since the two settings are China and Brooklyn. I played two video compilations made by American students who were assigned to make trailers for an imaginary film about the book. I explained the plot of the girl, the only Oriental student in school, who started a new life with her family abroad and howhometown Dodger Jackie Robinson, the only African-American in Major League Baseball in 1947, shared an affinity and became her hero; she has a keen ability in the sport and meets her hero in the book’s climax. I read aloud excerpts from chapter one entitled “一月 January Chinese New Year.” It is about her mother getting a letter from her father who works in New York asking his wife and daughter to come join him. The chapter is about how Sixth Cousin (“Bandit”, the girl’s nickname, later renamed Shirley 
Temple Wong) and her family react to the news. I was worried the students wouldn’t understand but they did. I told the students they would retell the story putting five sentences on the board in a tag-team formation. The children had ten minutes to caucus; then, I called them to the board. I supervised and gave suggestions as they wrote and awarded the first team completed as the first to present their story to the class. I then went over each story in order of completion and made corrections. I then cued the group; the students did a choral reading of their work. All nine groups presented. It was wonderful!

     Right on time, the recruitment program ended. There was such enthusiasm from the students, interns, and teachers and staff; even the assistant principal of the school stopped by to share the joy. I was so stoked by the end I could barely sit down, but the publisher’s agent escorted me to his van and drove us home. It had been a successful morning giving the children something of substance to converse about and practice English. They loved the board games, slide show, and camaraderie of being in a team. They had a good laugh as I joked about the content in my Brooklyn hoodie and Dodger jersey. The Year of the Dog really got off on the right paw.

Happy Lunar New Year! 

Poem: The River in a Dog Year