Guang-Zhen JHS Steals a Story from Peddler Polly

Sunny Chen from Guang-Zhen JHS had contacted me asking that I go see her students’ new production of “Peddler Polly and the Story Stealer” on May 24, 2018. “Now the students can only recite the scripts," she wrote, “but they still don't have facial expression, suitable gestures, and their performance is still not tight enough.”

I had met Sunny a few years before when she needed assistance from Kang Hsien Publisher’s agent who supplied her school with EFL textbooks and support. Since then, she has come to me often for her students’ English Essay Recitation and Readers’ Theater.

“You're always an Idea King.  We really need your good fresh ideas to do magic on our play.   Moreover, our scripts still need to be cut by 20 seconds.” She attached the script, by Aaron Shepard: “The storytellers of Taletown are mysteriously losing their stories, while a stranger sells 'storyboxes' in the town square.” The theme of the humorous fable is electronic entertainment; how it siphons books into pixels that can disappear from a child’s memory. The script was free on-line and could be copied, shared, or performed. In fact, I had seen it performed by other middle schools in Central Taiwan on a panel of judges at Readers’ Theater contests.

When I arrived at the school, seven children were lined up to read their scripts with another four ‘under-studies’ sitting on the side. A young cameraman was filming the session for them to review later. Cindy, the young lady who was the subject of “The Winner who Lost in Taiwan” (Read "A Winner Lost in Taiwan" here.) was Narrator #1. I finally had the opportunity to congratulate her in person for the fine job she did in the essay recitation contest. Meanwhile, the young man who played the villain boss in “Child Labour” (Read "Child Labour Readers Theater" here.) and the bad pig in “Three Little Wolves” was Spellbinder in this skit. (Read "The Big Bad Readers' Theater" here.)

 The children all needed advice with intonation and body language, and that is what I gave them. In addition, the  script had to be trimmed to under six minutes, as per the rules of whoever decided at the Taiwan Department of Education, so I cut non-essential lines leaving the players time for better enunciation and emphasis.

During the first read-through, I noticed that one of the girls  kept mispronouncing words with long ‘e’, saying ‘min’ instead of ‘mean’, ‘piss’ instead of ‘piece.’ I modeled the sound but she repeated the mispronunciation. Finally, she got so frustrated she ran out of the room in tears. I felt terrible; perhaps I was too harsh, but Sunny assured me the girl was too sensitive and motioned for an understudy to replace her, a young lady who turned out to be much better. For the children that had difficulty with the compound stresses and adjective-noun combinations, I suggested a mnemonic device: noun–noun up-down, adjective-noun down-up.I also introduced the concept of word-linkage; the art of connecting words when one ends in a vowel and the next begins with a consonant, or vice versa.

Before I left, I gave the students words of encouragement. “Remember, “how you go there is as important as where you are going. Have fun and the audience will feel it, too.” Sunny knew exactly what I meant and passed it on.When I was leaving that rehearsal, I overheard the  children applying the new found skills to other words in the script. The students were all keen to say it correctly so they could win the competition in October 2018

On July 2nd, I returned to Guang-Zhen to see how the Readers’ Theater troupe was doing. I was amazed to see and hear how much progress they had made. Many of my theatrical suggestions were incorporated into their routine and much of the pronunciation and intonation sounded more natural. I told them how proud I was of them and assured them that, no matter what happens at the competition, they had already won for the great attitudes they had. After a few minor adjustments, such as having the troupe point to the same imaginary sign, they were all set. With a little more practice, they would nail it. 

Thanks to Sunny Chen, Guang-Zhen Middle School students have the opportunity to use their English language skills in projects that can motivate gifted individuals. So long as a similar approach is used in each and every EFL classroom, for every student, a stage is not necessary to be a star. It takes a school-wide effort to bring English from proficiency tests into the culture of performing  arts. I am happy that I can be of assistance. 

 www.readingsandridings.jimdo.com

Purchase "Unnatural Beauty;Poems from the Han Riverside" here.

                      Copyright © 2018 by David Barry Temple. All rights reserved.

Social Action with Taiwanese Students

       By May 10, 2018, I was hoping to turn the corner in the 8th grade Shen-Gang conversation enrichment class of thirty students; from relationship/animal abuse, to oppressive child labor, and unionism with a viewing of "Newsies" and then into an introduction of direct democracy and activism. We would boldly go where few Taiwanese students had gone before, in Chinese or English.                                            Read "'Newsies' For Taiwan Solidarity" here.

   

      I brought in People Power, a comic book about tenants that organize a rent strike and the three ways groups (pyramid, crowd, team) and individuals (unequal, ignoring, equals) relate to each other for brainstorming pair-work. With a list of social "Problems” from The Kids Guide to Social Action by B. Lewis, I helped the students choose one for a final presentation. The groups were to prepare summaries and give oral reports.

     

   On May 24,  from seven categories, each group chose one aspect  to collectively work on for their final project, "Solving Social Problems." Each group member would have a task (report writer, reader, form creator, grammar-spelling checker) of that category and the reporter would explain the course of action they had chosen to complete the direct action. 

     The first half of class I spent  playing and explaining, "Twentieth Century Man" by the Kinks, Listen to the song, with lyrics,here. going over the vocabulary; it served to show the disillusionment of modern society, but not to be left to sulk, activism, as in "Newsies," was the solution. We finished watching "Newsies" and we contrasted the optimism and pessimism. Before class ended, I handed out the cover page of People Power and outlined the schedule for the last four classes of the term. 

     This topic is relevant to Taiwanese students at the high-intermediate EFL level. It is a call for action that many expat EFL instructors may not want to hear and even fewer will be able to carry through because of restrictions in their schools and bushibans, in Taiwan or elsewhere. With curricula full of consumer-related topics, activism is bad for business though it is good for society. 

     On May 30, every child in each group was given a copy of “Brainstorming I: Come Up With Ideas” and “Brainstorming II: Choose Your Main Idea.” We started that day and by the end of the two-hour class, the groups had a “Plan of Action” to proceed within their chosen topic. The next few classes students would work on a particular aspect of activism: “How

to Write a Letter to the Editor”, “Power Petitions,” “Survey Form I,” “Survey Form II,” “Power Proposals,” or “How to Write a News Release.” Meanwhile, we read, brainstormed, discussed, and had board competitions with the first part of the People Power comic before watching the cartoon version of Animal Farm, by G. Orwell, up to Snowball's banishment, to demonstrate why collective decision making was better for society. The students loved it! Watch "Animal Farm" here.

      Meanwhile, the 8th graders had a hands-on experience with direct democracy  thanks to an annual list of student grades that was distributed to them before class. What could have been a distraction was turned into a teaching opportunity.  I explained that such a public list comparing students’ grades was unthinkable in NYC; it was a potential source for bragging rights or embarrassment and, as such, was kept private. I called for an anonymous vote to see how these students felt about it, and we took a secret vote:

      “Check if you agree the list remain public and write 'x' if you think it should be private.” I handed out little strips of paper and asked the students not to sign them but to keep their responses secret and fold the paper. I then collected the votes in a shopping bag and publicly tabulated the results on the board. The result was even;  checks winning by one vote, but four votes were disqualified votes ("I don't care.") and there was one too many (!)  but I had made a point. We segued into the "Solving Problems" section of the curriculum.

  Each group, reminded that they should try to use English,  choose a sub-topic from their concern, and were shown a brainstorming technique on the board; each group had to copy and fill out with two problems resulting from their specific concern and two ways each  could be addressed. 

   After the break I asked a few groups to report on their process but they were shy and unsure; they had never done such an activity before in the Taiwanese classroom. We went straight to People Power and did a choral reading. I described the first type of relationship, unequal-pyramid, and solicited examples of such relationships in the children's lives; parent-child, teacher-student, etc. They were surprised when I told them how many American parents, including myself, tried to have equal relationships with our children discussing decisions. Most agreed it was impossible to do with their parents. Ultimately, the American child was told by the parent what to do if a debate was fruitless and the child couldn't be convinced. 

  On June 6, each group was randomly handed  one of seven methods for solving problems and asked to organize collectively. The students started creating action plans  to solve a local problem such as increasing the size of their school library or building a park. I went from group to group making suggestions and encouraging them to use Chinese, if necessary, to work things out with an English outcome. For the two hour class, the children tried to make sense of it all. Some had difficulties and I gave suggestions to illustrate. The way each group organized was unique, some more thoroughly than others, but it was all a great practice in real language usage. The proof would be in the pizza party at the last class when the children would give their reports and explain the steps they would take and responsibilities they would share. 

     June 13 was the last class before the day of reckoning at Shen-gang for the 8th graders activism projects, and pizza. Each group had to have a course of action and each member had to describe what their function in the campaign would.be; they didn't have to actually go through with the mailing of letters to the editor, press release, survey, questionnaire, but they had to be ready to go. 

                   June 20 we enjoyed the pizza as the first group prepared to report, getting first dibs on slices. A few groups chickened out and ate last, ha-ha. Many of the students were tentative and uncertain, but that was natural; no pain, go gain. In all, five of the seven groups reported, and quite comprehensively. The students were amazed with each others' results and proud of themselves. Each report was about three minutes long. 

     In hindsight, I wish I had had more time with the students to converse; after all, two hours a week is not enough and there is regression without reinforcement by their regular EFL teachers who are compelled to use antiquated pedagogy of memorization of grammatical structures for constant testing without giving a chance for the fledglings to use their skills  to attain fluency. All we can do as conversation enrichment facilitators is motivate students to learn by supplying meaningful challenges in a non-threatening environment.  The students at Shen-Gang had completed complicated tasks with their intermediate English pushed to the max, and succeeded.