A Winner Lost in Taiwan

     I met Cindy a few years ago when I was asked by teacher Sunny (Chen Chu-Kuei) to visit Guang-Zhen Junior High School, to assist her students interested in performing in Taiwan's Readers Theater contest. I remember Cindy well; she was the troupe member that needed the most persuasion that the skit chosen would win. I worked mostly with them on intonation and body language. She was narrator one. 

      On 2-2-18, Sunny wrote she  was so happy that they could see me again  at Guang Zhen Junior High School on February 7 to help a student participate in a speech contest. She attached three scripts to the letter and asked if I could help them correct or rewrite the scripts "to make them more persuasive or touching." She reminded me that each speech could not be longer than 3.5 minutes.

     I thanked her for inviting me to assist her students in the recitation contest. I agreed that a winning entry begins with a good essay. I told her the three she had sent me were all problematic in the same way: none of them had an introduction, body, or conclusion in the standard English format. The topics of all three were good per se but all needed revision.  I thought the essay dealing with the flower expo had the most content to start with. 

        By February 5th, I had finished editing the three typical Taiwan essays for the recitation contest her school was joining. I would go to her school that Wednesday to coach some children.  
     Cindy, who was an actor in the last two Readers’ Theater at Sunny’s school, was there at the meeting. In a quiet room, Sunny, Cindy and I sat and went over the essay.  Cindy had to memorize three essays not knowing which one the committee would assign her at the contest in March. 

  Together, there was further revision to do. The final okay would be Cindy's since she would be reading it. Sunny tried to rewrite some paragraphs because she thought when people didn't like something, like a flower expo, we could still use it as a promotion;  the contrast would be fun. Cindy listened in and said nothing as Sunny discussed the content of the three revised essays with me. 
     Sunny questioned a few sentences in each revision because she thought it was contrary to the ideas. For example, she thought when I wrote “cheer elders brought to the flower expo" it meant old people would be chanting a cheer!  Also, she thought it weird that school children would be motivated by elders, elders they probably would find annoying. But the biggest concern was the length of the essays; all had to be read in less than three and a half minutes. I read them aloud and it was taped for her to review; all were within time limits, but Cindy might want to read more slowly. I reminded Sunny and Cindy that, like Lego blocks, examples could be removed or even a ‘big idea’ paragraph to shorten the piece. It was up to them. 

    On March 16th, Sunny texted me with good news: Cindy won third place in the competition! I was thrilled but Sunny was upset that she didn’t win first place; she blamed it on the backwardness of the Taiwanese judges; they didn’t like the student’s body language. I had warned them about prejudice against Western essay technique and recitation delivery but this was ridiculous. Initially I wanted to follow up on this, but the decision was final. Taichung City English Speech Contest Group B had 22 groupings participating. Cindy did very well considering. 

Ways to Promote Taichung World Flora Exposition

Good afternoon, ladies and gentleman. My topic is “Ways to promote Taichung's World Flora Exposition.” With the World Flora Exposition opening later this year, I've been thinking about how to make Taiwanese and people from all over the world recognize the beauty coming to Taichung. How can we catch people's eyes and keep them coming on weekdays and focused when the day is done? Here are my opinions:                                                      

First, let’s think about how to catch people’s eyes on the Expo. Yes! “Curiosity.” If we can persuade the USA to turn the torch in the hand of Statue of Liberty into a bunch of flowers, that would turn some heads our way. Turn the Eiffel Tower into a vase with flowers sprouting atop until France and the whole world turns its attention to Flora Expo. Let's spread advertisements far and wide and the spotlight is sure to follow. That will catch people's eyes.

We must spread the news through the internet. Foreigners will easily get messages through Facebook, Instagram, WeChat, Twitter and other social media. So, it is a good idea to invite the world to the Expo through it. I suggest we start a trend; invite people to write invitations on their hands; draw some cute pictures on them and write down "Welcome to Taichung's World Flora Expo.” Imagine flowers blooming virally all over the internet with thousands of people waving "welcome" back at you! I’m sure it will draw a huge crowd of foreigners to Taichung's Flora Expo.

But what happens when that weekend crowd at the Exposition Parks becomes intolerable? How about week day tours? But on weekdays, who has free time? Without doubt, pensioners and school groups have free time and money. As we know, elders love to spread good morning cheer and teachers love taking their students on trips outside school. So why not design some good morning stickers on Flora Expo for free download? Let the young and old wake up the whole city and everyone can bloom a new weekday in blossoms. What a way to enjoy good morning and promote the Flora Expo!

As we know, flowers bloom and fade. People come and people go. But the Flora Expo goes on! When the day comes to an end, keep the memories in a blog of good stories and photos. With Taichung's Flora Expo, we can have strawberry fields forever!
www.readingsandridings.jimdo.com
Copyright © 2018 by David Barry Temple. All rights reserved.

Teacher Training for Readers Theater

     It felt like the Twilight Zone at Chen-Gong Middle School in Da-Li, Taichung on April 10, 2018. I was asked to do a Readers Theater outreach there.  The appointment had been made over a month ago but I had forgotten until the publishing agent called reminding me the day before. If I had remembered, perhaps I would have done a PPT to save paper. Turns out that the projection on the wall was so small, no one could have seen it. It was good I prepared twelve-page kits for the sixteen teachers instead. I was going to promote and ready the teachers to enter their school in the regional English Readers Theater competition in October 2018. It turned out that the EFL teachers with host, Phillip, were not on the same page, or planet, with me or each other. 
    I had an inkling of what I was to be up against when we drove to the school and were turned back at a temporary  entrance for lack of parking; the school was suing a construction company and it had been in a time warp since we visited four years ago. Furthermore, the agent wasn't told exactly what the school wanted me to do with the teachers that afternoon. Walking in, the agent remarked that most teachers there were temps; many may already be beamed up to the mothership for reassignment in June.

     The agent directed us through a maze of walkways to a subterranean lounge that looked like it was in an intergalactic spaceship; a long bar, circular modules hangings from the ceiling, and back-lit cloud outcroppings along the walls.

    We waited for Phillip, a gaunt school-space traveler. He initiated the conversation in  English and described himself as a teacher who'd been at that school for 30 years. 

     When the crew started straggling in, they navigated to seats around the back of the long table, as far from this alien as possible. The first fifteen minutes of my time were taken over by Phillip who had something important to talk over with the teachers. I waited patiently being paid well for my free time.

Child Labour Readers Theater Video

     The DVD I brought to show the "Child Labour" skit I had co-directed two years before couldn't work in the laptop that was provided. It was good I had prepared handouts but didn't know at what stage of preparation they were at or if they had even started. Phillip said the school had done in-house Readers Theater before but couldn't tell me the last time. 
    When I began the workshop, a tall teacher, soon to retire with twenty-five years experience said each class picked the best student and that she had found scripts for them on-line. I asked which script she had chosen but she couldn't say. I could see a disconnect; none of the other teachers corroborated what she said so I filed it and went on.

     At least the teachers  knew what a Readers Theater was; I mentioned it had its origin in the radio dramas of the '30's. I went on to say how it should be conducted as a school event by getting everyone involved with the preparation and   suggested a prospective timeline for the October 2018 show: 1. spend a month with three or four scripts the teachers have and let the students choose in a vote making a big deal out of it. 2. By the middle of May they should start preliminary rehearsals; I offered my services to edit the script down to six minutes. I suggested they get a simple script because that is what the judges preferred. My experience was that scripts with timely topics were unappreciated; content would go over the judges’ heads; better to give the judges what they want.

 I went through the handouts discussing how to motivate the students by asking for their input and  stressed how the journey to the contest,  using  English, was to be  was part of a learning experience, not only a show-winner. Some teachers knew how to get the children on their side; no scolding or telling what to do, but most teachers sat there poker-faced. 

     We were able to get an RT winner on YouTube on the tiny projector screen and started an activity using the judging sheet and scoring rubric but the teachers weren't focused on doing a workshop activity. We went to the copy of the scrip for "Child Labour" and found the video with the chorus of the song we incorporated for the skit; Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It." 
"We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister

 I read the first two scenes and explained suggested delivery in lieu of the unwatchable video.  I stressed school cooperation from all departments; music, P.E., and art. 
Phillip was thankful I came. As the teachers left, two stayed to talk with me.

     The  teachers wanted my e-mail address to keep in touch. I would leave the link to the Readers Theater video with the agent. One teacher had something to say about the changes in RT in the hands of Taiwan Education Department; more theatrical than originally intended. I told her to write to them with her suggestions. Another teacher showed me a Readers Theater script that she is using with her class for a school presentation in May; that was the first I had heard about that. I had no idea why she didn't mention it during the meeting. I told her since she already had a script and troupe,  she should submit it as the school’s entry. 

     I left glad that the school asked me for help and were more interested in RT school effort. I hope there is cooperation. Philip was "old school" to the younger teachers. He had invited me aboard but can this school navigate to the Readers Theater? The sign post up ahead says "Twilight Zone."

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