It's all in the family

I recently finished a two week unit on comparatives and superlatives (big, bigger, biggest, tall, taller, tallest, etc..)  that culminated with a writing activity about families. I was focusing on the grammar structure "___ is ____ than ____" and "____ is the ____."  Some activities during the first week included an arm wrestling tournament to determine who is the strongest, a foot stomping competition to determine who is the loudest, and a game I invented called "comparative and superlative soccer shootout." While the first week was filled with friendly competition and lots of comparisons, the second week proved to be the most amusing.

The lesson started off with a review of last week, as well as a brief review of the names of the family members. After analyzing a picture of the Simpsons Family, (in which I learned that Marge is indeed taller than Homer due to her hair) we launched into a writing activity about the people who live in our house. They were to use their previous acquired knowledge of comparatives and superlatives to write 5 sentences about their family. Who is taller? Your mom or dad? Who is the oldest? Youngest? Afterwards, I told them we would share what we wrote about our families. Of course, they rolled their eyes and cursed me under their breath. After all, I had made them write silently for the last 15 minutes. Little did they know I had a trick up my sleeve....

As I mentioned earlier, I've had the peculiar problem of partially nude students in my class. I've been wracking my brain to find a way to combat this most bizarre of classroom management issues, and have begun to question if it was even a battle worth fighting. 

Then it dawned on me. 

Why not turn this scantily issue into a learning opportunity?

So, to model the way I wanted them to share their families, I went first. I told the kids a few sentences about my host family. "In my house," I told them, "I have a mom, dad and sister. I am older than my sister and my mom is younger than my dad. I am the tallest and my sister is the shortest." Afterwards, I would ask them comprehension questions about my family. "Who is taller? My mom or my dad?" I would inquire.  Next, I told the class, "after we share about our families, we need to take a family photograph. But I need my mom, dad, and sister for the picture!" I would then select 3 kids to assume the role of my parents and my little sister. Although the class giggled slightly, I could sense the boredom in their eyes.

However, I did not arbitrarily choose just any kids to play my family. Oh no, it was premeditated. I had a score to settle with these young punks. And I would settle it on my terms, by my rules, and the best part of it all is that they would never know I had it out for them...

As 30 sets of teenage eyes were blankly staring at me, I exclaimed "But we need CLOTHES for our picture!"as I pulled out a big bag of clothing I had collected. Inside were dresses, handbags from my little sister, ajumma (middle aged women) visors, and other goodies. I then proceeded to pass out the necessary articles of clothing to each family member- the ajumma visor and pants for mother, the dress and handbag for sister, and the bowling cap for father.

At that point, the class went BEZERK. Every student, including the perpetual sleepers, were standing on their seats yelling and hollering as their classmates begrudgingly cross dressed in the name of learning. They then whipped out their cell phones and swarmed the unassuming "family" as they accosted them like paparazzi. 

"Muahahahaha," I giggled to myself. "My plan worked perfectly!" 

That one kid who arrogantly strolled into my class 40 minutes earlier without pants on was now sporting a dress and handbag while his classmates enthusiastically photographed him: 

Thats right Min Young, if you can't find the time to put your pants on, i'll just give you something to wear!

Sometimes, however, my plan backfired. As you can see, this young "woman" enthusiastically embraced "her" new gender role.

My host family as portrayed by class 1-4. Apparently, I have a habit of annoying the fathers in my life. You're not alone dad!

This student wrote this about his family:"My mother is smarter than me! My sister is stronger than me! I  My father has bigger masheene than me! I am defunct!"
Gotta love high school boys....

I was waiting for my students to turn the tables on me. Here is Momma Joshie with her flock.


 

All in all, the lesson was a huge success. Not only did my students demonstrate communicate competence of comparatives and superlatives through the four major forms of language (reading, writing, listening, and speaking), but I also established another rule for my class: If you forget to put your knickers on before you enter the classroom, don't worry! I have a pretty little dress for you to wear instead!

Until next time...