Stan_TP5

Today (7/23) I met with Amr, Samer, and Soufiane for grammar tutoring. I decided to use the grammar lesson I proposed at the beginning of our session. In this lesson "An Intergalactic Lesson in Grammar" I have students restructure Yoda quotes taken from scenes of the epic "Star Wars Saga." For those who are unfamiliar with Star Wars (shame on you), Yoda delivers his messages very wisely, and yet grammatically incorrect(at least by our standards, that is Milky Way English). He tends to mix-up parts of speech. For example:

"When nine hundred years old you reach, look as good, you will not, hmmm?"

vs.

"When you reach nine hundred years old, you will not look as good, hmmm?

The students will be engaged in an activity in which they "correct" his sentences so that they make sense in our time and solar system.

I started the lesson, with a video (attention grabber) in which Yoda instructs Luke on the ways of the force:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YkbgvRMpW0

Some of the quotes I used in the lesson were taken directly from this scene. After the video I asked the students if they knew what this scene was from. One quickly replied "Harry Potter," this caused a great disturbance in the Force. Another said Yoda, and I said yes, Yoda is the character, and finally Soufiane said "War Stars." I said close, but the other way around. Realizing his error he corrected himself and said, "ah yes, Star Wars!" I said yes, "Star Wars." I told them that this scene came from "Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. This followed with a brief discussion about the Saga, the creator, his intentions in creating these characters and the relationship between Yoda and Luke/Teacher and Disciple. I asked them what they noticed about Yoda, and they shared their observations. Amr pointed out the manner in which Yoda speaks is different than what he is used to. Now it was time for the "real" (active) lesson to begin...

I gave them all a handout I created with Yoda quotes from the Star Wars Saga. It includes instructions, a cool graphic of Yoda holding "Grammar for Dummies,"(seen above) and an example of what is expected. Since there were three students, I gave them each a handout and told them that they could work together, but I wanted each of them to write the "new" sentences on their respective paper. I told them to keep in mind that there may be multiple solutions to each sentence, and they could add or remove words as need, but to try to grasp the meaning that Yoda intended. 

They worked hard together for about 15mins and eventually decided to work individually. Amr was starting to get frustrated with the assignment because he was stressing over the "tense" used in each quote. I encouraged him to continue by informing him that his English was very good and advised him not to worry about the formalities. I explained to these three fledgling language learners that because English has many derivatives, no single rule always works. The most important thing is that they focus on developing their communication skills right now. I explained to them that the more they converse with native speakers and read, and practice the lessons they are learning at CIES the greater their understanding will be. For this lesson, I explained to them, they should just focus on the meaning that Yoda was trying to express. 

They continued to work individually for a bit longer. When they were all about 3/4 of the way through the handout, we went over 5 or 6 quotes together, correcting any "beautiful mistakes" that they made (each of them had some sentences that were impeccable), and giving different examples of each.

In the beginning the lesson, after watching the video, I wrote the dialogue that closed the scene on the board:

Luke: I don't believe it!
Yoda: That is why you fail.
Luke: I don't believe it!
Yoda: That is why you fail.

To conclude the lesson, I reminded them of my intro and the dialogue we had discussed. I told them that no matter what endeavor we engage in, if we don't believe we have the capacity to succeed, then we are sure to fail. I wrote one last quote on the board, but this one was by Henry Ford:

"Whether you believe you can, or you can't, you are right!"