Ǻs Ungdomsskole

I returned to Ǻs Ungdomsskole on October 29, November 2, November 12, and November 13, 2008, to present to the 9th and 10th graders. If you remember Ǻs was my very first school visit and it was where I observed in three different English classes. This time I presented on the presidential election. Going back to Ǻs after traveling around a bit, I realized how strong Ǻs students are in terms of English. One of the very first things I have the students do is to tell me their name and one thing they like about living in their community. I always do it for them in Norwegian first which makes them laugh then I have them do it for me in English. It seems to reduce the stress a little for them. But the reason I do it is it gives me a quick assessment of the students’ English ability. The students at Ǻs had complex sentence structures and were fairly creative on their responses. When I did the agree/disagree activity, the students had such in-depth discussions, that I often only had time to complete that activity and briefly show some of the media artifacts.

When I visited on the 29th, I once again taught on the first snowfall of the year so the students were a bit high strung. The teachers did threaten the students with disciplinary actions if they threw snowballs outside. The first class, one of the girls even brought a blanket to wrap up in during classes. This was the first time I saw this, but has become more frequent now that it has grown colder. Students also walk around in thick fuzzy socks or slippers.

I did have my first student since I have been in Norway say that he wanted McCain to the election and there was a girl who also agreed with him, but was not nearly as outspoken about his beliefs.

On November 3rd I worked with the 10th grade group of students. This group was not only smart, but they were incredibly inquisitive and with the election occurring the very next day I had a lot of questions from the students. All of the classes were able to tell me the basic information about the elections. Things like who the candidates are, who their VPs are, what party each belong to, and how often the president is elected. This always impresses me as I know that many of our students in the US may not be able to answer those questions nor would they be able to tell you about the Norwegian Prime Minister. The students not only knew a lot about American politics, but they also had strong opinions. This particular group wanted me to explain some pretty tough questions. For example:

• Why are people who are “pro-life” also for the death penalty and assault weapons?
• Can you please explain to us why socialism is considered so bad in the US?

These questions are wonderful questions, but incredibly difficult to answer in an informal Q&A session. I also find it hard to be unbiased and try to shed a positive light on the US. The death penalty and torture are two topics that are hard to deal with and comment on as we are the only Western civilized country who still has the death penalty and as for torture… that is just a tough subject since many over here feel like Bush has crossed the line and committed war crimes.

One of my favorite comments came from the four corner activity (yes, I have been doing this lecture a lot lately… but now that the election is over). The comment I had on the PowerPoint was I believe that assault weapons should be banned. The entire class moved to the corner of Strongly Agree except one boy. As the students started debating their decision, the boy who disagreed said in all honestly and in earnest, “But what is America without assault weapons!”

I returned to Ǻs for two more days to meet with some of the ninth graders on the 12th and 13th of November. It was interesting doing my US election lesson after the fact, but I have been watching so much of the media coverage and reading so many stories about the election that it actually is quite fun. And since the students love Obama, it makes it even easier to talk about. However they do ask about racism in America. This has been a fascinating aspect of the election for me, so I have been collecting facts about it. For example, a Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail, published an article that said “In parts of the South, the white vote for Barak Obama was half what it was for John Kerry in 2004.” The students also ask a lot about the two men who were arrested for the assassination attempt on Obama.

On the 12th the 9th graders were great. A nice group of students who were not only talkative, but thoughtful in terms of issues regarding the election. For example, I had one boy who during the four corners activity said, “I can’t really tell you an opinion because I don’t know enough about the topic.” This was not a cop out, as one might have thought, instead he was one of the talkative kids in the class and he truly felt that he should not judge until he knew all the facts.

On the 13th, the 9th graders were much quieter. There were three students who had IEPs in the class and who struggled in English as they pretty much needed constant translation. Ironically, it was often the students who were not the most talkative that did the translation for the students. This reminded me how important it is in terms of assessment to realize that many times students may know the information, but may not be as comfortable talking in front of the class (especially in a foreign language class).

I’ve been doing this lesson so many times I think I can do it in my sleep. I have to say what continues to amaze me is how much the students are into the political cartoons. I remember teaching social studies to 7th graders and we had to teach political cartoons. The students were not really into them, yet the Norwegian students LOVE the cartoons, they actually go to those first and then to the videos second. I want to create a couple of other lectures just to mix it up a bit. I am thinking of creating one about Obama and one about humor in the US. So when I have some down time from all the traveling, I think I will begin creating those lessons and I will definitely be including political cartoons as a part of any new lessons I create.