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I visited Nordlandet Ungdomsskole on December 2, 2008. It is located in Kristiansund which is a city on the western coast of Norway. The actual school building was old and many of the teachers told me about how in the upcoming year there would be a massive renovation at their school. But once again, though the school was old (it was built in the mid to late 1960’s) it was very well maintained and did not look like an aging school at all. The school houses approximately 225 students from grades 8-10.This school was the first time I met teachers who truly appreciated and liked their colleagues. Several teachers told me individually that they chose to stay at the school because of the collegiality among the faculty. And I could certainly tell that they were a thoughtful and considerate faculty. This was made prevalent to me in several ways. First when I arrived they took me directly to the classroom I would be teaching in to make sure that I felt comfortable for my lecture. When I got to the room, they had the computer, projector, and my PowerPoint that I sent earlier already set up. They then had me stay in one room the whole day, so that I would not have to shuffle my stuff around. For lunch, one teacher made homemade pizza’s (with homemade crust!) that was delicious and then to thank me for coming they gave me a silver pin of a cod (which is what the area is known for in the fishing industry). It was all around a really lovely experience.
All that being said, I have to say my lessons were nothing to write home about. I did the book-in-a-day lesson and I should have known from my previous experience with the short stories that the book choice and the time frame was not going to work. However, I didn’t think that far ahead and let the teachers choose To Kill a Mockingbird. There was no way the students would get through the required amount of reading (with 11 groups it was approx. 3 chapters per group). But, I did a quick modification and had them read as far as they could get, share that and then find another group to work with and come up with conclusions about the US in the 1930’s based on what they read. Though it wasn’t ideal and I think the students were looking forward to a more fun lesson and less studious lesson they did come up with the big themes. Some of the conclusions they drew were:
- Respect for their parents
- Racism and segregation
- A strict court, either guilty or not, live or die
- Didn’t have much money
As my anticipatory set for the story I had the students do the Agree/Disagree Four Corners activity with themes from the story. This worked okay, but I liked it better with the political issues. There seems to be more debate with the political issues than this one. However, I did get some rather interesting responses to some of the quotes. For example, I put up the quote sticks and stones may break my bones but words would never hurt me. To this the students did the typical debate between harassment that goes to far vs. not caring about what other people say about you. One boy, who was probably one of the best in English, says, “I don’t give a fuck about what people think.” Another student said about the quote All men are created equal that “we all are born the same, but then we fuck it up with the government and religion.”
I had three classes of 10th grade students and the first class was painfully quiet. Not only did they not talk, but they wouldn’t even talk when I begged. It makes for a VERY long lesson when the students are so shy they won’t discuss with me. After the quiet classes, the next two got progressively more chatty until the last one when I had hard time getting them to calm down because they had just beat the other teams in field hockey (they were pegged as the underdogs in the tournament). This last class was a handful in that there was a huge discrepancy in terms of English ability. There were kids who spoke perfect English (mind you with a ton of slang thrown in) and then some who hardly understood what I was saying. For example, there were a couple of kids who just put their heads down to sleep, a couple who kept kissing and whispering in each others’ ear, and a few girls who played the ditsy role. So it made for some interesting work. I wish I would have had a different lesson for them because I think they would have been engaged if I had done something other than To Kill A Mockingbird.
Quit frequently I visit schools and they have me meet with the 9th and 10th graders only. I find this interesting and no one really has a reason for this. At Nordlandet, I happened to start talking to some 8th graders in the hallway and they were so excited to talk with me and did very well with their English. I forgot how much I love working with the younger students.
