Ǻs Ungdomsskole, Again!

On April 27th and 29th, 2009, I returned again to Ǻs Ungdomsskole. This time I worked with the 9th grade students on short stories. They recently read some short stories by Hemingway and are going to be writing their own short stories, so I wanted to show them short stories that might highlight US teen culture.

Since these were kid I have already worked with, we could go straight into content rather than go through the typical introduction. I began then with a modified tea party strategy that I have described before to get them into groups and begin predicting about the plot their short story. I changed up my short story options and used the following texts:


Jacob, I. (2002). Justice for Mama. My sisters’ voice’ teenage girls of color speak. New York:
Henry Hold and Company.


Flake, S. G. (2004). So I ain’t no good girl. In S.G. Flake, Who am I without him? Short stories
about girls and the boys in their lives. New York: Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children.


Bauer, D. (2005). My entire football career. In J. Scieszka (Ed.). Guys write for guys read. New
York: Viking.


Dumas, F. (2005). Hot dogs and wild geese. In F. Dumas, Funny in Farsi. New York: Random
House.


Smith, C.L. (2005). A Real-live blond Cherokee and his equally annoyed soul mate. In L.M.
Carlson (Ed.), Moccasin thunder: American Indian stories for today. New York: Harper Collins.

Soto, G. (1990). Seventh grade. In G. Soto, Baseball in April. San Diego, CA: Harcourt.

With the two groups on the 27th, after the students read and discussed the text, I had the groups do 3 things:

A. Write a three sentence summary of your short story.
B. List three things you can learn about US culture from your story.
C. List three things you noticed this author did in the story that you could use when you write your short stories (be specific).

The first class took longer than I thought they would in reading and then we actually ran out of time for them to share what they had completed. The teacher said she would go over it the following day in class. However, as I walked around the room I was able to get a sense of what they were thinking. The summary they didn’t seem to have a problem with though one group in each class struggled writing it in third person (and it was the same short story in both classes that elicited this, yet all the short stories but one were written in first person. So I am not sure what caused this.). One group in the second class also argued a bit with their regular teacher because they wanted to write the summary more as a trailer or a preview on the back of a book and less as a summary that actually told the end.

In both classes the students seemed to struggle on #2 and #3. In terms of pulling out American culture, it generally helped them to think about how the story would be different if it was set in Norway. A group of girls in the first class who read, “So I Ain’t No Good Girl” told me that their story was very similar to situations in Norway except instead of using African American vernacular they would use “kabob norsk,” which is what many of the young kids use as slang. Kabob norsk is a mixture of Pakistani and Norwegian. The girl who described all this to me was a beautiful immigrant girl from Africa who was not only extremely strong in English but sassy and eager to please. She quickly wormed her way into my heart as she loved the short story and took the lead with her more reticent Norwegian girl classmates. Other comments written about US culture from the whole week included:

• USA isn’t as good as you might hear from others.
• It is not always easy to come to [to the US] as an immigrant not knowing the language.
• In the last 30 years America has offered immigrants more choices from their home countries.
• A lots of glics [sic]. I believe they mean a lot of cliques.
• Everybody hates the new guy.
• The American Dream does not always come true.
• You’re given a label
• A lot of women are controlled by men.
• English is a confusing language, because there are many words with a double meaning.
• There are many Americans with a different first language than English.
• It’s hard to get a job.
• America has a lot of different nationalities.
• It’s a multy-colored society [sic]
• They [Americans] move a lot.

Defining author’s craft in a second language was both a struggle for me and the students. There were several strong ideas in the first class but overall they were fairly surface level comments. Here are the following comments that I heard the first day. such as a cyclical story format (they didn’t use the word but described to me what they meant), writing about what they knew, making it funny by writing about awkward situations, dialogue, short, more made for teenagers, uses slang, you don’t need to read between the lines, detailed description, and wrote they way the author talks (which did not make their teachers too happy as they have been trying to teach them to do that only in dialogue). The second class didn’t really see the connection much, even though they were able to get through the story quicker and I reduced the amount of work (i.e., only 2 concepts of US culture, and 2 ideas on author’s craft). The students came up with the stories were written in first person, dealt with issues important to them, were funny, and had lots of details in them.

The second day I did short stories, the students came up with basically the same thing:

• writes in first person
• tells about one person’s life, problems, and interestes [sic].
• [told] in retrospect
• lots of adjectives
• small stories in one big story
• expanding the moments
• adding humor
• uses a lot of slang
• no grammar fails [sic]
• she write about her own life [sic]
• he doesn’t introduce the main characters in their start of the history
• some direct speech, but mostly indirect.

Several made a note about the stories begin funny and how they might try that in their writing. This will be interesting to see as humor is often hard to write. Though I am interested to see what Norwegian teenagers think is funny! Though I have to share a little aside here: I had a few minutes left in one class so I asked the class to brainstorm three ideas for a short story they might write. Of course, one boy immediately says, “Sex, drugs, and rock and roll.” I responded, “You have to write about what you know” which elicited a big “oooooohh” from the boys around him. He was a good sport and we all had a good laugh.

I talked with Renate about my problems getting the students to focus on authors’ craft. She suggested that maybe US students focus more on the details. I am thinking that the writing workshop model and Katie Wood Ray’s (1999) idea of “reading like a writer and writing like a reader” is just not what the students are accustomed to. Therefore I think they need modeling to maybe focus more specifically on author’s craft. Though I might try to get a copy of the short stories that are written and see if I can spot any of the techniques that were used in the short stories from my lesson.

On the 29th I made some changes to the first two groups since they were not going to write short stories the upcoming week. The first group I unluckily created two dysfunctional groups. Since I do not know the students I randomly group them, generally trying to put more boys with the Bauer text and more girls with the Flake text. This meant that I had two groups that needed a lot of assistance to stay on task. I read to one group and the host teacher read aloud to another group. This helped a bit and enabled the students to begin participating in the discussion around US culture. Since the first two groups of the morning were not going to be writing their own stories the next week, I did not have them focus on author’s craft instead I had them sketch a symbol representing the cultural components from the US that they discussed. Here is some of the students’ work:

Here are some of the best examples from the first class:

It can be hard to move to the USA if you can’t speak the language (expecially for adults). [sic]

They are like students in Norway. They like teasing each other.

School is divided into stereotypical groups.

Here are some of the best examples from the second class:

There are many different cultures in the US, like people from Iran, Persian and Pakistan [sic]

There’s big different between people in USA

So here are my thoughts after this visit:

1. The students here really have an inappropriate use of slang. For example when I asked a male student to pass a set of papers back his response was, “Sure babe.” On the 29th when I walked into one of the classroom, I overheard one boy say to another, “Let me just bend over and lick my balls you bitch.” And yet another student at a different school told me as I left for the day, “Bye Darling.” These are just a few of the many misuses of slang. I am always surprised how well the students know the slang. However, there is such a proliferation that it could make some Americans uncomfortable. It doesn’t bother me and it occurs in every school around the nation. But I wonder if that is something that should be address by teachers. The idea of when and where it is appropriate to use that language. Though maybe it is just me being an oversensitive American because after all, even my doctor told me I “fucked up” my back pretty good.

2. I also was reminded this week that all kids love a read aloud. I found this out by reading aloud a few sections of the short stories to help some of the groups who had longer stories get through or to help them stay focused. Just like in the states, as soon as I started reading a loud students often stopped pestering one another and doodling. Ironically as much as I love read alouds, it was something I didn’t incorporate into my lessons (other than the primary grades) but should have. If I could do it over, I would have incorporated a read aloud for all the presentations.

Presterød Ungdomsskole

On April 24, 2009, I visited Presterød Ungdomsskole in Tønsberg. Tønsberg is located about an hour and a half (by train) south of Oslo and is a town of about 38,000-40,000 people. Presterød Ungdomsskole is an 8th-10th grade school of around 480 students located in a wealthy part of Tønsberg.

I was to teach three classes of fifty 10th students each and they requested US Schools. I don't usually like putting several classes together into an auditorium because the students generally don't talk as much. However, these students were excellent in terms of talking and participating in the presentation even with two classes combined. I did the four corners activity and then showed the Oprah clip. These students were very strong in English and quite a few have travelled to the US.

I actually had one of the funniest comments made a by student. While we were doing the Four Corners activity and I had the statement "US teachers are nicer than Norwegian teachers" he and his friends all went to the STRONLGY AGREE corner. I told each group to come up with at least three reasons why they were standing where they were. When it was his turn to talk he said, "Well, this is strictly from what we see in movies, but US teachers always seem so nice. They are always really interested in the students lives.... they even sleep with them!" I laughed so hard I think I cried. Usually most students will say, "You seem nice so we think other US teachers must be nice."

Another student who was standing in the STRONGLY AGREE corner said in regards to the statement "US schools are better than Norwegian schools," that "Well, when you watch Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? those kids are REALLY smart so the schools must be really good. They knew stuff we haven't even learned yet!"

The students asked some great questions at this school as well. One student asked if I thought US teens felt more pressure than Norwegian teens. And another student asked if US teens listened to a lot of country music (he was wearing a Willie Nelson T-shirt).

Presterød Ungdomsskole was built in 2000. It had a small library area, a computer lab, and a large open commons area (pictured above) that the students who stay at school use for lunch. The picture of the school at the top doesn't do the school justice in that I was trying to capture the number of bicycles that were parked outside the school, but in doing that I missed all the green space around the school. It was actually a really beautiful school with large windows all around.

Apalløkka Skole

On April 21, 2009, I visited Apalløkka Skole on the east side of Oslo. It was an 8th-10th grade school of approximately 350 students. I visited four 10th grade classes and did the US High School presentation. This school was very diverse in terms of ethnicity and religions with many different nations represented in each class. When students enter this ungdomsskole, they choose one of four tracks to join: media and journalism, drama, sports, and/or technology and design. During each week the students have time to focus more intensely on these areas. For example the drama students use their time to practice and put on a play, the sports group actually goes on hikes and camping trips. This is a special aspect of this school as it was the first school I saw offer something close to our magnate programs in the US.

Since exams were coming up, the students were no longer studying in their tracts and instead could choose which classes they may need extra help in prior to the exams and the students were then getting rescheduled into additional English, math, social science, etc. classes. Though this was a scheduling nightmare for some of the teachers they seemed to find it a beneficial way to meet the needs of the students prior to the exam. I particularly liked how they allowed the students to choose which area he/she felt was in need of extra help.

Like I said previously I did the US High School presentation. Since the presentation was only 45 minutes long, I did not do the picture pass. Instead, I did the agree/disagree activity and showed the Oprah video. The students seemed to really enjoy the presentation and were engaged. Even the class I was warned about as being "quiet" participated and talked. This group of students was much more politically aware than many of the students I have met in the smaller and more rural communities. They had questions about racism in the US, Obama, and Israel. They noted that US students are not very savvy in terms of foreign affairs and wanted to know why. They were interested in knowing where particular ethnic minorities settled in the US and of course they wanted to know about the hot lunches in the schools!

In talking with the teachers during lunch, I found that they were also struggling with similar issues we do in terms of helping young adolescent immigrant and first generation Norwegian students in terms of identity construction. The teachers were saying that many of the foreign kids relate more to their home country but technically are not foreigners as they were born in Norway. The students will say, "I am a foreigner." This is often if the student looks different in terms of color of skin or religious garments. However, when this same group of students was taken out of the country for a school trip, the students told people they met, "I am from Norway." So I found that this difficulty of defining one's identity as a member of the immigrant population in Norway is very similar to that of US immigrant students.

Once again, I really enjoyed the east side schools, the students and the teachers. I think that if I were to stay in Norway and return to teaching, I would choose one of the schools with the high diversity.

Ǻs Ungdomsskole

On April 1st and 2nd, 2009, I returned to Ǻs Ungdomsskole to participate in the 10th grade students’ mock oral exams. Renate invited me out to be the second examiner. We evaluated seven students on the first day and eight students the second day.

Each year the 10th grade students go through a series of exams at the end of the year. These exas are in all of their subjects (math, science, social studies, English, Norwegian, and their chosen foreign language). The students are randomly chosen to receive either oral or written exams in these topics. Not all students take all the exams. Prior to the exams, the teachers often give the students a chance to practice by organizing mock exams. I was a part of the English mock orals.

The day before the oral exams, the students chose one of the following topics from a hat:

Indigenous people
What does it really mean to be indigenous?
There are still a lot of indigenous groups of people around the world today. This topic has a wide variety of challenges and aspects to it.

You are hereby asked to present this topic in a way that will shed some light upon how history has created changes in their way of life.

Migration
What does migration really mean?
Migration is a phenomenon that has increased

You are hereby asked to give an outline of challenges/problems immigrants (or migrants) face.

Cold War
What does the word cold war really mean?

You are hereby asked to discuss historical events and explain how war in general affects soldiers and civilians.

Future Jobs
The world of work is changing and people will have to be prepared to change jobs several times during their working life.

You are hereby asked to give an outline of what career options young people have today, and what factors that need to be considered in order to make the ”right” decision (i.e. what is right for you).

Culture
Culture is a word that means different things to different people. Culture could be music, books, film, sport – and a wide variety of other issues too.

You are hereby asked to give an outline of what the term culture embodies, and what it means to you.

World Wide English
English is a language that is spoken in a number of countries and nations throughout the world today. There are other nations besides Great Britain and The United States that have English as their mother tongue.

You are hereby asked to present countries/nations that have English as their native language, and discuss/compare issues such as geography, demography and culture.

News
The media is often said to be the fourth government force (statsmakt), and is very influential when it comes to a lot of important issues in society. Every day we witness things that could be made into news stories, and we see news reports on TV, hear about incidents on the radio, and we read about them on the internet and in newspapers.

You are hereby asked to give a short presentation of the different types of media we have, and what kind of challenges journalists meet when they are going to present an event in different kinds of media.

The schedule for the two days is as follows:

The students were given 24 hours to put together a 7-10 minute oral presentation about the chosen topic. During the oral exam, the student comes into an empty classroom with two examiners (in this case it was Renate and me). The student sets up any visual aids that he/she will be using, gives the examiner an outline of his/her presentation, and then begins the presentation. At the end, the classroom teacher (for us it was Renate) asks several questions of the student. The outside examiner can ask questions as well, but usually it is the classroom teacher who does this. The idea is that it offers the student a chance to be successful rather than trying to trip a student up with a difficult question. The student is more comfortable with the classroom teacher, the teacher also knows what the student can do and can better pose questions that offer the student an opportunity to show what he/she can do.

After 5 minutes or so of questioning, the student leaves the classroom and the two examiners discuss the presentation and agree on a grade. The following rubric is used:

The English aims (what we would call standards) for 10th grade are as follows:

Language learning
The aims are that the pupil shall be able to

• use various situations, work methods and strategies to learn English
• identify important linguistic similarities and differences between English and the native language and use this knowledge in his or her own language learning
• use various aids critically and independently
• use basic terminology to describe grammar and text structure
• describe and assess his/her own work in learning English

Communication
The aims are that the pupil shall be able to

• master vocabulary that covers a range of topics
• use basic grammatical and text structures of English orally and in writing
• understand spoken and written texts on a variety of topics
• express himself/herself in writing and orally with some precision, fluency and coherence
• adapt his/her spoken and written English to the genre and situation
• present and discuss current events and interdisciplinary topics
• read and understand texts of different lengths and genres
• select listening, speaking, reading and writing strategies adapted to the purpose and situation
• write texts that narrate, describe, argue or give messages, with the appropriate basic structure and adequate paragraphing
• use content from various sources independently and critically
• demonstrate the ability to distinguish positively and negatively loaded expressions referring to individuals and groups
• communicate via digital media
• describe and interpret graphic representations of statistics and other data

Culture, society and literature
The aims are that the pupil shall be able to

• discuss the way young people live, how they socialise, their views on life and values in Great Britain, the USA, other English-speaking countries and Norway
• explain features of history and geography in Great Britain and the USA
• describe the situation for some indigenous peoples in English-speaking countries
• recognise some regional accents from English-speaking countries
• read and discuss a representative selection of literary texts from the genres poetry, short stories, novels and drama from the English-speaking world
• describe theme and composition in texts and visual expressions
• prepare and discuss his/her own oral or written texts inspired by literature and art

We used two rubrics to help us determine the final grade. The first one was to help me understand what a 6 or a 4 was supposed to represent.

The other rubric was used to take notes and was the official rubric in which Renate documented the score and comments. Renate translated it for me there (so I will put the quick English translation in parenthesis). It was as follows:

I am always impressed with the students’ grasp of English and once again I was thoroughly amazed at what the students were able to do. So I think I fulfilled the stereotype of US teachers in that I was much more generous in the grades than Renate was (though since it was mock orals, and she thought it would encourage the students, she gave the students the generous grade).

I did find several things interesting from this experience. The first I liked how the teacher had to give the grade and feedback directly to the student. No written documentation is given to the student (which is one thing I think might help the students because they are so nervous that I am not sure they remember everything that is told to them in English about their presentation). The students’ outlines were not in any official outline format as was the case with their references they cited. This was interesting because often teachers in the US focus so much on the appropriate format for the outline/references that the actual content suffers. The last thing I enjoyed listening to was the presentations in and of themselves. They often took very different perspectives on the topics which was just a further reminder of how our students often represent our own views.