När man studerar ett språk kan det vara bra att kunna se språkets system och kanske jämföra det med ett annat språk som man känner till bättre. Här är tre filmer om satsdelar och hur svenska språket kan ses från ett ordklassperspektiv. Kom ihåg att slå på ljudet! 🙂
I sit in my classroom, monitoring my students writing an essay. Since my students write in a language that is not their first language, I thought it fair to do the same… I write in MY second language, English, when they write in Swedish… Here’s my text on the topic ”A Day to Remember”, but I guess in my example it will spread over more than just one single day:
It had been a tough start filled with unexpected events and flight delays, but one memorable Monday morning in October 2003, I met up with the others in a group of Swedish teachers who had the great opportunity to meet the legendary principal Dr Lorraine Monroe for a four-day-long conference about School Development, Instruction and Teaching in NYC. During the flight I gave Dr Monroe a thought. What would she be like? According to her book, Nothing’s Impossible, she had first worked as a teacher, then she had become a principal, changed the way of teaching and instructing in her actual school and that had, in the long run, led to overwhelmingly good results in schools in Harlem, New York City. Dr Monroe’s ideas about school development were very focused on learning and in a way very strict and not at all negotiable ( Please read Dr Monroe’s book for more information!).
We have a very democratic way of teaching in Sweden. We ask our students for their opinion in many different situations an ordinary day in school and lessons often has an element of discussion or mutual understanding. It is not meant to be a one-way-communicated ”lecture”. Learning is a joint effort… At the time when I was in NYC I was taking a University course and thought it might be suitable to interview Dr Monroe for my project. She accepted and that was probably ”THE” most interesting talk I have ever had with anyone about ”teaching and instructing”… But let’s go back to the first meeting… The skyscrapers on Manhattan were taller than I had expected and being in NYC was fantastic! Meeting Dr Monroe in person was way beyond every anticipation I had before. She was, apart from being intelligent, also a born entertainer, wittily telling jokes. The conference was of high quality and we met brilliant teachers, devoted principals and engaged counselors from different schools in Harlem NYC. In comparison with the interesting lecturers, Dr Monroe was still outstanding.
We made a few visits to schools in Harlem. I thought I’d check one of the things that Dr Monroe had said the day before. She had claimed that in her schools I could ask any student I liked if they could answer the question ”What did you learn during the lesson you just left?” Every student I asked, could share with me what they had learnt and since we had monitored the lessons the students were referring to, we could tell that they actually learned. The other teachers in my conference group had the same experience and we said this would be the first thing to ask our students back home! I think many students in the classes I taught back then would answer ”I don’t know… What do you mean? What did I learn??? I don’t understand your question!” At that point in my career, in 2003, I didn’t understand how important a META level is in learning… Now I try to help students gather information, draw conclusions, spend time thinking and reflecting and thus allow them to understand and comprehend. After that day in October 2003 I try to keep my lessons very strict in content. I also try to wrap it up at the end of a lesson, in order to help students to organize their thoughts. The students in my classroom now will more likely have a correct answer to the question about their learning…
My interview with Dr Monroe back in 2003 again, started off with my question ”In what way do you negotiate with your students?” She seemed to be hooked on my QUESTION, as if it was wrong… and repeatedly said ” I don’t negotiate with my students!” I thought, being Swedish and speaking my second language, that I had said something that was difficult to understand… Therefore we had a long interesting chat about what the WORD negotiate meant… Obviously we both agreed on the meaning of the word, so I again asked my question, but surprisingly enough still got the same reply! Later on, after half an hour of discussion I understood… I had taken for granted that of course Dr Monroe did negotiate with her students, but HOW? But, the point was taken. She actually did not negotiate with her students…simply because (and she explained that) some things aren’t negotiable…
Ever since that day I have always thought about how different RESULTS we may get in schools were ”everything” is negotiable, compared to schools were very little is… Anyone can understand that students who never ever question their teachers have a different school situation than those who constantly say to their teacher: ”Why are we supposed to to this?”, especially if the teacher is used to give such a question an answer… Dr Monroe said many times during that week in NYC: Focus on learning! The interview with Dr Monroe was an eye-opener for me as a teacher. I didn’t change everything when I returned to Sweden, but I did change a lot. I didn’t even change it into ”The Monroe Doctrine” but I did borrow a few of her ideas and I am forever grateful to her for being there in that interview and very patiently letting me understand her thoughts about negotiation (or not!) and about teaching and instruction in general. In my teaching career meeting her was absolutely A Day to Remember.
Four different spellings means four different things, of course they do, but let’s take a closer look at it!
If I would use a computer keyboard here, in the US, I would need to find some solution to writing the Swedish letters, which would cause problems since I’m not that much of a computer person. Instead I tend to write ”Swedish” with the computers I find here, but replacing the å, ä and ö with a, a and o. There! See??? Already we have a chance to mix them up, since å and ä are not the same as a and a… So how would one tell whether the intention is to write å or ä? Knowing what reading is about, one might pretend to be Sherlock Holmes and try to find out by checking the meaning of the words around…or perhaps being Swedish might be of help…? Check these two chunks of Swedish, but spelled without the å or ä:
Let’s say you don’t know Swedish at all… Then you would think it’s something wrong with the grammar in the first sentence, I guess… or you would just assume that this person has missed out a word of maybe is dyslectic.
The first sentence may mean several things in Swedish, but knowing Swedish properly means knowing whether you would use ”en” or ”ett” (comparable to the use of ”a” or ”an” in English). A Swedish person would know that if ”far” in the first sentence actually is correct (meaning ”father”) then there has to be ”en” rather than ”ett” if written with correct use of grammar. Suppose this person assume it is a father then… On to the problem with ”braka”… That word is a verb and you would mainly use it to describe what happens if a construction of some sort break apart, such as if a tree falls over a shed in your garden, you would say that the tree fell over the shed: ”skjulet brakade sönder”. The use of ”braka” might also suggest the sound of something, not necessarily something nice… Suppose you lunch was beans… After a while you really have to fart… If that happens and you can hear a sound, you would in colloquial or dialectal Swedish say ”han brakade” meaning ”he farted”. Then, what happens with the first sentence is that you have different options now, right? Either the meaning is ”en far kan braka” meaning ”a father can fart” or we need to doublecheck the meaning of the word braka… Is there any chance for that word being spelled with either å or ä??? Oh… as a matter of fact, both would be possible to use… ”En far kan bråka” means ”a father can be messing/fighting”… ”En far kan bräka” means that the father makes the sound of a sheep. Would a father to that? Yes, maybe if he plays with his kids or something, but it is more likely that we didn’t guess right when we picked either å or ä here… So then… What next??? I suggest for us to go back to the noun… ett far… We already know that ett far is not how we would say in Swedish. We would say ”en far” if it HAD meant father…but suppose it doesn’t? ”Ett får”= a sheep, YES!!! A sheep can bleat= ”ett får kan bräka”. Guess what??? This is what you and I do in a matter of SECONDS when we read a text!!! I think that’s amazing! Don’t you?
Let’s repeat the concept…by checking the second sentence!
”Titta” means ”look”… ”en” means ”a”… bat is a word in English, but not in Swedish. A Swedish speaking person has two options here. One is to assume that the word ”bat” means the currency they use in Thailand and then also assume that the person who wrote it has missed an ”h” in ”baht”, but more likely is for the person to read between the lines and understand that nobody would comment on Thai currency in that way and rather suggest that the ”bat” has to be spelled with either ”å” or ”ä”. When picking one of these this time it’s easy! Why is that? Well, there IS no such word as ”bät” in Swedish, so problem is solved with ”båt” meaning ”boat” and the sentence will be ”Look, a boat!”
By reading between the lines, one can get a lot of language learning, don’t you think?
At home I don’t teach English, but Swedish as a Second Language. This evening I had the great opportunity to visit an adult learner’s group in Spanish at a College not far from where I am. The students were all taking lessons in Spanish, but volunteered to talk to me about what the conditions are for adult learners at this level in the school system. I found our conversation most interesting and will share their viewpoint with both my students and my teaching friend at basic level of English.
Earlier today I first met with a few children with special needs. I shared with them a few thoughts on what it is like to live in a country where we have monopoly money and a” fairy-tale-like” reality with a king…
I also had a chance to contribute with Swedish words in grade six while they were taking a Spanish lesson about furniture in different rooms of a house. Then I discussed with a group of eightgraders why so many Swedes left Sweden a hundred years ago.
I then had a nice and long chat with one of the teachers who has been a resident of Pitman almost all her life, apart from a short period down south. She told me all there is to know about the little town and I was happy to learn all that first hand, rather than read about it.
On Friday a few of the teachers have planned for a Sweden day, where the students will be getting a whole lot of information about Sweden, but also try some typical Swedish activities. I will contribute with a slideshow about Sweden and explain why the Dala horse is a symbol for Sweden. The collaboration with an art teacher at this school also led to an idea where we let the kids know a little about how one can paint a typical ”kurbits”.
Tomorrow we’re off to Atlantic City, my teaching friend and I. We will study ESL as the NJ authorities wants it to be. I look forward to that very much. I don’t need anyone to rock my cradle! I am exhausted, but I’m having so much fun! Teaching is my life! ❤
The coming two weeks I have the opportunity to join an American teacher in her everyday teaching routines. I look forward to my two weeks in the NJ schools. I learn a lot by sharing experiences, note what is similar and what is different. Teaching is not at all the same if compared between different countries, not even if compared between different classrooms!
Several of my adult students are teachers from the start and when they meet me in the classroom they notice that a lot of things in my classroom differs from what they are used to in their own countries. When that happens, I always listen eagerly to what differences the students have noticed and then the student and I discuss what the different school systems have in common, too. Usually we find that just getting a glimpse of something is not enough to draw conclusions from .
By speaking to teachers from Finland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, China, Iraq, Somalia, Ukraine, Latvia, Kirgizistan, Russia, UK and the USA, I have been trying to get a picture of in what way there might be a difference from the Swedish school system on one hand and that of those mentioned countries on the other hand. By experiencing a school system first hand I learn more than by speaking. I hope during my stay here in NJ, that I will not only get a chance for comparison between the two school systems in general, but also a chance to talk to teachers and administrators. Hopefully we will all share good examples of teaching and instruction.I look forward to meeting new teaching friends. If you like to learn more, please learn more in following ”åsics”! You are of course also welcome to read some of the already published texts.
In 1992, I started off as a class teacher of twelve-year-olds in grade six. My exam covered Swedish, English and the four different subjects that are called ”SO” in Swedish, i.e, Geography, Social Science, History, and Religion. I was supposed to teach grades 1-7 in the Swedish Compulsory School System. In 1992, it wasn’t unusual for teachers to teach both subjects they were skilled for as well as subjects where they didn’t have any exams. In my case my first job as a teacher was a position as a ”class teacher” with both Math, Science and Art. You may think:
”So what? If you have graduated, it doesn’t matter what subject you teach!”
I strongly object to that point of view. It DOES matter! First of all you need more time to prepare lessons properly in subjects where you have no academical skills or grades. Secondly you may not find suitable examples for students to understand complex structures or important details. Students who need extra attention from the teacher in order to ”get it”, would be better off with a skilled teacher in Math, rather than a teacher in Swedish, who tries her very best.
A Moment 22
The subjects you love most of all, will be neglected since you need to make an effort and focus on subjects you didn’t even want to teach in the first place. The estimated time for planning of lessons will be up when you start planning for your own favourite subjects.
An ordinary day when you have planned all for today’s lessons and come to school early enough to have a cup of coffee with your teaching friends, you notice that your dear friend in the classroom next to yours is on sick-leave. You hope for her (it’s often a she!) soon being back, but you also realize that you will be the one to fill her position in class, ALTHOUGH you have a classroom filled with students, too… What can you do about it? Not much, really. Hmmmm… 55 kids instead of 27? What is my options for today’s teaching…? As I said, I had planned it all from the start, right? But NOW, I will have to just dump my own plan, and also probably dump my teaching friend’s plan, because I am ONE teacher with TWO classes… I HOPE that is history by now!!!
I taught in a school where our policy was to be our own ”subteachers” in a flexible system. Quality??? Excuse me… We didn’t discuss that topic much. It was more about money. But why wasn’t it just possible to find a teacher who would be in our regular staff as an extra resource? Money… Again… OK… Then if there is no way to hire a TEACHER…can’t we just find SOMEONE????
For way too long it has been possible for principals in Swedish schools to hire ”teachers” who lack the required qualifications for teaching. Qualified teachers have also for way too long been responsible for ”helping” those subteachers in their job, instead of teaching their own students with high quality. But why complain? It can’t be that difficult to help a friend who know nothing about teaching, right? No, not if it would be ONCE or maybe TWICE, but if it’s the rule rather than an exception, then it’s not fair at all. It is unfair to the students, both in my class and in the class where the subteacher works. We are all losing focus from our ongoing learning proccess.
A possible scenario
You rush into your own classroom, inform the students that you will have to start a lesson together with a subteacher in the nextdoor classroom and will be back soon. Then you help the subteacher to find books or material, tell the students to help the subteacher as much as possible, also inform the subteacher about students with special needs, such as diabetes or epilepsy. You also try to write a short list of important details, such as at what hour you take a break, when students leave for PE, or when lunch is served. In some schools there is a binder filled with ”all a subteacher needs to know”, but despite the binder, many subteachers may either not have time to read the information, or are completely new to teaching and have never been in this particular school. Sometimes they are 18 years old and lack every experience there is to ask for. You help this person the best you can anyway, because you know it will turn out for the worse if you do nothing at all. Luckily, many subteachers have been teaching for a long time and also know the students in a few schools in their local community quite well. Then the options for a win-win-situation is a lot better. OK…It’s time to rush back to your own class and start off what you had planned for! Guess what? The students haven’t started doing what you asked them to… Instead you need to re-start the activity and sometimes you will have a hard time getting every student’s attention again. When you finally think, ”Yes!” and your class seems to be focused again, you hear a knock on your classroom door… The subteacher needs more help…
The results for Swedish school children in PISA and other international tests have never been as poor as the last few years. In my opinion it is possible to explain the failure as a misuse of resources and a slow motion in change or maybe blame the many changes in our school system. When will there be time to focus on learning again?
I am happy to say that I rarely hear about problems like these nowadays. I am also happy to say that some of the subteachers I have been teaching side-by-side with were really nice persons who did a wonderful job. A certain blonde whom I tried to persuade to become a teacher, instead decided to become a nurse. The lucky patients know who I mean!
I had the great opportunity to share the everyday teaching life with a marvellous teacher, Cathy Jacobo. During my stay in NJ in October/November 2014, I experienced teaching and instructing from an American point of view. I am sure my visit had been less interesting without Cathy and I am so happy to share that she was awarded the title ”Teacher of the Year”!
Congratulations, Cathy!! ♥
⇒For those of you who’d like to read about our adventures, please follow the links below! Please also note that there are no ”ninety-third” and ”ninety-fourth”, since those texts are written in Swedish… 🙂
The eightieth åsic- Sharing teaching experience with friends abroad or from abroad
The eighty-first åsic- Learning Among Friends
The eighty-second åsic- Second Day in an American Teacher’s Hectic World
The eighty-third åsic- Uppe med tuppen!- Being an early bird!
The eighty-fourth åsic- Fika as an ice-breaker is never wrong!
The eighty-fifth åsic- ”HALF & HALF” or Completely Wrong!
The eighty-sixth åsic- Höstlöv, höstlov, hostlov, Fall Break!
The eighty-ninth åsic- From Påskkärring to Tomten in Twenty
The ninetieth åsic- My New Favourite Tree
The ninety-second åsic- Being happy for having friends
The ninety-fifth åsic- The Yellow Wall and The Blue Wallpaper
…och andra ordspråk var i fokus igår när vi jobbade gruppvis med att klura ut vad de svenska ordspråken egentligen betyder. Det är flera olika strategier som sätts på prov när man ägnar sig åt språklig förhandling om betydelsen av ett yttrande. Men för att ytterligare utmana mina elever valde jag inte vilka yttranden som helst. Jag valde vanliga svenska ordspråk. För mig är det ett dubbel examination som pågår medan eleverna jobbar… De jobbar gruppvis med ett antal ordspråk som jag har skrivit på plastkort, för att de ska kunna lägga upp samtliga på bordet emellan sig. Den uppgift jag ger dem är att de ska diskutera vad ordspråken innebär och i vilka språkliga situationer man kan tänkas använda dem. Dessutom är det kul att höra om det finns en motsvarighet i elevernas egna språk och om de i sin kulturbakgrund använder ordspråk frekvent eller inte.
Non scholae, sed vitae discimus
Jag lyssnar på hur eleverna kommer fram till betydelsen av ordspråken och funderar på hur de gör sig förstådda och i vilken grad de förstår varandra. Ibland kör de fast och behöver lite hjälp, men i allmänhet så klurar de ut vad yttrandena betyder och kommer till en konsensus inom gruppen. Ändå kan det i teorin vara så att en av grupperna är helt överens, men de har ”fel” om yttrandets betydelse. Det spelar ingen roll, faktiskt. Deras förslag på betydelse är inte alls det viktiga här. Det är i stället så att det är processen som är viktig. De tränar på att uttrycka sig precist och de blir ofta tvungna att slå upp ord eller förklara sig närmare och detta gör de ju i ett ämnesområde som är relativt okänt för dem. Ingen är expert, utan de allra flesta måste anstränga sig språkligt för att både förstå och göra sig förstådda. När detta pågår, så jobbar eleverna på sin egen yttersta gräns i språkförståelsen och använder alla sina språkliga strategier för att kommunicera till de övriga i gruppen hur de menar. En härlig bonus som ofta kommer med på köpet, är att de allra flesta tycker att aktiviteten är ROLIG. När man har kul tror jag att man lättare lär sig än om det är mördande tråkigt.
När elevernas grupprocess nått sitt slut, tar vi en extra runda genom alla ordspråken tillsammans, för det är en bra idé att avsluta med att tydligt klargöra vad varje ordspråk betyder, så att processen de just ägnat sig åt också når sin belöning. För mig personligen är det spännande att lyssna på elevernas översättningar av liknande ordspråk från deras egna kulturer och dessutom brukar jag ofta bjuda på några av mina egna erfarenheter av det tema vi diskuterar. Det blir som en liten hörförståelse i miniformat. Jag tror att jag använder ganska många ordspråk i mitt idiolekt (1). Anledningen till att det är så, är att jag redan som barn roades av att fundera över språket och dess betydelse. Jag la ord och uttryck på minnet för att jag tyckte att det var roligt helt enkelt. En del av de där ordspråken som mina föräldrar eller far- och morföräldrar och deras vänner använde, hör man inte så ofta nuförtiden, men likväl är de väldigt tydliga i sitt budskap. En del av dem har jag inte hört sedan mormor och morfar gick ur tiden, men i gengäld använde de sina uttryck i repris så många gånger, att de nu ingår i både min mammas och mitt eget idiolekt. Ett sådant lite roligt uttryck som min mormor ofta använde kom ibland vid sådana tillfällen där jag eller min bror försökte förklara något för våra föräldrar, när det var helt uppenbart att de redan kunde och visste detta. Då kunde mormor sitta tyst länge, men när hon tog till orda så sa hon helt enkelt:
Du ska inte lära far din att göra barn!
Det var ju ett övertydligt yttrande, som liksom lade sordin på hela ambitionen att lära mamma och pappa det där som man tyckte att de inte begrep… Ibland när vi försökte lägga oss i, så kunde de vuxna bli lite tystare eller så började de prata om köksredskap:
Små grytor har också öron!
De äldre släktingar jag brukade besöka tillsammans med mamma och pappa hade ofta vackra broderade bonader på väggarna i sina hem. Väldigt ofta fanns dessa ovanför kökssoffan eller ovanför en skänk eller sekretär. Vi hade också en sådan bonad, som jag vet att mamma har broderat. På den bonaden står det ”Fem äro bjudna, tio komma, slå vatten i soppan och önska välkomna!” Hela min barndom läste jag det där ordspråket och tänkte på hur bra det där tipset faktiskt var… Lite grann som ”Finns det hjärterum, så finns det stjärterum!” Men för det flesta bondkök jag kommit in i, passade också yttranden som ”Egen härd är guld värd” eller ”Borta bra men hemma bäst” I min barndom när vi hälsade på bekanta i Grödinge, så brukade jag titta länge på deras vackert målade granplanka, som hängde strax under taket i ett av rummen. Där stod ”Lyss till den granens sus, vid vars rot ditt bo är fäst” Så vackert! Vid någon högtidsdag fick mamma eller pappa en likadan vackert målad planka av den familjen och nu när vi är i stugan, så tittar jag lika förundrad på den sedan länge memorerade devisen och gläds åt hur klokt det är att nöja sig med den egna granens sus… Men i MITT fall så är det min fantastiskt ståtliga tall som får stå för suset. Den är vackrast i världen och klarar varje höststorm utan att så mycket som vibrera ens…
Men avslutningsvis, så är det ju allmänt känt att man säger ”Man lär så länge man lever” men för mig som lärare är det mer sannolikt att följande gäller:
Man lär så länge man har elever
1) = Läs mer på http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiolekt
2) Non scholae, sed vitae discimus = ”Vi lär inte för skolan utan för livet”
A lot of facts can nowadays be easily found on the internet. Many skills will soon be forgotten and a five-year-old can google just about anything with no help from an adult. I sometimes feel old when I notice how my kids know things I spent a lot of time learning. All they need to do is google. At work I notice that the gap between those who know how to handle IT and those who don’t is increasing. There will be no equality unless students get their computers thru school and also good instruction from skilled teachers. There will always be students with parents who either cannot afford a new computer, or maybe don’t understand to what extent their kid will be left out in school if they cannot be online and use internet as the rest of the kids. Being curious is a good start!
Even if we may think some things were better THEN than they are NOW, we need to at least try to go with the flow…
Otherwise we, the teachers, would soon be relics, too… Stored and filed side by side with flanellograms,
chalkboards and sandpits with sticks…
In subjects where a smartphone is a rich resource I don’t fully understand why schools still say students cannot use their phones in class. The teacher has a great opportunity getting things done a lot more easy by accepting the use of smartphones when it IS smart to use them. When we don’t find the solutions to meanings of words, the smartphones serve as dictionaries and saves a lot of time, compared to finding out by a visit at the local library, but that is not the only way to save time with a smartphone in a classroom!
Let me share a few examples from my own classroom, which is a language learning classroom with Swedish as a Second Language as the one and only subject. The students and I talk a lot about things we read, listen to or watch. I always try to help them by writing additional examples on my white board. This is however not a classroom with a SMARTBOARD, but just an ordinary poorly equipped in-the-basement-classroom. When the whiteboard is completely filled with comments, words and phrases connected to the topic we discuss I either take a photo myself and later I re-write some of the unreadable stuff for my students, OR I ask them to simply use their smartphones and take a photo of my notes. That’s quick and easy and also a SMART way to use PHONES.
Another thing with language learning is to use the phone for pronunciation. Many students in my classroom merely meet one person who speaks Swedish and I am that person. Although I try to give them several suggestions to where they can listen to Swedish, or perhaps meet Swedish people and talk to them, it is very difficult to some of them. Their smartphones is thus an excellent way to help them out at least with pronunciation of difficult words or phrases and also more than anything else, the quality of the sounds of the nine Swedish vowels, when put in different positions of words or phrases. When students record my pronunciation and go back home and listen, repeat, and their own pronunciation improves rapidly. So, if I would stick to the rules of many classrooms and say ”Don’t use your smartphone in class!” my students would have a tougher time learning Swedish.
Ines Uusmann, Minister for Infrastructure, seemed to believe that the internet would be forgotten after a few years, although it is said that the reason why everyone remembers, is that the headline for the article was a fake quote. This is in fact (in Swedish, though…) what she said:
”Jag vågar inte ha någon alldeles bestämd uppfattning men jag tror inte att folk i längden kommer att vilja ägna så mycket tid, som det faktiskt tar, åt att surfa på nätet. […] Att sitta och surfa på nätet tar en himla massa tid. Vad är det bra för? […] Det kanske är så att det är något som vuxit upp nu. Alla pratar om internet men kanske är det övergående och sedan blir inriktningen mer specificerad”
Ines Uusman citerad i Svenska Dagbladet, 12 maj 1996.
Källa: Rydén, Daniel, ”Dimmor på nätet”, Sydsvenskan, 4 mars 2007.
When I was in NJ a couple of weeks ago I noticed that I am not very good at choosing and find myself ambivalent and indecisive, If there are a lot of options. At least when it comes to choosing food from a menu… 😀
I wonder if I possibly have inherited this from my daughter? We are just the same when we are in a situation of choice. If we get stuck, we do however have different solutions to our problem. My daughter would most likely go for a choice similar to some of her friends, and thus avoid the risk of feeling her own choice was in any way bad. I, myself, on the other hand, sometimes want to follow the stream, not be the one to be a nuisance to others. SO although we both may do as others do, we seem to do so for completely different reasons. We also both tend to pick ”both” when it may be difficult to pick ”either…or”…
One of my friends have decided for herself to give herself a kind of punishment if she cannot make a decision when she is picking something for her (fika)coffee. If she cannot make up her mind about what nice pastry to choose, she simply says: ”En kanelbulle, tack!” (A cinnamon bun, please!). I remember many different situations when this friend and I have lined up to buy a cup of coffee and she and I both try hard to make a decision, but when it’s our turn at the check-out, we realize that it’s impossible… Luckily a cinnamon bun is a great treat along with a cup of coffee!
But…what if my reluctance to make a choice is the very reason why I find it so difficult to be decisive in my classroom, too? The Swedish School System allows a lot of democratic processes for students to be involved in. We are supposed to engage our students in decision-making and students have a right to make an impact and be active in evaluating their school situation from many different perspectives. I don’t mind that situation at all… In fact I enjoy being interactive with my students in order to develop the learning process from year to year. Having said that, I also notice that Swedish students tend to be used to this collaboration with their teachers and they are also interested in sharing their opinion, suggest possible improvements to instruction or lessons, but my current students from different parts of the world seem more or less new to the idea of sharing their ideas and views.
I remember a lesson I had planned for a group of SVA3, where the students were all supposed to act and also to reveal a certain personality in a dialogue with friends. I had hoped for the group to pick a card with a personality and then ”go for it”, but obviously they were all worried about the situation and thought it was a better idea if I handed out the cards and thus made the choice more of a ”random” situation. After the activity I asked the students why they didn’t want to take part in the process of choice and they all said that they thought it was scary and unusual to decide for themselves in a school situation. It didn’t matter that they were all adults. They were all facing their old school situations where teachers make decisions and students do as they are told.
Is there a difference between situations where one wants to choose or not? I don’t know if that would be universal, but I think from my point of view that when the decision is important to me FOR REAL, then I don’t give away my chance to choose voluntarily, but if there is no real and deep meaning to me personally, then I don’t mind letting someone else pick a choice of their taste. That is also why I completely trusted my friends when we decided what food to buy when I was in the US a couple of weeks ago. I trusted their taste and I didn’t want to be a pain…so instead of making a decision they wouldn’t appreciate, I’d rather let them choose. I guess we are all different. I notice that I am a person with a ”decision disorder” 😀
So… To choose or not to choose, will also in the future be the most important question, in every situation there is.
From a teacher's point of view, some is old and some is new! 