Classroom Cameos

December 13, 2014 by Usha Pisharody 17 Comments

Classroom activities always spring a surprise, on all those in the room 🙂 . Fact.

The earlier post on Limericks is one example (LINK)

The learners, being of a mixed group, in terms of not just size and shape and interests, but expressions, abilities and competencies as well, bring in that element of suspense and anticipation, especially when we do speeches – speaking skills exercises. From a learner’s point of view, I have always felt that speech making is what they dread most – knowing that they have to perform, and be assessed rather immediately. There is no lag, and there is no anonymity while actually doing the task. Right here, right now. And that there are rarely second takes, unless one is terribly unfortunate in memory (not in preparation, in moi class 😛 – you don’t take it seriously and prepare, well, you have to face the consequences thereof, and receive the grades that performance is due 😀 ) – or one makes a request, which, based upon the circumstances involved (not the student, per se 😛 ) will be considered. There. I told you – you really have to rethink whether you want to be in my class 😀

That said, I must tell you that speech times are fun too – most especially the wonder when the ‘speaker’ realizes that he/she can do it well, when they get appreciated by the class, and by the ‘assessor’/teacher, when questions are asked as to meanings of idioms or phrases used in the speech – and they are prepared for it 🙂 🙂 Oh the joy!!! I know it to be one of the most confidence building and will strengthening exercises in language learning, and also in general comportment and expression. It goes a long long way, when that appreciation comes from the class and the teacher, together 🙂 Last week one such dramatic moment happened, among a whole lot of other dramatic moments, in the speech sessions, in Class 8.

The learner group was given a choice of three topics for making the speech- “Where there is a will, there is way”/ “Treating the Disabled with Respect and Dignity”/ “Sometimes War is Necessary”

Except for about four students, EVERYONE spoke beautifully – but, for me, one stood out, in terms of the content and the immediacy, in terms of it being relevant to how one responds and reacts – whether personally, or as a nation. The young lady, Sona, did a magnificent job of quietly and conversationally giving this succinct speech on the topic “Sometimes War is Necessary”

As I share the text of the speech – I must add that it being done so to appreciate the young lady, and for the fact I felt a connection with some points raised in the speech. Well done, Sona – and thank you for emailing the content and permitting me to share it here, so that it may touch others too 🙂

She spoke- Quote-

“If anybody ever asks me what I think about war, I’d say that it’s necessary but just as a last resort. Ever heard that it takes two to tango? We can all be peace lovers but if the other side is not reasonable we can’t force them to come to an agreement. War has always been there and it always will.  It’s part of human nature to fight or argue.  How else do we stand up for what we believe in? There’s a quote “All it takes for evil to prevail, is for the good men to do nothing.” If we don’t stand up for what we want, that’s it, nobody else is gonna do that for us.

Some people say that we are not animals- we are worse,we are humans. Many of us can’t even fight (argue) without getting into a fight. But sometimes I guess we have to. Like if we saw a friend being attacked – would you take a chair, sit down and reason with the attacker, while your friend is being attacked? No way! we’ll immediately take action and stop them. Well sometimes it comes to this in war too.

You know how we say that “just a spark can ignite a fire” – the same can be said with war too.There’s a story in which a war breaks out just because some guy accidentally spilt a drop of honey. Unbelievable, right? But that’s the story and that’s also the truth. Most of the time it’s just these small, silly things which leads to big,big wars.

Thank You. “

Unquote.

It wasn’t so much the notions as against the manner in which it was spoken and the quiet confidence, along with the easy and relevant content that grabbed my attention, and made me want to share it. Thank you,  all of you from the said class for the wonderful moments I have had during the speech sessions. Keep the creativity and confidence flowing 🙂

13 December, 2014