Teacher's Gonna Show You :: Inside the Rural Jamaican Classroom

At first glance, everything seems completely on track. The classroom is under control and the teacher is doing a flawless job of teaching the lesson in a way that is challenging for the more advanced students while simultaneously being thorough and easy-to-understand for the rest of the class. Each student is assigned one of two assignments to suit their level and the teacher floats between the now two groups of students to assist them as they complete their assignments. The bell rings (pang-a-lang-a-lang) and the students present their work to be ticked (checked off) before taking a break. All of the students leave and I’m extremely impressed. How did the teacher pull that off?

The teacher then pulls one student back into the classroom and we sit down together to review the assignment. This particular lesson was on Jamaica’s mountains. They were taught 10 keywords during the lesson and the students were assigned to either A) define the words or B) put the words in alphabetical order. This student was given assignment B and he had already turned it in, so I was confused as to why we were reviewing it now. The teacher largely writes two of the words on a piece of paper: relationship and elevation. Jaiden sits with his head in his hands as the teacher asks him to read the words. He can’t. We try to sound them out together but that isn’t happening either. The teacher spends the break with him working through the words (because she is awesome) but he still is struggling to read them. How did this happen? How did he complete his assignment? What could he have possibly retained from the lesson if he couldn’t read the passage that all of the students were assigned? I have a ton of questions. So I asked.

If I haven’t made it clear yet, this is not the fault of this teacher. She clearly goes above and beyond to help all of her students succeed, but there is no way that she has the time or resources to teach this student to read from scratch. Especially in a mixed grade 5 and 6 classroom. Mixed classroom means that there are multiple grade levels in one class being taught by one teacher. Any grade levels would be tough to mix into one class, but mixing any grade with 6^th grade is particularly challenging here in Jamaica.

There is a government test here called the Grade Six Achievement Test, or GSAT. This test more or less determines a student’s future. Floridians, think FCAT on those super bad steroids that get athletes banned from playing sports if they take them. Students that pass the GSAT have their choice of what type of high school they want to attend. Students that do not pass are sometimes considered “dunce” , are often completely written off, and lose their chance to go to a traditional high school. There’s a lot more to it, but that’s a blog post for another day.

Anyway, back to Jaiden. As I suspected, he was assigned to me as a pull-out student, which I was thrilled about. He is such a great kid and I can tell that he is bright. He just got lost in the shuffle somewhere down the line and never learned how to read. I was excited to be able to give him the attention that he needs and deserves.

After spending some time with him I was able to come up with some fun activities that might get him excited about learning to read. I went home that night and spend hours working on fun games specifically for him that I thought he would enjoy. Here are some of the things that I came up with.

Letter sound board game

This game was actually inspired by my fellow volunteer, Chaya. I learned that Javon really enjoys competition so it was important to make something that motivated him to win. This game incorporates all of the letter sounds that we have learned and we can add new ones as he learns.

Letter sound cricket

Kids here love cricket. They taught me how to play the very first day that I was at their school. Jaiden is no different. Besides that fact that he loves cricket, one of the first things that I learned about him is that he cannot pay attention after about five minutes unless he is up doing something. I combined these two pieces of information to create letter sound cricket. Here’s how it works… I hold up a letter and ask all different types of questions about the letter; what is the letter, what sound does it make, and what word do you know that start with this letter are a few of the questions. The rules are simple. If he answers that question correctly then he gets a point and I pitch the ball to him. At that point, it’s like a regular cricket game. If he reaches the wicket before I can hit it with the ball then he gets another point. If he answers the questions incorrectly, I get a point and he has to pitch to me. First to 10 points wins. He. Loves. It.

To me, it’s clear that this student wants to learn and has the ability to. Sometimes the teachers just need an extra set of hands on deck to give this one-on-one time. I’m excited that I will get to be that set of hands for my very own school in St. Ann for the next two years.

*Names and details have been changed for the privacy of the school and the students.