A Teaching Moment

There I was, starting class with my little Korean kids (not quite beginners after a year). I was checking homework and giving out stickers, when I looked up and saw that some of the kids were teaching each other (in my eyes; to them they were just mimicking me and having fun).

Rewind.

The beginners book for the class comes with a big set of vocabulary cards, large word cards (10 inches?) with colored pictures. I learned long ago a quick game called 'slow reveal' in which the teacher covers the front of the card and slowly pulls it into view. As the teacher is doing so the students have to guess, based on the part of the picture they see, what the English word is. A quick but fun game.

After I had done it a few times with this class I solicited volunteers (these are little kids, remember, so to get them to stand up in front of a class takes some coaxing, except for the dramatists, and then you have to watch out) and had them lead the game. They did quite well.

Forward.

Anyway, there I was doing my normal start-of-the-class stuff, having left the day's word cards out on a front desk (intentionally, having overcome my fear/irrational bias/teacher-centered views), when I noticed that some kids had appropriated the cards and were doing the 'slow reveal' game with each other.

They had picked up the word cards and were getting each other to guess the English words.

How could I not love that? They were teaching each other!

Not in the way I would do it, and I had to resist jumping in. I watched them for a few minutes to note the interplay, and then inserted a question--"What is it?"--into their actions, but they made me so proud!:)

Ahh, the teaching moments . . .