In education, it’s critical to model. Show, don’t tell.
I teach a creative writing course, which is really “Digital Storytelling,” but that’s not one of the district-provided options for course titles, so I call it “Creative Writing” and do a bit of everything. Right now, students are working on NPR-style audio stories about school events. I thought I’d model it for them. It was kind of fun — perhaps I have a future in radio…
I heard K speak English for the first time in the Christmas choir clip. I’m curious — would K say now that English is the harder language for her?
My impulse is to say — you’ve done your work! Relax! L is bilingual even if she has a preference for her dominant language (her school language). But I know you worry that she will easily forget Polish. So I offer you my own example, maybe to reassure you: I came to the States at age 7 speaking no English. Within a year I made the switch and thereafter we spoke only English at home (and of course at school). Then I went back to Poland at age 13. I was placed in a liceum class (my parents pushed me ahead so I was 2 years younger than my classmates) where kids were learning advanced history, literature, etc. And guess what: I managed! In other words, the 5 – 6 year period of only English did not take away my Polish. I was able to jump right back in. (And after 6 years in Poland, I moved back to the States and switched all over again.) So maybe L, like me, will never forget…
It is a great audio clip, BTW. An Ira Glass moment!
Thanks for the encouragement. We’re hoping that regular trips to Poland will help as well, but soon, cousins will be at a point that they’ll see L’s and E’s visits as opportunities to practice their English. “You can speak Polish any time you want. We can’t do that with English.” Despite the fact that K’s brother, like K, is, for all intents and purposes, functionally fluent in English. “You can always speak English to your father,” I imagine myself saying.
I think part of our concern is knowing L’s personality so well. She’s either 100% about something or 0%, and that combined with her stubbornness… We bought the Polish version of the Frozen soundtrack recently, and it inexplicably included a Spanish version of “Let It Go” as a bonus track. Which version of the song has she learned? The Spanish, of course. The Polish version — not so much.
Re: K and English — she’s been caught speaking English in her sleep, so despite her protests to the contrary, she’s probably past the point of finding English difficult. It’s just a question of improving vocabulary, in her view.
Re: the clip itself — it was actually a lot of fun creating it. I could see the draw of podcasts, but in the end, it was a lot more work than a regular post. I’m looking forward to seeing what my students create.
Nicely done, Gary! Just the right balance of ambient tracking and narrative.
And yes, audio is a lot of hard work, double in fact, but once you go audio, it’s kind of hard to get back into long form writing…
Thanks for the kind words. It was fun, but too much work to do on a regular basis (without some kind of fiscal reward, that is).