Chapter 14
Engagement
I have always tried to engage
with pupils and I think engagement underpins and reinforces all other teaching
strategies and techniques.
I used many films and many
types of video entertainment to try to connect with, educate and inspire
pupils. Musicals turned out to be among the most captivating and successful
forms of video stimulation. “Les Misérables” proved immensely popular across
the board, as did “Notre Dame de Paris” (the French-Canadian adaptation of
Victor Hugo’s tale of Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre Dame). While senior
classes wrote essays and reviews, younger classes translated songs and even
sang along as we watched each musical unfold. All classes seemed to enjoy
discussion of themes and character development and this would lead to
discussions of broader or perhaps more personal interest.
One of the most popular songs
was “Le Temps des Cathédrales” at the start of “Notre Dame”, both because it
was catchy and repetitive and because it is sung so powerfully by Bruno
Pelletier. For many pupils, this was an introduction to vaguely operatic
singing and storytelling, and it worked very well. I greatly admired Bruno
Pelletier’s performance and voice (as did the pupils), and I wrote to a contact
address on his website to ask if he would be kind enough to provide a signed
photo for my pupils while explaining that we used “Notre Dame” to help in the
teaching of French. Fairly soon afterward, and to my utter astonishment, I
received such a photo with the message “To Mr Fernie’s pupils, Sincerely, Bruno
Pelletier” which I pinned on my classroom wall where it remained for several
years. Inspired by this, a handful of S4 girls also wrote and requested signed
photos which he was kind enough to supply. That personal connection made a real
difference not only to that year, but also to later year groups to whom I told
the story and showed the photo.
A film that proved hugely
popular with every class that saw it was “Les Choristes”, the story of a group
of pupils in a school for boys in difficulty run by a disciplinarian Headmaster
set in post-war France, and the boys’ lives are changed significantly by the
arrival of a kindly supervisor who introduces the boys to a more human approach
to teaching and learning while using music.
The film appealed to pupils
because of its school setting, but the story itself evoked empathy, sympathy
and even outrage. I discovered that classes were happy to produce work on the
film, but also worked on other exercises while listening to the soundtrack of the
film in the background. Indeed, one S4 class was so taken with the songs in the
film (the supervisor formed a choir) that they organised a mini concert based
on the songs from the film and invited along one or two members of staff. One
of the main instigators of the concert was a young lady called Lauren who could
hardly have been accused of being crazy about French, but she was inspired by
the film and its songs, organised our mini production with her friends and sang
beautifully. Tragically, just a couple of years after leaving the school, she
was killed in a road traffic accident just outside Invergordon.
It was not just in using film
and songs that I tried to engage my pupils – there were more personal efforts
too, most notably by making courageous if ill-conceived attempts to sing
myself.
I cannot sing, but I do have a
powerful voice and I discovered that if I belted out a few words of a song I
managed to dupe people into thinking I had a talent. And so, I started singing
with Bruno Pelletier for a few bars, or accompanied Valjean as he sang “What
have I done?” (always an appropriate choice, I thought), and I actually
received praise from a number of pupils! As I have already indicated, I also
sang “Happy birthday” to pupils, often in a duo with the Doc, and often
standing on a table in front of the pupil concerned in order to cause maximum
embarrassment. I wish I could say we made a deliberate effort to sing off-key
and as badly as possible in order to amuse, but the truth is that by and large
we were doing our best.
Apart from telling anecdotes
from the past to illustrate a cultural or thematic point, I came to realise
that storytelling in itself was a useful endeavour (exercise in comprehension
and also in focus). However, I did realise that often pupils would not
completely comprehend the tale I told them and so I felt the stories needed a
dramatic finish and delivery (to maintain interest and concentration), indeed I
came to realise that the finish and the way I built up to that finish were probably
more important (in terms of comprehension of gist and focus) than the content,
so I started telling vaguely creepy stories in French. These were stories that
were worthless in themselves (and in fact had no real ending), but served to
concentrate pupils’ attention on what I was saying and I built up the tension
until …. BANG …. I would suddenly yell and gesticulate threateningly, usually
causing screams of panic and fear, followed immediately by laughter and relief.
What I have never been able to
fathom is why classes would ask for a repeat performance the following day, or,
even worse, ask for a translation what they had just heard and reacted to in
French. I would point out that it couldn’t possibly work because this time they
knew what was coming, but they persisted in their demands for another
“performance”, so I would do it again. And it would work – again. They got a
genuine fright and they screamed even though they knew what I was going to do
and roughly when!
So, it’s all in the telling of
the tale ….
Many years ago, a teacher of
English was discussing Macbeth with a senior class and he emphasised the use of
blood and the colour red in the course of Shakespeare’s tale. He made very good
and salient points, went into detail and produced many examples to elucidate
the symbolism and meaning of the text.
Listening to the teacher was a
young man who was not particularly gifted at English, but he was a hard worker
and so he listened attentively. Some pupils seem to need tools to help them
achieve the level of attention required to work well – some like music playing
in the background, some like to drum their fingers on the table or their
cheeks, and others like to tap pencils. This young man had a very sharp pencil
which he held in his right hand and which he tapped gently and silently against
his lips, immediately below his nose.
While most teachers know what
they’re talking about and manage to convey a wealth of information and
intelligent interpretation, not all teachers are gifted with a lively and
interesting delivery with which to inspire and motivate their listeners. I’m
afraid the English teacher in question tended toward a rather monotonous
delivery which did little to encourage attention and concentration, and indeed,
at least in this case, had the effect of inducing tiredness and drowsiness.
It will be recalled that the
young pupil was tapping a very sharp pencil on his lips immediately below his
nose as his teacher’s delivery had the effect of making him dozy. As his eyes
began to close, his head arched gently back and he faded into a state of
semi-consciousness, but still with the sharp end of the pencil where his lips
had been before his head rocked backward.
As he became less aware and
consequently exercised less control over his neck muscles, his head fell
forward at the perfect angle to allow the sharpened lead point to enter his
right nostril and tear the inside, instantly waking the pupil and producing a
gush of blood onto his open jotter.
The accompanying scream jangled
the nerves of every person in the room and as all eyes landed on the shocked,
bleeding pupil, he shot out of his chair and the room at great speed, leaving
the teacher and the remaining pupils to contemplate the sight of blood and the
colour red in more tangible form.
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