Teaching Irony by Accident: 03/27/06
I have been working on getting students take a different look at language. I teach the higher level classes so I do not have to worry about "past participles, prepositional phrases, countable nouns" and the basic structure of language.
I use my "advanced degree" as an excuse for not teaching basic grammar. The reality is that I do not know basic grammar. I spent 7th & 8th grade in the hall because my English teacher, Cindy Brockman, was under the mistaken belief that being kicked out of her class was a punishment. Well, the bitch ended up getting me. I tell my students that I speak "cookie dough", not English. Follow me here, this makes perfect sense.
I can go to the store and buy a tube of cookie dough and make cookies, but I couldn't start with flour, sugar, eggs and all of that stuff and make it by heart. Basically I don't know how to speak from scratch. I speak cookie dough, I do not speak flour, sugar, eggs, or butter.
THE IRONY:
Instead of focusing on the grammar of English, I teach about how to use English to convey complex ideas. I consistently tell the students that when speaking about "ideas" they need to think about the RESULT of the words and not get hung up on the need for literal translation. Perfect grammar gets you nowhere if the message you convey to not achieve the RESULT.
To help them understand I play the role of an evil genie. I give them each a wish. I will then grant them their wish, but deny them their results.
I use my "advanced degree" as an excuse for not teaching basic grammar. The reality is that I do not know basic grammar. I spent 7th & 8th grade in the hall because my English teacher, Cindy Brockman, was under the mistaken belief that being kicked out of her class was a punishment. Well, the bitch ended up getting me. I tell my students that I speak "cookie dough", not English. Follow me here, this makes perfect sense.
I can go to the store and buy a tube of cookie dough and make cookies, but I couldn't start with flour, sugar, eggs and all of that stuff and make it by heart. Basically I don't know how to speak from scratch. I speak cookie dough, I do not speak flour, sugar, eggs, or butter.
THE IRONY:
Instead of focusing on the grammar of English, I teach about how to use English to convey complex ideas. I consistently tell the students that when speaking about "ideas" they need to think about the RESULT of the words and not get hung up on the need for literal translation. Perfect grammar gets you nowhere if the message you convey to not achieve the RESULT.
To help them understand I play the role of an evil genie. I give them each a wish. I will then grant them their wish, but deny them their results.
*One student wished he could go back to 20. I granted him the wish but denied him all of the knowledge he gained from the age of 20 until now. That defeated the purpose of the wish.
*Another wished she could be the most beautiful woman in the world. I granted her wish, but made her beauty last 1 second.
They started getting the point. I started taking attendance and realized I needed a pen. As a joke to the "I wish" game we were playing, I said "I wish I had a pen." A student gave me a pen. The damn thing was out of ink and didn't work. There was not a dry eye in the room we were laughing so hard.
Now THAT is teaching by example. A lesson in irony.
posted by KELLY FRAZIER at 10:56 PM
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