9Annie started the class by having the teenagers sit in a circle around her; Laurelei sat next to her. "Hi everyone, "Annie greeted with gusto. She pointed to herself, "my name is Annie." Then she gestured to her assistant, "and this is Laurelei." Annie motioned to the kids with her open palm, "What are your names?" It took a moment, but the kids figured out what the teacher wanted them to do.
The girl with the scarlet pigtails pointed to herself with her left thumb and introduced herself as Imi. She fidgeted with the clothing she was given. Mariah gave her a spare shirt and jeans to replace her raggedy dress; despite trying to get the shirt to fit and being given a belt, the clothes were still a size too big on Imi. Other passengers tried finding clothing for her but had little luck, they ended up finding more clothes that fit the two boys better.
The boy with the shaggy black hair mumbled, "Dilan."
The tallest boy with the broken glasses motioned to himself with his left thumb, "I…," he hesitated, like he was trying to remember how Annie introduced herself. "Keat," he concluded.
Annie began by walking through the alphabet with everyone, speaking one letter at a time and having everyone repeat after her. Once they seemed to have a decent grasp of it, she decided to move on to the next topic.
"Okay, so let's get started with some vocabulary. Follow me!" Her students watched her blankly.
Annie waved her hand towards her. This caused her young scholars to look at each other.
"Gniod ehs si tahw?" Keat leaned towards Dilan.
"detaeh-revo s'ehs kniht I?" Dilan answered. Imi took a safety pamphlet she found and used it to fan her teacher.
"Aw, thanks Imi." Well, that didn't work. I gotta try something else. Annie tried waving her hand over her head and that seemed to register. Annie took her group over near the edges of the camp. She pointed to a towering pine tree, "This is a tree. Repeat after me: Tree."
"Tuh- teh-rrr-ray-ee. Teh-rrr-ee?"
"Good job!" Annie pointed at the bonfire, "that's a fire. Fff-eye-rrr, now you try."
"Fff-eye-rrr. FIRE!" The kids said enthusiastically.
A random woman passing by them interjected, "Damn, that's so easy a baby could do it!"
Annie rolled her eyes, she hated dealing with these kinds of people. "Do you mind? I'm trying to teach."
"You should make it more challenging so they learn something!" The lady snorted.
Annie mouthed an oh my god. "They are learning, and I'll make it more complicated once they're ready for it! Now can you please not interrupt while I'm teaching, please?"
Annie turned back to her students, "Sorry about that. Anyway." She bent over, grabbing a stone, stick and a leaf. She held out the igneous material to them. "This is a rock, Rrr-aw-kuh."
Keat leaned in closer to try and get a better look at the object. His glasses did nothing to clear up his foggy vision at all. Annie dropped it into his hands so he could get a feel for it. Then, excitedly, he exclaimed, "Rawk!"
"Very good!" She switched to the leaf, "Now try this, leaf. Lll-eee-feh."
Keat and Dilan got it right on their first try, Imi ran into a bit of trouble when she said "leave" instead of "leaf."
"Close but not quite. Ll-eee-feh. Leaf. Now you try."
Imi hesitated, "Lll…eee," She looked at Annie with curious eyes.
"Go on, you're on the right track," Annie encouraged.
"...Feh. Leaf?"
"You did it! Great job!"
Annie walked them through other words and phrases such as: airplane, river, dirt, blanket, pillow and forest. Then she walked back with everyone to the "classroom." Laurelei was creating a color wheel for Annie to use. She glanced up, "Hey, are we doing the skit now?"
"Yup! You ready?"
Annie and Laurelei started on opposite sides, then walked up to each other and giving each other a friendly wave.
"Hi! I'm Annie. What's your name?"
"I'm Laurelei, Nice to meet you!"
"Bye! See you soon!" As they paced away from each other, Annie laughed to herself, it was just so silly! No real conversation in English would play out that way. But she hoped they got the point across; she could see the gears beginning to turn in their heads. "Ok, now it's your turn to try."
Imi was the first one to attempt the micro-conversation with Annie. She walked up to her and waved her hand - just like how Annie did. "Hi! I'm Imi, what's your name?"
"I'm Annie, nice to meet you," she responded with a beaming smile.
"Bye! See you soon!" Imi swayed her hand back and forth as she walked away from Annie. Next was Dilan's turn. He followed Imi's example almost to a 'T', only forgetting to ask for Annie's name.
Last came Keat, who struggled more than the other two. Annie began to suspect that because he had trouble seeing, it would be more difficult to remember things. She would have to come up with accommodations for him. He didn't wave to Annie as he said, "Hi, I'm Keat. What … your name?"
"I'm Annie, nice to meet you!"
"Bye, see you soon." As he was walking away, he accidentally bumped into Annie's shoulder. "!yrroS"
Annie practiced one more time with each person before moving on to the final lesson of the day. "Okay, so the last thing we will do today is drawing some of our favorite things and labeling them. Let me show you!" She grabbed her notebook and flipped to a page showing a musical instrument shaped like an open loop, a teapot, and a happy and sad face mask. Each object was accompanied by swirly handwriting. "These are a few of my favorite things." She pointed her finger at the yellow instrument, "My favorite kind of music is Jazz. So I drew a saxophone to represent that." She slid her finger downwards, "I enjoy a good hot cup of tea, so I have a teapot here. And," she dropped her finger on the last picture, "I love the theater! I love seeing the plays and musicals my school puts on." Annie flopped her notebook to the back end, tore out some blank pages and passed them out to all her pupils. "Now it's your turn, draw your favorite things and write down what they are."
Once Laurelei passed out pens and pencils, it was time to get to business. Imi tapped her brother's shoulder. "So, do you think Miss Annie wants us to draw things we like?"
Dilan shrugged, "I reckon so." He watched Keat dive into the assignment, his nose touching the paper as he attempted to write. "Need some help, Keat?"
Keat let out a defeated sigh, "Yeah, I suppose I do."
They all gathered in a circle, ready to tackle the task at hand. Dilan sketched out Keat's favorite things, a rectangle with squiggles, two stick figures talking to each other, and a small shovel with a flower. Keat had to spell out each word. Then Dilan tapped Keat's shoulder, "Hey, how would you represent games?"
Without a moment's thought, he responded, "I'd draw a pair of dice."
Once everyone finished, they each turned in their papers to Annie. She clicked a pen and started writing next to each picture they drew. All the kids watched her wide eyed, curious as to what she was doing. Then she handed everyone's work back. "So I wrote down what your names look like in English, and the English word for each picture. Imi," she walked up and pointed at her doodles, "for you I wrote down clothes, apples and goats." She turned to Keat. "Keat, I wrote down the words for books, talking, and gardening. And Dilan," she said as she turned to face him, "I've got games and dice, music, and… an apple orchard."
Annie grabbed her notebook and opened it back to her favorite things. "Okay, class is almost over. But before you all go, could you do me a favor and write down your words for each of these?" She handed her pen and notebook to Dilan. She watched as the trio circled around the book.
"?gniht tsrif eht s'tahW" Dilan asked.
"?ti ebircsed uoy naC" Keat requested.
".pot eht ta niht dna mottob eht ta ediw s'tI .kram kcehc yvruc a ekil skool dna wolley s'tI" Imi said.
".eno taht rof cisum yrT" Keat responded after thinking for a moment. ".tnemurtsni lacisum a eb thgim tI"
Several minutes went by until they handed Annie back her notebook. "Thank you very much everyone. Class is dismissed for the day, but I will see you all tomorrow morning." The kids lingered by Annie for a bit before dispersing into the camp. She could tell that they wanted to learn more, but she needed more time to plan. Maybe tomorrow I could borrow Elwin's iPod and play some music? Or maybe I could go over basic greetings with them? But first I need to figure out some accommodations for Keat.
Writer's note: I would like to thank ErikFanatik for their insight on running an ELL class. I have never taught one, nor have I taken one, so their feedback is highly appreciated. Also, they have a Borderlands fanfiction posted on here and Ao3, it's called A Glimpse of Light. So check it out if you're interested.
Has anyone out there had to take an ELL class? What were your experiences like as a student? Did you have any exposure to the English language or no?