The 10th class English Sir once said to me, "Madam, some things are not on Google, they are not even in your Oxford dictionary, they are only in my internal dictionary." This was actually the start of our first ever conversation, after I'd finished typing a 50 page grammar book for him and was offering some suggestions for improvements, but we won't go into that. More importantly, I seem to have invented my own verb: to SACAWAC. I am slightly conscious of the fact that I sound just as pretentious as said English Sir, but bear with me.
Every hour of every day, Sri Chaitanya is filled with the sound of children studying. And when I say studying, I don't mean revising, or working or anything like that. I mean reading text books and learning them by heart. The verb 'to read' and the verb 'to study' seem to be interchangeable here. For example, if I asked a student to study some spellings for a test, they would do something like this:
"YAY-PEEPEE-EL-EE AP-PLE
BEE-YAYEN-YAYENYAY BA-NA-NA"
For those of you who didn't quite decifer that, "YAY" is their pronounciantion of "A" and the capital letters represent the volume at which said spellings are 'studied'. Of course this method of studying causes some problems. I wish I'd counted the number of times I've seen a child (even a ninth or tenth class student) write 'octomber' or 'wenesday'. So with only a couple of weeks left to teach the children a little something, I've decided to broach the subject of 'UK style studying'. It's been a hard concept for the children to understand and I'm sure the other teachers have been asking lots of questions as to why my students have been yelling "SAC-A-WAC" at the top of their lungs. But slowly my pupils seem to be understanding that the key to learning spellings is not just merely reading the words, but practising and testing themselves on them.
My original explanation of the idea involved Katie Student attempting to spell 'Wednesday' and working through the steps of SACAWAC until she was able to successfully spell the word. For those of you who don't know about SACAWAC or are thinking of teaching it to your class of Indian children, here are the key steps:
1) Spell. This means study, or of course read. For example "DOUBLE EE DEE-YEN EE ES-DEE YAY WHY WEDNESDAY". Over the course of the year I've realised that there are somethings which you just have to accept. I, Katie Teacher, am never going to be able to change a whole schools method of studying, so the key is to adapt it so that it becomes more effective. Indian style studying is the first step to SACAWAC.
2) Cover. This involves a partner or yourself (beware of cheating!) covering the original spelling (and failed attempts). In the case of Katie Student, picture four or five students standing at the blackboard covering her attempts at 'Wednesday'.
3) Write. This one is simple: attempt to write and spell correctly the word.
4) Check. This is by far the most difficult step, for an array of reasons. Firstly, there is the simple fact that all children want to be right all the time. They struggle to understand the concept that I don't mind if they make mistakes, and that mistakes will actually help their learning. Secondly, there is the issue that they fail to notice their mistakes. Is that a big 'W' or a small 'w' Katie Student? And thirdly, children can be quite nifty and secretly correct their mistakes, which is not helpful.
But with the help of Jess sneaking up behind cheating children, we seem to be slowly beginning to master the technique of 'sacawacing' - yes, Jess and I have actually used the word 'sacawacing' - and now when I write words for a spelling test on the board the children all ask me "Ma'am, SACAWAC?" So, to SACAWAC may not be included in the Oxford dictionary, but I can safely say it's there in my internal dictionary, English Sir.
Every hour of every day, Sri Chaitanya is filled with the sound of children studying. And when I say studying, I don't mean revising, or working or anything like that. I mean reading text books and learning them by heart. The verb 'to read' and the verb 'to study' seem to be interchangeable here. For example, if I asked a student to study some spellings for a test, they would do something like this:
"YAY-PEEPEE-EL-EE AP-PLE
BEE-YAYEN-YAYENYAY BA-NA-NA"
For those of you who didn't quite decifer that, "YAY" is their pronounciantion of "A" and the capital letters represent the volume at which said spellings are 'studied'. Of course this method of studying causes some problems. I wish I'd counted the number of times I've seen a child (even a ninth or tenth class student) write 'octomber' or 'wenesday'. So with only a couple of weeks left to teach the children a little something, I've decided to broach the subject of 'UK style studying'. It's been a hard concept for the children to understand and I'm sure the other teachers have been asking lots of questions as to why my students have been yelling "SAC-A-WAC" at the top of their lungs. But slowly my pupils seem to be understanding that the key to learning spellings is not just merely reading the words, but practising and testing themselves on them.
My original explanation of the idea involved Katie Student attempting to spell 'Wednesday' and working through the steps of SACAWAC until she was able to successfully spell the word. For those of you who don't know about SACAWAC or are thinking of teaching it to your class of Indian children, here are the key steps:
1) Spell. This means study, or of course read. For example "DOUBLE EE DEE-YEN EE ES-DEE YAY WHY WEDNESDAY". Over the course of the year I've realised that there are somethings which you just have to accept. I, Katie Teacher, am never going to be able to change a whole schools method of studying, so the key is to adapt it so that it becomes more effective. Indian style studying is the first step to SACAWAC.
2) Cover. This involves a partner or yourself (beware of cheating!) covering the original spelling (and failed attempts). In the case of Katie Student, picture four or five students standing at the blackboard covering her attempts at 'Wednesday'.
3) Write. This one is simple: attempt to write and spell correctly the word.
4) Check. This is by far the most difficult step, for an array of reasons. Firstly, there is the simple fact that all children want to be right all the time. They struggle to understand the concept that I don't mind if they make mistakes, and that mistakes will actually help their learning. Secondly, there is the issue that they fail to notice their mistakes. Is that a big 'W' or a small 'w' Katie Student? And thirdly, children can be quite nifty and secretly correct their mistakes, which is not helpful.
But with the help of Jess sneaking up behind cheating children, we seem to be slowly beginning to master the technique of 'sacawacing' - yes, Jess and I have actually used the word 'sacawacing' - and now when I write words for a spelling test on the board the children all ask me "Ma'am, SACAWAC?" So, to SACAWAC may not be included in the Oxford dictionary, but I can safely say it's there in my internal dictionary, English Sir.
Big thanks to Mrs Palin for teaching me to SACAWAC in Year 3!
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