I made a nun cry the other day. I felt bad. Then I felt an evil flash of vindication for all the times nuns had made me cry as a boy in school. Then I felt bad again.
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“You had a whole week,” I said. “You erase the answers now, or you march upstairs to the bookstore and buy a new workbook.”
“I no have money.”
We were working on the past tense and the correct pronunciation of “ed” endings. At this level, students tend to add an extra syllable to every past-tense verb, saying things liked “pass-id” and “look-kid.” They also have trouble getting out the final D sound on words like “avenged” and “humiliated.” So we go over the rules and run through the exercises. We figure out the right sounds and whether or not the words get an extra syllable. Then we work with flash cards. It becomes a game of sorts. For each word they say correctly they get one point. If they make a mistake I make a loud buzzing sound. If they don’t get it right after two more tries, I pronounce the word for them, going way over the top in emphasizing the final sound: burnDDD, dreamDDD, enjoyDDD. Instruction turns into theater, but they seem to enjoy it–and it helps drive the point home.
“PushDDD,” he said.
