Affective teaching scenes: Every child is special

One more movie in our blog!

I believe not everybody has seen the beautiful Indian movie "Taare Zameen Par", which has been given the English name "Every Child is Special". The movie is about Ishaan, a boy with dislexia, who has been sent to a boarding school, because his family believes that he is just too lazy. There he meets Ram, a very special Art teacher, who changes the path of his life.

Let's check some affective teaching scenes from "Taare Zameen Par"!




Here we see Ishaan in one of his art classes at his new boarding school. His teacher Ram noticed that Ishaan is a student with dyslexia after having seen his notebooks and talked to his family. He then prepared this pedagogical intervention with the whole group to foster.

Ram involves his class by telling a very well crafted story, full of rhymes, humour, and surprise, in which he presented the difficulties some students had while reading and writing. To the surprise of students, he revealed that these struggling students were Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, and Picasso, among others. By involving students in his narrative, Ram dismantled the mental concept that struggling students are helpless and doomed in life. Quite on the contrary, the teacher emphasized that their schools were limited and that they could not see how these gifted students could see the world differently. He also explicitly taught the values of  perseverence and resilience when he emphasizing that there was not only inspiration, but mainly a lot of transpiration involved in reaching success.

The answer for the last question you will see in the next segment.
I swear I didn't do it on purpose, it is just how I was able to import the video.
Well, a little suspense is always good!



Well, you probably knew his teacher Ram would say he had dislexya too, didn't you? This moment of disclosure is a beautiful one, mainly because the teacher gains rapport by verbalizing what his father thought of him.  

Ram then allows Ishaan to have success by offering an outdoor activity in which he could use his spatial and creative skills. 



It continues in the next one...



In this classic teacher movie sequence, we have Ishaan gaining self-esteem and progressing due to the work of Ram. Ram used a sensorial diversified approach that made reading and writing active and concrete by the use of writing sand, clay, chalk, touch, and movement.

As one commom comorbity of dyslexia is ADHD, Ram provided headphones and electronic games for Ishaan to concentrate himself. Ishaan had the double task of learning to read and write in both Hindi and English, with their two very different alphabets!

The scene in which both are admiring Van Gogh's painting is priceless. Both admire each other so much!

Hope you have enjoyed this one. Soon we will have more affective teaching movie scenes.
Let me know if you would like me to analyze a special movie!

Send you a big frog-hug,

Juan

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Check also the affective teaching scenes of Mr. Holland with Gertrude.

Affective teaching scenes: Holland's Opus - Russ

It's a great pleasure to return to Mr. Holland's Opus to analyze more affective teaching scenes. In this post I will comment on Mr. Holland's work with Russ. Mr. Holland is a teacher who is discovering how to become an affective (and effective) teacher. Russ is a student who needs to join the marching band to continue playing football for his high school.



At first, we can see that Mr. Holland doesn't really know where we to start and makes some remarks with implicit content that does not welcome the student. These are "Do not apologize, you haven't done anything yet." and "Do you know how to read music, even a little?". Implicit in these words are the ideas that the student will have to apologize in the future and that everybody should know even a little of music reading. These remarks certainly do not convey the idea of success and support that students should receive at the beginning of a course.

Then, Mr. Holland gives Russ choice about which instrument he would like to play, which allows the student to gain some control over his learning.  When Russ answers electric guitar he uses humour, which is a powerful rapport builder. He then makes suggestions that eventually touch Russ with great excitement.





Here we see Russ struggling to find the beat in class. Mr. Holland singles him out impatiently and that makes him exposed in front of the group. Being aware of Russ emotions and realizing what he has done, Mr. Holland tries to fix it with humour by mentioning that other people are also having a hard time. To create an even lighter environment he uses humour again with the spit valve issue.

When Russ suggests that he will quit, Mr. Holland shows faith in Russ's success by cutting him short and saying that he knows that Russ will work hard. He chose to do it sharply, but maybe acknowledging Russ's feelings and sharing stories of other students' initial struggles could be an alternative way to address the issue.




Continuing the individual work, Mr. Holland incorporates movement, modelling, touching, and the use of a mock drum to prepare Russ for success with the real drums. Mr. Holland uses these actions in a very lighthearted way, conveying that he knows that Russ will eventually get it. He was also daring and creative to beat  Russ' helmet for him to have the rhythm in his head!


Mr. Holland "surpraises" Russ when he stops the rehearsal and validates all the effort Russ has put into learning in a public way. The smile on Russ' face is beautiful, showing how this dedicated work has increased his self-esteem. Mr. Holland's look also shows pride on Russ' achievement. It's such a beautiful scene! Pure joy of learning!





Here we can see students showcasing their final product to the community. The marching band allows families to see their children succeeding in new social roles. The support of other teachers and teachers' family members makes this event a true communion. The look on Russ and his father of pride is just something out of this world!

It was a real treat to share these affective teaching scenes with you!
Do you have movies you'd like me to write about? I'd love to hear from you.

A big frug,

Juan

Check also the affective teaching scenes of Mr. Holland with Gertrude.

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Affective teaching movie scenes: Seven years in Tibet

A great way to clarify concepts is through movie scenes, because we can fully feel and understand teaching situations through the teacher and student perspectives. I enjoy very much using teacher movies to promote dialogue with educators at school.

Today we will analyze the teaching scenes from the movie “Seven Years in Tibet”, which is based on the autobiographical book written by Heinrich Harrer during the years of 1944 and 1951, when he accidentally became the Dalai Lama’s teacher.

The following affective teaching lessons can be learned from these inspiring scenes:

Right in the beginning Heinrich found himself in a totally new environment with new rules and procedures. By being respectful and curious he also became a learner and allowed the Dalai Lama to teach him about the Tibetan culture. In affective learning both student and teacher are constantly energized by joyful learning. Heinrich later showed his appreciation by sharing his remarkable experience in his book.

Heinrich used the pedagogy of questions, when he explored the Dalai Lama’s interests as a way of building the curriculum. Instead of choosing the content and demanding answers, he answered to a real learning demand from the student. Teachers can use students’ interest and knowledge as starting points and from there explore related subjects. One fantastic exchange that shows the pedagogy of questions is when the Dalai Lama says “Tell me more” and Heinrich answers with “What else do you want to know?”.  

Moving geography, car mock driving, interacting with a globe by the river and having an assistant while fixing a radio were strategies used to make learning multidimensional. We can see that Heinrich valued the learning by doing, instead of learning by knowing. Teachers can create powerful engaging learning contexts when they are fully present and notice elements from the environment that can include multiple senses in learning.  This being creative not only fosters better assimilation, but also makes learning and teaching more fun. 

Heinrich and the Dalai Lama were subversive to the establishment when they sat at the same height by the river, as they perceived they would benefit from this forbidden interaction. This happens when teachers risk themselves to educate in “forbidden” ways that are in the best interest of learning.

By the end of the last scene, Heinrich shared about his life, showed himself vulnerable and talked about his son. By using self-disclosure, he showed he valued and trusted his student, and opened space for personal dialogues about learning from life. This practice expands learning boundaries, and frees students and teachers from their established roles. The more we talk about ourselves, the more students will talk about themselves.

A curiosity about this film is that Tibetan scenes were filmed in Argentina. I know because I went to the little city of Uspallata and there lots of pictures of Brad Pitt with locals!

I pictured myself living in Lhasa and teaching the Dalai Lama. Has this happened to you as well? This would certainly be the ultimate teaching experience!

Frog-hug,

Juan

Check also affective teaching scenes from Mr Holland's Opus, where Mr. Holland inspires struggling students in his Music class. 

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Affective teaching movie scene: Mr. Holland's Opus

A great way to clarify concepts is through movie scenes, because we can fully feel and understand teaching situations through the teacher and student perspectives. I enjoy very much using teacher movies  to promote dialogue with educators at school.

Today I will analyze a part from Mr. Holland’s Opus in which the music teacher Glenn Holland meets with Gertrude Lang, a student who is struggling with the flute. 

The following affective teaching lessons can be learned from these inspiring scenes:

Glen made a diminishing comment when he said "Oh, really" after she told him she had been playing the flute for three years. By making this comment, he conveyed the idea that she didn't have talent for the flute, that she was below his expectations.

Glen volunteered himself to work individually with Gertrude. As a result, Gertrude smiled and was filled with hope and excitement. 

Glen established a dialogue by asking Gertrude if playing the flute was any fun when she was about to leave the room. By making the question he didn’t accept her quitting, valued her thoughts and in a subtle way invited her to think together with him about a solution.

He then admitted his mea culpa in the approach he used to teach her, telling her that his conception of education was wrong, that it wasn’t significant to her as a learner because it emphasized more notes on a page than the enjoyment of making music. This attitude was very important, once it relieved Gertrude of her feelings of despair and incompetence. He placed himself as co-responsible on her progress. 

Glen showed confidence in her playing when he took the song sheet and challenged her to play without it. He was calm when she could not at first, and just asked her to try it again without any judgement.

Glen connected the appreciation of her father to her playing, when he told her to play the sunset. That certainly promoted her well being and confidence in her playing and I consider it very appropriate, specially because she had previously mentioned that she wanted to be valued by her family.  

Last, he showed pride and admiration of their work together by the way he laughed, looked and asked her to continue playing. They were doing what he had missed at first, which was to feel alive playing music, having fun.   

The scene at the end of the movie is a very surprising one, as Gertrude appears as an adult and talks about Glen’s influence on her life. Do watch the movie and separate a box of tissues. 

As teachers we are always projecting reflections of how we see students, which strongly influence children in the development of their self-image. In this movie Glen made a fictional difference, we can make a real one.

Big frug (frog-hug),

Juan


Check also the selected affective teaching scenes from Seven Years in Tibet with Brad Pitt. The student? Nobody less than the Dalai Lama!


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