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.