Learning To Talk

We learn to talk as babies by listening to the talk around us.  It takes us a while (8-9 months) to make reciprocal sounds with any significant meaning.  It then takes another two years before we are close enough to fluent to make ourselves understood to those who do not know us and/or share enough of our experiences and mannerisms to know what we are saying.  Then it is another 3 years before we are truly fluent in our language.  If a child is exposed to multiple languages at a very early age (infancy) they will often not speak until later, though, they are often more effective speakers earlier, in multiple languages.  There is, however a phase, where they briefly are VERY difficult to understand while they separate the different languages.

The point of all this is that as I am watching my students learn, this process is a lot like talking to babies.  They understand, they make the leap, but they are only sporadically expressing themselves and their thoughts meaningfully.  I keep waiting for the great flip of the switch when the fluency will come.  We are about halfway through.  If this is working (and I believe it is) it should be soon. 

We are reading/watching/discussing Romeo and Juliet right now.  First we critically read the entire play.  We watch the "Old" Zeffirelli version tomorrow.  Then we watch the "New" 1996 version staring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.  The students are comparing the three pieces, examining intent, interpretation and meaning. 

Next week we begin Poetry, followed by The Odyssey.  These will be facilitated by Season 2 of Supernatural.  In My Time of Dying (Season 2, Episode 1) will be connected to Emily Dickinson's poetry, specifically the one that begins, "Because I could not stop for death, it kindly stopped for me."  The episode will also be used to review film methods (as this episodes was one of Kim Manners finest, IMO) and discuss metaphor (the Impala as Dean, etc).

The kids are eager to get back to watching episodes.  Some have even confessed to me that they couldn't wait and "cheated" by watching it on iTunes...  Then they explained that they can see now that they were right that John was a Sage Archetype because....  Their babbling made sense for a minute....  

I continue to sit, listen, grade papers and teach (not always in that order) and wait for the onset of fluency.