VIEWS FROM THE CLASSROOM: Caitlyn Ford (RU - Elementary Education)

Last year, the students from Radford introduced morning meetings to the teachers and students of Malemia Primary, and today we reintroduced morning meetings. Morning meetings have four important parts that make it a success: Greeting, Sharing, a Group activity, and News, Announcements, and Calendar time. In all honesty, I was extremely nervous that my planned morning meeting for standard two was going to be a complete disaster, especially with introducing the Language Experience Approach (LEA). LEA is crucial for second-language learners, because it allows students to express their ideas in one language and see the translation simultaneously. The sharing part of my morning meeting revolved around LEA, and it was beyond successful. The students were interested in teaching me about the kinds of foods that they eat in Malawi, raising their hands eagerly and yelling, “Teach” aloud to get my attention. I was so excited, and my cooperating teacher was more than willing to translate the students’ English into Chichewa. It was like a light bulb went off in some of the students’ brains when they were able to see the English sentence with its Chichewa translation. I will never forget the feeling of pure joy that I felt today; I was thrilled to not only see my class’ enthusiasm, but to also see my class grasp the content quickly. My favorite moment from today actually happened after school. As we were walking down the dirt road towards the Demonstration School, some of my standard 2 students yelled out, “Cait, what kinds of fruit do you eat?” The students remembered that they taught me about the kinds of food they eat, and they were now ready for me to tell them about the types of food I eat. I think my heart melted. Again, this feeling of joy rushed over me because my students really did enjoy my morning meeting, because it was meaningful to them.             After witnessing the effects of LEA today, it makes me wonder if teachers in Malawi would implement LEA in their classrooms if they were taught its components properly. I really do believe that the children would learn English much easier if they were presented with English and Chichewa simultaneously. I just wonder how much effort it would take to encourage and show teachers how to incorporate LEA into their classes. Would LEA make a profound impact on the students in Malawi?             My experience today will definitely make me a stronger teacher. My professors always stress the importance of gearing the curriculum towards the students’ interests. My “sharing” aspect of morning meeting showed me how much interaction and eagerness you can evoke from students if the material captures their attention instantly; my experience today put my professors’ advice into reality. The students loved the idea of teaching me about the foods they eat, and this simple aspect of the morning meeting definitely opened my eyes as a future teacher.