Dynamisms

We're in the midst of state mandated ESL testing at work, not usually the most entertaining few weeks of the year. Dynamo's done a pretty good job at entertaining me though, despite the tedium of reading "when you get to the stop sign, remember, put your hand on the stop sign, put your pencil down, and look at me. You may begin" ad nauseam. He raised his hand half way through the test and when I called on him he said, "You are talking like a computer." He was right. There's something about reading test administration manuals aloud that makes you sound like a recording. Try it sometime.

The listening test narrates a sequence of events and then asks the children to choose the pictures that are in the same order. Yesterday Dynamo finished his writing assignment early, so I told him to draw a picture of his story on the back. When I came back to his seat, I saw a picture of children throwing snowballs with an arrow pointing to children building a snow fort. Underneath it were the same 2 pictures, but in reverse. Each had a bubble to fill in next to it. He had a second set too, of kids watching tv and drinking hot cocoa. "Look" He said. "You have to pick which one it is". I turned over his paper, read his story, and filled in the bubble next to the right order for each of his questions. Too cute.