May 10, 2018 Teaching at Maranyundo

Teaching at the Maranyundo Girls School is something I have always wanted to do. From the first time I walked on the campus and felt the energy generated around learning and the commitment to teaching Rwandan girls under the guide of Respect, Responsibility and Leadership, I wanted to have a chance be a teacher there. Today I had my chance.

I am teaching what Dean Christian calls a “3- Day Mini Course” loosely modeled on the Novel Engineering Program developed at the Center for Engineering Education Outreach (CEEO) at Tufts. This is the brief description I used to explain what the mini course would include:

In Novel Engineering, students learn how to read stories, novels, and other texts as the basis for identifying engineering design challenges. After identifying challenges, students can design realistic solutions and engage in the Engineering Design Process while also strengthening their literacy skills.

This is what students will do in the Novel Engineering Mini Course:

1. Through discussion and attentive reading, students will read a book and identify challenges that the characters face.
2. Students will think about the needs of the story’s character and the situation created by the story as they think about possible solutions.
3. Students can work in pairs or small groups to design a model that helps the character do what needs to be accomplished.

The Dean recruited students and scheduled my course to run on Thursday, Monday and Tuesday. Eighteen girls from across the grades “enrolled” and we met in one of the new classrooms in the S6 Building. I had chosen the novel, A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. I gave them a new copy of the text as my students entered the class. (There is something about holding a book that is still firm in its binding, that has not been opened yet, that brings smiles and appreciation to the faces of devoted readers.)

The Dean and I had talked at length about my lesson plan. In an effort to promote “attentive reading” and critical thinking, I decided to spend time introducing the elements of a book that are often overlooked. I wanted them to look closely at the cover, the Frontispiece, and the Map of Sudan 1985 that launches the reader into the setting before the first chapter unfolds. I wanted them to know that before they even begin reading, they can enter a novel or any text as an informed reader already curious and interested in what the author and her publisher want readers to know at the outset of their reading.

Shy and quiet at first,  the students carefully focused on their pair-share conversations What information can you gain from the cover design? What information can one gain from “reading a map” of the novel’s setting? How does the Frontispiece summarize the story about to begin? Then together we read some of the first chapter, pausing after paragraphs that shared compelling information about the challenges the main characters face about which I will ask them to think “engineering” solutions. I loved hearing their voices as they volunteered to read passages. They read with expression, enjoying the way the words joined together to create images and ideas to ponder. 

Before the class ended, I asked them for feedback on the lesson. At first they seemed unsure about to give feedback to the teacher…but after the first two comments included “I liked learning that the cover and the Frontispiece me know the story I will read’ and I like to hear my classmates reading; we should do more of that.” Almost every student chimed in with their ideas.  I am very eager for Monday! Teaching at Maranyundo Girls School was all I ever imagined it would be.