Admittedly late to the party, we have started pandemic-watching The Mandalorian, and yes, I totally see what all the baby Yoda fuss is about. There was an even more memorable moment in the first episode for me, though.
In our school district we have a lot of students who are English Language Learners. These kids have the formidable task of learning both a second language and the curriculum content at the same time. As their teacher, I have been to lots of training sessions that provide strategies to help me help those learners.
When it comes to training, teachers can be a pretty tough audience. We expect you to engage us, but please! No cutesy icebreakers or trite introductions. We do appreciate a good empathy activity, though. If you can give us just a sliver of what our kids might be struggling with, you have a captive audience.
And that's where The Mandalorian comes in. (Did you think I'd forgotten?) The show takes place in the Star Wars universe, a place I'm somewhat familiar with, but not a native by any means. Since it was a first episode, I expected to have to pay attention and learn my way; I know how important exposition is, and I was following right along until this bit of dialogue:
"A pauldron would be in order. Is your signet revealed? This is extremely generous. It will spawn many foundlings."
Uhhh
I know 18 out of 19 of the words in those sentences, but I'm not sure if 3 of them (signet, spawn, and foundlings) are being used with a meaning that I am familiar with. As for pauldron? No idea. And I couldn't figure it out from either the language context or the action context.
In short? I was lost.
But I did what most kids do in the same situation. I decided it wasn't that important right then and kept watching.
I just hope it's not on the test!
In our school district we have a lot of students who are English Language Learners. These kids have the formidable task of learning both a second language and the curriculum content at the same time. As their teacher, I have been to lots of training sessions that provide strategies to help me help those learners.
When it comes to training, teachers can be a pretty tough audience. We expect you to engage us, but please! No cutesy icebreakers or trite introductions. We do appreciate a good empathy activity, though. If you can give us just a sliver of what our kids might be struggling with, you have a captive audience.
And that's where The Mandalorian comes in. (Did you think I'd forgotten?) The show takes place in the Star Wars universe, a place I'm somewhat familiar with, but not a native by any means. Since it was a first episode, I expected to have to pay attention and learn my way; I know how important exposition is, and I was following right along until this bit of dialogue:
"A pauldron would be in order. Is your signet revealed? This is extremely generous. It will spawn many foundlings."
Uhhh
I know 18 out of 19 of the words in those sentences, but I'm not sure if 3 of them (signet, spawn, and foundlings) are being used with a meaning that I am familiar with. As for pauldron? No idea. And I couldn't figure it out from either the language context or the action context.
In short? I was lost.
But I did what most kids do in the same situation. I decided it wasn't that important right then and kept watching.
I just hope it's not on the test!
Does reading this count as training hours?
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