Told You So

I did a peer review activity with my beginning reading/writing class today, wherein they were supposed to read each other's paragraphs about a famous landmark in their country and offer advice on how to improve. I gave them very specific questions to ask about the paragraphs, so they wouldn't get confused. Most of them finished earlier than I expected and then just sat around looking sleepy, but two of them, a Asian woman and a Middle-Eastern man, got into a hardcore grammar/spelling debate. It was awesome. It went kind of like this:

Asian woman: No, you can say, "There are a lot of buildings in there." You remember "there? Say "in there."

Middle-Eastern man: No, I think just "there."

Asian woman: No, is "in there." I know.

Middle-Eastern man (conceding to the better student): Okay.

Me: Actually, he's right. It's just "there."

Asian woman: Ohhhh...

Middle-Eastern man: What I say?!? Ha!

And later...

Middle-Eastern man: Teacher! Look. I write new sentence on new line (points) or same line?

Asian woman: Same line!

Me: She's right. Same line.

Asian woman: I win!

Middle-Eastern man: Curses! Foiled again! (Not really - he said something like "Aargh!")

It cracked me up that they were so into the activity, and obviously having a good time being competitive about it. That's one of my favorite things about my job: getting to see students from totally different backgrounds helping each other learn. I love being a teacher!