Koffee & Kpop

“Look around you.”

Twice a week, my students have a vocabulary test. We don’t study it together, but I give stamps for perfect scores they bring to me the next class, so I know who is good at memorizing vocabulary and who struggles.

Sometimes if we have a couple minutes left until the bell, I’ll let them cram for their test. We had a few minutes longer today, so I told them that they could study vocabulary–but we would be studying it together.

I asked to see a vocabulary book and told everyone else to put theirs away as I explained the rules. Since part of their test involved spelling the English word, I’d go around the room and ask each student to spell a word. If they got it correct, they’d stand. If they got it wrong, they’d sit. (I should note here that currently, none of my students have mobility issues and if they did, I would have modified the activity.)

The responses were mixed. Some students were ready for the challenge. Others sighed.

I explained further that to make it fair, I would set a pattern and follow it.

Unit 8. From the bottom up, every other word.

“Me first!” cried a student in the back. He stood up quite easily. The next student, who was being considered to be leveled up to the next class, also stood.

The third student looked at me with a wary look but as he spelled the final two letters in rapid-fire succession, a smile broke out on his face. Stand up.

The fifth student is more interested in playing video games and learning Mandarin from playing against Chinese gamers than English. I could tell he thought he would break the combo but his classmate gave him a high-five when I told him to stand.

The tenth, and final, student locked eyes with me as I approached him, vocabulary book in hand. He’s fallen asleep in class before. He scrawls in his notebooks and groans when I make him erase his horrible handwriting.

He blurted out the spelling, but softly. I asked him to spell it again, so he did it a little louder. As he reached the last letter, I ushered him to stand up.

Moving back to the center of the room, I turned to look at my students.

“Look around you. Everyone is standing.”

There was a stunned second of silence until someone cheered. I started clapping and they joined in.

They wanted to do a second round, so I did unit 7, from the top down, every other word. And just like the previous round, at the end everyone was standing, even if a student or two had to self-correct or look at me to mouth a letter to them.

You might think that now I’ll explain that they all aced their vocabulary test and I have to make good on my promise to buy them snacks.

That isn’t how life works.

I’m sure some will ace the test, but others will struggle just the same.

To be honest, I couldn’t care less about their vocabulary test scores. I saw how the student who fell asleep looked at me and said goodbye, bowing his head slightly. I’ve never been acknowledged before.

I want them to remember standing. All of them.

Life will never stop pushing you down. The trials and tribulations never end, even if the academy vocabulary tests do.

You’ve stood before. You will stand again.

Remember standing.