Man man man, shit shit shit

So, we were watching Nickelodeon's "Fresh Beat Band" in class this week, and some of the lines of dialogue included the phrase "I bet...will happen", so I decided to do a mini-lesson on that. I found this game and decided that I'd give the students gummy bears so they could bet on the winner and understand what 'betting' really meant, and why we use it as a way to say we think something will happen.

My 5th graders had fun with it, but then when it came time for the 6th graders to take a stab at it, things were a little different. We all put one gummy bear in the pot, and said our bets, and then they were off: Ali's green took the early lead, but eventually Momoka's yellow won out.

Next thing I know, Ali's jumping around the room, yelling "Shit shit shit man!"

I was about to yell at him, but my instinct kicked in and I just calmly told him to sit down and not to say that. I don't think he heard or understood me, because after the next round of betting, his horse lost again and he went off on another rant of 'shits', with a couple 'mans' thrown in for good measure. Again, I admonished him to not say that word, and we went on with the game.

This happened once or twice more, but by then I realized what was going on: he had absolutely no clue what he was saying.

You see, if there's one thing I've realized about Ali, it's that he's one of the best auditory learners I've met in a while. He picks up on everything that people around him are saying, and incorporates it into his speech patterns. Not that it's necessarily always correct, as in the case of his desire to tack on 'man' at the end of every sentence ("What are we doing man?" "You going eat lunch man?" "You come eat lunch man." "I don like library man, I not going.")

So, at the end of the class I pulled him aside and wrote this on a piece of paper:

Don't say these words:
1. Shit
2. Ass
3. Bitch
4. Fuck

It might seem a bit much to be providing him with those words, but I can honestly relate to the situation he's in. When I was in 7th grade, I was put into public school for the first time, and even though I spoke English fine, I had no clue about all the bad words and dirty words. I remember kids making fun of me cause I had to ask what those words were, and I remember at least once or twice getting reprimanded by teachers because I'd inadvertently used a bad word in a project. I just didn't want him being as in the dark as I was.

When I gave him the paper and told him what 'shit' actually meant, he looked at me and said 'Sorry man, sorry" and I knew he was serious. He picked up the piece of paper and said, 'Thanks man'.

I'm just happy I didn't make a big deal out of it to begin with and yell at him. There are few things I dislike more than making a student feel bad about something that's not their fault.