21st Century Skill Number 1:
Building Self-esteem
Filmscript: Kes, directed by Ken Loach.
QUESTIONS
-What are some self-esteem moments in the lesson? Do they raise or lower self-esteem? -What qualities for building self-esteem does the teacher display?
-What advice/tips would you give the teacher, drawing on your own experience?
T: Things that have actually happened. How about another one? What about you, Casper? Casper!
B: What. sir?
T: What, sir! You’d know if you’d been listening. What have we just been talking about?
B: Stories, sir.
T: What kind of stories? You haven’t been listening to a word I’ve said, have you?
B: Yes, sir, some of it.
T: Some of it! Stand up! Right. You’re going to tell us a story about yourself.
B: I don’t know any, sir.
T: You don’t know any? Well you’ll stand there till you do. Always somebody, isn’t there, eh? Somebody who wants to be awkward and just won’t be interested, doesn’t matter what you do, just like you, Casper. Come on, I’ll give you two minutes, two minutes to think of something or the whole class will (stay behind at 4)
P: Come on, Casper, don’t stand there like a nail.
P: He is a nail.
P: Come on, that’s it, come on…
P: Tell them about the hawk, Casper…
T: If anyone calls out again it’ll be the last call they make (nominates pupil)
P: He’s got this hawk, sir, and he goes made over it, he never knocks about with anybody else, he just goes with hawk, all the time, he’s crackers over it.
B: Better than thee, anyroad.
T: Alright, Casper. Sit down. Now, come on, tell us about this hawk. Where did you get it from?
B: I found it.
T: Where.
B: At woods.
T: Where do you keep it?
B: In the shed.
T: What do you feed it on?
B: Beef, mice, birds.
T: Isn’t it cruel to keep it in the shed I mean, wouldn’t it be happier flying free?
B: I don’t keep it in the shed all the time; I fly it everyday
T: Doesn’t it fly away? I thought they were wild birds.
B: Course it don’t, fly away, sir. I’ve trained it.
T: Well, are you going to tell us about it; how do you train a hawk, then?
B: You have to be right careful, with them, sir, right patient; you’ve got to feed them when they’re hungry, sir, only do owt when they’re at feeding time, like, sir.
T: Yeah.
B: They’ve got these jesses on, sir, all the time.
T: These what?
B: Jesses, sir.
T: How do you spell that?
B: J…E…
T: Alright, come on and show us on the board. Jesses. That’s a new word to me. Hands up those who’ve heard of jesses before. Nobody. Go on. Write it up, then. Right, now tell us what it is.
B: Well, they’re leather straps, sir, and they’re attached to its feet and, say, I’ve got the bird on my hand, the straps go down there and the swivel…
T: Swivel. Write that down on the board.
B: Then you’ve got your leash
T: Leash, on the board.
B: I fit it on my hand, first, then when it got to know me I fit it on my glove and after a while it two inches away from its claws and er like that like it started to jump for meat when it started to jump I could move my hand away
T: Hold your hand up so we can see
B: I could move my hand away like to four inches and six inches and when it were doing that I started doing it with leash
P: Do they need water like, you know, when you’ve got a budgie and you put water in the budgie’s cage, do they need water like that?
B: Well, it has a bath, it has a bath right early on in morning like
P: When do you feed it, how many times a day?
B: To start off with 3-4 times, you know, to get it plump
T: You make it all sound very exciting, Billy.
B: It is, sir, but most exciting thing were when I flew her free for the first time, sir
T: Do you want to hear about that?
Class: Yes, sir
T: Right come on…
(Boy talks for 2 minutes non-stop, ends with a round of applause from class)
Reading
Andres, de V and J. Arnold. 2009. Seeds of Confidence. Helbling.
Arnold, J. 1999. Affect in Language Learning. CUP.
Branden, N. 1987. How to raise your self-esteem. Bantam.
Mosley, J. and H. Sonnet. 2002. 101 Games for Self-esteem. LDA,
Mruk, C. 1999. Self-esteem: research, theory and practice. Free Association Books.
Prodromou, L and L. Clandfield. 2007. Dealing with Difficulties. Delta.
Vygotsky, L. 1978. Mind in Society. Harvard University Press.
Luke Prodromou is a freelance teacher, teacher-trainer and materials writer.
Luke is the co-author of Dealing with Difficulties (Winner of the Ben Warren Prize). He graduated from Bristol University in English and has an MA in Shakespeare Studies (Birmingham University) a Diploma in TEFL (Leeds University) and a Ph.D (Nottingham University). His wroteEnglish as a Lingua Franca, (2010). He is one half of the Dave’n’Luke English Language Theatre group and a member of the Disabled Access-Friendly campaign.. His latest coursebook is Flash on (ELI).
Self-esteem