Teaching Successfully: - a learning experience

By Carlos A. Arnaldo
Manila
August 16, 2015



But you can also make multiple choice questions tricky, this makes the students think before ticking off their replies. For example, T/F Jose Rizal was an illustrado and a peninsulares. False. Rizal was certainly an illustrado but not Spanish,  as peninsulares was the label for Spaniards at that time, paene insula (an almost island) meaning peninsula, the Iberian peninsula or Spain!

But essay questions bring out so much more. In my midterm exams on the Life and Works of Jose Rizal, we used the book of Leon Maria Guerrero, The First Filipino. So my first question was, who was the first Filipino and why? I got two surprising responses.

The first was Doña Teodora Alonzo, Pepe’s mother, for if she didn’t teach him his alphabet and how to read, understand and write Spanish poetry, who would write the Noli Me Tangere?

The second was Paciano Rizal, for he witnessed the garroting of Fr Burgos of the GOMBURZA trio, he studied with Fr Burgos at UST and San Jose Seminary and was kicked out of UST for his friendship with Burgos. He encouraged Rizal to write revolutionary essays in Solidaridad, and create the Noli as his master work. After Rizal’s death, Paciano as Brigadier General led the guerrillas in the ensuing revolution.

Though not the expected answer, I not only accepted these replies but gave double credit for original thinking!

Like Ms Remia, I also believe in encouraging students to improved self-expression. Once I had a Korean boy in class who could barely speak English. He was part of a small group that had to present their work in front of a class of 50. He read poorly from a paper, stuttering, bumbling words and repeating. My co-teacher scolded him in front of everyone for such a shabby performance. But I pulled her aside and said, “Ma’am, this fellow can barely speak English, these are the first words he has uttered in English to his class. I can give him a low grade for performance, but I think I should give him a high grade for trying to express himself!”

I asked my star pupil, who later wrote Philippine History for High Schools, and served as Vice Chancellor  of a major university, ‘Paul, did you learn anything in my class?”

He thought a while, shook his head, and said, “No, I can’t remember a thing!” I felt I was dropping fifty stories in a high speed elevator.  “ . . .  But, oh yes, you did teach us how to think and make decisions on our own.”

That’s learning!