Community Service : Human Castles in English Class

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Human Castles in English Class

Our HUMAN CASTLE completely assembled: a Five (number of members locking arms at the base) of Two (number of levels), the rest of the class made the BULK.

Wearing the traditional sash

Our RISERS getting into position

Another band of Human Castle builders studing their position.

It started as 3 of 2

But ended up as a 4 of 2 with a huge BULK of twelve or fouteen.

DISMANTLING our human castle.

This bodily-kinesthetic activity -in terms of Multiple Intelligences theory- was meant to fulfill a number of purposes:

Illustrating the point that English Language is not only useful for education, travelling and business but also to share our unique and bizarre traditions with the world, and the fact that castells were declared by UNESCO to be amongst the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity last year.

Not just learning new vocabulary -sash, riser, rider, bulk, etc...- but also linking these foreign words with the emotional content of our own traditions in an attempt to expect a better assimilation of the new code.

Provoking real emotions of surprise, hesitation, fear, interest,challenge, enthusiasm and satisfaction to express one's feelings with the right language and idomatic expressions -which is an important part of the syllabus.

And of course, bringing the group together in a collective feat which might unconsciously apply to our goal: making an effort to learn a foreign language; then again, adding a little bit of variety and fun to our classes.

We guys at the base only carried over one person on our shoulders and we agreed it was quite an effort already, so we just could imagine the tremendous strain of holding six, seven or eight people on top!!