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Teacher Spotlights: Opal Broussard, Anderson Middle School, Iberia Parish
Opal Broussard is fired up about folklife and the possibilities it offers her in helping students develop as readers and writers. This fall, she started off her year with the "name game" activity (Unit III, Lesson 3, Naming Traditions). Ms. Broussard shared her process and student writing products during a recent Louisiana Voices workshop for Iberia Parish middle and high school English and Social Studies teachers. "I used the activity called, What's In A Name?, at the beginning of the year so my students and I could introduce ourselves to each other. First, I put my full name on the board and asked them to tell about me based on what they saw. They told me I was married, that I had a Saint name,... Then I told them about myself. I modeled the writing assignment on the board, writing about how I got my name. They were very amused to find out that my father named me after someone who he thought was the most beautiful woman in the world, and it was not my mother. After that, I asked them to tell me what they knew about their names. Then, they went home and asked their parents about how they were named. The students came back and wrote about how they got their names. One of the most touching stories was by a girl named Christin..." Christin LeJeune I always asked my mom why she named me Christin, spelled that way. My mom said that she was going to name me Christin with a "K." She said she got my name out of a baby book. When she was going to have me, they passed by a church, and my aunt said, "Name her Christin with a C." My mom said, "Oh, ya, Cristin, spelled C-r-i-s-t-i-n." "No, no," said my aunt. "Christin, with Christ in it." My mom liked that idea, and that is how I got my name I have trouble with my name because when people see it on paper, they say Christan, or Christen. They forget my name, spell it wrong, and say it wrong. In a way, I love my name because it has Christ in it, and I feel very blessed to have Christ in it.
Bounpheng Saphamixay When I was a kid I would always ask my mom why she name me Bounpheng. I wondered why she didn't name me like my sister. People always said my name wrong. My sister's name is Khamsaeng. That sounds better than mine. I hated my name. When I came to America and started a new school, people were always laughing when the teacher tried to say my name. It sounded weird Sometimes people write my name wrong. I hate that. Sometimes people call me Bounpickle because I like to eat pickles. But I don't even care about it. They call me bad names; I call them back. That's why I always got in trouble. Then I grew up. I started to like my name because I heard of some people's names just like mine.
After this writing activity, Ms. Broussard's class looked at games of the past, using Unit IIIV: The Worlds of Work and Play. After comparing their own games with those of Ms. Broussard, students found many commonalities. Ms. Broussard extended the lesson to include a WebQuest on international game sites. The students compared and contrasted games, found instructions, read them, and played the games. In this way, they used reading comprehension and applied what they learned. The game activity brought them to investigating international countries. After more research, students created a poster with the information they found on the countries, correlating Social Studies with English Language Arts. Finally, students predicted their work of the future. Using the writing process, they wrote letters to Mr. Gray (principal), telling him their goals. Opal Broussard pulled lessons and resources from the Louisiana Voices website and extended them to their natural end in her English Language Arts classroom. She found that her students connected personally to Louisiana Voices activities. Louisiana Voices helped Ms. Broussard reach her teaching goals: to get to know her students and to get her students investigating and writing at the beginning of the school year. Since her first Louisiana Voices' Standards-Based workshop, Opal Broussard has become a lead teacher in Iberia Parish in the application of folklife lessons and skills in the classroom. Congratulations, Opal! Previous Teacher Spotlight Back to Teacher Spotlights main page |
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Opal Broussard first came in contact with Louisiana Voices at a SAGE (Supporting Academic Growth of Educators) workshop during summer 2001. Ms. Broussard is the curriculum coordinator at Anderson Middle School in Iberia Parish and teaches 7th grade On-level English Language Arts students. In Iberia Parish, folklife in education has become a priority for English Language Arts and Social Studies thanks to the interest and work of Ron Cormier, Kim Cormier and many Iberia Parish teachers.
