Beware of the Nigerians

I have been teaching about Invertebrates this week and that included jellyfish and sea anemones.  The animal family they belong to is the “Cnidarians” (a silent “C”).   The first time I heard a student say this I heard “Nigerians” and I’m like “What do they have to do with jellyfish?”  I got a kick out of the wordplay (Nigerians - Nigh dare e ans) so I thought I would use it in a review at the beginning of the next lesson.  I wrote up a whole bunch of words and morphemes on the WB so that I could use non-verbal cues to get the students to ask each other questions.  One of these words was “Nigerians?”. 

My A level students came in…..

T: S1 please ask S14 What are …..(pointing to the word). (S14 was a little confused but proceeded to answer the question) 

S1: What are Nigerians?

S14: “They are jellyfish and sea anemones” 

T: (making a game show buzzer noise) “ahhhhhh” Thanks for playing

Ss: ahhahahahhaha

T: Does anyone know what Nigerians are?

S7: People from Nigeria???

T: That’s right, (pointing to the world map in the classroom) and what word should be up on the board?

Ss: Cnidarians

The Ss really got a big laugh out of this, so I repeated this with my B level Ss and I got another big laugh J  

I’m feeling good about myself.  I want to encourage my students with wordplay and I want them to have fun in my class.

I repeated this again with my C level Ss.  I got a laugh but also a few confused looks.

S1: Teacher why did you write that on the WB?

T: because it sounds like “Cnidarians”, and I was testing you to see if you could see the mistake

S1: ohhh  (quizzical look)

I repeated this again with my D level Ss and a few got the joke, but the poor student who tried to answer the question, lost face, and I felt like crap.  I shouldn’t have done it. It wasn’t my intention to embarrass anyone, but that’s what happened. My normally very enthusiastic student, became disappointed and it’s my fault.

I learned a lesson that day. Especially with the lower levels, don’t try to be too clever, just give it to them straight.   So take my advice and “Beware of the Nigerians”.