Talking Shit

So I started a new unit with my level 2 students today entitled “Is that your ball?” The picture below is a conversation between a dung beetle and a worm. I always have my students name the animals and take turns reading as them.

So Billy the dung beetle is pushing what the book calls a “ball.” Willy the worm says, “Is that your ball?”

I ask my students: “What is a ball?” I point to the brown circle. They say “No,” and keep repeating this word in Korean to me over and over again.

I have Google Translate on my phone for times when my students are trying to think of a word or tell me something. My students all shouted the word into the translator but it didn’t work so I had one of my students write it in Korean.

And one of my students drew a green pile of poop on the board. Now at this point I laughed to myself. I did not feel like explaining to them: “Yes, this is shit and the book is calling it a ball. No shit isn’t a vocabulary word or a word you should use in school or public. Yes dung beetles do push shit around.” Instead I told them it was “mud” and skipped the whole dung part of the beetle.

drawing of poop

I translated “mud” to them and they all at once in unison said “Ohh.” Like “So it isn’t shit, it is mud. Okay!”

Good times.