Please Vote for Me is a Chinese documentary that shows class monitor elections in a 3rd grade class. I found this documentary very interesting to see how students behaved in their classroom. The interactions between classmates and the candidates were much different than what we see in our classrooms. It was interesting how the teacher allowed the class to taunt one of the candidates as she was playing her flute, and made her cry. Coming from a teacher’s standpoint, I was shocked that the teacher did not do much to stop it. She let the students continue and only scolded them when it was over. As a teacher, I spend a good amount of time teaching students how to positively interact with their peers. It seems as if this is not much of a focus in the Chinese classroom.

I believe this would be an interesting movie to show to my class. My goal would be to give my students a glimpse of what life is like for elementary students in China. With such a strong focus on writing in 4th grade, I would have them write a compare and contrast essay that shows the differences and similarities between our classroom and the classroom in the movie.
edited by lpalmer on 1/14/2013