Journal #6 -- Mar. 2nd, 2011

Journal #6

March 2nd, 2011

8:30-10:30am (2 hours)

Today, I had prepared some English related lessons but we did not get to these because Oscar asked me to help him with some of his other homework. He needed help with some algebra again and he also needed help studying for a test in his English class. We spent the first hour working on math. Oscar had moved from adding and subtracting polynomials to multiplying polynomials. He had a worksheet that had all three forms of problems on it. He did very well on the adding and subtracting but was always thrown off when he needed to multiply. He explained to me that they took so long, and there were so many steps that he often got confused about which step came next. We worked through some of the problems together and I needed to explain to Oscar that all the steps he had learned were necessary and important. We tried to think of some ways that he might be able to remember how to do them in the right order. He determined the only way to remember was to keep practicing. So, he continued to work on his worksheet and by the end was getting most of his answers correct. Basically, I was there to help him through the little mistakes he made and to go over his answers for him. Once again he was required to say “will you please check this” before I would look over any of his answers.

In the second hour I helped Oscar study for his English test. He was being tested on past tense irregular verbs such as taught, thought, went and several others. He knew the words that were going to be on the test, but had some trouble pronouncing the words that had “gh” in them. No matter what the word was, Oscar always made the “f” sound when he saw these two letters which more often than not was not the case for correct pronunciation in the words he had. So, we talked about the sound these letters made in these words. Then, I challenged Oscar to write down the past tense of a word I would give him. So I would say “teach” and Oscar would write taught. After working on writing, listening and saying these words our time was up. Oscar told me he was confident he would do well on his test and seemingly didn’t want to leave. It’s a nice feeling to be able to help Oscar. Today, I didn’t feel as helpful as I have on other days but when Oscar walks away feeling confident than I know something good has happened.

I love that Oscar is not afraid to speak to me anymore. He still seems afraid to speak English to others around him but is really opening up and starting to feel very confident when around me. Even if I present a challenging task he just smiles and goes along with it rather than shrugging away in embarrassment. I am glad, I believe Oscar is moving forward, he is ready to speak English and finds excitement in some of the games and activities we’ve done together.

Journal #5 -- Feb. 23rd, 2011

Journal #5

February 23, 2011

8:30-10:30 (2 hours)

I found today’s lesson to be both interesting and fun. When I first saw Oscar today he led me right to the library and immediately pulled out some Algebra homework. He told me it was due in just a few hours and he did not understand how to do it at all. The top of the worksheet read “Adding and Subtracting Polynomials.” I was a little nervous when I first saw this. Math has always been one of my weaker subjects. In fact the last few weeks I have been studying math really hard to prepare for a standardized test and ended up doing really well. So, I was feeling a little more confident than normal in my math skills but was afraid that I would not be able to help Oscar, or that I would be telling him the wrong thing. However, after looking at the worksheet I realized I knew exactly what to do. I started by asking Oscar to read the directions aloud to me. I was still conscious that he needed pronunciation help and thought that I would try to get him talking as much as possible during this math lesson. He read every question and problem aloud to me and whenever he wanted me to look over one of his answers he had to say: “will you please look over this problem for me.” He asked me to look over every problem, which meant he was getting a lot of practice. He was reading numbers and asking the same phrase over and over again. I remember speaking to Oscar’s teacher and her saying that he was afraid to ask for help. She believed that maybe he did not know how to do it. Thus, I was feeling pretty confident; Oscar was practicing a phrase that would help him to ask for help in the future.

The best part of the lesson was when I realized Oscar was adding something to his math problem that was just confusing him and making the problem more difficult than it needed to be. I asked Oscar if I could show him my way of doing it and then he could chose which way he thought was easier. He agreed. It’s a hard concept to explain in this journal entry but basically once I showed Oscar my way of doing the problem he said he found it to be much easier. Then, he breezed through the next five problems before asking me to look at them. They were all correct. He had increased his speed and found an easier way to do these math problems.

Unfortunately, there was one problem that proved to be a challenge. A word problem caused us to stumble a little, but mostly me because I did not quite know how to explain the math concept. The word problem gave a geometrical equation that needed to be solved using polynomials. I suggested Oscar try something, but we ended up getting the wrong answer (based on a check we did). So, I suggested another way to do it. This also failed. After about four attempts, Oscar said “I think I know how to do it.” He did the problem and got the right answer. I was pretty sure that I may have confused him before his was able to solve the problem but I also know he got the opportunity to think critically and figure out how to solve the problem on his own. Several times throughout his math homework Oscar switched to Spanish. He then explained to me in English that it was difficult for him to do math in English. He said he could handle many courses in English, but math was much more difficult. I continued to speak in English, especially while explaining concepts and Oscar did an excellent job. It was obvious he learned something new and this made me happy.

Once we finished working on math, we still had another hour left. So, I pulled out the tongue twisters Oscar mastered last week. He did very well reading them aloud again but had some trouble with the “th” one again. After reading through it a few times though he once again had it down. I plan on including these cards in every lesson from here on out. After this I asked Oscar if he wanted to play again. He agreed and so I pulled out one of my favorite card games: The Mad Libs Card Game. In this game there are nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs (each card is color coated to help players know the difference between these words). The goal is to put together a grammatically correct sentence with the cards you are dealt. So, Oscar and I talked about what is necessary to make a sentence. Oscar decided that we can have a sentence with just one verb and one noun, but he also realized that not all verbs and nouns can be a full sentence. For example, “Oscar slept.” Is a full sentence, but “Oscar is,” is not a full sentence even though it contains a noun and a verb. Oscar was also able to see that once sentence can have many different adverbs but also can seemingly only have one verb and one adverb. Oscar seemed very interested in this game. We put together very bizarre sentences but Oscar found most of them amusing and was much better at putting together a correct sentence by the end of the game. He seemed very confident and willing to make mistakes. This game also proved valuable because Oscar was introduced to vocabulary he had never heard before. He would ask me what they meant. I thought it was exciting because Oscar was able to put together a correct sentence without even knowing the meaning of some of the words in the sentence. This means he was definitely understanding the structure of a sentence, even if he was not understanding the words in it. Unfortunately, this lesson ended. It was sad. However, Oscar said “see you Thursday” at the end of the meeting. I actually told Oscar that I only come in on Tuesday and he seemed disappointed, so I asked “would you like me to come on Thursday.” Oscar said “yes,” so I will plan on going in twice this week.

Journal #4 -- Feb. 16th, 2011

Journal #4

February 16, 2011

8:30-10:30 (2 hours)

Today’s lesson was pretty simple. I had planned several (5-6) activities and was surprised that Oscar and I only made it through one of these. When I started the lesson I presented Oscar with one small 3x5 note card. I asked Oscar if he had ever heard of tongue twisters. He said no. I explained to him the concept of a tongue twister and then read the tongue twister written on the 3x5 card really quickly. He laughed when he heard it and looked slightly nervous to read the card. Luckily, I was starting with an easier sound for him, even though it sometimes proves to be challenging. It’s a sound I know Oscar can say, but I also know he has to think about it before he pronounces it correctly. The card contained a tongue twister using the “v” sound. I first asked Oscar to read the card slowly, making sure to pronounce every word correctly. He did this. Then, without even asking, he read it again but faster. He was determined to say it as fast as I had without making a single pronunciation mistake. I never asked him to repeat the card. He simply did it on his own until he had matched my initial speed and pronunciation. Once he knew he succeeded he was very content with himself. I smiled and told him he was doing an excellent job. I immediately knew this activity would be beneficial because with enough correct repetition of a tongue twister he will eventually start to say the correct sounds naturally, without thinking about it. Once Oscar mastered this card, I pulled out another with a sound that I also knew Oscar could say if he thought about it, “f.” He immediately started reading the card aloud. Once he finally thought he mastered it he read it again as fast as he could. Then he looked at me and said “you read it.” I laughed at this then read the card aloud as fast as I could. After this he read the card quickly one more time and then looked extremely content in his ability. Next, I moved onto a harder sound, the “th.” I had been a bit tricky with this card. It was a tongue twister that was eight sentences long. Oscar spent a long time working on this card but was just as determined as with the others. I showed Oscar how to break down what he was saying. We practiced one line at a time. Then, when he mastered one line he added the second and would not move on to the third until he mastered the first and second lines together. After about thirty minutes of work on this card he was attempting to say the entire thing. His tongue stumbled the first few times but then he said it quickly without a single mistake. The excitement on his face when he made this realization was amazing. He practiced a few more time, without making mistakes then looked at me. I once again read the card as fast as I could. In this case Oscar showed me up because I had made a mistake when reading the card aloud. Oscar was confident in his ability to read all of these tongue twisters and to say them as quickly and efficient, and in some cases better, than a native speaker.

Then, with about ten minutes left in the lesson I realized we did not have enough time to move on to any of the other activities I had planned. So, I pulled a Harry Potter book off the shelves and asked Oscar to spend the rest of our time together reading aloud. His confidence from the tongue twister exercise was extremely evident because Oscar did not hesitate to pick up the book and immediately start reading. He often came across a word he did not know how to pronounce or that he did not know. In these situations I had him attempt to sound out words, which sometimes worked and sometimes did not. I also had him finish reading a sentence so that he could attempt to discover the meaning of a word on his own. This generally worked; most of the time he was able to figure out the meaning of the term. We did have some trouble with the word “whether” which I also found a bit difficult to explain, but I believe he now has a basic comprehension on when and how to use the word. We made it through about two pages before our time was up. It was a very productive lesson even though we did not do everything I wanted to. It actually worked better than I ever thought it would. I will remember to review these tongue twisters with Oscar next week and will also remember that he enjoys these as well as a good challenge.

Journal #3 -- Feb. 9th, 2011

Journal #3

February 9, 2011

8:30-10:30 (2 hours)

Today’s lesson was pretty basic and normal. Last week Oscar asked me to work with him on some pronunciation so today we focused on words ending in “s” and “ed” and also focused on words that had “v” and “th” sounds in them. I first presented Oscar with a list of thirty words that end in “s.” I asked Oscar to read these words aloud to me. If he ever needed some help, I provided him with some sounds he could place into the word. We also made sure that he knew the definitions of each of the words he was trying to say. Next, we did an activity called “silent mouthing.” In this activity I mouthed one of the words from the previous list and Oscar needed to pay close attention to how I was mouthing the words. He had to notice what parts of the tongue and mouth I was using to speak these letters and he needed to determine what word I was speaking. Through this game he was able to identify “l,” “f,” and “v” accurately but had a lot of trouble with the vowel formations of the words. Then, after this activity, Oscar once again read the words on the list aloud. He did a much better job with his pronunciation after the silent mouthing game and spoke with much more confidence.

Next we focused on words that ended in “ed.” We did the same exact activity. Oscar read the words aloud. Then watched my mouth and tried to guess which word I was saying as I silently mouthed each one. Once again, he read all the words aloud on his own and had much better pronunciation than he had before.

After this activity, I handed Oscar paper and a pencil and he made two separate charts. The first chart had three columns titled “s,” “z,” and “IZ.” The second chart had columns titled “t,” “d,” and “ed.” Then, I read a random word from one of the two lists and he had to place in the right category based on the ending sound he heard. For example, he placed the word “boys” into the “z” column because when spoken this word sounds like it ends in “z.” This activity also challenged Oscar to think about spelling in relation to the pronunciation of a word. I believed this was important to potentially finding clues that would help Oscar to understand why some words have certain sounds and others do not.

Then, Oscar and I read two dialogues together. Both dialogues focused on the “th.” Sound and involved stories that were in the past tense. This allowed Oscar to put into practical practice some of the pronunciation he had used earlier. It also encouraged him to make sure he was saying word endings rather than just cutting off his word. He had to be very conscious of what he was saying because the dialogues had some tongue-twister type elements in them. Oscar seemed to enjoy this part of the day the most. At the end I asked if he though the work we had done today was valuable to his pronunciation abilities. He said yes. I then asked him what he wanted to do next week. He asked if we could play a pronunciation game. This made me wonder if he was fully interested in today’s subject. However, the steps he made in pronunciation today were significant (in a small way) and so I believe he was engaged and learning. Next week I want to show him a game that will help with pronunciation and have an entirely fun lesson that does not feel like work or learning at all. This will give him a nice break from the constant studying he has during his school day.

Next Week:

-Pronunciation games/ Activities

-Continued work on “f,” “v,” “th” sounds and word ending sounds

-HW assignment for the following week (preparing a special topic of discussion and present the topic to me)

Journal #2 -- Feb. 2nd, 2011

Journal #2

February 2, 2011

8:30-10:30 (2 hours)

I was supposed to meet with my tutor on Tuesday of this week but ended up having to reschedule my meeting. When I arrived to the high school it turned out my student had a substitute teacher that day. This was not a problem, but then she told me my tutee was not scheduled to be in her class that day. I was obviously confused. So was the substitute teacher. We decided I would leave for the day and email the actual teacher. I was worried I would not be able to meet with my tutee this week but found out I would still get to spend two hours with him on the 4^th instead.

We spent the first hour of our lesson working on a small confidence building activity. I presented Oscar with a series of ten note cards each containing a question or discussion topic. I asked Oscar all of these questions and he answered them in English. The questions ranged from “what is your favorite color?” to “what future goals to you have?” or “who is your hero and why?” These questions got Oscar speaking in more than one word answers. Once I had asked him each of the questions I told him to ask me each of the questions in Spanish. When he did I responded with my answers in Spanish. Even though I have studied Spanish for a few years I knew that I was still making mistakes. After I finished speaking I asked Oscar if I had made any mistakes. He said yes. I asked him if I seemed to hesitate when I made a mistake. He said no. Then, I asked him what mistakes I made. When he told me, I wrote down my mistakes and had him ask me two questions again so I could fix the mistakes I had made. Once Oscar saw me speak confidently in Spanish and then bravely do it again, but trying to fix my mistakes I thought he might be able to do the same. I then told him it was his job to take those ten note cards and ask the librarian those questions in English. I told him he could take notes if he wanted but he had to ask her questions in English, then come and tell me, in English, how the librarian had answered each of the questions. I asked him if he noticed any mistakes in his English and he immediately noted some mistakes. So, I pointed to another student in the library and asked him to go ask that student the same questions, but this time making sure to fix the mistakes he made before. He did. When he returned he said he did much better with his original mistakes and noticed a few others.

We had a small discussion about why he is afraid to speak English in front of others. He explained to me that he is afraid of saying a word incorrectly. Once he specifically told me he wanted help with pronunciation I knew it was a good sign. He was going to tell me exactly why he was afraid to speak in others. This meant we could focus on these aspects and increase both his confidence and use of the English language by working on these things. He told me he is afraid people will make fun of his pronunciation. So, looking back at the cards with written questions I had him read each question aloud, clearly and confidently. He did very well on a lot of his pronunciation until he got to the “f” “v” and “th” sounds. He also had a little trouble with words that had “l” in the middle such as “could,” “would,” and “world.” He was making the correct vowel sounds for the vowels shown, but these words are irregular and stress the inconsistencies in the English language. We worked through some of these sounds and how to form them in the mouth. He was already getting much better with “v” and “th” when we ran out of time. I left the question cards with him so he could practice these words during the week. He asked me to bring in something so we can work on pronunciation next week.

I was pleased with this lesson. Everything went well and it seems like Oscar is starting to get more comfortable with me. He was answering my questions easier than normal today and only attempted to revert to Spanish twice.

Things to work on:

1. Pronunciation workbooks, with specific focus on “f,” “v,” and “th” sounds.

2. Speaking English as a first choice rather than Spanish (he told me he immediately reverts to Spanish if he knows someone speaks Spanish so he will work on trying to speak English with these friends)

Next Meeting:

1. 2 hour meeting on Tuesday, February 9^th.

2. Will take a pronunciation workbook/activity

3. Play a game that will help to encourage pronunciation and confidence at the same time.

1st Meeting -- Jan 26th, 2011

Journal #1

January 26, 2011

09:40am-10:40am (1 hour)

I met my tutee for the first time today. His name is Oscar (changed to protect student privacy) and he is a freshman at a local High School. For the entire meeting Oscar seemed very nervous to speak English. It is obvious that he is going to need some help building confidence in his English language skills.

I began the lesson with an activity to get Oscar talking and to get him feeling comfortable with me. I told him that I would ask him a question which he would answer in English and then he could ask me any question in return. I first asked him “what is your favorite color?” He responded to this question easily. However, when it came time for him to ask me a question he didn’t quite know what to do. I tried to encourage him further by saying “you can ask me anything. Favorite color, food, what do you want to know about me?” He smiled and shrugged. I waited for him to ask me a question and within about a minute he asked my age. I continued to ask him questions such as where are you from? How long have you been in the United States? He then asked me if I knew how to speak Spanish. His teacher had informed me not to tell him about my Spanish speaking knowledge otherwise he would want to speak to me in the language. Instead of telling Oscar a blatant lie, I told him I knew some Spanish but I was still in the very early stages of learning Spanish. I did this in case I ever find it necessary to speak to Oscar in Spanish at a later date. I want to encourage him to speak English over Spanish but if it becomes necessary to teach Oscar something I will use Spanish.

Once this activity was finished I asked him what sort of English he wanted to work on during our meetings. He once again smiled and shrugged. Luckily, I spoke to his teacher before meeting with him. She had informed me that Oscar had a quiz today in English words that end in “ed”. So, I asked him if he needed any help working on studying for his quiz. He said yes. It was at this point that I noticed our space had become a distraction to Oscar. His teacher had suggested we worked in the library because we would have more privacy. However, the library was packed. There were students constantly walking past our table and Oscar continually looked up every time someone walked by and seemed less likely to speak. I asked if he preferred to go somewhere else and he immediately said yes. We took the time to find a more private place, which was difficult to do in the busy library. I need to remember that Oscar embarrasses easily. He didn’t want anyone to see that he was working with a tutor.

Next, Oscar and I started reviewing the words that ended in “ed” and the patterns that could help him to distinguish whether or not the word endings are pronounced with a “t,” “d,” or “ed.” Once he noticed some patterns he was able to successfully pronounce the words and it helped him with his spelling. He noticed that all the words that ended in “d” and “t” had the “ed” sound at the end of the word. This helped him to listen for these letters at the end of a word. First, Oscar pronounced all the words on a list that he showed me and had some difficulty pronouncing words like “touched,” “added,” and “kissed.” We reviewed these several times. Then, I pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil and handed it to Oscar. I read a word from his list to him and had him try to spell it and then next to his spelling he had to write down how the ending was pronounced (so he had to write “t,” “d,” or “ed” next to his word). He had every ending right and did well with his spelling except for one word – touched.

At the end of the lesson he asked me about the word “coughed.” He wasn’t sure if it had a “t” or “d” ending. So, I sent Oscar on a mission. I told him to find someone in the library that he wouldn’t be afraid to ask to say the word aloud for him. He chose the librarian, wrote the word on a piece of paper and then asked the librarian to say the word for him. He came back with a clear answer. Then, our time was up and I told Oscar I would see him again next Tuesday. He smiled and shrugged. I then asked him if next week he would always have an answer to a question. Instead of smiling and shrugging he needed to say yes or no. He agreed.

Things to work on:

Confidence – The ability to speak up when spoken to. He is a good English speaker but thinks he is not, this hinders further learning of the language. The goal is to get him speaking more conversationally and fluidly, not being afraid to make a mistake.

Pronunciation- There are some sounds that he has trouble pronouncing such as the “ou” and the “a” sounds. He didn’t have much trouble with consonant sounds, mostly just with vowel sounds.

Spelling – He spells like he speaks. Therefore, if he is pronouncing a word incorrectly, he is spelling it incorrectly. If he encounters a word that has an “n” before a “t” such as enter, encounter, and tent he tends to switch the “n” and “t” in his spelling.

Next Meeting:

-We will be meeting for 2 hours on Tuesday, February 2^nd.

-Oscar has agreed to answer all questions verbally instead of with a shrug and smile

- Show Oscar that it is okay to make mistakes

Tutoring Goals:

-Get Oscar working towards confidence in speaking English (even if he doesn’t succeed full confidence during this semester).

-Encourage Oscar to talk to initiate English conversations with those around him.

-Work on any ESL assignments he may be having difficulties with.

-Increased knowledge in vowel pronunciation.

Tutoring an EL Student

The following 11 blogs will be journal reflections on my time spent working with an EL student in an area high school. This student is a 9th grade boy from Mexico. His family moved to the United States just four months before I met him. He is a great student, hard worker and a joy to speak to. Unfortunately, he is afraid to speak English. Throughout the upcoming tutoring process, my goal is to allow this student to feel more comfortable speaking and learning in his English classrooms.