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TEACHING ESL - SCENARIOS
Background Information
Challenge:
Planning instruction without a requisite
level of background information
Scenario:
Today I had my third session with my tutee. His teacher finished
filling out the background information form at the end of my hour
with him and I felt terrible. Since I did not know much about his
background when I started today, I thought it would be the perfect
opportunity to work on vocabulary and Total Physical Response (TPR)
concentrating on this aspect. We practiced mainly on the family,
home, and basic school concepts. He was very good at labeling things
in the classroom (I discovered he loves to draw so he would draw
pictures and label them). As we began discussing our families, I
modeled by drawing a picture of mine & labeling them. He would
only draw himself and write “Mi Familia” at the top
of his paper. Later, his teacher handed me his background information
and it said that he lives with his aunt & uncle, and that his
parents are not here with him. I told her about the tutoring session
and she told me that he doesn't talk about his parents, even in
Spanish!
On a more positive note he was very eager to work with me today
& seemed much more motivated to learn English! He even shared
some of his new English vocabulary with his classmates as they read
their stories in Spanish. He can read words in English and translate
them to Spanish for me, but when I point to the word and ask him
what it means, he says he doesn't know. I think he may just be decoding
and not really comprehending the meaning behind it?
Possible Strategies:
Switching to another topic may have presented a better gauge of
his true knowledge of the subject. This scenario illustrates the
importance of obtaining background information in designing instruction
because there may be invisible factors that can have a profound
impact on how our tutee's think.
Challenge:
Insufficient background information
provided by the teacher
Scenario:
I had my second two hour session yesterday. I started out with my
student by practicing saying my name is and then I brought all sorts
of clothes to have as props. She loved my daughters’ clothes.
I asked the teacher to fill out the information on the three kids
I am working with. I am focusing on one girl the most, but the other
two need lots of help in English as well. The teacher knows nothing
about her except that she came to the U.S. a month ago from Mexico.
There are no records or anything. So with her, I worked on identifying
shorts, pants, socks, slippers, shoes, bathing suit, skirt, shirt,
and sweater. I shouldn't have picked so many words but she finally
got the hang of it. Then we did the difference between pick up and
pint. I then had her choose a book from the four I brought in. She
chose in a people house. Some words she read along with me, so she
must have read it before. On the second time through she pointed
out the objects, I am not pushing speech at all with her because
she is preliterate. We then colored a bat black line I brought in.
I told her a color from an art kit and had her color the ears that
color. (Last week we worked on body parts so this activity was a
good review) She liked having the pictures. I feel like I don't
know what to do next with her. She is very eager but doesn't seem
to remember things from one week to the next. Last week we did sit
down and stand up (Commands). When I said point to the sweater she
stood up.
Another tutee of mine has been referred for an IEP due to his behavior,
but again the school has very little background information on him.
All they know about him is that he was in first grade, went back
to Mexico for part of second grade, and his second grade teacher
threw out all his records. He does not have behavior problems with
me, but I work in a one on one context with each of my students.
He was very eager to work with me and didn't want to go back to
music class when we were done. His oral comprehension is great.
He likes practicing speech and repeats what I say when I read to
him. He chose Houndsville which has flaps and dogs in different
jobs. So we looked at jobs like postman, policeman, and teacher.
He knows teacher and is a quick learner. They have a little more
information on him. He lives with his mother and that's about it.
They have a reading record. He can read, but really has no comprehension
at all. With him, we played the game “I am thinking of”
where I sat where he was and gave clues in my seat, then he guesses
in his seat. We did colors and shapes of objects in the room. He
understood after I showed him. Then he made me guess when he gave
me clues in Spanish. He colored a bat too. He called it a vampire.
I thought this was cleaver. Then I asked him if he wanted to read
to me. He picked out a book written in Spanish. I think it’s
great that they have books in their first language to read. Of course
I had no idea what he read. It was about kids in school, but the
Spanish level was too difficult for me and he read it quickly. I
could tell his pronunciation was right and he used a flat intonation.
My other student, in terms of language development, is in between
the other two, but he is very social. He chose to read Mr. Brown
Can Moo Can You, but he did not want to make the sounds. I
had thought they called the sounds different in Mexico, but if they
do he didn't know it. He did not know anything about books. I would
suspect that he had little to no education in Mexico and I know
that his family doesn't read in Spanish or English. He has trouble
even in his Spanish workbooks. I need help figuring out what lessons
would be best to teach them the most English possible. Also the
teacher asked me to help them with geography since they will be
tested in English. Does anyone have any ideas?
Possible Strategies:
Focusing on developing language one area at a time.
Challenge:
Where do I go from here?
Scenario:
I need some guidance with my ELD student. If I have a short amount
of time, what do you think is the most important thing to work on
now? She understands her colors, has map terms and safety signs
down. I just want to teach her so much, and there seems to be so
little time.
Possible Strategies:
With regards to your tutee, she really needs to know "social"
vocabulary as well, such as greetings. Also, how are her numbers?
If she does not know them, teach them in context (use pictures of
trees, flowers, etc., simple worksheets for primary grades now have
colorful illustrations for numbers.) Remember that you don't necessarily
need to cover one topic at a time, but you can integrate. Again,
use our resource book as a guide for topics. Whatever you teach
her, make sure to include nouns, verbs, and adjectives. A perfect
example are classroom objects. This is critical vocabulary for her
to know. Integrate with verbs used in the classroom, and adjectives
that describe them. Start simple first: name the object and do something
with them using Total Physical Response (TPR), then describe it.
For example have one pencil that is long one that is short. Be sure
to review the vocabulary that she has already learned such as her
colors ("Put the red pencil on the desk.").
Resolution:
Thanks for your help. I did classroom vocabulary today! Also, I
tried to help her with math. I found out she has no math background.
She said she went to school in Mexico, but that they didn't do any
math. Is this possible? Anyway they had the whole class doing triple
digit addition and she was using an abacus. She was just playing
with it, she didn't know how to use it at all or carry it. I tried
to break down the problem for her. I think she finally understood
the problems using her fingers, but the worksheet was I+10. There
were word problems, logic problems but she couldn't even get past
the addition. It’s very frustrating to me that they give her
worksheets in science, history, and math and she has no idea what
to do, so she stares at them or writes nonsense words. I worked
on TPR with classroom directions, classroom objects, (we did the
worksheet game from the resource book, played bingo with objects,
drew the objects in our desks, and then read Dr. Seuss. I also reviewed
clothes with her, but I brought in dolls like you did in class and
she kept playing with the Snow White doll. She works better with
me one on one now, so I work with the two boys for the first forty-five
minutes, and then with her alone for the last hour and fifteen minutes.
Establishing Rapport
Challenge:
My tutee is resistant to help. I want to
develop a trusting relationship.
Scenario:
Help! I don't know what to do. My tutee is still very upset every
time I go to the school. This week when I was instructed to help
him with word problems, he just started punching the table and talking
to himself in Spanish. I tried to explain to him why he needs the
extra help, but he was still very angry when I tried to help him.
I tried reading the comic books with him, and he was interested
at first, but then just shut down on me. He kept moving away from
me and even tried to go to the bathroom to get away. The one thing
that did work was showing him pictures of The Simpsons and
then having him write what he saw. He enjoyed this, and wrote more
than he ever has in the past. I guess I'll continue with this exercise,
at least next week, and I'll try the comic books again. Does anyone
have a suggestion of what I could do to gain his trust? I'm desperate.
Possible Strategies:
1. Have you tried playing a game with him? Maybe
if he sees his meetings with you as fun rather than solely an academic
endeavor, he will be more open to "playing" with you.
Once you've created a relationship, hopefully, he will look forward
to your visits and you could start doing some lessons. Try to include
some friends in the game, this may make him feel more comfortable.
Hope this idea helps!
2. I may have some books that will have older
children reading. The theoretical aspect of your experience is:
when you are the teacher who gets these type of students (who speak
or understand little in English) or bring tutors to help your children,
it is critical that you find ways to explain to each of them in
their primary language, why they need additional support, get pulled
our, or are given below grade level material. It is imperative that
you do this before all these events/situations begin to happen.
At one school where I established a Buddy Program to help newcomer
ESL students, I had six translators come to class and explain the
reasons why these students needed the extra help. I explained things
like, "it’s not that you are less smart...any of your
classmates would need extra help if they had moved to your country
..." or "there is no way you will be able to catch up
and learn everything that you need to without the extra help",
or "sometimes, you have to learn by reading things that seem
too easy, but we need to start easy otherwise you might not understand
and get frustrated".
That's also why it is so important to make connections with the
community and have key people, parents, older students (e.g. same
school, or high school) that you can use as translators. Once you
have had ESL students in the past who you have taught effectively,
you can use them as resources to speak to your new students. It
is important to find older students who have gone through the experience
and can be role models and give the newcomers tips. Wow, great example
that prompted me to remember top mention this issue which is key
to our areas "Creating positive learning environments"
and "Developing effective instructional strategies". Thank
you.
3. At my old school, I worked with a fifth grade
student who couldn't read. He hated reading what he called "baby
books," which was any book that I could come up with at his
level. I finally did all of his reading using the Language Experience
Approach. We would co-author books surrounding his interests. I
would guide him to the vocabulary and sounds I wanted to work on,
and then he would use these books for all his work. At first we
read them together and finally he read them alone. It was great
because the vocabulary he developed helped his reading improve.
He wrote on Sponge Bob and animals and it worked really well. We
bound the books and “published” them. Give this a try
because your student might really get into reading his own words
and topics.
4. My heart goes out to you. Have you ever read the book, I
Hate English? It's pretty much about a little girl who's expressing
the same sorts of emotions as your tutee. I don't know if he would
want to read it, but it's worth a try. Does he have any expressed
interests other than The Simpsons? Maybe you could elevate
yourself to "super-cool tutor" if you combine several
interests in one activity.
Challenge:
Fostering a partnership between tutee
and tutor.
Scenario:
I had my meeting with my young tutee on Friday, and things are better.
She is not moving back to Mexico like it had been discussed. She
is doing very well when she works with me! We have been going on
walks around the school and we just point and say what we are doing
in English. This is so much better for her and she enjoys this,
and it doesn't give her a headache. This activity has helped her
improve her vocabulary so much. She can say so many more things
than she did when I began and this really excites me. I told her
that this week we will do some more read aloud from a simple book,
so she starts interacting with text as well.
Possible Strategies:
Challenge:
Lowering the affective filter
Scenario:
Buenos tardes mi clase! Solamente dos dias antes de mi vacaccion
de Mexico a ver mi familia!(Did I say that right?) I told my tutee
today that I was going to be gone next week because I was going
to Mexico. He was really excited for me and instantly wanted to
talk about his family that still lives there. This in and of itself
was interesting because I was under the impression that his whole
family had migrated into the US. I guess I am still learning more
and more about his upbringing. Today I tried to do a bunch of small
interconnected lessons. I thought that this way I could sustain
his attention a bit longer. We started off by doing a walk around
his school and playing a game of "I spy...." My student
would either have to point or state his guesses. In this example,
he knew it was a ball, but didn't know specifically it was a basketball.
We continued on a "talk walk." I gave him the freedom
to ask me any questions he wanted to about what he he saw around
the school. For some reason he was baffled by the parking blocks.
He would say, "what are deez? why dis way? yellow?" With
some gestures, I explained what they were, their function, and why
they were the color yellow. After enough sunrays we relocated to
the cafeteria where I was able to conduct more formal lessons. I
was still trying to focus on vocabulary, so I let him choose 8 objects
or "nouns" to write and draw about. His choices were:
shark, school, himself, clothes (firemen's more specifically) spider,
iguana, and teacher. (he wasn't able to come with all these words
on his own so I improvised for him.) From the selections he drew
colorful illustrations and wrote descriptions for each picture.
I really sense a tremendous amount of comfort between the two of
us and I believe this has been instrumental in his exemplary behavior.
Possible Strategies:
It sounds like you are accomplishing one of the most important goals
at the beginning which is establishing trust/rapport with the student
by lowering the Affective Filter. Kudos to you!
Challenge:
My tutee has become hostile to me
Scenario:
I met with my student again today and it started out okay. He had
a substitute teacher, so I had a feeling that he would not be too
interested in doing activities. I guess by the time I got there
he had already gotten in trouble for using the "f-word"
several times, and he had no interest in following the substitute's
rules. I took him aside and we read some of his book. He is doing
really well with his reading and I am very impressed every time
is see him. He got bored with reading very quickly, so we talked
for a little while about Thanksgiving and sports. We were going
to read Spiderman and then write a sentence about it, but
he refused to write anything and I ended up being the one who read
the story to him. His writing for class is improving, so I know
he can do it. Any time that I try to get him to do work he just
gets angry. He just wanted to joke around with his friends the entire
time. He would not even speak to me from that point on and then
began mocking me in Spanish to his friend. I asked if he wanted
to walk around the school and go outside with me, but he refused
to leave the room. It is so frustrating. I'm going intomorrow, so
I'll see if anything changes. I'm getting really discouraged.
Possible Strategies:
1. I can really identify with your situation, having
been a substitute myself, I know first hand how students don't think
they need to respect the substitute. One idea that worked with my
student when I was having difficulty getting him to listen to me
and participate was including a friend in the lesson. I am not sure
if this would be helpful to you, but as long as the activity is
structured, then you provide him with the opportuntiy to talk with
his friend about what you want them to discuss related to your lesson.
2. Don't get discouraged!! If he needs help in
other areas besides writing, or example reading try to play a game
to learn words for example, he may be tired of trying to write in
class and because you have so litle time focus on something he still
needs but may not be as frustrating. Unfortunately, it may be the
case of him taking it out on you. What are you doing during the
second hour? I hope that by working with groups or being involved
on different type of activities you will feel more effective.
3. Don't get discouraged!! If he needs help in
other areas besides writing, for example with reading, try to play
a game to learn words. It may be that he is tired of trying to write
in class. Because you have so litle time, perhaps you can focus
on something he still needs help in but will be less frustrating
for him. Unfortunately, it could also be a case of him taking it
out on you. What are you doing during the second hour? I hope that
by working with groups or being involved in different types of activities,
this can help you feel more effective.
Challenge:
What a difference a day makes: Changing the
format without losing the focus
Scenario:
I went in and met with my student again today, since yesterday was
not very productive (See scenario above). What a difference a day
can make! We had the best session today. We did some letter and
sound work. His teacher wanted me to go through letter flashcards
and do the sounds of each one, which seemed kind of boring to me.
Instead, I decided to work on letter-sound association in a casino
format with me as the dealer. At the end, since he had done so well,
he won a comic book. He actually started conversations with me rather
than me having to always initiate our discussions. We talked about
cars (which I didn't know that he liked), his weekend plans, and
about his family that is still in Mexico. It was incredible how
easy it was to communicate with him today.
Possible Strategies:
Challenge:
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: The dual identity
of my tutee
Scenario:
I met with my tutee yesterday and today and had completely different
experiences with him each time. Yesterday, we actually had a good
time and he really opened up to me. We talked about Mexico and his
pets and family. I was able to share some things that the two of
us have in common and he seemed very much at ease. I was also really
excited because his reading skills have really been improving over
the last several weeks. When I first started meeting with him, he
was reading "a" and "b" level books (and having
trouble with them). This week he was reading "e" and "f"
and was doing really well. His teacher even has him reading a chapter
book, which I was a little concerned about, but the teacher didn't
want him to feel left out when they did group activities. He was
so happy about being able to read it, and we worked on it together.
He did surprisingly well! Things really flowed between us and I
thought that we had finally made a real breakthrough.
I went in today, expecting to pick up where we left off, but he
seemed to be a completely different child. He was hostile towards
me and he spent most of our time together mumbling in Spanish under
his breath. Even with my remedial Spanish skills, I know that "Ella
es muy stupido" is not a sentence indicating a good relationship
between us. I tried everything to interest him, but he really wanted
nothing to do with me. I am feeling really discouraged and I don't
know how else I can approach him or what I can do. I tried playing
games, taking him out of the room to play, I even tried the old
reliable The Simpsons book and comics with him. Everything
about him, including his body language, showed me that he had completely
shut me out. What can I do? How did we go from having a great time
yesterday to going back to how things were before?
Possible Strategies:
1. Sorry that you're having such a rough time of
it. On the positive side, it's good that he's not always this negative
towards you. It sounds like you had a really good session with your
tutee on Monday. I can't really offer any definitive suggestions
about how to improve his behavior and attitude because I don't really
know him. But, I can tell you that it probably has nothing to do
with you. Perhaps you caught him on a bad day or maybe something
is going on at home. If so, there's really nothing you can do. I'm
not saying give up on the little guy, but don't be totally crushed
if even your most heroic efforts yield little results. I'd try to
get him to open up more. I know-easier said than done! But having
a conversation might help him release some of his tension and give
you insight as to what is causing the problem and how you can help.
If he wants nothing to do with you, perhaps you could just give
him some blank pieces of paper and writing/drawing supplies and
just let him express himself on paper. He might feel better when
he's done and want to talk about what he's drawn or written. If
not, you might be able to glean some information from his work.
Also, do his teachers have anything to say about this behavior?
Have they noticed similar patterns and do they know anything about
his home life?
2. It seems that the child had a specific negative
situation or experience sometimes during the week in between your
sessions. If tutees/students have issues in other areas of their
lives that make them upset, there is no way these will not affect
their attitudes, behavior, motivation, etc. This not only applies
to you trying to tutor him, but it applies to any teaching context,
like if you had this student in your regular classroom. My first
suggestion is that you don't lay the blame on yourself. This is
not a case of you being an ineffective teacher. The second point,
is that what happened to him may be something that is out of his
control. You may try to find out if it is a family problem, a school
related problem, etc. If you get a chance and catch the teacher
at recess for example, you may ask her if she is aware of any problems.
I assume that you already tried to ask questions indirect or directly
to the child. You may want to do a writing or drawing activity such
as "This bad thing happened to me last week" and you can
provide some examples from your ownlife first.
3. As usual, there is not an easy answer, but
we always have to go back to our theoretical underpinnings: there
will be many factors that will affect a child's motivation to learn
and teachers have to be in tune with what is happening in their
students' lives that may hinder learning. These will include constant
factors such as prior literacy, cultural and personality factors,
but also daily life occurrences that may be stressful. That is why
the best way to approach this type of challenge is to discover the
source of stress so you can plan accordingly. A word of caution
for you as future teachers: Don't feel tempted to be counselors
unless you have the degree. You can mentor your students and give
them general guidance and support, but in more complicated situations
you want to send them to qualified professionals. I am sorry this
is happening, for you, and also for the student, but the positive
side is that we probably learn as much or more from challenging
situations (I know this is cliche but it's so true). The good news
is that you did get to experience successful sessions before. Let's
be optimistic, he may be over his issue by next week.
Sustaining Motivation
Challenge:
Maintaining the focus and simultaneously
engaging the student.
Scenario:
It has been a chaotic past couple of weeks! I've been to my school
a few times now and my tutee has been absent. I was worried that
he might have moved. However, today he was back and as it turns
out he was visiting a learning specialist. The specialist seems
to think he my have some psychological problems, in addition to
learning problems, which coupled with being an ELL has stymied his
academic progress. I guess I have my plate full. I actually worked
with the learning resource teacher today and helped conduct a lesson
with her. My student needed help in phonemic awareness. The teacher
copied a bunch of photos of lips showing the pronunciation of specific
sounds such as "k" or "pa" or "t".
We then used these photos (two cards per sound) as cards, and flipped
them over to make a game out of this lesson. The game was to find
two of a kind and correctly use the associated lip movement and
sound. My student did really well and appeared to enjoy himself.
Immediately, following this lesson, we spent sometime on math. Once
again, I played the role of helper/observer.
Finally, I was able to have some alone time, during which I helped
him with his alphabet. Although he knew the alphabet in Spanish,
he still has trouble with the translation. He would call the letter
"K" instead of a "Q". I felt that teaching reading
before he had even developed an understanding of letter-sound correspondence
was putting the cart before the horse. My strategy teaching the
alphabet was to mix up a bunch of letter cut-outs and have him put
the letters in alphabetical order. I sang the alphabet song and
tried to get him to participate. After that, we played alphabet
Tic Tack Toe...or circle the three letters that are in the correct
sequence (G,H,I). He has gotten into the habit of asking me to draw
him pictures when he does a good job. I guess drawing is a cheaper
reward than candy!
Possible Strategies:
1. Working with students who have "psychological"
issues can be very tricky for a tutor who is just getting her feet
wet at teaching second language literacy. I commend you for taking
such a positive attitude (You will have this type of student so
it will be a useful experience, especially if you can figure out
what are the most appropriate/effective approaches in these cases.
If his issues are some type of disability then it will be challenging
to you if you don't have experience in special education. Some special
education students may need more "systematic teaching"
of phonics, although I will say that learning oral vocabulary first
is a rule I apply to all.
2. In regard to the special education question,
some students work really well with a systematic phonics program,
but with others the focus is just language, language, and language.
You really need a lot of time to tell what will work, probably more
then we have. But any language input if slow and clear will help
a student, especially in oral language, so I would recommend focusing
on one phonics plan or language concept and sticking to it.
Challenge:
Making the kids, "little teachers"
Scenario:
My tutee is showing tremendous progress in learning English. On
Monday, he read me a book in Spanish and as we went through each
page, I would point to different objects in the picture and say
the English word for them. He would repeat the word and then move
on to the next page. At first I didn't think this was working, but,
as we continued reading, he actually took the lead and pointed to
the animals that he recognized from a previous page. I think that
part of our success stemmed from him feeling that he was also a
"teacher" by reading to me in Spanish.
Possible Strategies:
Challenge:
Helping a tutee with limited English background
express original ideas.
Scenario:
My lesson today went really well. I modeled it after the Language
Experience Approach (LEA) ideas in the book and the activity that
we had done in class several weeks ago. I wanted to include a friend,
to lower the affective filter between my tutee and I, since this
worked so well last time. We discussed the fires last week and what
the boys had seen on the news. I had them first do an illustration
for my anticipatory set; I felt this was a good way for my tutee
to be able to express himself given his limited English language
development. I know he likes to draw and he has difficulty thinking
of ideas to put into writing. Also, I was able to tell a lot about
their experiences from their pictures. Then, I had both students
contribute sentences, which I wrote down. This way, I would not
have the problem that I had with my last mini lesson where my tutee,
was not coming up with his own ideas, but instead copied what his
friend was saying.
The two main objectives of this lesson were to work on run-on sentences
and organizing ideas. When I wrote their ideas I would use their
exact words. For example, my tutee said "the firefighters turned
off the fire." What I encouraged them to think about was when
one idea ended and a new one began. In order to work toward this
goal, we made each idea a new sentence to avoid run-on's. After
we finished, we cut out the sentences and I asked the boys to organize
them in a logical order. I told them to think of someone who had
not been in San Diego for the fires and how would you explain to
them what had happened, from beginning to end. The final step was
to have the boys add the text to their pictures. I was wondering
if I should continue to include a friend in our lessons because
we have been so productive this way, or should I focus exclusively
on working alone with my tutee?
Possible Strategies:
If including a friend makes the child learn more because it motivates
him, do it. Every student is different and for each one, you will
find that a variety of strategies will work, this is all about DIFFERENTIATED
INSTRUCTION! ONE SIZE/FORMULA DOES NOT FIT ALL. You have to do what
may be necessary to engage them. Follow your pedagogical natural
instincts. You also provided an excellent example on how we can
capitalize on what is relevant, what is happening now, like the
fires in this case, in the lives of our students. It is something
they are concerned about which will motivate them and help them
learn in a very authentic way. Great use of the newspaper, BRAVO!
I had that same problem with my tutee where her friends constantly
said the answers. What I did on Tuesday, still letting her friends
play with us, was that I told them that for two minutes everyone
would be silent and think in their heads what they were going to
do. You could try to say for five minutes that you want everyone
to think on their own what they are going to write about. Then after
those five minutes, they can share their ideas with each other.
After all, what they really are trying to do is share their ideas,
not tell him the answers. So by having a "silent thinking period"
first, this might help him come up with original ideas.
Challenge
I can't keep my tutee engaged
Scenario:
My student doesn't
know how to sound out words. This has directly affected both his
reading and writing skills. My biggest challenge is trying to get
my student engaged and involved in the learning process. My tutee
never pays attention when I read to him. I don't know what else
to do to get him to try to read. The one thing that truly excites
my tutee is playing games. I chose a board game with sentences on
each space. I thought the game would be a good way to get him to
read the sentences.
Possible Strategies:
Great idea! You can also try having him dictate a story to you and
you can write a book together, and then read it. Make sure you find
books in his interest and books that are funny.
Challenge:
Designing activities that
will develop his vocabulary and keep him motivated
Scenario:
My tutee is starting to make much better connections between the
words and the pictures on a page. I have also noticed that he now
writes his name correctly (after what I am told by his teachers
has been much practice). I can tell that he is starting to really
enoy the time we spend together and that he is learning a lot from
our work together. I don't really know where to go from here. I
know that I want to have more activities that include simple words
and drawings (since this is what really gets him motivated). Does
anyone have any ideas?
Possible Strategies:
Challenge
Keeping
the student attentive
Scenario:
My student always complains that he is tired. It is hard to sustain
the attention of a child in kindergarten for an entire hour. I usually
try to play games with him to keep things more interesting, but
I still find it difficult to keep him engaged for that long of a
time. What can I do to keep his interest and make our sessions more
productive?
Possible Strategies:
Playing games with the student is a good idea. Also, since you know
that his attention span is short, it is a good idea to have a variety
of activities planned for the lesson. These activity shifts will
help to keep the attention of your student and help insure that
your sessions are more productive.
Challenge:
Mixing business with pleasure. Making assessment
enjoyable.
Scenario:
I had another tutoring session today. It was a little strange seeing
my student after that week-long break, but she's an easygoing kid
and the affective filter between us is still extremely low. Anyway,
it felt kind of weird to just start our session and I wasn't sure
how much she remembered from our previous lessons, so I kind of
broke the ice by playing a version of the “Alphabet Ball”
game. It was a beautiful day today so we went out on the playground
and started to toss the ball around. At first we talked about Halloween
and what we did last week and how we felt about the fires, but then
I was able to move her into content by telling her that we were
going to play a game where we would review our previous lessons.
So, I'd throw the ball and say "green" and she'd catch
it and then throw it back saying "yellow" and back and
forth. This was a great way to just relax and get to know each other
again and at the same time a great opportunity for me to assess
what she remembered and where we still needed work! My tutee is
a really active child as well and she seemed to enjoy the physical
activity as much as the mental exercise. I was a little nervous
about starting out with a review game since we only have two hours
together, but the game only took 10-15 minutes, and afterward I
think that we were both more relaxed and ready to focus on the lesson
ahead of us.
Possible Strategies:
Challenge:
Finding alternative methods to reinforce
instruction
Scenario:
I just finished my fourth session and I wanted to share a game that
we played. This can be done with just two people or a small group,
I played it with a small group. The game is called alphabet ball.
All you need is a hardcover book, (we used encyclopedias) and a
tennis ball. The object is to hit the ball back and forth with the
book. Every time you hit the ball, you say a different letter of
the alphabet (go in order). To make things harder, choose a letter
and then every time you hit the ball, say a word that begins with
that letter. If you are playing with a group, your tutee can be
the leader and call out the letter of the alphabet to use. To make
hitting the ball easier, allow for it to bounce because you will
get fewer stops. On the other hand, if the student is beyond learning
the alphabet, use the game to practice any new vocabulary that you
have been working on.
Possible Strategies:
What a creative way to reinforce your lessons. It is always a good
idea to seek different methods of teaching students especially activities
that engage the students like Alphabet Ball. Like you mentioned,
this game seems adaptable for students who are beyond learning the
alphabet and indeed could be used as a reinforce in any content
area, like for teaching math facts or even literary techniques.
As you have shown us, creativity is pivotal for teachers and tutors
alike because it is important to keep our students actively involved
in their own development.
Challenge:
My tutee hates reading
Scenario:
My student does not
read and has absolutely no desire to try to enjoy reading. As far
as he's concerned, reading is a chore. At times, he even tries to
cheat in his reading assignments by flipping two pages at once instead
of turning to the next page.
Possible Strategies:
Maybe you can take turns reading funny books, or books centered
on his interests.
Challenge:
Getting a student to open up
Scenario:
I had a really good session this morning with my student. We started
out by working on a book we have been writing. I'm giving her the
freedom to decide how the story goes, and with a little guidance,
letting her write about what she wants. I think she really enjoys
being able to have a choice instead of being forced to write about
a specific topic. I've been helping her with spelling if she gets
really stuck, but she is doing very well sounding out words. She
is also doing the drawings for each page which she is very good
at. When we were done, she wanted to read to me. As we read a book
about Seals and Whales, for the first time, she started asking me
questions about the reading. I was very excited because she was
opening up to me, using more than one word answers and initiating
conversation! I feel like we are finally making progress. She also
compared some animals in the book we read today to another ocean
book we read many weeks ago, I was so excited she actually remembered
prior lessons and could make a comparison. I know these seem like
little steps but for a student who is very shy and afraid to speak,
this was a great day!
Possible Strategies:
Yeeah!! "small but BIG success"... You provided also a
good example for why "student choice" (from the ELD/SDAIE
elements list) is so important in learning and teaching.
Designing Instruction
Challenge:
My student only talks when no one else is around
Scenario:
My student seems to be very excited to work with me and when no
one else is around, she is more than happy to talk, albeit in a
very, very, quiet voice. I am having a hard time thinking of games
to play with her. She loves to read to me, but games such as the
alphabet game previously described won't work with her. When we
work together, we are in the classroom so it's hard to get her to
speak up and each time an adult passes by she stops talking completely.
Can anyone think of a game I could play that is quiet and won’t
make her feel overwhelmed? I am also having a hard time leaving
when we are done with our session. I feel as though she gets upset
and I know she doesn't feel comfortable with her regular teacher.
Possible Strategies:
1. I can’t remember what level your tutee
is at, but the game from page 120 in the Claire book, was a quiet
game where she can read the sentences to herself and decide which
word completes the sentence. She really doesn't have to speak out
loud unless she has a question, and your role is to prompt her if
she needs it to figure out what would fit at the end of the sentence.
It was not too challenging of a game, and it helped with simple
vocabulary, and my tutee loved it.
2. I can't think of solutions to your problem,
but the good thing is that she feels comfortable with you and you
have to run with that! Maybe sit down with the teacher and talk
about her behavior, because I cannot imagine that the teacher doesn't
find this strange? Just remember that you are giving her a great
adult role model and that she feels connected with YOU!
3. Perhaps you want to try to write commercials
together or write a sequence to a story you have read together and
then ask her to narrate the different captions, all in a "quiet"
voice. In general, you need to choose activities where she can demonstrate
understanding without having to speak. I know this is hard, but
do it until she feels more comfortable with you. Bingo is also a
good game to play, you can help her learn lots of vocabulary she
needs. It’s ok to feel uncomfortable, frustrated, or unsure
of what you are doing. Even with great resources you may not have
enough ideas. Remember, that as you are helping them you are learning
so much in the doing. This is one of the main objectives of this
experience. If you were experts you would not have to do it. Just
know that you are not alone in your emotions about this experience.
Challenge:
Giving support, without always giving the
answer
Scenario:
On Friday morning, I had my second meeting with my tutee. It went
really well, and I am learning a lot more about her. I started out
doing more assessments with her, because she is very behind in class.
Her teacher said she doesn't even know all of her letters, yet.
I did the letter identification assessment on pages 379-380 of the
reader. She did pretty well, except she mixed up upper case "I"
with lower case "l." She also mixed up her "b,"
"d," and "q." We also did the "concepts
of print assessment" on page 381, so I could get an idea of
her familiarity with books, and reading. She fared really well with
this. Other than the assessments, we worked on her rhyming by using
some books I picked out. Whereas she didn't seem to understand rhyming
at all in our first meeting, this time she appeared to have no problem.
She picked out most of the rhymes, and even made some up on her
own.
The next activity we did was a lot of fun, and she really enjoyed
it. I wanted to do something that would be entertaining for her,
but where we could also practice her sound-letter correspondence,
and her writing. Her teacher stresses the idea of meaning in writing,
so I tried to add this in as well. I brought in a big drawing of
the ocean, with lots of sea mammals and birds in it, such as dolphins,
polar bears, and penguins. I asked her to name the animals, and
tell me what was going on in the picture. Then, I had her write
her thoughts down on paper. She loved this. I could tell it was
challenging for her, but she did great. She came up with sentences
like, "The dolphins are jumping," and the polar bears
have a baby." I had her write them herself, and sound the words
out the best she could. Then, I had her read the sentences back
to me. The drawings were done with watercolors, so she can paint
the picture to correspond to her story. One thing I was confused
about, though, was how much, or how little, help to give her when
she is trying to sound out words. She kept looking up at me after
every letter for some guidance, or to ask me if it was right. I
told her to just sound it out and do the best she could, but other
times I would tell her. However, I didn't want to tell her every
single letter that was wrong, because I wanted her to do it herself.
What is the best way to handle this? How much help should I give
her?
Possible Strategies:
Challenge:
Designing instruction for an emergent reader
Scenario:
I just got back from my third tutoring session, and my tutee loved
my activities that I did with her. First I had sentences written
out on one sheet of paper from the activities book (ex. I can ...
I write with ... I can see with ... I can hear with ... I can taste
with ...) then on another sheet, I had the matching phrases to the
sentences (ex. ride a bike, my eyes, my nose, my tongue, a pencil).
I had her cut the phrases out of the paper, read the sentences,
and then see which matching phrase completed the sentence. She loved
doing this because she was cutting, pasting, and learning new vocabulary
all at the same time. (The idea came from page 120 of the Claire
book) We then reviewed the sentences and drew some pictures to go
along with the new vocabulary. We also did another activity where
I focused on four letters, and cut pictures out of magazines to
correspond with the letters and I had her figure out the beginning
sound of each word. All the pictures that represented words starting
with “C” would be on one page, all of the “M”
words on another, etc. She liked doing this activity because she
was able to write the word next to the picture.
Possible Strategies:
Great job on designing these activities. You narrowed the focus
of thelesson and using multiple modalities to teach the concept,
which are both great ways to focus your instruction with an emergent
reader. In addition, check in the middle of Claire’s
activity book. There are small cards that show pictures of different
verbs and these cards could be useful for your goals. Students also
like to play the game "I see something in the classroom that
is .... (yellow, round, has four corners, etc). You can adapt the
game to the student’s level of proficiency.
Challenge:
My student is embarrassed by the leveled
books that he is reading and is consequently aggressive toward other
students during reading time
Scenario:
I was wondering if anyone could offer a few suggestions for my student.
He just moved here from Mexico about a month ago, and is in 3rd
grade. He speaks English very well, but he is very behind in reading
and writing. His teacher has had him reading books at the "a"
level, which is designed for beginning readers. This makes him very
upset, but he struggles with books that are at higher levels. He
gets very angry and aggressive towards the other students when it
is reading time, and I think it is because he is embarrassed about
the books he needs to read. Does anyone have suggestions of "cool"
books that would be at his level, or any thoughts on how I could
ease his anxiety during reading sessions? Once I have him alone,
reading with me, he calms down, but the books are so "young"
for him.
Possible Strategies:
1. You might want to try some comic books to read
with him. I know that the teacher may feel that this is somewhat
inappropriate, but when I worked with high school students who did
not know how to read, I would alternate between a comic book one
week and a normal book the next. It makes any student feel pretty
cool to be able to read a comic book during class. Just make sure
the comic book is appropriate and elementary enough for him to read.
2. Have you tried reading some books aloud to
the whole class? Maybe then he will see that the "easy"
books are actually pretty cool. If you can get his friends involved
and excited, then maybe he won't feel so awkward. Play group games
and do group activities as much as possible. Also, see if one of
his friends can explain why he's getting extra help, maybe they
are a little jealous. I hope some of this advice works.
Challenge:
Designing instruction for a student who
is a beginner in terms of language development
Scenario:
My first assessment session with my tutee seemed like a waste of
time. Everything I asked him, he responded with a blank stare or
occasionally a mumble in Spanish. I began by asking him all the
typical questions about school; what grade he was in, what his favorite
things were, and then questions about his family. He got excited
at the mention of family, so I handed him markers and some paper.
He drew his family and explained to me (in Spanish) who everyone
was. I figured that since he liked drawing and it got him to talk,
that I could continue the session with oral answers as well as letting
him be creative and draw. He seemed to respond to this technique.
We ran out of time, due to lunch, so I had to finish the other part
of the assessment the following week. Altogether, each part was
an hour and a half (3 hours total).
When I returned the second time, I came equipped with more visuals
(books) and with markers and paper. He seemed a little more comfortable
the second time around. Partially, I think this was due to feeling
more comfortable with me and partially because we sat outside the
second time to do our work. We worked slowly but got a bit more
accomplished. Many of his answers were still in Spanish, but at
least I knew that he understood the questions. I was at a bit of
a loss at where to even begin my lessons with him. My conclusion
to the assessment was that he didn't know his alphabet or how to
count (in either English or Spanish). He couldn't read, he couldn't
write, and didn't even want to try. He did however repeat some of
the English words I would say- I would translate and rephrase his
answers. The one thing that really concerned me, however, was that
he wrote his name in such a way that it was backwards and written
from right to left instead of left to right. (If you held it up
to a mirror it would be correct.) The only thing his teachers had
told me before I began working with him was that they hadn't really
had a chance to assess him, but they thought that he might be a
little slow. I think it’s just that this kid hasn't had anyone
zero in on him. I think that this tutoring will do him a great deal
of success. I am looking forward to our sessions, but don't really
know where to begin. Help!!!
Possible Strategies:
Challenge:
Developing English through L2 versus using
L1
Scenario:
I had my first real session with my tutee today. He seemed nervous
at first but once he saw that I had brought colorful books and paper
and markers, he seemed more at ease. Since I noticed during my initial
assessment of him that he really liked to draw, I wanted to begin
by teaching him all the colors in English, and corresponding things
that are those colors (ex. yellow- the sun, lemons; green- trees,
grass, frogs, etc.). Before I started this part of our session,
I read a fun book to him that had lots of colorful pictures with
different scenes in it detailing various activities people do. One
page had food, one had bath time, one had the supermarket, etc.
So I began by going through the book and asking him to locate certain
colors.
He immediately liked this “game” and pointed to the
markers and paper as if asking me if he could draw. He began to
draw himself. I asked him what he had for breakfast, like the book
did, and we went from there. This session went much better than
my long assessment did. I felt that we connected better and that
he understood some of my questions. He actually answered much more
of the questions in English today. He knew some animals in English
(elephant, bird, monkey, tiger, fish), as well as the names of some
toys (including the words puzzle, painting, and trumpet). I am amazed
at the words he knows, and wonder how he learned them. He could
point to various things that I asked him to find on the pages, but
could not (or would not) say them out loud. I knew that he was taking
it all in though, because towards the end of today's session, when
I asked him to draw things corresponding to a page about the ocean,
he repeated many of the words I had used earlier. Is it that his
teachers aren't focusing enough attention on him or could it be
that he has just not been exposed to enough English? The kids in
his class talk to each other in Spanish, which I think is good,
but also a disadvantage for him. For simple communication or clarification
I think it's a good and positive thing. But when they are learning
things in English, I think they should have to speak in English
at least most of the time. Where should I go with the tutoring?
I started to have him write simple words next to a few of his pictures
(he copied the words I wrote down). He seemed to like it, but is
it even useful yet? Any ideas where I should go from here?
Possible Strategies:
Challenge:
How do I make sure my lessons stick?
Scenario:
I had my third session with my tutee today. After Tuesday's class
(where we broke into pairs) I really thought about what my tutee
and I were doing and decided to just spend a session reviewing what
we knew and preparing for next week. I mean, she seemed to understand
all the new vocabulary while I was teaching it to her, but her retention
between lessons wasn't as high as I'd hoped. She always expresses
interest in drawing and my crayon box, and colors were one of the
things we learned about in our first lesson, so I started today's
lesson with The Crayon Box Talked, which is really a story
about friendship and acceptance, but it utilizes a crayon box as
characters. She really likes to listen to stories and asked a lot
of questions about the pictures and what was going on. While we
were doing that, I asked her what certain colors/shapes were. She
really loves the color purple but has trouble remembering its name.
She also has trouble remembering the words square and rectangle.
After we read, we looked through my Sunday newspaper selection
and a book on color to identify various colors and shapes. She was
very eager to re-learn her shapes and was quick to point out all
of the rectangles and squares that could be found. It's kind of
interesting what she did remember from our previous lessons. We
worked on food one week and she remembered that I taught her "broccoli"
and "cauliflower". She also remembered the difference
between sweet and sour (she made some faces to illustrate the difference
and talked about how sweet candy and soda were to her), and between
bumpy and smooth. Since we worked on the calendar last week, we
went back and reviewed the days of the week and what happens on
each day. She remembered that today was Friday, and that I always
come on that day. We went over her writing from last week and she
added some pictures to help her remember what she wrote. We talked
about what she did this week and then added pictures to our monthly
calendars. This week, she chose to work on calendar art for December
and March. We talked about each color that she added to her pictures
and she seemed more comfortable with using the English rather than
Spanish names for these words. Next week, my goal is to simulate
store so we can work on counting and the concept of money (as per
her teacher's instructions), so I used the crayon box to help her
learn about counting. She has a tendency to skip 13, 23, 33, etc.,
so I had her do each group of ten on her fingers so that she could
visualize and understand the pattern. I closed our lesson by teaching
her the "Days of the Year" song with a dance we learned
last week. I'm optimistic about her progress and am very thankful
that the affective filter between us is so low.
Challenge:
When we work with friends, it doesn't show
what he can do on his own.
Scenario:
I just wanted to say thanks for the suggestion on how to make my
tutee feel better about needing extra attention. I did my mini lesson
with him yesterday and my goal was for him to write a friendly letter.
I asked him to pick a friend that he knew he could work well with
and then I asked the boys to write letters to each other. This really
helped my tutee and made him more excited for the activity. We even
had to stop in the middle because the teacher needed to do something
with the whole class, but he came right back and was happy to continue
the lesson. I showed them a model first, and we talked about the
different parts of a letter and the types of things we write in
a friendly letter. Each boy did a brainstorming graphic organizer
and then we discussed their ideas. I worked with my tutee on constructing
complete sentences, which was the skill I focused on. We added punctuation
marks and capital letters to the beginning of each sentence. The
only problem was that my tutee’s friend dominated the discussion
and was the only one coming up with all the ideas for what to include
in the letter. I had a sheet that listed possible topics such as,
"tell about a movie you saw or a book you read,” or “tell
your friend a joke or riddle". His friend immediately started
talking about a scary movie he saw. Then he wrote down his thoughts
on his graphic organizer. I looked over at my student’s paper
to see if he needed additional guidance coming up with ideas, but
he was busy writing.
When he was finished, as I was helping him with his sentence structure,
I noticed that he had written down the exact same idea that his
friend was talking about. I didn't say anything to him about it
because I remembered that copying is a transition stage to helps
students who are having difficulty in writing still be involved
in the writing process, and that they will write on their own when
they are ready. However, this situation seems a little different.
I know my tutee has good ideas because I have done other writing
activities with him in our other sessions, where in that context
he doesn't copy directly from the text, but rather copies an idea
and runs with it. However, with his friend there, he will literally
copy exactly the idea his friend comes up with. Does anyone have
any suggestions? I want to be able to work with his friends, but
I don't want it to interfere with his independent development in
writing.
Possible Strategies:
Challenge:
My student is enthusiastic about reading,
but only when the book is written in Spanish.
Scenario:
Yesterday was a busy day in the classroom after we missed a week
of school. I was glad that the teacher still let me work with my
tutee at our scheduled time. We started cutting foods out of advertisements
to learn the names of the foods, and then we glued them on our grocery
bags which we used to tell a story. My tutee loved this! After we
finished the food activity, he wanted to keep going through the
paper and pick out the things he wanted to buy and he attempted
to say as many of the words as possible. I started the lesson off
by reading the book Today is Monday by Eric Carle. This
was a major breakthrough for us because this was the first book
written in English that he enjoyed listening to. In fact, by the
third page he was reading along with me. Almost every time I work
with him, he asks me to read him his favorite books that are written
in Spanish. I feel bad telling him I can't and then asking him to
choose one of the English books. Is it ok if I start by reading
him his book and then go into the tutoring session in English? Should
I reward him at the end of the session? It just doesn't seem right
to tell a child I can't read to him.
Possible Strategies:
I felt the same way the past few times about letting my tutee read
in Spanish also. It makes our sessions ten times better when my
student is able to read to me in Spanish first. I think it breaks
the ice a little. What I do now is come in five minutes early so
she can read to me in Spanish, and then we begin our lesson. I think
personally that it would be bad (for my student anyway) if I tell
her, "No, you can't read to me in your first
language," since the first thing she does is come running over
to me with her new library book! So I've adapted my time so we can
do this and it really makes her feel important because she has to
retell the story back to me in English. It makes her feel like a
teacher as well! Maybe you could try something like this!
Challenge:
Using other students to help instruction for
your tutee
Scenario:
Yesterday we opened the session by playing the old favorite "I
Spy." I had several 6th graders hanging around, so I used them
to my advantage. At first my tutee, was very quiet. When it was
his turn to ask questions, he passed. I began to wonder if this
game was appropriate for him, if maybe it was an I
+ 5. After a while, it became evident that just because he
wasn't talking, that didn't mean that he wasn't listening! I wanted
to play the game because I thought it would be a good way of getting
him to interact vocally with the other children. However, it was
still a great benefit because he practiced his listening and comprehension
skills. He did so well, that he was able to figure out the answer
several times!
Possible Strategies:
Challenge:
My student has trouble spelling and the
teacher doesn't want me to spell the words for her.
Scenario:
Well, I had my third session with my tutee this morning. I am getting
to know her a lot better now. I did my mini lesson with her today,
and it went really well, and she had a lot of fun. My lesson has
to do mostly with writing, because her teacher really wants to focus
on this. She thinks her reading will improve if she learns more
about the meaning words have on paper. I decided to have her create
a book based on a story that she has heard before, or one she makes
up. She chose to write about her mom, her house, and going to the
zoo. She worked really hard, but had a great deal of difficulty
with sounding out the words when she wrote them. She has this same
problem when she reads. Her teacher told me that she always wants
words spelled for her when she is writing, so, she asked me not
to spell anything for her. She needed to either look it up on her
word list, or sound it out phonetically. This is where I got confused
again. Just as my tutee's teacher had said, she started asking me
to spell words for her instead of trying to write them herself.
I would not tell her, and instead had her try to write the letters
she thought she heard. When should I tell her how to spell something
or when a word she spells is wrong? Her teacher said not to tell
her at all, so I didn't. However, she tried to spell the word "new,"
and could only come up with "n." Also, she spelled "great"
as "gat." It took her so long just to get those letters
out, though, that I didn't correct her. Should I have corrected
her?
Possible Strategies:
Challenge:
Using small group instruction to assess your
student
Scenario:
The second hour of my tutoring sessions has really opened my eyes
a lot. The teacher has made me one of the "stations" in
the guided reading hour. I get to work with the entire class, but
in groups of 4 at a time. The beginner groups read their book in
Spanish and then tell me what it is about or summarize the main
theme in English. The more advanced groups read with me in English
and we discuss the meaning of the book and I help them with comprehension
and developing new English vocabulary. This hour really helps me
to see the different levels of English proficiency among the children.
I also get to see how my tutee responds when he has the help of
his classmates and the use of familiar reading materials.
Possible Strategies:
It seems that you are using the second hour of your tutoring in
a very productive way to gain more knowledge about the advantages
of using primary language to help students gain English.
Challenge:
To
correct or not to correct
Scenario:
My student has difficulty speaking in complete sentences and using
the correct verb tense. I don't want to keep correcting him, but
at the same time I want him to learn the conventions of English.
Possible Strategies:
It is better to always
correct the student.
Challenge
When is the appropriate time to shift activities
Scenario:
I feel that too many
shifts in activities may lead to an overload for my student. I am
struggling to find the right time to make an activity shift because
I don't want my student to get frustrated. I am also worried though,
that if I constantly shift to new activities that I may not be spending
enough time on any one objective.
Possible
Strategies :
A shift in activity is beneficial only if each different activity
is reinforcing the same language concept. It can become "overload"
material if each activity shift is teaching something different,
so be sure that your shifts are designed to reinforce what you have
been working on in an different manner rather than trying to switch
the entire focus of the lesson. It is important that you concentrate
your efforts and target specific skills.
Challenge:
Skipping
the unknown words
Scenario:
My student does not
take the time to pronounce unfamiliar words. He automatically just
skips over them without even trying to sound them out. I've talked
to him about slowing down his reading pace so that he can really
concentrate on pronunciation. Is there anything else I can do?
Possible Strategies:
You must show your student strategies to figure out the sounds of
words. The problem lies in the irregularity of the English language.
Because the English language is so irregular, it is difficult for
students to apply the rules that they already know. You must guide
him to try to decipher the meaning from context (Does it make sense?
Does the word follow a pattern?) If the student does not have enough
oral vocabulary it will be difficult for him / her to answer some
of these questions. This is why it is pertinent that the students
read literature that is "just beyond their fence," where they will
encounter several new words that are not too sophisticated for their
level. At times it is best to teach them how to pronounce a word,
so that the next time, or maybe after the 3rd time, they will remember.
Challenge
Scaffolding the student toward understanding
Scenario:
My student was asked
to describe "sensory images of a butterfly" for creative writing.
I had trouble explaining the concept of "looks like" to her. It
seemed too abstract and it took several minutes to ask the right
questions to help her. I ended up asking her "What do you see?"
"Is it big? Small?" "What colors do you see" etc. Were these appropriate
strategies to use with her because the original concept was too
abstract?
Possible Strategies:
These are excellent questions to scaffold the student's understanding
of what "looks like" means. You could also use the student herself
and have her describe what she "looks like," or even use yourself
as an example.
Challenge:
She wants to teach me her language
Scenario:
A challenge that I face with my student I brought upon myself. The
first day I met her, I had asked her how to say the word "one" in
Vietnamese. Because of this, she thought I was eager to learn her
language, so now she spends a lot of our time trying to teach me
her native language.
Possible Strategies:
It is always wonderful to show enthusiasm to learn the students'
language, but from the beginning you must set limits. An example
would be to have her choose two words she may want to teach you
in Vietnamese each time she sees you. This can be your routine and
it may help in keeping her motivated to learn because she can also
feel like she is teaching you.
Challenge
My student is constantly off task
Scenario:
One of the challenges
I am faced with when working with my student is that he often talks
off subject, especially when he doesn't know the answer to the question
I asked him. Instead of answering it, he begins to speak about something
that heknows about. I usually try to rephrase the question, help
him with the answer, or move on to the next question.
Possible Strategies:
If the student is having trouble with comprehending readings, make
sure you clarify the vocabulary and then ask the questions. The
student will then probably have a better chance at answering the
questions.
Activities
Challenge:
Developing vocabulary and oral fluency using
dynamic activities
Scenario
I met with my new tutee for the first time today. She has only been
in the country for a year and her oral English is very good. Forgive
me for not having memorized the oral rubrics, otherwise I'd tell
you specifically what level she is at. She seems to have mastered
the BICS fairly well, so I will be focusing on CALP skills. Today
we went over the preamble of the Constitution (at her teacher's
request). I modeled two skills that we will be working on in the
future: 1) breaking down the text into understandable segments (i.e.
an outline), and 2) using context clues to figure out the meaning
of an unfamiliar word. She seemed delighted when the two of us accurately
predicted the definition of the word “posterity”.
Possible Strategies:
With that said, here's a game you may want to play if your tutees
are more advanced speakers: Taboo Jr. I played the game with a group
of kids so that my tutee wouldn't feel on the spot or pressured
(low affective filter). We had a lot of fun, and in fact, my tutee
even guessed the correct answer to several of the words! Taboo Jr.
is perfect because it uses very common vocabulary that you would
find in the school. For the less advanced speakers, maybe play password
where there are no limitations to what you can say (as there are
in Taboo). In fact, it would be pretty easy to create your own taboo
cards using vocabulary that you're working on.
Challenge:
Everyone else in the class wants to work
with us
Scenario:
I had great success with the activity I did from p. 120 of the Claire
book. There was just one problem, by the end of the session, I had
about 5 kids gathered around us trying to help. The teacher won't
let us go outside, and it is free time (supposedly independent reading)
for everyone so they all want to come by us. Any suggestions on
how I could tell them in a nice way that the activity is designed
only for my student?
Possible Strategies:
I loved the activities you did! If you have extra kids hanging around,
then try to use them to your advantage. I also have students hanging
around my classroom and they love interacting with my tutee. Try
playing some simple group games that require your tutee to vocally
interact with the other students, maybe even have her teach the
games. I'm trying the same method with my kids, so I'll post any
game ideas I have. Last week I taught the card game "liar"
(also known as B.S.) to a group of kids. They loved playing it,
and my tutee had a good time interacting with the other students.
It does not require a high vocabulary and therefore should create
low anxiety as well. You just have to know the names of the 52 cards
in the deck. The game could work well with early production or speech
emergent students.
Challenge:
My student is able to express her ideas orally,
but has a low level of oral comprehension
Scenario:
I met with my tutee for the first time last Friday. She's in third
grade, a real sweetheart. Her teacher was kind enough to fill out
my entire questionnaire form so I knew a lot about her walking into
the session. It really helped. At the very least, I knew what she
was interested in. We had a little over two hours together so we
had plenty of time to get to know each other, have a little fun,
and do some assessments.
I started out with Total Physical Response (TPR) in the form of
"Simon Says", which she loved. This activity proved useful
because we were able to play and simultaneously I was able to assess
her understanding of different concepts like directionality, adjectives,
nouns, verbs. She also enjoyed looking/talking about the magazine
pictures that I brought. She is an extremely talkative kid, but
one thing I found very interesting was that she doesn't have a very
high oral vocabulary. She talks a mile a minute and then when she
comes to a word that she doesn't know she just acts it out, either
with a facial expression or a gesture. She doesn't hesitate at all
when she does this and she's such a good actress that I had very
little trouble following what she was trying to say. However, if
we were to talk on the phone, I'd probably be very confused. Did
anyone else have an experience like this? Her teachers tell me that
her low oral vocabulary is their number one priority at this moment
because although they can understand her, she can't always understand
them and consequently falls behind in her lessons.
Since she's so active and gets bored easily, I think I'm going
to start our lessons out with Language Experience Approach (LEA).
This should be fun for both of us and will allow me to work on her
vocabulary and her reading and writing skills without putting her
on the spot. One thing I do recommend and have done with a lot of
tutees in the past is sort of "interview" them about how
they view reading and writing. It really helps you gauge how to
approach both subjects, especially if they're touchy ones. Her teachers
sort of told me as much in the questionnaire, but I was able to
get more out of her, not only by what she said, but how she acted
when she said it. If anyone has any suggestions for me regarding
what vocabulary we should work on first I'd love to hear it! (Is
there a list of necessary vocabulary somewhere?)
Possible Strategies:
Using Language Experience Approach (LEA) to ease frustration level.
Challenge:
Developing oral comprehension
Scenario:
On Friday, I worked with the entire class for the hour that I was
there. The teacher asked me to work with individual reading groups,
have them read their Spanish reading books and retell the story
to me in English. It was great working with all the different levels
and it really helped to see my tutee, within his reading group,
to see how he retold the story. His classmates helped him out a
lot. He used the pictures and the text to help him tell the story
in English using one or two words.
On Monday, I have my individual tutoring session with him again
and I am planning an activity where he can label objects with post-its.
He likes to move around, and through the assessment, I noticed he
had a few gaps in his vocabulary related to the classroom &
school setting. His teacher also stressed how hard it is for him
to follow directions or know what he is supposed to have on his
desk when she addresses the class in English. Any suggestions on
how I can incorporate something similar to video games into a tutoring
session? He tells me that it is his favorite thing to do and I want
to make the activities fun by relating them to his hobbies.
Possible Strategies:
Unfortunately, I can't think of something incorporating video games
... I don't know if the teacher would approve (or anyone in the
school for that matter) since video games are not allowed in schools.
You can use the characters he likes to practice all kind of vocabulary.
For example, you can use characters from Pokemon to give commands
like the ones that appear under TPR activities in the Claire book.
Challenge:
Cutting across the content areas
Scenario:
I met with my tutee again. She has been remarkably good with attendance
and we've never missed a session. Since she is working on maps in
her class, I thought that we would reinforce some of her vocabulary
by doing a map activity. We read the book Me on the Map,
which is a cute little story that starts out in a bedroom and gradually
expands to the world. This book is good because the language is
simple, the pictures are interesting and it really makes the difference
between a picture of a place and a map, clear. My tutee really likes
books so we read the book and she described all of the pictures
to me. While she is fairly solid in the concept of mapping I think
the pictures, coupled with the map equivalents side by side in the
book, really helped clarify the overall subject.
After we looked at the book, we looked at pictures and maps that
were more relevant to this area. I have a digital camera so I took
a picture of my bedroom and showed that to her. Last week we took
a walk around her school to look at the neighborhood so we talked
about what we saw and went outside to quickly refresh our memory.
I also showed her pictures of San Diego from a tourist guide that
I have and then pictures I took while living on the East Coast and
while driving cross country. Then we looked at maps of all of these
areas and tried to find correlations. This part proved a bit difficult
becuase it's hard to identify something from a photograph on a AAA
map, but we managed by looking for big landmarks like rivers, oceans,
and mountains. Unfortunately, I did not have a globe, but we improvised
by using a ball and drawing the relative positions of each continent
and then talked about flattening the globe to produce a map.
Our last mapping activity extended the story we read by having
us make Me on the Map books for ourselves. We started with
our bedrooms and got as far as our state. She did a really good
job with her drawing and I encouraged her to label as much as she
could in her picture. We used a picture dictionary to look up the
words she didn't know, but she really tried hard to incorporate
all of the new vocabulary we've learned in our sessions so I was
really proud of her.
Possible Strategies:
What a great idea to take a picture of your bedroom to personalize
your lesson. The only times that you may not want to show too much
where you live is in the case of having students who are homeless
or very poor, especially is you have a fancy place. Again, that
hinges on knowing the background of your student and being sensitive
to his/her environmental realities.
Challenge:
Designing a final activity that is memorable
and ties everything together
Scenario:
My student has made a lot of progress these past couple of months
and I'm really sad that our time together is coming to a close.
I'm trying to think of fun, but educational, games that we can do
for our last session together. I thought of playing Memory, Bingo,
and Go Fish using vocabulary cards that we've made in the past.
Does anyone have any other suggestions?
Possible Strategies:
As for a culminating activity, if you haven't played bingo yet,
it is a great game to review all the words you have worked on so
long as she can read. If she can't read yet, you can adapt the game
by just saying the word and giving her a bingo board with just pictures.
Another activity that is even more memorable is creating a book
together of what you both learned about each other, yourselves,
your similarities, etc.
Challenge:
Variety
is the spice of writing sentences
Scenario:
My student struggles with variety in sentences, grammar, and spelling.
I have started to introduce him to new vocabulary to try and get
him to be more descriptive in both his writing and speaking. I'm
not sure though how to focus on varying his sentence structure so
that his writing improves.
Possible Strategies:
Exposing the student
to examples of good writing is key in helping them develop ideas
on how others do it. Remember to do this in an explicit way. For
example, use a variety of graphic organizers to help him organize
ideas.
Challenge:
Bringing out emotions
Scenario:
Things are slowly progressing with my student. Although she still
chooses to be silent, I've found that when no one else is looking,
she really enjoys reading out loud. I've started to introduce every
lesson by having her read me a book on that day's subject. This
seems to relax her. I decided to do my last lesson on emotions.
I hardly see her smile and thought this would be a good way to discuss
different emotions with her. We started by reading A Pocket
for Corduroy and I had her tell me what emotion the characters
were feeling throughout the story (ie. happy, sad, excited). Next
we played a game of Charades using pictures of emotions. It was
fun to see her make different faces and I even caught her laughing
a few times, which was probably at my funny faces!! We ended the
lesson by having her write what emotion she would feel in response
to the sentences I read aloud. (For example: When I play with my
friends I feel ...) Although I still feel frustrated, I think this
is a good lesson to do with students who seem to keep their emotions
bottled up inside.
Possible Strategies:
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