Anne - TS #3

Date/Time:  Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2016, 6:00-7:00

Location:  Lyon County Library

Topic/Skills:  Getting to Know You and needs assessment; "I like to..."

Teacher Presentation:  This was the first session with this student, a retired Russian woman with limited ability in English.  Through the process of introductions, I made a basic assessment of her needs.  We worked a bit on “I like + to (verb).” The student progressed from “I like swim” to “I like to swim” and “I like swimming,” and remembered the grammatical pattern for use in a statement later in the session.  The student was very shy, so it was a challenge to draw her out and to encourage her to talk.  We did “join forces” over the subject of grandchildren, and this was a topic she engaged in.  At the end of the session, I asked her to prepare a story about something that happened in her childhood for us to tell me at our next session. 

Feedback provided to tutee:  The student seems eager to learn but is understandably shy about speaking at this lesson.  During the session I focused on her use of “I like + to + verb” and reinforced her ability to learn a grammatical point quickly.  She was very pleased at herself for her auto-correction later in the session.

Lessons learned:  I don’t yet have a sound grasp of the student’s level of speaking ability.  I’m hoping the homework assignment to come prepared with a story to tell about her childhood will enable her to talk more. This is a very bright woman, a former teacher with a graduate degree.  I want to be sure not to “dumb things down” in my effort to be clear.