Anne - TS #6

 Anne – TS #6

Date/Time:  Saturday, January 16, 2016, 6:00-7:00

Location:  Lyon County Library

Topic/Skills:  Simple past and past perfect

Teacher Presentation:  Homework for today was to recount a story about an event in her childhood.  Student did so and made few errors in her use of the simple past and past perfect.  I also had her read a short advanced elementary passage, and again, she made few errors, mostly with regard to pronunciation.  We reviewed the simple present and she demonstrated a good grasp of the simple present in the affirmative, but had difficulty forming questions.  We worked on subject-verb inversion as well as the format and meaning of WH questions.

Feedback provided to tutee:  I corrected pronunciation as we went along as well as correction of questions.  I encouraged her to continue talking to me freely, telling her her English is much more fluent and accurate than she thinks.  I gave her the homework of speaking  English at home, even though her older granddaughter doesn't like it because she is slow.  (The granddaughter also doesn't like it when she speaks Russian, either!)  

Lessons learned:  This students speak and reds with much more accuracy and fluidity than she demonstrated in my assessment last week.  I had planned a lesson far below her ability and had to follow her lead to the format for asking questions in the simple present.  I think she is feeling more at ease with me, thus she’s more willing to talk freely.  She has been studying English on her own and told me she’d bring her book next time.  I think this will help me more accurately address what she doesn’t know.  She has a pretty good grasp of basic grammar, but there are “holes” in her knowledge.  She doesn’t know what they are, and neither do I at this point.  Having her use her book, rather than mine, will help reveal those strengths and gaps, I think.