TP #2 Alice

       Yesterday night I met with Jun-suk Oh, my tutee, for the first time at his apartment where he lives with his mother, Jung Ryu. Before meeting with Jun, I conversed with his mother via email regarding things that Jun needed to work on. According to Jung, Jun has problems with elaborating when speaking. When asked a question, he would respond with one or two words and nothing more. Subsequently, I put together a list of activities that encouraged elaboration and description. I printed out pages of colorful pictures and interesting short stories. I felt prepared, but I was still very nervous.   
        Jun is a lively, energetic second grader. When I entered the apartment, he turned around from his Lego station and gave me the biggest smile and wave. After I took off my shoes and left them by the door, I went and sat beside Jun on the floor near the Lego station and attempted to make small talk. He’s seven and likes math and Legos. Then, he began getting a little distracted with his toys, so I redirected his attention to a bookshelf. He picked two of his favorite books, and read them aloud to me (with his Lego men standing guard of course). I complimented him highly on his reading comprehension and pronunciation. I was very impressed with the ease in which he read and understood each sentence.
       After we finished reading, I picked one of the activities I prepared for Jun, which correlated nicely with story-telling since it seemed like he was engaged best when reading. For this activity, I printed out a page that had five pictures on it (a boy with an elephant, a dog playing with a ball, a racecar driver, a trophy with money, and a pig). I asked him to look at all of the pictures and create a fun story using them, to which he responded, “Oh, we are going to make a fiction story and not non-fiction”. The point of the assignment was to work on his elaboration. I wanted him to talk and describe things as much as possible. There would be not short answers allowed!! To my excitement, he loved the activity. All of the characters were in deep sea-swamp adventure, where the magic money created zombies and creepers, and the pig saved the day! However, Kevin, the dog in the story, sat quietly in school all day and missed all of the fun escapades his fellow characters experienced. When we were sharing Jun’s story with his mother, I found out that the dog was named after Jun’s baby brother. His mother couldn’t stop laughing.
       I enjoyed working with Jun, and I look forward to meeting him again. Jun was receptive to the activities that we worked on, and his mother was extremely nice and welcoming. She provided snacks and encouraged me to eat. However, no encouragement was necessary, because I was very hungry and extremely appreciative!