TP#3 Alice

       Yesterday night, after class, I met with up with Jose. We found an empty room in the Kellogg building to work in, because I didn’t want to walk all the way to the library; it was also pretty dark, which might have resulted in me getting lost on campus due to my unfamiliarity with the area.  Before we sat down, he gave me a big hug and wished me a happy birthday. I was a little taken aback, until I remembered that last week I mentioned that my birthday was coming up (September 4), which, to my suprise, he remembered. I was startled and thankful at the same time.

       We began the tutoring session reading a short story entitled, “The Lady, or the Tiger?”. This story served multiple purposes. As he read, I instructed him to underline words he did not know so that we could discuss them, and so that he could add a few new words to his receptive vocabulary! Additionally, we worked on pronunciation. I noticed that, as with most native Spanish speakers, any word that began with an “s”, he tended to pronounce with an “e” sound before it. He also has trouble pronouncing words that end with an “-ed”. Finally, we worked on a little reading comprehension. After Jose finished reading a few small paragraphs, I would stop him and ask him to explain to me what was happening. The first time I did this, he just stared at me blankly. I could tell then that he was just reading the words quite mechanically, and he was not actually thinking about what he was reading. So I explained to him what was happening in story up until that point, and I could tell that, just from my explanation, he really liked the story. The next time I stopped him, he was ready with a brief explanation. Eventually, I wouldn’t even have to stop him to discuss what was happening. He would read a paragraph and ask me questions about it, or he would make a comment about what he was reading. Even though I had planned for this activity only to take half an hour, it took the entire hour, which is fine, because he remained engaged the entire time. He asked lots of questions, and responded to my questions as best as he could.

       At the end of the session, I gave Jose a vocabulary log that I had put together for him the night before. I told him that, as an ongoing assignment, I wanted him to write down five new words throughout the week so that we can discuss them whenever we meet on Tuesday nights. For each word, I wanted him to write down the part of speech, definition, and a sentence using it correctly. I also wrote down an example so that he could see exactly what I was talking about and what I expected. Afterwards, he asked me if it would be okay if he decided to write down more than five words, to which I responded, “Of course!”.  I am glad that he is so eager to take charge of his learning.