NALC Meeting 8

The most recent opportunity I've had to tutor was the second session on top of my previous post from 11 a.m. to 12. I was able to work with another female student that was from a foreign country in the Middle East only this time, her pronunciations were not the main concern as with the previous student. We worked on long versus short vowel sound rules along with general I before E rules. The biggest help came when she pointed out what wanted to work more with numbers such as the list with numbers through 100. We were able to shift gears mid-way through the session and focus more on words. By the end of the session, we had jumped back to the book and were creating new words and concepts on paper in order for her to expand her vocabulary and understanding even more. She was so nice during the entire session I was very elated by her enthusiasm and drive throughout the session. Very fun to work with.

NALC Meeting 7

On November 22, I was able to tutor from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Nashville location with a young woman from outside the United States. What was unique about her was her pronunciations because she grew up in a French speaking area. She understood what she was reading very well so the main concern was with her accent, particularly with not placing the "w" sound in for "s" or "t" sounds. It was very unique because when I was listening to her and watching her mouth move, I could see adjustments that she could make in order to help her pronunciation. She was a very fast learner because she understood the terms and concepts behind them as we were going through the material. Her suffixes were mostly understood besides some unique and rare words. Luckily we were able to use words that she struggled with to form new words that were hadn't seen in the book in order to give her more diversity in what she was learning. She was very receptive and motivated to learn, it was a great session.

Descriptive Draft - Use of Terms

The unique culture is classified and set apart by the vernacular of the region. With hundreds of species of food coming out of the Chesapeake Bay, there is diverse imagery given to the small towns all the way up to the major metropolitan areas such as with Baltimore or Philadelphia. Using the glossary previously posted as a reference, you can see that the common thread revolves around seafood and Northeast culture. Latin terms with science and ocean life in consideration are seen as a starting point for the environmental background and importance of the bay. This section includes terms such as Chesepiooc-Algonquian, shellfish, estuary and states Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New York.
Annapolis if known for Navy and grit, paving the way for an important port - Baltimore, Maryland in 1729 established the colonial feel with brick buildings. The environment still includes a rustic feel to the crab houses and local bars of the regions. One of the subjects interviewed, Mr. Estabo described the drenched thick wood on the bar-tops of the local establishments. Buckets of oysters and assortment of chip and nut items outlined the beer mugs and glasses. Since Baltimore and Annapolis served as distribution ports to early colonial expansion, many industrial blue-collar workers remain in what was previously one of the largest source of factory jobs in the early United States. With this between the local workers came camaraderie in after hours from shifts where men from the shipyards and industrial manufacturing plants would make their way down to the nearest bar to spend their earnings. Decades lasted and generations lived through this experience. With more technology and access given to boats and fisherman, crabs and other seafood items became more and more prevalent in the region. In a way, as Estabo describes, salty foods define the region. Grit and blue-collar work outline the roots of the region, felt in between the cold windy brick buildings and cobblestone streets.

NALC Meeting 6

On Tuesday November 1st at 11 a.m. through 12 I was able to work with an International student from Asia. He told me about his opportunities working at a new job in a pizza place here in the United States. He was eager to get started on his fifth session so we dove right in. I felt that right off the bat he had an understanding of what he was reading, the only thing was a few missed words here and there. We walked through individual words and stay on about two pages of material for the first 20 minutes or so reading. He was able to then switch to writing and spelling. His quick understanding of fill-in-the-blank terms caused us to talk about the meanings of the word which provided some humor throughout the session on both parts. The fun part was pronunciation because that was the main focus the student wanted to work on. After running through all of the words on Lessons 2-Lessons 5, we walked through numbers 1-100 as we did in my previous session. We had to work first on syllables and second on basic mouth and tongue movements for word pronunciation. His main struggle was with endings of "ist" or "st" because he would add a "ta" at the end of it. Even when we slowed it down. This part was very fun for a teacher because I was able to quickly find ways to sound out words uniquely by saying to the student "first sat "eh" "sst" and then I would follow behind it and wave my arms and say to the student (stop, abrupt, it just ends right there). This experience was hilarious but overall both me and the student were laughing after 15 minutes of it because he could finally pronounce the terms correctly after we broke everything down more and more. With "is" the student and I looked through the differences in soft vowels and long vowels. As we went back to the text for the last 20 minutes, we were able to read through sentences and work on rhythm as well as overall word pronunciation knowledge. Using a notepad, as was used in all my previous sessions, gave me a quick reference where I could write out and explain words and sounds to students. Since this student was international, this especially worked. He also pulled out his iPhone and searched through his own language's interpretation of two early words, polite and something else I cannot remember. He did understand and enjoy my interaction. I liked how we really worked on his fundamentals and stuck to the lesson plan. Overall, It was a great session.

NALC Meeting 5

On November 1, 2011 I was able to tutor a new student at 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Since he had just been evaluated by the program, I was able to start off with a new textbook and lesson plan. Quickly I asserted that the student was a bit shy in reading and actually needed help with the first few words. I had to adjust my tempo and enthusiasm to match the situation. I feel like I did a good job of recognizing the opportunity to teach basic fundamentals. Throughout the rest of the session, we were able to connect as friends and move through lessons 2 through lesson 5 which include about 6 words per lesson giving emphasis to the first letter and sound. Pronunciation was not an issue with the student because he was born and raised in the United States here in TN. He was very nice and easy to get along we. We connected on letters and sounds with basically just picking up the linking time between recognizing what the first letter is and the ending's sound by that first letter. The pictures did help as we worked through each lesson's vocabulary words. From there we worked on writing the letters and picking out words from a selected reading in the book. The sentences were very similar basically reading "This is a cup." Designating the "th" in "this" between the "th" in "the" gave the student a quick memory bank of stored terms. From there throughout the session we build on "is" as well as running through the other terms.
I think a valuable sidestep was going through numbers one through ten and letting the student always read first as was done throughout the entire session. The student was encouraged throughout the session to really focus on each word and mastering a level of basic words. We went through to page 18 in a brand new book going all the way through "sh" "th" "ch" and all of the letter sounds. Each letter was given three sentences, we went through and read each sentence. After that we went back through the earlier pages and repeated the lesson. By the end of the session the student was talking able magazines he wanted to bring in and sort through. I think the lesson plan was fun and easy to work with because the student understood the material fairly quickly. A bit of repetition was needed here and there, but the student was left with three basic rules to work on as well as reading and writing. Overall, it was very productive and exciting to work with a new American student.