Date of Class: 10/28/13
Day of Class: Monday
PI: Patrik
SI:
Assistants:
Module: At The Bank
How Many Learners: 6
Score: 4+5+7+6+5+5= 31
What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific): Interesting day – though my own technique was pretty dry, there were some great moments which brought the learners to the board – one part was an extended exploration of names from different cultures, super cool. Another part was when we started doing percentages in English. I kept it very straightforward – 10% of 1000, 20% of 1000, then doubled it to 2000. As one learner remarked – it’s like English and math at the same time. And, I added – at the bank too.

The loan application document was useful and interesting, but the image quality wasn’t that good. Much of the class was a dictation of terms like Loan, Borrower, Lender, Interest Rate. They were very interested (and the group was relatively high skill, as well).

Date of Class: 10/29/13
Day of Class: Tues
PI: ML
SI:
Assistants:
Module: Soccer
How Many Learners: 10
Score: 11
What happened:
At the beginning of class, when teaching alone, I’m still stumbling through the balancing act of starting the lessons, welcoming late arrivals, and figuring loyalty cards. I tried to organize more attendance things before they arrived and that kind of helped. Kind of. Because of this general cumbersome-ness, my idea to incorporate last names into the yell and spell was also a bit clumsy. After a couple confusing turns, I changed my tack (and wrote the last names), and it seemed to work better. From this, I again made an effort to have more conversation and speaking practice in class. So, I began by using Patrik’s suggestion of talking about Halloween (parties, what costumes their kids will be wearing, candy, etc) and from there we discussed favorite sports, who played soccer, etc. I used the answers from these questions to create the dictation exercise (i.e. Does Juan play soccer? What’s Cera’s favorite sport?). It worked great- the conversation was interesting and we all learned a lot about each other, and I think it made the dictation more relevant (and therefore engaging) because not only were they writing what we had just spoken, but it was about them and their fellow students.

Date of Class: 11/4/13
Day of Class: Monday
PI: Patrik
SI:
Assistants:
Module: At The Bank
How Many Learners: 4
Score: 3+3+7+7+5+4= 29
What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific): Even though I wasn’t prepared (seems to be how it goes down these days), and really, all I did was dictation – this was a wonderful class. We didn’t do anything related to the bank – we started off with working with one learner wanting to express something – a new notebook. Then practicing replacement of pronouns “She bought me a new notebook”. The lowest skilled learner stayed in the game, though she did a lot of copying. The day went by fast, as new topics came up, we slowed it down, and turned it into a dictation. We talked about groceries and shopping and Alabama. It was a perfect example, really, of what a tutoring/small group situation should look like. Lots of connection and interest.

Date of Class: Nov. 5
Day of Class: Tuesday
PI: ML
SI: Brooke
Assistants:
Module: Soccer
How Many Learners: 6
Score: 11
What happened:
Well first off, it was nice to have Brooke as an SI- it alleviated the stress of dealing with the attendance and loyalty cards while trying to also start class, to say the very least. We began with just a discussion about what sports we play. I really am liking the conversation at the beginning of class- it is a great warm-up/lead-in to whatever the class will be about, and a great way to get to know each other and loosen the class up.

Due to my lack of writing out a specific dictation, Brooke and I kind of stumbled through this part. In trying to talk about sports, we basically came up against the “I do yoga” vs. “I play basketball” vs. “I box” dilemma. We kind of stumbled through it, confusing some students and trying to clear it up as we could. We discussed afterward using this as a focal point at the next class- separating sports into these three camps and dictating/saying them for practice and, hopefully, more clarity. Again, had I written them out specifically (or practiced aloud), I might have realized this would be complicated before actually being in class.

Date of Class: 11/11/13
Day of Class: Monday
PI: Patrik
SI:
Assistants: Kevin
Module: At The Bank (Veteran’s Day)
How Many Learners: 3
Score: 3+3+5+5+4+6=26
What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific): This was a pretty drab day in terms of technique. I was running late (max problems) and then I wanted to explore war, but really didn’t have the right materials for it. I put Kevin in the hot seat for the beginning, which is not ideal, but he held his own… and I got the sense that folks were not as engaged as they often are.. Possibly to do with some new faces in the classroom. I know I pushed one learner a little further than she was comfortable with today. My technique was very dictation heavy, which is normally really good, but today, felt a little flat.

Date of Class: Nov. 12
Day of Class: Tuesday
PI: ML
SI:
Assistants:
Module: Soccer
How Many Learners: 6
Score: 25
What happened: Overall, a solid class with a lot of banter and conversation- I tried to make the yell and spell more interesting with questions/conversation, since we have the same core group every time, and that went well. But then I tried to make an on-the-fly activity to follow up the “I do, I go, I play” sport dictation, and that didn’t go so well. Apparently I just wasn’t up to the task tonight. . .so there was a brief interlude of some repeat question-asking. But it was fine- most needed the practice. At the end we played some ‘Go Fish’ with some cards that were divided in the same ‘do/go/play’ manner. It was a bit slow to start (mostly due to my atrocious shuffling skills)- and much harder than I imagined to model/teach the game without an assistant (might have been impossible in the short time I allowed, but thankfully Santos helped me out!)- and we got a bit of a late start, but once we got rolling, everyone seemed to be really enjoying it and it was good practice saying the different phrases. I do hope to try it again at the next class, with a bit more time to get going.

Date of Class: 11/18/13
Day of Class: Monday
PI: Patrik
SI:
Assistants:
Module: Measurement
How Many Learners: 7
Score: 3+4+4+5+6+4= 26What happened (as short or as long as you like, but be specific): It was nice to see several folks come back that hadn’t been there in a while – and a couple of new people too! One new guy saw what we were doing and joined us – and he stunk of alchohol. It was challenging to keep him focused, definitely a wild card, but he participated and did well. .I hope he comes back – sober! Also.. I marked myself down for preparation not just because I didn’t have a lesson but.. it was supposed to be At The Bank today! Wrong Module!!

Date of Class: Nov. 18
Day of Class: Tuesday
PI: ML
SI:
Assistants:
Module: Soccer
How Many Learners: 5
Score: 43.5
What happened: Class went generally well, despite all 5 people arriving late! After some good conversation, dialogue dictation, TPR and vocab, I made the choice to try the ‘do-go-play’ sport GO FISH game again, which, unfortunately, did not go as well as I had hoped or, frankly, as well as it did last time. Once we finally got the game going with all Ss at least understanding the rules, there was still a lack of energy. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great. After talking with Brooke, I think there were maybe two main reasons for this: 1) though I did some TPR to review the verb phrases involved, it probably was not enough for those who hadn’t been at the previous class, and 2) the game inherently only engages about two people at a time. So while some Ss struggled to say the phrases correctly, the others were kind of just waiting. Were I to ever try the game again (or some variation there-of), I’ll try to incorporate some other aspect to keep all students engaged the entire time. Sigh. Should’ve done the other activity I had planned, the vocab for which we had already practiced writing and saying. Seems obvious now, but at the time. . . Ah well. Next time.