ESL+Tutor+Log+Spring+Semester+2008

This semester I have been tutoring an "at risk" ESL learner from Mexico. This middle school student and I meet together twice a week to work on homework assignments that she is given by her teachers as well as English lessons created by me. In her school, my student really does not have very many resources provided for her.
 * ESL Tutor Log description: **

While observing her during a typical school day I saw that she is very alienated throughout the day. Though the school has a TESOL program, it is very underdeveloped and only has six learners. Of these six students, my student is the only Spanish-speaker among students from Korea. For this reason, the school’s counselor contacted me in hopes of providing extra help for this student who she was not expecting to pass the eighth grade and move on to high school with the rest of her classmates.

I have created this space with hopes to voice questions, concerns and observations that I have made during my tutoring sessions. I hope that other TESOL or language teachers might find the information provided here to be useful and ask that they feel free to respond to the posts with any relevant information, comments, questions or concerns.

Today, Maria and I worked out of a vocabulary book. I struggled because I didn’t want to just let her work off of a worksheet choosing the best answer between two different vocabulary choices because I didn’t feel like the substance was all the contextualized. I also suspected that she had read through the book before. I tried to explain things to her but wound up going off on tangents because there is just so much to teach her! I am having a really hard time knowing where to start and how to include all of the information that I want. We decided that tomorrow we are going to work on pronunciation and so I am going to try and come prepared to teach a specific lesson tomorrow. // Questions: What is the most effective way to teach vocabulary? How do we contextualize vocabulary lists (especially in a one-on-one tutoring situation)? // Comments
 * 1/14/08 **

I came to tutoring prepared today. Maria and I worked on the alphabet and pronunciation of consonants. I was amazed to learn that she had never been taught them (though it is entirely possible that she may just not have understood the question 100 percent)!
 * 1/16/08**

Maria seemed really interested and excited to be working on pronunciation because I think that it is one of her biggest insecurities. We didn’t really speak any Spanish today which was good. Sometimes I feel like its ok to use Spanish with her and I am beginning to see that this attitude is absurd considering that when I teach in Spanish I will never revert to using English. I am going to start making a conscious effort to decrease the amount of Spanish that we use.

I had Maria write out her own notes today and brought markers for her to use. As simple of a change as that is, I really believe that it made a difference in her motivation for the day. Maria avoided working with vowels today and I imagine that this is because she really struggles with the shorter vowel sounds of English. I am really hoping that we can make some progress with these sounds next session. // Question for the day: What is the most effective way to practice pronunciation? How far in depth do we go with students? Phonemes, morphemes, fricatives, etc? // Comments

The topic for today was working on vowels. I brought in some CD’s that have songs about vowels in order to help Maria with her pronunciation (especially short vowels). The songs were kind of goofy and somewhat childish but at the very least it got her to laugh about it and gave her a good reference to use at home when she wanted to hear things pronounced correctly.
 * 1/22 **

I had a really hard time again today deciding how much information was too much information. I also had a hard time knowing how to describe the rules for when to use which of the vowels. I don’t really remember learning this as a child and I certainly did not learn it while in my ESL classes at MSU. // Questions for the day: Does anyone have suggestions on how to teach vowels? // Comments

Maria had no homework today and no school. We went to the public library and decided to just read for fun. I think that sometimes I forget how important and powerful of a tool reading is for language learning. Seeing vocabulary and grammar used in a context is a great way to help students learn the vocabulary and concepts meaningfully. It was fun to see her actually excited about the material that we were reading and curious about what words meant or how a specific tense changed the meaning of the story.
 * 1/23 **

One mistake that I made while we were doing this was that I tried to stop and ask for comprehension or explain words too often. I could tell she was getting discouraged and a little bored. We switched to just reading the book and later going back to talk about meaning, etc. and this seemed to work much better because she was already engaged in the story and the meaning. She actually WANTED to know what things meant and why they were being used. My biggest lesson today was just that reading can be a very powerful tool. It seems to me that it would have great applications in the classroom, especially with learners of different proficiency levels because they can each read at their own levels. Ask a question... Maria had to study for her history exam today. We worked specific definitions/concepts and I was really surprised to see that Maria had absolutely no idea where the chapter was that she was reading or how to use her text book. We spent a lot of time just talking about how to use the glossary and index of the book. This made me think about the importance of teaching good learning strategies on top of content teaching. Maria is struggling with her homework for many reasons but I think that her lack of study skills is a huge reason why she is not progressing as rapidly as she should be. I am trying to teach her that she needs to take notes, write down her assignments and use her resources. Once again, it is hard to know if she just isn’t understanding her teachers or if she doesn’t really have the skills. // Question for the day: How can we motivate students to stay organized? // Comments Canceled for weather. A reoccurring issue in my teaching as both an ESL teacher and a Spanish teacher is target language use. Maria is really quiet. She has started to speak English more with me but it can still be really difficult sometimes to get her to answer questions. On our way home today, she and I had a conversation in Spanish about her home-life and when/why she moved here from her home country. I felt like it was a really important conversation to have and it was a breaking point in our relationship. Had I not spoken to her in Spanish, I really doubt that I ever would have been able to get her to open-up to me and find this information and strengthen our relationship. // Question: How as language teachers do we know where to draw the line between TL use and sacrificing relationships with our students? Also, when we do not have the option of speaking to our students (especially lower proficiency students) in their native languages, how can we build meaningful relationships? // Comments
 * 1/28 **
 * 1/29 **
 * 2/4 **

Girls sick. Monday Maria was working on a math assignment. She seems to understand the English and basic concepts as we were working on individual problems, but is having a hard time remembering formulas and how to use them. I don’t know if this is because she doesn’t really understand the language as well as she lets on or if she doesn’t get the math concepts. I am starting to see why in many cases teachers begin to think that ESL students could have learning disabilities. As teachers how can we recognize and diagnose disorders in ESL students? I also wonder what effect testing a student has on their learning (ie. self-concept, motivation) Ask a question...
 * 2/5 **
 * 2/12 **

I know that this is going to stray a little bit from the general topics of my posts but the most important part of my tutoring today was something completely unrelated to learning. My partner and I have been working with Maria and her sister for months now. We go twice a week and drive the girls from their home to the school and back again. Different members of the family have varying proficiency levels in English and we have very little interaction with them. My partner and I were becoming discouraged and wondering if the girls or their family honestly appreciated us being there to help out. Today is the day before Valentine’s Day and the girls came to tutoring today with gifts for us. It was a really touching moment for me and a great reminder as to why I want to teach. It feels really good to know I am making a difference. Ask a question...
 * 2/13 **


 * 2/19** Snow Day

Today Maria and I worked on math again. She seems to be improving with general concepts and with picking up on formulas but she still doesn’t take notes or show her work! This really frustrates me because I think she would be much more successful if she could grasp these basic study skills. I’m sure that her teachers have way more important things to focus on with her but I do wonder how much of an effect something as small as good study skills would improve her academic performance. Today’s session was pretty uneventful. I noticed that Maria is still having a problem using the correct tense especially with the past tense. Ask a question...
 * 2/20**

Today we worked on another history lesson.
 * 2/26 **


 * 2/27** No tutoring
 * 3/4** Spring Break MSU
 * 3/5** Spring Break MSU

Maria field trip. No tutoring. Today Maria brought in a picture book that gave the names of everything in both Spanish and English. We went over it for a while but I was having a really hard time contextualizing the vocabulary and we ended up quitting with the book because she and I both agreed that it wasn’t going anywhere. // Question: How do we contextualize vocabulary lists? // Comments
 * 3/12**
 * 3/18 **

Maria’s younger sister was sick today and so the second tutor didn’t have anything to do so we changed the site of tutoring to the other tutor’s house. Maria was a little quieter than normal which I think I can attribute to the environment. She did really well with her math today and seemed to pick up the concept really quickly but struggled with the concept of adding negatives and positives. One thing I have definitely noticed is that vocabulary in math for specialized words like plus, minus, subtract, times, multiply is really difficult for her. I wonder how many Math teachers with ELL students are aware that their ELL students may not understand these words. // Question: What kind of realistic adjustments do Math teachers make in order to accommodate ELL students? // Comments
 * 3/19 **

Today Maria was having the hardest time staying awake. We were working on Math and she literally could not keep her eyes open. I asked her if she wanted to get up and walk around or go get a drink both in Spanish and English and she said she didn’t want to. This was unfortunate because we weren’t able to accomplish much because she couldn’t focus. // Question: How do we help energize students to keep them engaged in class? Comments // Being the day before spring break, it was hard to get Maria to focus today. She didn’t have any homework and so I prepared a lesson about tenses on the spot. We went over present tense, past tense and present progressive. I acted out the present progressive for Maria (by running around the library, singing or dancing) and having Maria state what I was doing. She also wrote them for me. By the end of the hour Maria demonstrated understanding of the progressive tense (she even was able to use the past progressive). I felt really good after this lesson because I saw how well she picked up on the grammar and how excited she got when I got excited about her learning the tenses. However, I also am aware that I will not see Maria for over a week and that we will most likely not have the opportunity to go back and work on this topic with her again. I also know that it would take much more time spent on each tense and practice with each for Maria to ever master the tenses. // Questions: How long do ESL teachers spend on each “tense” in their units? Is there a particular order that they teach tenses in? // Comments
 * 3/24 **
 * 3/25 **

**4/8-4/9** Spring break Maria had Math homework again today. She seems to really have improved with her Math skills. After we finished her homework Maria was really excited to talk to me about things going on in her life in English. She still is having problems using the tenses correctly. In my experiences tutoring ELL students, the constant battle between content-help and English-help is enormous. I know that Maria needs me to help her with her Math homework but its frustrating to me because I know she is still not receiving the help that she needs just with her English skills. This reminds me of the struggles that likely occur in schools where ELL students are pulled out of classes for English or bring other content work to their English classes. I wonder how this problem can be fixed, and if it would be better to have students participate in programs where they are more sheltered. // Question: Should ELL students be required to complete a specific amount of English language coursework before entering general education content-based classes? Comments // Today was the last day of tutoring. Unfortunately, because MSU classes are ending, today was the last day that my partner and I were able to tutor. We wanted to try and do something fun to celebrate so we planned a picnic with the girls.
 * 4/15 **
 * 4/16 **

One of the biggest reasons that I want to teach ELL is because the students are such amazing people. Being an ELL teacher requires a much different relationship with students than a teacher might have in another subject. I really feel as though my partner and I provided more than just academic help for our students. We were positive role models, we gave important cultural information and really made our students feel welcome in a new community. I feel as though I one of very few people who could provide a voice for Maria.

I feel very happy to have had the opportunity to work with Maria and her sister for several reasons. They have opened my eyes to the struggles that an ELL student in the United States might face and have inspired me to become more of an advocate for ELL students. The experience also gave me the opportunity to practice different methods of teaching and test out my own teaching abilities.

I know that there are still a lot of flaws in the education system and that many TESOL programs are just getting started. I am very excited to get into a school and contribute to the creation or improvement of a program that will help many deserving students while gaining experience as a teacher.

Comments