Emily_Tutoring Partner (Child) --Session 1

Upon pulling up to Starbucks on Thursday before my first tutoring session with Jun, I was a bit apprehensive because I was not sure what to expect. When I stepped in the door, a greeting of warm smiles from him and his mom alleviated my tensions.  After some small talk, I asked his mom what she believes her son’s strengths and weaknesses are in terms of listening, speaking, reading, writing, and vocabulary. She said that he needs improvement in all areas, so she left us there to do needs analysis. Just conversing with the child was easy; he is pretty conversational, but I remember from class that most young children being raised bilingual (in his case Korean and English) need improvement in other areas, especially vocabulary. I started with recording a speech sample of the child reading a few pages from a children’s book. He had good pronunciation and stumbled on a few words here and there, but overall he did a good job. After he read aloud, I checked for comprehension by asking him to tell me what just happened in his own words and was able to do so as well.

            Another diagnostic method that I did was having Jun write down a couple of sentences about his day at school.  He was good at spelling for the most part, and when I pointed out a mistake and helped him figure it out, he seemed to understand. One grammar point that we came across was “a” vs. “an.” In one of his sentences he wrote “a apple,” and I explained why it would be “an” apple.  After explaining, we (together) came up with other examples of when to use “a” and when to use “an.” Also, he looked at his juice box and told me that he was “eating apple juice.” I clarified for him, but I know that in these tutoring sessions we will have to work on vocabulary. For example, although he knows some big vocabulary words and managed to ask me questions such as, “why are bacteria invincible,” when his juice box dripped and he reached for a napkin, he could not remember the word for napkin.

            Jun is a nice, cooperative kid. I'm going to start tutoring him at his house because although he stayed focused most of the time, the dim lighting, music playing, and constant buzz of people talking in the background is not the ideal setting for tutoring. I am excited to keep on working with Jun and believe that it will be a good learning experience for both of us.