New Book

Last week I mentioned a book I had Yuki read a bit. There were only ten minutes left in our session because she had some homework that took up most of our time. I shouldn't have had her start a book in ten minutes - it didn't give her enough feel for it and as a result it wasn't much fun. I also may have underestimated the English level of the book.

This week I tried a new book. It's a book with gorgeous pictures called Sugar Cane, based on the story of Rapunzel. Yuki had some math homework, but she had a good grasp of the topic and finished it quickly, leaving us with about 45 minutes to read. She got through half of the book. It was very enjoyable because we managed to get past the introduction and exposition to the heart of the story. She seemed to like the book, too. I hope next week we'll have time to finish it.

Things Are Looking Up

After Monday's frustrations, I had some better sessions. Miki showed remarkable progress. She won't speak English to me, but she has demonstrated that she can understand some of the commands I give in English. If I say something like "What's the answer to #3?" and she gives me the answer, even in Japanese, I think it's okay to consider that progress. It's much better than getting a blank stare.

Miki also demonstrated some ability with proportions. Previously, all types of math problems had been difficult for her. This week, she had a worksheet filled with proportion problems, front and back... all word problems. As soon as I saw this, my heart sunk and I knew it would be a long session. But Miki really surprised me!

All the problems were basically the same. Two sentences - the first one allows you to set up a proportion, and the second one asks you for an unknown. For example, "Every year, 10 people die from dog bites. How many people have died of dog bites during your lifetime?" So you use the first sentence to make a proportion... 10 deaths/1 year. Then you get the unknown from the second sentence and solve.

Once I taught Miki the basic set-up, she was remarkably good at picking out the important parts and making the equations, despite not understanding the meaning of the sentences. She couldn't always solve them correctly - she often didn't know whether to multiply or divide - but she was much better than usual. It was quite refreshing.

Japanese Education System

I believe I've mentioned that Yosuke is good at math, but the sad truth is that he's not good at much else. His mathematics abilities astound me, and of course that's partly because he's naturally good at math, but it's also a result of the Japanese education system. In Japan, schools place a lot of focus on math and memorization, whereas here in the US, there's more focus on analysis.

As a result, my students have zero analytical abilities. For example, when Miki had to write a response to a poem, no matter how we approached it, she was unable to say anything but "It's weird." "Okay, but why do you think it's weird?" or "What's weird about it?" ... "It's just weird." (sigh) I can forgive Miki, though, because she's just in 7th grade.

Yosuke, however, is expected to have a bit of analytical ability in his 9th grade English class. Last night, we were discussing a character from a play who is described as "exploring her African-American identity." I explained that this meant she was asking "Who am I?" Yosuke asked if she had amnesia.

Another example is when I was attempting to explain a passage in the play where the aforementioned character had a discussion with her boyfriend about the purpose of school and books. Her boyfriend told her there was only one reason to read books - to pass a test, to get a grade, to complete the course, to get a degree. That's all. She called him a fool. Even after we discussed this conversation three times, for a combined total of two hours, Yosuke can still not understand the reason that the character thinks her boyfriend is stupid. He cannot understand that there is a reason to learn outside of getting a degree.

Yosuke also can only see things as one extreme or the other. Characters are either happy or sad, stupid or smart, rich or wealthy, lazy or hard-working. This is partly because of his lack of English abilities (it's easy to say somebody is rich or poor, but saying they're "middle class" is a bit advanced), but his inability to see complexity is also to blame.

Shopping

Today was an interesting day. Miki's mother asked me to come 30 minutes earlier than usual but did not say why. When I got there, she told me that Miki needed a calculator for school, and she wanted the two of us to go pick one together. I directed her to Staples and recommended the TI-83 plus, because it's what all the cool kids are using. (Well, it's the standard for high school students, so all the kids are using it. That includes cool kids.) It was a nice break from the usual routine, and I got to talk to Miki's mother a while, which was fun.

Yosuke and Yuki's mother was working on a presentation for her ESL class. Each person had to make a presentation about something from their culture, and she was talking about Japanese charms. She asked me to look over her presentation and make corrections, and we talked about charms and I asked her some questions. It was quite enjoyable.

The Perfect Book? Or Not?

I thought I had found the perfect book for Yuki's level: here.The English is simple, the chapters are short, there are lots of pictures, and, most importantly, it's interesting. It's a children's book, but I enjoyed it, so I figured a 7th-grader would as well.

I had her read chapter one today, but I don't think she liked it. I may have overestimated the level. It seems easy to me, but I think Yuki had problems understanding it. Whoops. Part of the problem was that we only had ten minutes left after we finished her homework, so I didn't have time to stop and explain things and ask her questions. I'm going to give the book one more try next week, and if it still doesn't work, I'll try another one.

Posting Frequency Update

I think I've discovered the perfect posting schedule. I will update every week on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. On these days, I will post about what my students are doing and anything interesting that happened.

However, rather than just limiting myself to three posts a week, I will also occasionally make extra posts about ESL learning in general and ideas I have.

The reason I am keeping this blog is, mainly, to track my progress and organize my thoughts. I'd like to use it as a sort of living bookmark, in which I write about ESL-related books or articles that I've read so I can look back on it later, rather than just reading and forgetting. However, I also want to track my students' progress and let others read about my tutoring experiences. I think my new posting schedule will cover all of these points nicely.

So, in short: I will update at least three times a week, on M-W-R. But there may be extra posts.

Thanks for reading! Yoroshiku onegaishimasu~

Happy MLK Jr Day!

I had a great time tutoring tonight. As I mentioned before, Yosuke is currently reading A Raisin in the Sun for his English class. I imagine most people also read this in high school. In case you don't remember, it's a play about a poor, black family in the late 1950s who attempt to improve their lives by purchasing a house. The house is in a white neighborhood. I had completely forgotten about it, and I was happy to have an excuse to take some time out and read it. I remembered not especially liking the play when I read it in 9th grade, but I loved it this time. The play ends right before the family moves into the new house, and I think that may have frustrated me. It's like you're missing all the action and the conflict that comes when they are the only black family in a white neighborhood right at the brink of the Civil Rights Movement. But now I think I can fully appreciate what the story means.

Yosuke was doing a great job understanding the parts we read, or at least my explanations, and he was asking good questions (which always makes me very happy!). I didn't even mind getting sidetracked for about 20 minutes so I could go over the history of African Americans, from slavery to the present, so that he could put the play into context. I think he got a lot out of it, and I was pleased how relevant it was to the holiday.

Story Time

Things have been interesting this week, as I've become more focused on having the kids read rather than work in their textbooks/workbooks. As I mentioned before, Yosuke was reading Esio Trot, although we still haven't been able to finish it. He had a lot of homework this week that took up our free time. Now that his English class has started a new book (A Raisin in the Sun), it appears that, unfortunately, we won't be able to finish it anytime soon. I'll set it aside for later.

Yuki has an English workbook that we've been using. It was recommended by the tutor she had before me, and it's quite good. However, to break up the monotony, today when I met with her I had her read some passages from a nonfiction book about Martin Luther King Jr Day. It was a book for young children, so the print was big and the sentences were easy to understand. I think she was able to follow it alright. I would have her read a passage, and we would stop and talk about each one, and I would ask questions to see if she understood.

I'm also trying to get Miki to grapple with her first short-story (it's actually one in her English textbook, not one I picked out). I hope she'll try hard, because I know it'll be rewarding for her.

Pictures

I was disappointed that Yosuke and I didn't get to read any more in Esio Trot today. He had a lot of homework, so we spent the whole two hours just doing that.

One thing about Esio Trot that I both love and hate is the illustrations. The short story has illustrations on each page that clearly show what is happening. That's great for ESL students; seeing what they just read in picture form reinforces the meaning. But I also worry that, well, maybe they are too many pictures. You can practically tell the story from just looking at the illustrations, so I worry that Yosuke might not be learning as much as he could. Hopefully he's not relying on just the pictures.

In any case, it's fun to read something as quirky as Esio Trot. Tomorrow I'll stop by the public library again and see what else I can come up with.

I'm Back

I apologize for the lack of updates. I'm trying to decide on a good posting schedule: either every other day or Monday/Wednesday/Friday. I'm leaning toward the latter; we'll see how it goes.

Yesterday was a great week for tutoring. I had a great session with Yosuke, and Miki made some progress (I was so thrilled!). Yosuke and I had finished his school assignments and still had an hour left to go. I had been at the public library earlier that day looking at children's books, so I had a plan for our free time. (Usually we work on his grammar workbook or a practice test or something, but I think he's at the point where he can have some fun while he learns.) I let him choose between Roald Dahl's Matilda, a novel, or Esio Trot, a short story. He chose Esio Trot and we got through half of it.

It turned out to be a great story to use for learning English. There are lots of pictures and the sentence structures are fairly easy. And it's interesting, or at least more so than stories written for ESL students. I can't wait to finish it when we have free time again. After that, I might have him read something longer and more involved.

The Other End of the Spectrum

It's absurd how opposite Miki and Yosuke are; they're essentially at opposite ends of the spectrum. Yosuke is such an ideal student I actually feel guilty tutoring him. For one, anyone can do it. He just needs a little help understanding homework problems, and even then he only needs the question explained simply. Once he understands what the question is asking, he can figure out the answer. Secondly, I enjoy it - it's not like work at all. In addition to working on homework or studying English grammar, I can hold conversations with him. My focus on teaching has always been "real life" English, that is, what you actually use when speaking English as opposed to unnatural English you might use in a textbook. I love to have conversations with ESL students to practice this. I can hold simple ones with Yuki that mostly consist of me asking a question and her answering it, but Yosuke can actually be conversed with. He's also intellectually curious and asks lots of questions. Could you ask for a more perfect student? I can't wait until he reaches the point where he doesn't need me anymore, although of course when that day comes I'll be sad.

Cheering on Miki

Miki continues to make no progress, and it's mostly because of her refusal to try. The task in front of her is daunting, and she's choosing to give up rather than to struggle and eventually succeed. And I know she'll succeed if she tries. She's still young enough to pick up a second language easily, at least more easily than it would be for adults, even if she's too old to ever lose her accent (I've heard the cut-off for that is around 10-12 years old). She's completely immersed in the English language. Even though she has almost no knowledge of it to begin with, from here she can only sink or swim. And if she chooses to swim, she'll begin progressing rapidly. I just know it.

I want to pressure her to try, but I know if I do that, it'll likely do more harm than good. Her mother nags her enough for both of us anyway. I want my role to be more of a mentor or at least a helping hand for when Miki decides to start trying. Until then, I'll just continue trying to help her as she sinks, as unrewarding as it is.

Unreasonable Burdens

Today I tutored Yosuke and Yuki. It's nice to be working again. The middle and high schools in this area start again on Monday. I'm so excited! It'll be nice to be busy with homework and projects once again.

You know, I never cease to be amazed by my students. When I start to get frustrated, I just remind myself of the burden being placed on these kids. Their families moved them to a foreign country where they're immersed in a foreign culture and can't speak the language, and yet they're expected to go to school and pass their classes just like the native speakers. Can you imagine how daunting it must be? So that's why I have to have patience. These kids are overwhelmed, and it's my job to help them as much as I can.

An Uncomfortable Silence

Today I tutored Miki, officially ending my winter vacation.

I explained the material she was supposed to study over break to her in Japanese - in science, she is studying cells and DNA and in social studies, she is learning about world religions - and everything was going well. Then, when we got to the "English portion" of our tutoring session and it came time for her to read dialogues from the textbook, I realized when I heard her voice that she had not spoken a word the entire time until that point. During the hour I had spent teaching the class material to her, she had been completely silent. I had asked her questions, but she answered yes/no questions with a nod or a shake of the head, and other questions were answered by pointing to words. For example, "What are the three main world religions?" was answered by pointing to the words "Christianity," "Judaism," and "Islam" on the print-out.

The strange thing about all this is that Miki is not shy! When she is speaking to her mother or sister, she is bubbly and outgoing, and she has friends at school as well. And yet she feels she cannot talk to me in Japanese or English. I'm beginning to wonder if my initial optimism, my belief that Miki would relax and speak more, was mistaken.

Freedom, Part 2

My older sister just finished writing a thesis about how students respond to freedom in the classroom. You might think that students would work harder if they get to choose what to focus on, but her findings were actually the opposite - students worked harder and better when the teacher made the choices for them. For example, students performed better when a topic for a project or presentation was assigned to them rather than allowing them to choose themselves.

Essentially - giving students structure enhances learning.

I don't think this completely contradicts my previous post, however. I'd like to believe that while structure is beneficial in the classroom, it's okay for one-on-one tutoring to take a different form. I'd like to believe that between the rigid structure of the classroom and my more fluid tutoring sessions, my students are getting a well-rounded education.

Resolutions

Happy New Year's, everybody!

My resolution this year is to be more proactive with teaching. Rather than just playing it by ear, I'm going to start reading up on education, teaching ESL, and linguistics. I'll post any interesting and relevant findings.

My goal for 2008 is, of course, to be a better teacher. It's easy to teach students like Yosuke who are clever and hard-working, but I also want to help students like Miki who are average and hate school work.