Please, Just Follow the Directions and Write

New approach to getting Yosuke to write: I'll do the assignment myself to show him what the writing should look like, and he can use my example as a model to follow. (Up until now, I've only been doing outlines for him and have helped him brainstorm ideas. I guess he needs even more help, even though these assignments are so easy.)

I'm at my wit's end trying to get him to follow the directions - he just refuses to write the correct thing, causing him to rewrite these very simple assignments over and over - so I'm hoping this solution works.

It took me about ten minutes to write something he's spent hours on and still hasn't produced anything anywhere near acceptable. I know he's ESL, but I could have written the same thing in Japanese in thirty minutes. And that includes the time I spent revising.

So, has Japan produced a country of literate citizens who are unable to write?

Sorry for the harsh tone. I had a horrible day, and I haven't recovered yet.

Summer School Update

I haven't had time to post recently. Last week especially was rather hectic. It was the first week of summer school, and both Yosuke and I were overwhelmed by the fast pace. Miki's sister is also taking a summer class - English I - and I helped her out substantially as well. I found out that she has a different tutor; I was only helping out because her regular tutor was on vacation. However, her mother has asked me to continue helping her occasionally after I finish tutoring Miki, so it may become a regular thing.

I'm enjoying the extra work and the challenges. There is one downside: Yosuke's Algebra 2 teacher is neither intelligent nor helpful. It would be manageable if she was one of the two, but the combination is lethal. Her online course is riddled with both errors and technical problems, and she is of little help resolving these. I don't have time for any specifics at the moment, but maybe I'll be able to post a list of her shameful failures later. I'm happy to say, though, that I'm enjoying the summer courses overall.

Algebra II Nostalgia

Yosuke's summer Algebra II class is nostalgic; it reminds me of when I took Algebra II over the summer. It was the summer before my freshman year at high school. I took it over three weeks at Duke University through the TiP program. At the time, it felt helplessly over my head. I honestly believed that I had reached my "math limit" and was incapable of learning the material. In the end, though, I managed to grasp the concepts, and I even scored 97 on the EOC.

Now I see myself in Yosuke, who was able to yawn his way through his regular math classes. He's struggling with Algebra II, and I can even sense a bit of hopelessness in him. I'm glad I'm here to help him, though, so he doesn't have to struggle by himself.

...
Well, he has to struggle by himself a little. We spent a long time working on this problem, and he's close to figuring it out. I left before we finished, asking him to try and complete it on his own.

Here is the problem:
1. You scored 92 and 90 on the first two tests. There is one more test. What range of grades should you get on the third test for your average to be between 88 and 93?
2. Repeat #1, only this time the third test counts twice as much as the other tests.

Yosuke worked out #1 with a bit of help from me. I recognized that the second problem is more difficult, but I didn't think he would have as much trouble with it as he did. I gave him several hints, but finally I just had to leave him to work it out on his own. I want to help him, but I can't just tell him the answer, so I had to leave him struggling and feeling helpless. This is going to be a rough summer for both of us!

A Fine Balance

I had a good day yesterday. We've had several rough sessions recently, but yesterday Yosuke seemed able to think and learn.

This is good news for me because I find myself unable to teach him when he can't think. When he doesn't think, "teaching" would consist of just telling him the answers, just explaining the author's purpose and meaning. That's both dishonest (he should be doing the work himself) and unproductive (he can't really absorb that much information). When he's thinking, though, I'm happy to give him some of the answers. I don't expect him to understand 100% of the material by himself.

On the other hand, my presence seems superfluous if he understands everything already without my hints and directing questions.

Yesterday was the perfect mix of understanding and confusion that allowed me to smoothly lead him to comprehension. It was one of the (sadly rare) tutoring sessions where I could walk away with the feeling that I had clearly made a difference in Yosuke's academic success.

Cultural Barriers to Understanding

I had the most infuriating tutoring session last night. Yosuke had to read a speech by JFK for his English II class, and I wanted to make sure he understood this important quote from it: "The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened." He didn't understand what it meant, and it became clear that he had no concept of 'rights.'

So I gave examples - voting, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, etc - and went into detail about freedom of speech. After a while, he interrupted me saying that he didn't believe that rights exist. Puzzled, I asked him to explain, and he said it was because "everyone makes mistakes." I had to emphasize, again, that 'right' doesn't just mean 'correct' and resumed my explanation.

He told me he disagreed with the freedom of speech because people might yell or say inappropriate things. I told him it was okay to disagree; I just wanted him to understand what rights are. And yet he continued to argue that they don't exist. I still don't think he understands what a right is. It took an hour and a half to read about three paragraphs of the speech.

It's probably not his fault. That a sixteen-year-old can have no concept of human rights can only be a result of the group-minded Japanese society. Individual rights are not important in Japan, and Yosuke's stubborn indifference to them illustrates this. Japan and the US seem so alike to me sometimes that I tend to forget how huge some differences really are. (Did you know that in Japan, you are presumed guilty until proven innocent? And proving innocence is prohibitively difficult as the court system is nothing but a farce.)

I find myself in a difficult position - I need to help Yosuke understand this speech, but the ideas in it are completely alien to him.

EOC Requirements?

Well, the EOCs were rather anticlimactic. Yosuke's Geometry teacher told him he would be excused from the exam because he has been in the country less than two years. He asked his English teacher about this, and she told him the same thing. He'll receive credit for both courses, so that's great.

That's assuming his teachers are right, and I have some doubts. I can't find any information about it now, but I was under the impression that only students who have been here for less than a year were exempt from standardized tests. (That was Miki's case, thankfully.) This information contradicts our previous experience. When Yosuke tried to take English I last summer, he passed the course but failed the EOC, so he didn't receive credit. Also, earlier in the school year I spoke to his current English teacher and asked her for help preparing Yosuke for the exam, and she gave me a practice test. If he was exempt, wouldn't she mention it to me? But so long as he receives credit for the classes, I guess it doesn't matter, at least for now.

What worries me, however, is that the English I EOC is required for graduation. I'm afraid he might have to take it later on, although I suppose he would have a better shot at it in a year or two than he would now. I emailed his counselor to ask about it. I'm hoping she'll reply. It's always frustrating when people ignore your emails.

A High Note

While the beginning of this week was a low point for me, Thursday was a refreshing change. Both Yosuke and Miki have been in something of a slump recently; for the past two weeks or so, they've been unable to come up with answers to anything. While I can handle a bad day or two, it starts to drain me after a while.

I went prepared with a math lesson plan when I went to tutor Miki yesterday, but she had a huge homework assignment that took up all our time. She had to answer several questions related to her physics project. I cringed inwardly, thinking that teaching Miki the material and then getting her to solve the problems might as well be a fantasy. But she surprised me in her ability to work them. She wasn't perfect, of course, but her problem-solving ability was better than I've ever seen it. Either she was having a good day, or she has a knack for physics, or both. (Or maybe it was my amazing teaching ability! ...) I left feeling like we accomplished a lot.

Then I had to do some English EOC practice with Yosuke. Usually trying to get him to analyze is nerve-wracking at best, but it was actually enjoyable yesterday. He was better than usual, and he even surprised me at one point by how well he understood one of the sentences he had to analyze. (He wasn't able to answer the question correctly, however, because he didn't understand the choices very well. Alas!) He seemed like he learned a bit, too, which makes it all worth it.

This week definitely ended on a high note. This weekend, I'll plan lessons for both Miki and Yosuke so that next week won't be as stressful (hopefully).

Upcoming EOC

As Yosuke's English EOC rapidly approaches, I feel a stronger and stronger sense of dread. I am probably more nervous than he is!

The test is in exactly one week. Yosuke still has serious problems reading and understanding both the passages and the questions. The good news is that he is allowed to use his electronic dictionary/translator to help him understand the English words. The bad news is that for some reason, he doesn't use it much. When we do practice questions, he is more likely to guess the meaning of the sentences (usually incorrectly) rather than look up unfamiliar words, even though I encourage him to check words he is unsure of.

Well, if he doesn't pass, there may be hope anyway. His school's handbook is vague on the matter, but it seems like if you do not pass the EOC the second time (and this will be his second time taking it, by the way), then the principal will make a decision about whether you receive credit. But there is no information about how lenient he is or what is involved in this appeal process - perhaps because it happens so rarely.

I continue to hope that our training and practice will help Yosuke so that it won't come to that. But truthfully, it does not seem likely that he will pass.

SUMMER BREAK!!

The reason I haven't updated is not that I've been busy. My schedule's been different now that I'm on summer break, and I haven't set aside a time for updating my blog. I keep forgetting! Whoops.

Yosuke has an English EOC soon, and I'm worried about his chances of passing it. We've been preparing with an 8th grade reading EOG prep book, and he hasn't been doing well. As I've mentioned before, he has no analytic ability. It makes me want to cry!

He's having to write a paper for a history project. His topic is his grandfather's experience in World War II. He is unable to write a thesis, or even understand what one is. I've explained it many times, and one angle I tried one time was to tell him to "find meaning" in what he'd written. His reply was that his paper had no meaning - it was only about his grandfather and WWII. Argh!

I've Let Yosuke Down

As I mentioned earlier, when I left Yosuke Tuesday night, he still had a limerick and a sonnet to write. I taught him the rules and wished him luck. As I was driving off, it occurred to me that since we had worked so hard on the other poems, it might be okay to "fake" the sonnet. Would the teacher really count the syllables of each line? Of course not! She might not even read them at all! I felt guilty for not thinking of it earlier.

I felt even worse yesterday when I asked him how hard it had been. He said he stayed up until 2:30am! His ESL teacher is also to blame for giving such a ridiculous assignment, but I can't stop feeling guilty for not realizing sooner that he didn't have to try so hard. Hopefully next time we're in a situation like this, I won't let him down.

Poetry Panic

Yosuke had some bizarre homework tonight. It was for ESL of all things. I think I may have mentioned this, but the ESL program at his high school is a joke. The teacher is almost entirely worthless. He doesn't learn anything. He's never had ESL homework before today.

Well, today's homework assignment reinforced my low opinion of this teacher. Yosuke was given 14 types of poetry and had to write one poem of each type. Fourteen poems! In one day! Can you imagine anything more insane? It was a daunting task, even for a native speaker.

And that's not all. Some types were easy - haiku, free verse, etc - but some were more complex. For example, one was a sonnet. He was supposed to write a sonnet - can you believe that? In case you're not familiar with them, they're fourteen lines long, they have to rhyme, and each line is ten syllables long. They're considered one of the more difficult types of poetry to write, and it's simply insane to ask an ESL II student to write one.

Anyway, Yosuke and I got through the poetry the best we could in two hours. He had a lot of trouble rhyming, so when I left he still had the limerick and sonnet to finish. I hope he managed okay.

His poems were pretty bad (most took complaining about homework in general or the poetry assignment specifically as their topic), but a couple turned out well. One of the poems he had to write was a ballad, which I explained was like a love poem/song. He said, "Like Romeo and Juliet?" and I explained that the whole play wasn't a ballad, but some of the soliloquys are similar to ballads. So we came up with this poem (Yosuke used food as a topic for several of his poems):

Wherefore art thou, food?
Deny thy father, Vending Machine, and refuse thy cost;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my snack,
And I'll no longer be hungry.

You can find the original here for comparison.

So the homework was hard, but we managed to have some fun with it. Darn that ESL teacher, though!

Forgetting High School

Recently, Yosuke's Geometry class has moved on to material that I don't remember at all. It's kind of embarrassing having to ask him to teach me how to solve the problems! Whoops. I really should check out a Geometry book from the library and pre-teach myself each section beforehand. I will definitely do that for Algebra II this summer since the class will be intensive. Situations like this remind me of how much high school material - math, science, history - that I've forgotten. One of the perks of tutoring is that I'm forced to review all this stuff that I wouldn't otherwise.

My Fascination With History

Okay, so I never really went out of my way to take extra history classes or read any history books, but I've always had a soft spot for the subject thanks to a couple of influential teachers. On the other hand, Yosuke's least favorite subject is history. I think it's because how dryly the subject is approached in Japan - just memorization of dates and such.

We don't often work on history together because his teacher takes time to give him some individual help, but occasionally we find ourselves catching up on his assignments. In the rare instances where we're working on history and have some extra time, I'll usually take time out from filling out worksheets to go over one or two topics in detail. Thankfully, Yosuke doesn't seem to mind the diversions and is open to having conversations about whatever history topic I latched onto.

For example, when he was studying WWI, there was a short section in the textbook about the runaway inflation in Germany. I tried to explain how burning the paper currency became cheaper than buying fuel, and while I'm not sure he totally understood (I remember myself that inflation is a difficult topic to grasp at first), the idea certainly captured his attention.

Today we talked a bit about political parties and Nazis. At one point, we were talking about Kristallnacht and he asked me, "Who was wrong - the Nazis or the Jews?" Hmm, what could you say to such a question? I just turned the question back on him and made him answer it. He eventually came to the conclusion that the Nazis were wrong. I wonder if his lack of opinion on Nazis until this point is a cultural thing?

I'm Still Here

Sorry about the lack of updates! I just moved, and there's still no Internet access at the new place. I've also been exhausted.

Tutoring is going great. I'm looking forward to an exciting summer. Yosuke and Yuki are gearing up to take some demanding summer courses. They're both showing a lot of ambition. They remind me a bit of myself when I was in high school. I'm worried about Yosuke's course load in particular, as he's planning on tackling both English II and Algebra II, but I believe that because it's his choice to take the courses, he'll make it through.

I'm not sure what Miki will be doing - probably nothing, if she has her way - but I imagine her mother will want me to continue our English lessons.

My Best Friend?

This week, Yosuke has been working on writing journal entries for English class. Last night, we worked on one with the following prompt: "It is often said that dogs are man's best friend. Do you agree? If you could choose one animal to be your best friend and to talk to, what animal would you choose? Why?" (Can you believe this is a high school assignment?) Anyway, Yosuke wrote that he agreed because he had a dog back in Japan that was very important to him. He also chose this dog to be his best friend; his reason was that he would like to be able to talk to the dog to find out what she thinks of him, what she is doing back home in Japan right now, and what she would like to do. Very sweet, right?

After the tutoring session was over, I chatted with Yosuke's mother a bit about the dog. I asked her why she didn't bring the dog to the US with the family. Mrs. Kikugawa paused for a moment trying to find the right words and finally offered the explanation "She isn't polite." She explained that the dog is scared of humans and often bites. I mentioned my own dog that occasionally has problems with biting strangers, but Mrs. Kikugawa clarified that the dog bites both strangers and family members, and not with harmless nips like my dog, but often hard enough to draw blood. What a traumatized dog!

I commented that I was surprised that the dog bites even family members, and Mrs. Kikugawa said that the dog especially likes biting Yosuke! Apparently, Yosuke used to tease the dog when he was young. I couldn't help laughing! It makes me want to ask him about the journal entry. Does he like the dog even though she doesn't seem to like him at all? Or was it all just a convenient lie to get through a school assignment? Probably the latter!

Shopping Mall Super Powers!

For the question "If you were a god/goddess, what would your area of influence be? What special powers would you have?" Yosuke wrote "shopping mall."

He had misinterpreted the question somehow because the word "area" was confusing, but I thought his answer was great! I had to try really hard to not laugh, though. After I explained the meaning of the question to him, Yosuke laughed and embarrassedly erased his answer. I wanted to persuade him to keep the answer and respond to all the other questions (Make up a story about how you got your power; Where do you live; How would you punish those who defy you; etc) as a God of Shopping Malls, but I decided Yosuke is probably too straight-laced to appreciate the humor. Oh well!

Exhaustion

Tutoring was fun today, but it was exhausting! I tutored Yuki for two hours. I thought the time would drag by, but it was actually pleasant. Two hours turned out to be perfect to cover a whole chapter in her Algebra textbook. Teaching the material and doing some practice problems took about an hour and 45 minutes, and then the last 15 minutes was spent doing some problems from the chapter review to make sure she learned it all. I was impressed with her ability to pick up on all the material and handle a massive amount of new ideas.

I tutored Yosuke for two hours, and that's when I ran out of energy. I made it through okay, though. We spent the first part of the session discussing his courses for next year, and then we read some of The Odyssey. We were in the middle of a boring part of the story, though, so it dragged a bit. Tomorrow I'm going to skip ahead to a more interesting part. We should be able to fill in any necessary details later.

Wow, I'm so tired!

Not Invincible After All

Every member of the Kikugawa family has been suffering from a cold for quite a while. So after an entire week of being coughed on with no effect, I finally came down with a cold this past weekend. Ironically, when I tutored Yosuke today, he wore a mask so that he wouldn't cough on me, after a whole week of coughing in my face. I almost started to tell him he could take it off, but I didn't want to let him know he made me sick because he'd probably feel bad.

Overall Good Day

Today was overall pleasant. I worked with Yosuke for one hour and then with his mother for the second hour. I don't usually tutor Mrs. Kikugawa, but when I went to her house today she asked if I would spend an hour with her because she was behind in her ESL class.

Yosuke was alright today, but I had this one really frustrating moment.

We were working on a geometry word problem and I couldn't get him to just concentrate on reading the problem to set it up properly. The problem involved a rectangle, and one of the dimensions was 9cm and the other you had to find by setting up a proportion with a similar rectangle that was 2cmx3cm.

Now, if you were careless, you might glance at the problem and say the 9cm is the long side of the rectangle, so the other side is 6cm. That's what Yosuke did, which I was expecting, so I asked him why he made the long side of the rectangle 9cm. He immediately changed his work so that the short side was 9cm. No, that wasn't good enough - I wanted him to read the problem and find for himself where it tells you which side is which. It was stated fairly clearly (the exact phrase was "9cm on the shorter side" and I know he can understand that). So I asked him this time why he made the shorter side 9cm. He pointed out that the problem asks at the bottom for the student to "find the length of the longer side." That's an okay response, but it's not good enough. It could just as easily as said "find the unknown side," so he needed to be able to figure it out without relying on that guess. He just kept repeating that answer, even though I told him to read the problem slowly and carefully. He just refused to read it! The word problem was only about 3 sentences long.

Finally, after pressing him for a suitable answer, he found the part where it said "on the shorter side" and I accepted it and we moved on. Please, Yosuke, next time when I ask you to read something carefully, just do it and get it over with!

Whew, sorry about the rant. I should add here that even though it was frustrating for me, I don't convey my frustration to the kid I'm working with. I'm actually very patient. But that doesn't stop me from ranting when it's all over!

Otherwise our session was not frustrating, and working with Mrs. Kikugawa was actually pretty fun.

Leisurely Day

Today was a fun day. I only tutored Yosuke, and we spent most of the time studying for his geometry test tomorrow. It's really fun to teach someone with a natural talent in the subject. To use an analogy, if you want to teach someone to fish, you would normally show them how to bait the fishing rod, wind-up, and then later how to remove the fish from the hook. Teaching someone with a natural talent, on the other hand, is like taking them to the pier, showing them the rod and bait and seeing how they work it out on their own. If they make a mistake, you only need to show them why it won't work, not the correct way of doing it. They can figure out the correct way on their own.

We also finished Act II of Raisin in the Sun, which has the dramatic climax. Yosuke was actually interested in the play for the first time! It's so much easier to teach him when he's interested because then he'll actually think about it.