Go Fish English

I had a blast tutoring Miki today.

While the rest of the 7th graders were taking the standardized writing test today at school, Miki had three hours of free time because ESL students are excused. The end result was that when I went to tutor her, she had already finished her homework.

Rather than stretch our usual thirty-minute English lesson to one and a half hours, I taught her how to play Go Fish. We spent the entire session playing. Each round, I would change the rules a bit so that we would be practicing a new grammar pattern. For example, initially we used the standard, "Do you have any ---s?" "No, go fish." Then I changed it to, "I want some ---s" and "No, I don't have any ---."

With two players, it was a little dull, but we managed to make it fun. Toward the end, her mother came by to watch and we convinced her to join us. It was more fun with three players, and everyone was having fun. I was happy that her mother had a chance to see Miki use English, as usually Miki clams up when her mother enters the room.

Today was the most enthusiastic Miki had ever been about English! She even asked me some grammar questions related to the game. For example, at one point she asked me the difference between "Can I --?" and "May I --?"

My next step is clear - I need to research more games we can play that are good for practicing English.