Thursday, December 10, 2009

Day 357

Wednesday December 9

My 1st class was good…I think his English level is really low. First, we listened to the story. Then, I read and had him repeat twice. Then I had him to answer a few questions.We covered 4 articles…There is a test on Friday. I'm not sure how much he understands. Sometimes I'll read and get him to repeat and he'll change the words or add in an extra word. I read really slow with him and not many words at one time. He couldn't find the answers in the story so I had to point it out to him. I think soon I'll have him read the article back to me to see how much he can read without having him repeat after me. For his test I think I will give him the actual article and then have him find the answers in the article instead of memorizing answers. That might be more beneficial for someone at a lower level. It will test his comprhension and answer finding skills.

My 2nd class was good. It was a writing class. We talked about writing a story and proper nouns. Everyone had to write out a plan for a story. They all did a good job. They kept asking me about what page we would finish on. I kept telling them I didn't know. I never know how much I will be able to cover in one class. I got to a good stopping poing and let them have 10 mins free time.

My 3rd class was way too short. I only had one student. A lot of times either only the girl or only the boy are present for class. Even though we did 3 lessons we were done within 25 minutes. The lessons are super easy and only have a few examples to complete. I need to start bringing extra material.Today our lessons were on holidays, days, months, riddles, email, stories. We finished early and he was writing on the whiteboard. I know he was bored, but I can't let him go home too early! I offered to let him have a puzzle or play a game. He didn't want either of those choices. He begs me to hurry through class, but he knows I'm not letting him go home early. He kept asking if he can go home early. I let go 5 mins early.

My conversation class was okay. No one was cutting up or playing around in class. They were actually quiet today. I still couldn't get anyone to practice speaking with their partners. At least we had a decent class. We were talking about sports and using if. Next week we have a test.

My last class was okay. Today we were doing the newspaper articles in class. I told them to look at the paper and read along while they were listening. They didn't pay attention. They were talking while they were suppose to be listening. Then they keep asking for a game. I told them "maybe" for Friday. Then on one article no one was listening and they kept talking to each other and not reading. I played it about 2 times. I told them i was going to keep playing it until they paid attention. Didn't help. So I wrote on the board "No Game Friday." If they can't be good and pay attention then I'm not letting them play a game. They just ruined their chances by ignoring me and not doing what I told them to do. I was trying to read slow so they could understand, but some of them kept telling me to read faster. If I read fast then they aren't really going to comprehend. crazy! They just want me to end class early which isnt going to happen. We covered 5 articles in class today. Now that I see how long it took I know we will be able to cover more than 5 during class. They don't seem too interested in the topics, but I have to work with what I have. I just wish I had something fun that would make them pay attention, but everything in my classes isn't fun.

We were in the middle of an article and one student just interrupts to talk about soccer. He wanted to know what country the 2010 World Cup was going to be in. Its going to be in South Africa. Then he wanted to know the name of soccer teams in America. I told him I didn't even know. I can't even name soccer teams from the USA. Soccer isn't very popular in the USA or at least it isn't where I'm from.

No comments: