Today I met my child tutee--Rina Oh. Pam was assigned to her older sister, Zoe Oh, so we arrived early to their home. I was glad that Pam and I were scheduled to meet at the same time because I was nervous about the first meeting. Pam and I figured we could combine our first tutor sessions together by playing a few games after we got to know our tutees.
I think it went pretty well. I came prepared with questions (academic and non-academic) as well as a reading comprehension worksheet for Rina--just to get a feel of how much she could understand English. She answered all of the questions correctly and had little to no issue with pronunciation. When I asked her my questions, I found out she likes to read, write, and draw. She was very active during our session together--she suggested we write and draw on the whiteboard she has at home. To make it a fun activity, I told her we should exchange story ideas to one another. She added that she wanted to draw a picture along with our stories and I agreed to it. She told me to write about our tutor session and I told her to write about monkeys in space. We each wrote five sentences. Rina struggled a little on her last sentence, but she managed to finish. She only had one error in her story and it was her use of "there, they're, and their."
The phrase was, "...because their monkeys."
I pointed out that "their" was wrong and asked her if she knew why. Being that she was only seven years old, she couldn't exactly explain, which was fine. Instead, she answered if the correct form was "there," to which I said, "no, it isn't." Then I explained what "there, they're, and their" meant. She had another sentence where "their" was used properly and we compared how the use of "there, they're, and their" were different. I think she understood, but I plan on making a worksheet for her.
After that activity, Rina and I met Pam and Zoe in the living room and we played Pictionary until it was time to leave. They both enjoyed the game so much that Pam and I will try to match up our schedules as much as we can for their enjoyment. Before I left though, I assigned Rina a little homework. I asked her to write a short story or a journal entry about summer camp along with a drawing before our next session. I've given her the freedom to choose since she had said she likes to write and draw and that she should write at least five sentences.
I definitely want to try to make our tutor sessions focused on her as well as what she needs and wants to improve. I'm not too comfortable around kids, but Rina left a good first impression. I'm excited to tutor her for the next few weeks.
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