Yesterday really was a great day at Smith’s School of English, Kyobashi. One of the students had brought in some delicious homemade muffins – just enough for all the teachers and staff to have one or two – and was very eager to start her lesson. Her English skills have improved immensely over the last year and she’d recently been leveled up so she was very keen on challenging herself in her new level.
Since she absolutely loves to chat and is very free with her imagination, I selected a topic from the Let’s Talk folder that I figured she’d probably take an interest in. I wasn’t to be disappointed because she dove right into the conversation as soon as she realized what it was that we’d be talking about. The topic in question was outer space and one of the first guided conversation questions asks if the student believes in the existence of life out there. She was very quick to respond with, “Oh yes, I believe there are aliens living in outer space.” When nudged for a bit of insight into the type of alien she had in mind, she was quick to tell me that these aliens look nearly identical to us humans and live on a nearby undetected planet. What have these aliens been up to recently? Apparently, they’ve been studying the people of Earth in the hopes of being able to contact us in the future.
After receiving so much creative detail about her aliens, their appearance and ultimate goal, I was very pleased to see that she was proving her level-up to be well deserved. There were a few points where we took a bit of a break off of the aliens to go over a few grammar mistakes or choose a more appropriate word to fit into the context of the sentences that she had used. Other than that, her energy and fascination with the potential that contact with aliens had kept the conversation going at such a speed that neither of us noticed that we had just run out of classroom time.
I made sure to give her a new one point before she left so that we’d be able to review it next time. However, after the one point she had a special request to make. She’d been practicing her English at home by writing a diary everyday – a wonderful idea for using the English grammar and vocabulary that she had learned so far, as well as expressions. She only had 2 pages for checking so I went through them and carefully marked up the grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes, telling her why they were wrong and how to fix them as I went along. She left the lesson supercharged for learning more English and writing a new entry in her diary.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Possessives 2
Tonight, one of my classes began on a one-point that was excitedly blurted out in the lounge by a student that I hadn’t seen in a while. “Long time no see!” She exclaimed as I was on the verge of offering her a drink. Her friend quickly echoed the sentiment and was very pleased that I hadn’t forgotten them or their names.
We started off the lesson reminiscing over the last time we’d met, which was three months ago (the first lady informed me because she’d been keeping track of the time), and the stories that we’d exchanged at the time. These two women always attend classes together because they’ve been best friends from high school so I can remember both them and their unique tales quite well. Seeing as how they regularly come on a Monday I’m not able to see them unless they take a make-up lesson on an alternative day. Today was such an occasion.
After a healthy amount of chatter, we moved onto the item that would take up most of the lesson time. I chose to do [Possessives 2] and focus on the flash cards that were broken up into two parts – describing the relationship from one family member to the next, and listing actual family member titles. So the first task would be to match up the cards. They worked exceptionally well as a team, helping each other get through the easier ones like “Your Mother’s Daughter” = “Sister”. When it came to the more difficult ones, drawing a family tree showing the relationship to the unknown relative made things a lot clearer for them.
Once all of the cards had been matched up, I double checked to make sure that everything was clear and that they had taken down good notes on the matchups. We had to clarify that nephew and niece could be either your brother or sister’s children before moving on to the role play. All of the students really enjoy this part because they can ask and answer questions about their family as well as their partner’s. This also helps to fortify the family member titles in the students’ heads because they are now identifying them with actual people that they know. This part of the lesson was definitely the liveliest with one friend trying desperately to remember what her aunt’s name was and what kind of hobbies she had.
Having ample time remaining after finishing up with the item, we did some practice with the questions from Routine 1. This past Tuesday had been a national holiday and a day off for both of them so we took turns asking about that day using the past tense. The first lady told me that she’d been window shopping on Tuesday and agreed with me that the crowds had been comparable to a Sunday afternoon – meaning, very crowded indeed. When her friend was called upon to share what she’d been up to on Tuesday, she looked at us rather sheepishly and admitted that she’d stayed home watching TV all day. So long as it was relaxing, it was a day well spent.
The one point was pretty much open to the imagination, “I believe~.” I gave them several examples of what I believe, jokingly telling them that, “I believe in Santa Claus.” They took it from there, making up several examples that were excellent after a bit of grammatical tweaking. At the end of the lesson, they promised me that they’d take another of my lessons very soon and left quite cheerfully.
We started off the lesson reminiscing over the last time we’d met, which was three months ago (the first lady informed me because she’d been keeping track of the time), and the stories that we’d exchanged at the time. These two women always attend classes together because they’ve been best friends from high school so I can remember both them and their unique tales quite well. Seeing as how they regularly come on a Monday I’m not able to see them unless they take a make-up lesson on an alternative day. Today was such an occasion.
After a healthy amount of chatter, we moved onto the item that would take up most of the lesson time. I chose to do [Possessives 2] and focus on the flash cards that were broken up into two parts – describing the relationship from one family member to the next, and listing actual family member titles. So the first task would be to match up the cards. They worked exceptionally well as a team, helping each other get through the easier ones like “Your Mother’s Daughter” = “Sister”. When it came to the more difficult ones, drawing a family tree showing the relationship to the unknown relative made things a lot clearer for them.
Once all of the cards had been matched up, I double checked to make sure that everything was clear and that they had taken down good notes on the matchups. We had to clarify that nephew and niece could be either your brother or sister’s children before moving on to the role play. All of the students really enjoy this part because they can ask and answer questions about their family as well as their partner’s. This also helps to fortify the family member titles in the students’ heads because they are now identifying them with actual people that they know. This part of the lesson was definitely the liveliest with one friend trying desperately to remember what her aunt’s name was and what kind of hobbies she had.
Having ample time remaining after finishing up with the item, we did some practice with the questions from Routine 1. This past Tuesday had been a national holiday and a day off for both of them so we took turns asking about that day using the past tense. The first lady told me that she’d been window shopping on Tuesday and agreed with me that the crowds had been comparable to a Sunday afternoon – meaning, very crowded indeed. When her friend was called upon to share what she’d been up to on Tuesday, she looked at us rather sheepishly and admitted that she’d stayed home watching TV all day. So long as it was relaxing, it was a day well spent.
The one point was pretty much open to the imagination, “I believe~.” I gave them several examples of what I believe, jokingly telling them that, “I believe in Santa Claus.” They took it from there, making up several examples that were excellent after a bit of grammatical tweaking. At the end of the lesson, they promised me that they’d take another of my lessons very soon and left quite cheerfully.
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