On march 10th I met Ahmed
Almuteri. He has just arrived to the US about 5 months ago from
Kuwait. He is 25 years old. We chose to meet at Starbucks and
hopefully begin our lesson.
At first I was nervous because I didn't
know who to expect. I also did not have much prior knowledge about
him besides that he was a student at CIES that requested a tutor.
I introduced myself and so did he. I
tried to keep him talking as much as I could so that I can properly
evaluate him in my own terms so that I can know which way to address
his needs in learning English in the short 8 sessions we would have
together.
At first I could tell he was nervous to
talk to me because his voice shook and he used his hands a lot. I was
able to ask him what level of CIES he was in and it was clear that he
belonged in level 1.
we talked about how he felt about CIES
and his progress. I then asked him to show me some class materials so
that I can ask him questions of things he should already know.
He expressed his lack of knowing how to
calculate main idea. So I asked him to show me a reading passage from
class so that we could read it together. In the beginning of the
story he was reading fairly well but he seemed to loose interest and
focus and would mix up the words on the page or more commonly look at
the first and last letter of the word and guess what it said without
even looking at it. It seems that this would be more difficult than
just reading the words on the page.
I tried my best to help him sound out
the words but reading comprehension is the most difficult for him.
I hope I can help.
B
Sounds like he can really benefit from your support and guidance. What I would suggest is going over the sounds of the alphabet with him, as well as the consonants and vowels he is having difficulty with. From there you can model the reading for him, reading a sentence aloud, and have him reread the same sentence. This could provide him with an understanding of how to pronounce words, as well as the rhythm and syllable stress in each word and sentence. I would suggest also looking at the pronunciation handbook available in the Speaking folder in Blackboard.
ReplyDelete