Am I Doing this Right?

I'm back again with another journal! I noticed that this blog is getting a little bit, just a liTtLe biT boring... But I promise that these are sincere thoughts that I have after each session 😬. Today's blog might lengthy and repetitive, but please bare with me! 

🙏   🙏🙏   🙏  

Let's have a refresher about the challenges I faced last meeting!

Problems: ❗❓

• 

  Karl at me...
  

  Not enough time to arrive home on time 

• Barely made it

• Asked obvious and boring questions (couldn't engage Karl)

• Limited number of strategies in teaching pronunciation

• Unfamiliar with phonics

• Wasn't prepared for what vocabulary he'll ask

• Ended up explaining using a language he won't understand 
  

To avoid encountering the same problems again, I told both my program coordinator and my CLC teach about my situation. I also "invented" 2 new ways of teaching pronunciation.

Solutions:✅

• Inform my program coordinator about my situation

• Request leaving early or doing work offsite for Mondays and Wednesdays

• Find a book that he can relate to

• This one was "How Animals Sleep" and I assume he's not interested in animals because he looked dead like a zombie

• Found a book on soccer which is one of his hobbies

• Ask for connections to his life for a greater variety of discussion questions

• Found a few more games we can play because he obviously hates tic tac toe

• To teach pronunciation or new vocabulary

1. Quizlet
• include definitions and cartoons as a different and repetitive way of reviewing unfamiliar words
2. Connect a new word's pronunciation with a word he already knew that has a similar spelling
• Ex. Glide: I asked him to say the word side (he knew that). I was about to ask him to remove the s and only say the ide, then have him add the gl. To my surprise, he realized his mistake immediately after I mentioned side.
3.  Show not tell
• Show him what something is rather than describe it so it'll be less abstract
• Ex. Ceiling --> look up, surface --> outside of a fist/ pencil

• Put myself in his shoes

Journal #5- Oct, 21 2020

Today, I introduced worksheets on beginning and final sounds to Karl. He completed the worksheets like a lightning bolt and I managed to teach him a few new vocabulary. For example, he didn't know what yarn was, so I asked if he has ever seen his mom knit a bunch of strings together. He nodded and I told him that those strings are called yarn. His eyes lit up and went "ohhh." 💫I felt a spark of pride hehe~

One thing I really appreciate is how Karl says "thank you" everytime I teach him something new. From the polite move, I can tell his family really taught him well and I gain strength from the acknowledgement! Following that, I referred back to the "How Animals Sleep" and asked what it's about (very obvious question) and asked for some animals that we learned about.

Then, I introduce quizlet! During this activity, I tested out the new strategies I came up with and guess what? He pronounced every word correctly when we reviewed them! 💫I felt another spark of pride.

The 3 Strategies I Used:                

1. Predict the pronunciation of a certain word by reminding him the pronunciation of a another word that has a similar spelling

• Ex. Glide- reminded him of the word side, go step by step (remove s, add gl) but he got it right after I said side

2. Show not tell

• Ex. Ceiling--> "look up, that's the ceiling" other than saying "inner top part of a room" because ❓❓❓That wouldn't make sense to me either (put myself in his shoes)

3. Use simple language and gestures to be dynamic and fun

• Ex. Flap wings

Before we read "Soccer is a Kick," I went over the pictures and visited the glossary to give him a heads-up of new words he would encounter. At this point, Margaret entered the meeting and he immediately made a mistake. He mispronounced popular as populaire. I tried to demonstrate the appropriate pronunciation, but I found it hard to do so.

hElP mE 

Firstly, I didn't know how to describe the sound of the "u". Secondly, I didn't know if it was right to say "lar" is pronounced the same as "ler." He eventually got it, but I was so confused that I didn't even remember what I said to him. Before we moved on, Margaret asked if he tried using "popular" in a sentence. Obviously, he hasn't, so I asked him to do so and turns out he didn't even know what it means. Well, I made another mistake there. I should have known he wouldn't know the meaning if he doesn't know the pronunciation.

hElP mE x2

Another word came up, association. This is a LONG word. I was trampled and attempted to use the good ol' chunking metho. It worked until I came to "cia" and "tion." I literally internally screamed.

hElP mE x3

How can I explain cia is "see-ah" (not kee-ah) and tion is "shun" (tee-on)???

Thankfully, Margaret clarified that the second "a" in association is a long a sound. It worked like a wonder. He got it! At that moment, I really felt ashamed. It's my second session with him. Shouldn't I know better? Am I not trying hard enough? I tried to push these thoughts away as I spent the remaining time playing a game with him.

After the session, I had lunch while recollecting what happened during the session. I realized that I have trouble describing the sounds certain letters make because I've never learned phonics in elementary. Phoneme blending, phoneme segmenting, short and long vowels, letter families, digraphs, diphthongs, and the list goes on. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT MOST OF THEM ARE?! I've never heard of them in my life. Not going to lie, the first time I heard the word diphthongs was when I learned Korean. To me, these are from an alien language from Mars. As much as I remember, we never learned about phonics because teachers know most of us naturally picked up all that knowledge when we were young. The organization also didn't give any instructions or training regarding the instructional portion which accounts for 95% of the program. As a result, I doubted whether I can teach a child about phonics when I don't even know them myself.

📊   -----ANALYSIS-----   📊

Problems: ❗❓

• Unfamiliar with phonics

• Self doubt (Am I doing this right? Can I even do this right?)

  
  
  

• Huge difficulty explaining long and difficult words, or words that isn't simply an object or action

• Can't explain certain sounds

• Feel alone (nobody seems to have any problem… is it just me?)

But... there's no way I'm the only one right? At the end, I gave myself a pep talk. Nobody's perfect and nobody knows how to do everything correctly right from the start. Everyone else are mostly grade 12s like me, but maybe they have experience in this already. I know I'm trying my best. I truly want to be helpful to Karl. I can learn and develop with him. I'm already stepping outside my comfort zone, so I should be proud for what I've already achieved rather than sulking for something I didn't receive proper training for. I reminded myself that I'm already doing great, and after that, I felt way better and is ready to continue on this journey of growth.