Felicia-Tutoring+Responses

I will be responding to my Tuesday class experiences here...

9/4/12~ Today I helped a student from Portugal. He actually blew me away. He's only been here about four months, and he said prior to coming he could "kind of understand some English." Well, not only does he speak English extremely well, he did an impressive job on his test. Also, I would easily put him at a 7 on the 10 point Guideline for Writing Scale. It amazed me how quickly he's picking up the language. I know that learning a secondary language is different for each individual and he perhaps is just picking it up slightly faster than some. I was glad to learn about what to look for specifically when ascertaining what writing level ELLs are on. These guidelines will be something that I will utilize and refer to in the future. I was also surprised by the fact that some of the questions on the test, that he had answered correctly, I hesitated on regarding which answer was appropriate. I am humbled by what they are going through right now by attending college level courses taught in their secondary language...that they are still working on mastering. Wow!

TC Response, 9-18-2012: Many Europeans have a "multilingual" approach to school and life, constantly looking for opportunities to speak more than one language. It would be interesting to interview your Portuguese student and find out the different ways he learned English in his life, here in the U.S. and other places, both formal and informal.

9/11/12~ I helped a couple guys, Hassan and Johnny, who decided to write about Riverdale. They focused on the restaurants and stores in the area. I was slightly suprised by their not knowing where to start. They really looked to me for guidance in what to say regarding the city and how to even start their paragraphs. They struggled with how to compare the different stores or restaurants and how to transition from one to the other. One of them especially struggled with the concept, talking about the city, in general. They were both pretty hesitant in getting started. I tried to guide them, give them ideas regarding where to start and what they could discuss, along with helping them understand the concept a little better. I left before they really got going on the writing part, they were still brainstorming and outlining, so I don't know how their papers ended up.

9/18/12~ It was interesting discussing this film with the 1010 students. They were able to connect with quite a few elements. For example, one of the students described a time in which he was tapped on the back in Smith's and asked if he was a terrorist. This was just recently, too. I was sorry that this happened to him, and disappointed that there are such naive or ignorant people around here that behave this way. He was offended, obviously, and hurt that he was 'grouped' in with a radical group simply because of how he looks. To him, he is just as disassociated with the terrorist groups as we are. Also, I was interested to learn that both of the guys that I talked with were not able to relate to the Palestinian culture, and way of living, in the film, as they are from Saudi Arabia and evidently it is quite different there. They are not nearly as oppressed, obviously this is because they are not under occupation, and have many more freedoms and opportunities. They just didn't relate to the lifestyle like I had thought they might. Finally, I enjoyed seeing the things that they thought were funny. I could see the differences in culture simply by the things that they found humor in. They thought the misunderstanding at the airport regarding the use of the word "occupation" was pretty funny, because they understood the misunderstanding. Many Americans would not find that part funny simply because they are unaware of what of what an occupation is and that Palestine is currently under Israeli occupation. They also thought that any jokes regarding girls and sexuality were really funny. I'm assuming that comes from a level of naiveté and lack of experience regarding dating, etc.

TC (9-25): I chose the film because there are surprises for all of us: Americans, Saudis, other countries, religious identity, etc. For example, the mother and her son are Christian Arab Palestinians so they are a misunderstood cultural group not only in the United States but also among Muslims and Jews in the Middle East.

9/25/12~ We finished the film and then I was assigned to discuss the summary of it with two 1010 students. However, they had already finished their papers. So as we read over them I realized that their writing levels certainly did vary. I wasn't sure if I should have corrected any mistakes or what. One of the papers was written very well, and the other had numerous mistakes. I know that they were just planning on turning them in that day, so I didn't write on them. I pointed out some corrections verbally though. How would you like us to do this in the future? I know that being able to see the corrections can be a lot more affective.

TC (10-8): I will try to make my directions more clear. For example, it is important for me to clearly tell students (and teachers) if I want them to focus just on content or if I would also like them to work on editing and revising. If the question comes up anyway, for example because there is extra time, you could say something like, "Would you like to read through your essay together and see if there are any typos you might have missed or other changes that could improve the fluency of your paper?"

10/9/12~ I enjoyed discussing Halloween traditions, and holiday traditions in general, with the 1010 students! I was super-interesting. I learned that in Portugal they have a holiday similar to Halloween. It is different in that its theme is not so dark; it's more of a disguise-oriented parate/party day. They typically dress up as a popular figure in their culture at the time. (i.e. politician, celebrity, etc) Usually someone who is currently in the news for something stupid.... So it's almost as if they are mocking the person, or their shananigans. Also, they have this "disguise parade" in the spring, rather than the fall. I'd prefer this version of Halloween over ours, simply because I hate the dark, scary, bloody, yucksies part of Halloween. :) I was also really saddened by the film that we watched. Though I knew that immigrant conditions in California were less than, I had no idea that they were to that extreme. I had never heard of that event, nor did I know that was the situation surrounding the assassination of Robert Kennedy.

TC (10-22): I'm really fascinated also by Halloween and other cultural traditions. For example, here's a fascinating BBC documentary about the Day of the Dead in Mexico: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFt8-WdstQA The Cesar Chavez film shows the importance of going deeper with culture and critical thinking about society. Our students need to know about important American leaders who have promoted language and social change, people like Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King Jr., the creators of the Navajo/English Bilingual School-- Rock Point Community School in Arizona.

10/30/12~ It was great being able to share some of our Halloween traditions with the 1010 students by going to the corn maze. I enjoyed seeing the reactions of some of the students, they really seemed to throughly enjoy themselves. In my group it was pretty funny how at first they were hellbent on conquering the maze, then pretty quickly they decided to just have fun with it and we were weaving in and out and disobeying all sorts of rules! But they seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. On the other end of the spectrum, there were a few that seemed pretty indifferent towards the event, which is also understandable, I guess. I'm glad we ended up doing that instead of bowling. :)

11/6/12~ VOTING DAY!! Go Obama! ;) Today in class I worked with Monica in the computor lab on the assignment. It was great for me. She offered a much different perspective on all of the material we worked on, read and discussed. I really appreciated her ideas and knowledge regarding learning a second language and moving to a different country and having to acclimate yourself to a completely different culture. I can't imagine how unnerving and scary that would be. This class has definitely opened my eyes to the difficulties my ELL students face. From this I have gained a new appreciation for what they are struggling with and why education and learning is more difficult for them.

TC (11/18): I'm glad you had the opportunity to speak with Monica. I've known her for a long time, and she has a depth of understanding about the issues you mention and about the challenges ELLs face in a new country and in schools.

11/20/2012 I met with Hassan today and helped him look over his paper. I first of all, I was extremely interested in what his paper was on. For his paper, he argued that women should have the right to drive in Saudi Arabia. In talking about his topic, he told me that it was very controversial that he was writing about this--and that he was arguing FOR the women to have this right. He told me that his family found out that he wrote this paper and it was a pretty big deal. I was...intrigued by this. It's weird for me, an American woman, to think of something so seemingly small and frivolous to be such a big deal to them. It opened my eyes again to the fact that we are very culturally diverse in this world, still, and we must be open to, and respectful of, other's cultures and the issues that are an important reality to them. His paper was written pretty decently. The organization was probably his strongest area. His being pretty repetitive was probably his weakest. He also struggled with using proper nouns too much and pronouns not enough. Overall, I think I was pretty successful in being able to help him make a stronger paper.