Final Assignment:

Report on Tutoring

Julia G. Lo Raso

Presented to:

Dr. M. Sarkar

April 27th, 2015

McGill University

Preliminary Session: Needs Assessment

Stage of language learning (grammar):

● She is taking adult education ESL courses at John F. Kennedy High School

o 4 nights/week from 5 to 9 p.m.

● This is her first year taking formal English courses since immigrating to Canada

o She has been placed at level 5

● The only other time she learned English in a classroom setting was in secondary

school in Italy

o Classes were very infrequent, and they were only taught the essentials of

communication

● In school, she is learning about modal verbs: should, could, ought, must, etc. by

discussing safety in the workplace (ex: you MUST wear safety glasses at all

times)

Most pressing language learning needs:

● Since Sara has been placed at level 5, she missed all the instruction on verb tenses

● During her interview, she was told that she would learn them through

interacting with her peers, however, she feels that she is at a disadvantage

● When she uses English, she avoids using anything but the simple present, the

simple past and the simple future

● She mentions not understanding when to use “have had”, “will have had”

● She needs a more explicit look at the present tenses: simple, perfect, continuous,

perfect continuous

Focus on spoken or written language?

● Sara needs more training in spoken English, as her work in a daycare as well as

serving in a restaurant doesn’t require her to write very much

● She also says she doesn’t anticipate writing a love letter in the near future

● While she can communicate, sometimes it is hard to decipher exactly what she

means (unless you speak her native language, and have the advantage of

understanding why she makes the mistakes she does)

● She describes a scenario where she and a sales representative at the Brick confuse

one another about conflicting delivery dates

What do they think about their needs?

● Sara believes that she needs to be able to better express herself orally to get her

message across

● She thinks she needs English in order to get a better paying job

● It will be an advantage if she ever decides to move back to Italy (the winters are

too long here, and no one knows how to live; its all work, work, and more work)!

● She says she feels incompetent when she doesn’t understand someone and she is

too embarrassed to say she doesn’t understand something

● She believes that she desperately needs a lesson on verb tenses; they will help her

in her ESL classes

Tutoring Session 1

Lesson Plan:

Simple Present Vs. Present Continuous Grade level/Program: EMSB Adult ESL/ Basic Level 5 Period length: 60 min. Goals for the period

By the end of the lesson, I want the tutee to be able to understand the difference between the simple present and the present continuous. I will know they can do this when they successfully complete the final activity by the end of the lesson.

Activity Rationale Min

Intro

● Explain what the general plan is for the lesson

● Draw a timeline of verb tenses for the tutee

● Explicit instruction on the difference between simple present and present continuous

I want the tutee to know what I have planned and to tell me if this is what she is looking for in the lesson, or if she would like to focus more on one aspect than another. Since she is an older learner, I think she will benefit from explicit instruction.

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Development

● Timeline sentences (appendix 1.1): Read sentences to the tutee, who will use the timeline to describe when the actions are happening

I want to see what the tutee thinks the tenses are used for before getting into an actual lesson. I also want to use this as an opportunity to show her where/why she is making certain errors.

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● Sorting Activity (appendix 1.2): Tutee is given a text with bolded words, and must classify them by placing them into the correct category in the table provided.

By sorting words into their respective categories, the tutee is noticing the grammar tense in its natural state and trying to decode when one happens while the other does not.

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● Oral Sentences (appendix 1.3): I will read sentences aloud, and one at a time,

This allows the tutee to get more practice in structuring the targeted verb tenses, as well as

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the tutee will copy them down, circle the verb, and draw a timeline to describe the tense

hearing them in spoken English.

● Creating Sentences (appendix 1.4): Tutee must create her own sentences either in the simple present or in the present continuous. She must also indicate which tense she used for each sentence.

Here, the tutee will have the freedom to create language as she pleases! I will be able to see if she has understood how to formulate sentences using the simple present and the present continuous.

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Closure

● Tutee will teach me about the differences between the simple present and the present continuous!

● This will be an oral activity and the tutee must provide me with two example of each.

This will allow the tutee to explain what she had learned in her own words. In my experience, being able to explain something to someone is a sign of understanding.

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Appendix 1

Appendix 1.1: Timeline Sentences

1. Italy is in Europe.

2. I love to oil paint.

3. Annalisa is wondering where to go for lunch.

4. Steve’s cars are being repaired.

5. She goes to church every Sunday morning.

6. The dog barks at the birds.

7. Janet’s cousin is vacationing in Hawaii.

8. On my free time, I watch a lot of television.

9. Easter is my favorite holiday.

10. André is planning a surprise party for Annalisa.

11. She always forgets her lunch on the train.

12. Kelly is working on a school project.

13. Rick is moving into his new apartment.

14. Clara only drinks coffee in the morning.

15. Fernando sleeps at Liboria’s every weekend.

Appendix 1.2: Sorting Activity INSTRUCTIONS: You must sort the words in bold into the correct category on the table below.

A Trekking Journal November 2, 1997 Today is the second day of my trek around Mount Annapurna. I am exhausted and my legs are shaking; I just hope I am able to complete the trek. My feet are really killing me, and my toes are bleeding, but I still want to continue. Nepal is a fascinating country, but I have a great deal to learn. Everything is so different, and I am trying to adapt to the new way of life here. I am learning a little bit of the language to make communication easier; unfortunately, I do not learn foreign languages quickly. Although I don’t understand much yet, I believe that I am gradually improving. I am currently travelling with Liam, a students from Leeds University in England. He is a nice guy, but impatient. He is always walking ahead of me and complaining that I am too slow. I am doing my best to keep up with him, but he is younger and stronger than I am. Maybe I am just feeling sorry for myself because I am getting old.

Right now, Liam is sitting with the owner of the inn. They are discussing the differences between life in England and life in Nepal. I don’t know the real name of the owner, but everybody just calls him Tam. Tam speaks English very well and he is trying to teach Liam some words in Nepali. Every time Tam says a new word, Liam tries to repeat it. Unfortunately, Liam also seems to have difficulty learning foreign languages. I just hope we don’t get lost and have to ask for directions.

Simple Present Present Continuous

Appendix 1.3: Oral sentences

1. Joseph reads a lot of poetry.

2. Everyone is laughing at your joke.

3. I make breakfast for my little brother every morning.

4. Do you want to leave the party early?

5. Maggie’s cat loves to sleep in the sun.

6. My mom is talking on the phone again.

7. Nico is playing with his loose tooth.

8. Sara drinks herbal tea every night.

9. Simba misses his dad.

10. Mirko makes delicious pasta.

11. Andrea is cooking up a storm!

12. She dances all night long.

13. David is cleaning his mom’s apartment.

14. I am leaving on a European adventure.

15. They are entering the nightclub.

Appendix 1.4: Creating your own sentences

INSTRUCTIONS: Write your own sentences using the present continuous. Make sure to write which tense you used for each sentence. 1. ___________________________________________________________________________.

Tense: ____________________________________________.

2. ___________________________________________________________________________.

Tense: ____________________________________________.

3. ___________________________________________________________________________.

Tense: ____________________________________________.

4. ___________________________________________________________________________.

Tense: ____________________________________________.

5. ___________________________________________________________________________.

Tense: ____________________________________________.

6. ___________________________________________________________________________.

Tense: ____________________________________________.

7. ___________________________________________________________________________.

Tense: ____________________________________________.

8. ___________________________________________________________________________.

Tense: ____________________________________________.

9. ___________________________________________________________________________.

Tense: ____________________________________________.

10. __________________________________________________________________________.

Tense: ____________________________________________.

Observation Report

I begin the lesson by explaining to Sara what I will be teaching her, and what

types of activities we will be doing. She seems to be happy with the lesson that I have

devised, and I proceed to take out a scrap piece of paper. I explain that the present

tense has a number of aspects, and that today we will be focusing on the simple present

and the present continuous. I then draw a timeline and ask Sara to tell me when she

thinks the simple present takes place; we repeat this process with the present

continuous. She correctly identifies them, so I give her an example of each. I then

explain to her how the aspects are formed and when each tense is used. Here is the

page we worked on:

The next activity is the “Timeline Sentences” activity where Sara must draw a

timeline for each sentence that I read out to her. She has some trouble with sentences

#4 and #6, so I write each of the sentences out and remind her that sentences in the

simple present are formed differently than sentences in the present continuous. She

corrects her mistakes and we move on to the third task, the “Sorting Activity”. Sara

takes some time to read through the text, and then she begins to fill out the table. When

she doesn’t understand or doesn’t know the meaning of a word, she asks. As she is

filling the table, I hear her say, “Oh this is present participle, so present continuous”.

This indicates to me that she has understood the initial part of this lesson, and that she

can differentiate between the two aspects. Once she completes the task, we go over her

answers together; they are all right! This further demonstrated that she now has a

better understanding of the L2 grammar points we are exploring. Here is the table she

filled out:

For the third activity, Sara will have to transcribe sentences that I read to her,

circle the verb, draw a timeline for each one. As I read the first sentence, Sara copies it

down and immediately writes the tense and aspect next to it. I ask her about the

timeline, and she says she feels comfortable enough without it, so we proceed like this

for the remainder of the activity. She has asks questions about which words are

included in the verb for the present continuous. This tells me that she is noticing the

structure of the aspect and that this is something else that this lesson is helping her

with. Once again, every one of her answers is correct! Here are a few of the sentences:

In this final activity, Sara will have the freedom to come up with her own

sentences in the simple present and the present continuous. I watch her as she is

thinking of how she should string the words together to form sentences. She tells me

she is having trouble thinking of sentences to write, and asks me how to spell certain

words. In the end, she successfully completes the activity without a single error. Here

are two of her sentences:

To close the lesson, I ask Sara to explain to me what she has learned by defining

the aspects we have explored. Here is how she explains it: “the simple present is just

the present with one verb, and it is used for facts and things that happen a lot, like

every day. The present continuous is when something happens… is happening now,

like when I’m talking I’m doing something now but I’m not done”. She does not have

trouble with this task and offers me two examples for each! She tells me she is happy

with the way the lesson turned out and feels like she has learned a lot thanks to my

“tricks”.

Self-Reflection

For my first tutoring experience, I’d say that went pretty well. Thanks to all my

planning, the activities and handouts really helped Sara explore the grammatical

aspects that were targeted for this session. The sorting activity seemed to be the one

that helped her most because she was able to put into practice what I had taught her

just moments before. However, the oral sentences activity went somewhat differently

than I had originally planned. Instead of using a timeline to show me which

tense/aspect they were in, she simply wrote them down beside each sentence. Also,

now that I think about it, the “Oral Sentences” and the Timeline Sentences” activities

are actually quite similar; if I were to teach this lesson again, I would just do one and

maybe come up with a different activity.

This experience really taught me a lot, and I’m glad I get to write this down. My

student had some trouble understanding my explanations because I was speaking too

quickly for her! I didn’t think about this being a problem even though it should have

been obvious to me. Also, during the first part of the lesson I struggled with taking

notes, so I decided to tape it using my laptop. Unfortunately this proved to be fruitless

since the next day my computer’s battery died and so the man at Apple restored my

computer to its original settings and I lost the recording (my assignment was saved

thanks to my habit of working online).

Anyhow, I feel that I am improving as a grammar tutor because I now know the

importance of tailoring the lesson to my tutee’s needs. This is why I have decided that

in our next lesson, I will use activities that allow oral interaction. I feel like I did not

deliver in terms of communication-based activities in this lesson, which is really what

Sara needs. Also, I would like to try and avoid explicit instruction for next week’s

lesson because I think she will learn better if she can deduce the rules for herself!

References

ENGLISH PAGE - Verb Tense Exercise 2. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2015, from

http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbs2.htm

Tutoring Session 2

Lesson Plan:

Present Perfect Vs. Present Perfect Continuous Grade level/Program: EMSB Adult ESL/ Basic Level 5 Period length: 60 min.

Goals for the period

By the end of the class, I want the students to be able to understand how to use the present perfect and the present perfect continuous correctly in a conversation. I will know they can do this when they understand and rectify their initial errors by the end of the lesson.

Activity Rationale Min.

Intro

● Go over the plan for the lesson

● Ask tutee how they’ve been and what they have been doing lately; any projects around the house? Watching any new TV shows? (in the present perfect/present perfect continuous)

● Record the conversation and have them listen at the end of the lesson

As the tutee is a friend of mine, I usually ask her these sorts of questions anyway, so I thought it would be a good idea to record her responses, and at the end of the lesson, show her the mistakes she has been making and how she has improved.

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Development

● Sorting Activity (appendix 2.1): Ask questions to the tutee, which she must answer in the present perfect or the present perfect continuous. As she replies, I will write her answers word for word.

● Once we have gone through the questions (and corrected them), she will have some time to rewrite them into their corresponding category

Here, I am trying to encourage her to think about what she must say before speaking. I want her to notice the structure of the question, and use this to formulate her answer. Having her then figure out which ones go in which category is good exercise, and will allow her to visually understand each tense.

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in the table provided.

● Interview Game (appendix 2.2): In this game, the tutee is the interviewer and I am the interviewee. She must ask me questions using the present perfect simple/ present perfect continuous and try to figure out why I am not suitable for the job!

I chose this activity because it has an emphasis on oral production and interaction, which forces the tutee to use the tense and aspects that have been targeted in today’s lesson. By asking so many questions one after the other (and hearing my responses also in the targeted aspects) the tutee will become more comfortable with using them in oral interaction.

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Closure

● Listen to the recording of our initial conversation and have the tutee fix her own errors!

The idea here is that the tutee will have learned enough by the end of the lesson to be able to notice and fix the mistakes she made in our initial conversation.

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Appendix 2

Appendix 2.1: Sorting Activity

QUESTIONS:

1. How long have you been working for your present company?

2. How long have you been living in your home?

3. Have you ever travelled to Europe?

4. How long have you been studying English?

5. Have you ever been on TV?

6. Have you ever built a snowman?

7. Have you ever gotten a bad haircut?

8. How many times have you been to the Jean Talon market?

9. How long have you been using your cell phone?

10. How many times have you visited the Montreal Fine Arts Museum?

11. Have you been to any good parties lately?

12. Have you gone shopping for a mother’s day gift?

13. Have you eaten at any good restaurants in the area?

14. How long has it been since you last went to the cinema?

15. Have you lost weight since Christmas?

SORTING TABLE:

Present Perfect Simple Present Perfect Continuous

Appendix 2.2: Interview Game

Scenarios

You want a job as a nurse but you haven’t treated any patients yet. Don’t tell your

partner what your problem is until they ask the right question. For the answers to other

questions, use your imagination.

You want a job as an estate agent but you have only been working as an estate agent

for one week.

You want a job as a car salesman but you’ve only sold one car in two years.

You want to be an ambulance driver but you haven’t passed your driving test.

You want a job as a doctor but you have killed two patients.

You want a job as a heart surgeon but you’ve been working as a plastic surgeon, not

a heart surgeon.

You want to be an office worker but you haven’t used a computer before.

You want to be a policeman but you’ve been in prison.

You want to be a marriage counsellor but you’ve been married 6 times.

You want to be the model for the Marlboro Man but you’ve given up smoking.

Observation Report

Before the lesson begins, I prepare my computer, activities, and turn on my video

recorder for when Sara gets to my house. When she arrives, I press record and greet

her. I ask her questions such as, “What have you been doing today?” “Have you been

working on any projects around the house?” “Have you worked at the restaurant

lately?” “Have you been following any new TV shows?” and Sara takes her time to

answer them carefully. She asks me to repeat a few of the questions, and to explain

when she does not understand. She has trouble with the second question, so I scaffold

her by providing examples like painting, moving furniture, and spring-cleaning. Once

we finish this part of the session, I stop the recording without Sara noticing, and I start

to explain the next activity.

The next activity is another sorting activity, although it is different from the one

in the previous lesson. As I explain this activity, I tell Sara to notice the structure of the

questions I will tell her, and to try to formulate her responses based on that. I begin to

read her the questions, and Sara takes her time to answer them. As she is speaking, I

write down her answers word for word. She is very cautious, and asks many questions

about word order and the way she should be answering the questions. I help her

formulate her sentences as much as I can, but Sara is getting frustrated and so I take

some time to teach her explicitly about the present perfect and the present perfect

continuous. I teach her by showing her the structure of the aspects and teaching her

how to form them and when to use them. Once this is done, I go back to the sentences

and continue until number ten. I do not get to all of the sentences because the twenty

minutes will have elapsed before Sara can complete the rest of this activity. I give my

sheet to Sara and I begin to point out some minor errors she made with her answers,

once they are corrected, she takes some time to sort the sentences into the table I have

given her. When she is done we go over it together. Here is the table that Sara has

completed:

Now it is time to move on to the next activity, the “Job Interview Game”. I

explain to Sara her role, and her goal, and I tell her that she is only allowed to use the

present perfect and the present perfect continuous to ask me questions. She asks me a

few questions and I realize that an example round might be helpful. I use the first

scenario as an example and help her come up with questions that might elicit the right

answer. Once she understands what to do, we formally begin the activity. For the most

part, she uses the correct tenses when asking me her questions, but when she doesn’t, I

answer in either the present perfect or the present perfect continuous. When I do this,

she understands that she made an error and she rephrases her question accordingly. At

the end of the activity, Sara tells me that she enjoyed it very much and that it helped her

think about using the tense/aspects.

To conclude our session, I tell Sara that I taped our initial conversation, and she

is very surprised. I assure her that no one else will hear it, and that I will delete it as

soon as our lesson is over. I play the video for her, and we listen together, I pause the

recording at the end of each of her responses and ask her whether or not she thinks she

answered correctly. She corrects her initial mistakes and this proves to me that the

lesson has been successful!

Self-Reflection

I am really happy with the outcome of this second lesson because I can start to

see Sara’s progress! At the end of the first session I had with her, I decided that I would

use activities that allow us to communicate orally since that is what would help her

most (it was a BIG success). The “Interview Game” was really a lot of fun, and it got

her using the present perfect and the present perfect continuous in spontaneous speech!

However, I did have difficulties with this activity because Sara was having trouble

understanding the instructions; I had to use shorter and simpler sentences, and I ended

up using the first “scenario” as an example.

The second thing I had decided to change at the end of the first lesson was to not

to use explicit instruction so that she can deduce the grammar rules for herself.

Unfortunately this did not work out as well as I had hoped. I realized that Sara was

having trouble understanding why her sentences were wrong and had to take a certain

form when she began asking questions. In the end, I took a few minutes to answer her

questions and teach her explicitly. Unless I am doing it wrong, I think older learners

benefit from explicit instruction since they have a more developed metalinguistic

awareness than the younger learners I am used to teaching.

In terms of teaching grammar, I think this assignment has been the biggest

learning opportunity for me. Even though class was useful, putting what I had learned

into practice in this way has allowed me to become more confident in my ability to

teach grammar. This particular lesson has taught me that I won’t always stick to my

plans, and that I will have to adjust for my student(s) as I go along.

If I had to change something about this lesson, I would add a review section at

the beginning. I would like to see if Sara remembers what she learned last week, and

contrast it with what she learned this week. Also, I think it would be a good idea to

teach the simple past along with the present perfect continuous because Sara kept

asking why she couldn’t just use the simple past to answer my questions, as they are

similar. I plan to give Sara this lesson sometime soon since she has asked me for more

session with me!

References

Present Perfect Simple and Continuous job interview roleplay cards. (2009, October 8).

Retrieved April 26, 2015, from

https://tefltastic.wordpress.com/worksheets/grammar/present-perfect/pres-

perf-simp-cont/pres-perf-simp-interview-roleplays/