Emily TS #2

Date/Time: Thursday, 16 March 2017 at 10 AM

Location: Tallahassee, FL

After a bit of an address mix up I finally had my first meeting with my child refugee tutee. Kavira Agape is a first grader from Uganda. When I arrived at the apartment one of her younger siblings answered the door and I waited for a few minutes before Kavira made her debut. She has a very large personality, but was very shy around me and only began to engage when her older sister did. Kavira knew the alphabet and knew common words used to demonstrate the alphabet such as apple for “A” or cat for “C” but struggled with identifying certain words or letters she knew on paper. Because of this struggle I focused on having Kavira and her family, who were joining in on the session, copy the letters I wrote on a chalkboard on a piece of paper. Kavira struggled with writing more difficult letters such as “M” or “G.” She would frequently get upset when she couldn’t understand how to write the letter or when her mother tried to intervene. After a bit of a tantrum I tried to get Kavira to focus by continually retracing the letters I would write until she could accurately replicate the letter and would high-five her to get her spirits up. It was interesting to note during the session how quickly Kavira and her family were picking up on English. I could definitely tell Kavira was learning in school, but given her age it was very difficult to have her focus so my goal is to make our sessions more interactive in order to pique her interest.