Claire TS #11

Date/Time: April 7, 6:30-8:30pm

Location: Tutee’s home in Sienna Square Apartments

Topic/Skill: To like/love/need, etc. + action verbs in simple present

I met with Damarce and her sisters for the fifth time on Friday. We reviewed the action verbs that I had taught them last week and then did some additional action verbs as well as 6 verbs indicating preference: like, don’t like, love, hate, want, and need. The girls have already been saying “I like…” and “I love…” around me, but I wanted to give them some additional vocabulary and address some errors I’ve been noticing. The biggest one is that they say “I like you…” instead of “I like to…” such as “I like you swim.” After we reviewed the new vocabulary, I tried to play Two Truths and a Lie with them, where I modeled it and then each person would take turns writing three sentences starting with preference verbs and the others would have to guess which of the three sentences was a lie. I had looked up the words for truth and lie in their language and thought it was going smoothly, but then one of the girls wrote “I don’t like Satan” as her “lie” and I realized there was some confusion over what “lie” in English meant. They thought it was any case where the sentence referred to something “bad” (often Satan in their sentences—they’re a very religious family). I had a rough time explaining the difference in meaning, but I tried giving some example sentences like “I am 28 years old,” (truth) and “I am 2 years old,” (lie). I decided to move on to another game which was much more fun and productive. We played Trainwreck, where one person stands in the middle with the others in chairs in a circle. The person in the middle has to say something (in this case, an “I like to…” sentence), and then anyone in the circle who agrees with the sentence has to get up out of her seat and scramble to find a new seat, or else be the next person to have to say a sentence in the middle. This game worked way better than any of the others I’ve tried. I provided a lot of linguistic support at first by saying out loud “Yes, I like to…too!” as I would stand up or pointing and asking them “Do you like…?” After a little while I could tell that they understood the game by the fact that they did not all get up and run to a new seat every time, but sometimes stayed seated when they did not like the activity mentioned by the person in the middle. I definitely think I should continue to incorporate TPR-style games during my remaining sessions with them.

At the end of the session, one of the older girls asked if I could take her in my car to drop off trash in the dumpster, which is near the entrance to the complex, a good walk from their apartment. I agreed to drop her off there, but then some of her little sisters climbed in the back of my car as well. I was in a hurry and only planned to drop her off on my way out, so I told the younger sisters I was sorry but they had to go. The littlest girl, four-year-old Ange, was ecstatic to be in my car and wouldn't leave no matter how many times her siblings told her she had to get out of the car. This was dragging on and I was really running late for a meeting, so I asked one of the older girls to help get her out of the car. I told her I was sorry several times, but little Ange started wailing when they took her out of the car and remained inconsolable as I drove off. I felt awful. When we got to the dumpster, there was a scary-looking guy throwing things into the street, so I decided it wasn't safe to leave the older sister there and offered to drive her back to the apartment. Ange was still wailing when I got there. That turned into a mess very quickly, and I need to not let the kids into my car again without really thinking it through.