Kim TS #13

I met with my child tutee, Amidu, on Tuesday April 11 at 7 pm at his home. After our last two very successful tutoring lessons I was really looking forward to having another great day with Amidu. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case today. I arrived at Amidu's house and his mother and three of his siblings were in the living room watching a movie. Amidu let me in and gestured for me to sit down in my usual sitting place. I sat down and the only children who payed me much attention were his two-year old brother and his eight-year old sister. I pulled out a book and asked Amidu if he would like to read with us to which he answered "yes." I pulled out the first book that was at the front of my bag, a Dr. Seuss book titled Fox in Socks, which I had picked up in a hurry earlier in the day at the public library. I opened it up and asked the children if they would like me to read to them or if they would like to practice reading to me. Both Amidu and his sister wanted to read to me so I slowly moved my finger across each word to allow them the time to sound out and read the words back to me. My first mistake in our tutoring lesson was picking up this book. It was my fault for not thoroughly skimming through it at the library and not catching that this book is a total tongue-twister and pretty unfit for beginning learners. I suppose I was a little too trustworthy with Dr. Seuss' books because the books we read last week were very level appropriate and fun to read. Amidu read with his sister for about 40 mins out of our hour long lesson before being completely pulled away from my attention by his two year old brother who wouldn't stop climbing all over him and the movie playing in the background that just permanently distracted him. I probably asked Amidu and his sister if they would like to read a new book five times throughout the lesson and every time I asked they said "no." It was a bit frustrating because they needed a lot of linguistic support to get through this book and I also knew they probably weren't comprehending the book at all. I felt really bad at the end of today, I felt like I had failed them in this lesson. I definitely learned the importance of making sure my teaching materials are level-appropriate. I really wish our learning environment had less distractions, but I certainly admire Amidu's sister who stays present during every tutoring session even when the baby is annoying her beyond belief.