LTS Literacy Lessons | Session 3
Name of Tutee: Jayven
1. Jayven’s engagement in the literacy lessons with regards to:
a. Attention to
the lesson and tasks
Before our
session has started, Jayven momentarily approached a classmate close to our
spot to merely say his regards. Then, we went back to my side to simply wait
for an activity. That was the only time that he had his attention on others. By
the time our session has started, Jayven was once again completely engrossed in
our lesson. There was even a time when a random kid went to our spot, looked at
what he’s doing and urged him to play with him. But he didn’t even bat an
eyelash to the kid, so the kid went on his way. When I asked Jayven who the kid
is, he just shrugged his shoulder. I can tell that was really keen in finishing
his tasks and was hungry for more academic food than the physical snack that I
was offering him in-between the session.
b. Effort to accomplish a task
Jayven usually does his best when
finishing the tasks required of him. However, there was this particular
activity wherein his input seemed short, forced, and not deliberately thought of.
In this activity, he has to tell a story based on a picture book using his own
words. Jayven did not look excited when I asked him to do this task. Instead,
he looked burdened. While telling the story, his body language and tone of
voice gave me the impression that he did not want to do the activity. He also
seemed to give me the look saying that I should have been the one telling him
the story, and not the other way around.
Apart from that activity, he seemed
to be exerting a 100% effort in completing the rest of his tasks, especially
when an activity involves coloring/drawing.
c. Attitude towards task, teacher, and others
Like I said before, Jayven is generally a sweet child. He pays
respect not only to the older people around him, but also to the kids of his
age.
2.
Jayven’s display of:
a. Understanding of the lesson
Jayven has either studied the lessons before or is naturally a
fast learner. I can say this because our pace moves pretty quickly to the point
that we can manage to finish a session for about 48 minutes on average! Except
from the storytelling part last Monday, Jayven generally accomplished every
task with ease.
Frankly speaking however, Jayven’s phonological awareness is not
perfect. In fact, there are several sounds of the letters in the alphabet which
he gets confused with. As his Tutor, I will surely make sure that at the end of
this term, he will be able to improve, if not perfect his phonological
awareness skills.
b. Motivation and interest in learning literacy skills and others
Jayven is determined to finish the required tasks concerning
literacy, but he was more willing to carry out activities that involve his interests:
coloring and drawing.
3. Challenges and strategies during the literacy lesson:
The most perceptible challenges from
last session were: (1) Jayven’s discomfort in conducting the storytelling; (2)
His poor inner representation to the sounds of the vowels in the alphabet; and
(3) Our tendency to finish the lesson early, causing him to be bored for the
rest of the meeting.
For the first challenge, I tried to
lift up the atmosphere first. Since I did not know the cause of his discomfort,
I experimented for a bit. I initially joked with him and asked him to remember
how I did my storytelling with “Ang Pamilya Ismid” and I asked him to just copy
how I do it. Then, I urged him to take his time in analyzing the pictures of
the book. I gave him ample time to familiarize himself with the book so that he
won’t forget what to say when the storytelling starts. I think these strategies
helped him, because the second time that he conducted the storytelling, he wasn’t
as bland or as pressured any longer.
For the second and third challenge,
I will incorporate some lessons next meeting when we finish early so that I
will be able to help him improve his phonological skills and at the same time,
keep him preoccupied with a purpose.
4.
Initiatives in literacy // and 5. changes in my teaching and in the student’s
learning
When it comes to Jayven, I usually tend to
teach him according to his interests. During our free time last Monday, I
actually asked him for the first time to do an activity which is not part of
the lesson plan. This activity is for him to make a story that uses the words
that start with letters M and A. To make it enjoyable for him, I asked him to represent
these words using pictures. Thus, he has to draw and color which are his favourites.
The reason behind this is because I wanted to know if he is capable of telling
a story properly and equivocally if given time.
Surprisingly, he asked me if he could
also tell the story in written words. Of course, I agreed. However, when he was
done with the supplementary activity, I found out that his story was even more
confusing in written form. This has caused me to be confused with the story of
his drawing as well. I’m not even sure if the drawing and the written story in
words have any correlation at all. Despite this, I was very much proud that he
took on the initiative to do something that CAN improve his literacy. He is
usually a timid child, so having him volunteer to do something that I didn’t
require him to do is a milestone for me.
Jayven is a work in progress. Now
that we’ve spent a lot of time together, I can now see little bits of academic
struggles that he might have, but that doesn’t stop me from focusing on his
potential and what his determined spirit is capable of doing.
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