LTS Literacy Lessons | Session 8
Tutee’s basic information:
Name: Kledan Ilomibao
Sex: Male
Age: 9 years old
Grade level & Section: Grade 2 – Isaiah
Jayven, my original tutee, was not able to attend last Monday’s
session. While this is unfortunate, I cannot help but still be thankful for having
the chance to touch and shape another pure soul, Kledan.
Before diving right into the lesson, I had to establish and build
rapport with Kledan first. I asked him about his experiences with the past
lessons and his usual practices or routines with his original tutor, but I was
taken aback when he replied that his tutor only met him once. He does not even
know his tutor’s name.
With this in mind, I just treated that session as if it was the
first meeting wherein I had to assess his level of performance so that I can
adjust the day’s supposed lesson plan if needed. Fortunately, Kledan’s ability
is at par with it.
1. Kledan’s engagement in the literacy lessons
One
thing I noticed about Kledan is that he is very serious. He treated our session
rigidly with a tight posture and vigilant eyes, which weirdly reminded me of myself
during my first day in UP: a student who does not want to or is afraid to miss
any information. His divergence with my original tutee has caught me off guard,
because I was used to a light-hearted Jayven.
The atmosphere with Jayven was
like an afterschool review club, while Kledan make the ambience of being in a
tutorial center. Of course, just like a student receiving a tutorial, Kledan is
very much determined to finish the tasks at his hand. I am however, giving
Kledan’s serious attitude towards the lesson the benefit of the doubt because I
have only met him once.
2. Kledan’s display of understanding of the lesson
Kledan’s ability and
skills already surpass the objectives of the lesson plan. And as of now, I do
not think he has any difficulty regarding reading or writing literacy. His
performance last session was excellent. When I asked him to read the story as
if he was storytelling, he even explained to me that in order to do that well,
he has to have the feelings of the characters so his voice would not be
monotonous. Of course, he did not really execute the perfect paralanguage well,
but it was apparent that he tried adding expressions to the way he read the
story. When I tested his ability to spell, I improvised with words that usually
points out weaknesses of most children (e.g. problems with phonics) but he does
not seem to have any problem with that aspect.
One thing that I would not
forget last session was when we were doing the riddle activity and he answered
rooster instead of chicken. Personally, I think this says a lot about his
vocabulary.
3. Motivation, Interest, and Initiative in literacy (reading,
understanding & writing) learning.
As part of establishing
rapport, I gave Kledan the freedom to choose what he would like to do first
before going to the formal session. Surprisingly, Kledan wanted to read a
story. So I had no choice but to jump right into the lessons.
When we finished the lesson, I
asked him again what he would like to do because other kids are already
playing. Another tutor even came up to us and invited him to play, but he
refused. He wanted to study more, so I just decided to tackle some topics in his
classes that he has difficulty with. He replied Math, specifically with
division. Initially, I thought he has some confusion with the process of dividing,
but no. According to him, he does not like the rigid way his teacher solves the
problems because it was too long. He wants to solve division problems the fast
way, so he solves mentally.
I verbalized some problems for
him to solve mentally and he did solve them simply by mental math. Honestly, I
was amazed because not all people can do that. I can’t even do that myself. I
realized then that his difficulty was not in dividing, but in using the process
that is required of him in class.
4. Challenges and strategies during the literacy lesson:
Since Kledan is advanced,
I had no problem regarding the lesson. What had bothered me, however, was when
he opened up about how his dad, in his drunken state, had told him that he was
not his real son. He also started talking about his family’s issues. From
there, I saw the maturity in his eyes. His stories had told me more about why his
personality was so serious.
What I did was I encouraged him by prompting his positive experiences
with his family and using those positive experiences as a springboard for me to
uplift his spirit and make him feel loved.
What a sad story Kledan shared with you. Truly that is enough to make a child grow beyond his years. His telling you that very delicate story seems to indicate how much he trusted you even after just one session--that is something very important. Thank you for making him feel loved even if only for a session. I hope you get the chance to work with him again today. He needs all the love he could get.
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