Monday (7/16), after I met with my conversation group, Ahmad, Nassar, and I took a walk to the Goldstein Library. If you haven't been to the Goldstein Library yet I suggest you check it out. It is a quaint little library near Landis Green, not far from Strozier. They have plenty of books for all levels. I wanted to try an exercise with them that engaged them in reading, writing, speaking, and grammar. We selected a book from the children's section called, "The Boy Who Peed on a War!" I made sure to find something they carried a couple copies of so we could all follow along.
We sat down at a table and I told them to take out a piece of paper. I began by having them read the first few pages silently (Nassar read noticeably quicker than Ahmad). When they were both finished reading, I had them write a summary of what happened in those first few pages..."tell me about what you have read so far." When each of them finished writing their summary, I had them read their summary out loud. I then asked them comprehension questions about details they didn't mention, and gave them a chance to scan for that information as needed.
When we finished with the summarizing portion of the exercise, we took turns reading the remainder of the book aloud. I used this time to help them with their pronunciation, mainly pointing out errors that they were commonly making after they finished reading a portion of the text.
We finished the comical little children's book and headed back to CIES. I think overall the session was pretty successful, but again there was a noticeable difference in their levels despite the fact that they are in the same "group." Come to find out that Nassar challenges himself in his own time to read higher level text that belong to his roommates (who are all Americans). This was a good experience for me though, because we are most definitely going to encounter all levels of English students in our classrooms and we are going to have to learn to adjust our pace and lesson accordingly.
No comments:
Post a Comment