Kayla TS #6

Date/Time: September 17, 2016/12:40 pm - 1:40 pm
Location: Starbucks
Topic/Skill: Grammar/Prepositions
Feedback provided to tutee:

I just told Jimin to don't be afraid to bring any assignments she's having trouble with from her classes.

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:

I first started the lesson off by asking Jimin if she had any questions from her classes.  She had two questions about two sentences she wrote in an essay.  She had to remember them, but once she did she told me that her teacher wrote "w.w." on both.  In both sentences, she used the wrong preposition.  She technically was not wrong, but I explained that it was awkward.  I told her what we typically use in America.  She also had a question about a sentence she used in conversation: I am studying in CIES vs. I am studying at the CIES.  Technically neither are wrong, but I looked up the difference in front of her and it turns out that she should have used 'at'.  Since it seemed like she was having a little trouble prepositions, today's lesson was on prepositions.

I first explained to her the definition of a preposition and its many uses: they mark special relationships between persons, objects, and locations.

Then I had her play this game (really an interactive worksheet) on prepositions: https://www.turtlediary.com/game/complete-the-sentence-with-preposition.html.  She had to complete the sentence with the right preposition given two options.  Throughout the game, she had questions on meanings of words, phrases, and preposition use such as upon, across, 'look over', and ask.  I was able to explain most of her questions, but it was a little difficult and I had to look up the answer just to make sure I was telling her the correct meaning and use.  It's a little embarrassing doing that and even more embarrassing when I tell her, "I'll get back to you on that", but she was understandable.  I guess that's the hard part when you first start tutoring/teaching English as a second language.  Hopefully over the years I can build confidence in my answers.  We ended the tutoring session by going over a list of preposition words to make sure she understood most of them.  Next time I will have something better planned.