Katherine-TS#8

Yesterday, I met with my Hispanic tutee again. He had requested a war story so I brought along the only one I had in print called Kattekoppen. It has a lot of technical military language (howitzer, lieutenant, etc) and some Dutch words/accents in it as well ("goot" for "good," "hoeffer" for "however," Kattekoppen). Its a very sad story with many layers of meaning that go beyond just the surface of the war going on. During our session, we got about halfway through the story (about 10 out of 20 pages, but the print is somewhat small). We had to stop frequently for word pronunciation and meaning. It was definitely on the more intensive side of things, but my tutee was very engaged with the material and didn't seem to mind. To help prevent fatigue, I would read chunks of the sentences first, then have him read after me. It helped him preview how a word was pronounced and hear it in context before tackling it himself. We also worked on minimal pairs with words like "variety" and "thus" as they come along in the story. I think it was due to his engagement in the story, but for the first time, he actually stopped me to ask questions and summarize things instead of the usual, other way around. I did not have to pull teeth this time; he seems to finally be starting to enjoy reading. I keep telling him that he just has to find the right things to read, and reading will be fun. For "homework," he is supposed to write a small summary of the story so far, keeping in mind what we reviewed the last time he wrote (no random capital letters or commas for the most part). He has his incorrect and corrected draft of the previous piece he wrote for reference, and said that that would be helpful enough for him to use as a guide. Next lesson, we will finish the story and discuss it. If there is time, I will correct the writing sample with him during the session.