Thursday, August 7, 2008 •
& spongebob is cute 3:16 PM
Hi! Sorry about not continuing about the teaching Addison thing. So I shall continue with it now. By the way, 6A had tutored 6H again, on Wednesday. So I shall be writing both day's experience.
Day 1(31/07)
Every time I got Addison to study or prepare a reading passage or picture conversation, he would tear bits of his resource papers. His eyes would wander here and there.
I felt like yelling at him to concentrate. But I did not want hear vulgarities sprouting from his mouth. I do not know much about Addison, but I sure know that he does not have a good record for behaviour. So, instead, calmly told him, "Please concentrate,".
Was I having poor tolerance power when I wanted to yell at him? Or was it that I was irritated beyond limits? I do not know. Please comment regarding this.
Mr Phua, his teacher came around to check on him. He asked me how Addison was doing. I told him that Addison is okay but always gets distracted. Mr Phua said, "He's always like that," as he stole a glance from Addison. Addison was also given two rectangular pieces of paper by Mr Phua. It had comments from his prelim oral examiner.
I took it and read the comments. I do not vividly remember the comments, but I sure do remember that there were words like 'soft', 'monotonous' etc. etc.
I let him choose an oral picture for him to say. He chose the picture which depicts a scene at a music lesson (yikes! I'm using depict again!). I gave him FIVE WHOLE MINUTES. I timed it using my watch.
As usual, Addison was looking everywhere but the picture. - told him to concentrate, but he would not. After exactly five minutes, I told him to start. He said, "One more minute!" I sighed and nodded.
"If in five minutes he could not study the picture, how would he study it in a mere minute?" I asked myself. Nevertheless, I gave him exactly one minute and thirty seconds. After which, I told him to start.
Sure enough, Addison was mumbling. No description. No personal opinions. Nothing. Picture Conversation was over in about a minute or so. I was not absolutely shocked. I saw it coming when I heard his reading. Simply not bothered attitude. Or as we say in Singlish, the bo-chap attitude. I said I was not totally shocked. But I was, a little. In a minute, he finished the Picture Conversation. I was expecting at least two minutes. And he had to ask me about some words. He asked, "What ah?"
He did have some misinterpretation, I sighed.
I asked him if he wanted to re-do. By asking him that, I wanted to know if I could consider his mistakes as a bo-chap attitude or, if he really really could not speak. Or his mind went blank.
The response was immediate.
A quick no was the response.
Never mind!
I moved on to oral conversation. I referred to the post-its on that piece of paper I had. The most likely topic would be 'Have you ever watch or participated in a performance?'
Me: Have you ever watch or participated in a performance before?
Addison: No.
Me: Do you intend to watch or participate in a performance?
Addison: No.
Me: Why?
Addison: Very boring.
~~The End of Oral Conversation~~
He just shut me up! Arghhhhh! Now I can completely empathise with you, MC. When you were sharing with us the experience you had while testing the pupils oral conversation. They just shut you up. Very annoying. "Okay, now we are coming to the end of this session. Please wrap up today's learning," MC said as the one hour sessison was just minutes away from ending. Addison seemed very glad. Obviously he was looking forward to the end of this session since the beginning He grabbed his stuff and got up, ready to leave. The end of the first day of tutoring.Well, my reflection on this is that, I have given my best. Now it is Addison's choice if he wants to absorb it. It is his choice if he wants to co-operate to achieve better results for oral. Completely his choice.
