This past meeting with Marisol was rather uneventful. I felt as if I were rushing to get done with our exercises because I knew she had to leave early to go pay her rent, and it was the Wednesday of fall break. I knew my dad was on his way to come pick me up, and he hates it when I make him wait on me after he's sat in excruciating traffic to come get me.
Marisol and I practiced identifying and saying words in the Spanish/English picture dictionary. That seemed to help, but I cannot help but feel like I am not doing enough to push her so that she sees progress. We also looked at examples of when to use capital letters from exercises that I printed off from the Internet. She understood all the examples, and seemed to glean some knowledge from that exercise as well. Next week, we are going to look at the picture dictionary again and write sentences based on the words we practice. I may try having her mimic sentences that I write and read them aloud, and then have her write sentences of her own if she feels comfortable. Marisol speaks English proficiently, however, writing seems to be her biggest obstacle. I desperately desire to help her achieve her goal. After this last meeting, I felt inadequate and that I was not doing enough to help her.
3 comments:
Hi Abby!
From an outside point of view, I think that you are having a significant impact on Marisol's life. It takes so much time and effort to learn a second language (I took French for 5 years and I'm still not fluent!), so just be encouraged by the fact that you are helping her at all, even if you feel like it's not enough. She will begin to get what you are teaching her, just hang in there!
It seems like your doing a good job. You have a clear idea where she is and how to go from here, while being patient with her pace. I think this concept is new to most of us, so being unsure of ourselves at times is normal. But in my opinion, I think you're on the right track.
Even though it may seem to you that you aren't helping her much, you are giving her the confidence to even try to learn a language, and that, to me, is the biggest obstacle. You seem to be doing a great job. Giving your time and your best effort is the most important thing, the rest will fall in line. Keep it up!
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