The Volunteer Learning Program - VLP - is part of Adult High School Completion, Department of Special Services, Fairfax County Public Schools. VLP is committed to helping its adult learners achieve their academic and life goals, and to providing its tutors with a rewarding and well-supported volunteer experience.
Have you been reading about the Common Core Standards? Recommendations have been made for their adaptation for adults. See the new section on Common Core Standards under "Helpful Resources."
Under New GED Test 2014 and also under Technology Skills for Online Tests and Texts, a long list of websites for online test-taking practice, not only for the GED but for all online testing such as the SOLs.
The following are a few comments I would like to share with everyone. I've been tutoring a few months and this is some advice for beginning tutors.
1) I started with giant expectations. I thought I would have my learner read all kinds of books and know all kinds of words (she wants to improve her vocabulary) relatively quickly. Boy was I wrong. Learning is a long almost subtle process where we go over material repeatedly; sometimes the learner doesn't seem to get it at all and all seems lost. But there are moments when I do see improvement, it is nothing grandiose, but small increments in learning over a long time like remembering a vocab word, or using a vocab word in her writing. I learned to enjoy the small steps!
2) I keep careful dated notes, in a small notebook, detailing my lesson plan and the homework assignment for the week. This helps me with seeing where we've gone, and where we are going with my learner.
3) Play games. Since my learner wishes to improve her vocabulary, I started making flash cards with words on one card and their definition on another. The learner plays a game where she matches the word with the definition. This is just one game, but there are others that can be used to make the learning process more fun for both the tutor and the learner.
The paragraphs do not have to be long. If there were spelling errors, I requested my learner to define the words and then writing a sentence using the word. Other times, I have my learner highlight the words she doesn't know and then write a paragraph about what is being read but request to use the words that the learner did not know..
Virginia Glenn (one of our great math tutors!)offered these comments about tutoring her second language learner in writing:
I realized after last time, that the real challenge with teaching writing as opposed to math is that you can't CONTROL it as well. It's like the Pandora's box of teaching. You may think you are going to focus on run-on sentences or some other issue, but then once you let your learner write something on their own, it becomes like the Pandora's box as you are confronted with any number of writing horrors, all screaming for attention, and often requiring prior knowledge your learner may not possess. It's more than a little daunting b/c then you have to perform what amounts to literary triage, deciding which errors to address immediately and which to ignore or at least postpone addressing. What I CAN tell you tho is [my learner] is a teacher's dream of a student -- enthusiastic, motivated and intelligent. After we'd spent some time talking about her 'reading is important' essay, I asked her to rework the ending because it basically lacked one entirely; it just stopped. She came in the next week, having rewritten the entire thing, and very excited about what she had been able to put down on paper. And yes it was full of writing errors -- perhaps even MORE than the first draft :-O, but what was so wonderful, and I think what had her excited too, was that far from being rote and formulaic, her writing had a real flair to it with style and personality. I was stunned. Now if I can just help her fix the other stuff!
I shared Virginia's comments with a great group of new tutors at our most recent tutor training workshop on January 22. It made the 'tutoring writing' presentation realistic by quoting a tutor's personal experience.
I decided to try something different. I bring in cds (clean music of course) to not only expose her to different types of music but to have her write about how the music makes her feel. So far she has enjoyed this and looks forward to more.
Tutor Constance Reres, who is working with a GED learner, describes how she is using a writing prompt to help her learner organize and develop an essay. You will love the prompt - and also her strategy. "XXX indicated that in the writing portion of the [GED] exam he experienced some trouble organizing his thoughts, so last week we worked on webbing. I gave him a prompt (Cows are useful in many ways!) and let him generate reasons that this statement was true. His first response was "milk and cream." When we finished we had leather ( belts, billfolds, purses, shoes), meats, fertilizer from their droppings, etc. Then I worked with him in writing an introductory paragraph, supporting paragraphs, and a closing paragraph. I am going to give him another prompt next Saturday and have him organize using the webbing strategy. Then for homework, I'll ask him to complete the writing assignment."
Hi all. For those of you tutoring ESL students and learners, you have probably noticed that they tend to struggle with correct article usage (both in determining counting nouns, and distinguishing between a, an, and the). I think most native speakers see this area as such a small thing that we are tempted to just correct it for them as we go, but mine at least continues to make that mistake even while she dramatically improves in other areas. And it tends to be small areas that can be the most distracting to native speakers when they read. Here's a website I found with plenty of exercises to help in this area: http://www.englishpage.com/grammar/Articles/Exercises/
Woah! I had my first meeting with my learner. She is so industrious and determined I felt as though by sheer will alone she could compress several years' worth of learning *in a foreign language* into a few weeks--max. But now it's coming down to reality and I'm wishing I had the skills to translate her drive into the goal she seeks. Anyway, an example of how hard she works is her word list. I noticed she had trouble with a word and suggested she write it down. She immediately flipped open her notebook to 3 pages, filled front and back with 3 columns of other words she'd already added!! That's when I understood her sense of frustration and almost succumbed to a sense of futility myself. Does anyone have any advice about what to DO with these word lists so they can move from the notebook paper into fluent usage? I know there's a way to take her Herculean efforts and tweak them so they will be useful, but I'm just not sure exactly what it is. Thanks for any suggestions!
First of all, I'd suggest she condense her word list. Go over the word list with her and try to narrow it down to a more realistic list of words that she uses frequently. There are many, many words she will never need to know to be a competent English speaker, reader & writer! "http://www.paulnoll.com/Books/Clear-English/words-01-02-hundred.html" lists the most common 3000 words in the English language, in groups of 100's, so after she makes her own lists of frequently used words , she could select a few more words from the top few on the "common" list. Once her list is narrowed down (maybe start with 20?), have her practice using these words in her speaking and writing. You might suggest she take 5 words a week to practice, and then challenge her to take 5 more the next week, while still practicing the 5 she learned the week before! Adjust the number of new words as needed. Let us know if this plan works!
My learner is also a second-language English speaker who needs to improve his vocabulary, but also has a lot of work to do on his writing. I found an exercise in a book which asks the learner to take a simple subject and simple predicate like (dog runs) and add adjectives, adverbs, and prepositional phrases to make a sophisticated sentence like "The energetic dog swiftly runs down the street." Then I asked my learner to do this with new vocabulary. I thought it struck a balance between structure and creativity and would work on several things at once, helping practice sentence structure, word choice, and reinforcing vocabulary.
The following are a few comments I would like to share with everyone. I've been tutoring a few months and this is some advice for beginning tutors.
ReplyDelete1) I started with giant expectations. I thought I would have my learner read all kinds of books and know all kinds of words (she wants to improve her vocabulary) relatively quickly. Boy was I wrong. Learning is a long almost subtle process where we go over material repeatedly; sometimes the learner doesn't seem to get it at all and all seems lost. But there are moments when I do see improvement, it is nothing grandiose, but small increments in learning over a long time like remembering a vocab word, or using a vocab word in her writing. I learned to enjoy the small steps!
2) I keep careful dated notes, in a small notebook, detailing my lesson plan and the homework assignment for the week. This helps me with seeing where we've gone, and where we are going with my learner.
3) Play games. Since my learner wishes to improve her vocabulary, I started making flash cards with words on one card and their definition on another. The learner plays a game where she matches the word with the definition. This is just one game, but there are others that can be used to make the learning process more fun for both the tutor and the learner.
Feel free to add to this and/or comment!
I found that having my learner read chapters of a book and then write about it helped with many skills:
ReplyDelete1. reading
2. comprehension
3. writing
4. spelling
5. sentence structure
The paragraphs do not have to be long. If there were spelling errors, I requested my learner to define the words and then writing a sentence using the word. Other times, I have my learner highlight the words she doesn't know and then write a paragraph about what is being read but request to use the words that the learner did not know..
Virginia Glenn (one of our great math tutors!)offered these comments about tutoring her second language learner in writing:
ReplyDeleteI realized after last time, that the real challenge with teaching writing as opposed to math is that you can't CONTROL it as well.
It's like the Pandora's box of teaching. You may think you are going to focus on run-on sentences or some other issue, but then once you
let your learner write something on their own, it becomes like the Pandora's box as you are confronted with any number of writing
horrors, all screaming for attention, and often requiring prior knowledge your learner may not possess. It's more than a little daunting b/c then you have to perform what amounts to literary triage, deciding which errors to address immediately and which to ignore or at least postpone addressing.
What I CAN tell you tho is [my learner] is a teacher's dream of a student
-- enthusiastic, motivated and intelligent.
After we'd spent some time talking about her 'reading is important' essay, I asked her
to rework the ending because it basically lacked one entirely; it just stopped. She came in the next week, having rewritten the
entire thing, and very excited about what she had been able to put down on paper. And yes it was full of writing errors -- perhaps even
MORE than the first draft :-O, but what was so wonderful, and I think what had her excited too, was that far from being rote and formulaic, her writing had a real flair to it with style and
personality. I was stunned. Now if I can just help her fix the other stuff!
I shared Virginia's comments with a great group of new tutors at our most recent tutor training workshop on January 22. It made the 'tutoring writing' presentation realistic by quoting a tutor's personal experience.
ReplyDeleteI decided to try something different. I bring in cds (clean music of course) to not only expose her to different types of music but to have her write about how the music makes her feel. So far she has enjoyed this and looks forward to more.
ReplyDeleteTutor Constance Reres, who is working with a GED learner, describes how she is using a writing prompt to help her learner organize and develop an essay. You will love the prompt - and also her strategy.
ReplyDelete"XXX indicated that in the writing portion of the [GED] exam he experienced some trouble organizing his thoughts, so last week we worked on webbing. I gave him a prompt (Cows are useful in many ways!) and let him generate reasons that this statement was true. His first response was "milk and cream." When we finished we had leather ( belts, billfolds, purses, shoes), meats, fertilizer from their droppings, etc. Then I worked with him in writing an introductory paragraph, supporting paragraphs, and a closing paragraph. I am going to give him another prompt next Saturday and have him organize using the webbing strategy. Then for homework, I'll ask him to complete the writing assignment."
Hi all. For those of you tutoring ESL students and learners, you have probably noticed that they tend to struggle with correct article usage (both in determining counting nouns, and distinguishing between a, an, and the). I think most native speakers see this area as such a small thing that we are tempted to just correct it for them as we go, but mine at least continues to make that mistake even while she dramatically improves in other areas. And it tends to be small areas that can be the most distracting to native speakers when they read. Here's a website I found with plenty of exercises to help in this area: http://www.englishpage.com/grammar/Articles/Exercises/
ReplyDelete-Ben
Woah! I had my first meeting with my learner. She is so industrious and determined I felt as though by sheer will alone she could compress several years' worth of learning *in a foreign language* into a few weeks--max.
ReplyDeleteBut now it's coming down to reality and I'm wishing I had the skills to translate her drive into the goal she seeks.
Anyway, an example of how hard she works is her word list. I noticed she had trouble with a word and suggested she write it down. She immediately flipped open her notebook to 3 pages, filled front and back with 3 columns of other words she'd already added!! That's when I understood her sense of frustration and almost succumbed to a sense of futility myself.
Does anyone have any advice about what to DO with these word lists so they can move from the notebook paper into fluent usage? I know there's a way to take her Herculean efforts and tweak them so they will be useful, but I'm just not sure exactly what it is.
Thanks for any suggestions!
First of all, I'd suggest she condense her word list. Go over the word list with her and try to narrow it down to a more realistic list of words that she uses frequently. There are many, many words she will never need to know to be a competent English speaker, reader & writer! "http://www.paulnoll.com/Books/Clear-English/words-01-02-hundred.html" lists the most common 3000 words in the English language, in groups of 100's, so after she makes her own lists of frequently used words , she could select a few more words from the top few on the "common" list. Once her list is narrowed down (maybe start with 20?), have her practice using these words in her speaking and writing. You might suggest she take 5 words a week to practice, and then challenge her to take 5 more the next week, while still practicing the 5 she learned the week before! Adjust the number of new words as needed. Let us know if this plan works!
ReplyDeleteMy learner is also a second-language English speaker who needs to improve his vocabulary, but also has a lot of work to do on his writing. I found an exercise in a book which asks the learner to take a simple subject and simple predicate like (dog runs) and add adjectives, adverbs, and prepositional phrases to make a sophisticated sentence like "The energetic dog swiftly runs down the street." Then I asked my learner to do this with new vocabulary. I thought it struck a balance between structure and creativity and would work on several things at once, helping practice sentence structure, word choice, and reinforcing vocabulary.
ReplyDelete