6th Tutoring Session

Today with E. was even better than last time. I went to E's family's restaurant this weekend and saw her there. She didn't talk to me very much while there, but when I came to school today she ran up to me and hugged me. She then proudly told her teacher that I had come to the restaurant. I smiled and she said she wanted to go with me. We went back to the same location as before since that room seemed to work much better than the small room I had originally been taking her too. This room has nothing but the floor some windows and a small bench. For the first few minutes I asked E. about what she had done that day and asked her questions about things. After a while, she wanted to do something else. We looked at the pictures in a book for a little together, but she quickly loses interest in books. I had also brought along a large deck of cards. these cards are probably about 5 by 3 playing cards. I told E. that I would teacher her a game. I taught her how to play war. Each time we laid a card, we both said the number that we laid. Then, E. would decide which one was bigger, if she wasn't sure she was able to count the number of items on the card. I encouraged her to use words like less, more, and same. As we played she became more confident and more talkative. Although generally I have focused more on speaking and language skills, this was an opportunity to also incorporate some math skills with using a math language. Overall, she really seemed to enjoy the game and the time passed quickly.
I believe that this tutoring sessions simply continues to reiterate what Lisa Delpit has been saying in her book. Teaching children from other cultures is all about building relationships and attempting to understand them. E. loves games so this is a great approach to use with her. Also, in teaching her what words you use to describe the concepts of less and more in numbers provides specific skills as well as language. One thing I've realized this semester is that sometimes the things we plan don't always work. So, I always take along a whole "bag of tricks". I had planned on reading because I had picked out some books that would interest her in relation to monkeys her favorite animal. However, when this didn't work I knew I had to try something else. My original plan was not war, but I wanted to do something simple, so I started with it. Frequently, I think of educational games and using those to teach things. However, sometimes we don't realize the simple skills that can be acquired from games like war. For someone who is so young, learning a new language in a new culture, this practices many skills. Even for other young students this still requires the background knowledge of understanding which number is bigger. I can't remember the last time I played war. Never underestimate the power of simple childhood games.