Damil_TP_#1

Child TP- 1

1/12/2015

PJ Chang's House

Topic/Skill: 
-Reading Comprehension
-Vocabulary 

Today was the first day I met PJ, my child tutee. His family has invited me to come over to his house on Monday nights to help him out. PJ was born and raised in the United States, and is part Korean. His mother, Ms. Kim, kindly welcomed me at the door and presented me his school assigned reading material for the week. She asked me to help him read the books and test his comprehension of the material. 

Initially, PJ was understandably shy. I asked a few brief questions to get to know him, which he hesitantly replied. To "break the ice," I let him choose which one of the assigned books he wanted to read first. I asked him to read two pages at a time, pausing each time for me to ask him questions to see if he understood what he was reading. PJ is a good reader, yet at times I did have to make use of the illustrations in the book to help him visualize what he was reading. Since the first book was about Auto Mechanics Professionals, at times I would use my relevant past work experience as an aircraft mechanic to keep his interest in the book and explain mechanical terms in simple language. After finishing the first book, I noticed he warmed up to me, so we took a short break and talked about his interest in airplanes a little more. :) For the second book, he read it to me as well, stopping every 2 pages like we did in the previous book to test his comprehension of the material. At the end of the book, I went over certain key words in the book that he did not understand during his reading and their definition.

Overall, I feel that with a few months of practice like we did tonight, PJ's reading comprehension skills will improve greatly as long as he is given books that are both interesting and challenging for a kid of his level. He is well behaved and focused today, so I know this is so. As for me, this is a good opportunity to develop teaching skills for kids, especially when it comes to asking questions to test their comprehension. I will continue working my ability to ask simple questions that will help PJ learn the words and material in his books.