Today’s session was by far the best we’ve had up to this point. Maybe it was the subject matter, or it could be we’re just learning to communicate with each other better, but the most likely reason for my ELL’s success is probably a combination of both. The lesson started with a simple question, “what area of the world is this?” (Middle East). He wasn’t able to name any of the countries or landmarks before the lesson started, and given the worksheet handed to us by the Geography teacher was admittedly hard, I was a little nervous at first.
We started with a simple goal, memorize six countries which are important to understanding the region. The five I chose were Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. We learned these five really fast, roughly 3 or 4 minutes, and I started to get optimistic. But the next landmarks were undoubtedly going to be a lot tougher. On the agenda were seas such as the Red, Arabian, Mediterrean and Caspian; Mountians such as the Tauras, Elburz, and Zargos; and Gulfs such as Aden, Oman, and Persian. Thats a pretty heavy plate for a student who hasn’t yet learned how to discern the Middle East on a world map.
But like the countries, he was able memorize all those landmarks and more fairly easily. We constantly reviewed previously learned landmarks and countries, so that those wouldn’t go forgotten. The best part of the session was that my student was overtly trying to memorize these terms, and did so at such a pace that rough understanding of the world map could easily be attained within a couple of weeks. The session ended when handed him a blank map and said, “fill in everything we’ve learned”. He was able to label approximently 20 terms on the map with minimal spelling errors after only an hour and no word bank. Thats pretty good in my book.
I think the main lesson I’ve taken from this assignment is how much reading and writing skills are holding him back more than would be expected. He learned those terms fast enough for me to conclude that had he recieved more one on one attention, finding the Middle East on a map should be easy for him at this point. There was a gap between what he could recite back and what he could write, which was the first time I truly grasped how his writing was more problematic than he lets on.
