My Friends and I... + Vocabulary Games!

This week, we read new stories and learned new vocabulary words.

We read Quack, a story about a girl moving houses, and talked about what we would move from our old homes into our new homes. "I would bring my toys," was a very popular answer.

We read What Does Pig Do? and reviewed the days of the week. The students wrote sentences and drew pictures about the things that they do during the week. Many students are currently taking piano classes.

We read My Friends and I, a book that discusses how we play together, how we feel, our bodies, and our toys.

Finally, we read The Path on the Map. Afterwards, everyone drew their own maps and each student presented to the class where the path on his/her map went. A few maps led to Taipei 101, a few maps led to money, and a few maps led to garbage. The path on Leo's map went to America, and Yo-Yo's went to the zoo.

We spent Thursday reviewing the new vocabulary we learned this week with a game wherein each team took turns sending a member up to the board to read one of the week's vocabulary words. It was Dinosaurs (Benson, Irene, Phil, and Leo) versus Beetles (Henry, Gwen, and Aston). It was a close game, neck and neck until the very last word: "drawing." In the end, Dinosaurs pulled through with the win.

We finished our week with a game of vocabulary-based Bingo. I wrote a list of the vocabulary words on the board and the students had to fill their Bingo board with the vocabulary words. We took turns choosing words to cross off, and in the end, everyone had at least 10 Bingos.

Andrew: Andrew is a good student. He reads well, understands the work, and gives clear, intelligible responses. He can be distracted at points, but when made to focus on the classwork, produces good work.

Aston: Aston continues to have problems focusing. He is very verbal and expressive, and understands the work, but has a problem with always wanting to play instead of just doing his work.

Benson: Benson does really great work. He reads well and understands the classwork instructions, and fulfills them well. He spent a little too much time this week playing with his ruler and had to go and face the wall, as a result; hopefully, we will have less of that next week.

Eason: Eason does good work when he commits to doing it; he has excellent handwriting and is clearly very bright. But he likes to play around and his resistance to doing work at times can be really tiresome. But he's new to the class and seems to be adjusting easily.

Gwen: Gwen has been really great. Her speaking and reading have improved a lot since I first met her. I am pleased with her progress. She still gets a little hyper from time to time, but has been better at focusing on her work.

Henry: Henry missed a lot of class this week because he was absent. But when he came back to class on Thursday, he dived right in without needing a lot of directions. It was great to have him back.

Irene: Irene does great work. She always raises her hand, is quick to help others (particularly Aston), and always has it together.

Leo: Leo is a very sweet boy. He appears to daydream a bit and is a little slow with the work, but I think he is still adjusting to being in a purely English-speaking environment. Generally, he has a good attitude, and I am excited to see how he progresses over the course of the semester.

Phil: Phil has been producing really great work. He is very good at writing his vocabulary words and drawing pictures that convey the proper meaning. He's been speaking more and has a better attitude overall with respect to classwork. He still resists public speaking at times, e.g. he was very upset when we did individual introductions and really resisted, to the point of almost throwing a tantrum; but when we presented our maps to the class, he did that very ably. So, I'm not really sure what the exact issue is... but we'll work on that. Overall, I am pleased with his progress.

Yo-Yo: Yo-Yo is a very slow worker, partly because he is distracted, and partly because he just doesn't want to do the work. He is clearly very capable of doing the work itself, and simply needs a little attitude adjusting towards actually completing it.