Yesterday I had a really nice lesson with an orange student. We covered the item “Past II” for past continuous in which we cover the bank robbery and what the students were doing in the morning and afternoon. As expected, she did not know what “naughty” meant. I explained that it meant that they were being “bad” or “ill-behaved” and of course we talked about the list that Santa makes at Christmas of the children who have been “naughty” and “nice” during the year. She replied with a firm “I’ve got it!”. I enjoy this particular lesson because it is fun to test the student’s memory of what each student was doing in the morning and the afternoon. I mixed it up with “yes-no”, alternative “or” and “wh” questions about “what”, “when”, “where” and “why” they were doing what they were doing. This gave her a chance to emphasize those particular parts of her answers. Then I had her ask me the questions too. I finished with questions about what she was doing at various times in the past and we moved on to the routine section of the lesson. It is always fun to work with this student. She truly enjoys each lesson and makes noticeable progress each time. She always reviews the lesson at home before the next lesson and often writes down what she has done over the weekend for me to check in the next week’s lesson. She is a pleasure to coach and always enters the classroom with a beaming smile and interesting things to talk about. The fun continues!
Al Bartle (Smith’s School of English – Okamoto)
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