Language and Catechetical Institute Tutoring Partnership Weekly Assessment

Adapted from the Ohio Department of Education’s Strategies for Diverse Learners Using the UDL Model

Focus on English Language Learners(ELL)

Please save the document and type your responses in the boxes below. Please use as much space as you feel is necessary to explain your experience.

Discuss the cultural background
of the student. Explain how you will use
their cultural knowledge and experiences
as teaching/ learning resources (for
themselves
and for other students).
*You may consider filling this out after a few sessions and
then return to reflect upon what worked and didn’t.
This semester, I am very blessed to tutor Simon, a seminarian from Eastern China! He has gone through
seminary, and is learning English as one of his last steps before he is ordained. Simon is very friendly and
outgoing and seems to be very excited about learning English. He speaks conversationally pretty well, but
academic reading, writing, and speaking are much harder for him. I will use his previous knowledge of the
English language to help him be a more fluent speaker, reader, and writer, and also work on pronunciation
with him.

What is the level of students’ heritage
(native or home) language skills in all four
communication modes (listening, speaking,
reading and writing? How do you think
you will use their strengths and build upon
their weaknesses?
*You may consider filling this out after a few sessions
and then return to reflect upon what worked and didn’t.
Consult with the students’ English as a
Second Language (ESL) teachers or
tutors(Dr. Healy) and
share ideas on how to support the students’
learning in both the content classroom and
Simon speaks English moderately, but wants to continue to work on pronunciation. When having
conversations with him, he is easier to understand because of context clues, but when he speaks simple
words or phrases to other students, they sometimes struggle to know what he means. Simon is very good at
listening and will be able to pick out the word he doesn’t know in a sentence, and ask about it later. He is
very curious, and excited to continue learning. His reading level is moderate for someone learning a foreign
language. He struggles to differentiate some words, and wants to get better and reading passages. He is
working on sounding out words and breaking down words to help him become a better reader. Since he is so
eager, we have been using a strategy to cover part of the word with your finger and then say the part that you
know. This helps encourage him to break the word into smaller parts that are easier to pronounce. Simon
does not like to work on his writing skills as much because he would rather work on communicating with
others and reading. He does use writing occasionally when he is speaking to others, to write down words
that he has trouble pronouncing. He is very eager to learn spellings of all hard words just for this reason.
I consulted with Professor Joe Hahn about how to support Simon’s learning in the classroom. Professor
Hahn is a big supporter of using motivational techniques in order to encourage student participation. In
regards to the LCI program, Professor Hahn claims that this relational aspect really helps the students learn
English. In the classroom, it is more of lecture based, seminar style and lots of reading. A lot of homework
given is for students on their own and also requires interaction with roommates, friends, and others that for
 the ESL classroom. assistance in class. With reading assignments, it is often a combination of encouraging reading in their
native language in order to better prompt classroom participation, and then also reading in English passages
that they are already familiar with so they can express things they understand and do not understand.
Professor Hahn says the biggest help of the ELISA future teachers is the one on one help that they can give
and work with. It is easier for students to be embarrassed and express what they do not know to their tutor to
help the students be much more at ease and open. The tutoring sessions also help the LCI students become
more comfortable speaking with others conversationally and academically. It also helps the LCI students to
provide contact with the students to help them learn more conversational English, especially in regards to
forming relationships with students in another language.

Please upload the document and complete each section after your tutoring session. You will be required to submit both templates into the Blackboard shell at the end of the semester.

You are required to meet at least 5 times with your partner per 6/29/2014.

Date Time Multiple Means of Representation: To provide students Multiple Means of Action and Expression: To provide Multiple Means of Engagement: To tap individual
various ways of acquiring information and knowledge options for students to demonstrate what they have learned learners' interests, challenge them appropriately and
motivate them to learn

2/12/17 2-3:15 For our first meeting today, Simon and I had some
PM conversation so I would be able to know him
better, and his English ability level. He enjoyed
telling me about his family and his home. Simon
also read a short passage for me and wrote down
some vocabulary words to show me his
pronunciation and how he sounds out words.
2/21/17 7:30- While reading out of his blue book today, Simon
8:30 came across some words he struggled with
PM pronouncing. I gave him the strategy of using his
finger to cover up part of the word, and then
sounding out the part that he knows. He enjoyed
this strategy and being able to pronounce harder
words. In fact, he kept flipping through his book to
find the longest words in order to sound them out
for me, and was very proud when he would get
them correct.
I was able to listen to Simon’s speech and hear his
pronunciation of words when he was talking and
reading. He also wrote down some words. This
was a starting point so I will be able to see how
much he will improve. His conversational English
is hard to understand sometimes, but he can get
the meaning across.
Simon practiced writing different words out and
then pronouncing them. He wanted to pronounce
them exactly as I said them. We discovered his
book was in British English instead of American
English, and talked about the different
pronunciations. He wants to continue practicing
the American English out loud since I speak that.
Simon was interested in telling me about his
family, and then also asking questions about
my own family. This prompted some good
discussion. Through out conversations Simon
learned some new words such as “niece,”
“nephew,” and “uncle.”
Today while going over his blue book, Simon
discovered rhyming words. He became very
excited and wanted me to explain all I knew
about rhyming words with many examples.
Simon remained very engaged during this and
since he was so excited we spent a lot of time
going over different rhyming words.
3/16/17 7:30- Today when I met with Simon, we decided to read
8:30 from the Magnificat to start things off and practice
PM his reading and comprehension. He is getting better
at sounding out words and guessing at their
pronunciation. He read the text fairly well, but
after, did not really understand what he was
reading. I learned I needed to break down the text
more throughout the reading to help with his
comprehension.
3/27/17 7:30 – Simon and I worked on verb phrases today,
8:15 particularly when a verb follows the words
PM “thinking of” or “going to.” After going over it a
few times, he was able to go back and correct his
previous mistakes and seemed to understand when
to say “thinking of writing” as opposed to “going
to write.”
4/3/2017 7:30 – Today Simon worked on conversational English as
8:45 well as writing, reading, and comprehension. He
PM continued to use different strategies to help him
sound out the words and was able to apply it during
the rest of the session. Once he learned a word, he
was able to pronounce it better the next time he
reached it, and was even able to explain the
definitions back to me of the words. Simon’s
English is getting easier to understand and his
vocabulary is continuing to expand.
4/10/17 6:00 – Today we began the lesson by going over his
7:15 homework. Next I helped him study for a
PM Sacraments test he had the following day.
Throughout the study session, I was able to point
out different words and help Simon improve his
pronunciation and understanding. Simon initially
had a difficult time hearing the difference between
“my” and “mine,” but once he completely
understood, he got it correct every time. Simon has
begun to sound out words correctly, and with more
Simon was very interested in learning vocabulary
words related to the Sacraments and the gospel
readings today. He really enjoyed pulling out his
list of words from his religion class and having
me quiz him over the words.
Simon asked me different questions on what
vocabulary words meant, and after telling him I
would have him explain it back to me or use it in a
sentence. We also did this with words that look
similar such as advert vs. advent and sign vs. sigh.
When the letters were more spaced out, it was
easier for Simon to discern the difference.
In order to demonstrate what he has been learning,
Simon made a few different lists to express his
vocabulary. He made a list of colors and a list of
animals and even a list of words in alphabetical
order. Today we also played the game “Go Fish”
and I was able to see his understanding of
different directions, and application of numbers
and letters during the game. He caught on very
quickly and we had a lot of fun.
Simon read all of his homework out loud to me to
and asked for corrections in his pronunciation and
spelling. In order to provide different options for
Simon to show his skill level, I also had Simon
read a prayer that he had with him, the Sacred
Heart of Jesus. This prayer had many long words,
but Simon was able to sound them out slowly and
carefully.
Simon wanted to talk about the Gospel reading
today and explain what different parts meant to
him, and how they sound different in Chinese.
He was very engaged in conversation, and
enjoyed writing out different words we said to
see them visually in order to help better learn
them.
The first thing Simon wanted to go over was
an English test that he had just gotten back.
He scored a 95% and was extremely proud of
himself. He really wanted to go over the
questions that he missed and had me make up
a few more examples.
To engage Simon in a different way today, I
prepared some different activities for him to
work through. At one point, he stopped me to
ask me questions about culture and family of
the United States. He was very interested to
learn new vocabulary words about marriage
and family and we had lots of good dialogue
over the differences between our cultures.
Simon was very interested in writing a letter
to the “Mother Teresa House” which was
located in England. He would like to volunteer
with them this summer and enjoyed explaining
to me what he has done in the past with those
sisters and that he is looking forward to helping
them again. He wrote the letter himself, but I
corrected his spelling when he asked me to
assist him.
 confidence.
4/26/17 9:00 – Simon had two different forms to fill out today,
10:00 from the Missionaries of Charity and the
PM International Theological Institute. Since these
applications had difficult wording, we worked on
different strategies to discover the meaning in
order to help Simon understand. I also worked to
give him more confidence when filling out
applications and explained to him what common
application questions were (home address,
telephone number, date of birth vs. current date,
given name vs. name) were to help him in the
future for applications.
Adapted from Ohio Department of Education, Lau Resource Center, March 2011
Today Simon worked to apply his knowledge into
real world applications. Simon is currently
working to get approval to volunteer with the
Missionaries of Charity and received an
application from them that he needed to fill out.
Some of the words and phrases on the form were
very confusing, so he needed help with
understanding of the application and formulating
his responses. In addition, he had a form for the
International Theological Institute, to applying for
an undergraduate degree in Marriage and Family.
Simon was very motivated to work together
today because he is very excited about
volunteering with the Missionaries of Charity
and wanted the form as correct as possible. In
order to understand the form, he used context
clues and the finger strategy to break down the
words and phrases to help prompt
understanding. I was able to describe other
phrases and words to him to additionally help
him.