Castles

Gerardo and I met on Monday this week as it is Thanksgiving break on our usual meeting day this Wednesday. I read him a short fairy tale and had him correct his mistakes. He had me read each sentence several times and was confused by several words. When he corrected his mistakes, he had me explain what castles and dangling from meant, as in castles being the buildings in fairy tales, giving examples of what they can look like, and if something is dangling or hanging from something, as I explained to him. He said he had more mistakes this time than in past dictations because of some of the wording. The story had longer sentences and I know he needs to work on listening and knowing when one sentence ends and another begins, so I think he learned a lot in this lesson and with this story. Afterward, we did a few word scrambles about sports and some crosswords that gave the verb and you had to fill in the past or present tense, such as to sleep, he...sleeps. The time past quickly because of the story taking a while to read and then me explaining some of his mistakes. Overall, I think he does a good job at seeing his mistakes and remembering them, and I have seen an improvement in how fast he writes after I read to him, stumbling on a few words here and there. When the time was up, I told him next week would be our last meeting and to bring something fun for me to read to him and other things that he wanted to work on during our last session. He said he couldn't believe it was almost December and I said this semester had gone really fast. We wished each other a Happy Thanksgiving and headed in our different directions.

Puzzles

I came prepared today with more things to dictate to Geradro and have him write them down. However, he came with a new workbook which we used for the entire session. The first part we worked on was a list of scrabbled letters pertaining to a category, which was restaurant words in our case, and the words were scrabbled in one column and described in Spanish in the next. He would describe the Spanish word to me, as I do not speak Spanish, and them I could better help him understand how to unscramble the word, though I am excellent at scrambles, so I was able to get most of them before he said what the Spanish word meant. After a few of those puzzles with other categories, we moved on to traffic and building terms which were located within a crossword. Again, the words were described in Spanish and the English equivalent was located in the crossword, though some were pictures illustrating a word as well. When he was unsure of what word the Spanish word translated into, as they were very specific and there were many choices, I would suggest the right word and he would find it in the puzzle. I liked this activity because it made him think how to spell it and then find it and circle all of the letters in the words, which I sometimes had to tell him to include an extra s or e onto a word. Overall, I think this was a great session that passed quickly and I think it was refreshing because it made learning and practicing words like a game and more enjoyable. When we left the library, I reminded him that we would meet next Monday, not Wednesday like usual, and he assured me that he would not forget. 

Making Things Up

Today Gerardo only wanted to work on his writing. Since he did not bring another children's book, he told me to read from one of my books. All I had was my French notebook and a Shakespeare play, so I improvised and told him a fairy tale that was sort of based on a few of Shakespeare's plays, though in words I knew he would understand. And since I could not have him check his work like last time, as I did not have a hard copy for him to refer to, I looked over it and explained his mistakes to him as we went along. I then asked if he brought his verb workbook and he said no, so I did another dictating exercise. I told him that I would either say a statement or a question and he would have to write them down. They were all unrelated and I thought of them as I went along. I asked questions with words that I knew he had had trouble with in the past to help him improve even more, such as the word evening, which he spells iving, so I asked What are you doing this evening? This was a great exercise because he often has trouble knowing if something is a question or a statement when he hears it, so this helped with that and he ended all of them with the correct punctuation, which he was really excited about. After twenty-something questions, I again reviewed them with him and afterward we still had time, so I made up another story about people preparing dinner on the weekend. We had a lot of progress this week because he had a lot of questions about words that he was confused about and I think he is improving a lot with what we have worked on in past sessions. One of the things he has had trouble with is the spelling of when as wen and while as wile, though he did not understand what these meant. I used the example of When I left today, you were not at home and While I was gone, you came home, emphasizing that when is a time period whereas while means during something. So today was a productive session. We discussed other meeting times for the week of Thanksgiving and the week after when I will not be able to make our session because of a doctor's appointment. We are scheduled to meet on Monday of those weeks at the same time. I'm glad the timing worked out because I feel that it is extremely important for us to meet every week and make it up if we miss a session. Practice, practice, practice....

Story Time

As usual I arrived at the library on Wednesday afternoon to meet Gerardo. He was in good spirits and ready to start our studying for the day. He had me proofread a paper he'd written that was a story for his daughter and another short paper that was about his past vacation to Mexico. I brought the Daily Skiff and USA Today like I promised last week to use during our dictation exercise. I asked if he watched the election results and we started discussing the news and the voting process. He asked how they decided which states were blue or red as detailed in the newspaper's illustration. I told him that they broke it down by county majorities (like one picture explained with several square marks in the state shapes) and that by majority that state was given to the favored candidate and the votes added from there. We discussed voting and he said he was glad Obama won since he voted for him and I told him I did too. We looked at the rest of the paper, trying to find something non-election related (I think everyone has heard and read enough about the election for a long time) and when we were unsuccessful, he produced a children's book entitled Time for Bed, which describes a little bear's sleepover birthday party and all the games his friends and he play until they practically fall asleep. I read it to him and he wrote it down. Though it sounds long, it was relatively short for a children's book and it took up a little more than a page of notebook paper. When I was finished, I had him look at the book and correct his writing, as I think it sometimes helps people to see the mistakes they make and correct them rather than have someone correct them for them all the time. I watched him erase and replace words and correct his grammar, answering questions and offering clarification as he went along. By that time it was time to part and he said he preferred books to the newspapers as they usually had words he did not know. I told him I would look for articles that would work for him at his level so he could learn about the world while practicing his writing and he said he'd bring another book next week as well. When I asked what he wanted to focus on in these next few weeks he said his writing, so I think I will continue to dictate and bring things for him to read and work on to improve his writing and grammar skills.

Truth vs. Fact

After reading this essay I felt like crying. There was this intense sadness that enveloped me, and while I thought the act of crying itself would not help, and while I do not cry often, there were shadows of tears in my eyes, threatening to spill out. When Pico Iyer says in his interview that "a writer has to be accountable to the truth, and catching the truth of any situation is his first mandate" I think this is understood, while being vague at the same time. Non-fiction, and writing in general, should be truthful, as well as factual, though the two can be confused, like Iyer goes on to explain. "But the truth is not the same as the facts...I think the writer has to be true to the mystery as well as the clarity of life." I adore the second part of this statement, finding it invigorating and completely capturing the task of a writer. The Karheef follows Iyer's criteria in the way he describes the places and people as accurately as possible, yet still gives the essay more. This is where fact is not enough, and the idea of being true to the situation is realized in its entirety. He creates a world were he allows himself to fit into the reality; instead of focusing the piece on himself, he folds himself into the story. Also, when he tells the stories of the ticket clerk and the old man driving him to the capital, there is a subtle truth to his writing that allows the reader to be drawn in and see the reality within the reality. You can write about the reality of a situation, but the thoughts, feelings, and senses that create the truth capture the reality within the reality. The conclusion of the piece is the final attempt to be truthful with the reader, as his statements are true, but his comments on them are even more so. The facts are that "less than six weeks later...two planes flew into the World Trade Center" and "Aden, everyone now recalled, was the site of the most recent terrorist attack on America." The truth is when he reflects on the people he encountered and how their lives were impacted and how we now are "wishing destruction on them all." I think Iyer's meaning is that facts take the story a long way, but truth is what makes it extraordinary and creates something for the readers to hold onto and apply to their reality. I can apply this to my reality and see that, like Iyer says, we are them and they are us, and that people are people everywhere. I know that this piece made me think and reflect, taking more away than if it were just fact. Indeed, truth along with fact make a piece complete.