Kim Clauson_ TP 10

                On Tuesday, November 20, 2012, Manal and I met at 1 pm, before I had my TEFL class.  We continued practicing the contractions, but we added a few words to use, and we also introduced negative contractions.  We used items from the grocery store to increase our food vocabulary.  I feel like I need to start reviewing other useful vocabulary so I am trying to name everything that I see in the house in my sentence examples.  I think everyday dialogs could be the next most helpful lessons to perform with Manal.  I also want to expand out content vocabulary by focusing on another theme.  If time permits, I would like to cover prepositions soon to help explain basic explanations regarding setting and placement.  I am certainly more comfortable with my ability to find meaningful lessons with Manal, though I occasionally feel overwhelmed because we have limited time together and so many vital lessons to cover.  I hope that Manal gets the same opportunity to learn English full-time once her son gets old enough to begin pre-school. 

I sometimes wonder where our time goes when Manal and I work together because it seems to fly by.  I think this is due to two main reasons:  first of all, she always makes sure to present me with a coffee table full of hot tea, cold soda, and non-alcoholic beer, as well as, Saudi Arabian dates and American milk chocolate; and secondly, her son occasionally distracts us during out our lessons.  I feel like I need very specific goals with Manal so that we can show signs of success.  At the moment, I have decided that the following goals will be most important:  Improving reading skills through reading basic sentences, improving writing skills using choral drilling and scaffolding, improving conversational English through repeating practical dialogs, writing shopping and other basic lists, reading recipes, making appointments, reading street signs, talking to a teacher, having a telephone conversation, and understanding English television.