Background Name: Katherine Beare Age: 8 Grade: 3 Previous Education: Italian through 2nd grade
This week Katherine had a 20 minutes class every day. There are only four children (all in third grade) in class so Katherine has a good opportunity to use her English during the sessions. The focus on the week was on making a video about a farm and a giant. Here is Katherine's summary of the story:
"I played Anna and her neighbors and Paula was the giant. Only I am more big than Paula. Sam was the papa. The other girl was the mamma and the sailor. We practiced and we talked about our future and the past. We built with paper. I did a corn out of paper and Sam did a hat and a mustache. The other girl did a carrot and Paula did a little house. We helped each other with all the stuff. I really liked when we did the movie."
Progress Snapshot: fourh week September 26 - 30
Objectives: Acting out a story together, memorizing a script, making a film together.
Exercises: First read the script, then make the props. Next, practice the script together. Finally, (the next day) shoot the film.
Challenges: Practicing the lines and memorizing the lines (script)
The most fun was: Discussing things together and making the props.
Katherine's comments about her first year in an elementary school: "We did many math problems. We counted money. We did a test and we had lots of fun listening to stories and sharing (show and tell)."
Ken's Note: As you can see from Katherine's comments, basic collocations are still a problem (i.e. "did a corn out of paper, did a little house" instead of "made a corn stalk out of paper, made a little house"). Another problem are the comparative forms ("more big" rather than "taller" or "bigger"). In general Katherine is going from a phase of speaking in run-on sentences to speaking in shorter, better formed sentences.
Weeks One and Two
Week Three
Week Four
Week Five
Weeks Six, Seven and Eight
Weeks Nine and Ten
End of First Trimester
