Richard -- Tutoring #6

I just finished this lesson today (Friday). Our focus was still similar to telling narratives through picture-viewing, although this time the primary focus was on writing.

So we begin the lesson by my taking out a few pictures (3 of which were in sequential order). I prepared a handout that had all sorts of vocabulary that he studied before we met, using the pictures to spot vocabulary terms.

For Kyung, writing is much easier to him. Also worth noting, all of his articles were correct! :-)

Anyway, I used one of the pictures as an example. It was a series of pictures in which a waiter collects a food order. But as the waiter brought the tray of food out to his guest, the waiter trips and drops the food all the over the guest!

I numbered each sentence that corresponded to the picture, so for example, the first picture had the waiter collecting the order from his guest.

1. The man at the table orders a meal.
2. After a while, the waiter brings out his food. [But there is something on the floor!]
3. The waiter spills the tray of food all over his guest.

The above was my own example to him.

So in one of the pictures, a man was planting a tree. I told Kyung to use the vocabulary to try to create a story using those four pictures. There were more than three pictures after all, i.e. more difficult!

Kyung is a natural! This is what he writes (parentheses are my corrections):

1. Jeff bought a tree in a pot and a bag of soil. He wants to plant a tree and he digged (dug) a hole. [Firstly, it is possible to buy a bag of soil despite the fact Jeff dug a hole. Yet I explained to Kyung that he didn't have to buy a bag of soil, as there was already a pile of dirt in the picture).

2. He takes off the tree from the pot. [This, I corrected him on. Not "off" but "He takes the tree out of the pot."]

3. He puts the tree into the hole. (This sentence was perfect).

4. The tree is planted and Jeff is like so happy. (I told Kyung I would have used the word "like" if I were in a Anna Faris movie. He laughed. I told him it wasn't necessary to use that word, so he takes it out and it makes more sense).

Although I did tell him that in order to use "like," he would have to compare Jeff's happiness to something. Here's what Kyung said: "The tree is planted and Jeff is happy like the sunshine." /That's some god-awesome poetry, right there!

For homework, I gave Kyung a news article from VOA and will have him listen to it. When we return, I am going to give him this same essay but with blanks where words need to be filled. Yes, it will be a listening comprehension exercise!