Case study of M : Some radical change in the teenager.

Last night I witnessed two radical changes in my daughter.

1 She asked me to help her English homework for the first time in several months, saying upsettingly, "When I took the trombone from my club room, one of my club mate said to me that I shouldn't take it home. Because I would fail to get good scores in English test again if I enjoy practicing music. So, I've got to study hard, Mum! "
She said for the first time in her life she felt offended by the assumption of her friend. So, she needs to prove that her friend is not right. well, whatever the reason is, a motivation is a motivation!

2 After the dinner, she suddenly asked my partner if he would teach her how to play the guitar. She said, "Just because I have spare time." But she usually plays games for pleasure. As my partner praised how quick she learned some codes, she proudly said, "I have some talent for music." This is very interesting remark for she is not really confident in her potentials and capabilities. She often says, "I am not so smart. I can't remember things." and focus on negative features of herself. I wondered where this confident come from. I heard her mumbling, "I can' play trombone well." more than several times lately but last night she was different.
The interaction between my partner and daughter lasted about 30 min. and she thanked him for helping her. Then we studied English together about for an hour.

Something magical and miraculous happened last night. I am not sure if the magic continues or vanishes but it was definitely something to note.

Progress I noticed in her English ability:

• Better spelling strategies
• Maintained fairly good pronunciation
• Achieved more lexical knowledge
• Improved reading and writing skills
• Showed more perseverance for challenging tasks 

But no spontaneous production skill can be seem. Very interesting to see how these changes would lead her.

Auch indeed!

One of the participants of Aston and I are setting up a study group and would meet every other week on Skype from the beginning of October. At the moment, my feet won't touch the ground with excitements.

On the other hand, I had a meeting with my co-workers and the owner of TKC and was miserably told off. According to my "senior"(Does it mean ONLY older?)  teacher, my idea is too unconventuonal. What all the students need is grammar-translation for entrance exam for uni. I couldn't believe what I heard. It is a language school for children who are fortunate enough to go oversea every single vacation and stay there for a month if they want to. They are also in private university-affliated elementary schools and those universities are considered as prestigious ones like Keio, Waseda, Aoyama, Seishin and etc. Which means they don't need to take entrance exam. They need to work on their academic abilities but as long as they get average grades at school, they don't need to worry about the severe and ridiculous entrance exam. Instead, they can look for something meaningful and worth trying for their future. Well, it has been my interpretation and the reason I supported my own daughter to go through the crazy cramming phase when she took the entrance exam for the Jr. high. 

Did I argue with them in the meeting? No. I was too disappointed to say anything. Well, I will do what I believe to support my students. That's why I am on a Master's course. The fact is nobody really knows what is the best for each student but at least exclusive grammar-translation lessons sound deadly boring if not harmful. 

So, plan B. I am going to observe my daughter, Case M, and one of my students from my own school. A girl from Tuesday class will make a good case study since she doesn't like reading in English, either and she often struggles when she reads aloud. I will call her, Case R because of her name.

Case R is a sister of my ex-star student. The ex-star student was straight A plus student in all the area. She was one of the best at the local Jr. high and got a scholarship to go to Sr. high. Case R often says she is not good enough compared to her sister. However, I do think Case R got much more social skills. 

She is so amicable and adorable. In fact, her intelligence might work better when she got out of school. In the real world, she can charm people and she might make some great carrier because of her EQ. She is not incompetent at all but the problem is that her mum doesn't believe in her, either. I hope she would make progress in her English proficiency and gain confidence like I did at her age :-)

Case M and R both got deeply rooted negative complex towards their ability. Especially the former one is part of my fault since I am the mum. I hope I would identify some ways to have them find their own strength and infinite possibilities and capabilities. 

Instead of recording the whole interaction with them, I would give them interviews and questionnaires at the beginning, middle and after the project. The project picture book magic will begin!

Case R on Tuesdays. Case M on Thursdays.  

Note: Reading Adventure Program/ Case study

While I was reading my module readings, I found about Clay M.M. and her program.
http://www2.aasa.ac.jp/~dcdycus/LAC99/MAR99/hashim399.htm
http://readingrecovery.org/reading-recovery/teaching-children/marie-clay

Since I've been wondering how effective Storytelling is for TEYL classes, using picture books for teens might be another idea to investigate. Besides, I am a huge fan of picture books and such classes will be so enjoyable for me. Choosing appropriate picture books might be a challenge but perhaps via introducing some of them I might be able to identify specific preference of my students. There is a girl who takes private lessons at TKC, my new work, might be the best person to start investigating with.
She is 10 years old yet started learning English when she was one and half. Her cousin is a returnee and  goes to an international school. She often see her cousin and read picture books with her.She has high level of reading fluency. But I would like to see what happens when she started reading intensively and extensively with picture books.

Another interesting case might be my daughter. 13 years old who is a bookworm yet become allergic to English ever since she started taking  school education. She read quite a lot of English picture books when she was younger. But as soon as she became 5th grader, she lost time for reading English books due to the entrance exam study. She continued reading in Japanese for pleasure but her reading fluency in L1 got much much higher than that of in L2. Then she gave up on reading in L2 due to the lack of time and perhaps enough motivation. I would like to find out if picture books magic can work on this serious case.

The first case, student A, comes to TKC on Tuesday (today). I have already introduced some of picture books with familiar stories such as Alice in Wonderland. She seemed to enjoy reading but I would introduce ORT for it is one of the most popular series among my students and would like to see what she feels.

For the case M, my daughter, both of us are free only on thursday night and that would be the time to introduce ORT again.

I would like to record all the interaction if it is ok.