Day 6: New Challenges

My second week of teaching is over, but today was just a big a challenge as all the other days. Just when I thought things would be smoother and I finally found my momentum, I begin handling Janice alone. I've gotten to know her over the past few days, yes, but Kelly has always been there to take care of dead air and I always had her to occupy Janice while I fixed the next activity, or looked for something to do. I can't say I wasn't aware of the fact that I would eventually have to handle Janice alone, I just didn't expect it to be this difficult.

Thankfully, I only had to deal with my own issues because while Janice did ask me where Kelly was going and even if she did space out and look towards the others once or twice, for the most part she was cooperative with everything I made her do. I made her read a lot of words, and I began asking her to write things down, but what I lacked today was a game. I made a paper doll and several clothes so Janice could play dress-up, which was supposed to be my main game for the day (to teach the words bihis, babae, etc.), but it didn't seem to amuse her as much as I thought it would. (It amused Clares in the other table though! D:)

But beyond my own challenges as a teacher, I also figured out Janice's main problems with reading. If I tell her to write down the letter "B" and say the sound "buh" like we were told to, there are times when she forgets, but when I say the name of the letter as in "bee", she knows it instantly. I want to observe this a bit more before I call it a full-fledged problem, how she can't associate the letter with the sound with the name (because it can get confusing). Another issue I discovered today is how she permanently attaches certain vowels to consonants, mainly "ba". I make her read "bi" as a whole syllable and most of the time she says "bai". I have to break it down most of the time, but when I do she manages to pronounce "b" and "i" correctly. Blending other syllables was not a problem, but blending the letter "b" seems to be an issue. It's not a constant mistake either -- I can tell that when she really thinks about it she does it correctly, but it's not a reflex for her, as it should be. That's what we'll work on next Monday.