Larry TP - 4

It was an utter and complete disaster! Rosa and Miyra comprehended nothing. They had no idea what I was doing or trying to explain! They were lost. I brought new handouts. This time, I thought it would be nice to give them a vocabulary list of singulars and see if they knew the plurals. Nada! Nothing! Zippo! I couldn't explain what I wanted them to do. As part of my handout, I included the letters of the alphabet along with a separate list of the vowels. We went over those after a quick review of the previous lesson. We gave both the English and Spanish version of the alphabet. Later in the lesson, I planned to introduce definite and indefinite articles in an attempt to give them the blocks for building simple sentences. I figured they would need to know the vowels in order to select the appropriate article "an" from "a". I also included other sets of pronouns in the handouts, i.e. demonstrative and interrogative pronouns. Lastly, I included a simple sheet with the headings "Subject", "Verb", and "Object." We used the dictionaries I had given them to define the meaning of those parts to a sentence. I had hoped I could teach enough about the articles, so they could also use one or two in a sentence. I demonstrated by example pointing to the simple exercises I had given them in all the handouts.

When the time had ended, I asked "are there any questions?" Rosa looked up at me, nodded at the handouts, and said "no comprende". Miyra was equally confused. Rosa wanted me to speak Spanish.

I wondered if I had selected two women who only had minimal interest in learning English, if this level best suits itself to someone who is fluent in Spanish and can easily translate directions as needed, or...if I just did not do a very good job in preparation. I suspect the latter.

If anyone reads this blog, I could use some helpful suggestions. Thanks