Jessica TP5

Last Sunday Alonso and I met up for a lesson and some frozen yogurt. He's expressed to me before that he gets really bored studying on his own or just filling out worksheets and that he's frustrated with his level of english because he can't communicate messages clearly yet. The most important thing with him I believe is helping his conversational skill so that he will be more excited and motivated to learn vocabulary and to concentrate on grammar. We started out by going over some basic verbs, a lot of which he already knew but just took a minute to remember and think through. Then I quized him on the meaning of each and we practiced making sentances in the present. Once he had that down more or less I went over some past tense conjugations with him. He's a helicopter pilot, loves riding motor cycles and going on adventures with his friends back in Panama so naturally he has a ton of amazing stories to tell. So we worked on grammar and using verbs in the preterite to tell stories. At first he had a rough time and had to refer back to the worksheet we'd gone over, but by the end of the story he was already more comfortable and confident in what he was explaining. He also mentioned that he has trouble with pronunciation, so for the next lesson I think that we'll go over that and have him practice reading out loud and doing some listening exercises to get a better grasp on that aspect of English. We're planning on going to the Antique Car Museum and then sitting down for a lesson afterwards. I'll make up a lesson plan geared around cars and the history of the automobile, I'm thinking of finding a video that goes along with that theme (maybe about one of the cars we'll see) and making a fill in the blank/comprehension question worksheet about it.