Jackie TP-6

The cure of “at” versus “in” is pretty simple if you like to be referential. I know that after discussing it with one of the CIES teachers, its better to be more roundabout so the students aren’t shocked by another usage, but it was much easier with grammar to teach my tutee something absolute. This was especially more useful once she was so frustrated and felt completely wrong. So maybe “easier” isn’t the best word—but it would be “better” for the student’s psyche. I told her “in” is used for large places, like countries and cities. Or, it can be used for general times of day. For example, “In America, in the morning, we drink coffee.” As for “at,” it can be used for small places, like buildings or organizations, and specific times of day. There is also the irregular “at night.” So, it could be “At the hospital, at 3pm, she had the baby.” Then, if she couldn’t figure it out still from these specifications, if you could answer “yes” to the question, is the subject “inside” something, it would be “in.” This process worked miraculously. We went through he preposition test and she got everything right, and then went through my activities quickly. I think giving her this formula was so much easier for her—perhaps because she doesn’t learn the “roundabout” way, but is very specific. All in all, this was one of the best tutoring experiences I had, because I solved a problem and really helped Jia improve and understand something she really couldn’t before, and she was extremely grateful.