On 9/5/2021, members of the Syosset AYLUS John Thach, Leo Cheng, Jasmine Chen, Ryan Leung, and Aika Siuzu taught a ninety-minute English class to multiple newly immigrated high school students with varying degrees of proficiency in English.
In class, there were 3 classes with 3 levels; Intro (Ryan, Greene and Aika), Intermediate (Alan and Leo), and Advanced (John, Jasmine). Francina and Leo created a Google form which included questions that were related to the ESL class. Some questions included whether students learned or benefitted from this class. These questions were given to assess whether our virtual classes should continue on. With this form, at the beginning of class, it was presented to both students and tutors to understand different perspectives towards the class. The information provided will allow the reformation of our classes which will increase the efficiency and potency of them. Below will be some students and a tutor commenting on our ESL class.
This course is designed to help students learn the language, and it does it well. Personally, it helps with my writing and speaking. My writing is more formal and my speaking is more native. Furthermore, the tutor is pretty awesome. In conclusion, this class is neat and is worth your time.
— T. L.
It was wonderful; it was challenging since the tutors spoke English and I had to respond in English. It pushed me to my limitations, which I appreciated. When it comes to writing, the tutors are always willing to assist us and offer suggestions. The tutors assist us in improving our grammar and polishing our sentences once we have completed the writing.
— H. Q.
I found this entire experience, being a tutor and interacting with my students, a surprisingly great one. We have gotten close, and I consider them friends. We have shared stories and I find much pride in the amount we have gotten done, despite the little time we have gotten to be together. I feel like this class is ready to evolve, which could mean the current tutors move on and have new people take our place. By next year, I will be in college and it is untenable for me to be in this position for that predicted future. Overall, it has been a great time and I would like to stick with the class, as it is, for as long as possible.
— J. T.
Leo Cheng reviewed fundamental English concepts and terms, had students answer several more personal questions and presented different ways that might inspire the students to continue learning English. Some English concepts included more important ones like conjugations and infinitives and minor ones such as collocations and prepositions. Then students were given time to answer a prompt which had them think about what path they wanted to do in the future. Leo then used those answers to inspire them to learn more English. Several websites were presented to give students motivation to keep learning English. Some examples include watching YouTube, reading novels, and studying for the SATs.
Jasmine Chen and John Thach introduced new vocabulary centered on commonly used phrases in the different regions of the United States. Following the relatively short vocab section, the students jumped right into a Jamboard activity. This Jamboard activity was designed to boost bonding and procure closer friendship ties amongst the tutors and students by having each person write out compliments or describing their feelings about each other. Lastly, the students were asked to reflect on the nature of the tutoring course and offer up feedback and criticisms for the tutors. This feedback will be used to guide the direction of the ESL Course in an attempt to make the course even better and more accessible to any and all interested parties.
Today in class, Ryan and Aika went over adjectives that describe people. A list of vocabulary words were given to the students and as an exercise, they were asked to describe pictures of people using words from the list. Afterwards, we worked on question formation so that the students knew how to ask people what a specific person looks like. Lastly, a short article about the history of the selfie and psychology about why people take selfies was given to the students with a comprehension question asked afterwards.
The following students volunteered in today’s tutoring program: Aika Siuzu (1.5 hours), Leo Cheng (1.5 hours), Jasmine Chen (1.5 hours), Ryan Leung (1.5 hours), and John Thach (1.5 hours).