Logan_TP#13

J Logan Matthews
TP#13
Sep 26, 2014 (2:00PM-3:00PM)
Hecht House


I met with Winnie again today a little earlier than normal since my schedule changed due to an interview. I began by giving her a handout with the clothing vocabulary and clip-art broken into categories since she had trouble with "Describe your Clothes before." In hindsight, I should have supplied a list of specific adjectives as well. 

So we continued with the interviewing card game whereupon I set aside completed cards to review the concise and grammatically correct reformations of her responses. By the end of this session we had completed about half of the deck using the simplified question list, so next time I will have the responses printed to match to the cards and vocal delivery of the question I will provide.

Several questions led to extensive and interesting digressions. I learned that as a hobby, Winnie likes to make rubber stamps by carving out the stencils shapes into a block of eraser-like rubber. For a concise sentence I suggested we relate it to a woodcut print (of which I showed images to demonstrate) and then the action of carving rubber: "Like a woodcut print, I carve stamps out of eraser rubber." Sometimes the digressions were more academic like the distinction between a requesting statement to describe and a wh- question (whether you need to restate part of the question in the response while changing the pronoun.) And sometimes the digressions were more interesting like introducing the vocabulary and reviewing concepts of longitude and latitude. 


I think that even with adults, varying the focus between academic goals and personal interest is essential for maintaining their attention. The exception may stand with test preparation but in my experience, it still helps to take short breaks to clear away the mental fog before resuming. Of course the time and effort spent in finding out a student's interests will vary case by case but that is the primary strength of an interview activity.