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Cynthia's Volunteer Story

Cynthia Grapples with the Ups and Downs of Tutoring

"I began to feel doubtful if I was really helping him at all or if someone else might be able to do a better job with him."

For the better part of the last six months my student and I have worked on a specific project. My student works in a Thai restaurant in Philadelphia.

Approximately a month into our tutoring sessions, he told me that he had to complete a required course at Community College and then take a test regarding working in the restaurant business. He was given a book which consisted of 15 chapters on handling, storage, cleanliness, safety, and maintenance in and around handling food. This is not a complete list of the course topics but it gives an idea of the wide range of topics. The course was two days a week for three weeks. Needless to say, he was overwhelmed trying to understand the words, language and what was being taught in such an extremely short period of time, and he did not pass the test.

He took the test again, and I used this as an opportunity to teach him as best I could the 15 chapters (in our weekly meetings two nights per week for 1 hour and 15 minutes per session). We outlined and studied, and I explained the material to him for about 7 to 8 weeks before he had to take the test again. I could tell he was still overwhelmed and unfortunately, he did not pass the test the last time but said that he came closer to passing and said that he remembered many of the terms and recognized a lot of the information that I tried to teach him. I guess that was a good sign and although I was disappointed for him, I only expressed gladness to him for what he remembered. He was pleased with these comments. For me this was a great teaching opportunity because he was still learning as I tried to break things down in ways he would understand.

So, now it's been just about a month that we've returned to my tutoring him everyday words, comprehension, and other skills I learned from the training through the Literacy Center.

I can tell you that most recently, even though I had been asking him periodically if he felt he was learning, and he was giving me feedback that he was pleased, I began to feel doubtful if I was really helping him at all or if someone else might be able to do a better job with him.

Recently, I was giving serious consideration to contacting the Literacy Council to express this and to probably say this wasn't working. However, during a session that we had one night last week, in which we have been writing basic sentences, one of the things that he wrote was, and I quote, "I am becoming an Engineer again."

He was an Engineer in Thailand and I know he would like to get back into his field. He wrote this on his own without any prompting on the topic from me. I didn't say anything to him but I can't tell you how good that made me feel because it confirmed his confidence in learning from me and that's most important to me. So, I guess things are working, and I'll do my best to continue to hang in there with him. He is a great student who is attentive and patient and eager to learn.

Cynthia B., Volunteer ESL Tutor