Bobby_TP_#1

If I've learned one thing from this evening, it’s that I must learn more about English grammar. On making P.J’s acquaintance he presented himself quietly, if not with a wistful thoughtfulness, and bashfully shook my hand. Ms. Kim had already entrusted me with the assignments to be reviewed. I set the papers down and looked at the one on top. Directions: select the portion of the sentence that represents the predicate. Briefly baffled I quickly scanned the page for clues. In a moment of inner panic, I had to admit that I needed to check exactly what the predicate was. A rapid Wikipedia scanning offered nothing other than Latinate grammar jarble.  I looked back to the paper searching for answers. After a few glances at the rest of the questions I pieced it together and remembered my own grammar school lessons. I asked him if he knew what he did wrong, and he responded negatively. Then I used the first question, which he got correct, as an example of how we can find the predicate. He didn't quite understand, so I wrote a very simple sample sentence and tried explaining it based on an easier example. He still wasn't very responsive, so I asked him if he could label the parts of the sentence. He tried but was unable to, so I explained what and where the subject and the verb were. We worked our way forward from there at a pretty slow pace. Once we’d finished the grammar homework we moved on to the reading comprehension and vocabulary, which went much smoother. I learned I need to study grammar in my free time. Thinking about my technique now I realize I should gone immediately from basic to complex in my questions about his understanding of the predicate in order to work up to the concept rather than testing his knowledge on every level down. The experience over all was much less nerve-racking than I thought it would be, and I actually found it rather fun.

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