A Push for Jade

Jade* is an incoming 2nd year college student. She's pretty and very slim. She also has the complexion that thousands of girls are dying for. Physically, Jade looks like a model out of a fashion magazine. When you talk to her, however, she always seems.. DISORIENTED.

She enrolled for the English Enhancement program. I asked her why she needed it and she said that she's not good in English. I found out, eventually, though, that her problem is more and deeper than that. Her self esteem is way way down below. She is very much convinced that she's not good in English. As a result, when asked to write a simple sentence, she would simply say she can't, and the bigger problem is that she doesn't even want to try.

She would normally give me papers with blanks and when asked why she didn't answer some of the questions, she would say she doen't know how. It's obvious that she has very limited English vocabulary, so I recommended that she read books and watch English shows, but she simply said she doesn't understand them.I was getting frustrated. So, I would  sit beside her and coach her and push her little by little so that she would learn to rack her brains for English words that I am sure are just there. With coaching and pushing, she was able to write simple sentences and I felt hopeful. I actually started her with words, then phrases, then clauses, then sentences.

I tried a little more push and gave her a more difficult task, paragraph writing. On her first task, she was able to write 5 sentences only, about 75 words. I didn't lose heart, though. I knew she could do it, she just have to try a little harder. So, I taught her how to make an outline, then gave her another task. She was able to write 3 paragraphs of about 130 words. I knew I was pushing my luck, but I gave her another one, this time she was able to make 4 paragraphs of about 165 words.

Jade has only 2 more sessions, but I do believe that the program did her much good. I just hope that whatever skill she learned from the program she would be able to use in school.

For you, Jade, I wish you all the luck for the coming school year..

*not real name