Patient and Effective ESL/ESOL Tutor with 20 years experience

Dianne Z.

Anatomy

I trained and studied life sciences and healing modalities, and the visual and choreographic arts. I attended practical nurse's training, then transferred to an undergraduate college program in human nutrition. I changed my concentration to visual arts and worked from live models for 2 years. I followed up with acupuncture studies, direct entry midwifery training, and a vigorous folkloric dance and yoga practice with music accompaniment for 20 years now.

Biology

I studied Biology for 1 year in high school and 1 year in college. I also studied a year of chemistry, and nutrition and food science for 1 year in college. I studied anatomy and physiology for several years in nursing school, acupuncture school, and midwifery school. I'm familiar with the "life sciences" as they apply to human, animal, and botanical life.

Botany

Since I was an elementary school student, I have studied the life cycle of seed-bearing plants and trees, and I know the parts of these plants from the roots to the stem, branches, leaves, flowers, fruit, and seeds. I know that many plants multiply more successfully by sending runners, either through the air like spider plants or underground which emerge in a new area, or, like bananas, which do not multiply by seed, the "suckers" come up right next to the parent plant. I have sprouted and grown my own vegetables and legumes, and I am aware that the first leaves of a new plant such as a bean or a maple tree, are the cotyledons which nestle in the cover of the seed until sprouting. Mushrooms, ferns, conifers, and succulents appear to be older forms of plant life in the life of the planet. Mushrooms and ferns multiply by spores, conifers, of course by the seeds on the cones, and succulents by roots. Some domesticated varieties of plants such as maize, no longer reproduce themselves without the help of the planter. A gardener will grow corn in square patches of rows in order to assist the plants in pollinating each other. Bees and ants are also important in increasing the successful pollination of flowers and produce for consumption. I have looked at cells in the leaves of green plants and know that they contain chloroplasts. Sunlight with ultra-violet is important for photosynthesis to occur. The green plants convert this solar radiation into food.

Drawing

Drawing was so successful for me in college that I eventually switched my major from nutrition to studio art. I began with an intensive double semester studio class - 3 hours each class, 2 classes each week. I used Ebony pencil, a pad of 18" x 24" newsprint paper and owned a kneaded eraser but was not allowed to erase anything in class or at home. I practiced gradations of light and shadow with the Ebony pencil and kept practicing all year long until I could produce 16 boxes from very black to barely white, and from very light to very dark. I found that challenges made me a better, stronger and more confident artist. I learned to use light and shadow with the Ebony pencil to draw leaves that would virtually "fall off the page". For perspective, I began by making line drawings of the corners of the room, and was eventually introduced to 1 and 2 point perspective, along with the horizon line, and maintaining a perpendicular orientation with that line. Self-portraits and portraits of each other (students) were challenging and fun activities, and this was followed by life-drawing. Learning to view mistakes as opportunities for creativity is one of the big lessons of that year. Another lesson is that patience, persistence, preparation and lots of hard work yield positive results. So when an assignment requires 4 drawings, I make at least 8. Most importantly, I realize that when someone practices drawing hundreds of times, their style begins to emerge, and beginners look on that style as being "artistic." So love what you are doing, and forget about judging and contrasting your abilities with whatever is in the museums.

Ecology

At age 6 years old, I first became aware that the Earth is a living, changing entity holding many secrets to discover, such as fossilized imprints of tiny scallop shells. Through family excursions to the mountains, I learned there had been a mighty glacier that migrated southward, leaving its striated marks on the cliffs alongside the highways. Fast-forward to the 21st Century, I learned that my home was built on a tectonic fault line and mineralized river mud imbedded with the most beautiful gemstones pressed in by that same glacier. Several years later, and numerous trips to Northern Arizona with its many dormant or former volcanic mountains, Meteor Crater, Walnut Canyon, and Grand Canyon with its Geological Museum, I've learned how erosion and other factors, over millions of years, can open our eyes to Earth history as if scanning through a billion-page textbook.

Elementary Math

I am trained and experienced in supporting elementary and adult learners in emerging numeracy. My approach is to simplify the academic language of elementary math for English learners, and using multiple strategies and manipulatives are my strong points. I tutor as homework helper and in test preparation such as the ISEE, the SSAT , and the MCAS

Elementary Science

I have homeschooled 3 of my children from ages preschool through high school. Music lessons and athletics were foundational supplements to the time I worked with them.

English

I have a master's degree in Applied Linguistics, which prepared me to teach and tutor English for Speakers of Other Languages [ESOL]. I have also been teaching English for over 10 years, and I center my lessons around the student's specific needs.

ESL/ESOL

I studied Applied Linguistics at UMass Boston, for 5 years and earned an M.A. in 2015. During that time I co-taught adult English learners and tutored several multilingual elementary school students in the library after their school day. At UMass Boston, I tutored undergraduate and graduate students who needed help in reading, writing, and interpretation for their coursework. I have been working as a teacher and tutor ever since.

GED

I taught GED Math, Science and Writing to adults from the US and countries around the world. I also taught pre-GED adult English for speakers of other Languages (ESL/ESOL), including Somali students. I have supported children with English, Math, and Study Skills at the Somali Heritage Academy After-school Program, and at the public library. I also tutored a student at her home, to prepare her for the ISEE, an exam for entrance into private middle school.

Grammar

As a graduate student administrative assistant in Applied Linguistics, I worked with undergraduate and graduate students in various fields of study to get to the college level in English grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure (syntax).

Literature

I studied Illustrating and writing children's literature. I also delved into Children's literature at Simmons College, where I also attended a conference and symposium on children's literature. I have a deep love and appreciation for excellence in all genres of children's lit.

Painting

Like many children in the US, I began painting at a very early age, using toy store watercolor sets. Being exposed to musicians in my family, gave me a keen chromatic sense of energy which I was able to translate into visual and colorful works from time to time throughout elementary and secondary education. My formal education in acrylic painting began as a sophomore at Simmons College, where I studied color and the use of acrylics. My first impulses with acrylics were to use them sparingly to obtain a washed-watercolor effect. Then I was pushed into experimenting with the full effects of undiluted color afforded by this versatile 2-dimensional medium. I passed through color and life-drawing classes with very interesting and realistic pieces. This led to a couple of years of independent study in rendering photographs into parallel acrylic portraits. The final academic challenge was to "stop drawing with the paintbrush and just paint". That led to on-canvas blending that seems to work better with certain pigment combinations than others which seem to grey-out or brown-out. I've since arrived at using the acrylics as a very satisfying print-making medium.

Phonics

Phonics was the way successful literacy skills were imparted to me at the early elementary school level. It enabled me to associate sounds to the alphabetic English code. This in turn allowed me to move beyond sight-word recognition to reading and writing words and eventually larger chunks of visual language such as sentences and paragraphs with a fair amount of contextualized comprehension. I must caution, however, that critical thinking and conceptual skills came later as a result of higher education endeavors. One important cognitive aspect of phonics is that it helps a potential reader learn to decode and recode or encode meaning of written texts. Thus one is given the opportunity to learn to read and write more independently and creatively. I used workbooks such as "Primary Phonics" and "Explode the Code" while teaching a kindergarten class for a year, as well as with all 4 of my home-schooled children. Another successful experience with phonics took place as a home-based reading tutor using the 3-letter combination flash cards that come with the Orton-Gillingham textbook on remedial reading, and high-interest story and poetry books by Dr. Seuss and Lee Bennett Hopkins. Although not trained in the Orton-Gillingham methods, I met with a measurable amount of success with reluctant and delayed readers aged 7 - 11 years old by relying on a combination of approaches, including group work - reading aloud and playing "Boggle" - and just talking together about the activity of reading and what it means to each one of us. More recent study and work experiences with Phonics have been realized through Applied Linguistics courses in Literacy and Phonetics at UMass Boston in 2012, and simultaneously with 3 years of experience co-teaching and tutoring adult English language learners and their children in the Boston area, under the advising of faculty in the Applied Linguistics Department.

Prealgebra

I have a certificate from UMass Boston for teaching math to students who are in the elementary grades.

Reading

I worked for several years as a kindergarten teacher with children whose literacy was beginning to emerge. I also took graduate courses in teaching reading and writing to English learners, and I have been working as an ESL specialist for children and adults. This experience includes working with children who are beginning to read and write, as well as adults at various levels of English and reading.

SAT Reading

I have been using practice books to help students prepare for MCAS, ISEE, and SSAT for 5 years. I've also helped my son prepare for the SAT, which he took a second time, and successfully raised his math scores. I have taken graduate courses in Reading, Writing, and Math pedagogy, and found them helpful in developing critical thinking skills for all subjects where reading is involved. As an artist, I look for matching patterns as evidence between multiple choice questions and answers. As an ESL specialist, I'm aware that standardized tests can be challenging because they are not always bias-free.

Spelling

With the help of Phonics memorization and lots of reading and writing assignments, I learned to spell very early-on in grammar school. In the higher grades, I learned to work with a dictionary and a thesaurus, which excited my curiosity and imagination. The library was one of my favorite places to do homework and to read fun fiction. Now with the help of computer programs that do so much of the cognitive work for us, we miss years of opportunity to master spelling as an important academic and professional skill.

Vocabulary

I studied Latin for 3 years in high school. These studies helped me to improve my English language skills such as grammar, vocabulary, and writing. They also helped me after high school to learn the specialized vocabulary of practical nursing, and placed me in Spanish level 2 in college, as well as French, and Brazilian Portuguese. Later, while studying Children's Literature, I learned how to recognize stories and authors that create bridges to understanding at various levels of reading and writing. Finally, my studies in the masters program in Applied Linguistics enlightened me to the strength of learner-centered approaches such as cultural relevance, scaffolding, small-group discussions, and teaching students how to simplify a sentence by noticing the smaller chunks of information that it contains.

World History

Independent studies and lecture attendance outside of school, and art history, mathematics, and French courses in college and university

Writing

I have tutored students from elementary and middle school to college level writing, for homework and test prep. I have studied children's literature in college, comparing books and articles for composition, style, and ease of reading aloud versus silent reading. I have worked diligently to raise my own level of academic and professional essay writing, most importantly in providing evidence for my opinions and overall cohesiveness in composition.