Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 582, A Parent-Teacher Conference.
This is English as a Second Language podcast number 582.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Go to our website at eslpod.com.
Download a learning guide for this episode that contains more information to help you improve your English even faster.
This episode is called A Parent Teacher Conference.
It's a dialogue between Ms.
Vazquez and Mr. Polo.
One is a teacher.
One is a parent.
They're talking about the parent's son and are going to be using a lot of vocabulary that you would hear if a parent were talking to a teacher about how his or her daughter or son was doing in school.
Let's get started.
Hello, Mr. Polo.
I'm Ms.
Fazquez.
Please have a seat.
Thank you.
In this parent-teacher conference, I want to go beyond Marco's report cards and his standardized test scores to talk about his general performance in the classroom.
That's great.
I want to know how he's doing.
Marco is a good student.
He is attentive in class, a hard worker, and hands in his homework on time.
Here's his portfolio if you want to take a look at his classroom work.
This is great.
Are there any areas he needs to work on?
Marco is a good student, but he does sometimes misbehave.
He often has disagreements with other students and loses his temper.
I think he needs to work on his social skills.
Well, I don't think that's the most important thing, do you?
His academics are the most important, and he seems to be doing well in his subjects.
It's true that academics are important, but learning to work cooperatively with other people is important too if he wants to get ahead in life.
Don't you think?
I'll have a talk with him.
I'm sure you'll see an improvement.
I appreciate you taking this seriously.
Again, Marco is a good student and it's a pleasure to have him in my class.
I'm glad to hear that.
Goodbye.
Have a good afternoon.
Ms.
Vazquez begins our dialogue.
She's the teacher.
She says Typically teachers would probably call parents Mr or Mrs something, not their first name unless they knew each other already.
Similarly, the parent would typically call the teacher Mr something or Mrs something or Ms something.
Mr. Polo says thank you.
Ms.
Vasquez asks him to have a seat, to sit down.
She says in this parent-teacher conference I want to go beyond Marco's report cards and his standardized test scores and talk about his general performance in the classroom.
A parent-teacher conference is Usually it's something that schools will do.
I'm talking about kindergarten through 12th grade, through high school, about two or three times a year.
Some schools do it four times a year.
This is one night when the teachers come to school and the parents go and can talk to their student's teacher.
The idea is that the parent can get a better idea about how their son or daughter is doing by talking directly to the teacher.
When I was teaching high school and junior high school, we would have these parent-teacher conferences.
I absolutely hated them because, of course, all the parents think that their sons and daughters are perfect and that if they're not learning something, it's because you aren't doing a good job teaching rather than the kid playing video games five hours every night.
But we'll get back to the dialogue.
Ms.
Vasquez says, I want to go beyond Marco's report cards and his standardized test scores.
To go beyond something is a phrasal verb meaning to discuss or deal with something in addition to what is expected.
To go further into something than expected.
Normally a teacher talks about a student's report cards, for example.
A report card is a piece of paper in the old days where you show how the student is doing every term, every part of the school year, sometimes two times a year, usually four times a year.
You give these report cards to the student.
The student takes them home and shows the parents.
That will tell the parent how the student is doing in the different classes that the son or daughter is taking.
Hopefully, the child doesn't change the report card somewhere between school and home.
Nowadays, I suppose it's all done through the Internet or Twitter.
I don't know.
Standardized test scores are the scores, the marks, if you will that a student receives on a test a national test typically that all students at his or her grade level take.
So these are tests that usually private companies develop.
And they give them to thousands or tens of thousands of students, perhaps millions of students.
And it allows you to compare how much this student knows compared to the average student.
Standardized test scores.
These are very important, especially now in American education.
Well, Ms.
Vasquez wants to go beyond the report cards and the standardized test scores to talk about Marco's general performance in the classroom.
Mr. Polo says, that's great.
I want to know how he's doing.
Oh, really?
Ms.
Vasquez says, Marco is a good student.
Probably lying.
She says he's attentive in class, a hard worker and hands in his homework on time.
To be attentive means that you listen to what someone is saying.
You pay attention to them.
A hard worker is someone who tries very hard to do what is expected or required of them.
To hand in is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to give, usually a piece of paper or a document or a form to someone in authority, often for it to be evaluated.
So we talk about how students turn in their homework.
They give the piece of paper to their teacher.
The teacher then looks at it, grades it, sees if it is correct or not, and then gives it back to the student.
So Ms.
Vazquez is saying that Marco is attentive in class, a hard worker and hands in his homework the assignments he does outside of school, at home or the library or wherever.
Homework is one word.
Ms.
Vazquez says here's his portfolio if you want to look at his classroom work.
Portfolios have become popular in American schools in the last 20 years.
What happens is the student hands in different assignments, different things that he or she is required to do, and the teacher keeps all of these together in one place to be able to show them to the parent and to be able to evaluate the student at the end of the term, the end of the semester, the three or four months of school.
That's a portfolio.
Portfolio is other meanings in English that are not found in this learning guide.
Mr. Polo, looking at this portfolio, says this is great.
Are there any areas he needs to work on?
To work on is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to try to improve something, to become better at something.
To work has a number of different phrasal verbs connected to it.
Take a look at the learning guide where you will find those meanings.
Ms.
Vasquez says, Marco is a good student, but he does sometimes misbehave.
To misbehave means to act inappropriately, to not do what you are told or expected to do.
It's a word we use especially with children, whether they're at home or at school.
So Mrs. Vasquez now is starting to tell the truth.
She says, Marco often has disagreements with other students and loses his temper.
To lose your temper, T-E-M-P-E-R, means to become very, very angry with someone.
Maybe you start hitting them or fighting with them even.
But Ms.
Vasquez doesn't want to say that.
She puts it very politely, very nicely, says that he loses his temper.
I think he needs to work on his social skills.
Social skills refers to the ability to be able to have conversations with other people, to be positive, to make friends.
Those would be good social skills to have.
Mr. Polo says, well, I don't think that's the most important thing.
Do you?
It's not the most important thing for his son.
Of course Mr Polo doesn't have to be the teacher and have this misbehaving student in his classroom.
Mr Polo says that Marco's academics are the most important thing, and he seems to be doing well in his subjects.
Academics refers to traditional areas in school, traditional classes reading writing math history science, podcasting.
Mr. Polo says that Marco seems to be doing well in his subjects, in the classes that he is taking.
Subject has a couple of different meanings, however, and those are in the learning guide.
Ms.
Vazquez says it's true that academics are important.
But learning to work cooperatively with other people is important too if he wants to get ahead in life, don't you think?
Cooperatively means that you are able to do things with other people without getting angry.
You're able to do them in such a way as that it is a positive experience and result.
American schools, again in the last 25, 30 years, have used cooperative learning groups to get children students, to learn how to work together.
It's a very popular approach.
Ms.
Vazquez says that Marco needs to learn to work cooperatively with other people if he wants to get ahead in life.
The phrasal verb to get ahead means to be successful, especially more successful than other people.
Mr. Polo says, I'll have a talk with him, meaning I will talk to him about this in a serious way.
I'm sure you'll see an improvement.
An improvement is things getting better.
Ms.
Vazquez says, I appreciate you taking this seriously.
Again, Marco is a good student.
And it's a pleasure to have him in class.
It's a pleasure means it's nice to have him in class.
She's lying, of course.
Mr. Polo says, I'm glad to hear that.
Goodbye.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Hello, Mr. Polo.
I'm Ms.
Vasquez.
Please have a seat.
Thank you.
In this parent-teacher conference, I want to go beyond Marco's report cards and his standardized test scores to talk about his general performance in the classroom.
That's great.
I want to know how he's doing.
Marco is a good student.
He's attentive in class, a hard worker, and hands in his homework on time.
Here's his portfolio if you want to take a look at his classroom work.
This is great.
Are there any areas he needs to work on?
Marco is a good student, but he does sometimes misbehave.
He often has disagreements with other students and loses his temper.
I think he needs to work on his social skills.
Well, I don't think that's the most important thing to you.
His academics are the most important, and he seems to be doing well in his subjects.
It's true that academics are important, but learning to work cooperatively with other people is important too if he wants to get ahead in life, don't you think?
I'll have a talk with him.
I'm sure you'll see an improvement.
I appreciate you taking this seriously.
Again, Marco is a good student, and it's a pleasure to have him in my class.
I'm glad to hear that.
Goodbye.
Have a good afternoon.
The script writer for this episode is definitely a hard worker, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr. Lucy Say.
Hosted by Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2010 by the Center for Educational Development.
