Julia TS #2- Sofia Session 2

 Today, Sofia and I practiced reading, speaking, and listening. 

To begin our session, I outlined a brief schedule I had created: 10-15 minutes for reading, 15 minutes for speaking, and 25 minutes for writing. 

For reading practice, I utilized the scaffolding method and began with highly controlled practice, filling in the missing letters in a paragraph. I timed how long this took her, keeping in mind that on the TOEFL exam, an exercise like this would be allotted about 4 minutes. We then went over her mistakes, the vocabulary she was unsure of, and the paragraph's main premise. We then went through a daily life reading exercise in which Sofia read an email and answered 2 comprehension questions. We then moved on to an academic passage, first skimming it and going through any vocabulary she didn't know. She then read the passage carefully, and we answered the questions. If she answered any questions incorrectly, I didn't immediately give her the right answer; instead, I asked her to use the passage to support her answer, and this usually led us to the right answer. 

We then transitioned to Speaking practice. Our first exercise was reading sentences, and she repeated them after me. 

These are TEOFL sample sentences: 

- We have a variety of wildlife. 

- You can find sea lions and elephants further down the path. 

- Please no outside food or drinks, and do not feed the animals! 

- Avoid banging or tapping on the displays and enclosures. 

- For those with children, we offer summer camps and education opportunities. 

- The Visitor Center, located near the front entrance, can give you more information. 

We then simulated an interview in which I asked her the following interview questions: 

“Thank you for speaking with me today. I'm conducting a study about people's experiences and perceptions of living in a city. I’d like to ask you some questions. Now, do you currently live in a big city, a small town, or a village, and what is it like there?” 

“Great cities affect people in different ways. Some people find cities dynamic and exciting. Others find that cities are overwhelming and drain them of energy. What kind of reactions do you have to cities? Why do you think you react this way?” 

“Ok, next, I'd like to ask your opinion. Some people believe that those who live in cities lead more interesting lives. They would argue, for example, that people who live in cities have more access to professional opportunities and interesting leisure activities. Do you agree that the people who live in cities lead more interesting lives? Why or why not?

Finally, we went over writing topics and chose one that she liked. We spoke about her background knowledge on the topic and did some research to try to build a mental schema about the essay topic. I then assigned her homework: an essay, which we will correct at the beginning of our next session.