Julia TS #4 (Sofia)

Julia TS # 4 (Sofia) 

Date/Time: Wednesday, February 4th, 2026, 4-5 pm 


Location: Student Union 


Topic/Skill: Reading/ University-level history, "The Rise of Teotihucán"


Feedback Provided to the Tutee: For our third tutoring session, we first reviewed what we had done the previous week. We then began my session with TOEFL reading practice. Before she began reading, I had her first scan the reading, looking for details and using context clues to understand the meaning of unknown vocabulary. I had Sofia read through a sample passage titled "The Rise of Teotihucán", which was 6 paragraphs long. After each paragraph, I checked to make sure she understood its main premise and whether there were any words she didn't understand. I would correct her pronunciation if she had issues, noting which words have consistently been difficult for her. After each paragraph, we would connect it to the last to make sure she understood the message so far. At the end of the paragraphs, we moved on to some multiple-choice comprehension questions. Regardless of whether she got the question right or wrong, we would go back into the passage and find the part of the passage where the question was answered. After she had finished answering all the questions and we had reviewed the correct answers, we reviewed the types of questions asked and how to find the answers in the passage. 


Lesson(s) About Tutoring and/or the Tutee: I learned how difficult TOEFL reading passages are, the kinds of questions that are asked on the TOEFL reading section, and what makes them difficult. I learned the different sections of the TOEFL reading section and specifically about the format and the way this format allows TOEFL to assess both academic and everyday English. The focus on academic English surprised me.

 

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