Razak Tutoring Session #3

 On 2/10/2026, I met with Razak for our third session. To work on fluency and vocab, I started our session off asking about how he had been doing the past week. He responded appropriately in English, and I then went on to ask him about his family and pets. He was able to effectively communicate to me in English that he has no pets, and explained his family structure to me. He has an older half brother and younger half-sister, and told me about where they lived. We also talked about what his family does for work, introducing him to English vocabulary for different family member terms. We also talked about things he had found difficult in America so far, as well as differences between Burkina Faso and the USA. Error correction was done in-between topics, but the main focus was continuing to get him used to speaking English, as it is one of his biggest points of difficulty. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Melina CO #1 = Grammar with Prof. James

  Melina CO Blog Post #1 = Grammar with Prof. James Date/Time: January 9th, 2025, 9:00-9:50 am. Topic/Skill: Grammar, Low-Intermediate Level (Simple Present tense instruction and practice). Teacher Presentation: Prof. James first used the whiteboard to write out the rules for and examples of the simple present tense in English. She then showed a video of astronaut Suni Williams in space, using this video as a basis for more example sentences, and for much of the questions posed to the class.  Classroom Management: Prof. James rotated which student she looked to for answers during her instruction.  Materials: Whiteboard, markers, Youtube video.  Student Participation: Students took turns providing answers to the questions Prof. James posed with regard to how to construct a sentence in the simple present tense (identifying the subject, conjugating the verb in the sentence, etc.).  Feedback Provided: Prof. James would correct student mistakes by ...
Read more

Emma Baker TS #12 (Yerlan)

     < Emma Baker TS #12 (Yerlan) > Date/Time:  Wednesday, February 25, 2026, from 2-3 PM Location:  CIES Topic/Skill:  TOEFL Email Attempt #3 & TOEFL Vocabulary Review Feedback Provided to the Tutee:  I went through an entire email prompt for the TOEFL, narrating how I would approach the specific prompt. I think this helped him a lot; we have to conquer the time limit now. We then reviewed some of the A words on the TOEFL vocabulary list. I checked his pronunciation and understanding by having him use the word in a sentence. Lesson(s) About Tutoring and/or the Tutee You Learned:  Yerlan was very receptive to the way I taught the email section today. I utilized the approach my teachers in middle and high school would use when giving us shortcuts for how to maximize our time on exams. I think I need to start stealing teaching methods from my teachers over the years to test if they work in a language context.
Read more

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 a...
Read more