Date/Time: May 30th, 2017 at 7PM
Location: Starbucks
Topic/Skill: Thesis Statement Exercise
As Saad had expressed a desire to work on thesis statements and I'd seen that he struggled with them last week, I wanted to focus on them this tutoring session. I wrote out a list of topics and the formula that I use to write a thesis statement and organize and essay with. He told me that he usually writes and then "finds" his thesis statement in what he's written for time's sake, and I explained that in the long run, that's actually not an efficient way to write, nor does it lend itself to cohesive organization. Instead, I showed him how to write a thesis statement first and then write an essay off of it, as thesis statements are almost a map for an American essay. I had him pick a topic, tell me three points he wanted to say about it, and then construct a thesis statement from that. To further illustrate my point, I had him write three supporting points for each main point. I then pointed out that he'd essentially just written an essay in under five minutes. At first, he balked a little at it how long it took compared to just writing, but I had him practice it a few times with different topics and he increasingly got faster. Firmly converted to my method, he had me run through every different type of essay to prove it could be applied in every case.
Lesson(s) about Tutoring and/or the Tutee You Learned:
American essay organization is not intuitive and sometimes your students will fight you on things.
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