Keira TS #5

Keira TS #5

Date/Time: May 25, 2017 - 7pm

Location: Starbucks

Topic/Skill: Simple Past/Past Perfect Continuous

Towards the end of our last session, Hani had raised a question or two about the simple past as compared to the past perfect continuous, so for this session, we covered these topics. Our conversation also led us to discuss the present perfect continuous as well. We talked a lot about the different things that each of these tenses can convey, and a good portion of our session was spent swapping examples for each of these tenses. 

Feedback Provided to Tutee: Hani needed practice more than anything else when it came to getting the hang of using these different tenses. At first glance, the difference between simple past and past perfect continuous is certainly confusing, and I had to do a little brushing up to make sure I was equipped to properly help Hani. Many of the examples he came up with were accurate, and towards the end the majority of them were, and as usual he was eager to keep practicing. I try to use positive reinforcement when appropriate, and I had many opportunities to do so with all the effort Hani was putting in. By the end of our session, he seemed much more confident in differentiating between these tenses. I reminded him that practice and asking questions will help him hone this skill even more.

Lesson(s) about Tutoring and/or the Tutee You Learned: Hani is very dedicated to his English studies. He listens very carefully and always puts in a great deal of effort, and these observations were further enforced by today's session. Today was a good example of times when simple practice is the best way to reinforce a skill or concept. Much of what we did was come up with examples of the different tenses, and discuss why and how these were examples of the tense in question. Yet by the end of our session, I had noticed an improvement in Hani's comprehension of the subject, and he seemed much more confident. 

Keira TS #4

Keira TS #4

Date/Time: May 24, 2017 - 7:30pm

Location: Starbucks

Topic/Skill: Writing

This was my first tutoring session with Casias. His fluency is very good, and what he told me he most wants to work on is his writing, and his use of transition words. We looked at a couple of essays he had written in his classes. I helped explain what his teacher had meant by some of the feedback he had received, and we talked about different ways he could correct some of the common errors he was making, such as subject/verb agreement. 

At one point in our session, Casias asked for help in identifying noun clauses versus adjective clauses. I looked at the examples and definitions in his book, and tried to find some resources online, but some of the information I found online seemed contradictory to what was in his book, so we agreed to revisit the topic in our next session after I was able to do some more research and ask my professors if necessary. 

Feedback Provided to Tutee: Casias clearly has a good understanding of several aspects of writing papers in English, and in particular he makes an effort to use academic words and phrases in the appropriate places. However, much of my feedback to him during this session was about how to notice and avoid certain grammar errors I noticed he has a habit of making. We talked a little about his subject/verb agreement errors, and I tried to explain and offer examples as to why the correction combinations are considered as such (e.g. "They were" as opposed to "They was").

Lesson(s) about Tutoring and/or the Tutee You Learned: Casias' fluency is very high, and his speech rate is at times actually faster than that of most native speakers. His grammar accuracy in his writing is what currently needs the most work, but fortunately it is also what he wishes to work on the most. 

Keira TS #3

Keira TS #3

Date/Time: May 21, 2017 - 5pm

Location: Starbucks

Topic/Skill: Listening/Note-Taking

Similar to what we worked on in our last session, in today's session Hani and I worked on listening and note-taking skills. I had picked a couple of videos in preparation for this session, and prepared some comprehension questions to go with these videos. Because of the level Hani is at and the fact that he has been struggling with this, I picked video clips from a cartoon. They were not especially long, and the speech rate was slow and the pronunciation was clear. I mentioned that I picked a cartoon that was very popular in America, and was one that I personally watched growing up and enjoyed quite a lot. I made sure to also mention that I knew he was an adult, and this was a cartoon for children, and I simply wanted to pick something that could help him practice this skill without being overwhelming or covering too much unknown vocabulary. We prefaced the video by covering some of the new vocabulary. I then had him watch each video once, answer my comprehension questions, and watch it a second time. We discussed the new vocabulary and any questions Hani had. We spent the little leftover time we had covering questions Hani had from his classes.

Feedback Provided to Tutee: Hani was eager both to practice these skills and to learn the vocabulary that came with the videos. He ended up having a much easier time with the listening and note-taking than I anticipated, which meant my materials were a little too easy. However, he was still pleased because of the new vocabulary we had discussed. I told him that I would have more level-appropriate materials for the next time, and I encouraged him to continue both his listening and note-taking practice and studying vocabulary on his own.

Lesson(s) about Tutoring and/or the Tutee You Learned: Unfortunately, the material I selected for today's tutoring session was a slightly lower level than I could have used for Hani. Though we were able to discuss some new vocabulary as a result of the videos (e.g. dive/dove, hop/hopping, expedition), the speech rate did not challenge Hani in any way. In our future sessions, I will pick more level-appropriate materials. 

Annalise TS#16

For our final session, I decided to go over academic writing in English. I showed Jane the different styles of writing like MLA and APA formatting. I gave her a short quiz on examples of each and grammar you would use for each. To finish the session, we wrote a resume together. I showed her how a proper resume should be written and how she could start her own.

Annalise TS#15

Jane couldn't tutor her child tutee so she will be doing all of her tutoring sessions with me. This week we focused on academic learning. In the last session we did reading so for this one I decided to show Jane a college lecture on physical therapy and how it can affect the mental state of a patient, not just the physical state. After she was done listening, I gave her comprehension questions and we discussed the lecture.

Annalise TS #14

I gave Jane her essay back for the last time with corrections for grammar. I discussed with her certain grammar points she wasn't using correctly and word order of things. I explained punctuation such as comma splices and how to correct fragmented sentences. After we discussed her essay, we focused on academic reading. I had comprehension questions for her that she completed and we discussed.

Annalise TS #13

I collected the essay I had Jane write last week and corrected any content revision that needed to be made. I discussed with her certain sentence structures that she seemed to be struggling with. If there was something that didn't sound right in her essay, I would suggest further review to Jane. She re-wrote the essay, fixing anything she wanted to before I collected it again for a second revision next week.