Today, I decided to observe Joel's session with Yuma. We all met up at the Strozier Library at 5:00 pm. Joel found TOEFL practice tests online and decided to focus today's session on Yuma's listening/comprehension skills since Yuma wanted to spend his time preparing for his next TOEFL exam.
On Joel's tablet, we all listened to a passage about Sylvia Plath. He had printed out the passage as well, for Yuma to read through and find words he was unfamiliar with. After we finished listening, Joel went through each word Yuma was unsure of and did his best to define the words in simpler terms. It was harder than I thought; I had to use my laptop to look up some definitions and examples to help better explain some of the words--poet, obliged, subjugate, sought, etc. There were a few instances when we had to translate the word and show him, but he understood most of what we said. We all shared a few laughs too; it was a fun session, in my opinion.
Then Yuma was handed a number of questions about the passage; Joel took his time explaining the different types of questions and helped him answer each one. Yuma asked a lot of questions and he seemed meticulous when going through the questions. I'm glad I got to watch and even help answer some of Yuma's questions. I'm nervous about meeting my adult tutee again because I wasn't sure what to prepare for our next session, but watching Joel and Yuma eased some of my tensions.
Good job, Joel!
Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteIt's great that you were able to get a couple ideas for your tutoring session from observing Joel, I think that's exactly why we're supposed to observe someone. It's hard to think of things to do!