Chris H. TP 2

My second meeting with Sammi and Abdul was staged at the Starbucks on campus in the Strozier Library. We waited for Alaa for a few minutes but when Abdul received a text that he wouldn’t be able to make it, we decided to carry on. All three of us grabbed coffees and took the elevator to the third floor, at which point we strolled through the aisles and found books on English pronunciation and grammar. When we returned to the front desk to check the books out, I was informed that the CIES students had temporary FSU cards that may not have been activated yet. Slightly disappointed, my tutees and I headed across Landis Green instead, towards the Harold Goldstein Library. When we got there, the librarian pinpointed a wide collection of children’s books, with elementary concepts of English grammar. We began by skimming books, focusing on ambiguity tolerance and grasping key context clues. I used my watch to time the students, only allowing fifteen seconds per page of text. This method was effective as it motivated extensive reading skills from both Abdul and Sammi. Sammi struggled the most with deriving contextual meanings so, in the next book, I encouraged him to select one of slightly less text on the page. This allowed me to maintain the same time scheme for both students (not isolating one) and continue with the exercise’s format.