Ryan TP 2

Because of difficulties with schedules, my tutees and I never did get together. So when those of us who still needed tutoring hours met at CIES during finals week, I was pleased to be paired with one of my original tutees, Habib, as well as a new tutee, Nasser. We sat down and discussed what specifically they would like to go over. Of course they both wanted to focus on the TOEFL exam, but Nasser also just wanted to get some speaking practice in as well. I asked them to tell me about the specific parts of the exam that they wanted help with which led to a general discussion of the different parts of the exam. The parts that they thought were most important were the writing sections, even though they said they wanted to focus on speaking and listening. One of the sections that I had not heard of was Integrated Writing where the students read a passage, then listen to a related article from a different point of view. They would then be asked to write a compare and contrast essay. This then got us talking about essay format and how strictly it should be followed. It was interesting because Nasser thought that the 300 word minimum for the integrated writing essay was one of the biggest challenges, while Habib found that 300 words was simple if he stuck to a standard essay format. We decided that by focusing on integrated writing, we would be able to work on and develop multiple skills. When I asked what topic might interest them, they said something about culture; celebrities, American history or American culture. Nasser suggested Marilyn Monroe so I decided I'd look around for some listening and reading articles about her for us to focus on during the week. The plan was to focus on the listening section one day, the reading section the next, and the writing section on the last day. Of course this being our first meeting, I didn't have any specific things for them to work on so the rest of the time turned into a discussion. We ended up talking about the education system in America and how it works. Habib was trying to get his drivers license and so our discussion turned to driving and how it differs from place to place, as well as what is required for an American drivers license. We also talked about Habib's stresses that he is having because of the political unrest in his native country, the Ivory Coast, which was interesting to see how something that most of us haven't heard of is so dramatically affecting his life. Lastly, Habib asked me to focus on different dialects if I could because he often has trouble understanding them. Plan for the night, find articles on Marlyn Monroe, both for reading and listening.