Michelle TS#8

Date: February 8, 2017
Time: 12:00pm
Location: Hecht House Courtyard
Topic/Skill: Speaking- Organization

Feedback provided: Last week I tried to help my tutee with his verbal responses to IELTS speaking prompts. However, it felt very forced and regardless of my repeated requests for elaboration, the student could not complete the objectives in accordance with my expectations. After last week's TEFL class, I followed-up on this activity being better prepared. This time I provided him with an outline to use. Instantly, it was as if I lifted a barrier in our communication. Although he still needs improvement, his responses were far better than last week's. Overall, I consider this session a win.

Lesson learned: This session, I learned that visual support is just as important as verbal responses. In my previous tutoring session, I kept asking him to answer why he thought what he thought. And each time, he would answer with very little detail making the task somewhat arduous. However, immediately after providing him with an outline, the visual support helped to connect the information that I sought to his responses. I believe that the incorporation of visual support brought higher quality results because the student could visualize what was expected of him.