Rachael TS # 16

Today (3/8), I tutored Da-Som! The skill we worked on today was giving and receiving advice. I began by asking her to give me two pieces of advice on how to be healthy. Both responses started with "you should." I then provided with a list of vocabulary pertaining to seeking/giving advice, with various ways you give/ask for advice (ex. "You ought to + infinitive," "If I were you, I would + infinitive"). We went through all of the proposed forms using the correct verb tense of "to eat vegetables" that fit the phrase. I brought a game printout that I put in a sheet protector, and then you would flip a coin to see how many spaces you advance. The space you landed on, you had to give advice for the prompt on the square (ex. I got lost in the desert). I encouraged her to give at least 2 pieces of advice and to diversify the way she presented the advice. This took up most of the session, but she was laughing, having fun, and getting meaningful practice. At the end of the game (which she won), I had her answer a few questions about my tutoring/needs analysis. After this, I understand a little more about the job she is hoping to get and how English will be used in that context. I was hoping to get some constructive feedback, but I think she was too shy to write anything that she didn't like about my teaching. What I suggested she do was to think about what other teachers do that she likes that I haven't tried yet. We finished with a short TED talk about how to manage time. We listened to about half of it, and she did a really impressive job extracting the important details despite the speaker going relatively quickly. I'm so proud of all the progress Da-som has made, especially that she has moved up in her Speaking and Listening class between sessions. I don't know how much of that can be attributed to my tutoring, but I would like to think I played at least a small part :) She does seem to have gained a lot of confidence in her speaking skills since 8 sessions ago, and working with Da-som has been extremely rewarding. I will continue to work with her until my time at FSU comes to a close!