Craig TP-2

My second tutoring session rocked! In going into the tutoring partner session I was very nervous because I was not very sure if I could be effective or helpful. We decided to meet at a hookah place because it was a common interest and a place that was relaxing and good for conversation as well. However, as I waited for Fatih to arrive I read an article that made me uneasy about smoking http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/health/31hookah.html but I did anyways LOL. After he arrived, we decided that reading and pronunciations would be a good focal point to start.

My tutor partner already had a couple of lower level books that he said he had started so we decided, collectively, to read through them and go paragraph by paragraph reading out loud and then reviewing the comprehension, and simple speaking techniques. After the first 5 minutes I could tell he got comfortable and it made the session become more of a learning experience. We identified that he had difficulty with the -th sounds and the -ou sounds in words. Spending a couple attempts at explaining I felt like I had ran into a slight wall. Then out of no where I remembered talking about tongue twisters and got him to do a couple word practices using -th and best of all, it worked!!

All in all, the session went very well. It was 100% super serious the entire time. We found a good balance of conversation, learning and simple reading/speaking practice. It seemed that we both were getting good experience with English teaching and learning while having a pretty good afternoon.