Claire_TP10

Last night, I met up with Mahmoud for another tutoring session. Before we started, he and I discussed Ramadan for a long time. I told him how I had attended that presentation at the CIES on Tuesday and showed him the notes I had taken about the holiday. This is Mahmoud's first Ramadan without his family! He seemed a little homesick, but I think talking about his religion and and answering my questions made him very happy. We went over an intensive reading worksheet with a passage and multiple choice questions that I had assigned him to do over the weekend. He mostly had questions about guessing the meaning of vocabulary words. I explained how to use context clues and he caught on very quickly. Next, we practiced speaking. I showed him a series of pictures that told a story and he had to tell me what was happening in the photos. He did a great job! Then, I asked him a few questions that may be featured on the TOEFL. For example, "who is your role model and why"? After a few of these, he was warmed up and wanted to be timed (15 seconds to plan, 45 seconds to speak). The first few attempts he went over time, but then he started understanding how to plan and organize his thoughts effectively. He finally answered a question within the time frame perfectly and he was so excited! I had never seen him smile that much. It was a wonderful sight, seeing him feel accomplished and motivated like that. He high-fived me and said he wants to practice speaking a little bit each session now.