Celina_TP #10

   I worked with Abdulaziz this week for tutoring. Abdulaziz had just taken his IELTS exam for I believe the second or third time, so this offered us the perfect situation to reflect upon the exam and do a sort of needs-based assessment of helping him prepare for the next exam and some difficulties he had. As with most CIES students i've talked to who take the IELTS, Aziz explained to me how he had the hardest time working on writing and speaking. I had him break-down for me what continued to frustrate him with writing and together we researched some potential writing topics. Next, I had him format me an outline of brainstormed ideas for the given topic. I explained to him the importance of an outline as a way to organize his thoughts and to some extent relieve the stress he builds up when taking an IELTS exam. After working on his outline and then having him practice writing a quick short-hand outline for when he has limited time on an exam, we began to break down the processes of building a thesis statement. The importance of learning a thesis statement is that it allows you to clearly state your argument and what you will discuss. It also makes it much easier to compartmentalize writing your paper. I hope that the tools and skills Aziz and I worked on will help him feel more confident going in to the next IELTS exam!