Celina_TP #12

For this weeks tutoring I worked with Abdulaziz again on writing skills. I like that we have our own system of assessing his needs each week based upon what he is struggling with most. It works well for me because I can more flexible when it comes to lessons to work on. This week he wanted to focus again on writing skills, and particularly in speed writing with a set prompt. He worries a lot about his ability to write for the IELTS exam so this is a great opportunity for me to help him edit his work and review some errors. We started by researching some sample prompts that he could write about. I tried to make them interesting for him and keep it relevant to him. We settled on the importance of studying abroad, which he mentioned was an actual prompt he saw once on the IELTS exam. I can tell that it is much easier for him to write an outline for an essay when he has a large amount of background knowledge on the subject and knows the vocabulary to utilize. However, this is not always the case when it comes to taking standardized tests, like the IELTS, so I wanted to work more with him on being able to format essays based upon opinions and experiences rather than just something he has a rehearsed answer for. After we chose a topic, I had him write out an outline for the paper and timed his writing for this. Although they are only given a set amount of time to write a response on the IELTS, I know that having atleast a short outline will take a lot of the stress out of the process. I then gave him a set amount of time to write a short essay for the prompt and when he completed it we went over the essay together and I had him edit it himself. This was a great way to encourage self-edit and for him to work more on finding his own errors rather than just being told what they are.