Allyce_TP12

   My most recent tutoring session with Nimah continued along the same lines as the previous one. We decided that writing about the TOEFL topics was a really great way for her to practice writing in English so we moved onto the next prompt "What are some important qualities of a good school teacher? Use specific details and examplesto explain why these qualities are important." However, instead of spending 30 minutes brainstorming together, I gave her only 5 timed minutes to create an outline alone. I offered to help her but she declined, only asking me a couple of questions. She had me clarify what a thesis statement is and asked how many paragraphs she should have. She actually finished a minute early and moved on to the writing section.
   I noticed a lot of improvement this time. She paced herself really well and allowed enough to time to write a conclusion. Previously I allowed her a couple extra minutes to finish up but she really made sure that each paragraph took about 6 minutes each and no more. When I told her we had only 3 minutes left she seemed really pleased and was almost done with her conclusion.
   This time we spent a little more than 30 minutes going over the essay once she was done to make up for lost time brainstorming. The organization was great but there were still some significant spelling errors and a few awkwardly formed sentences. For example she said that "good moral teachers are better." I told her that you would typically say "a teacher with good morals." She was a little bit confused and kept on forgetting to correct the sentence each time it came up throughout her essay. We added the phrase to her list of corrections so that she could remember the proper form next time.
   Overall, the session was great and I was thrilled with her progress! We decided that next time we would include outlining in the time we allow for writing and she promised to focus on her spelling for next time. Although I'm not required to blog about any more tutoring sessions, I've decided to continue tutoring her. Working with her has been such a rewarding experience and I can tell that she really appreciates the time I put into the sessions.