Katherine TS-#1

Today I met with one of my adult tutees to assess his skill level and discuss what sort of weaknesses he would like to address in his sessions with me. He is an advanced level student, able to communicate clearly and effectively with little accent as well as understand topics well beyond the scope of daily conversation. His reading is choppier than he would like and he struggles with reading some of the bigger, less common words. While he can comprehend what a given piece is saying, it takes him longer to read it than most and it is still a bit of a struggle. Unlike his speaking, or even reading skills, his handwriting is illegible and he struggles to form letters, spell words properly, or use  proper grammar. As he says, "once I pick up the pencil, it all goes out the window." To help with his reading speed and smoothness, we have decided to select several passages from two flash fiction books I own. Flash fiction is a very short (a paragraph to several pages long) genre that is often more artistic and poetic than the typical short story. This will help challenge his reading comprehension, introduce him to new vocabulary words and new, innovative ways of using words he already may know, and help provide the practice he desires. To tackle his beginning writing skills, we will be using a beginner writing book that will help him practice forming letters and spelling out common words.