I have now been giving tutoring sessions for almost two months. Even if I had already had the occasion to give individual English classes to younger students in High School, this experience is somehow quite different and very interesting, both for my two tutees and also a lot for myself! After quickly explaining how and where my two tutees and I meet, I will present what I have been doing exactly during these 14 sessions of tutoring and how my tutees are reacting to the classes.
As requested by the official tutoring system at the Ecole Polytechnique, I always meet with my two tutees Cedric and Abdou for half an hour twice a week. During our very first lesson, I asked them both why they volunteered, if they had special needs or difficulties in English, and what themes they were most interested in. We also decided together of the different types of documents (what sources, what format, etc) they would want to study. During the first lessons, both Cedric and Abdou were quite shy and not very confident about their English so I made them talk about some topics they appreciate (what sports they like doing, telling about their holidays) to assess their global level in spoken English. On the basis of the “bring and tell” presentation, I asked them to bring an object they particularly like, or that they find interesting to talk about, and to present it in an original way for the next lesson. Once at ease, I discovered that my two tutees had no major problems to express themselves in English - they follow both intermediate-level English classes - which allowed me to choose interesting and elaborate themes to discuss with them. I decided to split the week in two different sessions, to make them work on precise vocabulary and formal discussions or debates on one side, but also on more informal situations and colloquial English.
On Mondays, I usually bring a written article, a video and/or an image like a cartoon or a significant picture related to a specific subject....