Andrea TS #4

This was my second session with Aviv. He had told me that he liked the idea of speedwriting, so I prepared a topic for him to work on during the session. The topic was to describe Tel Aviv, the city that he is from, so that I could learn a little from him. We first timed out some brainstorming, and then I gave him 20 minutes to write as much as he could in response to the topic. Afterwards, we went over it. Aviv was particularly interested in improving his spelling. We did an intensive reading of his response, stopping at each word that he misspelled so that he could take note of it for later study. I felt like we had a really good time working together this time, and we both shared some information about our respective cultures and languages. We even found out that we have something in common; his father is from Morocco and my family is from areas that once were considered Moroccan but are now owned by Spain. While it is true that Aviv has a long way to go when it comes to spelling, I think this was a good start. We thought about ways that he could study the words he listed at home. In the end we spent over two hours together without realizing it! I felt like this is what teaching should feel like. It was not only helpful for Aviv, but also enjoyable for both of us. Our plan from here on out is to do speed writing activities regularly to monitor his progress over time.