On 4/11/21, AYLUS Syosset member John Thach individually tutored senior student Tiffany He in English and Essay writing in a two hour session. This supplemental support was offered in order to increase their English proficiency as well as their writing skills. This skill is important, especially for minority diaspora communities, so as to better allow people from these communities to better express themselves in American society. With the surge of Asian hate crimes, personal expression and ability to dictate one’s own story and opinions does much to raise awareness about one’s own experience with hate, hence this skill is particularly apt to be reinforced.
The session started with a proofreading of an original essay drafted by the student. The tutor then gave advice and tips on how to improve the essay, as well as made suggestions regarding the formatting of it. This was done in Google Docs using the non-invasive ‘suggestions’ feature, which allows the tutor to make comments without physically altering the existing text.
Once the suggestions were made, the student edited their essay, making changes to the existing text under supervision. Intermittently, the tutor would provide synonyms to make the essay sound better, as well as make small adjustments to sentence structure and placement to better improve flow. Necessary revisions were carried out, and afterwards the final product was recited out loud by the student to demonstrate their speaking ability as well.
Lastly, basic grammar and structure was reinforced. Specific attention was brought to the applications of specific punctuation marks. During the speaking portion, stress of words as well as terminal intonation of sentences was covered and the student was coached on presenting the piece.
The following student conducted the individualized tutoring session: John Thach (2 hours)
