With SAT testing completed, we have resumed focusing on college application essays. While Lilly is still considering topics for her general essay, we today looked at the specific essays required by the University of Washington and worked on drafting an essay to the second required topic-cultural diversity an applicant can bring to the school. After discussing Lilly's family's dual religious heritage , I first provided a number of prompts to generate a topic sentence and then suggested a number of follow-up details to consider. Lilly then prepared an initial draft of this essay which she will complete before our next session.
Lilly and I discussed general questions that she had related to statistics, including: interpretation of regression program outputs, residual plots, extrapolation, censuses versus simple random samples, bias in voluntary responses, lack of proof of causality in observational studies, and others.
Elevated Vocabulary - Transitions, Conjunctions and Prepositional Locutions
Lesson Outline
Today, Lilly and I used Quizlet flashcards to review transitions, conjunctions and prepositional locutions, expressions that allow her to elevate her French to a more sophisticated register. After exploring the flashcards, we completed a worksheet to reinforce her understanding of the difference between transitions and conjunctions as well as solidify her vocabulary knowledge. Thereafter, we did a matching exercise with the same expressions and created original sentences once the pairs were made. We closed with one final flashcard review of the same vocabulary and some short conversation in French.
Assignment
Lilly should continue to study the transition, conjunction and prepositional locution vocabulary.
Session Minutes
60
Minutes Student Attended
60
Lesson Comments
As we were studying and utilizing the vocabulary together, it became evident that Lilly can absorb the expressions well; she just has to put the time in outside of our sessions to study and utilize the vocabulary as often as possible via her writing tasks, presentations and conversations. She has a very limited foundation in French, so I hope to spend the coming months filling in the multiple gaps that there are. She requested that we review the passe compose today, but we will begin with the present tense next week and then build from there through multiple tenses/moods and other fundamental grammar topics.
In this activity, Lilly started a new exam. She completed the non calculator exam and 25% of the calculator portion. Most important is for Lilly to study the old exams we have completed.
Lilly requested assistance with a long paper she is preparing for her IB program. After discussing the nature of the assignment I addressed the literary definitions of tragedy and romanticism . Looking at her draft, we focused on clarifying the type of tragedy she is addressing- a tragedy of destiny and fate-and how to emphasize her thesis or claim in the opening paragraphs. We further addressed removing superfluous words ,phrases and ideas that interrupted the logic of the argument as well as adding descriptive words that added details to her written presentation.
There was no lesson today due to a miscommunication about it being canceled. Lilly arrived for the lesson very soon after I had left for the day, but I did not get the message that she was there because my phone was silenced.
Session Minutes
60
Minutes Student Attended
0
Lesson Comments
Lilly canceled at the last minute again. I believe (but may be mistaken) that this is the fourth time in a row. I waited for her for over two-and-a-half hours. There was some miscommunication about whether she had actually canceled or not.
In this activity, Lilly completed the calculator part of the exam in the allowable time. She works continuously through the exam stopping only when she makes a wrong choice.
Today, Lilly had to prepare a speaking presentation for tomorrow in her IB class. She had to select an image related to health and well-being (a theme of the IB exam), describe how it relates to health and then tie it back to a French-speaking country. Together, we selected an image related to Quebec, a region of interest to Lilly. We decided that universal healthcare coverage could be an interesting topic and therefore began to generate a vocabulary list related to that. With that vocabulary in hand, Lilly began to describe the image and practiced using more elevated vocabulary to discuss the controversial nature of universal healthcare. On Quizlet, we created a health glossary for her to continue to expand both in and outside class.
Assignment
Lilly must practice her presentation for tomorrow and continue to add to her Quizlet glossary as she discovers vocabulary related to the topic that she must research.
Session Minutes
60
Minutes Student Attended
60
Lesson Comments
I enjoyed working with Lilly today. She started to come out of her shell a little bit and when she was nervous about practicing her presentation in front of me, I impressed upon her how much I am just here to help her, never to judge. Lilly has a very weak vocabulary, so we discussed that it would be best for me to almost teach her French from scratch over the course of our time together so that she can develop a solid foundation.
We reviewed and discussed the essay prompts on the Common Application website . As we read thorough the proposed topics,Lily eliminated those she did not want to pursue and narrowed down her selection to two topics. We then brainstormed and discussed various entry points for the two selected topics . I elaborated on ways to develop these entry points into a compelling college essay .For next session,Lily will choose which prompt she wishes to develop and discuss the supporting details she would like to incorporate into the essay.
