Today, I had the opportunity to observe Emilia tutor her student.

When I first started observing, I immediately noticed the patience Emilia emulates, and this was prominent throughout the entire lesson. Emilia came prepared to the lesson with worksheets and activities planned to ensure her student was engaged, despite her student being tired and, at times, distracted from the lesson. The lesson was centred on sentence construction, with a particular focus on description. Emilia encouraged her student through the promise of having a ‘brain break’ to allow the student to have the option to complete an activity of her choice, on the basis that she completes the tasks set. Emilia also worked on spelling with her student and encouraged the technique of sounding out the word as she wrote it down in order for her student to understand how various letter pairings produce different sounds. It was apparent to me that the student felt very comfortable being in the presence of Emilia and openly expressed that she was finding the content challenging. This allowed the lesson to run smoothly and was very productive. Another technique I noticed was Emilia’s use of colour coding when moving to different tasks, increasing the student’s engagement. Although her students’ attention was turned to many other topics (showing her inquisitiveness), Emilia demonstrated an exceptional amount of patience and maintained control throughout the entirety of the lesson. Overall, it was insightful and enjoyable to watch Emilia conduct a smooth-running lesson filled with motivation, patience and encouragement.

Well done, Emilia!!

Marina Nouris