Sarah TP#5

March 26, 2014

For my third session with Ali I brought along a packet of TOEFL practice questions. I thought this would be a good idea since most study guides are not accessible to him, and because it would give us both a better idea of what he needs to work on. I had chosen a sample Reading Section from ETS, featuring a passage about Meteor Impact and Dinosaur Extinction. Given Ali's background in Archaeology, I figured this would be a nice place to start. After reading the passage aloud, I painstakingly read (and repeated) each question and corresponding answer choices to Ali. For each question, the relevant sentence or paragraph had to be returned to and reread. This proved to be really frustrating for the both of us, and the results were pretty dismal. I'm not sure what kind of liberties Ali's proctor will be able to take, or what questions he will be allowed to ask of his reader, but it seems unfair that he should be given the test in the typical format. As per Julia's suggestion (thanks!), I'll be getting in touch with the coordinator of the Visual Disabilities program at FSU for advice.