On Tuesday afternoon, April 15th, I conducted my fourth tutoring session with Mohammed. For this particular session, we dedicated the entire lesson to reading and discussing the short story "To Build a Fire" by Jack London. In using this short story for our tutoring lesson, we were able to work on his reading comprehension, grammar and pronunciation. In addition, I was able to introduce Mohammed to new idioms and phrases in the English language through the American short story.
In my opinion, "To Build a Fire" turned out to be a very useful teaching tool for ESL students. I believe this because the vocabulary is not too difficult and it is appropriate for Group 2 and even Group 3 ESL students. In addition, the author Jack London, wrote the story in narrative style using excellent descriptions to develop a strong image in the reader's mind of what is taking place in the story. For example, London describes the act of building and tending a fire in somewhat the same manner as an adult feeds and takes care of a child. Consider the following sentences, "He fed the young flame with more wood. As the fire grew stronger, he gave it larger pieces of wood." These two sentences help the reader conjure up an image of a person tenderly building, nurturing and taking care of the fire as if it were a child who's very growth depended on it's master. In reviewing this passage as well as several others, Mohammed was able to grasp what the author was to trying to accomplish in this style of writing.
In summary, I would recommend this story to other instructors as a teaching tool. In addition to exposing an ESL student to story-telling imagery, the story provides an excellent opportunity for improving word pronunciation and basic grammar. I plan to use this story again with other ESL students in the future.
Great choice of topic, David!
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