Venus TS #18

 Date/Time: Saturday, July 8th at 10:00 AM

Location: Lucky Goat Coffee
Topic/Skill: Active Listening, Reading Comprehension, and Academic Discussion Skills

Feedback provided to the tutee:

Today, Nejoud and I leaned into some essential grad school survival skills: how to actively listen, critically read, and respond thoughtfully to academic content.

We opened with a warm-up on listening styles, using the classic contrast: “Do you listen to understand or to reply?” This sparked a fun, reflective conversation about how grad students are constantly juggling both. Nejoud shared that she often finds it easier to understand than to quickly explain her thoughts out loud.

Next, we practiced academic-style listening using an excerpt from the TED Talk “The Power of Vulnerability” by Brené Brown. Nejoud made predictions based on the title, identified the main idea during the first listen, and then tackled more detailed comprehension questions on the second go. We focused on tone, transitions, and examples; the building blocks of academic lecture comprehension. She caught subtle emotional shifts in the speaker’s tone and related the themes of vulnerability and connection to her own graduate experience. Her ability to connect ideas across contexts is growing rapidly.

Afterward, we dove into a short reading: “Advice About Grad School From a Ph.D., a Decade Later” from Inside Higher Ed. Nejoud previewed the article, annotated while reading, and starred lines that personally resonated. She reflected on the main argument- that graduate school is a long game requiring both grit and adaptability, and shared that she especially agreed with the idea of building sustainable motivation over time.

We closed with a toolkit of useful academic phrases for listening and reading. Phrases like “I just want to make sure I understood…” or “This connects to what we read in…” became sentence starters for mini role-play. 

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:

This session was a great reminder that listening and reading at the grad level aren’t passive tasks. Nejoud is learning how to stay mentally active, even when the input is dense or fast-paced. By layering listening with response strategies, and reading with real reflection, she’s building stamina for the academic marathon. Her growth is showing not only in comprehension, but in confidence.

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