Personalized Spanish tutoring that blends grammar instruction with smart use of technology

Valentina and Ava dedicated their recent lesson to honing essay writing skills in Spanish, specifically using the story of Snow White to practice identifying themes and correcting grammatical errors. Ava actively engaged in self-correction and translation exercises, while Valentina provided valuable feedback on sentence structure and the crafting of effective essay introductions. Ava was assigned to revise a section of her writing before their next lesson, with the instruction to use a dictionary but avoid translation tools. Their upcoming lesson is slated to cover the passive voice.

Valentina recently guided a learner from Chula Vista through an accent reduction lesson. The focus was on mastering the pronunciation of 'ch' and 'sh' consonant sounds. During the lesson, the individual actively practiced minimal pairs and read a text aloud, receiving feedback from Valentina on articulation, blending, and rhythm. For their next lesson in two weeks, they were assigned texts rich in 's' sounds for continued practice.

Valentina and Bruno engaged in a conversational English lesson centered on immigration, cultural values, and societal integration. They analyzed the immigrant experience, the impact of cultural differences, and the role of heritage. Valentina assigned Bruno a TED-Ed video about creating the perfect society and tasked him with researching the qualities of a good member of society in preparation for their next session on Monday.

Valentina recently conducted a Spanish lesson with Ava, focusing on the precise application of direct and indirect object pronouns and their combination within sentences. They delved into various examples to solidify these concepts and addressed common redundancies in spoken Spanish. For continued practice, Valentina assigned exercises and set the next lessons for Thursday and Sunday. Moving forward, the plan is to tailor future content to Ava's AP Spanish coursework and introduce the passive voice. This latest instruction builds on a comprehensive learning journey for Ava, who is based in Oceanside. Their previous lessons have extensively covered narrative elements and figurative language, such as similes, metaphors, personification, oxymorons, irony, and paradoxes, with examples analyzed in both English and Spanish. More recently, they dedicated time to crafting a mini-essay about a story's theme and conflict, including a detailed discussion of a plot point involving a ring and a fortune teller, while also refining Ava's grammar, vocabulary, and logical consistency in her writing. Furthermore, Valentina has been teaching Ava the Spanish subjunctive mood, exploring its various forms and uses, particularly in expressing doubt, emotions, wishes, and opinions, emphasizing contextual understanding over rote memorization. Ava also has a follow-up lesson scheduled to review conditionals and the subjunctive, with additional lessons planned to reinforce these previously covered concepts.

Valentina led Bruno in a conversational English lesson that explored various habits and their connection to mental health, including smoking, mindful eating, social media use, sleep, self-talk, coping mechanisms, exercise, procrastination, and active listening. Bruno shared personal experiences related to these topics. Valentina assigned a video for Bruno to watch and said they would discuss it in the next class, along with a pronunciation lesson.

Valentina and Bruno worked on improving Bruno's English pronunciation, rhythm, and intonation using poems, nursery rhymes, and creating sentences based on folk beliefs. Bruno received feedback on specific sounds and pacing. Valentina assigned "The Chaos" poem for continued practice and suggested recording himself and imitating accents to improve consciously.