Alex TP 5

On Thursday I met with Mumbarek again at 3 o’clock outside of CIES. We started off by going over the assignment I gave him last week which was to read two articles by Stephen Marche from an accessible website. Marche writes a monthly column critical of American society and/or pop culture and I had thought, considering Mumbarek’s advanced stage of reading and comprehension, this would not be too difficult a task. Furthermore, I consider Marche’s column to be some of the most important American non-fiction writing today so it would have a strong impact culturally. It didn’t completely work and it didn’t completely fail. While he did grasp the main ideas he failed to really understand the writer’s edge and a lot of the references that make his insight unique. However, I feel like I remedied this by simply discussing the articles with him. First he shared his views on the topic, and then I shared what I took from the article. I saw that I helped him grasp some of the concepts that he didn’t initially understand while it was clear that some were slightly above his level. Nevertheless, I deemed the lesson a relative success because I think we discussed topics he probably wouldn’t have just come across. And as someone who has admitted he doesn’t enjoy reading, I think these short 1,000 word articles were quick and easy for him to read and enjoy.