Aileen TS#2

For our second session my tutee and I dove into a discussion about the Lunar New Year. Having assessed during our first session that my tutee wanted to primarily work on vocabulary and listening skills I prepared some questions to ask about the Lunar New Year. I asked questions such as how is it celebrated in South Korea, whether or not there are rituals/games involved, and whether the holiday called for any special dress or food preparations. We then did a cross cultural comparison and I supplemented the conversation with the cultural differences of the US. It was an interesting turn because we started off with common board games in Korea, one being Yutnori to which I added Monopoly as a counter, and eventually went into a completely different tangent on artificial intelligence. As he did stress wanting to work on vocabulary I feel like we did cover a lot of ground in talking about different ideas. Also I noted that he does a good job of describing "around" a word that he doesn't know to which I am able to catch onto and offer him the word that fits. For example, he kept referring to his past fathers when talking about the Lunar New Year and once I told him he could use "ancestor" instead it seemed to click better with him and he was able to continue the conversation comfortably.

Simon Kennell TS #5

Today I met with my adult tutee for our fifth session. We discussed what we did over the weekend for about 10 minutes. I decided to start out with a casual discussion to lower his affective filter. We then discussed how his presentation went last Thursday (the previous session was spent reviewing and preparing for his presentation). While discussing the presentation, I made sure to correct any grammar mistakes he made in his speech. I have begun to implement for review and correction from his class work over the past 2 weeks. I have done this to maintain focus strictly on fluency and accuracy. While fluency and accuracy are two areas that we focus on to a high degree, I also try to incorporate pronunciation exercises which I think will help him in his fluency.

Sabrina Debrard CP#2

I met with my conversation partner again yesterday, January 30! Eunyoung had mentioned last time we met that she was really into painting, so I had the idea of bringing her to the art center at the union here on campus. We looked up the prices for painting classes but those were too expensive, so we settled on painting the small ceramic items available in the shop. Eunyoung chose a small lizard magnet and I chose a champagne flute. We went to the back room and I explained how the art center works--I showed her how to choose the paints, brushes, and how they would fire her lizard when we were done painting. After we sat down and started painting our conversation naturally flowed. We talked about our weekends (she had went to Panama City to visit her relatives) and about classes. We talked about animals for a while because she said she wanted to make her lizard look like a chameleon and I mentioned how I used to love drawing chameleons with oil pastels when I was in elementary school. Somehow we got to talking about celebrities and movies we liked as well, and she talked about how she liked thrillers and action films. Our conversation was engaging and it was fun talking to her again, she even texted me a picture of her finished lizard magnet this morning and it was so cute!

During the conversation she did have a little bit of trouble with some English words and phrases ('nostrils', for example) but I had no problem helping her. We haven't made plans yet for our next meeting but I'm excited to see her again, it's really fun chatting to her.

Sabrina Debrard TS#1

I had my first tutoring session with my adult tutee, Dasom, on January 21. We met at the library and introduced ourselves, and then talked a little bit about what she wanted out of the tutoring sessions. She mentioned that she has only recently arrived in America (within the past month or so) and that she predominantly wanted to work on her speaking skills. We ultimately decided to focus on a different skill each week after we discussed her skill levels in reading and writing (we also talked about how she felt in her CIES classes, where she mentioned she wasn't having any trouble). For the rest of that session we just worked on speaking--we glossed over different topics in our conversation including government/politics, weather, movies, and culture. Some of the topics had more advanced level words (I would say her skill is high-intermediate) so I had my laptop open to help describe some of these words so she would understand (one such word was 'impeach', which we ultimately ended up searching for the Korean translation for). I helped her with the pronunciation of some words she had trouble with and she noted any words she didn't know or recognize on her phone. We then discussed what we would do next week! It was great meeting and I tried to make her feel comfortable in speaking, as she admitted she was a little shy.

Daniel Bell - TS#5

Date/Time: January 30^th, 6PM

Location: Sultan’s Apartment (North X Northwest)

Topic/Skill: Grammar & Homework Assistance

Feedback provided to tutee: Today we worked on Subject-Verb-Object structure in sentences. I had prepared sample sentences and worked with Sultan to identify S-V-O in the sentences. By the end, he was producing simple sentences on his own.

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I often don’t think about how hard it is to learn a new language from the ground up. Sultan is facing a daunting task, but has handled it with bravery and grace. I really admire him and enjoy being his tutor. 

Jack Buck CP#3

I met with my second conversation partner, Simon (Zhiyuan) Yu on Saturday at 2pm. He is also from China (the southwest), and so he told me a little bit about his hometown. We mostly spoke about traveling, since he loves to travel and has done so extensively throughout Asia. I told him I had only gone to Hong Kong and Kunming, China (which he was surprised about because his ex-girlfriend was from Kunming). He said he really wants to go to England this summer, after I told him that was where I was from. We talked a little bit about our majors, and he was interested that I am studying Chinese. He told me that he also studies Statistics (my other CP is a Statistics major). We agreed to meet again next week at the same time.

Jack Buck CP#2

I met with Xueying Liu on Friday at 2PM for our second meeting at the Union food court. Being more familiar with each other, we talked about how our week had gone. I was telling her about my classes and how I had just completed a test before meeting her. She told me about her statistics classes. I also told her a little bit more about my job as a Resident Assistant and what I plan to do after I graduate this semester. She also told me that she thinks she wants to work in America for a bank as a data analyst.

Jack Buck CO#3

On Friday at 10:50am, I observed Victoria Davis' grammar classroom. Like my last CO, this observation was a little unconventional, because Davis was having a pizza making party with her class. She called it "Making Mama's Pizza-Count/Non-Count nouns". As the name suggests, the class was all about countable and non countable nouns. Ms. Davis provided instructions and had everyone do their own task (such as chop the mushrooms or slice the olives). As a result, the activity was a great hands on learning experience for the students. The students also got to learn about American culture by experiencing it first hand, and all students seemed genuinely excited to partake.

Jack Buck TS#4

I met with PJ at his house on Friday, January 27th for our second tutoring session. In our last session, PJ had mentioned that he found it more difficult to read stories that didn't interest him, and that he liked more action based stories. As a result, I brought a new book with me to our second tutoring session which was about a plane crash and a boy's survival. PJ definitely took more interest in this story, and seemed more engaged (asking questions and providing answers to my comprehension checks). In our next session, we will continue reading the same story.

Jack Buck TS#3

I met with my tutee, Claudia Malave, for the second time at Tallahassee's Brick Hause on January 24th. I had originally prepared worksheets on the differences between present continuous case and present perfect continuous case. However, this proved to be too advanced, as Claudia hadn't learnt these yet. As a result, we ended up working on simple present tense and simple past tense. I also helped Claudia with her reading homework, which was summarizing short passages.

Joelle TS#3

I met with Mohammad once again to review a paper that had recently been graded by his teacher. It was the same paper he had showed me about diseases, but he had edited it on his own without my advice since we did not meet before he turned his second draft in. He had made some grammatical corrections, as well as added more information and specifics to the essay. I helped him edit it, and gave him advice on where to add more information given the feedback his teacher provided. This exercise was also beneficial to me as it made me use the teacher grading rubric and become familiar with the writing correction symbols. He asked me to go through the grammar, correct it, and tell him why it was correct.
After we finished reviewing his second draft, we spent some of the time looking at the surroundings and picking words to learn. For example, I taught him what the word 'legacy' meant, as we were sitting at the tables in front of Strozier on Landis and the word 'legacy' was written across a piece of paper tacked to the school's bulletin board. I taught him a few other words, and used them in sentences that also related to American culture.

Ansley TS #3

As I mentioned in "TS #2", my tutee and I met for two hours, this post details the second of those two hours.  In the second hour, we review the use of "much" vs. "many" using a worksheet.  We talked about countable and uncountable nouns.  In TEFL class Prof. Kim used the example of rice as a non-countable noun. Even though we can technically count rice, we say it is non-countable because it is impractical.  Rice was used as an example in the worksheet and I was happy to explain it as we did in class.  We finished the studies and I drove him home.  The car ride provides good conversation practice at the end of the session.  I look forward to the next!

AnsleyTS #2

I met with my tutee today for two hours.  I am writing this post about the first hour.  My "TS #3" will detail the second hour.  In the first hour I decided to work on definite and indefinite articles.  I noticed during our first meeting he struggled with 'a' vs. 'the' vs. 'one'.  I printed out a worksheet with fill-in-the-blank sentences for: an, a, and the.  After he completed the worksheet we reviewed his answers together.  He read the sentence aloud, if it was correct I would ask him to tell me why he chose that word.  If it was incorrect I would say it was incorrect, see if he could identify the error, if not I explained the correct answer.  Throughout the discussion I tried to provide examples.  On the back of the worksheet I wrote the rules for each word and the correct answers for each question.  I wanted the worksheet to be something he can reference back to when needed.  Overall, I felt the meeting was a nice blend of conversation and structured tutoring.        

Julia Smith TS #4

Today, January 30, I met with Salem for the second time. I had a reading lesson prepared for him, but I helped him with one of his writing assignments, which took up the entire session. I was slightly surprised by his writing, based on my prediction of how it would be based on his speech. There were more grammatical errors than I had expected, and punctuation errors as well. I understood more of why there were punctuation and capitalization errors because of the great difference between these rules and those of Arabic. He asked me to help him with errors that the teacher had pointed out, and I prompted him in the best way that I could without just giving him the correction. For example, there were a few instances where he was missing the verb in the sentence, and I would tell him "You are missing something in this sentence" and ask "What do you think is missing, subject, verb etc.?". His writing was about exercise, so I told him about the group fitness classes at the gym on campus in which he seemed interested. He seemed interested in learning about his mistakes because he would ask "Why?" for many of his errors, and he was thankful for my help.

Julia Smith TS #3

On January 28, 2017 I met with Dojun for the second time. . Prior to our session, I prepared a short listening exercise with a clip from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Looking back, I do not regret using this clip, but I do believe that Will Smith's accent made it more challenging to listen and understand. I first had Dojun watch the clip to establish a foundation and context. I then told him to listen out for certain words and phrases in the clip that I typed and sent to him. I also told him to write or remember any questions that he had about words and meanings. After watching it for a second time, we discussed the words and phrases that I sent him, and I asked him what he thought they meant from the context of the video. I had an additional vocabulary exercise, but our session was cut short because of an unforeseen event that Dojun had to attend to. Although short, it was a good session and I believe that Dojun was challenged in his listening. I also learned that this day that we spoke was his New Year's day, which I enjoyed hearing about.

Ansley CP #4

Today (Jan 29) my conversation partner and I met at Starbucks at 4pm.  We mainly talked about his trip to Orlando this weekend.  The trip was organized for Kuwaiti students in the U.S. to meet with each other.  He said since Kuwait is such a small country he knew many people there already.  He expressed how hard it was for him to say goodbye to the Kuwaiti friends after the weekend trip was over.  Which led to a discussion on how hard it is to say goodbye to family members when we move away.  I was happy that he felt comfortable sharing his feelings with me.  In the end we agreed to meet at Piteria next time so he could show me some of the foods he liked, I can't wait!  

Daniel Bell - TS#4

Date/Time: January 29th, 5PM

Location: Sultan’s Apartment (North X Northwest)

Topic/Skill: Grammar & Homework Assistance

Feedback provided to tutee: Today, we built on the work we have been doing with pronouns, particularly the difficulties that Sultan has been having with distinguishing between first & second person. I created another worksheet and we went through it together, with feedback being provided on mistakes and successes.

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Sultan is working really hard! It’s only been a couple weeks but I can see that he is improving. He has shown me the power of working hard to advance yourself outside of the immediate classroom. He has also requested that we move our meeting times from the weekend to Mondays. So we will, with tomorrow being our first.

Rachael CP#2

On Friday (1/27) afternoon, I had a lovely lunch with Aeyil! We went to Tropical Smoothie Cafe. It was the first meeting we've had since the inauguration, so we discussed some politics! I am consistently impressed with her speaking abilities, and she is very wise! I learned a lot about the political unrest that is currently happening in South Korea. It's startling how much the outside world knows about U.S. news, but how little we know about how other countries are faring. She expressed some concerns with the new presidency, particularly how it might affect her home country. Aeyil is in level 4 of all her English classes, so I don't have a lot to correct. What I found myself correcting the most was word form (retain vs. retention). We moseyed back to the CIES basement where we warmed up with some tea. We ran into Victoria Davis and her family there, where her two cute little kids were. Aeyil has a son of her own, and we talked about the challenges and rewards of parenthood.  It's really nice to have Aeyil to talk to, I am learning far more from her than she could hope to from me! We have some plans in the book to go see Beauty and the Beast next month, and to go to a wine and painting event at some point too.

Michelle TS#3

Date: January 25, 2017
Time: 3:00pm
Location: Hecht House Conference Room
Topic: Grammar
Skill: Pronouns

Today was the first day that I met with this tutee. In spite of my first session expectations, I didn't get the chance to perform a needs assessment with this individual. With pencil in hand, he flipped open his book and got right to the point. His question was how to determine the difference between subject and object pronouns. To say the least, I was put off guard. Instinctively, I knew the answer to his questions but I did not know how to help him to solve the problem. It took me about ten minutes to research how to answer him but, together we learned the difference between subject and object pronouns. Then for further practice, I printed out a worksheet to see if we could expound on our new-found knowledge. The session went by very quickly. I was satisfied with having figured out his problem and I think he too, was satisfied with the results.

Michelle TS#2

Date: January 25, 2017
Time: 12:00
Location: Hecht House Computer Lab
Topic: Describing a classmate
Skill: Speaking

Feedback provided to the tutee: Today I was very impressed with my tutee's presentation. He included pertinent information about his classmate like her country of origin, favorite foods, and hobbies. In order to provide him the best feedback, I listened to his presentation once without interruption. I then offered advice on consistent slide formatting, and advised him to use more connectors as a level three student. We also practiced ways that he could make his sentences more complex.

What I learned: This tutoring session was all about preparing for a five minute speaking presentation. With that being said, I feel like I helped the student a lot more than I did in the previous session because I was helping him mentally and physically prepare for a nerve wracking experience in front of his classmates. Hopefully, practicing in front of me helped to boost his confidence for the real presentation.

Another added benefit from this exercise was that I gained a much better understanding of his spoken abilities. In all honesty, I think this student is exceptional. He is very well spoken but tends to use language conservatively rather than pushing his abilities. I think one of my goals this session will be to help him lengthen his sentences and take more risks.

Rachael TS#2

My second tutoring session on 1/25 went exponentially better than the first one. Now that I have an idea of her level and ability, I came up with a few exercises to challenge her. One area that I noticed she could improve on was her use of descriptive language. I prepared a slideshow with 4 pictures of some very American things. The first was of a Guns N' Roses concert, then one of the Brooklyn Bridge, one of Cam Newton playing football, and finally one of a family praying before Thanksgiving dinner. I asked her to use at least 5 adjectives in full sentences to describe the images before her. She found the activity challenging, but productive! Next I had her listen to the podcast "Real English Conversations: Chick Magnet." Before we began listening to the podcast, (which was about 7 mins long) I let her know what I was looking for. She was encouraged to take notes on the main idea, who, what, where, when, why, and how in order to summarize what was happening in the podcast. That culminated in her summarizing the podcast very well, and learning the cute idiom "chick magnet." She seemed to really enjoy and profit from these exercises, and having it all organized in a powerpoint seemed to help immensely. I will definitely us this method again! Next time, I would like her to use some adverbs describing video clips!

Rachael CO#3

After spending a morning in lower-level classes, it was a breath of fresh air to step into Andrew Wilson's 4A Listening class. It was a very small class of only 6 people, which facilitated great group discussion. On the board, he had a 5-point agenda. 

Agenda:

1. Word of the Day
2. New vocab
3. Notes on assessment
4. Crime facts & vocab
5. Pompeii by Bastille

To begin the class every day, Andrew writes a word or phrase on the board. This is usually an idiomatic expression, and Wednesday's was "fly on the wall." I was so impressed by how quickly the students seemed to comprehend the meaning. 

Students are asked to keep a list of words that they hear with which they are unfamiliar. Andrew would then write out the word, part of speech, definition and an example sentence. He would provide a lot of support by pointing out the connotation, put the word in its usual context. Andrew really relies on the tone of his voice to convey meaning, which I believe plays an important role in his students' learning. 

He quickly went over a few mistakes he found were common in an exam he recently corrected. These errors were corrected aloud and on the whiteboard. 

Students were given a handout for a listening activity with a crime theme. Before listening to the tape, students were instructed to think about what words would fit the blanks, given the context. Students were then asked to write down the missing words as they heard it as a pleasing voice read each sentence. At the end of the tape, students were encouraged to check with their neighbor to see if they got the same answers. Afterward, students asked vocabulary questions. The new words presented were relatively low-frequence (i.e. embezzlement, white-collar crime, proliferate, and ubiquitous). 

Towards the end of the session, students were given a handout with some incorrect lyrics of Pompeii by Bastille. The students corrected the mistakes as they heard them. I thought this was a really cool exercise! Andrew uses a lot of songs in his listening classes!

Two things I found really interesting about Andrew's class were 1) his bell and 2) his high-octane energy levels. Andrew rung a bell whenever a student made a mistake in speaking. The mistake was calmly addressed and corrected, and the conversation moved on. Also, Andrew, like me, cannot sit still! He is very high energy which makes his class exciting!

Rachael CO#2

The second class that I observed (1/25) was Ramin Yazdanpanah's Reading 2A class. He took a quick, fun roll-call, chatting with the students and getting to know them. One of the students was having a rough start to the week, and she was telling Ramin all about it. He used this as an opportunity to add the word "vent (v.)" to his students' lexicon. He explained the word in a very animated fashion and then added it to a google doc that has all of the new vocabulary words. Most of the words come from the students' individual reading, which are added to the shared google doc where students can look up the meaning of the words, which are organized on a week-by-week basis. There is a weekly vocabulary quiz on these words.

Ramin has a week-long agenda that he projects on the board, this gives his students a very clear idea of what is happening in the immediate and near future.

I was then introduced to D.E.A.R reading. For the first ten minutes of class, Ramin has his students just take out the reading material of their choice (he makes sure it is level appropriate). Students simply read and take note of unfamiliar vocabulary words. At the end of these ten minutes, Ramin asks students if there were any words they were unfamiliar with. As a class, they muddled through the meaning of some of the words. These were then added to the google doc.

Students are required to fill out a weekly reading log, where students answer questions about an article/of their choice. On the reading log, he has students break down and digest the articles by answering prompts (who, what, where, when, why, how, and main ideas). He also has students write down nine unfamiliar vocabulary words on flashcards, using at least 3 of the following: part of speech, synonym/antonym, sentence, definition, picture, pronunciation, the word in students' native language, and/or a linking word.

The next activity had students working on paraphrasing. He had an article about brain development projected up on the whiteboard. As a class they went sentence by sentence, rephrasing and boiling down the sentences to avoid plagiarism, as well as finding apt synonyms and antonyms, as well as rearranging sentences. Often times, the students did a great job! However, there were times where student word choice was not apropos, and Ramin would correct them and help them find a better word. Students were allowed to use their phones as a dictionary.

Finally, students practiced summarizing in pairs. Ramin emphasized that since they are studying to be academic writers, the must be able to summarize and paraphrase. The students discussed how to best summarize the text. Then, as a class they tried to break it down paragraph by paragraph and succinctly state the main ideas of each paragraph.

The class was very lively, yet calm. Ramin is a very laid back teacher, but also very effective.

Rachael CO#1

On Wednesday (1/25), I began my day full of classroom observations in Victoria Davis's Grammar 1A class. Immediately, the classroom had a very friendly vibe to it. Victoria took a quick roll-call and had the day's agenda written up on the board: Review Pronouns, Pronoun Quiz. She had a sheet where she checked off whether or not the students did the homework and then projected the worksheet she had assigned onto the whiteboard. The homework consisted of a moderately controlled exercise, having the students use subject, object, and possessive pronouns and possessive adjectives. Each of the four components of the worksheet had its own distinct category, so there was no mistaking which kind of word was to be used. In correcting the homework, she would usually call on volunteers to provide the answers, but would occasionally ask for a response from someone she hadn't heard from yet. Errors were very calmly addressed, emphasizing that mistakes are beautiful! There were lots of smiles and laughter.

One thing that stood out to me was when she used the word "letter," as in mail in a sample sentence. A few of the students seemed confused, thinking she meant letters of the alphabet! To teach this word, she looked up a picture of a letter in an envelope and the students immediately understood.

It was clear that the students felt free to ask questions, and the classroom had a very student-centered vibe. When students made it clear that she was having a difficult time with this sticky subject, she took the time to review it with the students by writing it out on the whiteboard, using student input to gauge how much the students understood and where exactly the difficulty lied.

At the end, she gave out a quiz on pronoun use. She felt that the students didn't have enough time to take it fully, so she ended up deciding that they could have a look at it, assess where they were having the most trouble, and then continue with it tomorrow.

Overall, I loved her teaching style. I always felt like the most growth for me happened in classrooms where there was free and open discussions! Victoria is very kind and lively, making the class very enjoyable!

Daniel Bell - TS#3

Today I had my first meeting with Elia. He is a bright boy of about 12 years old. We spend the first session getting to know each other. He told me that he is from Kampala, Uganda, and has three brothers and a sister. He wants to be policeman and enjoys playing Basketball. Right away, I can tell that he speaks English very well for his experience and age. I bought a Swahili-English phrase book, which I will use as a bank for vocabulary words. After doing a few exercises, I can tell right away that he is at the foundational level, but will undoubtedly learn fast. I am excited for the weeks ahead.

Bob TS#1

Date/Time: 27-Jan-2017 / 8:10 PM

Location: Skype

Evaluation and Goal Setting Session

My 2T lives in Seoul, South Korea but tonight he was with his parents in Busan celebrating the New Year. There are certain tribulations associated with tutoring across a 14 hour time difference, I must say, and tonight we encountered some of them. However, our hearts were pure and our fortitude that of ten men! From  7 PM onward we remained valiant in our effort until we finally made the connection at 8:10 PM. Quae est Patientia!

I think my guy weighs in at somewhere in the range of Advanced Elementary to Low Intermediate - about a 12 - in listening and speaking. I don't have enough run time to know for sure but using the info on the chart distributed in class (photocopied from pg 30 of somewhere is the best I can do as a source reference) and the following types of evaluative questions and conversational parlays:

"What do you want me to call you?" created some confusion that was cleared up by "How would you like to be called?."

"It's New Year, are you going to go out and party?" It turns out that it's a time to spend quietly with family! Cultural moment? Yes, but I think the critical point is that he recognized from the question in English that I had the wrong concept of the holiday and was able to correct me using the vocabulary and grammar that he already commanded.

We really didn't press the vocabulary envelope. It seemed at least adequate for social situations, daily navigation & chores about town, etc.

He is a young  professional employed by a regional carrier airline. His question to me when he was explaining that he worked for an airline: "Do you know 'regional carrier?'" and a few other statements indicate he is better versed in his industry jargon than other vocabulary. More exposure and use.

If this evaluation seems a little bit slipshod, well.., it's because I'm figuring it out as I go along. Feel free to check back when I'm confident about what I'm doing!

His stated goal is to improve his English listening skills and vocabulary to advance in his job. After some further discussion it was discovered that, by the way, girls in his part of the world are fond of English speaking men. It's good to have a motivated learner.

He's a pleasant lad and seems to have a sense of humor.

Here's my plan so far: (If anybody actually reads this stuff, feel free to jump in with some ideas or some adult supervision! Lord knows what this is gonna do for international relations!)

1)  Develop and present a series of listening exercises.
2)  Try not to further destabilize political relations with our allies across the Pacific.

Fear not for Conan the Tutorian has the watch!

Seriously though, if you stumble on this and have any ideas or concrete recommendations, step right up, there's a comment section down below there. It don't cost nuthin' to use. Help me figure out how to help this young brother get to where he wants to go. 

Daniel Bell - CO#3

Date/Time: January 24^th, 2:00-2:50PM

Topic/Skill: Listening, Level 3B

Teacher Presentation: Prof. Kim was extremely structured and ordered in the execution of her lesson plan. It was clearly very well-planned and flowed naturally into three parts. She clearly outlined the scope of the lesson on the whiteboard for the students to see. She did not overly rely on her PPT, deferring instead the lecture video which made up the first part of the class, as well as the scene from “Friends” which served as the basis of her dicto-comp exercise.

Classroom Management: Prof. Kim runs a very tight ship. It was a class of only six students and she knew every one of them by name. They clearly all respected her and most were eager to respond. Those that weren’t, she involved in the conversation quite naturally

Materials: The PPT, Lecture, Friends clip, as well as comprehension questions for the lecture, which included and factored in the vocabulary.

Student Participation: The students seemed very eager to be involved in both the activities. With the digital lecture, students were constantly raising their hand to make contributions to the conversation. Though the dicto-comp was a little hard to understand for some of the students, they put forward an honest effort and were generally all engaged.

Feedback Provided: Prof. Kim gave continuous feedback throughout both activities. For the lecture portion, she provided a comprehension question sheet. When students gave their answers, she made sure to correct them, and model their error as an example for class improvement, whenever the opportunity arose.

Lesson(s) on teaching you learned: Through Prof Kim, I witnessed the value of having a really strong base from which you run the class. Her lesson ran smoothly because she knew what she wanted to do; when she did and how. More than that, she made it clear to her students, so that they were clear on what to expect. All of it resulted in a successful class and I look forward to integrating this standard into my own teaching.

Joelle CP#2

Last week I met with Seong-Eun, who is my second conversation partner. We talked about our lives, and I walked her all over campus. I wanted her to get use to the campus life, and learn where the buildings where and which one was which as she said she hadn't been around the FSU campus much except for the Hecht House. She is very interested in the English language and culture, and was asking me questions on what was considered popular culture and what most Americans liked/disliked. I also told her about some local places to visit in Tallahassee, such as restaurants and the like. 

Julia Smith TS #2

Today, January 27, I had my first tutoring session with Salem. We met at Starbucks, and because it was our first session we just talked and I asked him a few questions in order to understand his English level and history. I had trouble with my phone and was late but he was very understanding and nice. I discovered that he wants to work mostly on his productive skills, because he mentioned that he had difficulty in writing and pronunciation. He told me that he can think of the English words and phrases in his head, but has a hard time communicating them sometimes, and feels like he is not understood some of the time. There was only two or three words throughout the entire session that I could not understand because of pronunciation, and so I told him that in the words that he uses his pronunciation is understandable. He was very eager to practice more English because he does not live with English speakers, as he mentioned that he would like to meet as much as possible with me. I enjoyed meeting Salem and seeing his enthusiasm in learning and bettering his English.

Aileen TS#1

  Last night I was finally able to get in touch with my Skype adult tutee Dojun Kim. Some background information on him includes the fact that he's from Busan, South Korea but works in Seoul for a local aircraft carrier company. Despite the fact that he's been studying English since middle school (going on 10 years now) he feels he still lacks the confidence to communicate effectively in English. As he isn't a student his main reason behind seeking tutoring is to be able to communicate more naturally with the foreign flight crews he comes in contact with throughout his job. His second reason was for future travel in the states.

  He went on to mention that he does not use English outside of his job so he stressed utilizing the tutoring sessions to build his listening and vocabulary skills. We went on to talk about his previous experience learning English and he shared with me that all of his English teachers were South Korean. This shocked me at first but as I continue to sift through job listings in Japan I came to an understanding. I realized as to why now more than ever the requirements for English teaching are for Native English speakers or for those who were brought up through the 12 year compulsory education in English. It's for authenticity. We started discussing why it might be that Philippines/Taiwan's ability to speak English well triumphs that of South Korea and Japan. I proposed that there are probably more English-speaking communities and accommodations provided for English-speaking foreigners compared to that of Japan's i.e that only has a foreign population of 2%. We then conversed on how the English teaching game is changing, especially with the 2020 Olympics coming up in Japan. He said the same will probably happen for the S.Korea Olympics in 2018. Overall it was a good start and I think for future sessions we will work off different topics/themes where he is able to practice self-expression on them while I guide him through his 'beautiful mistakes' Next projected topic is: Lunar New Year.

Julia Smith CP #2

On Wednesday, January 25, I met with Sheila for our second conversation partner meeting. We had decided the week before that we would go to the Rez, and so I picked her up at CIES and we went to the lake. We sat by the lake, which I think she enjoyed based on the pictures that she was taking, and chatted. We talked about music and places that we liked to go on the weekends. I have found a few times that when I tell her something, she will smile or mimic my face, but when I mention it later she will not remember or know what I am talking about. I can completely understand this, because it can be exhausting to have to constantly be asking "What does that mean?" or saying "I don't understand". But I wanted her to know that I want her to tell me when she does not understand what I am saying and I want to display patience in order to lower her affective filter and create a relaxed environment for her. In addition to this, I will sometimes ask a question after I tell her something to make sure that she understands, and to also encourage her to practice her speaking.

Joelle TS#2

I met with Mohammad Jashmir to help him with critical reading and help him understand the grammatical mistakes found in his writing. We first went over a few reading paragraphs, and why his answers to the questions based on the reading were marked wrong in class. The critical reading passages were interesting as they were of a higher-reading level than I would have expected for a Group 2 student. Some of the words were very advanced, and only from context could one understand the meaning of the word. I was proud of Mohammad as he was able to guess the meaning of every word almost to the tooth. I would give him the correct definition after he guessed just so he can know the proper definition for the word for future use.
As for his writing, we went over a simple one-page, five-paragraph essay of his about different diseases. The structure of his paper was great, the only problems were that he had some grammar mistakes such as "the childrens suffered" and some words that wouldn't be used to describe something in typical American english such as "The man passed the cancer" which he was trying to say that the man 'got over' the cancer. This essay was an old essay he had written for a CIES class a while back, and had asked me to fix the errors and explain to him what he did wrong word for word so he could use it for future reference.

Joelle TS#1

This week I met and tutored Mohammad Jamshir on various subjects in English. In our first lesson,  I went over his past work in both English composition and speaking. In his composition work, he was given information that he had to then make into complete sentences, such as "I have to get my book" after being asked what he needed when he wanted to read. He would be given questions such as "What is the equivalent of 'Sail' in your language?" and he would put the answer in his own language, which was in Arabic. We also looked over his past work for group exercises, where he would give his group or partner questions written in English about them, such as "What do you enjoy doing?" and "Where are you from?" and he would be given their answers and he would write them next to his questions in English.
For the speaking part, we went over the pronunciation of certain words and phrases. He would ask me about words he didn't know the meanings of and how they were pronounced. For example, a word he didn't know was "Rope" and pronounced it as "Rop" as he didn't understand why words changed with an added 'e'
Overall it was a great experience and I'm excited to further his understanding of English!

Simon Kennell TS #4

Today I met with my adult tutee at CIES. We discussed some of the assignments that I had him take home after our last session and complete. They were mostly indirect testing worksheets that had multiple choice and fill in the blank sections. He completed all of the worksheets and did fairly well on them. We reviewed some of the incorrect answers and discussed real life scenarios what the correct answers were. We also discussed his upcoming presentation in his speaking class and went through the presentation a couple of time to iron out a few grammar and speaking mistakes. He seemed much more confident about his presentation after our meeting. We will be meeting again on Tuesday to review more complex verb tenses.

Sabrina Debrard CO#2

For my second class observation I visited Ms. Turk's speaking class (level 2A) on Tuesday, January  24th. The class started off with a short exercise where they practiced sounding out the words Ms. Turk wrote on the board (such as 'elephant' and 'showcase'), focusing on the consonants. She emphasized the difference between voiced and unvoiced sounds particularly with the 'th' sound--she used 'these' to demonstrate the voiced sound and 'thought' to demonstrate the unvoiced sound. What I found particularly helpful was that throughout the lesson she drew a face on the board with the mouth, tongue, and teeth drawn out and demonstrated how the mouth moves when a particular word is said. There were also presentations in the class where two of the students gave powerpoint presentations about each other. I thought this was a great exercise because it got the students to practice both writing for the powerpoint slides and speaking in their presentations. I also noticed that Ms. Turk made the effort to speak very clearly and with energy!

Ansley CO #2

This morning I observed Group 4A Grammar with instructor Ryan Flemming.  Today his class was taking a 50 minute quiz.  Despite not being able to observe Mr. Flemming lecturing it was still interesting to observe the testing procedure.  The test had four parts: grammar corrections, one-paragraph written response, listening, and speaking.  The test covered a variety of topics but was centered on the use of transition words. The students seemed most concerned about the listening portion because they were supposed to listen and write down what their partner was saying.  The first two parts of the test were completed in the classroom, the second two were completed in the computer lab.  When the test were complete I asked Mr. Flemming if I could read the responses.  I was overall impressed by the connectivity of their sentences.

Ansley CP #3

Last night (Jan 24) I met with my conversation partner Casias at Starbucks.  During this meeting he seemed more comfortable than the previous meeting. The bulk of our conversation was about his home country, Kuwait.  He showed me pictures of his siblings and parents.  We also compared holidays in the U.S. to Kuwait.  He said the month of February is highly celebrated because in February they have both the independence day holiday and national day holiday.  We watched a video of independence day celebrations in Kuwait.  One of the traditions was spraying foam on cars passing by.  I can see why he is disappointed to miss out on those celebrations this year.  I look forward to learning more about Kuwaiti traditions in future meetings.

Bob CO#3

Date/Time: 01/25/2017 1400-1450
Topic/Skill: Listening - Foundation

There are 5 students in this class. There were 3 listening exercises. For the first, the instructor handed out the quiz, read the questions and the answers aloud to the class. This was done twice before reading the passage to ensure the students understood the quiz and its attendant vocabulary. The instructor read the passage. While the instructor read the passage, the students listened and selected answers that correctly answered the quiz questions. This was repeated. The quiz was reviewed as a whole class participation activity.

The second was a "what is ______ wearing?" exercise. While this may sound on the surface like bad phone sex, the exercise required the students to describe what each other was wearing.  It was valuable in allowing the students to employ both listening and speaking skills using common, high frequency vocabulary. This was followed by an exercise in which a slide that displayed approx. 15 illustrations of children attired in various colors of clothing (shirt, pants, shoes) and displaying different colors of hair, with or without glasses, etc. was projected on the board. One student was selected to describe one of the children. The remaining students then attempted to identify the child being described.

The third exercise resembled the second but was focused on "what is he/she doing?"

The instructor employed both formative and summative evaluation. This particular cohort of students spend their entire academic day together. I was told this is customary and appropriate for this level student.

This was the most beneficial class observation, so far. If I were asked to recommend which level classes to observe, I would recommend the lower level classes. These are where the language gulf is the greatest and the communicative skills required of the instructor seem greatest. Teaching at this level requires a great deal of creativity and finesse!

Kailon CP #3

During our third session, my conversation partner and I talked about the similarities and differences between American culture and culture in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Jean told me that a popular Congolese dish is Foufou. Foufou is also Jean's favorite dish. It consists of potatoes mixed with fish or meat. The languages that are spoken in the DRC are" French, Lingala, Kikongo, Tshibula, and Swahili. We also discussed ways of being hospitable in both America and the DRC. It was interesting to see the similarities between the two cultures, in regards to hospitality rules. I look forward to the next two sessions that Jean and I will have next week!

Kailon CP #2

Today, I met with my conversation partner for two sessions. The first session started at 10:00 am and the second session started at 11:00 am. During the first session, my conversation partner and I talked about history. This conversation was in response to the guiding question: "What is an important person in the history of your country?". My conversation partner, Jean Yangia, told me about the history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We talked about Leopold and Belgium's colonization of the Congo. Jean also told me about a man by the name of Patrice Lumumba that is revered as a hero in his country due to the fact that he fought for the independence of The Congo. In turn, I told Jean about two people that I view as not only heroes, but martyrs as well. These two people are: Nat Turner and John Brown. I told Jean about Nat Turner's slave rebellion, and John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation!

Aileen CO#3

  Today I observed the Group 3B Speaking class taught by Ryan Flemming. He started off his class with presentations in which students would talk about a certain word/concept. Today's presentation was done by a student named Belle and she talked about "billionaires" Going by the way she presented I'm guessing the criteria was to provide the definition, 2-3 examples for the word, and to go into detail using any kind of media such as pictures or videos. Following that, Mr. Flemming tested the classmates understanding of the powerpoint by asking for details that she mentioned and wrote them on the board. 

  The last half of the class was focused, working on Timed Speaking Templates that was structured around forming informed opinions and discussing with fellow partners. The aim was to get the students familiar with using certain phrases. In this case "why don't you" for advice. The example provided was "I have a headache/My head hurts" and there was sort of a cultural moment when someone suggested "Why don't you take Tylenol" because not a lot of student were familiar with what Tylenol was. Thus some time was spent on googling Tylenol and asking around the class if there were equivalents to others' countries. In this case the other equivalents were Panadol and the same thing arose for Advil with Profen and Midol as its equivalents'. 

  The last 10-12 minutes of the class was dedicated to working on the feedback that the instructor had handed back to the students on sticky notes. I thought it was a pretty simple yet concise idea for feedback because on a sticky note you can just address main points to work on while at the same time not overwhelming the students with a plethora of mistakes. 

Michelle CP#2

Date: January 24, 2017 Time: 12:00pm
Location: Dirac Starbucks

Today I had the opportunity to dive deeper into discussions about country and culture with my new conversation partner. What I found most interesting about our conversation had more to do with our similarities rather than our differences. Although Korea and America are different in language, self discipline, and educational values, it seems that we still can relate through political disappointment. It should be noted that I am oversimplifying our discourse for the purpose of this assignment. But, from what I gathered of our session the conversation seemed to point to the idea that both Koreans and Americans are dissatisfied with their elected national leaders.

Korea is currently undergoing the impeachment process for its first woman president due to a university scandal of some sort. And many Americans are dissatisfied with president Trump's stance, and the electoral college's weight in this year's election. Either way, it seems that both countries can relate with one another in that the people being governed want economic progress, ethical leaders, and fair representation.

Our conversation got carried away very quickly. However, it was quite insightful. I also learned that the Korean language often has two translations of the same words due to China's influence during their reign over Korea. The Chinese translation is often thought to be more formal as it was only used by those of power. She gave me an example by teaching me how to say nice to meet you. Formally, one would say anya ashmica. Informally, one would say anya aseo. Although I tried hard to listen to how she pronounced the words, I hope that I haven't butchered the language too much during the transcription process.

Sabrina Debrard CO#1

I went to observe Mr. Flemming's Listening class (level 3A) on Thursday, and it was quite an interesting class because they were reviewing and practicing slang terms. Mr. Flemming brought a lot of energy to the class which was important to note, I was curious as to how a listening class would be handled because often times students (in language classes that I have been in and discussed with friends) find listening the least interesting. Mr. Flemming made sure that each student was focused on the audio recording and following along in their notes, then he reviewed the recording and replayed it. The students then discussed the words and concepts presented in the listening track, matching them in their workbooks. Mr. Flemming then added his own slang words (the book and audio was from 2004, which had pretty dated slang) and asked me for extra help in explaining the usage for some of these new words (such as 'goals' and 'lit'). It was evident how much Mr. Flemming tried to make the class interactive with both the listening portion and the discussion portion, and I'm glad I got to see a model of how a listening class could work.

Simon Kennell TS #3

Today I met with my adult tutee for our third session. Although he was making some of the same grammar mistakes that he was having trouble with during the past two sessions, he was able to correct himself much quicker. We went over present continuous form again and started to identify some of the incorrect patterns that he had been displaying previously. Ima seems to have trouble slowing down and implementing words such as am, is, are, and several other small words that complete simple sentences. While he has no problem correctly filling out a grammar sheet regarding these principles, his issues tend to arise more when speaking. I am working on finding some exercises that can be used to work on this issue.

Justin Stevenson CO #1

On January 11th at 2 PM, I observed professor Kim's level 3 listening class. Prof. Kim used the Lecture Ready 3 textbook to teach Schema theory; listening; and note-taking, finishing with a discussion and a quiz. The teacher broke the class down into three periods: 25 minutes of building schema activities, a 10-minute lecture, and 15 minutes for comprehension questions. The teacher began the class by introducing schema theory, pausing to question the students' understanding of the topic, and to answer any questions. The class then worked in groups, using the text, to decide what they felt was most important when buying products; furthermore, they read an article about the effect the brain has on such decisions (i.e., do people typically make rational choices when buying products or not?) A tie-in video of the key concept of the day's lesson (schema theory) was then presented--a woman giving a speech about the interplay between our emotions and decision-making; the class took notes while listening and summarized its content. The class ended with a 15-question quiz on what was covered. The class's atmosphere was very relaxed, perhaps owing to the small class size. Students seemed comfortable answering questions aloud, and were provided with many follow-up questions to their answers (e.g., "why do you think brand names are important when purchasing items?").

Jack Buck CO#2

On Monday at 11AM, I observed Angel Rios' class. Before the class began, Angel warned me that the class would only be reading from the book that day, but he would try to get some discussion in beforehand. Angel began the class through friendly conversation by asking what everyone did over the weekend. Being an advanced class, I noticed that most of the students were older than the previous class I had observed. All of the students were extremely attentive and focused on Angel at all times. Nevertheless, the class atmosphere was relaxed and pleasant. After introductions, Angel began a discussion of the previous chapter. Here, the students reflected on what they had read last week and gave opinions regarding the material. Finally, Angel Rios played the audio book whilst the students read along. I feel like I personally would have had the students read, as I did notice a couple of students get distracted by things in the room, or some would start day-dreaming.

Daniel Bell TS#2

Date: January 23, 2017
Time: 7PM
Location: Starbucks
Topic: Pronouns


Today, as I plan to start each session, we started with reviewing Sultan's homework. Being in the foundations class, a lot of the problems that Ms. Leslie had rated on his worksheets revolved around Sultan's difficulty understanding pronouns. Out of that, I helped him with his homework sheets, and then came up with some impromptu activities that all revolved around the correct understanding of correct pronoun usage. Examples included when to his he/she, him/her, and his/hers. Over the course of the lesson, Sultan started to understand and apply the concepts of the lesson with much greater ease. However, the session helped to inform me about the level of proficiency that Sultan is at and how I have to especially conscious of that in future lessons.

Sabrina Debrard CP#1

I met my conversation partner Eunyoung last Wednesday evening (01/18/2017) at the Starbucks on campus! We started off just with a little bit of small talk, about the weather and our food. We started talking about how she liked Tallahassee, and then we got to talking about the differences between Tallahassee and Korea and New York, which was quite interesting. We talked about different culture shocks we've experienced (I talked about my experiences as the daughter of Haitian immigrants, and she talked about the differences between Korean and American life). We eventually started talking about our hobbies and she talked about different movies and songs, and that's when we got onto talking about movies and art! I mentioned that I've been really into movies lately and she talked to me about one of the Fast & Furious movies she saw recently. She also mentioned that she liked to paint, which is something that I have always wanted to try out so we have made plans to look up painting classes on campus. I also mentioned that we could see a movie together and talk about it afterwards. Even though it was really fun talking to Eunyoung conversation topics did dry up at some points, so I think next time we should actually have an activity to talk about, or maybe play 20 questions with each other. I'm looking forward to seeing her again though!

Nunez - CP #2

I had a pretty rough week, so I asked Naty if she wanted to go shopping with me on Saturday (January 21). I introduced her to the term "retail therapy." She was pretty excited to go to the mall since she hasn't been able to explore Tallahassee as much as she would like to. We talked about many things and by the end of the day she had written down about a page of new vocabulary words. I enjoyed hearing about the shopping scene in Morocco and Burkina Faso, where apparently you can get some beautiful clothes and scarves for a fraction of the price you'd pay here. Naty seemed to enjoy learning clothing terms like "crop top" and "jumpsuit." Fortunately I was able to use some of my French to help her understand the difference between "too much/many" and "a lot." I'm impressed by how fast her comprehension is improving.

Nunez - TS #2

On Friday, January 20th Saad and I went to International Coffee Hour at the Globe. Unfortunately, the food ran out before we got through the line and the music was too loud to hear each other. So we walked over to find a table by Chick-fil-A. Earlier that afternoon, I printed out a short article with questions to discuss and included definitions (with sentences) of  vocabulary that I thought he would be unfamiliar with. We never got around to that part, so I let him carry the papers home and look them over for next time. We spent most of the tutoring session going over pronouns. I tried to explain them to him as best I could and we went through some exercises. I think I was able to help him understand them somewhat, but he was still confused after about an hour. I promised him that I would find some helpful exercises/resources and practice more with him during our next session. 

Aileen CP#2

  So today my conversation partner Supin and I ventured to try Voodoo Dog after having established our love for cheese during the first meeting. As we walked the way to my car from Hecht House we talked about what we had done over the weekend. He knew I was going down to South Florida for a doctors appointment and concert. I told him about my post ophthalmologist procedure that resulted in me wearing sunglasses for the next week so I made sure he wasn't weirded out over why I was wearing sunglasses indoor at the restaurant. He mentioned wanting to visit Miami Beach sometime before he went back home to Korea and I said that since I'm planning on going back again in two weeks I'd try and bring him back a souvenir.

  As we had gotten our awesome Macaroni and Cheese Hot Dogs (otherwise known as 'The Jefferson') Supin asked me what "xD" meant and I was completely thrown off as how to explain it without using my eyes. I ended up just looking up smileys on google and showing him pictures that captured it the best. I then went on to ask him if they had anything similar in Korea and he mentioned they use a messaging service called "KakaoTalk" which has tons of stickers one can download (similar to our version of Facebook messaging). I nodded in understanding as I mentioned that when I was in Japan I used something similar called LINE and showed him the app with all the quirky stickers one could use at their disposal.

  Other than that the last activity we did was the one sent in the email as we were eating. Supin taught me how to introduce myself as well as how to say thank you in Korean and since he already knew the English equivalent I taught him how to do the same in Spanish and Japanese. We talked a bit about how the formal/informal in Japanese and Korean parallel each other and he found it fascinating that I could speak three languages.

Daniel Bell - CP#2

Date/Time: January 22^nd, 3PM

Location: Starbucks

Topic discussed: America and Kuwait

Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Ghaleb loves America. More than that, he loves FSU. He has travelled extensively and has seen more of the USA than me! It’s extremely moving, in this political time, to see someone of Ghaleb’s background express such a pure love for the best of what this country can represent. His example has inspired me to be a better American, and I am grateful for his friendship.

Rachael TS #1

My initial tutoring session on Friday, 1/20 with Da-som went very well! We met in the basement of the CIES building, and warmed up with some hot tea as we got to know each other. She said that the skills she wants to improve on most are speaking and listening. I had her give a 5 minute writing sample, just asking for something she did this past weekend. She wrote a few sentences about going to Lake Ella with some friends. I didn't want to harp too much on the grammar initially, my focus was to get her to produce more speech. I asked some guiding questions to help her fill in the details that were missing/could have been elaborated on in her response. She was nervous at first, but when she actually started producing more speech than she thought she could, she seemed pleased with herself. The next activity I made up on the spot: I read a portion of the classic children's tale, "The Gingerbread Man," aloud to test her listening skills. I had her write down words she did not recognize, and then I would give her the meaning. This often included me "skipping" around the basement, or otherwise using movement to teach meaning. Afterwards, I asked her to come up with some sentences using those new words she just learned. We finished that exercise with her summarizing the story. I noticed that she had some trouble with the "Q" sound, so we pronounced some words like "squirrel, squabble, squid, etc." We ended with her summarizing a classic South Korean children's tale, and while at first she didn't think she could, she managed to get through and was proud of it.

For the next meeting, some exercise/ideas I have planned include:

• Having her watch a clip from a sit-com, take notes, and then discuss what happened.
• Ask what is going to happen next!
• Bring an error sheet so when I correct her, she can write down the mistake, and the correction.
• Present vocabulary worksheet on science subjects (she is interested in science!)
• Ask questions such as "In which areas do you wish scientists would spend more time and money?, Which big scientific developments do you hope to see in your lifetime?, What dangers could arise from scientific developments?" 
• Make a suggestion for a weekly science podcast.

I'm looking forward to the next session where I will hopefully be both more organized and more effective.

Rachael CP # 1

I had a lovely experience with my conversation partner, Aeyil last Thursday (1/19). I was a bit nervous meeting up with her at first, and I sensed her nervousness as well. We met in the Oglesby Student Union, grabbed lunch and headed to the outdoor seating area. I used some basic ice-breakers, like asking about South Korea, why she is here, and what she likes about Tallahassee. The walls started coming down, and we even discussed pretty abstract topics such as Women's Rights in South Korea vs. the U.S. and the effects of the U.S. military presence in South Korea. Aeyil spoke at an advanced level, and I was so impressed. She has a very good command of the English language, and I believe that the most correction I will be able to offer her is perhaps word choice suggestions and the occasional grammar correction. Aeyil is a very interesting woman, and I believe, based on her life experiences and keen insight, that I will be learning more from her than she will be from me. My first CP meeting couldn't have gone better and was very affirming that I have chosen the right field!

Some things I might do differently next time include:

• Have a prepared list of guiding questions. I'm thinking about using one of those websites with lists that you would ask on a date! 
• Planning a specific activity, such as bowling or pottery painting, rather than just sitting down and chatting. 

I can't wait until the next meeting with Aeyil.

Daniel Bell - CO#2

Date/Time: January 19^th, 1:00-1:50PM

Topic/Skill: Speaking, Foundations

Teacher Presentation: Ms. Leslie, due to the nature of her charge, as a very hands on style with her students. She opened the class by reviewing the vocabulary words for the day, and did most of the talking in the initial part of the class. She was extremely professional and well-put together.

Classroom Management: As I said, her ethic leading up to the main activity was extremely hands-on. This was to be build support for her students and to establish how the class was going to go. Once the activity came, however, -- a bingo style game in which students got up and interviewed one another quickly – worked really well.

Materials: She had her PPT and then the Bingo handouts. She also used the CIES Picture dictionary.

Student Participation: The students all really liked the activity and were engaged in the lesson. Ms. Leslie did a good job of bringing new voices in and new everyone by name.

Feedback Provided: After the main activity, she brought everyone in and had students put forward their answers. She used this as an opportunity to correct mistakes and connect them to the lesson.

Lesson(s) on teaching you learned: Through Ms. Leslie, I learned the value of having a connection with your students, as well as the importance of a robust, developed lesson plan.

Laura Buice CO#3

January 19th
11am -11:50am
Reading Class 3A
Olivia James

Professor Olivia began class immediately at 11:00 A.M. She took attendance later after she had gotten the students started on their activity. She wrote down the plan for today's class on the white board with check boxes so students could see what needed to be done and what had been finished. She knew all of the students names, but did give them pieces of paper with their names on them to sit on the desks. She used two different colors so she would be able to tell which students have a better productive abilities and which students have better receptive abilities.

She used the whiteboard to draw pictures to illustrate definitions, and she pulled up videos on youtube to help students visualize things from the reading. She also uses kindle for the readings and whispersync so students can hear the stories and follow along. Students were encouraged to use their phones and computers to help them with vocabulary definitions.

Students were divided into groups and worked well together. They needed very little help from Professor Olivia, but she was walking around the room during the activity. Students were very focused and completed the activity. They were preparing for a test, so they did more productive work than receptive. They read various paragraphs, and wrote sentences using the new vocabulary.

Professor Olivia reviewed their sentences, but didn't collect anything during that class. She didn't use any handouts during that lesson, simply relied on the book.

This class varied from both level 4A and 2A. Level 4A was very student led, they were expected to complete the activity on their own without much help. Level 2A was more teacher led, but students were able to work together on activities. In level 3A, students worked together, but it was more self led. There was not as much help needed from the teacher. Again all of the class time was focused on activities and there was little need for lecture. While overall, the classes were different from what I expected, it was interesting to see how each level handled the same topic. It was interesting to see how they differed from each other and how they were similar. This will help me as I write lesson plans, I'll be able to more accurately assess the difficulty level and what is required for each level.

Laura Buice CO#2

January 18th
11am -11:50am
Reading Class 4A
Angel Rios

Roll call happened before the class began, so when 11:00 a.m. rolled around, they were able to start the lesson immediately. They started with an activity, a timed reading. Professor Angel explained how the activity worked, answered any questions, introduced me and then they began. This was the advanced reading class, so the students were very self sufficient.

The students were very focused and intent on their work. Professor Angel did know all of their names. There wasn't a lot of discussion, so there wasn't an opportunity for students to dominate the discussion. However, the professor was aware of the students and when three had finished and he gave them another activity to do. He walked around a little and was available for questions.

He used a timer on the projector, so the students knew how long their reading took as well as handouts and the white board for instructions.

Professor Angel collects the handouts, and on other days has homework assignments that are turned in. Class time is used for activity and discussion, there is a clear beginning and end. But there isn't much need for lecture.

This was a lot different from level 2A. It was more intense, and the readings were harder and longer. There is less time allowed for the reading and less discussion or work in partners during an intensive reading. There are a lot of similarities, they do some of the same activities and the questions are labeled so students are aware of what type of answer is required. Both of the teachers did far less lecture than I had imagined and anticipated, especially for my lesson plan. I need to allow for more student led activities. I know these classes are reading classes and will require different things than a grammar or writing class but it was interesting to see the communicative teaching style put in action. It was very different from my classes at FSU and it is easy to see these differences.

Jack Buck CP#1

I met with Xueying Liu on Friday at 2:30pm for our first conversation partner meeting. Xueying's speaking skills are really good, and we talked about a wide-ranging number of topics. Xueying told me about her hometown near Harbin, China, which is one of the coldest places in China. I also told her about my hometown in England. We also talked about plans after university and I mentioned that I wanted to go to China. She mentioned how her mum always tells her that the smog in China is particularly bad right now (especially during the winter). I told her that England used to have the same problem back in the 1950's. All in all, we got to really know each other well. We agreed to meet next week by going to a Thai restaurant (she told me she loves Thai food).

Ansley CP #2

I met with my second conversation partner at Starbucks Tuesday afternoon.  He is from Saudi Arabia.  He mentioned his dad had attended CIES many years ago.  He was very impressed with his father's English and wanted to also speak English.  He is living in an apartment but his father stayed with a Tallahassee family when he studied at CIES.  I was wondering if that is still an option for CIES students.  This partner seemed excited to engage with Americans as much as possible and acknowledged that speaking only with Arabic speakers was an inhibitor to learning English while he was here.  I look forward to meeting again with my conversation partner and inviting him to events with more native-English speakers.  

Julia Smith TS #1

On January 19, I met with Dojun Kim for our first tutoring session. We will have all of our sessions over Skype, since he is living in South Korea. We had the session at 9:00 am Tallahassee time, which was 11:00 pm for Dojun, but he was very helpful in scheduling the time with the time difference. I used the session mostly to measure Dojun's English level, and I used some of the suggested questions from the Tutoring Session handout. I had prepared a few activities in advance in case we had extra time, but we had plenty to talk about during our session. I asked Dojun which aspect of his English that he wanted to most improve, and he told me that he wanted to enhance his listening skills, and also expand his vocabulary. Because of the decreased sound quality over Skype, it will be a challenge to incorporate listening components, but I have been researching additional resources online for listening activities. I expect vocabulary to be easier to include in the lessons, but I anticipate the main challenge to be in the selection of vocabulary words to teach. Meeting with Dojun was a delight as he seems eager to learn more English, and I look forward to the opportunity to work with him.

Daniel Bell - CO#1

Date/Time: January 18, 1:00-1:50PM

Topic/Skill: Speaking, level 4

Teacher Presentation: Ms. Ciapetta’s presentation was remarkably restrained. Because of the level of student she was working with, she did not have to a whole lot. The main emphasis of her involvement was shaping debate and reminding the class of an impending assignment. Other than that, she introduced a prompt that helped start debate, and that was it.

Classroom Management: Again, Ms. Ciapetta served more as an arbiter. She let her students speak, stepping in only to correct errors and focus discussion.

Materials: The only materials she used were handouts for the assignment.

Student Participation: The students responded to her restrained approach quite well. They talked a lot and engaged with each other.

Feedback Provided: As students spoke – in this case a debate about v-chips – she would correct their mistakes as necessary.

Lesson(s) on teaching you learned: I learned that it is important to let your students breath. Ms. Ciapetta embodied the student-centered approach to teaching, which worked extremely well.

Simon Kennell CP #1

Today I had my first meeting with my conversation partner. Jatin is from India and has recently finished his MS at FSU. We spent 2 hours speaking at the Student Union about several different cultural aspects of both Indian and American culture. While it was interesting to explain certain parts of American culture to Jatin, it was even more interesting for me to ask questions relating to his native India. Getting into an in depth conversation with someone you have just met and truly learning new things is an extremely gratifying and exciting experience. We are planning to meet up again soon and possibly try out a few different activities. If anyone else has a CP and wants to meet up with other groups, let me know! It might be cool to have several groups meet up to try new things together in Tallahassee.

Joelle CP#1

Today I met with Eun-Young for our first Conversation Partner meeting. We walked over to Landis and discussed our differences and similarities in our cultural backgrounds and I asked her what she liked to do, what foods she liked to eat, what she did in her academic life, etc for an hour. I think that the conversation was very beneficial for her english-speaking skills and she was able to ask me questions about American schools and pop culture. She's actually in a similar field of study as me, so we were able to connect about the similarities in our academia.

Joelle CO#3

Yesterday I observed the class Listening, Group 4A with Andrew Wilson. I was very surprised at how advanced the English knowledge of the students was. They were able to understand English at the level that I understand, and even more! The subjects they were learning were applicable to a typical college course load. They would study English through subjects such as Psychology, Environmental Science, History, Literature, and Economics. The advanced language of the words was at the level of an American college student. For example, the words loquacious and aesthetic were used in the materials the students were studying.
Mr. Wilson started the class out with writing a 'word of the day' and showed videos of various academic topics. He started out with a history video about a factory fire in the industrial era. He had the students write down the main ideas, and how it was a major event in history. He also showed a video on the art museum, the Guggenheim. He made the students write down notes and answer questions about the video.
These exercises helped the students to speak quickly and write quickly in English, as well as be able to think about difficult academic topics only in English. Overall, he was a good teacher and the lesson was definitely beneficial to the student's success in CIES.

Kailon TS #4

During the second tutoring session that I had today with Amaury, the subject of the conversation varied greatly. We compared and contrasted the culture in Burkina Faso to the culture in America. Amaury seemed to understand the fact that I am from the United states, however, I don't think that he really considered me to be "American", so to speak. So, I explained to him that America has several cultures within itself, and that there is not really just one whole "American culture", as there may be in Burkina Faso. So, I told him that I am Black American, or African-American. Next, he proceeded to ask me if Black Americans wore traditional clothing like the people in Burkina Faso did. I told him that sometimes Black Americans wear "dashikis" in appreciation of West African culture, but due to the nature of America's history, you would hardly see Black Americans wearing any form of culturally appropriate traditional apparel. Next, we proceeded to converse about our future goals and our parents' occupations. I told him that I wanted to work with immigrants and advocate for their rights, and that my major is International Affairs with a minor in Social Work. He told me that after learning English at CIES, he would like to study agriculture and medicine in order to return back to Burkina Faso and work at his mother's agricultural business as an "inspector" (I believe this is what he meant). He also told me that his father is a professor at a university. He also told me that back in Burkina Faso, his family has a maid that comes to cook and clean for them every day. after getting over my shock about the maid, I explained to him that my mother is a medical coder. The purpose of the second session was to not only learn about cultural differences, but for me to also ask him to explain more about certain topics. I noticed that if he didn't know the English equivalent of a word that he was familiar with in French, he would give up on saying what he wanted to say. However, I informed him that "there is more than one way to skin a cat"; so, if he didn't know how to say a particular word in English, I would ask him to use other words to describe it so that I could understand the meaning of what he wanted to say. Overall, our two tutoring sessions were very productive today, and I look forward to our next two sessions next Friday.

Kailon TS #3

Today, I met with my second tutee named Amaury Toure. Due to the conflict in our schedules, we meet for 2 hours ( 2 tutoring sessions) every Friday at 12:30 pm. I actually met Amaury prior to our tutoring session in the class that I was observing today. Amaury is from Burkina Faso, and his first language is French. While speaking with him, I noticed that he is very shy and is afraid to make mistakes. I told him that he does not need to worry because not only is his English better than my French, but the purpose of the tutoring session is for me to help him improve in regards to fluency. During the first session, we gave each other an introduction and talked about our background history. While he spoke, I noted that he needs help with pronunciation and subject-verb agreement at times. However, I could understand him well. Most of what he told me was very logical, so, I was able to fill in the blanks for certain words that he was unfamiliar with in English. The first session actually went rather smoothly.

Kailon CO #3

Today, I had my final classroom observation. I observed Mr. Wilson's Speaking 1A class from 10:50 am to 12:30 pm. Surprisingly enough, both of my tutees (Amaury and Larissa) were in the class that I observed today. I enjoyed the fact that the teacher was enthusiastic about teaching and paid attention to the students' needs. First, the teacher started by doing a "warm-up" exercise about idioms and expressions. The teacher also let me be involved in the process by giving me green sticks with every student's name on it. Every time the teacher would ask a question in class, I would pull a green stick and say the student's name aloud so that they could answer the questions. After the "warm-up", everyone went to the lab to do a recorded speaking exercise on the computer. After returning to the classroom, the students took a quiz that included: matching, correcting grammatical errors in sentences, identifying regular versus irregular verbs, and writing the definitions of certain idioms that the teacher previously taught. After the quiz, the teacher played a movie clip from "Mr. Bean" in which the students could understand what it means to cheat and plagiarize work. After the movie clip, the students got into groups of two and had a rhyming "contest". Overall, this was my favorite class. I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Wilson's teaching methods.

Ansley TS #1

I met with my tutee at Starbucks from 7pm-8pm this Thursday.  I asked the tutee before the meeting if he had something specific he would like to cover.  He asked to work on his speaking ability.  We introduced ourselves and talked briefly so I could assess his ability.  He told me he had a presentation in his speaking class he would like to practice with me.  During the practice I noticed he was struggling with prepositions.  In order to correct his usage of prepositions we first reviewed the usage of "in" vs. "at" vs. "on" etc.  Next we wrote sentences from the presentation involving those prepositions.  I tried to emphasize how using a different preposition could make grammatical sense but it would change the meaning.  In the next session I would like to review prepositions and move forward to correct use of the simple present.  I also noticed during his presentation the present continuous and simple present were used inconsistently.    

Michelle CO#3

Date/Time: January 19, 2017

Topic/Skill: Angel's group 3, speaking class

This afternoon I observed Mr. Angel's speaking class. He started class by playing music as he performed roll call. Afterwards, he segued into a review of prior knowledge on how to participate in group discussions. He asked the students to name a few polite ways to interject their opinions, to disagree with others, and to moderate discussion. After the review, he provided students with a starter discussion about banning homework at CIES. This activity lasted ten minutes. Then he assigned students another ten minute discussion on a more controversial topic regarding gay marriage.  

Mr. Angel assessed the students the entire class time. Students were given a recording device to record their conversations throughout. Additionally, Mr. Angel went around listening to the conversations and taking notes on simple grammar and discussion etiquette. What I thought was most interesting and helpful for students, was how Mr. Angel provided feedback. After each discussion he noted both positive and negative speaking observations. He would begin by critiquing general mistakes such as avoiding fillers, making sure that outside sources were questioned, and correcting common grammar errors. Then he would be more specific by giving student specific feedback on pronunciation. Overall, Mr. Angel's class seemed to exhibit an ideal class environment. He found a balance in evaluating students and still lowering their affective filters.