Today (2/28), I had a breakthrough with my 4-year old Korean tutee, Matthew. My goals were 1) to get him to speak in complete sentences (he was previously only doing 1-2 word sentences) and 2) to make the lesson as fun as possible. I printed out some Guess Who sheets out, then stuck them in sheet protectors to make dry-erase game boards. He was very shy at the beginning, but as soon as I brought up the game he instantly warmed up. My only two rules for the game was that you must speak in complete sentences and that the questions must be yes or no only. I emphasized that they don't have to be perfect and that we're going to correct any mistakes together. I gave two examples, "Does your monster (instead of faces, at first the guess who was with cute monsters) have 2 eyes?," and "Is your monster green?" This was the first time I heard him speak in full sentences. To encourage him, I let him win most of the time. Next, we played another version, with the regular guess who characters. He was encouraged to ask questions that pertain to more normal features of humans (age, hair color, wears glasses/hat, eye color, facial hair, etc). He did a great job and learned some vocabulary along the way. The next activity I had him do involved prepositions (on, in, behind, in front of, next do, under). I had a printout of several pictures of dogs in relation to a doghouse. This was too easy for him, so we went around the basement and did some TPR (sit on the couch, go under the table, stand behind the couch, put the shoe in the drawer). I had him give me instructions too, it really made him laugh when I went under the table! We finished by taking some of the scrabble letters and having him make and sound out small words. It was really successful!!
Next time, I'd like to prepare another fun, active game that gets him speaking. I'm thinking about doing a printout of that one rug we all had as children to talk about different kinds of buildings. It would also be good to start working a little bit on writing, too. I can see he can read a little bit, so we are going to practice having him reading more. Perhaps taking turns between pages.
This tutoring session was particularly encouraging, I'm looking forward to meeting with his mom tomorrow for Conversation Partners!
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Monday, February 27, 2017
Nunez TS #5, 7, 9
2/03/2017, Friday at 7:00 - 8:00 PM
Diagnostics
I was nervous about my first tutoring session with Rebecca, but it turned out much better than I expected. After introducing myself to her and her family, we sat down and I tried to gauge how much she already knew. She knows the alphabet and how to write, but she can't produce sentences. She knows very high-frequency words like basic food terms, animals, "boy, girl, man, woman," etc. She had difficulty responding to the questions I asked her, but I think it was partly because she was shy.
2/10/2017, Friday at 7:00 - 9:00 PM
Body parts, feelings, colors
I had a feeling that Rebecca's brothers and sisters would want to join this time, so I brought enough colored pencils and printed some fruit coloring worksheets. We went over the color of each pencil and identified the fruits. Then we wrote down the term and what color it should be. For example, I pointed to the apple and asked "what fruit is this?" and "what color is an apple?" Then I gestured to the colored pencils and asked them to pick the red ones to color the fruit. They seemed to like the coloring exercise so I might do that again as a way to keep the younger kids engaged while I try to focus on Rebecca.
The primary focus of the session was teaching body parts. First I pointed to the parts of my body to see if they knew the words. I had Rebecca and her siblings mimic my words and movements as I gestured to my nose, head, eyes, arms, etc. I printed an animated character and asked Rebecca to label the body parts accordingly. I wrote the words on sticky notes and had the kids attach them to me or each other, kind of like the human version of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey.
2/17/2017, Friday at 7:00 - 8:30 PM
Family & days of the week
I showed Rebecca and her siblings pictures of my family and described how each person was related to me. I asked Rebecca to tell me how everyone in the room was related to her as I gestured to each person. Then I had her do some matching worksheets (ex. draw a line from the picture of the mother holding her baby to the word "mother.")
I asked the kids if they knew their days of the week. They had a good start until they got to Thursday, which they find difficult to pronounce. I listed the days of the week on my whiteboard and after I erased a day I asked them which one was missing. I had Rebecca write in the missing days herself so that she could work on her writing & spelling. We did this until I had erased each day at least once. We did some more exercises on paper and I concluded by reviewing the family terms and the body parts from last time.
Diagnostics
I was nervous about my first tutoring session with Rebecca, but it turned out much better than I expected. After introducing myself to her and her family, we sat down and I tried to gauge how much she already knew. She knows the alphabet and how to write, but she can't produce sentences. She knows very high-frequency words like basic food terms, animals, "boy, girl, man, woman," etc. She had difficulty responding to the questions I asked her, but I think it was partly because she was shy.
2/10/2017, Friday at 7:00 - 9:00 PM
Body parts, feelings, colors
I had a feeling that Rebecca's brothers and sisters would want to join this time, so I brought enough colored pencils and printed some fruit coloring worksheets. We went over the color of each pencil and identified the fruits. Then we wrote down the term and what color it should be. For example, I pointed to the apple and asked "what fruit is this?" and "what color is an apple?" Then I gestured to the colored pencils and asked them to pick the red ones to color the fruit. They seemed to like the coloring exercise so I might do that again as a way to keep the younger kids engaged while I try to focus on Rebecca.
The primary focus of the session was teaching body parts. First I pointed to the parts of my body to see if they knew the words. I had Rebecca and her siblings mimic my words and movements as I gestured to my nose, head, eyes, arms, etc. I printed an animated character and asked Rebecca to label the body parts accordingly. I wrote the words on sticky notes and had the kids attach them to me or each other, kind of like the human version of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey.
2/17/2017, Friday at 7:00 - 8:30 PM
Family & days of the week
I showed Rebecca and her siblings pictures of my family and described how each person was related to me. I asked Rebecca to tell me how everyone in the room was related to her as I gestured to each person. Then I had her do some matching worksheets (ex. draw a line from the picture of the mother holding her baby to the word "mother.")
I asked the kids if they knew their days of the week. They had a good start until they got to Thursday, which they find difficult to pronounce. I listed the days of the week on my whiteboard and after I erased a day I asked them which one was missing. I had Rebecca write in the missing days herself so that she could work on her writing & spelling. We did this until I had erased each day at least once. We did some more exercises on paper and I concluded by reviewing the family terms and the body parts from last time.
Daniel Bell TS#13
Date/Time: February 27th, 5PM
Location: Elia’s House
Topic/Skill: Reading
Feedback provided to tutee: Today, I prepared a short
story about Mardi Gras to help with Elia’s reading comprehension. Considering
that Ash Wednesday is this Wednesday, along with the cultural lesson of Mardi Gras,
I figured it was apt. To test comprehension, I brought a set of question from
the source I took the story, along with a list of vocabulary.
Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:
I learned that I, once again, misjudged Elia’s reading level. The story I
selected was a smidge too difficult, and we barely got through it. Again, he
could read the words, but struggled with comprehending the meaning. I tried to
used online pictures as best I could to show scenes of the Mardi Gras parade,
but it was little use. Next time, I will be even more conscious of this.
Jack Buck TS#13
I met with PJ on Friday, February 24th at 7:30pm. In this session, we continued reading the book, Hatchet. I noticed that PJ didn't have as much trouble staying focused as he had three weeks prior, so I realized that the time and day which you tutor/teach someone is extremely important. I asked PJ how he did on his homework assignment that we worked on in our last session, and he said it was okay. In this session, we completed three chapters.
Bob TS#12
Date/Time: 27-Feb-2017 / 9 AM
Location: Skype
Listening
Today's listening article was Hopes Rise for Hawaiian Monk Seals. Normal listening lesson procedure = read article slowly, cover vocabulary, read article again, slowly. Read again at faster tempo. Discuss. Ask comprehension questions. I'm running out of stuff to say about this process! From this point on 2T & I will be working on his resume and cover letter. These will be writing exercises geared toward a practical use. The expected outcome is 2T's production of an acceptable resume and cover letter for submission to prospective English speaking employers.
Sunday, February 26, 2017
Rachael TS # 10 & 11
On Wednesday evening, I went with Alyssa to tutor a refugee family from Tanzania. I had trouble getting in touch with the original family, and Alyssa had mentioned that there were 12 children there the last time and could use some help. There were only 7 or 8 this time, but that still felt like a lot! We began with my introduction, since they hadn't met me before. This was also a great opportunity to refresh on their introduction skills, such as "Hello, nice to meet you" and introduce themselves with their names and ages. We had prepared a lesson on farm animals and farms, with a powerpoint. We began the lesson by getting on the floor, getting silly, and acting out the animals. The kids were rather shy to do this, so we moved on. Next, we went to the powerpoint which had individual pictures of farm animals. We would go over the qualities of these animals such as what color they are, how many legs they have, if they have feathers or fur, and what sound they make. Next we talked about the farm itself, with things such as how there is a farmer, there is lots of grass, the animals live on a bard, and the farmer grows fruits and vegetables. The 3 year old was definitely the quickest! We then sang Old McDonald, and used the knowledge that they had learned about the animals to sing the song. Alyssa had worked on "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" with them previously, so we decided to review it. After we sang the song, I taught more body parts and did some more TPR with them. It was a lot of fun! Towards the end, someone (I believe from the Refugee center) came in to work the the mother, and she observed us for the last bit of our practice. They were a very kind family, and I am very much looking forward to the next time I get to work with them.
Alyssa and I decided that next time, we would talk about either clothing or the morning routine!
Alyssa and I decided that next time, we would talk about either clothing or the morning routine!
Rachael TS # 8&9
On Wednesday, (2/22), I met again with Da-som, but this time for 2 hours! For the first half hour, we worked on correcting a summary of an email from the FSU president regarding President Trump's new immigration policy. She had great ideas, but several grammar mistakes, and some things were generally unclear. As I learned, you don't want to correct students outright. Instead, you want to give them hints and help them learn to self correct. We went through it paragraph by paragraph, and I would circle the areas that need attention. She made some systematic verb tense errors, left out articles where needed, and needed to add the occasional preposition. What I should have done was help her correct the first one, and then have her check the rest of the summary to see if she could find another area where that mistake was make so she could self-correct. I will do this next time. Anyway, we did that. Another thing that needed attention was helping her differentiate between the US President and the FSU President in her writing. Other than that, she adeptly summarized the main ideas of the email.
I decided to give her a test run of the Mardi Gras lesson I had planned for my student teaching the following day. To build schema, I went over some vocabulary such as "parade, costume, and masquerade." She knew the meaning of most of those words, but we worked together to help her verbally articulate the ideas in English. I then showed a National Geographic video on Mardi Gras. The video is very PG, whereas Mardi Gras itself is absolutely not. I instructed her to take notes on the important ideas! The video went over Floats, Costumes, King Cake, Parades, Krewes and Music. She understood most of it, as evidenced by a short verbal quiz I gave her with diverse types of comprehension questions. Next I gave her a worksheet with a reading on Mardi Gras, broken up with blanks above each paragraph. Her task was to read the paragraph, and then come up with a short title for the paragraph. I modeled the first paragraph, and she understood the task. She struggled a little bit, but did well! The next task was to use context clues to define words I had underlined, such as "hallmark" and "stunning." Getting through the whole Mardi Gras lesson took an hour and a half, but she seemed to have fun doing it!
It was a challenging lesson, but she got through it!!
I decided to give her a test run of the Mardi Gras lesson I had planned for my student teaching the following day. To build schema, I went over some vocabulary such as "parade, costume, and masquerade." She knew the meaning of most of those words, but we worked together to help her verbally articulate the ideas in English. I then showed a National Geographic video on Mardi Gras. The video is very PG, whereas Mardi Gras itself is absolutely not. I instructed her to take notes on the important ideas! The video went over Floats, Costumes, King Cake, Parades, Krewes and Music. She understood most of it, as evidenced by a short verbal quiz I gave her with diverse types of comprehension questions. Next I gave her a worksheet with a reading on Mardi Gras, broken up with blanks above each paragraph. Her task was to read the paragraph, and then come up with a short title for the paragraph. I modeled the first paragraph, and she understood the task. She struggled a little bit, but did well! The next task was to use context clues to define words I had underlined, such as "hallmark" and "stunning." Getting through the whole Mardi Gras lesson took an hour and a half, but she seemed to have fun doing it!
It was a challenging lesson, but she got through it!!
Rachael TS# 7
On Tuesday (2/21), I met again with Aeyil's son Matthew. I had made a document with the word cards for him to make sentences with again, but I had difficulty printing! We started just by looking at some pictures of Frogs in a national geographic kids book. We described them using full sentences, and I was so proud! It was a challenge to keep him focused that afternoon, so I decided to do something active and fun instead. When I asked him a question, such as "Can you touch something white?" he had to respond to me in a full sentence, like "Yes I can touch something white" before going to do it. He grew weary of this exercise, too, so I switched it up to Simon Says because he was reluctant to speak. After this, we moseyed back to our seats in the courtyard and read a Moana book together. He already knew all about it, and was super excited to tell me all about it (it spoiled the movie for me, but it's okay because learning happened!). I used the book to teach new vocabulary. I had him draw out some of the words, such as wave, and boat. By the time we finished Moana, Matt was done focusing for the day! I suppose that is the challenge of working with kids! Despite being unfocused, I am proud that he was starting to use more full sentences.
Next week I will DEFINITELY have those cards ready to go.
Next week I will DEFINITELY have those cards ready to go.
Rachael TS#5
On Tuesday, 2/14, shortly after I met with Aeyil, I tutored her 4-year old son, Matt for the first time. He's a delightful young boy, and this meeting was a diagnostic session. The first order of business was getting Matt to warm up to me. I tried to be really smiley and high-energy, and that seemed to work. To see where he was at, I had him name some colors. He did that so easily, so we moved onto animals. He knew those too, but would only speak in one-word sentences. That activity was clearly too easy for him, so my next goal was to get him to speak in full sentences. I would ask him this-or-that questions about the animals. For example, "Are turtles slow or fast?" Or "do turtles live in the ocean or on land?" He knew the answers, and the next task was to string the words he came up with on his own together into a full sentence. Eventually, with each animal we discussed, he could say a whole sentence such as "Turtles are green and slow." He grew weary of that exercise, so next to check his reading comprehension, I read a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle book to him that Aeyil brought for me. I think he was either too shy or too unconfident to read, so I turned the reading into a bit of a TPR exercise. For example, I would point to the word jump and he would act it out. This took up the rest of the hour, but at the end it seemed that Matt really warmed up to me and had fun!
As far as his English language capabilities go, I'm certain that he understands almost everything. He has an incredible receptive vocabulary, but is currently unable/reluctant to efficiently use productive vocabulary. Next time, I plan to have some cards written out for him to make sentences with!
As far as his English language capabilities go, I'm certain that he understands almost everything. He has an incredible receptive vocabulary, but is currently unable/reluctant to efficiently use productive vocabulary. Next time, I plan to have some cards written out for him to make sentences with!
Rachael TS#6
On Wednesday (2/15) I had another tutoring session with Da-som. She had some trouble with the preposition,"to." For example, she had gotten a sentence corrected along the lines of "I don't like eat vegetables." I wrote out some example sentences with "to," but I had some difficulty with the explicit knowledge, not knowing exactly why. I also explained that if she had written, "I don't like eating vegetables," that would have also been correct. Despite me not having explicitly explained why she needed "to" in there, she seemed to understand.
We proceeded with the powerpoint after she seemed more confident with the previous subject matter. I had a few fun things planned! I challenged her with a dictocomp exercise, but first, we did some schema building discussion questions. We started with some vocabulary, such as blind date, and "on someone else (as in someone else is paying)," and then I asked questions like "What would you do if you were on a blind date and someone arrived who you already knew?" I instructed her to take notes on important keywords, in the order that she heard them, of a clip from "The One with the Candy Hearts."After the first viewing, I checked to make sure that she understood what was happening. I tried to slow it down, but youtube will only slow it to half speed, whereas .75 would be a more appropriate speed. She seemed to get the gist, and then we watched it 4 more times so she could fill in the gaps. I should have instructed her to take note of which characters were saying what, but she was able to come up with a relatively complete dialogue. She said it was challenging, but she ultimately was proud of what she had accomplished.
I had a translation activity for her, time didn't allow for it. I wanted to give her a more fun activity, so I gave her my Kiss From A Rose song worksheet, where I printed the lyrics with a few errors hidden inside. She was able to find about 75% of the errors! I really challenged her that session, but she did a fabulous job and I am so proud of the progress she is making.
We proceeded with the powerpoint after she seemed more confident with the previous subject matter. I had a few fun things planned! I challenged her with a dictocomp exercise, but first, we did some schema building discussion questions. We started with some vocabulary, such as blind date, and "on someone else (as in someone else is paying)," and then I asked questions like "What would you do if you were on a blind date and someone arrived who you already knew?" I instructed her to take notes on important keywords, in the order that she heard them, of a clip from "The One with the Candy Hearts."After the first viewing, I checked to make sure that she understood what was happening. I tried to slow it down, but youtube will only slow it to half speed, whereas .75 would be a more appropriate speed. She seemed to get the gist, and then we watched it 4 more times so she could fill in the gaps. I should have instructed her to take note of which characters were saying what, but she was able to come up with a relatively complete dialogue. She said it was challenging, but she ultimately was proud of what she had accomplished.
I had a translation activity for her, time didn't allow for it. I wanted to give her a more fun activity, so I gave her my Kiss From A Rose song worksheet, where I printed the lyrics with a few errors hidden inside. She was able to find about 75% of the errors! I really challenged her that session, but she did a fabulous job and I am so proud of the progress she is making.
Rachael CP # 6
On Tuesday, (2/21) Aeyil and I had a lovely "lady date." We met outside the CIES building and then went to the Spear It restaurant right behind our beloved building. A lot of our discussion revolved around food, cooking, children, pets and formal parties! We discussed how much we both like animals, and I showed her a picture of me in a prom dress with my childhood dog. This got us talking about how in the U.S. we have proms and find excuses to host formal parties all the time! I learned that this sort of culture doesn't exist in South Korea, and the first time she got all dressed up in a gown was at her wedding! We shared pizza and pasta (which was pretty good, I'd recommend the restaurant), but quickly had to wrap up and head to the theatre to see FSU's production of Beauty and the Beast! She was so impressed by the sheer size of the theatre, and particularly that it was a part of a university. Aeyil told me that there isn't really much encouragement of the arts in South Korea in schools, but nevertheless thinks should be and is important for children and young people to have creative outlets. It was a MARVELOUS production!! The actors we spectacular, and the set was incredible. She and I were both impressed with the show's quality. Go see it if you haven't! Aeyil couldn't believe that it was not a professional show! After the show, we parted ways. I love spending time with Aeyil, and although this is technically our last required meeting, I intend to continue meeting with her regularly and continuing this friendship for a long time.
Rachael CP # 5
On Tuesday (2/14), Aeyil and I met for lunch at the Chick-fil-A on campus, though we decided on the neighboring campus restaurant instead. She held down the fort at an outdoor table and we took turns getting food. It was a lovely afternoon full of salad, sharing, and Scrabble! I learned a little more about Korean grammar structure, particularly how the verb always comes at the end of a sentence and how oftentimes a word we'd use as an adjective in English would be used as a verb in Korean! It was super fascinating. As we talked over lunch, we shared with each other what we had planned for Valentine's day. The only beautiful mistakes Aeyil really ever makes are a few word choice or order errors. For example, "I have will have planned nothing for Valentine's Day" doesn't work as well if the day you're speaking about the subject is on Valentine's Day. I showed a the picture of the wine and painting event my beau and I attended the previous night, and we decided that we would go to one together as a future Conversation Partners event. It was simply too windy to stay out there, so we migrated back to CIES. In the basement we found Nora, and we played a game of scrabble. I ended up teaching them some new words, such as "fife" and reign. I tried not to absolutely destroy them so I could be encouraging! Scrabble was a lot of fun, and I would definitely like to play with more international students going forward!
Saturday, February 25, 2017
Bob TS#11
Date/Time: 25-Feb-2017 / 8 PM
Location: Skype
Listening
In prior sessions 2T & I had talked about upcoming holidays / events / celebrations / etc.. He humors my cultural questions, is patient, and does well explaining until I get a grip on it. I had prepared a listening lesson about Mardi Gras. It just so happens that 28-Feb is Fat Tuesday and 1-Mar is the Korean celebration of the beginning of the resistance movement against Japanese occupation. Apparently, on March first - I'm not sure of the year - everybody in Korea went outside and started shouting at once. Thus began the movement for an independent Korea. I'm going to read more about that but I wanted to log what I understood from 2T's explanation and not have it influenced by what my 1st language research turns up.
We executed our standard listening lesson procedure: read article slowly, cover vocabulary (thanks to recent evaluation now using each vocabulary word in an example sentence - how the heck could I have missed something so obvious as that?!?), Read article again, slowly. Read again at faster tempo. Discuss. Ask comprehension questions.
Laissez les bons temps rouler!
Julia Smith TS #13
On February 25, I had my 5th tutoring session with the refugee children from 1:00-2:00. Laura and I were both there, and we reviewed the colors. I realized that the kids remember the words (red, blue, orange etc.) but they do not remember to which color the word corresponds. For this reason, we did a few activities to correlate the word with its meaning. We laid out construction paper in a circle and called out a color and the kids had to run to the corresponding color. This was a fun activity, but made it hard to know whether each kid actually knew the color. We then asked each one individually to name certain colors when they were asked, and they had some difficulty. Oftentimes they would call out random colors until they guessed the correct one, and so Laura and I encouraged them to stop and think before answering. We did the same activities with numbers 10-20. We then spent some time outside and we taught them how to play freeze tag and red light green light.
Julia Smith TS #12
On February 25, I had my 4th tutoring session with the refugee children from 12:00-1:00. Laura and I went together, which I was very glad about because the kids had a lot of energy today. We begun by reviewing number 1-20, and then we introduced them to the different types of coins. We explained and taught the names of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters, and had them place the coin in the appropriate category. We also taught the monetary value of each coin, but when we tried to explain that 5 pennies was a nickel I think it became too difficult. Next, we reviewed some verbs (run, walk, jump, eat, talk, drink, sit and stand) that Laura had taught last week, and we played charades with these verbs. At first, it was difficult to communicate that each person should act out the word instead of reading it aloud, but the older kids began to understand. We also reviewed family relatives and ages, and drew picture of our families.
Julia Smith TS#11
On February 24, I met with my child refugee for our tutoring session. It usually ends up being all of the children who sit and do the activities with the tutors, and I was alone this time. It was a little bit more difficult especially with the baby also in the room, but I was still able to do the activities I had planned. I reviewed the body parts and we sang the "Head, shoulders, knees and toes" song, which the kids really love singing and doing the motions to. I wanted to try a new topic that included high frequency words, and so I decided to teach the different subjects (I, you, he, she, we, they). I had the older brother write the Swahili equivalent next to the English word so that there was no ambiguity in the meaning of the words for the younger kids. I also included the conjugation of 'to be' and taught this with the subjects. The kids copied what I wrote and would repeat after me, but I am not one hundred percent sure that they fully grasp the concept. I plan to review them in the future.
Friday, February 24, 2017
Simon Kennell CP #5
Today I met with Hani for my 5th conversation partner meeting. We met at the Starbucks on Tennessee Street again. Because the session has just ended Hani did not have any homework that he wanted to review. However, we did discuss how he might have done on his tests and where he feels his weaknesses and strengths are. Hani and I have decided to move into more of a tutor/tutee role for the next session. This will help Hsni with his reading and comprehension and it will help me with having a consistent teaching experience with an ESL student. I can already tell an improvement in Hani's speaking and listening, however he definitely is still struggling with reading as we discussed during our session today. I am looking forward to tutoring him this upcoming session. We have planned on meeting next week for the final conversation partner meeting.
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Bob CP#6
Date/Time: 23-Feb-2017 / 7:30 PM
Location: Food Truck Thursday, Midtown
Rendezvoused with my CP, most of the class, and 4 or 5 other CPs, some of whom were familiar from the past weekend's soiree or prior FTTs. I introduced him to Alyssa, who is taking over as his primary CP. It's likely I'll keep in touch socially while we both remain in Tallahassee. He wants to learn some of the night clubs in Midtown. It's something I know a thing or two about. We're getting together for Brunch again Sunday (although I won't be blogging about it) :) As always, we had a comfortable conversation. This was the first time I observed CP in a social situation. His English carried. It's not like I had anything to do with the language acquisition part but I am claiming some of the Atta Boy for his confidence in its use. My CP is a well met man.
Nunez CP #4
Yesterday (2/22/2017) I was supposed to meet Naty at 3:30 PM to play badminton at the park, but the weather thoroughly ruined that plan. Instead, we got some lunch. Last time we hung out Naty told me that she was really craving some good pizza, so we went to Gaines Street Pies. I had never been there but I heard good things about it. We got the chicken BBQ and weren't disappointed at all. We finished an entire medium pizza, and I probably wouldn't have eaten so much if Naty hadn't suggested that we compete to see who could finish their half first. I like talking to Naty because I never have to think too hard about what to say next. She's enthusiastic about learning English and loves when I make suggestions or correct her. She usually catches herself when she makes a mistake. Talking about our siblings back home, falling in love, and why some people are so violent were my favorite parts of the conversation.
Aileen TS#15
I met up with my Skype tutee Monday morning in which he had just come back from a 3 day vacation in Taiwan. So that became the topic for our session: me asking him questions about what he did and enjoyed in Taiwan and him reporting back to me the details. It was quite fascinating to see the extensive knowledge he had about Taiwan, especially concerning the historical relations that Taiwan has with China. I had asked him if this was something he had studied or learned about in his high school classes growing up. Though he said they did provide some background knowledge of their history he said that a lot of the information regarding the Chinese and Taiwanese government, as well as the traditional Chinese treasures, he learned from venturing in the National Palace Museum of Taiwan. Aside from history, we were able to practice comparatives when talking about Taiwan's weather in comparison to his home in Seoul, as well as mine in Florida.
Joelle CP#6
I met with Eunyoung and we talked for a while about our lives and caught up with each other. She told me about her classes and how she was stressed about the upcoming exams and papers. We chatted about culture, food, and friendships for a bit and then discussed social justice. It was a good meeting and Eunyoung was very knowledgeable about issues and different topic. She's very enthusiastic and positive, she's awesome!
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Paula CP#4
Conversation Partner: Bader Alahmad
February 19, 2017
4:30pm-5:30pm
Bob's House
We stayed at the party for a while since my conversation student was enjoying himself and having a good time. He had brought a friend with him, so other people there got a chance to talk to both of them. They talked about his interest, what he was doing, where he was from and he got to make new friends from the people that were in the party. There was also pie which was available for everyone, a very American food. They got to use their english as much as possible. I also learned more from them since we were outside of school and this allowed for the situation to be less formal.
We stayed at the party for a while since my conversation student was enjoying himself and having a good time. He had brought a friend with him, so other people there got a chance to talk to both of them. They talked about his interest, what he was doing, where he was from and he got to make new friends from the people that were in the party. There was also pie which was available for everyone, a very American food. They got to use their english as much as possible. I also learned more from them since we were outside of school and this allowed for the situation to be less formal.
Paula CP #3
Conversation Partner: Bader Alahmad
February 19, 2017
3:30pm-4:30pm
Bob's House
We went to Bob's house because he was having a party. At this party most of the other TEFL students were there with their student conversation partners. We enjoyed music, food and games. One of the games we played was hangman and heads up. This was a good interactive activity because the conversation students were able to participate and use their knowledge of English to figure out words and meanings. This was a good experience for them because they were exposed to an American party on a Sunday, where they were able to get a taste of the American culture and the people.
We went to Bob's house because he was having a party. At this party most of the other TEFL students were there with their student conversation partners. We enjoyed music, food and games. One of the games we played was hangman and heads up. This was a good interactive activity because the conversation students were able to participate and use their knowledge of English to figure out words and meanings. This was a good experience for them because they were exposed to an American party on a Sunday, where they were able to get a taste of the American culture and the people.
Paula TS #16
Adult Tutoring Session: Phong Nguyen
February 21, 2017
3:00pm-4:00pm
School
He really wants to focus on being able to speak English, so instead of grammar we spend most of the time talking. We used his book and the lesson they were covering in class to go over conversation scenarios. I would ask him to tell him what certain vocabulary words meant and then to provide me an example with this term. There were several pronunciations that he was having difficulty with for example the difference between the PR sound and the BR sound, so we went over a list on each and compared them. Words that he didn't understand I would provide a picture of the word from google. He was also having some issues with the difference between saying stomach and match because while the spelling is very similar, the pronunciation is very different.
He really wants to focus on being able to speak English, so instead of grammar we spend most of the time talking. We used his book and the lesson they were covering in class to go over conversation scenarios. I would ask him to tell him what certain vocabulary words meant and then to provide me an example with this term. There were several pronunciations that he was having difficulty with for example the difference between the PR sound and the BR sound, so we went over a list on each and compared them. Words that he didn't understand I would provide a picture of the word from google. He was also having some issues with the difference between saying stomach and match because while the spelling is very similar, the pronunciation is very different.
Paula TS#15
Adult Tutoring Session: Angela
February 21, 2017
9:00pm-10:00pm
Her House
We focused most of the second tutoring session on conversations because the focus of Angela is to improve her speaking capabilities. We began by talking about holidays in America and back in Brazil. We moved into activities in certain locations for example at the Park and in the University. The last portion of the time, she mentioned how she was a lawyer back in Brazil so we started talking about it. I would ask her questions about her profession, but she would try to explain her ideas in English. When there was a specific word that she didn't understand then I would provide her with the English word to the word she was looking for.
We focused most of the second tutoring session on conversations because the focus of Angela is to improve her speaking capabilities. We began by talking about holidays in America and back in Brazil. We moved into activities in certain locations for example at the Park and in the University. The last portion of the time, she mentioned how she was a lawyer back in Brazil so we started talking about it. I would ask her questions about her profession, but she would try to explain her ideas in English. When there was a specific word that she didn't understand then I would provide her with the English word to the word she was looking for.
Paula TS#14
Adult Tutoring Session: Angela
February 21, 2017
8:00pm-9:00pm
Her House
We began by reviewing activities she has done during the weekend. The focus was on conversation, but also grammatical usage. For every sentence that either she came up or that I came up, I would write it down for her so she could have a visual representation of it. We review conjugations of the very HAVE and went over new words that she could use like every day objects and actions. Every time I gave her an example she would then give me her own personal example. When she didn't understand something then she would write it down and I would repeat myself once in Spanish and once in English.
We began by reviewing activities she has done during the weekend. The focus was on conversation, but also grammatical usage. For every sentence that either she came up or that I came up, I would write it down for her so she could have a visual representation of it. We review conjugations of the very HAVE and went over new words that she could use like every day objects and actions. Every time I gave her an example she would then give me her own personal example. When she didn't understand something then she would write it down and I would repeat myself once in Spanish and once in English.
Paula TS #13
Adult Tutoring Session: Fahd Alahmi
February 21, 2017
6:40 pm-7:40pm
Starbucks
Since this was his last week for session, we went over a quick review of the information that was going to be on his exam. He asked me questions on articles and the differences between The/ A/ An, in order to practice we went over examples and practice questions. He asked me other questions related to previous tutoring sessions. Most of the time we focused on review of sentence structures and grammatical terms. We tried to come up with as much examples on each specific subject, so he could have an idea of all the different ways the term could be used.
Since this was his last week for session, we went over a quick review of the information that was going to be on his exam. He asked me questions on articles and the differences between The/ A/ An, in order to practice we went over examples and practice questions. He asked me other questions related to previous tutoring sessions. Most of the time we focused on review of sentence structures and grammatical terms. We tried to come up with as much examples on each specific subject, so he could have an idea of all the different ways the term could be used.
Paula TS#12
Child Tutoring Session: Christian Shukuru
February 20, 2017
4:30pm-5:30pm
His House
We worked on his new homework assigned for this week. One of his tasks was to read a short passage about underwater volcanoes. We read it together and for the words that he didn't understand, I googled them and showed him pictures. We also practice simple sentences that he could use to describe things and talk. Instead of replying to one word sentences to my questions. We also went outside and describe activities and reviewed some of the material from the last tutoring session. I was there at the same time other teacher tutors went to see their child tutee and was able to learn their techniques and how they were teaching their child tutees.
We worked on his new homework assigned for this week. One of his tasks was to read a short passage about underwater volcanoes. We read it together and for the words that he didn't understand, I googled them and showed him pictures. We also practice simple sentences that he could use to describe things and talk. Instead of replying to one word sentences to my questions. We also went outside and describe activities and reviewed some of the material from the last tutoring session. I was there at the same time other teacher tutors went to see their child tutee and was able to learn their techniques and how they were teaching their child tutees.
Joelle CP#5
I met with Seongeun today and I talked to her and her two friends in the basement of CIES. We went over food preferences, music, and movies. It was very helpful as one of her friends was also Korean and I was able to ask both Seongeun and Supin about Korean culture and what to expect when I visit South Korea for the first time. They both told me about shopping, food, subways, trains, and buses, and what each major city was like. Supin told me what it was like growing up in Busan, and why he's currently at CIES. Seongeun told me about common Korean phrases, and we all exchanged information about our cultures. One of Seongeun's friends was from China. She was a grad student at FSU and wanted to go to Korea for an internship so she also understood my desire to see and work in South Korea. It was a lot of fun!
Ansley TS #12
On Monday (2-20-17), I met with my child tutee for two hours. Due to the fact there were 8 or 9 children around the table we were able to hold everyone's attention for two hours by playing interactive games to develop English vocabulary. This post details the second hour.
Since the children were still enthused about tutoring I decided to stay for as long as they maintained interest. The second activity I had prepared was to cover the names of common foods in English. I was impressed by their ability to accurately spell many of the food words. As with the previous vocabulary set, we review the cards together and discussed some words relevant to each food. For example, the card for cake we listed: sweet, desert, chocolate, and tasty. We concluded by the children showing me YouTube videos of famous singers in Rwanda and drinking Orange Fanta.
Since the children were still enthused about tutoring I decided to stay for as long as they maintained interest. The second activity I had prepared was to cover the names of common foods in English. I was impressed by their ability to accurately spell many of the food words. As with the previous vocabulary set, we review the cards together and discussed some words relevant to each food. For example, the card for cake we listed: sweet, desert, chocolate, and tasty. We concluded by the children showing me YouTube videos of famous singers in Rwanda and drinking Orange Fanta.
Ansley TS #11
On Monday, I met with my child tutee for two hours. Due to the fact there were 8 or 9 children around the table we were able to hold everyone's attention for two hours by playing interactive games to develop English vocabulary. This post details the first hour.
I arrived at 5 p.m., all the children were outside playing. I thought they would not want to come in for their lesson but to my pleasant surprise they all came in when I started walking toward the house. In the previous sessions, it has been a group tutoring session so this time I printed materials for everyone so we would not all have to read off of one sheet. The vocabulary building set I chose was on common places. For example, bank, restaurant, supermarket, school were some of the words. I think knowing these words and their function is essential for living in Tallahassee. We began by going through each flashcard together. First reading the word together, then covering what the purpose of that place is. Any words they brainstormed that were associated with the place I asked for them to write on the card. We made drawings of different scenes for some of the places. I asked when they were finished drawing to label the drawings with the English vocabulary words. Based on their reactions, I think they enjoyed the lesson and demonstrated improved comprehension of the relevant vocabulary.
I arrived at 5 p.m., all the children were outside playing. I thought they would not want to come in for their lesson but to my pleasant surprise they all came in when I started walking toward the house. In the previous sessions, it has been a group tutoring session so this time I printed materials for everyone so we would not all have to read off of one sheet. The vocabulary building set I chose was on common places. For example, bank, restaurant, supermarket, school were some of the words. I think knowing these words and their function is essential for living in Tallahassee. We began by going through each flashcard together. First reading the word together, then covering what the purpose of that place is. Any words they brainstormed that were associated with the place I asked for them to write on the card. We made drawings of different scenes for some of the places. I asked when they were finished drawing to label the drawings with the English vocabulary words. Based on their reactions, I think they enjoyed the lesson and demonstrated improved comprehension of the relevant vocabulary.
Jack Buck TS#12
I met with Claudia at 3pm on Wednesday, February 22. Claudia told me that she had just taken her grammar final that we studied for last week, and that she felt like she did well on it. She also told me that she has a Reading final tomorrow, so we went over the vocab words that her teacher had given her to study for. I tried to explain the meaning of the vocab words to her and then use the words in a sentence, which seemed to clarify her understanding.
Jack Buck TS#11
I met with PJ on Monday, February 20th at 7:30pm. Before we read the book, Hatchet, PJ said he needed help with his language arts homework. He said he didn't need help with understanding the story, only for what the questions about the story was asking him. I had to strike a balance between leading him to the answer and giving it to him outright. At first, I struggled with this but as time went on, I learnt how to ask leading questions that would make him realize how to answer the questions. After his homework, we finished a chapter in Hatchet.
Sabrina CO#3
I went to observe Mr. Wilson's listening class (Group 4A) on February 2nd. The class was pretty small; there were only 6 students. Mr. Wilson started with a word of the day (I later learned that he uses these words in vocabulary quizzes later in the week) and then started with the main lesson: abbreviations and acronyms. Mr. Wilson gave a lot of examples and made sure that the students understood the best way to abbreviate words while note-taking was to remove the vowels. The students then practiced abbreviating the words in their textbook. The students then took a test (I looked through the test and noticed it had a lot of advanced vocabulary words like ubiquitous and nuisance and several idioms) for the rest of the period.
Sabrina TS#4 (accidentally deleted the first entry)
I met with Dasom on Saturday, January 28th at Strozier Library. We had discussed how she mostly wanted to work on speaking in our session last time so I decided to stick with that. We started with a brief conversation about how our weeks had gone, and then I brought out a board game, Scrabble. We played while we chatted, and we discussed vocabulary as we played. I described some of the words she didn't know and used them in sentences for her (I also gave her some visual aids with my laptop). By the end of our game Dasom had won and also had a great list of intermediate-level vocabulary words. We had a great conversation as well!
Ansley TS #10
Yesterday I completed my final tutoring session with my adult tutee. We reviewed grammar topics for his grammar final the following day. The topics reviewed were: direct object pronoun, subject pronoun, possessive adjectives, and possessive nouns. To practice these topics we reviewed and corrected his test from earlier in the session. Afterwards, we created sentences together and underlined the direct object pronouns, subject pronouns, possessive adjectives, and possessive nouns. I look forward to continuing to work with my adult tutee even now our formal tutoring sessions are complete.
Michelle TS#16
Date: February 19, 2017
Time: 12:00pm
Location: Hecht House Conference Room
Topic/Skill: Articles, prepositions, subject/verb agreement, and plural/singular nouns
Feedback: Last week I noted that my tutee needed help reinforcing the use of articles, prepositions, plural/singular nouns, and the rules for subject/verb agreement. Because of this, I printed a few worksheets to review their use in composition. After review, I had the student write a short paragraph telling me why he liked or disliked his roommate.
Lesson learned: My tutee's roommate wanted to join the tutoring session so I allowed him to participate in the review and composition. This activity could not have worked better! Because they are such good friends, they chose to insult each other through their writing. While doing so, it lowered their affective filters and allowed them to write lengthy compositions. We then went over the grammar and laughed about each others responses. What I learned from the experience is that finding ways to capitalize on what the students already enjoy can greatly improve the motivation to participate in the lesson. Hopefully, along the way, they learned something too.
Time: 12:00pm
Location: Hecht House Conference Room
Topic/Skill: Articles, prepositions, subject/verb agreement, and plural/singular nouns
Feedback: Last week I noted that my tutee needed help reinforcing the use of articles, prepositions, plural/singular nouns, and the rules for subject/verb agreement. Because of this, I printed a few worksheets to review their use in composition. After review, I had the student write a short paragraph telling me why he liked or disliked his roommate.
Lesson learned: My tutee's roommate wanted to join the tutoring session so I allowed him to participate in the review and composition. This activity could not have worked better! Because they are such good friends, they chose to insult each other through their writing. While doing so, it lowered their affective filters and allowed them to write lengthy compositions. We then went over the grammar and laughed about each others responses. What I learned from the experience is that finding ways to capitalize on what the students already enjoy can greatly improve the motivation to participate in the lesson. Hopefully, along the way, they learned something too.
Daniel Bell - TS#12
Date/Time: February 21st, 7PM
Location: Starbucks
Topic/Skill: Preparing Sultan for his presentation
Feedback provided to tutee: Sultan has a presentation
in his speaking class tomorrow. He has to give a speech about places he has
been and places he is going. I worked with him to understand how to pronounce
certain words he was getting hung up on, as well as his confusion with certain
tense structures.
Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you
learned: The use of technology has been really helpful for my and Sultan’s
tutoring relationship. To help him further understand and continue practicing
after I left, I used the voice recorder on his phone to record myself
pronouncing the words that were giving him trouble. That way, whenever he
needed to remember, he could just play it and practice along. He appreciated it
and it made our time together more efficient.
Bob TS#10
Date/Time: 22-Feb-2017 / 9 AM
Location: Skype
Speaking
I had prepared another listening lesson for this AM session but 2T just returned from a weekend in Taipei, Taiwan (ROC). As my old Navy Chief used to say, "this here is a teachable moment!" So today we decided to "goof off," forego the prepared listening lesson, and "shoot the shit" about his recent trip for awhile. The highlight was the National Palace Museum which gave us great vocabulary to work on pronunciation with like: sculpture, vase, urn, dynasty and rulers. Since we've been working together for a few weeks, I'm getting a better ear for his pronunciations. Good thing with words like sculpture and rulers. The piece de resistance, however, was lanterns! These are hand made, red for luck, illuminated at night, and hung from the street lights. They made a big impression on 2T. His enthusiastic yet unrecognizable pronunciation of "lanterns" made me work like a rented mule to figure out what he was saying! Once I figured out the word was lanterns, we went to work on some pronunciation drills. L as the first sound of a word seems harder for my 2T to get his tongue around than L appearing in other parts of a word. Seems there ought to be a reason for this. Maybe if I can figure out why this is, I can make it easier for the Asian students I encounter (there is a fair sized Chinese population in the area of Panama where I expect to live). Looks like more research on my end! Can you guess what today's idioms were?
Bob TS#9
Date/Time: 21-Feb-2017 / 89AM
Location: Skype
Listening
Today's article was titled Eating Autumn Leaves in Japan. This is another article from News in Easy English (http://newsineasyenglish.com/2014/11/02/viewing-and-eating-autumn-leaves-in-japan/). News in Easy English is a pretty good resource for easy listening articles. I'm uncertain of the best way to have 2T listen to the articles. News in Easy English provides sound files, generally in multiple speeds, for their accompanying articles but the lag and limitations of Skype conspire to prevent launching the sound files from my end and listening to them together over the web effectively. So far, I've found the best method is to read the article aloud to 2T in lieu of playing the provided sound file. On the plus side, because of our growing familiarity in working together, this gives me the ability to adjust the reading pace to his comfortable listening/comprehension speed or to speed up the delivery pace of an article to challenge him more when the new vocabulary load is light. On the downside, reading inhibits my ability to observe the student for non-verbal signs of confusion or struggle for comprehension. I would welcome suggestions.
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Joelle TS#13
For the second hour of our meeting, we went over the outline, topics and composition of Mohammad's big essay. It was a five paragraph essay, and it was about the topic we discussed in one of our past sessions. The main idea of the essay were the pros and cons of using cash and credit cards. The topic encompassed three major comparisons between credit cards and cash: safety, efficiency, and which method of paying is more common. The first paragraph introduced the idea and discussed what the essay was about. The second paragraph discussed how credit cards were safer to carry as they are very portable and if stolen you can just cancel your card. The third paragraph talked about how cash is inefficient as cash takes up a lot of space and can take more time to pay with, as opposed to a single swipe of a credit card. The fourth paragraph talked about how some stores and machines only take cash and that credit cards can be deemed useless here. The final paragraph concluded and wrapped up the points by stating that the comparisons between credit cards and cash are equal as both methods of paying have good and bad qualities.
I mostly went over grammar, sentence structure, and advanced vocabulary words with Mohammad. I didn't help him with writing too much, I would write an example sentence and we would simply go over it and I'd have him give me a sentence that mimicked the sentence that I had created. It took us a long time to edit, compose, and touch up his essay. However, I feel confident in the lesson as Mohammad was very engaged and quickly picked up on the mistakes he had made and the incorrect patterns.
I mostly went over grammar, sentence structure, and advanced vocabulary words with Mohammad. I didn't help him with writing too much, I would write an example sentence and we would simply go over it and I'd have him give me a sentence that mimicked the sentence that I had created. It took us a long time to edit, compose, and touch up his essay. However, I feel confident in the lesson as Mohammad was very engaged and quickly picked up on the mistakes he had made and the incorrect patterns.
Joelle TS#12
I met with Mohammad today and had a two-hour long session with him. In this blog post, I will talk about the first hour and the second hour in the next blog post. For the first hour, I went over sentence completion and multiple choice questions based on a passage about foods and how there are foods that are chemically grown. The questions would ask to distinguish each word and to choose the word that didn't belong in the sentence and that was different from every other word. The questions were somewhat tricky, but Mohammad only got two out of the 20 something questions wrong. I then had him go over each word he didn't understand, and had him ask me questions on the context of the passage. For sentence completion, this task was a little harder. I would cover up words in the sentence and had him tell me what word he thought fit in the sentence. This exercise seemed to help him a lot as it caused him to think deeply and extract information he had learned before in class. After the sentence completion questions, I had Mohammad summarize the information we just covered in his own words, and had a discussion about agriculture in America and agriculture in Kuwait. I had him reread the passage aloud, and corrected his pronunciation during the reading.
Joelle TS#11
Yesterday I met with Pasos and we briefly went over a writing exercise, he did not have any homework that day. I had Pasos write 9 sentences and this took about 30 minutes as we went over each letter, the word, and the meaning of the word. The sentences were based on past vocabulary we went over, such as colors, adjectives (beautiful, pretty, dirty, tall, etc.) and basic nouns and pronouns. For example, a sentence I had him write was "Today I went to the store." I had him write each letter, then tell me the word he just wrote. This exercise was a bit of a struggle, and it was hard to keep his attention focused on the topic. This caused me to realize that he needed something more entertaining, so we decided to go outside to play and learn about the objects in the yard.
Pasos, and his siblings all came outside to play. We played basketball, soccer, and picked up random objects and played with them. I would point to things in the yard of their house and describe to Pasos and his siblings what they were. For example, "This is a blue bike." and "This is a tire, a tire goes with a bike." I would ask Pasos and his siblings what colors and shapes the objects were, such as a tire is a circle and it is black. This took another 30 minutes. They were all much more engaged during this activity, and it seemed like something the kids needed after a long day of school. It was nice knowing that playing could also incorporate learning.
Simon Kennell TS #16
Today I met with Ima at CIES for our final tutoring session. There were 6 or 7 sentences left over from his vocal recordings that I had typed out for him to review. We discussed corrections for these sentences and Ima read the sentences out loud a couple of times until he felt comfortable with them. After reviewing his vocal recordings, we went through a couple of dialogue passages and discussed pronunciation and intonation in a few areas that he was having problems with. Finally, Ima and I had a conversation about his progress and how I feel that he can better. I expressed to him that his English has definitely improved and that to continue improving, he must continue actively engaging in conversation with native speakers. I have really enjoyed meeting with Ima and we will stay in contact for the foreseeable future.
Joelle TS#10
I met with Pasos on Friday to go over his homework and to practice writing. He was given a bunch of notecards containing basic English adjectives, verbs and nouns. We would go over each word by reading aloud each letter, and by pronouncing each syllable. For example, the noun "Honesty" was written on the card. I would ask Pasos to try and spell out the word, and for "Honesty" he only missed two letters, S and Y. I wrote the alphabet on a piece of paper for Pasos to use as a reference. It was easier for him to remember the letter when he looked at the alphabet, because the alphabet song is in order and he could associate letters to the song. We did this activity for the majority of the lesson, as there were lot of cards. I would also read aloud the whole word and give a brief definition of what the word was.
For writing I had Pasos go over the colors again. I would point to colors, ask him what color I was pointing at, and how to spell it. He wasn't able to spell the color, but often was able to be able to tell me what color it was. I would then write the color, and have him tell me which letter was which, and had him write right next to my word the same word, so as to practice his handwriting and his memory when it came to associating words with letters.
For writing I had Pasos go over the colors again. I would point to colors, ask him what color I was pointing at, and how to spell it. He wasn't able to spell the color, but often was able to be able to tell me what color it was. I would then write the color, and have him tell me which letter was which, and had him write right next to my word the same word, so as to practice his handwriting and his memory when it came to associating words with letters.
Michelle CP#6
Date: February 21, 2017
Time: Noon
Location: Dirac Starbucks
Topic discussed: Funeral Arrangements
Lesson Learned: Today I didn't learn much of a lesson. Instead, my conversation partner asked me about American funeral customs. Noting that the U.S. is full of different cultures and customs, I shared with her my personal funeral experiences. It seemed like she learned a lot of new vocabulary. We talked about death certificates, exsanguination, opened caskets vs. closed caskets, viewings, eulogies, burials, cremation, and customary responses to those in mourning. I didn't even know I knew as much as I did.
Although it was a morbid topic of conversation, this seemed to help my conversation partner relate to a friend dealing with the death of a loved one. I may have also helped her to avoid a critical incident. She stated that it is customary to provide the family with money and asked if we do that in the United States. I shared that unless help is explicitly requested, the provision of any monetary support would be looked at as a faux-pas. Americans may misinterpret this as profiting off of the loss of a loved one.
Time: Noon
Location: Dirac Starbucks
Topic discussed: Funeral Arrangements
Lesson Learned: Today I didn't learn much of a lesson. Instead, my conversation partner asked me about American funeral customs. Noting that the U.S. is full of different cultures and customs, I shared with her my personal funeral experiences. It seemed like she learned a lot of new vocabulary. We talked about death certificates, exsanguination, opened caskets vs. closed caskets, viewings, eulogies, burials, cremation, and customary responses to those in mourning. I didn't even know I knew as much as I did.
Although it was a morbid topic of conversation, this seemed to help my conversation partner relate to a friend dealing with the death of a loved one. I may have also helped her to avoid a critical incident. She stated that it is customary to provide the family with money and asked if we do that in the United States. I shared that unless help is explicitly requested, the provision of any monetary support would be looked at as a faux-pas. Americans may misinterpret this as profiting off of the loss of a loved one.
Bob TS#8
Date/Time: 17-Feb-2017 / 8 PM
Location: Skype
Listening
Today's listening exercise was a science article about Spiders that Don't Make Webs. About half of all known
spider species do not make webs but everybody in the game has fangs, venom, and spinnerets. The article had some good vocabulary and was unlikely to be selected for a lesson by the other 2 tutors. On the cultural side of this, I explained how American women tended to conform to the absurd stereotype of female arachnophobia more often than not. Korean women, in his experience, did not share the same unrealistic fear. The lesson was conducted in our normal manner - read, introduce & discuss vocabulary, read again, quiz for comprehension.
Julia TS #10
Dojun and I met today, February 21st. I prepared a list of common idioms to teach him. I found an exhaustive list online, and picked ten that I thought were the most commonly used. I remember Dojun mentioning that he was interested in learning more vocabulary, and so I thought that idioms would be an interesting and more challenging form of vocabulary. I included phrases such as "all ears", "beats me", "get the hang of", and the only phrase that he was already familiar with was "to blow (something) out of proportion". I gave explanations and examples for each, a fill in the blank activity with the phrases, and gave him opportunities to ask questions. I had already planned to have him create sentences with each phrase next week, which was perfect when he told me that they are hard to fully understand without seeing or hearing them used multiple times. We also talked about the death of Kim Jong-nam and I was interested in the input that he added about how defects from North Korea are being protected in South Korea.
Monday, February 20, 2017
Daniel Bell TS#11
Date/Time: February 20th, 5PM
Location: Elia’s House
Topic/Skill: Vocabulary and Syllables
Feedback provided to tutee: Used the Swahili-English
language dictionary I bought to explain the concept of syllables to Elia. In
the previous reading assignment, I noticed that Elia sometimes has difficulty
reading longer words (three syllables or more). From the dictionary, I picked
several three-syllable words which all had to do with food in order to demonstrate
how understanding syllables can be immensely helpful in reading.
Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you
learned: I learned that it is important to build momentum with your
lessons. This lesson was a detour that I felt we had to make, but otherwise it
is important for overall coherency, as well as the student’s experience, if you
remain consistent.
Ansley CO #3
I was unable to attend my third class observation at the beginning of the session because of an emergency. Despite the set back, I believe observing the foundation level grammar class I will be teaching for my final project was more useful. I was nervous about teaching foundations level, so decided it would be a good opportunity to complete my COs and prepare for my lesson presentation. On Sunday, I emailed the course instructor to confirm with her it was alright with her for me to observe. She readily agreed. I was surprised by how many pronunciation issues the class had. Even though the sentences were correct, it was difficult to understand the students because of pronunciation. Having observed this class, I feel better prepared for my teaching lesson Thursday.
Simon Kennell TS #15
I met with my child tutee today at the park next to his family's apartment. We lounged around at the park for a little while and caught up on how Victor's schooling is taking shape and what he likes about going to school. Our topic lesson today was a focus on conversational English and slang that he could use at school to drum up conversation with some of his classmates. We went over phrases like 'what's up' and 'cool'. This seemed to be an interesting topic for Victor and he quickly took initiative in taking part in the lesson. Although our next session with Victor will be the last, I feel that he has quickly engaged in actively learning English and that he truly understands the importance of English acquisition moving forward.
Sabrina CP#3 & #4
I went to see the film Moana with my conversation partner at the SLC on the 16th. It was really fun hanging out and chatting before watching the movie, and then walking home together, talking about the movie. We also talked about other movies we'd like to see; she mentioned how she wanted to see 'Split' and I talked about how I wanted to see 'Moonlight'. We also talked about animation and mentioned some of our favorite animated Disney movies.
Sabrina TS#8 & TS#9
I met with Dasom on the 18th, and we had two sessions. During the first session we read another short story--this time it was "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allen Poe. I later found out that she was reviewing this story with her reading class, so I'm glad that I chose relevant material. I first showed Dasom some images and videos to build her schema on Edgar Allen Poe and the genres that he influenced (such as southern gothic and mystery). We then got to reading, and I corrected her pronunciation and defined vocabulary words for her on the page. She did have a bit of trouble with the names in the story as they were quite dated ('Amontillado', 'Montresor', and 'Fortunado' were the names she had trouble with) but we got through the story without further hitch.
The second hour we spent going over some minimal pairs that she showed me. Most of the words had 'r' and 'l' sounds or 's' sounds. I wrote out the words on a blank sheet of paper and tried to emphasize the differences in pronunciation by describing tongue placement and intonation. I also showed her the differences in vowel sounds (long vowel sounds versus short vowel sounds) and helped her write out the sounds of each word. Some of the words were: leap, reap, seek, sick, lean, and line. I helped her spell out these words phonetically as well!
The second hour we spent going over some minimal pairs that she showed me. Most of the words had 'r' and 'l' sounds or 's' sounds. I wrote out the words on a blank sheet of paper and tried to emphasize the differences in pronunciation by describing tongue placement and intonation. I also showed her the differences in vowel sounds (long vowel sounds versus short vowel sounds) and helped her write out the sounds of each word. Some of the words were: leap, reap, seek, sick, lean, and line. I helped her spell out these words phonetically as well!
Sabrina TS#7
I met with PJ on the 17th. We first went over some of the quizzes he had taken in class. He didn't do too well on the comprehension questions for the stories we read, so reviewed the material and I helped him correct his answers. After that, we proceeded to read the next story. The story was about a dolphin that had lost it's tail (and had received a prosthetic tail). There were some concepts that PJ didn't understand (for example, how it is possible to lose limbs) so I explained them verbally and gave him examples.
Kailon TS #13
Today, I met with my adult tutee, Larissa, and we discussed reading. She was actually in the class that Sabrina and I taught in Mr. Yazdanpanah's reading class. So, after that class, we reiterated what I taught in class. I asked her if she had any suggestions that I could improve on, She said no. Larissa did not have any other classwork to do today. I enjoyed teaching her class, and discussing Black History Month with her afterwards.
Bob CP#4 and CP#5
Date/Time: 19-Feb-2017 / 3 PM
Location: Colonial Drive, Midtown
It was a pretty good turnout for Sunday Rhythm here in Midtown. Here was the set up: In addition to my classmates, we had American dialects from LA (los Angeles, not Lower Alabama!), Chicago, Omaha, Daytona Beach, Appalachia, Orlando, Miami, & Trinidad. CPs got a listening workout to be sure. As per normal about half of the CPs didn't show but we had 5. They were probably over worked 'cause we were talking their ears off. We covered a lot of conversational ground and I have to say Sunday Rhythm on Colonial Drive was without a doubt culturally rich yesterday! Two of the non-classmate American guests were TEFL trained. One had taught in China, the other in Rwanda. Our CPs could talk with two published writers, one published poet, three working musicians, one English professor, one on air radio personality, and the Dean from FAMU's School of Journalism. Welcome to America boys and girls!
We had some worthy conversations about their future - CP from the Punjab (the city of Jalandar, I think, but I don't remember for sure) will be studying to become a Mechanical Engineer. His father, who is probably my age or a little bit younger, visited the States for awhile back in the 1970s. He seemed to dig it and wanted his son to experience it too.
We got to converse with a future psychology major from China, a future Petroleum Engineer from Yemen who is also a singer and wants to pursue a career in music, at least on some casual level in the future. He & I got to exchange views on parents wanting us to choose "responsible careers" over pursuits of the soul. He likes Country music. I don't know why this was surprising to me but it was! They've heard of Merle Haggard in Yemen! Who knew?!? We parted with a promise that if he wanted to perform at a local open mic night here in town, I'd set him up & my band will back him.
Kailon TS #12
During my 12th tutoring session, Larissa and I went over a reading article that she had to do for her class. The article was: "Love: A Chemical Explosion in the Brain". After analyzing the article, we discussed vocabulary words and various reading comprehension questions. I made sure that she understood everything, and gave her feedback about reading and pronunciation. For the most part, Larissa was able to use the interactive approach to reading. Although she did not know what all of the words meant, she was still able to determine the general meaning and broader scope of the article. I enjoyed reading with her.
Michelle TS#15
Date: February 18, 2017
Time: 2:00pm
Location: Their house
Topic/Skill: Reading and Listening, Vocabulary
Feedback: Today was my last tutoring session with this tutee. Just as I did with my previous refugee tutees, I chose to give them the same packet breaking down household chores, household repairs, and common symptoms of illness.
I then introduced new vocabulary. As these children are a little more advanced than the other refugee tutees, I chose a book with higher vocabulary. They learned the words nest, dragon, cave, hill, road, castle, to roll, to fly, crack, and a variety of prepositions including in, out, up, down, past, and etc.We then read the Dragon Egg.
After reading the Dragon Egg, I then reinforced the prepositions by placing my pen in different locations. I also used my ipad to play a game incorporating prepositions as well. The children seemed to enjoy the lesson.
Lesson learned: This lesson was well received and I think the children ended up liking the material. However, incorporating an ipad with 6 children is dangerous territory. Although they learned quite a bit before introducing the ipad, the children got completely distracted with the presence of technology. I'm glad I pulled it out at the end of the lesson, because they all decided that they wanted to touch the device over understanding its purpose. With it being the last ten minutes of tutoring, I didn't push my agenda. What I learned from this experience is that technology may be too much for those who have limited exposure to such devices.
Time: 2:00pm
Location: Their house
Topic/Skill: Reading and Listening, Vocabulary
Feedback: Today was my last tutoring session with this tutee. Just as I did with my previous refugee tutees, I chose to give them the same packet breaking down household chores, household repairs, and common symptoms of illness.
I then introduced new vocabulary. As these children are a little more advanced than the other refugee tutees, I chose a book with higher vocabulary. They learned the words nest, dragon, cave, hill, road, castle, to roll, to fly, crack, and a variety of prepositions including in, out, up, down, past, and etc.We then read the Dragon Egg.
After reading the Dragon Egg, I then reinforced the prepositions by placing my pen in different locations. I also used my ipad to play a game incorporating prepositions as well. The children seemed to enjoy the lesson.
Lesson learned: This lesson was well received and I think the children ended up liking the material. However, incorporating an ipad with 6 children is dangerous territory. Although they learned quite a bit before introducing the ipad, the children got completely distracted with the presence of technology. I'm glad I pulled it out at the end of the lesson, because they all decided that they wanted to touch the device over understanding its purpose. With it being the last ten minutes of tutoring, I didn't push my agenda. What I learned from this experience is that technology may be too much for those who have limited exposure to such devices.
Michelle TS#14
Date: February 17, 2017
Time: 6:30PM
Location: Their House
Topic/Skill:Reading Wake Up Sun, Vocabulary
Feedback: Since today was my last day with my tutees, I felt it important to leave them with some helpful information. I prepared a small packet of pictures with everyday scenarios. Included were images asking for home repairs, doing chores, and telling a doctor when they are sick. I figured that this way, the mom had a ready reference for everyday things that she might need help asking for in the future.
Then, I decided to read the kids a story. Knowing that my daughter loves being read to, I thought it might be nice to expose them to new vocabulary while simultaneously practicing listening and reading. I first showed them pictures of the hard words in the story. This included pig, dog, cow, chicken, farmer, night, day, the middle, flea bites dog, wake up, sun, the well, up, down, and fox in the hen house. Once the kids understood the words, we read the story. I repeated the words quite a few times, pointing at the characters when they talked or did something. At the end of the story, it was clear that they learned night, day, wake up, and some of the names of the animals.
Lesson learned: During my previous visits, I took a more kinesthetic approach to teaching. The kids enjoyed the exercises and learned quite a bit. This time however, I chose a more passive approach to allow room for more content to be taught. I think the mother appreciated the influx of information. However, the children seemed less engaged. Either way the children learned. But, I think I will stick to the kinesthetic approach when tutoring small children as it yields more interest in learning.
Time: 6:30PM
Location: Their House
Topic/Skill:Reading Wake Up Sun, Vocabulary
Feedback: Since today was my last day with my tutees, I felt it important to leave them with some helpful information. I prepared a small packet of pictures with everyday scenarios. Included were images asking for home repairs, doing chores, and telling a doctor when they are sick. I figured that this way, the mom had a ready reference for everyday things that she might need help asking for in the future.
Then, I decided to read the kids a story. Knowing that my daughter loves being read to, I thought it might be nice to expose them to new vocabulary while simultaneously practicing listening and reading. I first showed them pictures of the hard words in the story. This included pig, dog, cow, chicken, farmer, night, day, the middle, flea bites dog, wake up, sun, the well, up, down, and fox in the hen house. Once the kids understood the words, we read the story. I repeated the words quite a few times, pointing at the characters when they talked or did something. At the end of the story, it was clear that they learned night, day, wake up, and some of the names of the animals.
Lesson learned: During my previous visits, I took a more kinesthetic approach to teaching. The kids enjoyed the exercises and learned quite a bit. This time however, I chose a more passive approach to allow room for more content to be taught. I think the mother appreciated the influx of information. However, the children seemed less engaged. Either way the children learned. But, I think I will stick to the kinesthetic approach when tutoring small children as it yields more interest in learning.
Sunday, February 19, 2017
Ansley CP #6
Today I went with my conversation partner and tutee to the TEFL-CIES party at Bob's house. I drove both partners and was able to have more small group conversation in the car. At the party we were able to all interact in conversation. I was thinking the party was good practice for ambiguity tolerance since there were many people talking at once. I picked them up around 2:45 p.m. and dropped them back home around 5:45 p.m., three hours well spent!
Daniel Bell - CP#5
Date/Time: February 18th, 3PM
Location: Starbucks
Topic discussed: General Introduction
Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner
learned: Today, I met my second conversation partner, Ashirbad. Ashirbad
is from India. He is not an CIES student, Claire agreed to match me with him
because I needed a second conversation partner after Ghaleb’s brief period
where he was unavailable. We talked about our families, interests, and other
values. I look forward to continuing my relationship with Ashirbad.
Daniel Bell - CP#3 & CP#4
Date/Time: February 18th, 12-2PM
Location: Vertigo Burger & The Governor’s Square
Mall
Topic discussed: Food
Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner
learned: Today, Ghaleb and I had lunch at Vertigo Burger, a trendy burger
join on Apalachee Parkway. He really enjoys burgers. This opened up a
conversation about the differences between Kuwaiti and American food. I told
him about Shek-Shouka -- an Arab dish
that another friend had once cooked for me. Right away, his eyes lit up. It was
a powerful testimony for the power of culture to reveal that are far more
similar than we may appear.
After lunch, Ghaleb needed to run an errand at the
mall. We walked around and continued our conversation. I am extremely grateful
to know this kid and am looking forward to continuing our friendship.
Ansley TS #9
On Monday, February 13th I tutored my child tutee for the second session. Recognizing it is difficult to give instructions for activities, this time I brought more worksheets with fill-in-the-blank answers. The worksheets covered important city features such as: bank, hospital, school, library, bus station, restaurant, etc. After we finished those we reviewed the body part vocabulary from last session. I look forward to the next session this upcoming Monday. They like Orange Fanta so I bought a two-liter bottle of Orange Fanta to take with me as a little gesture of kindness.
Laura Buice TS#9
February 18, 2017
1-2 pm
Review, Outside
For the second hour, we reviewed the stuff they had learned so far. Numbers, Months of the year, days of the week, colors, body parts, and school. I think they practice when we aren't around because they knew the months and days of the week better than when they learned it. We definitely need to work on complete sentences but they know ages pretty well. And they kept confusing pink with green; and brown, black, and blue, but I think they just need us more repetition. Then for the second half of the hour Aileen and I took them outside to the playground and taught them how to play tag. I tried to speak to them in English and call the names of the different things on the playground as well as use verbs like jump, run, or walk, so they could get used to hearing them and seeing them in action. Near the end of the session, I also had them teach me some Swahili, they taught me greetings and how to say goodbye. I think that made them feel better about learning English to watch me struggle with Swahili. And I think it made them like me a little bit better. It was less of me telling them what to do all of the time, and it gave us a chance to get to know each other better.
Ansley CP #5
On Thursday (2-16-17), I brought my conversation partner and tutee to my parent's house for dinner. My parents live in Tallahassee, I wanted my partners to see an American family's home, as opposed to the lives of American college students. Dinner went really well, we had chicken, shrimp, rice, bread, salad, and cooked vegetables. My family was very curious about their lives in their respective home countries, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. I hope they will join us for dinner again.
Laura Buice TS#8
February 18, 2017
12-1 pm
School and verbs
When Aileen and I arrived on Saturday, the kids greeted us and they were willing to speak English. We started by trying to teach them how to talk about school in English. We tried to draw pictures of the different class subjects and ask them what classes they were taking. Aileen worked with Abu again, and I worked with Amidu, Johari, and Mariam. They didn't understand what I was saying so I started from the beginning, and instead talked about "school" "house" and "bus." They understood these very easily. So I had Amidu practice simple verbs and making sentences with them. Then I did an activity, where I had them all do charades of the word I said. This went really well. They enjoy being active and I think working on paper all the time bores them a little bit. But again I had Johari copy sentences, and Mariam and I reviewed numbers and the basics.
12-1 pm
School and verbs
When Aileen and I arrived on Saturday, the kids greeted us and they were willing to speak English. We started by trying to teach them how to talk about school in English. We tried to draw pictures of the different class subjects and ask them what classes they were taking. Aileen worked with Abu again, and I worked with Amidu, Johari, and Mariam. They didn't understand what I was saying so I started from the beginning, and instead talked about "school" "house" and "bus." They understood these very easily. So I had Amidu practice simple verbs and making sentences with them. Then I did an activity, where I had them all do charades of the word I said. This went really well. They enjoy being active and I think working on paper all the time bores them a little bit. But again I had Johari copy sentences, and Mariam and I reviewed numbers and the basics.
Laura Buice TS #7
February 17, 2017
6-7 pm
Review, writing
For the second half of the tutoring session, we reviewed all of the things we had covered. I also tried to help them remember how to write everything they had learned. They love singing head, shoulders, knees, and toes, and it helps them learn the words. We also went through colors again. I had them pick something in the room that was a color and say the words. I tried to help them with verb conjugation and just using complete sentences. We ended with reviewing everyone's age and the numbers 11-20 again. Mariam and Johari are quieter, because they don't know as much. Abu and Amidu are louder, so I need to find activities for Mariam and Johari to help them learn more and gain confidence, while keeping Amidu and Abu busy and challenged. It is hard to find activities for each level. And I'm not always sure what words they know. But they are very willing to learn and they are fun to work with and patient with us.
6-7 pm
Review, writing
For the second half of the tutoring session, we reviewed all of the things we had covered. I also tried to help them remember how to write everything they had learned. They love singing head, shoulders, knees, and toes, and it helps them learn the words. We also went through colors again. I had them pick something in the room that was a color and say the words. I tried to help them with verb conjugation and just using complete sentences. We ended with reviewing everyone's age and the numbers 11-20 again. Mariam and Johari are quieter, because they don't know as much. Abu and Amidu are louder, so I need to find activities for Mariam and Johari to help them learn more and gain confidence, while keeping Amidu and Abu busy and challenged. It is hard to find activities for each level. And I'm not always sure what words they know. But they are very willing to learn and they are fun to work with and patient with us.
Laura Buice TS#6
February 17, 2017
5-6 pm
Family, Ages, Review
Today I met with Aileen and we worked with Abu, Amidu, Johari, and Mariam to discuss family members and ages. Abu knows a lot more vocabulary than his siblings so Aileen focused on helping him learn more and use different sentences, while I sat with Amidu, Johari, and Mariam. We reviewed the numbers 1-20 and helped them practice saying their own age. We played a game where they would catch a ball and say their age, then pass it to someone else. We had them use different verb tenses, to say "he is" "you are" "I am." Amidu gets bored very quickly, and while is not up to Abu's level, he is far better than Mariam and Johari. So I had to arrange different activities for each of them. I let Johari copy sentences, Mariam work on the alphabet, and Amidu write his own sentences. We had to repeat the numbers 11-20 several times, they know them in order but they don't know them as individual units. There were also several times, where I felt they weren't understanding me and I had to go back and explain.
5-6 pm
Family, Ages, Review
Today I met with Aileen and we worked with Abu, Amidu, Johari, and Mariam to discuss family members and ages. Abu knows a lot more vocabulary than his siblings so Aileen focused on helping him learn more and use different sentences, while I sat with Amidu, Johari, and Mariam. We reviewed the numbers 1-20 and helped them practice saying their own age. We played a game where they would catch a ball and say their age, then pass it to someone else. We had them use different verb tenses, to say "he is" "you are" "I am." Amidu gets bored very quickly, and while is not up to Abu's level, he is far better than Mariam and Johari. So I had to arrange different activities for each of them. I let Johari copy sentences, Mariam work on the alphabet, and Amidu write his own sentences. We had to repeat the numbers 11-20 several times, they know them in order but they don't know them as individual units. There were also several times, where I felt they weren't understanding me and I had to go back and explain.
Aileen TS#14
For the second half of our session I used a lot of repeat after me exercises, visual aids, as well as dictation in order to teach my tutee the planets. We ended up on this topic because whenever I first asked about what was the first thing that came to mind when he heard the word 'science' he immediately started to draw what appeared to be Saturn and its rings. As its a subject that is both interesting and could be beneficial in the long run I decided to take it upon myself to teach him the names of the planets as well as being able to identify them by their characteristics. First I wrote out the names in the order that one usually learns them "Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune" Then I drew them and colored them in. I followed up by drawing and additional diagram, this time drawing the planets in relation to the sun. By the end of the session he was able to describe the planets by "hot" and "cold" characteristics as well as whether the rings that the planets possessed were "horizontal" or "vertical". He was also able to describe their distances from the Sun using comparatives such as "closer" and "farther".
Saturday, February 18, 2017
Aileen TS#13
On Saturday afternoon I teamed up with the other tutor and we broke off into groups to review the basics we had gone over Friday evening as well as the "head shoulders knees and toes song that we had learned the previous week" Afterwards we started going over different school subjects to boost that intrinsic motivation to familiarize the kids with subjects that they enjoy. One of them went straight ahead into mentioning 'math' and 'science' and that he liked these two better than 'English' since there wasn't as big of a focus on English in them. The other kids seem to be content to just learn the general subjects so we split off into two groups where I focused on the more advanced 'math and science' learner. I wrote the subjects on two separate pieces of paper and asked him to write or draw me some examples of each. He seemed to be more interested in science so I started to write some branches of science: astronomy, biology, chemistry, anatomy, and Earth science.
Aileen TS#12
For the second hour of my child tutee Friday session we focused on how to tell each others age. We started off by going over the numbers 1-20. Me and the other tutor I was working with provided visual aids for each number by drawing the "amount" for each number using circles. We then drew ourselves and wrote all of our names on sheets of paper and asked each other what ages we were. Me and the tutor used ourselves as a model, me being 22 years old and her being 20. We asked them what their ages were and for this part we had to consult google translate so that they could grasp the idea of 'age' in their native language. Thankfully we were able to cross that language barrier and we were able to have them practice how to not only say what their age was but also someone else's.
Laura Buice TS#5
February 17, 2017
10:00 am
Summaries, Grammar
Today we went over a short article and summaries. The article was on penguins, and there was a lot of unfamiliar vocabulary for Sheila, but I pulled up pictures and we went through the article to make sure she understood it. Then we discussed how to write a summary. She had a worksheet that walked her through it and she seemed to have a hard time understanding the point of a summary. But she already had one written and it summarized the first paragraphs of the article very well, so we just added the last one. She needs to be more confidant in her work. When she knows the vocabulary her sentences are good, its just when she has trouble understanding that she has a hard time wording sentences. She has definitely learned a lot, and its easier to communicate with her and she understands me more than the first week we met.
10:00 am
Summaries, Grammar
Today we went over a short article and summaries. The article was on penguins, and there was a lot of unfamiliar vocabulary for Sheila, but I pulled up pictures and we went through the article to make sure she understood it. Then we discussed how to write a summary. She had a worksheet that walked her through it and she seemed to have a hard time understanding the point of a summary. But she already had one written and it summarized the first paragraphs of the article very well, so we just added the last one. She needs to be more confidant in her work. When she knows the vocabulary her sentences are good, its just when she has trouble understanding that she has a hard time wording sentences. She has definitely learned a lot, and its easier to communicate with her and she understands me more than the first week we met.
Laura Buice TS#4
February 13, 2017
3:30 pm
CIES House
Valentine's Day
Sheila and I reviewed her Valentine's Day presentation, and made error correction. We also discussed differences between Valentine's Day in America and Mexico. They are mostly the same, but they eat cotton candy in Mexico. After she finished writing her power point, we went through the pronunciation. I helped her with any words she was unfamiliar with and made sure the pronunciation and grammar was correct. She varies with her pronunciation, because some words are similar in Spanish so she has no trouble with them, but the words that end with "s" and "ed" are a little more difficult for her. She also had some trouble with words that sound the same in both languages but have different meanings in English. I need to review how to help students with pronunciation. And it would help if Sheila could go over minimal pairs. Working with Sheila is good practice and helps me understand what students need and what is helpful for students. It also helps me measure myself and if I'm doing a good job with teaching.
3:30 pm
CIES House
Valentine's Day
Sheila and I reviewed her Valentine's Day presentation, and made error correction. We also discussed differences between Valentine's Day in America and Mexico. They are mostly the same, but they eat cotton candy in Mexico. After she finished writing her power point, we went through the pronunciation. I helped her with any words she was unfamiliar with and made sure the pronunciation and grammar was correct. She varies with her pronunciation, because some words are similar in Spanish so she has no trouble with them, but the words that end with "s" and "ed" are a little more difficult for her. She also had some trouble with words that sound the same in both languages but have different meanings in English. I need to review how to help students with pronunciation. And it would help if Sheila could go over minimal pairs. Working with Sheila is good practice and helps me understand what students need and what is helpful for students. It also helps me measure myself and if I'm doing a good job with teaching.
Laura Buice TS #3
February 6, 2017
3:30 pm
CIES House
Homework, Speech, and Grammar
Sheila and I reviewed simple present tense. We went over her worksheet and I tried to help her differentiate between when you add an "s" "es" or leave the word in its infinitive form. She had some trouble with the words partially because she didn't know them in English. She also had a hard time with "s" and "z" but overall it doesn't affect understanding, and I think she just needs more practice. I know I need more practice helping students understand the simple present and various pronunciations. It was good practice for the both of us. I had a hard time knowing how to explain things in a different way than the worksheet said. And I'm not sure she understood all of what I said, but her speaking is improving a lot.
3:30 pm
CIES House
Homework, Speech, and Grammar
Sheila and I reviewed simple present tense. We went over her worksheet and I tried to help her differentiate between when you add an "s" "es" or leave the word in its infinitive form. She had some trouble with the words partially because she didn't know them in English. She also had a hard time with "s" and "z" but overall it doesn't affect understanding, and I think she just needs more practice. I know I need more practice helping students understand the simple present and various pronunciations. It was good practice for the both of us. I had a hard time knowing how to explain things in a different way than the worksheet said. And I'm not sure she understood all of what I said, but her speaking is improving a lot.
Laura Buice CP #3
February 8, 2017
3:30 pm
CIES House
Generalizations and Stereotypes
Haiping and I went through the email sent out for conversation partners to discuss various cultural differences. There are a lot of similarities between Chinese and American culture. Gift-giving customs, views of gender roles, concepts of time, rules of politeness, gestures and nonverbal communication, are all very similar. However, clothing, holiday customs, belief of modesty, religious/spiritual beliefs, food, and classroom behavior are very different. Americans own a lot more outfits and wear a lot more clothes. We also have different standards of modesty. Chinese people generally wear more layers and longer and looser clothes. Holiday customs are a lot different in China. They celebrate different holidays, but they do have specific foods that they eat for specific holidays and gift giving holidays. So there are similarities but also a lot of differences. Classroom behavior emphasizes more teacher respect than American classrooms. They don't ask as many questions and the grading system works much differently. Chinese people have different religious beliefs, they focus more on legends and myths. Christianity is not as well known as it is in America. They also have very different food in China. More rice and different pasta dishes. The food is more healthy and they eat less processed foods. It was very interesting discussion.
3:30 pm
CIES House
Generalizations and Stereotypes
Haiping and I went through the email sent out for conversation partners to discuss various cultural differences. There are a lot of similarities between Chinese and American culture. Gift-giving customs, views of gender roles, concepts of time, rules of politeness, gestures and nonverbal communication, are all very similar. However, clothing, holiday customs, belief of modesty, religious/spiritual beliefs, food, and classroom behavior are very different. Americans own a lot more outfits and wear a lot more clothes. We also have different standards of modesty. Chinese people generally wear more layers and longer and looser clothes. Holiday customs are a lot different in China. They celebrate different holidays, but they do have specific foods that they eat for specific holidays and gift giving holidays. So there are similarities but also a lot of differences. Classroom behavior emphasizes more teacher respect than American classrooms. They don't ask as many questions and the grading system works much differently. Chinese people have different religious beliefs, they focus more on legends and myths. Christianity is not as well known as it is in America. They also have very different food in China. More rice and different pasta dishes. The food is more healthy and they eat less processed foods. It was very interesting discussion.
Aileen TS#11
Friday evening I met up with my child tutees and as well and teamed up with another tutor from our CIES class to start the children off by showing them how to use family vocabulary as well as how to tell age. We drew a basic family unit with the labeled "brother" "sister" "mom" and "dad" and asked each one of them to distinguish their role within their own family. This case being a family made up of 3 sisters and 2 brothers. We had them point out to each other what they were in the family. In the case of Amidu and Abu they would say that they were "brothers" etc. Also, we introduced using possessive pronouns in order for them to be able to explain their relationship to each other. Of course, being that they are young we didn't go into a detailed explanation of what possessive pronouns were but instead modeled for them in example sentences of what to use. For example "She is my sister. He is your brother." To sum up the first hour of the session I think the kids were able to get a good grasp on what a family can be composed of.
Jack Buck CP#5
I met with my conversation partner, Xueying Liu on Friday at 2:30pm. Kersten and I decided to take our CP's to lunch at a Chinese restaurant called "Joy Luck Place". Apparently it is supposed to have more traditional fare. Kersten brought her boyfriend and roommate also. We all talked about different customs between the US and China, and our experiences traveling. We also talked about the super bowl and pop music.
Jack Buck TS#10
On Friday at 2:30pm, I met with Claudia in Strozier library. Claudia has all of her CIES finals next week and so she wanted me to go over grammar with her. This was the first time that we had done grammar, so I was a bit nervous, but I thought I actually did a really good job of explaining it to her. We went over Past Participles, and also the present perfect tense. I really enjoyed tutoring her in this subject because at the start, she didn't have a full comprehension of the subject, but I could see her beginning to understand more and more. In the end, she understood the use of present perfect tense and the implied meaning when using that tense.
Jack Buck TS#9
I met with PJ on Monday at 6:30pm. In the last session, I had decided to switch books, but when I told PJ this, he got upset, because he said he really liked the book that we had been reading (hatchet). So, I explained why I thought it would be better for his learning to switch to a more level appropriate book. But, I told him that we could continue reading from hatchet if I felt like he was comprehending the story based on my comprehension questions. We read through a chapter, and I felt like he was mostly comprehending, but I decided to read a chapter from the other book "Island" just to see if there was any difference in his comprehension. After reading a chapter, PJ told me he preferred to read "Hatchet" and he felt like he understood that one more.
Jack Buck TS#8
I met with my adult tutee Claudia on February 10th at 12:30pm. Claudia informed me that she had to do a presentation for her speaking class, and so we went over her presentation and how she could best transfer the information to the class. Her topic was the New Year in Venezuela, and so we went over holiday/food traditions.
Jack Buck TS#7
I met with PJ on February 6th at 6:30pm. In this session, we continued to read "hatchet". PJ seemed especially tired this session, so it was a little difficult trying to keep him focused on the story. I tried to ask him comprehension questions throughout the reading, but he didn't seem to know how to answer them. I decided to end the session a little bit early as a result. I also started to think that perhaps the book was too difficult for him, so for the next session, I had decided to read from a book a level down.
Friday, February 17, 2017
Paula CP #2
Conversation Partner: Yushan
February 9, 2017
7:30pm-9:30
Lake Ella/ Food Truck Thursday
We took the opportunity that it was Food Truck Thursday and went to Lake Ella. My roommate was there so Yushan got the chance to talk to her for a little bit. We decided to get some Quesadillas. We shared them, since she hadn't tried their food before. We listened to music and got to talk about our weekend. In the middle of this we encounter Bob and his conversation partner. I got the chance to talk to him for a little and learn about him, while Bob got to talk and learn about Yushan. Yushan was able to learn about the culture of Tallahassee, music and talk to other people.
February 9, 2017
7:30pm-9:30
Lake Ella/ Food Truck Thursday
We took the opportunity that it was Food Truck Thursday and went to Lake Ella. My roommate was there so Yushan got the chance to talk to her for a little bit. We decided to get some Quesadillas. We shared them, since she hadn't tried their food before. We listened to music and got to talk about our weekend. In the middle of this we encounter Bob and his conversation partner. I got the chance to talk to him for a little and learn about him, while Bob got to talk and learn about Yushan. Yushan was able to learn about the culture of Tallahassee, music and talk to other people.
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