CP#6 - Tingwei

Tingwei and I met at CIES and then headed over to the Sweet Shop today. It was move out day for most students whose lease ended on July 31, and so I showed up to our meeting with an overstuffed book bag, a lunchbox, my purse, and two small bags. I explained that I had had to give away or pack up as many things as I could since my dad couldn’t come to Tallahassee to help me move since he had gotten a kidney stone. Once at the Sweet Shop, I ordered a coffee and Tingwei ordered an iced green tea infused with rose, which ended up not being what he had wanted to order. There were so many options that he ended up choosing the wrong drink by mistake, which in hindsight must’ve been visually overwhelming, since the Sweet Shop has their menus on chalk boards in cramped lettering. We spoke about moving, healthcare in the US and why I wanted to travel to Spain (which was citizenship and better health options, which is how we got on the topic of US healthcare at present).

Kristen TS#9

I met with Brenda again in one of the CIES classrooms and started out the lesson by her practicing her speaking and listening skills.  I noticed this time she had less errors when using "they and "them" (which I taught last week).  I also noticed in the previous classes that she made errors in her present tenses so I went over the different ones with her.  I believe she was taught them previously but may have forgotten them.  After I explained each one I had her come up with example sentences for each tense.  We then spent the rest of the class practicing the different ones in conversation.

Kristen TS#8

I met Tianfeng again at the public library.  We talked a little bit about his classes and and upcoming trip he is taking.  A friend and his son is visiting from China and they are taking their kids to Key West and Legoland.  During the conversation I noticed that Tianfeng was not pronuncing his "S" in the middle of words such as "university" and "usually".  I brought it to his attention and then we started the pronunciation lesson. We worked on the differences between the vowels in words such as "feet" and  "fit" and "pen " and "pain".  The "e" and "ai" sounds he was able to clearly pronounce but the "ee" and "i" sounds he really struggled with.

Kristen CP#3

Bruna and I met in the CIES lounge again on Wednesday.  We talked a lot about superhero movies and shows.  We both like many Marvel shows such as Arrow and Flash.  We also like comic books though I told her it's been a long time since I have read one.  We also talked about how some directors take things a little bit too far.  For example, we both want to like the tv series Daredevil, but it's a bit too dark for both of us.  We talked about how sometimes violence is needed to move the plot along but there is no reason for gratuitous violence.  This led into a discussion about people and how some people like to hurt others.  She mentioned that in the gaming world there are some people who take advantage of the kindness of others and use and abuse them.  They want to win at any cost.  We then got into a deep discussion about toxic people and how they have affected us personally.

Kristen TS#7

I started my session out with Crispin by reviewing different objects that I introduced the last session.  While we went over that, we also practiced the colors and shapes.  Last week I introduced him to circles. We reviewed that and I introduced him to squares as well.  We then spent the remainder of the lesson alternating between him drawing objects and telling me what they are and me looking up ducks on my phone and counting them together.

Kristen TS#6

My meeting with Brenda started out with her practicing speaking and comprehension.  She mentioned that she feels less advanced than the other people around her.  She also said that she doesn't get to practice her English much because she is not around it at home and when she is around other students she feels self conscience and doesn't want to speak.  I have decided that I am going to incorporate a little bit of speaking and listening into each one of our sessions.

I also noticed last week that when she was speaking about a group of people she frequently got the words "they" and "them" mixed up.  In today's class I explained when to use each word.  I then had her come up with example sentences and then we practiced the different words in a conversation.

Kristen TS#5

I took took on a new student through the Literacy Volunteers program at the Leon County Public Library.  His name is Tianfeng and he is Chinese.  He is working on his doctoral program at FSU and would like to teach.  Although he and his family have been living here for a few years, he feels his English needs to improve before he can teach.  He wants to focus on his pronunciation.

I found 2 articles from Breaking News English, one more advanced than the other.  I had him slowly read the articles and corrected him sentence by sentence.  This gave me some ideas of what he still needs to work on.

TS#10 Anka

I met with Anka at Strozier with the idea in mind that he could write a poem for his wife. From what Anka has told me, he has not seen his family in about six months, and there is no possibility any time soon of them coming to see him in Tallahassee. Since last session I learned that his wife understands English fairly well, and since he has shown an interest in poetry I thought it might motivate him to use English in both a practical and a personal way. I had previously had Anka try to do a writing assignment that was advertisement based, but that seemed to garner little enthusiasm for any new vocabulary use or any attempt at communication. It might’ve been that Anka simply didn’t see the use or had no interest in doing the activity. He is a graduate student after all, and trying to get into FSU Law, and so I thought that he might care more about writing if it was attached to something he cared about. To do this, I printed out an exercise worksheet that showed step by step how to write a sonnet. He was immediately intrigued by the idea, and I’ve noticed that he is not only very serious and hard working, but an idealistic romantic who loves to talk about things in a positive light. While he did have some of my help in editing the sonnet, the ideas, intentions and comparisons were all his doing. He learned a great deal of vocabulary that he actively used, such as the words: vow, strife, deserted, and spilling. Although he did write a sonnet and followed all of the rules, I did not stress the ten-syllable count or iambic pentameter, since I felt that it would be a bit too strict of a guideline to encourage communication. Anka has given me permission to show his poem to others, and so here it is.

May Our Parting be Broken Up

I miss you like the birds fly south.

But we need to stay separated for now.

I remember our laughs spilling from our mouths.

The camping trips, the barbecues, my vows.

I left for our future, for a better life.

And I can only do that by improving myself.

I must study hard and overcome my strife.

But God knows, I feel deserted by myself.

But one day, we will sit together again as a family.

We will see our sons grow up

as strong as lions, and happily

will our parting be broken up.

But for now, let us count the days and nights,

hoping that one day soon we’ll be together, whether in daylight or in moonlight.

TS#9 Turki

I met with Turki at the Starbucks behind CIES. We made a Venn diagram so that he could compare and contrast two arguments, since Turki had to get ready for a debate in class where he was arguing that exercise in school was a positive thing, while his opponent had to argue the opposite. We talked about how he should have a list of main points and he came up with a couple of points, such as exercise fighting depression and obesity. After the Venn diagram I helped Turki study for a vocabulary quiz, by giving him fill in the blank vocabulary quizzes that I had made myself with the words he was currently studying. Unfortunately I was only able to meet with Turki right after his CIES classes, and he was very tired. I have also rarely been able to get a hold of Turki for tutoring up until now, so he was still overly worried about pleasing me with high marks on anything that I asked him to do, and was embarrassed when he had trouble with the vocabulary quiz I had made for him. Hopefully this will fade in the next two weeks the way it did with Anka and Sultan.

TS#8 Anka

I met with Anka at Strozier last Tuesday. For this session I had Anka do some intensive reading with Maya Angelou’s poem “Kin”. The poem was about family, life, death, and parenting—all the while being written with cyclical symbolism, like the water cycle (which represented the circle of life). He was very impressed with the poem since so many words stood for different things other than their literal meaning. There were about three words that I had to define for him, but other than that, the intensive reading fit his level of analysis and comprehension. There was a lot of rereading and explaining about certain combinations of words, such as “red rings” being a makeshift phrase that stood for twin umbilical cords. Anka also learned a new phrase: blue and black. I had to explain to him that to be blue and black is to be bruised or severely beaten. All in all, Anka seemed to have a lot of fun reading the poems. He even told me later that he had shown it to his wife over Skype, since she also speaks English, and that she liked the symbolism as well.

Alberto CP#3

Date/Time: Friday, July 28^th at 7 pm

Location: Abdul and I live in the same apartment complex, so we met there and went to Proof Brewing Company which is located at the Railroad Square Art Park.

Topic discussed: Abdul told me about his life in Saudi Arabia and about his goals for the future; he wants to go to school to be a lawyer. We also discussed our interests and hobbies.

Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: It was the first time for both of us going to this local spot, and there was a really nice atmosphere; they had live music playing, and different activities for people to stay entertained, like cornhole. Abdul and I had an awesome time learning more about each other, listening to music, and enjoying the scenery.  

Alberto TS#11

Date/Time: Wednesday, July 26^th at 9:30 am

Location: At home – through Skype

Topic/Skill: Speaking

Feedback provided to tutee: Dojun told me a story about an event that happened at his workplace over the weekend; the airline that he works for had a problem that caused some flights to be delayed. I wanted to evaluate Dojun’s spoken accuracy and fluency by allowing him to express himself freely throughout our conversation; he did most of the speaking, although I did ask him questions for clarification, and to show him that I was interested in what he had to tell me.

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Dojun told me about his visit to Guam which is a US island territory in Micronesia; he said that they have Macy’s and Lowe’s there, which is hard to picture in such a remote place. 

Alberto TS#10

Date/Time: Thursday, July 20^th at 9 am.

Location: From home – using Skype

Topic/Skill: Speaking – Speaking on the telephone in English

Feedback provided to tutee: We looked at some of the words and expressions that we use for telephoning in English. Dojun often has to use the telephone in English at his job, so this was a great practice to help him feel more confident when the phone rings in English. The hardest part about using the telephone is the fact that we cannot see the other person’s body language, so we practiced having a conversation with the camera turned off, making it impossible for Dojun to read my body language. I wanted him to realize how it’s more difficult to understand a person speaking if you cannot see them. 

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:  The website, englishclub.com, has some great speaking exercises that can be used for tutoring and for practice outside of class. 

Alberto TS#9

Date/Time: Saturday, July 29^th at 11 am

This morning I worked one on one with Francine, and we practiced her writing with a tracing worksheet. Each letter of the alphabet was accompanied by a vocabulary word starting with the corresponding letter, so we were able to practice writing as well as some high frequency vocabulary. Afterwards, we watched an episode of Bugs Bunny, and Oliver joined us as well. They really loved watching the cartoon, and they even asked me to play more for them. It was nice to be able to tutor Francine because she is always enthusiastic about learning, and she always has a positive attitude; she is learning at a fast pace because she is very motivated. It is very rewarding to see them make progress learning their second language. 

Alberto TS#8

Date/Time: Saturday, July 29^th at 10 am

Annie and I went to tutor the children this weekend, and we brought them some donuts for breakfast; they were very grateful for that. Three volunteers from the university were also there helping teach the kids which was very helpful. I worked with Alex on his listening skills by reading him a few short stories aloud; after each story, I asked him comprehension questions to make sure that he was following along and understanding. We separated the children so that they could work independently with a tutor and not be distracted; it’s always best to work with the children individually because their levels are slightly different, and more time can be devoted to each child. Alex and I also worked on a crossword puzzle that had a vocabulary list about animals. 

Alberto TS#7

Date/Time:  Wednesday, July 26^th at 7 pm

This was my first time tutoring the children during a weekday; usually I only tutor the children Saturday mornings, but since time is limited I want to start meeting with them twice a week. Annie and Dylan carpooled with me, and a couple of volunteers from the Refugee Outreach Program were already there when we arrived. The two younger kids, Naomi and Oliver, were too tired to do any formal activities; I think it was probably because they had a long day, and they are more used to being tutored in the mornings. We had a small whiteboard and markers that someone brought, so we played hangman with the children; the game really got their attention, and we played as a group. It was great to practice vocabulary through such a fun activity that really engages the kids. 

Alberto TS#6

I went to tutor at the children’s house Saturday, July 22^nd at 10 am. Oliver and I practiced his listening skills by playing a game that consisted of pairing cards together in order to make a picture. Every time he would correctly pair two cards, I gave him a brief explanation of what was happening in the picture, and I would show him the vocabulary words in the back of each picture card. He really enjoyed listening to the stories that I made up from the pictures, and I assessed his understanding by asking him comprehension questions. Dylan and Annie were also there that day tutoring the other children; it really helps to have a few tutors there at the same time because that way every child can receive individual attention. 

Ken TS #5 Mardioli

Today I met again with Mardioli (7/26/17). We went over adverbs and how they are used to modify a verb. Mardioli says that she has trouble speaking to natives outside of the CIES building. She said that she had a miniature panic attack last weekend when she could not form any words in English. Then I asked her how long she has been practicing English - which she responded with 3 months

3 months.

She went from no concept of how to speak English to being able to create coherent and flowing sentences. I told her what a remarkable feat that was, but she was still unimpressed with herself so we went to work.

I helped her to understand why some sentences she wrote for a writing assignment were incorrect and helped her to stay in the same tense (past or present tense verbs)

All in all, good session

T.S #4 Dylan Child

Date: 7/26/17

Time: 7-8 pm

Location: Children's house

Activity: Spelling, Vocab

For this session we went over different vocabulary and for the first activity I had one of kids Alex do a word find. With this he would search a word find and figure out the different words that were hidden. The category was Reptiles so for each reptile he found in the word find I would show him a picture of that reptile. Alex seemed to really enjoy this and to help him out with pronouncing the words he found I would have him say the word out loud once he found one of the reptiles on the list. Upon completing the word find. All the kids who were present wanted to do something together so Alberto, Annie and myself thought a good idea would be hangman. The kids would list a topic and choose a word while the other would try to guess and spell out the word. They all seemed to love this as everyone was involved. This helped with their speaking and spelling as they shouted out what words or letters they thought would help solve and win the game.

T.S #2 Dylan Adult

Date: 7/25/17

Location: CIES

Time: 6:30-7:40

Activity: Writing, speaking, grammar


For this session I had with my adult tutee I had Tingwei write a prompt for me. The prompt was about why he wanted to come to america along with why he wanted to learn English. I had him also list the similarities and differences with his home country Taiwan and the united states. After Tingwei finished I had him read me the paper and give me a summary on what he had wrote down. Upon telling me what he had wrote down I gave feedback on how he was pronouncing words along with correcting his grammar, For the most part the paper was very good and had minor grammar mistakes such as forgetting to add "the" or "my". After this activity he asked me to help him better understand the differences between the proper usages of to,two and too also with for and four. I explained to him the definition and gave an example. I had Tingwei explain to me back what he thought each way to use it along with listing examples. He learned very quick and I can not wait for the next session so that he can better understand and hopefully master the basics in English grammar.

T.S #2 and #3 Dylan Child

Date: 7/22/17

Time: 10am-12pm

Location: Children's house

For the first part I went over different vocab with Francine along with with helping her with the alphabet. We started off with upper case and went to lower case, she seemed to really enjoy it and she was also really good at it. I also helped Alex with his ABC's and we went over different vowels which he had some trouble in the beginning but soon caught on and was very impressive with his spelling.

For the second part we watched the movie "Hotel Transylvania". All the kids were involved and very interested in this movie so I was sitting next to Alex during the movie and asked him what he saw and for him to describe in English what he saw. This helped him improve his speaking as well as he got the chance to enjoy and watch a movie while also learning at the same time.

Kaitlin CP#6

Kaitlin CP#6

7/26/17

Salem

Yesterday I met with Salem at Starbucks. He was studying for a test that he has today. He asked me a few questions about objective clauses, noun clauses, and adjective clauses. I admitted to him that I am not too familiar with it myself so I was looking up the differences and how they were put into sentences. We also spent some time just chatting about cultural differences, goals, family, housing, and traveling. Salem likes to joke around a lot so it makes the conversations fun. 

Kaitlin TS#8

Kaitlin TS#4

TS#4

7/27/17

Camilo

Pronunciation 

Homonyms 

Homophone

Kaitlin TS#7

Kaitlin TS#7

TS#7

7/26/17

Camilo

Essay Practice:
Grammar
Sentence formation

Kaitlin TS#6

Kaitlin TS#6

TS#6

7/25/17

Camilo

Pronunciation 

Speaking
Vocabulary

Kaitlin TS#5

Kaitlin TS#5

TS#5

7/25/17

Seongeun

Introduction/ needs & assessment 

Nonacademic questions 

Academic questions 

Kristen TS#4

I learned from my first session with Crispin that he is pretty strong willed and I will have to have a very different teaching approach.  He is very young (maybe 3 or 4) and I have to make learning fun.  Since he loves to draw I incorporated that into the lesson. I had him go over different objects to name them and then I asked him to tell me what colors they were.  I also tried having him practice numbers, but he wasn't into that very much.

 I am also having him practice shapes.  We practiced making circles by Crispin tracing the circles and having him say the word several times.  Then he made some drawings made from circles.  I asked what they were and he tried to describe them.

Kate CP#4

Date/Time: July 26, 2017; 12:00pm
Location: CIES Building
Topics discussed: Classes, family, TV, government, life in general
Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: My partner and I met up during the CIES lunch break. We spoke on a variety of different topics, including our thoughts on the latest Game of Thrones episodes. We came up with a topic for him to write his next composition essay on (doping in sports or marijuana legalization), and also spoke about how different American-style essay writing is from its Arabic equivalent (and the challenges that presents him). I also learned that Kuwaitis do not pay taxes, but still have many public benefits because the government receives so much revenue from oil. We then talked a bit about fashion, and both agreed that much of the "high fashion" that you see is ugly, impractical, and expensive-- both of us would rather use the money on fun things/trips.

Kate TS#4

(Dojun)
Date/Time: July 25, 2017; 8:00am
Location: Skype
Topic/Skill: Initial Meeting, Conversation Skills
Feedback provided to tutee: For our initial meeting, feedback was limited to some small pronunciation/word use corrections for the sake of facilitating our first conversation.
Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: My tutee is from South Korea, and is not a student in the traditional sense-- he primarily wants to learn English to help him advance in his work, as well as to make traveling to English-speaking countries easier. For his job, he needs to be able to speak with people on the phone in English, so he wants to focus primarily on his speaking and listening skills. After our initial discussion and needs assessment, we spoke briefly about our respective cultures and he told me more about his life and work.

Alberto TS#5

Date/Time: Saturday, July 15^th – 11 am - 1 pm

Location: children’s house

Topic/Skill: listening

We watched the movie, Moana, with the kid’s, and they said that it’s one of their favorite movies. Volunteers from the Refuge Outreach Program brought a laptop to play the movie because the children’s parents didn’t have a television, and they also took them some donuts for breakfast. The movie was great and very entertaining for the kid’s; they really enjoyed dancing along to the soundtrack, the songs were beautiful. They patiently watched the entire movie, which was surprising to me considering the short attention span that they have at such a young age; also, I was amazed at how they understood most of the movie with very little need for help. 

Alberto TS#4

 I went to tutor the children at their house Saturday, July 15^th at 10 am. We worked on vocabulary building and pronunciation. Daniel struggled a little bit tying to pronounce a few of the vocabulary words, but that did not discourage him from wanting to keep learning. I told him to never be shy and to always ask questions. The children are great auditory learners, and they love to sing along to songs about the alphabet. They really enjoy any educational activity that is interactive. 

Dylan C.O #3

Class observation #3
7/24/17
2:00-2:50 pm
Rios
Speaking

 I class observed Angel Rios class 4a speaking class. For this class we went over vocab and how it can be used. For the first objective professor Rios went around the room with a picture of a family having dinner together. He would then ask what were the differences between dinner in America and dinner in his students home country. He asked if they would have dinner with their family or alone. It was interesting to see how people would not have dinner with their family and some had dinner with their entire family of 10 plus people for each showing. Upon that Rios then had the students do a listening audio vocab lesson where they would have to hear the missing word so they can fill in the blank. After that was completed, professor Rios used those missing words as vocab and had the class list the definition of the word along with give synonyms. The class was engaged the entire time and seemed to really enjoy what they were learning. It was a good learning experience for me as well as I learned new ways to help teach vocab and speaking for when I have to teach a class.

Alyssa B - TS #9 - Dasom

Tutoring Session 09

Date: July 21, 2017
Time: 6:00pm – 8:30pm
Area: Moe’s, Starbucks
Tutee: Dasom
Level: 3B

Man, we spent a long time working today, but I feel like we didn’t get much done. For a while, I had her practice speaking over dinner, more like a conversation partner. After that, we worked on an article to practice skimming, scanning, and context clues.

              I feel like this article was fitting for her level, as it didn’t seem as difficult as the ones she’s been working with in class—not nearly as much so. I gave her (over) ten minutes to scan/skim and answer ten questions. However, she only answered about half of them, and didn’t get halfway through the article. I told her a few tips on scanning and skimming, and explained the difference and how to apply them to the questions. Hopefully they helped, but I guess only time will tell.

              She seemed to have a problem with using context clues to figure out the meaning of words. That’s something we will probably have to work on. She also wasn’t good at pointing out the narrator’s point of view, or answering “According to paragraph *number*, *blank* is an example of *something*.” She didn’t seem to know how to trace back to find out what a particular thing was connected to.

              I’m finding it a bit difficult to progress with her, so I think I’m going to start giving her homework so she can work on it on her own when I’m done with tutoring her.

              I’ll also start incorporating the past vocab lists I’ve given her into some exercises.

CO#3 – Angel Rios Listening Class

When I arrived to Mr. Rios’ listening class, it was quiz day. He asked me to introduce myself and then had the students get into groups and write sentences on their own. These sentences had occasional blanks in them so that they could be used as class exercises in grammar. He then collected the papers and had all of the students try to fill in the correct word or verb tense by projecting the class made exercises on the board. Shortly after he had the students take out a sheet of paper so that they could take their quiz. He had them number their papers and then began to recite words so that the students could write down their answers—with the hope that they would spell everything correctly.

Once the class was over, I asked Mr. Rios if he had any teaching tools that he could recommend for auditory listeners. He recommended dictation, recordings of conversation, writing in full sentences, and Randall’s Cyber ESL Café.

CP#5 - Tingwei

I met with Tingwei at CIES and then headed over with him to the SLC so we could play video games. Unfortunately, the games were not available yet, but there was plenty of conversation. I mainly talked about how I would have to move out of my apartment soon and had spent most of the weekend cleaning and packing things up. I asked him if he had gone to Wakulla Springs the week before, since I remembered seeing many CIES students being rounded up to go on a field trip to Wakulla Springs while I tutored Anka. Tingwei was upset that the weather had not been better, and then we got to talking about natural springs in Florida in general. I told him about how I was going to Devil’s Den next weekend, but how so far, my favorite spring was Weeki Watchee down in Spring Hill. It was apparently where the myth of mermaids began, with sailors confusing manatees with mermaids. I also talked about how manatees are weird animals since they are virtually harmless and also have no predators, unless you count boat propellers. Tingwei thought they were funny looking. I also mentioned how many manatees love visiting Florida springs because they love cold water.

TS#7 - Anka

I met with Anka at CIES. I tried the same session style and topic that I had attempted with Sultan, but this time it went a lot smoother. At first I thought that Anka might not find the Olan Roger’s video funny since he is a bit serious and likes to get straight to work, but I was quite pleased to find that he actually laughed. Additionally, Anka’s reading level was on par with the NPR article, so I didn’t have to shorten it. I also took Dr. Kennell’s advice about reading aloud when first reading something new. I read the article aloud and then had Anka go back into the article in order to answer ten TOEFL style multiple choice questions. He aced eight out of ten, with his main difficulty being vocabulary. I then took the lesson a step further than I had with Sultan, and had Anka write an advertisement about a pepper of his own invention. He was asked to use all of the vocabulary words he had read in the article and then was instructed to write a persuasive advertisement from the perspective of the Habanada’s competitor.

TS#6 - Sultan

I tried out my Reading Lesson on Sultan to see how effective it would be. I decided that I would have a theme for the lesson so that Sultan could at the very least be prepared for the topic we would be reading about that day. It worked moderately well, though some conditions were not ideal. I think I made the session a bit too difficult for his level of reading by asking him to read a whole NPR article on his own. He was already very tired from a previous tutoring session that same day and had trouble concentrating. Then I remembered what Professor Kim had said about word count when assigning intensive reading, and how advanced readers were generally assigned 1,700 words to read. The article that I had asked Sultan to read had about a thousand words, so I shortened it to about 400 words to make the reading less tedious.

In the end, the theme that I chose for the lesson was peppers. I began the session with a video by famed YouTuber Olan Rogers called “The Bad Apple”, which is a stop motion animation about a childhood memory that the author recounts about a family pepper eating contest. I did this to lower his Affective Filter and to wake him up a bit since he seemed distracted from all that he had done that day. Then I had him read an NPR article about a new type of heatless pepper called the Habanada. I practiced some TOEFL style questions with him afterwards that I made up after reading the article.

Kristen CP#2

My conversation partner and I met again in the lounge at CIES to talk.  For some reason I can't remember we started talking about different birth control options.  I learned a lot from her  and when I asked how she became so knowledgeable on the topic and she explained to me that she had to be very careful what she exposed herself  because she has a family history of different health problems.  Through this conversations we both realized that we both have a family history of kidney disease and we need to be very careful how we treat ourselves.

We also talked about Disney World.  She wants to go there before she goes back home.  I told her that summer is a bad time because the lines are so long and it's super hot.  She agreed that maybe October or November would be a better time to go.  She thinks she will try to go then.

Kristen TS#3

For my second tutoring session with Brenda I wanted to get a writing sample from her to evaluate her grammar.  I gave her a silly picture of a cat with a pizza stuck to his head and had her write me a few sentences based on that picture.  From the writing I could see that she has some problems with punctuation, as well as some spelling errors.  It is giving me some ideas of what to teach in future classes.

After that, I wanted to test her listening and comprehension skills so I had her listen as I read an article about toilet paper thieves in China. The article was from Breaking News English.  I read the article out loud again as she filled in more details. Afterwards, I asked her some multiple choice questions about the article. I believe she understood most of the article because she got most of the answers correct.

Karinna TS #4 Imani

I meet Imani for the second time and this time was better prepared. After evaluating him our previous session, I was able to prepare better for this one. I went ahead and stopped by the dollar store to purchase a kid friendly notebook and flashcards with words and matching pictures. We first quickly reviewed what we covered in our last tutoring session and then moved onto new material. Imani struggles with his confidence, which I believe is affecting his ability to perform to his full potential. I kept the lesson simple by introducing a couple of letters, their sounds and a few words that start with those letters. I instantly saw an improvement not only in his confidence, but is ability to identify letters and the words he was reading/writing. In our next session I plan to follow this pattern and introduce a couple of more letters, while still reviewing the ones he has previously learned.

Karinna - CP#3

For my second meeting time with Naser we decided to go to Starbucks once again, this seems to be his favorite spot. I am trying my best to get him out of his comfort zone by trying something new, but this might be a bit of challenge. I decided to go ahead and try out a conversation partner activity that we receive via email weekly. This defiantly sparked some interesting conversation. One interesting question that was asked was to talk about an important person from your country. He told about the man that lead his country to peace and freedom in 2002. I told him about Martin Luther King Jr…one thing led to another and we started discussing Pablo Escobar. We covered his questionable importance to Colombians. While we were talking about our different backgrounds, a man overhead us. It just so happens that this man has visited both Kuwait and Cuba. This sparked a light in Naser eyes, he so proud to hear that someone had visited his country and was able to see the beauty that is home, Kuwait. 

Alyssa B - CP #4 - Jiwan

Conversation Session 04

Date: July 20, 2017
Time: 7:00pm – 8:30pm
Area: Starbucks
Conversation Partner: Jiwan

To be honest, I don’t think any of my conversation partners or tutees like me. I don’t know why, exactly, but I sort of feel that way. I suppose maybe because I’m not a good tutor, and perhaps because I don’t have much to talk about during conversation…? (I actually told Dasom that I didn’t think that Jiwan liked me that much, and she said Jiwan hadn’t mentioned me.)

              Either way, today Jiwan and I talked about a lot of Korean culture. She told me about how manicures in Korea are much more elaborate than what you can get in America, and showed me pictures. They were super cute!!! One of the styles was having your nails painted to look like M&Ms, so I really want that!

              She also told me about how in Korea, you ALWAYS dress up to go out, no matter where you’re going. To the grocery store? Dress up. You could never wear yoga pants or T-shirts over there in public—I guess it’s seen as trashy. Dasom has to go back to Korea in October, so Jiwan told me that Dasom was a bit nervous going back since she has to start dressing up again and can no longer wear comfy clothes!

              We also talked about stereotypes. We didn’t get into it as seriously as Shuaihua did, but I feel like the Chinese students are much more serious in that respect, haha. Again, the older generations of Korea don’t like the Japanese. They don’t think Americans are lazy, per se, but we don’t work long enough. ^^;

              Jiwan told me about how even though it’s easy for her to tell Asian races apart, it’s hard for her to tell European races apart—like how Americans have a difficult time telling Asians apart. When I asked her how exactly she could tell them apart, she said, “The Japanese just have a certain air about them, and if we can’t tell straight away if a person is Korean or Chinese, they’re Chinese.” This made me laugh a lot.

              Apparently, that day the Korean students also made Korean noodles in the CIES building for lunch. When I went there, I thought it smelled delicious!!! She told me they hadn’t expected it to smell so strongly, and had gotten a bit worried about it, haha.

              Well, there was more, but that was the gist of it!

Kate CO#3

Date/Time: July 21st, 2017; 9:00am
Topic/Skill: Grammar
Teacher Presentation: The teacher started with a quick overview of what would be on next week's quiz. Then, using an agenda that he had pulled up on the projector, he began an assignment in which students had to write about something that had made them laugh. The students were allowed to use translators as it was their first time with the subject. Grammar mistakes that the teacher saw or heard were typed up on the board, and as a class they discussed how the errors could be fixed. After the break, the teacher briefly lectured on adverb placement, again projecting on the board so students could follow along.
Classroom Management: The teacher didn't have to do much to keep the students focused on the task at hand. However, I think that having the lesson on the board helped to give students an idea of what was going on/a visual piece to focus on.
Materials: Projector, computer, Microsoft Word, worksheets, textbooks
Student Participation: Students shared their stories with one another aloud, which helped them to self-correct mistakes. At the end of class, students also participated in a fun activity in which they drew a scene and then gave the drawing to their partner to write about. This was a creative, silly way to engage students, and provided enjoyment for both teacher and class.
Feedback Provided: As mentioned above, the teacher typed out mistakes and projected them on the board, working with the class to correct them. The teacher also had a file of mistakes made over the past week, which he reviewed again to make sure the students remembered them. The teacher said that some of the mistakes would be on the upcoming quiz, which provided more incentive for the students to really take note.
Lesson(s) on teaching you learned: I think that reviewing mistakes made over the past week is incredibly important, as otherwise the students are more likely to forget the lessons learned and repeat their mistakes.

Kate TS#3

(Soyoung)
Date/Time: July 22, 2017; 8:00am
Location: Skype
Topic/Skill: Conversation Skills, Speech-writing
Feedback provided to tutee: This past week, my tutee had to give a speech in front of international students and faculty at a closing event for the summer program she worked at. She sent me a draft of what she was going to say, and I was able to edit/provide explanations of certain grammar points that needed to be changed (past & present participle, correct idiom phrasing, lists, and simple present). We also worked on conversation skills, including more idioms/common phrases.
Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: My tutee and I discussed stereotypes and prejudices in both America and Korea. Doing so helped me to understand how some people view America, and to more thoroughly examine how I view other countries. It is important to analyze our thoughts and feelings on foreign countries, and to examine where certain impressions may have come from. As a teacher of English as a foreign language, it is important to make sure I come from a non-judgmental and open point of view.

Kate CP#3

Date/Time: July 19, 2017; 8:30pm
Location: Student Services Building (FSU)
Topics discussed: College life, games, luck
Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: My partner and I went to a game of bingo hosted by FSU. Several of my friends/coworkers were with us, as well as some other CIES students. We discussed the game (and the fact that it was kind of silly, based entirely on luck, and mostly played by old people), as well as how our weeks had been going. It was a fun time, and most conversation focused around the game, but I felt like it was a good way to introduce an aspect of American college life (i.e. attending goofy events with friends for fun and free food).

Sophie TS #3- Fahad

For my second tutoring session with Fahad, I asked him if he had any specific topics he would like to cover. His request was for some help with essay introduction paragraphs, so I found a few outlines and resources I could share with him that would be useful.

http://www.sbcc.edu/clrc/files/wl/downloads/StructureofaGeneralExpositoryEssay.pdf
I used this one, as well as one other that I can't find again, focusing on the introduction sections. While they're both geared towards expository essays, I made sure to explain how a similar setup could also be used for other types of essays. I explained the importance of an intriguing first sentence, so that the reader is interested in reading the rest of the essay. I also explained the importance of a thesis statement, at the end of the introduction paragraph, which explains exactly what the essay is about and sets up the main points for the rest of the essay.

http://www.grammar-quizzes.com/intros.html
This was another resource I found as well, that I didn't get a chance to use during our tutoring session. Hopefully I'll be able to use it next time, but it seems really useful as an interactive way to practice different types of introductions.

Eventually we did end up talking about the format of the rest of an essay too, beyond just the introduction paragraph. We talked about different types of essays, and how they might be structured differently. For example, the body paragraphs of an advantage/disadvantage essay might be organized differently than an informative essay on the history of pasta. I explained the importance of transitions and fluidity in writing, something Fahad said he had some trouble with. I used myself as an example- I remember writing essays when I was younger and having teachers always tell me to explain things more, and to create better transitions. I learned to change my thinking, and to think about my essay's audience not as just my teacher, but as someone who has basically no knowledge of the topic. So even if I thought something was obvious or self-explanatory, to explain it anyways. He seemed to really appreciate this example, as he's been getting similar feedback on his papers.

At the end of our session, Fahad and I decided that he would write a short practice essay at some point during the next week, and bring it to our next session for me to look at. I promised to find some good, level-appropriate examples of essays and introduction paragraphs too!

Sophie CO #2

My second class observation was also on the same Monday as my first, this time a Group 3A Listening class with Ryan Flemming. The content of this specific class day was on note taking skills, especially to prepare students for taking notes during their TOEFL or IELTS exams. Ryan started the class following up with some questions from over the weekend and from classes the week before, such as vocabulary and a quick summary of what previous lessons covered. One thing I really liked about how Ryan taught this class was that he kept an online dictionary open in a tab on the computer so that any time a student asked about a word, he could pull up the definition on the screen for students to look at. This is definitely something I want to remember for when I'm teaching my own lessons!

The beginning of the class covered note taking basics, such as listening for organization in lectures. Using a workbook as an example, Ryan explained methods for note taking in detail. Then he played a lecture recording (twice) while students took notes. He read along with them and made sure to take note of any words that might be confusing. After listening to the lecture twice, Ryan had one volunteer share their notes with the class, while other students added additional information the presenter might have missed. The class then listened to the recording one more time, to see if there was anything else that could be added. This was then repeated a second time with a different lecture.

The final portion of class was dedicated to listening to a longer, 11 minute lecture. The workbook students were using had a blank outline to be filled in while listening to the lecture, with some prompts and organization already there as guidelines. Ryan covered the organization of this outline in detail before playing the recording. During the lecture, which was on the surface of the moon, he pulled up a picture of the moon, drawing on it as if he was the one giving the lecture. Doing this gave some context to the lecture, and added a visual aspect to it as well. Time ran out just after the recording ended, so the plan for the next day of class was to listen to the recording one more time, and repeat the same process as with the shorter lectures.

Sophie CO #1

Last Monday I observed my first class at CIES. I went to the Group 2A Speaking class, taught by Andrew Wilson. However, Andrew was out sick that day and Vicky Golen was his substitute instead. Instead of going through whatever normal lesson Andrew had planned for the day, Vicky used what she referred to as an ELP, or Emergency Lesson Plan. Basically it was just a premade backup lesson for a situation just like this one. The class began with 3 2-minute group discussions on a variety of topics. The first was arranged marriage, the second divorce, and the third was whether or not students think smoking should be allowed. It was interesting to watch this part because the students all came from different backgrounds, and their responses to each topic were so diverse! It was also a good exercise because it encouraged students to talk about issues that they may come across in real life, and it encouraged natural dialogue instead of something structured specifically for the classroom.

For the next part of class, Vicky asked the students to recall their recent vocabulary words and their meanings, and wrote each word on the board. Then she handed out a short passage on the topic of smoking bans, and read it aloud with the class. She answered students' questions about content and vocabulary, and then moved on to a video about the same issue. She played the video twice and asked students to take notes on the opinions of characters in the video. Then she assigned groups of students to write a short speech arguing either for or against smoking bans, based on the characters' opinions. While groups were discussing this, Vicky walked around the room encouraging conversation and clarifying and confusion.

Class ended before the groups could share their speeches, but for an emergency lesson, it was a very thorough one! I really liked how she incorporated both reading and listening into the lesson as well, because in real life dialogue and conversation are often in response to some of these things.

Alyssa B - TS #8 - Dasom

Tutoring Session 08

Date: July 19, 2017
Time: 5:15pm – 6:30pm
Area: Starbucks
Tutee: Dasom
Level: 3B

Today, we worked on another article that she had in her class. I won’t deny that these articles are difficult to work with! They’re very complex subjects for foreign students, and not ones that are interesting, at that. I suppose this will help in the respect of preparation for university papers…. However, I understand where she’s struggling. The complicated sentences are very confusing, and when I ask her certain questions to try and help her find the answers she needs, I feel like it doesn’t help much and only is discouraging…

              After that, as I said I would do, I created another script-based fill-in-the-blanks exercise, this time using something that was a little more amusing and slower: Friends, the sitcom show. She really enjoyed it! I was able to create another vocab page, with the definitions and sample sentences, just as before. Afterwards, I had her create her own sample sentence for each, just to assure that she knew how to use them and help her remember them (just as before).

              Unfortunately, I feel like I’m not doing a good job in helping her improve…. I feel like the exercises are at the right level, but I’m just not presenting it in a way that is helping her advance. I might ask Dr. Kennell for suggestions.

Corbin Ryan: Tutoring Session with Christian #3

            I was very pleased to find that Christian’s grasp of the English alphabet continues to improve. In transcribing the alphabet, asked for a lot less help, only looking to me when he couldn’t remember maybe five or ten letters. As I’ve mentioned in my other posts, Christian tends to write some (maybe five or six) of his letters backwards. For example, I have seen him write N’s, Q’s, and Z’s backwards, although in this third session, he only wrote his N backwards, and as soon as I pointed out the N he crossed out the backwards one and drew a proper one.

            This session, I tried to teach Christian the sound each letter makes. To do this, I ran through each letter, writing it down, and then saying and writing a word that that letter begins with. He was able to provide me with a word for half the alphabet’s letters. The other half, though, he seemed either confused or not paying attention. Either way, I need to create or find a more concise and entertaining activity so that he will learn faster, as well as not associate this knowledge with the discouragement of learning it.

            For the latter activity, Christian’s mother was watching over her son and I as we worked together. She distracted him a few times, interjecting in Swahili. If I find this to be a problem, I will make sure to shut it down.

            I checked out some children’s story books (Curious George, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, etc.) from the Tallahassee Library for our next tutoring session. The idea is that the stories as well as the books’ pictures will help keep Christian’s attention as well as provide a context for the letters and words I’m trying to teach him.      

Corbin Ryan: Tutor Session with Christian #2

            My current mission is to ensure that Christian understands the English alphabet, for all of its letters, and for all of the sounds they make. A good, consistent exercise we will begin each of our following tutoring sessions is the recitation as well as writing down the alphabet. Real simple. “No need to re-invent the wheel,” as I heard my high school band teacher say many times.

            In running through the alphabet on our second session, I was amazed to find that Christian could transcribe it with a somewhat noticeably increased amount of ease. Still, he looked to me maybe about ten or fifteen times whenever he wasn’t sure what the next letter was. Whenever he got stumped, I would sing the ABC’s until just before the letter he was trying to remember. I’m trying to get Christian to sing the alphabet himself so that he will remember on his own, but maybe he is shy about singing, or maybe he doesn’t understand what I’m asking him to do. I can hardly imagine it’s the latter, so perhaps I may think about a different way to have him recite it. Whatever the case, I am amazed at how powerful that song is in mentally reinforcing the ABC’s.

             I brought with me a bound collection of Calvin and Hobbes hoping to gauge Christian’s reading level, to see if he could at least sound out words by looking at the individual letters. We really struggled over these, I think the comics were definitely too advanced for him. I need to adjust the reading material. Next session, I think I will focus on or at least gauge how well Christian knows the sounds that the letters make.       

Corbin Ryan: Conversation Partner Meeting with Mohammed #2

I met with my conversation partner Mohammed for the second time last Thursday evening. We went to Gaines Street Pies and walked around Railroad Square a little bit. He told me about what things are like in Kuwait as we shared a cheese pizza. He told me that tattoo parlors, dance clubs, and alcohol are all illegal in his home country. But, he did say that hookah is extremely popular there, and, according to Mohammed, 95% of the population smokes cigarettes.

Mohammed asked me how much a tattoo costs. I didn’t have a very good idea, and asked why he wanted to know. Of course, he told me he’s thinking about getting one here in the United States. He showed me a photo of a tattoo he already has on his stomach. I found it interesting that he didn’t just show it me, that he chose to show me a picture. A cultural difference, maybe? Perhaps a social faux pas where he comes from? Maybe most Americans would have done the same thing, anyway, and I’m actually the one who doesn’t realize it.

            Like I have posted about before, Mohammed’s speaking and understanding are pretty decent for someone whose only experience is that he’s studied English in school for a few years back in Kuwait. One of the only things I noticed this time in regards to his areas of improvement for my conversation partner is that our conversation isn’t very fluid. As in, there were many times where he or I would ask a question and an answer would be provided, and then silence would follow. Like many other intermediate speakers, maybe Mohammed’s English vocabulary is limited in that he only knows basic words for each set of ideas there are to talk about, which could account for why in a single conversation, we switch between many different subjects.  

Alyssa B - CP #3 - Shuaihua

Conversation Session 03

Date: July 17, 2017
Time: 3:00pm – 4:30pm
Area: Sweet Shop
Conversation Partner: Shuaihua (Baily)

Today was very interesting. We went over the activity that Claire sent, which was on stereotypes. THAT was a very interesting topic. We talked about how Chinese people don’t really like Japanese—at least, the older generations. Nowadays, the war doesn’t affect the new generation’s opinion of such things. We talked about what the Chinese thought about Americans. Of course, the stereotype was “lazy.” I’m not surprised, honestly, haha.

              We also talked about the major differences, a main point being transportation. Even though Shuaihua and I talked a lot, we didn’t cover many specific topics, just elaborated on the ones that were brought up.

Alyssa B - TS #7 - Yao

Tutoring Session 07

Date: July 19, 2017
Time: 3:00pm – 4:45pm
Area: CIES Student Lounge
Tutee: Yao Wang
Level: ACES

I was able to find some more SPEAK practice tests, so I printed them out. We warmed up with the usual, asking how her day went, etc. Then we started with the test. She is very adamant about passing this test, so I want to help her as much as possible. Even though we’re practicing, I feel like I’m not helping her improve…

              Instead of setting a timer, I decided to use a stopwatch to help her gauge her time in how long it takes her to say what she wants. I feel like this has helped her; instead of feeling like she has to do it within a certain amount of time, she’s coming to her own realization and judging her own time.

              Even though the SPEAK test takes about 20 minutes to complete, we spent almost two hours working on this one test. Yao has a bit of a problem with the questions that ask her opinion, so I’m going to find a list of topics like that. Hopefully asking her so many will help it with the automaticity of her answers.

Alyssa B - TS#6 - Dasom

Tutoring Session 06

Date: July 17, 2017
Time: 5:00pm – 6:30pm
Area: Starbucks
Tutee: Dasom
Level: 3B

So, today I used the same exercise that Professor Kim showed us. Since Dasom likes superheroes, I took a trailer for the new Thor movie and wrote the script down, leaving blanks to fill in as she listened to it. I didn’t realize beforehand, but the speech was actually a little too fast. Luckily, YouTube has a slow-down feature!

              After that, I had picked out some vocabulary from the trailer, much of which was very American-culture influenced. A lot of the words she didn’t know, so that was pretty cool! I’m going to continue to use this style of teaching, hopefully better next time.

CP#4 - Tingwei

Tingwei and I went to Crenshaw lanes this time around, since it was too hot to sit outside and talk. The machine was a bit frazzled and failed to record both times that Tingwei scored a strike, to our disbelief. We talked about sports mainly, since I mentioned that I liked any type of sport to do with hand-eye coordination such as bowling or tennis. Tingwei himself is a big fan and player of basketball, although he played much more in Taiwan than he does in Tallahassee. We threw a lot of gutter balls, so anything so much as a spilt or spare was celebrated. In the end, we had no idea who had really won or not because the machine kept favoring one player over the other each game, and kept giving one player more turns to throw the ball than the other. Next time I’m thinking of taking him to the SLC, which is my favorite spot to hang out on campus.

CP# 3 - Turki

Turki and I mainly talked about the cultural differences that he had encountered while living on campus. Turki told me that the other night, while trying to get inside his apartment, he was accosted by a drunk student who was sitting in front of his door trying to talk to him. I could see that this annoyed him a great deal, and know that it probably reinforced the dangers of drinking for him, since his being Muslim prohibits him from drinking alcohol, and this experience only seemed to harden his resolve. This led to a discussion about college binge drinking culture in general and some cultural reasons as to why people would engage in it. I for example, grew up drinking wine at the table during dinner, so for my family and I, it was more of a meal accompaniment than a drinking competition, which is in stark comparison with some students, whose lawns I’ve walked by to find completely trashed from the night before.

TS#5 - Anka

I met with Anka at Strozier. His English is quite advanced when it comes to reading and analyzing texts, though I am still worried about his writing. We worked on two reading sessions where he read two short passages and answered questions related to them. Then I defined and explained the uses of all of the vocabulary words that he had gotten wrong. I’ve noticed that while he is very good at intensive reading, new vocabulary does not come easily to him, and he understands the story better than individual low-frequency words (which I think is better than the other way around). I think from now on I will focus more on writing, speaking, and listening rather than reading, since he seems to do fairly well in this respect. I was thinking of incorporating new vocabulary words in exercises since he will not remember the words if he does not use them. I recently gave him a small writing assignment to write two sentences using the words that he had just learned. Next session I will ask him to write the rough draft of an introductory paragraph using the assigned words and edit it himself after I point out his mistakes. I am thinking that Anka would benefit more from working on a portfolio since he will be taking his TOEFL exam soon, and needs to strengthen his writing skills.

TS#4 - Sultan

I met with Sultan at Starbucks over the weekend. I had him do some intensive reading by reading a poem called “So, we’ll go no more a roving”. It was a rather short poem with only twelve lines. I made sure to choose a simple rhyming poem that could be reread quickly several times so that he could analyze and discuss the poem by referencing lines whenever he needed. While we did have a lot of fun talking about the poem and the symbolism in it, I do think that I might have mistakenly picked a poem that was i+2 rather than i+1. He understood most of the words, and only asked me what nine out of the seventy-seven words meant. Overall, he had an 88% vocabulary comprehension of the poem, but the symbolism and the dual meanings of words in the poems proved to be somewhat more difficult for him to interpret. He was able to answer questions about the poem fairly well, and seemed to enjoy the activity. He then asked me about different ways of greeting someone and we made a dialogue that he had to write, read and reenact. I think that next time I will work in more grammar by using a bottom-up strategy like the ones used last class, and by using poems with more high frequency words.

Kaitlin TS#4

TS#4

7/20/17

Camilo

Essay Practice:
Grammar
Vocabulary
Sentence formation

Kaitlin TS#3

TS#3

7/19/17

Camilo

Today I talked with Camilo, we discussed what he wanted to improve on and where he thinks he weakness are at. He wants to learn business vocabulary. I also noticed that he needs work on his grammar, speaking, and sentence formation. He is nice and funny.

Kaitlin TS#2

TS#2
Rayan
7/19/17

Today I met up with my new tutor. We chatted a bit so I could see his fluency and where he needed to improve. We just talked about hobbies and what we plan to do after college. He said that he wanted to improve on his reading and listening. He is nice.

Kaitlin TS#1

TS#1
7/17/17
Dojun Kim

My first tutor session was with a man who lives in South Korea, Dojun Kim. We did our tutor session through skype. This session we basically just got to know each other. We also talked about cultural differences, our jobs, and interests. We also discussed what he wanted to improve on in our future tutor sessions. He was very polite and fun to talk to. I look forward to working with Dojun.
The time difference does make it a little hard for us to have tutor sessions.

Kaitlin CP#5

7/19/17
Wednesday

I hung out with Abdul today. We went to a bingo event on campus. The winning prizes were bags of food which was neat. We chatted a little, today to language barrier between us was more noticeable as he kept asking me to repeat what I said or told me he didn't understand. I believe because of our cultural differences and personality it creates a gap between communication. The bingo event was not something either of us want to go to again. We both thought it was slow and boring. He said it seems like a game for kids. I said that kids or old people usually play it and he got a laugh out of that.

Dylan C.O #2

Date: 7/19/17

Time: 9-9:50am

Yesterday I observed Vicky Golen's 3a grammar class. For this class we went over adjective clauses and relative pronouns. Professor Golen had high energy where she was able to keep the class awake and involved. She also went over defining nouns. For the first activity she paired people up in groups to reassure that her class understand defining nouns. She then used more group activities to help with adjective clauses such as jeopardy. The whole class was engaged the entire time and I could really tell that they were learning and understanding the concept. It was interesting to me to see how not just lecturing but  by using hands on activity's really makes a difference when it comes to mastering grammar. 

Ken CP #4 Camilo

I took Camilo out to play pool with some friends of mine yesterday (7/18/17). It was a good time! I learned that in Colombia they play a different variant of the game that is similar in form to 9-ball. You progress from 1-15 with each ball rewarding points based on the number on the ball. The catch: you have to hit the correct ball and if you don't, you lose points based on the ball that you are on. Worse yet, if you hit the wrong ball, you subtract points based on the number of the ball you did hit.

Sounds confusing. Let me explain with a scenario:

I am trying to hit the 3 ball, but miss. The cue ball misses all other balls on the table. If I had 1 point before I shot, my score is now -2 points. Now suppose my opponent (who has 5 points) misses the 2 ball and hits the 15 ball. Hitting the ball made him lose 15 points, meaning he is now at -10 points.

Its a cool spin on the game, but requires a lot more skill than 8 ball or 9 ball - we spent a lot of time in the negative...

He met with one of my friends from Miami and we all spoke Spanglish and talked about our differing cultures. I learned a lot and I think Camilo had a good time

Ken TS #4 Mardioli

Today, I met with Mardioli for the second time (7/19/17). Her presentation from last week went well! In addition to the presentation, she had to host a discussion. It was about charging minors as adults in a courtroom and if it is ethical to do so. Apparently it lead to a heated discussion, but I was not there to hear it.

Mardioli had an essay due tomorrow that I helped her with during this tutoring session. The handout given in class explaining the markings was very helpful! I like her writing style, she likes to use metaphors. One that stuck out to me was how the library was the the heart of the school, its pulse is the knowledge that it contains within its walls. She said that the library breathes opportunities. etc.

Tonight she is sending me the final draft via email for some last minute corrections.

We also went through a book that she had for reading class, and man, it was a pretty poor choice for reading material. It had a lot of rarely used words and some that were made up entirely. She said she is allowed to switch it out for another book and I told her to do exactly that.

Like last time, it was a pleasure and I felt very helpful. The more I tutor, the more confidence I have in myself so these sessions are a win-win.

Ken TS #3 Hope

I met for the first time with Hope and her family this week (7/15/17). I began the day with an hour bike ride to their apartment, so I had to take a moment to make myself presentable before I met with Rachel, Hope's mother. She and the rest of their family are from Uganda and only recently moved to Tallahassee.

They are a family of 7: Rachel and her husband, and 5 children. While I was tutoring Hope, a FSU psychology professor by the name of Liz played games with the four younger children.

I brought a mini whiteboard with me and asked hope to draw me pictures of houses, boats, animals etc. and then spell the names of the things that she was drawing. She is very intelligent and reads every night I learned! At the age of 11, she is the oldest of her siblings and has on the role of assisting them in learning english which she takes very seriously. I was humbled to spend time with their family. I literally cannot imagine being a parent and making the decision to uproot from my home country and leave to a foreign country where my children have a better understanding of the local language than I do.

At the end of the tutoring session, we played the iPhone game "Heads Up", which was a huge hit with the kids. At the end, they watched the video of themselves and laughed. It was hard to leave after that game because they wanted to keep playing. To an extent, I obliged, but I eventually had to go.

Until the next time.

Ken TS #2 Mardioli

This post is overdue. Last week (7/14/17), I met with Mardioli for our first tutoring session. Coincidentally, Mardioli is Eduardo's wife! Like her children, she has flown Eduardo's planes too.

Mardioli wanted to focus on a presentation she was giving in speech class so that is what we did. Her presentation was about the need to live your life and continuing to reach for your dreams, even when presented with obstacles.

I learned that she had always wanted to study international law in Spain, but she had to put her dreams on hold when she met Eduardo and had her children. She said that she did not have any regrets, but that she did want to continue to follow her passion. It was very touching.

At the end of the session, we started talking about our own dreams and I told her about moving to Colombia and the reasons why I am going. She was very receptive and the talk reflected her presentation.

Great first meeting.

Alberto TS#3

 I met with Dojun for the second time on Friday, July 14^th at 8:30 pm; we both connected through Skype. The skill covered was listening, and we used an exercise from the website, esl-lab.com. First, I administered a prelisting exercise to evaluate how much Dojun already knew, and to make sure the activity was not too challenging or too easy for him. I evaluated DJ’s understanding both directly and indirectly by providing highly structures assessments as well as free practice. We studied the vocabulary together, and I gave him verbal feedback. 

Alberto CP#2

I met with Daniel for dinner at his house on Monday, July 18^th. We made “cachitos de jamom,” a food that is typical from Venezuela, and we discussed our favorite dishes. I told my partner stories about my experience moving to the US and learning English; he shared with me about his own experience with moving, and we spoke a little bit about our goals for the future. The food that we made from scratch came out to be delicious, and we had a wonderful evening. His wife joined us after she got out of class. 

Alberto CO#3

 I observed Felicia Ciappetta’s grammar class on Monday, July 10^th. The group level was 3C, and the topic of the day was infinitives. Professor Ciappetta introduced the topic in an implicit manner; she asked the question: “In your country, how do people feel about the rich? Why or why not?” and then students had five minutes to discuss the topic with a partner. Students also participated in a group activity in which they had to ask each other the questions: “what do you plan to do this week?” and “what have you learned from your parents or grandparents?” The teacher was constantly reminding students the purpose of the activity, and helping them by providing positive feedback on the whiteboard. I learned the value of introducing a topic in a communicative way that motivates students to interact. 

Kaitlin CP#4

7/18/17

Today I met with Salem at the Library. He was with a couple friends and they were working on homework. They asked me a couple questions about state flags but I could not help them. I do not know the state flags because I have honestly never paid attention to them. They also asked questions about pronunciation and spelling. Other than that we all just talked and joked around. After a little while, Salem and I went to Starbucks before they closed. He told me that his host family wants to have me over for dinner.

Karinna -CP#2

I was finally able to meet my second conversation partner, Sultan. He is a 23 year old male from Kuwait. We spent sometime getting to know each other by discussing our personal lives back home and our future goals. Sultan joined his countries military at the age of 18 and was an active solider for five years. His plan was to save enough money for college and then begin his studies to become a successful business marketer. Once he graduates from college, Sultan would like to move back home for a short period of time so he can find a wife. After he is married he plans to move to Texas with his wife and begin his life in America. Sultan told me stories about his grandparents farm in Kuwait, and how it is his favorite place to relax when he has a lot on his mind. He also told me stories about his siblings and his entire family. He seems to really miss them, but his bubbly personality makes that hard to believe. Sultan really enjoyed to tell me about his culture and the traditional way of doing certain things. We also decided that since I will be helping him with English, it is only fair that he teaches me common Arabic words. It was a pleasure meeting Sultan and I cannot wait to meet again.

Alyssa B - TS #5 - Yao

Tutoring Session 05

Date: July 12, 2017
Time: 3:00pm – 4:00pm
Area: CIES
Tutee: Yao Wang
Level: Aces

Yao is a very serious student! She’s a biology student from China, and always thinks up elaborate answers, and her English is impeccably good.

              To start off, I did the general questions to find out about her and judge her placement. For her, those questions were basically warmups.

              And those were perfect warmups, too, because basically all she needs to practice is her speech. She let me know about the SPEAK test that she has been studying to pass, so before our session, I was able to print it out. She’s been studying that one, of course, but it gave me a good idea of what exactly the test was like. It’s very difficult.

Basically, what it is, is that Yao will have to answer in timed increments based off of pictures. For example, on is giving directions based on a map of a town, and using that same map she has to suggest a place to go and why. These are all timed, and should take up most of the time given—usually thirty seconds to one minute. The next is a series of pictures, and she has to explain the story being depicted, and then tell what she would do in the same situation. It really is easier to imagine than to say it.

What I found was awful is that the practice test actually has a GRAPH that she has to explain! And then, based on the information, Yao has to make a prediction as to what she thinks will happen next…. That’s something I wouldn’t expect to be on a speech test…

All in all, I think it went well, but our session only lasted an hour because I had a conversation with Shuaihua scheduled right after her, and he was already waiting right across the room. |||D Next time we’ll have plenty of time to practice, and that’s good because she says she wants to practice until 5:15pm. ^^; I understand, so that’s fine with me, but I live forty-five minutes away, so it’s kind of cumbersome, haha.

So, more as a side note from me:

Yao = Biology major

Dasom = Political science major

Shuaihua = Film production major

Jiwan = Mechanical engineering

Wow! What a mix!

~Alyssa