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

Karinna CO #3

I was able to observe Victoria Davis's Reading class for students that are in level 2. Ms.Davis class had an ambiance that felt comfortable and cozy. The students seem to enjoy her class, and were actively speaking with Ms.Davis is a respectable manor. She first started the 50 minute class by introducing the agenda for the day. First, they briefly discussed what happen in the previous class and she answered an remaining questions. Then she moved into their activity, she picked a student to read a paragraph out loud and then as a class they analyzed the paragraph and worked on a summary. This class period was focused on being able to identify the main point of a paragraph and then producing a summary for the whole passage.  Since the students mostly worked individually for the remaining time, Ms.Davis took the time to speak to me about her different teaching techniques. After a few minutes she had to stop speaking with me and focus on her students. Ms.Davis walked around assisting her students with any questions they had.   

Dylan TS #1 Adult

Date/Time: 7/17/17 4:30-5:30
Location: CIES
Lessons taught/learned: Speaking, Writing

I met my CIES tutee Tingwei. Upon meeting Tingwei I was pretty shocked to find out that he came to FSU last February without really knowing any English because when I first met him his English was already very good. He could a conversation with me and understand almost everything I was saying. I asked Tingwei what he wanted to learn and he explained to me that he would like to hold better conversations with people and write better grammar because he told me it takes him sometime to communicate because he has to think about what to say before he talks. So for this session I had him speed write what he saw around the room I was tutoring him in along with coming up with fake conversations that he thought would take place. This helped him better understand how to spark up a conversation. Along with that I used a vocal quiz technique and asked him questions such as how was your day or what are you doing this week. Just so he could practice with having conversations with native speakers in English. He enjoyed this and asked if we could do this for next session. I also had him after the session to do a take home h.w assignment which consists of having conversations with people in English and to write about it for next tutoring session.

Dylan Class Observation #1

I observed Angel Rios's speaking class. It was class 4a at 1pm so the students already understood English speaking and to my amazement the students were very good at speaking. For this class the students gave presentations on "How to". The students would show the class how to do something for example a student by the name of Tian gave a presentation on how to cook shellfish. It was very interesting to see this and to understand why they chose this idea to present. Professor Rios had me help him grade each presentation which really helped me in understanding what to look for when it comes to having a rubric. The class was full of excitement and there was never a dull moment. I could tell the students really liked Angel. Overall I thought this class observation was very insightful as it helped me with grading which I will use in the future when I start teaching a class.

Sophie TS #2- Fahad

My second tutoring session was with my adult tutee, a college student from Kuwait named Fahad Alajmi. We met up in Strozier, where he was working on a project for one of his classes with CIES. Again, like my first session with Eliya, this was more of an introduction and needs assessment than an actual lesson. With Fahad I'd like to work on pronunciation and some more advanced grammar topics. He seems to understand everything I say with no trouble, but could definitely improve his speaking skills. When I first arrived he asked me a question about gerunds and participles, and how to tell them apart in sentences, which I could not give a clear answer for. But I've since found an answer, so that's definitely something I'll cover with him next time we meet. Because it was more of an introduction, we got to know each other a little bit too. The topics of our conversation were very similar to my meeting with Rayan- favorite places in Tallahassee, pets, and our experiences learning a second language. Fahad is currently studying to take either the TOEFL or the IELTS exam so that he can take university classes, so I'm looking forward to helping him practice for those!

Sophie TS #1- Elia

My first tutoring session was with Eliya, a child refugee here in Tallahassee. Eliya's first language is Swahili, but he's learning English fast! I met up with a few of my classmates who are also tutoring children in Eliya's family, as well as Colleen, who tutored them last semester. Colleen showed us some of the activities she did with the kids, and then we all split up to work individually with our tutees. Eliya and I mostly worked on spelling, especially animals and foods. We took turns picking animals (his favorite is an elephant, mine a narwhal), and then Eliya wrote them down as he spelled them out loud. Eventually we ran out of animals and switched over to foods, spelling them out loud and on paper the same way as with animals. This was my first time tutoring him, so it was more of an introduction/needs assessment than an actual lesson. But now I know specifically what we can work on- basic spelling and letter recognition, pronunciation, and vocabulary. I might add some basic grammar skills in as well, but I would like to have one more session with him first to decide exactly what topics to address.

Sophie CP #1- Rayan

My first conversation partner meeting was with Rayan Nasser, who is from Saudi Arabia and speaks Arabic as his first language. We met at Starbucks, and talked for an hour about Tallahassee. We both compared our hometowns to Tallahassee, so not only was I able to learn about the differences between Tallahassee and where Rayan is from, but this way he also learned a bit about how Tallahassee differs from another part of Florida. We talked about our favorite places in Tallahassee- restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and activities. We also talked about our pets- he has a husky back at home, and I have a kitten here in Tallahassee. Another thing we talked about is languages and language learning. I'm learning Spanish as my second language, so I compared my experiences with that to Rayan's experiences with English. I was also able to talk to him about Arabic a little, because I've come into contact with some aspects of it in my linguistics classes, and because I have a friend who majored in Arabic and is currently in Morocco studying abroad. I enjoyed talking to Rayan; we have a lot in common, and I'm looking forward to showing him some of my favorite spots in Tallahassee! This week we're planning on meeting at All Saints Cafe, my very favorite place here.