Emily CP #3

Date/Time: Tuesday, 28 March 2017 @ 6:45 PM

Location: Tallahassee, FL

For my third meeting with Saeed we again went to Starbucks, I do believe the baristas are starting to remember our names. Saeed had been working on some listening homework when I arrived and asked me to give him some tips. I told him that he must never be afraid to repeat an English audio over and over again until he catches the gist of what the speakers are saying; I even told him that’s what I do when I listen to a new song. We talked about how he enjoys English when it is not associated with classwork, such as the work he was doing, and ways he could work on his English in a fun environment. I told Saeed that listening to American television shows was a great way to work on English listening skills and an even better way to acclimate to American culture. We then talked about my favorite television shows and what shows would be best for him to watch, such as FRIENDS, and we then talked about what kinds of books and movies we each preferred. Saeed, of course, prefers action and superhero movies and while I do, too, I prefer movies that are more historical. I gave him some recommendations, so we’ll see if he actually gets around to watching any. 

Claire TS #7

Date/Time: March 29, 12:00-1:00pm
Location: CIES
Topic/Skill: Gerunds vs. infinitives practice games

I met with Ana for the fourth time yesterday along with two other students who are in her Grammar and Speaking classes. Ana asked if we could meet more than once a week sometimes, and I had found some nice games to practice our topic from earlier in the week (gerunds vs. infinitives), so I suggested that she invite a couple of her classmates to play the practice games. They had fun with the games, and the backdrop of competing against one another made the practice a lot more light, fun, and motivated. I was able to be there to be the final judge of whether something was right or not, but they were able to judge one another's answers much of the time and monitor themselves internally. This was awesome because it gave them all extra practice correcting one another and explaining the reason behind their choices, it meant that I didn't have to do the correcting as much myself, and it added legitimacy to the rules and corrections I've been emphasizing so far. I did get to use the whiteboard to explain one concept that they were having difficulty with and provide some example sentences. Most of the activities came out of the Fun With Grammar book, and again I found mid-activity that a few of the questions were quite confusing. I really need to look closely at these materials before using them with Ana in the future so that I can adjust the question or the answer on the materials so that it makes sense and helps build the intended skill effectively. Overall, I thought this method of using small group games and discussion for a tutoring session was very refreshing and beneficial.

Ryler TS #5 (child)

Tutoring Session #5 (Child): Parts of Speech Practice with PJ
Wednesday 03/29/17 7:30

For our fourth session, we changed things up a bit. PJ got a bad score on an English quiz/exam at school that dealt with parts of speech so Professor Kim asked if I could go over this with him. I printed some worksheets that I downloaded from Englishisforeveryone.org and brought them with me to the tutoring session. I brought one worksheet for 7 of the 8 parts of speech, leaving out interjections (and articles) because I thought there were easy enough to explain. I asked PJ if he could tell me what an article was and he had no idea. Even after explaining he still seemed a little foggy on the concept though I think he eventually got the hang of it.
We completed the worksheets on adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, and nouns. The former two he had quite a bit of trouble with, the latter two he understood fairly well and breezed right through. At the top of each sheet the part of speech is explained followed by examples contextualized in a sentence. The exercise itself consists of underlining the particular part of speech in a series of sample questions. I left the verbs worksheet with PJ as homework. He said that found verbs and nouns the easiest of them so I think he will get through them. Next week we will review his homework, work on pronouns and conjunctions, and try a new exercise on adjectives and adverbs so that he can get more practice with those.

Ryler TS #4 (child)

Tutoring Session #4 (Child): Reading 'Brian's Return' (Sequel to Hatchet) with PJ
Tuesday 03/22/17 7:30pm

For our third tutoring session PJ and I read one of the sequels to Hatchet. Whereas last time PJ did all the reading, this time we took turns reading, switching off about every other page. PJ had already read the first chapter so he filled me in on what had transpired thus far. After each turn I would ask PJ comprehension questions to make sure he understood what was going on and he answered them well. He was really hung up on a moral element of the plot so we wound discussing that a bit. The main character gets into a fight at school that another boy started. The protagonist quickly gains the upper hand and, red with rage, beats the boy senseless and continues to attack him until people physically pull him off the other boy. The protagonist is put in handcuffs and brought to his mother by a police officer and is subsequently made to go to a counselor. PJ found hard to comprehend why the protagonist was being punished even though the other boy started it so we had to discuss the moral responsibility one has even when physically defending oneself and the line at which defensive action because offense once the attacker is incapacitated. This had little to do with language comprehension but I figured it was an important topic to discuss especially since he repeatedly asked "but why is Brian in trouble? The other boy started it".  As an adult, I haven't had much interaction with young people so it was interesting to witnessing a developing person grapple with the moral nuances of this plot point. 

Claire TS #6

Date/Time: March 27, 12:00-1:00pm

Location: CIES

Topic/Skill: Gerunds vs. infinitives and TOEFL timed speaking Q1

I met with Ana for the third time yesterday. I had her do another practice TOEFL Speaking question (type 1) and worked with her on a grammar topic I know she has been learning about in her Grammar class and still makes frequent errors on when speaking. It has been cool to see Ana make little improvements on her timed speaking practice. I have been timing and recording her on my phone so that she feels the same sense of pressure as she will on the TOEFL (and can hopefully get much of the anxiety about it out of her system before she ever takes the test), and she has been getting a lot less flustered and has managed to kick out increasingly well-supported, fluent responses in a short amount of time. I think the grammar topic that I picked (gerunds vs. infinitives) was a good one, but some of the materials that I brought turned out to be a bit confusing. One was an exercise from the Fun With Grammar book, and I hadn’t looked closely in advance at the answers they wanted to you choose from. They were pretty unclear at times for both of us. The other one was a worksheet that I made where she had to fill in the missing verbs in American movie titles in the appropriate gerund or infinitive form and then match the movie title with its description in another column. I knew this would be challenging for her and didn’t expect her to be able to match all the movie titles and descriptions, but I thought it would still exercise the skill well, involve some critical thinking, and introduce her to some new vocabulary and cultural information. I decided to send Ana a quick Facebook message later in the day apologizing for the activities being overly confusing and affirming that she did really well on everything; she had to leave our tutoring session in a bit of a rush because of a test  in her Speaking class, so I didn’t have a chance to say it in person, but I really didn’t want her to feel discouraged!

Claire TS #5

Date/Time: March 24, 6:30-8:00pm

Location: Tutee’s home in Sienna Square Apartments

Topic/Skill: To Be + not and opposites

I met with my child tutee Damarce and 4 of her sisters on Friday. I’ve been going way over in my time with them, but I had somewhere to be an hour and a half after the start of our tutoring session this time, so that really helped my keep my lesson simple and not stay too long! This week I taught the girls some key “opposites,” or adjectives, mostly describing physical appearance, such as short, tall, slow, and fast. I gave them each a copy of a handout with the 12 words and pictures and had them write in the equivalent in their language, since they are all able to write in their language and seem to really like having this information.  We practiced pronouncing each one and I gave example sentences. I went over the verb To Be with them last week, so I reviewed it this week and showed them how the word “not” could be added after the verb in the simple present to make the sentence negative. Then I had each of them give me a sentence describing how she is (using one of the vocabulary words). I was really glad that they were able to do this! It’s been hard to get them to create complete sentences and speak them out on their own. After that I went around asking them questions for more practice (“Are you tall or are you short?”). Then I laid out some pictures of farm animals on the table and described one of them using the vocabulary terms and colors and they had to guess which animal it was. They did a good job with that! I think next time/going forward, I want to do some more fun games to get them using the vocabulary. I have been doing some fun activities at the end of the lesson each time where they listen to a song and learn a new dance move, but I think the vocabulary practice activities I’ve been doing have all been fairly similar and not super engaging. If it’s more fun or competitive they will be eager to use the words and I know the information is more likely to stick.

Kim TS #5

At 7 pm on Tuesday March 21 I arrived at my child tutee's home for his third tutoring session. Amidu's younger sister let me in and sat down at my feet. His mother let me know that Amidu was not home and he had left to go to the store. His mother's english isn't all that good so I wasn't able to find out when he might return home. A bit unsure of what to do, I waited for a few minutes before deciding to just tutor his younger sister because I was already there and she seemed eager to have me present. I was hopeful that Amidu would show up during the lesson but the hour went by quickly and I left before he returned home. His sister sat with me and we practiced what we had learned the week before: colors, numbers, animals, and the alphabet. She is still struggling with remembering all of the colors (especially pink, green, grey, and red) but she knows the alphabet very well. She is not as advanced as Amidu and she struggled quite a bit when I presented the animals we had gone over the week prior. I look forward to presenting new material to the children during next week's lesson and hope Amidu will be home for it!

Kim TS #4

I met with Modibo for our second tutoring session together on March 21 from 12-1 pm. We started our meeting catching up about his trip to Orlando for Spring Break. He had a really great time riding the roller coasters at Universal Studios. During my first meeting with Modibo he expressed interest in learning more vocabulary and becoming a more fluent english speaker. He has already passed the TOEFL exam, is finishing an application to FAMU for engineering school, and is eager to better his english. I brought an article I found that talks about the history and traditions of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Modibo read the article two times, once out loud and once to himself. While reading, Modibo circled words that he was unfamiliar with and I helped him the pronunciation of words that were new to him. Using the context of the article, we discussed what the new terms probably meant before I gave him definitions from the dictionary. His understanding of context was great and because his first language is French, a lot of the words he was unfamiliar with in English were very similar to the same words in French. Some new vocabulary words included: kitsch, customs, resplendent, floats, coveted, frenzy, surging, revelry, processions and astonishing. Modibo was interested in the content of the article and was able to relate to the African influence found in the month long celebration.

Taylar TS #3

Date/Time: March 22, 2017; 12-1PM
Location: CIES 
Topic/Skill: Articles, Uses of "used to," and Listening Skills
Abdulghaffar has a very good grasp of grammar, but I believe he loses confidence or second guesses himself when it comes time to apply the grammar rules.  In the case of Definite and Indefinite Articles, I explained the difference between the two and went over all the rules with him.  He then pulled out an article worksheet from one of his classes that was in a "fill in the blank" format.  He was able to accurately complete the worksheet without much help from myself.  In terms of his Listening skills, he struggles with being able to comprehend the lectures while trying to take notes and remember all the key points.  He tries to write everything down and then gets hung up on a word he doesn't know or know how to spell.  I told him the best strategy in note-taking is "less is more." He should try to write in short hand and let his brain fill in the gaps later on when reviewing his notes.  Also, if he hears a word that he doesn't know how to spell, he should write it down how it sounds (phonetically) and then look up the correct form later so he doesn't get lost in the lecture.

Taylar TS #2

Date/Time: March 24, 2017; 4-5PM
Location: 1911 Jackson Bluff Road
Topic/Skill: Phonics and spelling
Feedback provided to tutee: Christian practiced the alphabet since we last met and he was more comfortable with it this time around.  There were still a couple of letters that he still doesn't have a good grasp on (for example: N, M, P, X, B, and D) so I focused mainly on words that began with those letters. He was able to pick up on the phonics easier than he was with spelling last week. 
Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Christian has a good grasp of conversational English for his age, but he still struggles with spelling and phonics.  His ability to pick up the phonics faster than his ability to grasp spelling, I believe, comes from his conversational skills. For the most part, he is able to understand how a word should sound in English, but not how to actually spell it.  As our tutoring sessions progress, I want to continue working on spelling and the alphabet with him.  I also found this time around that towards the end of our session he began to lose focus and did not have as much motivation anymore.  I think my lessons may have become too repetitive to maintain his attention and, with his brothers playing in the other room, I think he was no longer as engaged as before.  For our next session, I want to create activities that are less controlled and more like games so he will be more interactive.

Taylar CP #2

Date/Time: March 23, 2017; 2:00:00PM
Location: Dirac Starbucks
Topic discussed: Eun Young and I discussed our classes and the tests we just had before Spring Break.  We also talked about what we did over Spring Break, our post-graduate plans, and why she came to Florida State from Korea.
Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Eun Young told me that she went to New Orleans for Spring Break with her friends for Spring Break.  Mardi Gras was in full swing and she said she saw a number of things that were surprising to her, including the festivities and the amount of people that were partying in the streets.  We also talked about the differences in culture between Northern and Southern USA and how Florida is sort of on another level than the South! We talked about how the northern US typically has more metropolitan areas and places that are known more so internationally than places in the South. We also talked about how we study for our classes and how our different cultures influence how we approach studying and education. 

Taylar CO #2

Date/Time: March 21, 2017; 2:00PM
Topic/Skill: Listening
Teacher Presentation: The instructor reviewed the previous days vocabulary. Then, the students were instructed to review the previous day's work that consisted of identifying sentences that were wrong and correcting them.  These sentences were part of a dictation audio file that the instructor then played so the students could see if their work was correct.  The audio lasted around 5-7 minutes and talked about soccer (sports was the topic of the current module).  
Classroom Management: The instructor was very hands-off and simply silently walked around the room, only stopping if an individual student had a question. The instructor just laid out the lesson and let the students discuss it with each other. 
Materials: Textbook, Computer, Audio Dictation file.
Student Participation: High; The students were interacting with each other and were virtually autonomous when it came to actually carrying out the lesson.  The instructor only stepped in to bring the class back together or provide general feedback for the lesson. 
Feedback Provided: Feedback was provided on an individual, one-on-one level.  The instructor also encouraged the students to assess each other and discuss the lesson/homework with other students.
Lesson(s) on teaching you learned: The biggest takeaway I got from Angel's class was the benefit of autonomy when it comes to students participation.  By taking a more hands-off approach, the students were able to solve problems themselves without relying on the instructor to answer every question they had.  A highly controlled teaching environment in which the instructor is constantly lecturing or breaking up the students activity can disrupt the students' flow in learning the material.  It also provides for less of a crutch on the instructor themselves when the students are able to problem solve on their own.  This makes it easier for them to cultivate their language learning abilities. 

Sabrina CP#3

Date/Time: March 26, 2017. 5pm to 7pm

Location: Optimist Park 

Rehab invited me to have our second meeting at Optimist Park. It was my first time going to this park but upon seeing it I loved it. There is a lovely playground for children and many trees to provide ultimate shade during these hot days. While this was my first time at this park, Rehab has been coming here every weekend with her kids. Her eldest son plays soccer while she spends time with the two younger ones on the slides and swings. 

While the kids played, Rehab and I had a lot to talk about. We talked about the recent American immigration changes and the difficulties people are facing. Rehab is really concerned with all that is going on especially since she will have to head back to Egypt in a few years. We discussed the political and economic climate of Egypt. Currently there are a lot of movements taking place in Egypt that are changing the lives of Egyptians. Rehab shared that living expenses are becoming incredibly high but salaries are not meeting up to fulfill these needs. The education system is also weakening which makes her worry for her children when/if they return. 

She shared with me the story of her young sister who happens to be a physician. Both her sister and her husband are doctors but they left Egypt because they could not find a proper job even with their high qualifications. Rehab was saying that in Egypt currently Egyptians do not have much rights or privileges compared to the foreigners who live there. Unlike in America where Americans’ rights and privileges come first. 

Rehab is a very social person and I saw a glimpse of that as many regular people of the park came and said hi to us. Even though her English is not advanced, she has great confidence and loves going up to people to introduce herself. It was really an interesting conversation session with Rehab. I got to know a lot about the Egyptian situation from the perspective of someone who lived there. 

Sabrina CO#3

Date/Time: March 22, 2017, 1pm-1:50pm

Instructor: Felicia Ciappetta, Group 4, Speaking Class, RM 304

The last class I observed was Felicia’s speaking for advanced speakers class. It was a very small number of students in the class. The class began with an overview of a project they were conducting. In the past few classes Felicia and her students have been discussing the American surveillance policies. In effect of those discussions, the class came up with a survey to ask other students around campus about their opinion on government surveillance. The class then proceeded to their new discussion. Felicia sat with her laptop at one table and she called me up to sit beside her. One of the students had homework to choose a current event topic and lead the discussion for the day. The young man began discussing the topic of the recent ban on electronic devices from middle eastern and some african countries. He introduced the topic and shared his view on the law and asked questions about what others thought. The discussion was engaging and everyone had something to say. At some points, a student would start talking about the topic but then stray off to another topic. But Felicia kept the conversation guided by occasionally inserting her thoughts and asking some more related questions. 

As the class continued with their discussion, Felicia showed me what she was typing on her laptop. She was making a list of the errors students were making in their speech. She had two lists of feedback. One list noted improvements students needed to make to keep the discussion lively, focused, and appropriate. Another list noted their “beautiful mistakes” aka grammar errors. 

I loved how seamlessly Felicia did this without the students feeling any discomfort. She did not correct them right away but kept the notes at hand to review with them in the next class. In the last ten minutes of class, Felicia had students work with their partner on the survey project and record the information they had gathered so far. 

It was very interesting for me to see Felicia teach this advanced level of speaking class. It was an engaging discussion where all the students participated because of the intense topic. I learned that its important to provide students with materials that will interest them to keep motivation going in a class. 

Sabrina CP#2

Time/Date/Location

March 15, 2017: Tom Brown Park: 4pm to 6pm 

I met Rehab Salem at Tom Brown park during Spring break on a very cold afternoon. We all had our winter gears on and upon meeting, we both chatted about how absurd it was to have winter weather during spring. Rehab is from Egypt and is an FSU graduate student studying Geology. She has three beautiful children whom I all met. The kids played in the playground while we chatted. I cooked a chickpea dish that my mom used to make for us as a kid and brought it to share with everyone in this little picnic. Rehab loved the food and it started a whole conversation on Egyptian food. I learned about the different spices they used in their cooking. In some cases when she was struggling to describe a certain spice, I would begin listing the names and then she would point out the right one. At one point she kept saying, “biter” and I was confused. Her son corrected her saying, “Mom, its bitter!” I found her son’s enthusiastic approach to correct his mom cute and amusing. Rehab then shared with me how to cook a famous Egyptian lamb dish. She taught me a few of her secrets. Rehab says that she doesn’t like cooking the authentic Egyptian way and always likes to add her own perks. We had a lot of fun eating and chatting. We talked about her studies and how she manages to raise three kids while doing so. I had a great time with Rehab and I can’t wait to get to know her better!

Emily TS #4

Date/Time: Thursday, 23 March 2017 at 10 AM

Location: Tallahassee, FL

For my second session with Kavira I focused on colors and phonetics. I would write a letter on a chalkboard, have Kavira identify the letter, and then I would ask her what sound that letter made. Since Kavira has shown no ability to read full English words my goal is to teach her the phonetic letters in order to sound unknown words out. With certain easier words such as “bat” or “moo” Kavira managed to sound the word out quite well, but she still struggles with certain letters even though she can correctly identify both the letter and the sound it makes. I hope through practice and repetition this problems can be resolved. As I could see Kavira was getting tired of working on letters and sounds I started teaching her colors. I would write down a color, say its name aloud and have her repeat it, and then I would point to an example or two in the room we were in. Towards the end I would simply ask her to point to a color whose name I chose or I would point to a color and ask her to identify its name. One of my greatest difficulties with teaching Kavira is that she shows no real interest and she frequently leaves the room for long stretches of time. Kavira only shows interest when her older sister is participating and since her older sister is more advanced I’m trying to balance both girls’ skill levels.

Emily TS #3

Date/Time: Thursday, 23 March 2017 at 10 AM

Location: Skype

I had my second meeting with Dojun this week and it was our first true session with new vocabulary and learning objectives. Since our first session was an evaluation and revolved around me asking Dojun about himself I decided our second session would involve a listening activity about me. I began by reading a one page history of myself, including my travel, education, family life, and hobbies. Dojun and I then went over the new vocabulary and I had him read aloud the comprehension questions to make sure he understood the assignment. I then reread the About Emily text and had him answer the comprehension questions after I read. The next portion of our session focused on Dojun’s listening skills for faster audio such as the dialogue you would often hear in videos. I had him watch a video on the history of cursive handwriting then, together, we went over the vocabulary and comprehension questions. I had him answer what comprehension questions he could from memory then I read a transcript of the video aloud to him. My goal throughout our forthcoming sessions will be to help Dojun strengthen his listening skills for faster dialogue. Dojun can understand native English speakers with relative ease, but struggles with native English audio and video that has faster dialogue. As our session concluded I tasked Dojun with listening to one American podcast, from a provided list, a week and noting any vocabulary he does recognize as well as any that he does not. I want Dojun to recognize that he does have the skills to listen to rapidly spoken English. 

Emily TS #2

Date/Time: Thursday, 16 March 2017 at 10 AM

Location: Tallahassee, FL

After a bit of an address mix up I finally had my first meeting with my child refugee tutee. Kavira Agape is a first grader from Uganda. When I arrived at the apartment one of her younger siblings answered the door and I waited for a few minutes before Kavira made her debut. She has a very large personality, but was very shy around me and only began to engage when her older sister did. Kavira knew the alphabet and knew common words used to demonstrate the alphabet such as apple for “A” or cat for “C” but struggled with identifying certain words or letters she knew on paper. Because of this struggle I focused on having Kavira and her family, who were joining in on the session, copy the letters I wrote on a chalkboard on a piece of paper. Kavira struggled with writing more difficult letters such as “M” or “G.” She would frequently get upset when she couldn’t understand how to write the letter or when her mother tried to intervene. After a bit of a tantrum I tried to get Kavira to focus by continually retracing the letters I would write until she could accurately replicate the letter and would high-five her to get her spirits up. It was interesting to note during the session how quickly Kavira and her family were picking up on English. I could definitely tell Kavira was learning in school, but given her age it was very difficult to have her focus so my goal is to make our sessions more interactive in order to pique her interest. 

Emily CP #2

Date/Time: Tuesday, 21 March 2017 @ 7 PM
Location: Tallahassee, FL

For my second meeting with Saeed we again went to Starbucks. This time Saeed asked me to focus on correcting his English as he spoke; giving me permission to interrupt him if he made any mistakes. We spent the bulk of our conversation talking about what Saeed was going to do on the weekend, have a barbecue with friends, and how one appropriately expresses future plans. It was interesting because Saeed kept saying “at the weekend” instead of “on the weekend” and I had to continually remind him that while the statement is grammatically correct it is not a phrase that many Americans use. Since Saeed made me hungry talking about a barbecue we talked about our favorite foods, what vegetarianism is, and our favorite desserts. Saeed was talking about how much he missed some foods back home in Kuwait. It was interesting to note how much easier our second meeting was. I felt that I could understand Saeed more than before and he the same, not to mention that the initial awkwardness was gone. Saeed is showing a genuine interest in getting to know me and exploring some American culture, we’re even planning to go to the library so I can teach him how to rent movies through FSU.  

Sabrina TS#7

March 24th @ 4pm to 6pm

Taslima’s Apartment 

This session we did a lot of yes/no conversation practice. I had a few pictures pulled out on my laptop. Each image showed people doing various activities. We began the session with me asking the questions. For each picture I asked her three questions whose answer would be a yes/no. Afterwards, it was Taslima’s turn to look through the pictures and ask me questions to which I would have to answer yes or no. It was actually quite fun. I felt like this activity allowed Taslima to use more descriptive vocabulary. It also took Taslima’s attention away from correcting her grammar and directed her concentration on finding what part of the picture she would ask me about. 

Next, I pulled out a a series of yes/no interview type questions. These questions were posted on a ESL teaching website. I asked Taslima over 10 questions from here, but I told her she could not just end with yes/no. She would have to explain the alternative if she chose so. Then I asked her more conversational questions that anyone could ask her. Like, “Do you have a car? Do you drive? Do you live alone?” Again she would answer with explanation. In later part of the session, I asked Taslima to ask me ten questions she was curious about. Sometimes she had trouble with arranging her subject and object in the sentences. But I just told her to say it and then noted the errors and afterwards we reviewed the errors. Taslima would write down all the mistakes she made for her own practice. 

At the end of the session, we watched a recipe video on how to make macaroni and cheese. In this video there came words like “stir, pour, boiling over” to which Taslima had questions about. I reused these words in example sentences and had Taslima write it down. I told her to re-watch the cooking video and try to use visual aid to understand what was being instructed. Overall it was quite a fun session! I did notice that sometimes I tend to go too fast. From my perspective I think its okay but for Taslima it makes her feel lost. So I need to be more cautious about my speed and take things slow. 

Sabrina TS#6

March 23rd @ 9AM - 10AM

Skype 

In this session So Young and I did a lot of vocabulary review. I shared with her a list of historical vocabulary words. It was a list available on a website called quizlet.com. We went through each of the words and I gave her example sentences and more detail definitions. Afterwards, I asked her questions about a few of the words. For example I asked her to explain the difference between culture, community, and civilization. After some discussion over the vocabulary words, we did a game together. On the quizlet website there is a matching game. We successfully completed the game. Afterwards I asked So Young to write two paragraphs about a Korean historical event using the newly learned vocabulary words. 

It took So Young some time to brainstorm what she would write about and outline her ideas. I told her it did not have to be long but just wanted to see if she knew the usage of the words correctly. She shared her two paragraphs and we reviewed the errors. We had a discussion on run-on and incomplete sentences. 

We then read an article on Ancient Egypt from a scholarly historical website. Before reading, So Young and I talked about what we knew about ancient Egypt. So Young did not know much about the history except that they were builders of the pyramids. I used this article because it used many of the vocabulary words we had learned earlier in the session. 

After reading, we discussed the new information we had gathered about ancient Egypt and I asked So Young some comprehensive questions. For our next session, I decided to provide So Young some extensive reading material. I told her to read the first chapter of the book, “The Gift of the Magi” and we would discuss it for our next Tuesday session.

Sabrina TS#5

March 19th @ 6:30pm to 8pm 

Taslima’s Apartment 

This session we worked a lot on learning words and using them in conversation. I bought a list of verb words used very frequently in the English language. The list had all the verb tenses listed in different categories. Taslima and I went through the entire word list (which was quite huge). To my surprise she was familiar with most of the words but had only a receptive knowledge of them. Whenever she had trouble defining a word, I gave her hints. I would act it out with whatever stuff was available in our setting or give or other clue words. We focused on a few words that Taslima seemed to have questions about. For example, “put”, “set”, “bought”, and “brought”. She asked what was the difference between putting something on a table and setting something. To be honest, often I was not ready to answer her questions. In these cases I gave her a lot of example sentences to help her understand. 

Afterwards we worked on conversation. First I had an example scenario. I chose the topic shopping and began with myself. So I asked a question and then answered it myself, demonstrating how I would like our conversation practice to go. We stayed with the topic of shopping. I asked various, “when, where, how” questions and Taslima attempted to answer. I noted down the major errors in pronunciation and context as we went along. An error she kept having was saying “weekend-day” instead of “weekend”. I reviewed the errors and repeated to redo the conversation. 

The next topic we chose to have a conversation about was “work”. Taslima is a stay at home mom at the moment, but I told her to describe what work she does as a mom. I wanted to help her use the verbs she already knew productively. This conversation seemed to go well. 

Overall, I was very pleased to see Taslima engaging in conversation. I think she is growing confidence in her speaking abilities. I realized I should choose topics more to her interest and this might further help improve her English speaking skills.  

Jacqueline TS #4 child

3/25 10:00-11:00 am

Yesterday I tutored Alex (and his older sister). I printed out a worksheet I found online matching vowels to the correct picture. Some of the pictures he wasn't familiar with, so I told him what they were and wrote them out for him. I had him copy the words on his own paper, then we discussed the sounds each vowel made. After matching them on the paper, I came up with a story for a couple of the words and used my hands for another visual aid. I can tell he understands me, but some words he's unfamiliar with, so I think this helped. For example, I asked him if he thought the word 'umbrella' was for inside or outside. Then I asked him if he knew what 'rain' was. When he didn't, I drew him a picture. Next, we discussed the purpose of the umbrella- To keep you dry and protect you from the rain. I had him write out some of the key words from my description and go over the sounds. 

After going over the vowels, we read one of the books from the library about "short i sounds". He's able to recognize letters, but doesn't know the sounds each letter makes. When I gave him the sounds, he did really well putting them together and figuring out the words! Very proud of him and his sister. They were very focused today, despite all the distractions in the home :)

Jacqueline CO #1

3/22 9-9:50am Group 1A Grammar

On Wednesday I observed Felicia's grammar class. As she taught, she was sure to speak slowly as she enunciated her words. I could tell she was passionate about teaching and really enjoyed it. When she would ask questions and students would respond with an incorrect word/phrase, she would repeat it back to them as a question and discuss why that word/phrase was inappropriate for that sentence. Other students would chime in and guess what the word should be. When students gave the correct answer, she would get really excited and say, "Good job!" or give them a high five. She was very encouraging in their learning process. Throughout the class she had us break into pairs to discuss questions like, "What are 5 things about your favorite hobby?" (which turned into the students answering with 5 of their favorite hobbies), "What are 5 facts about the United States?", and "What are 5 examples of conjunctions?" She would give the students a few minutes to discuss, then would bring it back to a group discussion, going around the table the discuss the answers. Towards the end of the class, they did a worksheet on simple present vs. present continuous. It was fill-in-the-blank, but the infinitive verb wasn't listed, and sometimes, two words needed to be in one blank. The students seemed very confused and she realized the worksheet was not a good testing measure for their knowledge. She wrote a word bank on the board, then went around the table to discuss which word went with each sentence, then went around again to discuss conjugating it to the correct verb tense. Overall, I think Felicia was a very good teacher and the students we're in a positive learning environment.

Chloe CO #3

For my third classroom observation, I observed one of Angel’s reading classes. The class focused on reading comprehension. They read a story together and answered a list of questions. To begin with, they focused on their knowledge of the main character: They knew she was poor and unhappy about her life. This was followed by asking what they knew about the life she wants- For example, she wants a fancy house, famous friends, she wants to be envied. When a student answered a question, Angel asked them to point out the specific part of the text they were referring to. This helped the rest of the class to understand the answer. The students brainstormed as a class and compared the woman’s values to her husband’s values, making two lists on the board. They came up with adjectives like “materialistic”, “selfish”, or “responsible”. The discussion included many “why” questions: Why is the dinner important to her? Why is she sad about the ticket? Some questions were opinion-based: Are her concerns about jewelry reasonable or foolish? The class also discussed some of the figurative language, such as “drunk on pleasure” (Pointing out that this doesn’t mean she’s actually drunk). I thought the story was a good choice- it seemed to be level-appropriate, and it was quite interesting and entertaining. The class discussion helped students to focus on their reading comprehension and learn from each other.