TS # 16

This was my very last tutoring session with PJ! I was definitely sad for it to be so, for I truly loved meeting with PJ and being able to understand his needs and limits in reading and reading comprehension. Fortunately, this last meeting with PJ was absolutely by far our best tutoring session together. Ms. Kim gave me the reading material to go over, which was a short story about the Wright Brothers, the American brothers who essentially created what became the modern airplane. I showed PJ a short video of old footage of the Wright brothers trying to launch their first place. He definitely seemed interested, and even started discussing plane engines. For this session, we read the short story about the Wright brothers and again I stopped PJ every few lines to recall and recap together what was learned. After doing so, we started working on a crossword puzzle that relates to the names or words used in the story. PJ was so excited to complete the puzzle-- particularly so because he was recalling the answers by himself very quickly. He focused more on this task than on any other reading comprehension task that we had gone over together. This result truly affirmed my general understanding of PJ's strengths and weaknesses in reading comprehension. PJ is such an intelligent child, but he only fully applies all of his intelligence when he is fully engaged in a topic or when he fully understands it. This is why I have been going over stories with him much more slowly and encouraging him to concentrate on each small portion of the story. Usually during our sessions, we go over various readings and worksheets, but for this successful last session, we only went over the one story. And it was phenomenal. PJ was focused and was recalling information very quickly. I definitely will miss PJ and tutoring him, and I hope the best for his reading future!

TS # 15

This session was my last session with Ahmed! I've gotten very close to Ahmed over the past few months, for I met with him as both a tutor and as a conversation partner. I got to learn a lot about his life, family, goals, and of course about his English language skills. Ahmed really wants to learn English and is extremely intrinsically motivated. This has been obvious in all of our interactions with each other. During this session, Ahmed wanted to go over verb tenses and he brought in some worksheets and his journal from his class. We decided on one specific and simple sentence and then modified it for each different verb tense. I went over various examples for each verb tense, and made sure to ask him multiple times if he was grasping the differences between the verb tenses. I later asked him to create sentences, each of which using a different verb tense. We went over these together, and I answered any further questions he had. The rest of our session was just us chatting with each other. It was a very nice meeting and I was glad to have met him.

TS # 14

This tutoring session was my last one with Sore! It was a bittersweet ending. We met again at the Sweet Shop where we had met previously. About half of the time was actually us chatting with each other (in English, of course!). Whenever we chat, I be sure to correct her pronunciation, for she asks me to do so constantly. Even during conversations, if she finds that she is pronouncing a word incorrectly, she writes down the word and the phonetic spelling and looks over and practices it later. The rest of the time I had Sore read a short story out loud to me and then we discussed certain aspects of the story that she seemed troubled with every few paragraphs. We then chatted some more before saying bye! We planned to meet each other sometime soon. :)

TS #13

I met Ahmed at Dunkin' Donuts on Tennessee Street for this tutoring session. I suggested where to meet. I actually really hate Dunkin' Donuts, but I wanted to introduce it to Ahmed, for he had never been before. I explained to him why I didn't like it, which is because it is one of the overwhelmingly prominent corporate food chains throughout the United States. I explained to him a little about the perspective against these unhealthy and unoriginal chains that exists among the U.S. population. Corporate companies are certainly, unfortunately, a big part of American culture. This was able to lead into a pretty interesting tutoring session. Ahmed is interested in working in business when he goes back to Saudi Arabia. He actually wants to learn English so that he could be a better candidate for better business jobs. Again, Ahmed wanted to focus on vocabulary, so we discussed vocabulary relating to the business realm. And, again, after we wrote some new words that he didn't know and I explained them to him, we wrote samples sentences containing those words. I later asked Ahmed to write his own sentences with some of the words, and corrected any incorrect grammar. A pretty fun lesson!

TS # 12

For this tutoring session with PJ, Ms. Kim suggested that I find some reading material for PJ online on my own. I found this to be actually a very helpful task for me as a tutor, for I will certainly have to utilize online resources in the future when in search of reading materials for tutors. I decided on a short story about the history of chocolate in the United States. The story revolved around Milton Hershey, the founder of Hershey Chocolate company. I showed PJ a video of chocolate being made in a chocolate factory, and this certainly seemed to intrigue him. Now that I understood how PJ best learns, I again made sure to read the story with him slowly and made sure to stop every couple of lines in order to recap and recall together what we had just read. We spent almost all of the whole session reading this story and completing comprehension questions prior. I would ask PJ fundamental questions about the story multiple times-- not because I didn't think he would grasp it, but because he never seemed to want to make the effort to grasp it. This seemed to awaken him and force him to pay attention to the fundamental ideas of the story.

TS #11

For this tutoring session with PJ, Ms. Kim of course provided me with reading materials and worksheets to go over with him. For this session, we read together a book about police officers. First, I showed PJ a video about what a police officer keeps on his belt. I remember PJ mentioning that he knew all of this already-- haha-- and so we moved on to another video about police officers' daily lives. We then began reading the story, which discussed all of the things police officers encounter every day, their duties, their critical responsibilities, their closeness with death at times, etc. At times when PJ is really engaged in something, he begins to talk nonstop! I love it when he does that, for I feel that he is really alert and engaged with the material. I usually have to stop him at some point, but I bring up some of the things he talks about in relation to the story and the comprehension questions. This usually seems to keep him interested in the reading material!

TS # 10

For this tutoring session, I met with Ahmed at Strozier library. We began the session by chit chatting about our weeks, and then Ahmed pulled out his vocabulary journal. Again, Ahmed is very interested and motivated to learn more vocabulary. He seems to have a good grasp on fundamental English grammar and sentence structure, and his pronunciation is not bad at all. Of course, we try to practice all of these while together, but Ahmed seems to feel that I can help him best with explaining new vocabulary words and offering example sentences and contextual uses for them. We always use Google Translate to translate a word in English that he does not know into Arabic. This of course is extremely helpful. At the end of vocabulary sessions with Ahmed, I usually ask him to write down a few new sentences with some of the words we just used. This way, he can attempt to use the new vocabulary words and as well he is forced to construct a grammatically correct sentence. If there is a problem with the grammar or structure, we correct it together.

TS #9

This tutoring session with Sore was particularly enjoyable. We met at the CIES lounge, for it of course was easy for us to do so. Sore had come prepared again with material for us to go over. She brought a couple of vocabulary worksheets and notes from her class. Sore is really interested in bettering her vocabulary and pronunciation, so for this session we focused on that. I would again listen to her while she read some sample sentences or short paragraphs, correct her pronunciation, and then go over new sample sentences with words that she had pronounced incorrectly. We would also try to create some new sentences with the new vocabulary words that she had learned. Again, this session was very casual and more conversational, for I feel that this is beginning to become my tutoring style. I always thought that the best way to learn how to have real conversations with others in a foreign language was to learn how to speak that language in a conversational, casual way. And when specific problems arise like with grammar, then those will be corrected along the way. Sore and I always enjoy our time together, and she seems to be grasping new vocabulary and pronunciation.

Salah TS #16

29/4/15 (19:30 - 20:30)

Starbucks (W.Tennessee St.)

Topics: New vocabulary words, pronunciation of words and syllable sounds, reviewing countable vs non countable nouns.

I tutored Mohammad Alrashidi again for this final TS session and it followed on from our hour of conversation (see: Salah CP # 6).  

Mohammad told me he had struggled with a few new vocab words in his IELTs test last week.  We reviewed a few tougher vocab words, such as: fraud/fraudulent; complicated; evidence; shortcut; hippopotamus, commonly etc.

Some of these were high frequency words Mohammad had heard before, for example in the phrase: ‘commonly used words’.

I explained meanings of words such as: trauma/traumatically, rely/reliable, etc.  

We then worked on pronunciation of words and I encouraged Mohammad to break the words up into their syllable sounds ex: Ac-a-dem-ic, En-thu-si-as-tic and Acq-uain-tance etc.  I also tested his ability to spell the words correctly, by writing them out on paper. 

Lastly, I noticed Mohammad had a tendency to say 'slangs' instead of 'slang', so we reviewed the difference between countable and non-countable nouns and I explained that the word slang was treated the same as the word 'information' ie: it would be wrong to say 'informations'.

   

Salah CP #6

Date/Time: 29/4/15 (18:30-19:30)

Starbucks (W.Tennessee St.)

For this CP session, I got to learn a bit more about Mohammad Al rashidi (who I have tutored before).  Mohammad told me he had 11 siblings - 7 brothers and 4 sisters and that he was 4th in the pecking order.  

He explained that he has been a CIES student for almost 1 year (since last August) and is also enrolled in the summer session that just started.  He was happy he has progressed from a Group 1 to Group 3 student, in a relatively short time.  

To my surprise, Mohammad told me he was glad not to be a Group 4 student yet, as they have a lot of work to do (writing and presentations) - almost at university level.  He wanted to have a work/life balance and enjoy his time with friends here, whilst studying English. 

Lastly, he told me that he took the IELTs test last week and will know his results in about 2 weeks’ time.  He feels that he should pass this time.  Ultimately, he wants to move onto study Civil Engineering. 

 

TS # 8

In this tutoring session with PJ, our reading material that Ms. Kim had given me in advance had revolved around bald eagles in Mongolia. I would have never guessed that such a topic would be so interesting. Specifically, the story we went over was on the ancient tradition in Mongolia of the Mongol people working with bald eagles as hunting partners. Our story revolved around a young girl who had been hunting with the same eagle for a few years. She had become very talented, and as a female in this culture, her talent and accomplishment was significant. I really wanted PJ to engage fully with this story and topic, so we spent quite a bit of time watching schema-building videos of Mongol hunting sessions and then later reading the story in parts very slowly. I definitely feel that PJ best applies himself to reading material when he fundamentally understands each part of the story or concept, rather than having surface-level understandings. In this case, it seemed to work! He answered comprehension questions a little more successfully than previously.

Mernelle TS#16

4/27/2015
3-4 PM
Johnston Building



              Today I met with my adult tutee, we spoke about the issue that is happening in Nepal. It was very interesting to hear how he felt about it. It is sad that the people of Nepal suffer such a faith. I also shared about the earthquake that happened in Haiti a couple of years back and how it effected the people of the country still to this day. It was a great tutoring session.

TS #7

This tutoring session with Ahmed was held at the Starbucks on Tennessee St. I had been having a hectic week and wanted to meet somewhere more exciting, but Starbucks was a 2 minute walk from my house. I had gone to meet with Ahmed in between writing a paper and studying for an exam. I explained my busy week to Ahmed, and he was sweet enough to buy me a Mocha Latte! We then got to going over more vocabulary that Ahmed has heard around and wanted to understand more. For this session, I tried something a little different. For each word, I would explain it as simply and clearly as I thought I could, then I would write out multiple example sentences using the words, and then I would use visuals to further explain them and which contexts they are used in. I'm a horrible drawer, but drawing images as well as going over contextual use and example sentences proved to be extremely effective! Ahmed definitely seemed to enjoy it, for it brought on some silly drawings and conversations.

CP #6

This conversation partner was originally meant to be with Sore again, but there was a pleasant surprise about a quarter of the way through! I met Sore's classmate and friend Luna while we were at the CIES lounge. Sore and I spoke alone briefly before inviting Luna to come sit and chat with us. Luna showed us a music video that she was watching and listening to. Then we got to discussing Latin music and music in general. I got to learn names of new musicians that both Luna and Sore liked. I shared as well names of some Brazilian musicians that I think they would enjoy listening to. We all really enjoyed ourselves!

CP #5

For this conversation partner, I met with Ahmed at Starbucks on Tennessee St. He had gone on a trip to the beach nearby (somewhere in Florida, I forget right now the exact name of the beach or city). He was honest and said that it really was not that nice. He was almost a little angry, because he mentioned that the house that he rented for himself and his family was pretty expensive, but it did not meet up to his expectations. The beach itself was disappointing too, for there was a lot of seaweed on the shore. Throughout the session, whenever Ahmed would come across a word he didn't know in English, we would get the arabic translation, discuss it, and write them down for Ahmed to look over later. This form of vocabulary building in context has proved to be very effective. It was a very nice meeting!

CP #4

This conversation partner session was held with Sore. We met at the Sweet Shop on campus. I suggested it because I know it is somewhat of a historic spot at FSU, having been established in the 1930s or so. It's been running ever since. Once we met, Sore and I talked first about how her classes have been going. She informed me of what she needed to work on for our next tutoring session. Then we spoke for most of the hour about Latin America! Sore is from Venezuela and I'm from Brazil. We informed each other a little more about our home countries and both agreed that we missed our home countries. It is always nice meeting and speaking to other people from South America. Latin American people tend to generally be very warm and accepting. This is something we both surely missed from our countries. It was a very nice meeting, for I got to know Sore a little more personally!

Mernelle TS#15

4/25/2015
11 AM-12PM
Tutee's house

Very Fun

          My child tutee is the best. She has the best vocabulary I have ever heard. on Saturday we read a book together and she was able to tell me what the story was about. Sometimes, I think she is not paying attention but she surprise me by asking questions and telling me information from the book. I really like woking with her. 

Mernelle _TS#14

4/25/2015
9:00-10:00 AM
Skype

         A wedding

        On Saturday I met with DJ one of my adult tutee. He lives in South Korea so we have a great deal to talk about. So, on Saturday we spoke about wedding traditions in South Korea. He told me how his friend got married and that he went to the wedding. He said that in Korea it is customary to give the bride and groom money when they get married. But he informed me that the parents usually keep the money. He also said that people judge the couple success depending on the grandeur of the wedding.  I was very proud of DJ because he spoke so well and clear. 

Mernelle_CP#6

4/23/2015
10-11 AM
Dirac library

It's hard to say goodbye

         Thursday was the last day I met with my conversation partner. It was really nice to meet with him one last time. We spoke about health issue in America and also about the food that Americans eat. It was a great conversation. In the end it was hard for both of us to say goodbye. We promise to keep in touch. 

Salah TS # 15

Salah TS # 15 (Child)

Date/Time: 22/4/15  17:50-18:50

Location: Leroy Collins Public Library

Topic/Skill: Speaking and pronunciation, words with a silent 'e', world geography/languages. 

This was my final child TS session.  I have really enjoyed meeting this family once a week and Young is a very bright student who has been a pleasure to tutor.  

To start this session, I thought I would work a bit on speaking and pronunciation.  I asked Young to tell me the rest of the Cinderella story (from memory of movies she has seen etc).  I listened and corrected for pronunciation.  Young's mother has  told me before that she wants to focus on Young's speaking skills. 

Then we moved onto spelling words again with a silent 'e', but with the letter 'o' in the middle ex: hope, rope, code etc.  We also talked about the word 'cot', how the absence of a silent 'e' at the end of that word changed the way it sounds.

We then looked at high frequency words like: where, look, too, for etc, also part of Young's assigned class homework.

Lastly, we went back to a geography exercise that has been a favorite/staple of our TS sessions.  We play a game whereby I point to a specific country on the world map and ask Young, for example: 'this is Nigeria....what language do they speak there?'  It is a useful exercise to teach world geography as well as world languages.

Mernelle TS#13

4/18/2015
9-10 AM          
Skype

            New Condo

On Saturday I skyped with my tutees DJ in South Korea. The topic was all about his new condo. he taught me that in South Korea condos are called Villas. He said that he liked his new condo and that he will live there for a while, but he did not see the need to buy a house yet. But my favorite topic of the morning was when he taught me the rules to billiards. I honestly did not know what billiards was or how it was played. So it as a fun session. 

Mernelle_TS#12

4/20/2015
Strozier
330-430 pm

Almost the end

   On Monday I me with my Tae Young my one of my adult tutees. He was sad when I told him that next Monday might be our last tutoring session. But I'm not worried about him. I know he is very smart and can do what he set his mind to. I know this because he was able to teach me the rules of soccer in perfect english. Since soccer was something he really like, he had no problem teaching me the rules. I was amazed at how much his english had improved. 

TS #6

This tutoring session with Sore was accompanied by Salah, for he was observing our tutoring session. It is actually very beneficial for myself and for Sore to have someone observing, for I am more aware and self-critical of my teaching and Sore thus gets a better tutoring experience. During this lesson I went over more pronunciation with Sore. This is Sore's problem area. Sore does very well in her grammar and writing classes, but pronunciation is different. It has always been difficult for her to pronounce words in English exactly as they are correctly pronounced. This time, I had a short reading passage that I printed out for Sore to read out loud to me. It also included some challenging yet level-appropriate new vocabulary words. Whenever she got to a word that she didn't know, we would go over the definition together and we would create sentences with the word. I would correct Sore whenever she pronounced something incorrectly, and she would write down those words so that she could study them later.

CO #3

This last lesson that I was observed was very interesting. It was a Speaking and Listening class, but there was a special event going on on campus that made this lesson particularly engaging. It happened to be the President of FSU's birthday, and he threw an Ice Cream Social for all of the students on campus. Since the Social began halfway through this class, the instructor told the students she would let them out then to enjoy the ice cream. But, they had a task to do while there. The class lesson of the day would prepare them to go to the Social and interview English speakers about what kinds of ice cream they enjoyed. During the first half of the class, a discussion was held on different types of ice cream. Then, the instructor helped the students formulate questions that they could ask people at the Social. I really enjoyed this lesson, especially because the instructor was able to use the current events of the real classroom situation and have the students do an activity where they can apply their English knowledge and skill to the real world. I would definitely like to utilize some kind of variation of this lesson in my future teaching career.

Ben_Child_8

April 20, 2015 1600

After finishing her homework, Young-seo read the whole The Cat in the Hat book aloud without prompting. She was very fluent and seemed to process the story while reading. She would pause to show me an illustration. This was the first time she has read a story to me instead of reading aloud to practice reading.

We finished with an American culture vocabulary worksheet (Liberty bell, eagle, flag, Statue of Liberty).

Ben_Child_7

April 13, 2015 1600

Today Young-seo worked on more complex vocabulary worksheets than normal. These included crossword puzzles and unscrambling words. She did well; however, I think the level of difficulty was frustrating.

For reading aloud, I chose lower level books she read in a more extensive manner.

Varying the difficulty of activities during the session seems to keep her more engaged. She requires challenging activities yet responds negatively when frustrated.

Ben_Adult_8

April 20, 2015 1000

The primary topic of our session was movies. We discussed the popularity of the Fast and Furious series in Asia and then we talked about upcoming releases. DJ asked me if I have ever seen a Korean movie. I told him I saw my first Korean film last week, Mother. He laughed and said that was a strange first movie and I agreed. I then explained the random nature of the library's foreign film section. He recommended I watch Snowpiercer.

DJ has an excellent vocabulary and the sessions seem to develop it further.

Ben_Adult_7

April 16, 2015 1000

Today, DJ and I discussed an article comparing American parenting to how other cultures raise their children. For example, the article states American parents view children being hungry as bad so parents provide a continuous stream of snacks; whereas in South Korea, children are required to wait for mealtimes and eat with family. The author argues that the Korean model develops better eating habits and reduces child obesity. DJ agreed with most of the article.

DJ needs very little correction. He usually corrects himself very quickly. With Skype, I have found text chat is the easiest way to introduce new vocabulary. He can see the spelling and then work on pronunciation.

Kerri TS #16

In our last session Mohammed and I focused entirely on spelling and vocabulary once again. He really believes the phonetic method (i.e. sounding words out) is helping him both with his pronunciation and spelling. He wants to continue meeting with me occasionally when his next session begins. He hopes to advance to the next group in speaking, and he was very grateful to have worked with me this session. Although this is not our final meeting, it was great to work with Mohammed this session, and I learned just as much from him as he did me.

Kerri TS #15

In our last session Abdullah and I focused on speaking and discussed his progress this session. He thinks speaking and composition are his strongest subjects, and he hopes to move forward into the next group for next session. He wants to look for a part time job in order to immerse himself more in American culture and practice English more frequently. We plan to continue meeting as conversation partners, and I invited him to my graduation party. It has been a great session working with Abdullah, and his speaking and pronunciation is much better now than when I began tutoring him!

CO #3

During this classroom observation, I observed a Foundations level Speaking and Listening class. This was a special day of class, for taking place on Landis halfway through was the President's Ice Cream Social. The instructor took advantage of the day's context and incorporated the ice cream social into the lesson. The class discussed their favorite types of ice cream together, and the instructor clarified anything they didn't know. I noticed the slow speech rate with which the instructor was speaking. The instructor then explained that the students would be allowed to leave class early in order to attend the social. But, while there, they would have to interview a couple of students in English about which kinds of ice cream they liked. I thought this was an excellent idea. The class then went over possible interview questions that the students can use. Written examples were provided. I very much enjoyed the structure and the objective of this lesson and I think it was in the end very effective.

Salah CP #5

 

Date/Time: 19/4/15 (17:40-18:40)

Starbucks (W.Tennessee St.)

For this session, I met up with Hesham, who I first met at the end of session dinner on Friday night.

Hecham was a student of Law in Saudi Arabia.  After trying unsuccessfully to get a job in his field, he worked for a cell phone company.  He was not happy with this and instead wanted to travel to the US.  He put in an application and told his case worker he wanted to leave as soon as possible.

He came to Valdosta, Ga first, where he stayed for 10 months, learning English.  After that, he transferred to CIES, where he has been studying since January.

Hecham was dating a girl from Venezuela (also a CIES student) and although they broke up a couple of weeks ago, they remain good friends. 

Hecham told me likes the Spanish culture and would like to visit many South American countries. He says the warmth of their culture is like his own back home.  He would also like to learn the Spanish language and said he finds it easier to learn than English.  

Hecham’s ultimate goal is to study a masters of Law and complete his bar exams in the US.  

Salah TS #14

19/4/15 (18:50 - 19:50)

Starbucks (W.Tennessee St.)

I tutored Mohammad Alrashidi for the second time this session.  He is a Kuwaiti student and a very nice person.  Mohammad told me he needed help understanding the difference between gift and loan; group names ex: car, bus, plane are all modes of transportation; and English words which describe emotions. 

First I introduced some new words such as: loan, lend and borrow, pointing out that one person loans or lends the money and the other borrows money.  I explained that if you did not want the money back, it would be considered a ‘gift’.  

I pointed out that more formal examples (ie: money from a government or your parents) are: financial support / aid / help.

We talked briefly about modes of transportation and then talked about emotions or ‘feelings’. 

I played a game with Mohammad where he would write down one word on paper and then I would write another.  This meant I could check his spelling as well.  Together we came up with about 10 words. 

Lastly, we covered transition phrases such as: ‘In addition, however, nevertheless, even though’ etc. 

Brian CP #6

For my final CP session, I spent the day with Eduardo and a few of his Colombian friends.   We ended up driving to a few places, including stopping at a restaurant for lunch.  Outside the restaurant parking lot, there was a group of what seemed like homeless people, asking for money.  We saw an old man take the entire group into the restaurant, and pay for their meals. This sparked a very interesting conversation about the state of the U.S. and Colombian poverty and charity. It was interesting to hear the differences, which actually didn't seem so different.  I had a great meal and enjoyed the day.

Brian CP #5

For my 5th CP session I went out for some fancy burgers with Eduardo.   He is a very nice guy, and probably has a current level of english as high as anyone I have worked with throughout my TEFL course.   We spent the time mostly talking about subtle differences one particular word or phrase can mean in a social setting.   As I have said before, it is my favorite part of teaching English to really get into the weeds of how a words or phrase has taken on new meanings in English through culture.  We talked for a couple hours, and enjoyed a great meal.

Robert TS#16

For my last tutoring session with Mario we played a fun game to end his school session and tutoring sessions. This activity included playing random ESL games online to help improve his knowledge all around. During this time he got the chance to learn a few new vocabulary words, as well as, worked on his listening skills the most. I have seen a big improvement with Mario’s listening skills since the very beginning. Mario’s main concern with tutoring was he wanted to improve his listening skills first and then work on everything else. He was happy with his results from this semester and is hoping to move up to the next group level for this upcoming session.

Robert TS#15

During one of my tutoring sessions with Ibrahim we worked on filling out admission forms for colleges. Ibrahim was unaware of the process of filling out an application to a University. I explained and modeled the steps to him so he would know for the future. Ibrahim and I filled out of University application together to familiarize him with words he didn’t know that he could possibly see on another application. After, going through one application with him he felt very comfortable and better than he did before. Different vocabulary words were brought to his attention throughout this session.

Mernelle TS#11

April 13,2015
330-430pm
Hetch

                                                    Great News
  I am so happy for my tutee. He was accepted to a school in New York. I know he had been worrying about what he was going to do after his CIES but now everything is falling into place. He was so happy, which made me very happy because I want him to succeed. He was so confident in himself and his ability to succeed. Not only did he get accepted to the school he also was awarded the Dean's scholarship. He could not stop talking about it. I am very happy for my tutee.

Mernelle TS#10

April 16, 2015
6:30-7:30 pm
Hetch

                                                                     A new class
Today I had the privilege of observing Helena tutor. It was a great experience. I really did not think that I could use videos with my  child tutee, but when Helena used it with her child tutee, he was very engage. Another thing I learned from Helena is to the turn reading with my child tutee. I think that taking turn to read is a great way to test comprehension of our child tutee. Helena would constantly stop during her readings to ask questions. Which was good because she was giving her child tutee the opportunity to engage in her reading.  Another great thing Helena did was review old vocabulary words. Helena is a great tutor. She was very patient.

Matthew_ICCP#6

For our last meeting session, I talked with Cici from China and Sarah from Saudi Arabia. We used the conversation from last week with Hamed about offering coffee and denying it. Sarah then offered us coffee during the skit and Cici and I both refused the coffee. Sarah pretended to be upset and we discussed possible situations of denying and accepting something that is offered to you in the States as when compared to China and Saudi Arabia. We agreed the best way to deal with this type of situation would be to agree and drink the coffee with Sarah, regardless of if we wanted it.

Inky_TS_16

I started our last session by asking her about TOEFL test taking experience, she had last Friday. I asked what she found challenging and which sections were easy for her. Then, I shared some tips how she could continue improving her skills for reading and writing, two sections she had difficulties with. Then, we worked on her CV, which is a part of her admission package. We also went to the career center where a professional career adviser gave the tutee recommendations on how to enhance her CV. In addition, the tutee had chance to ask questions regarding her perspective major. After CV the critique session, we stayed longer and read several brochures at the career center. The tutee found tips offered by the career center adviser very useful and thought that she might need to find some kind of job, so she could add some work experience to her CV.
We walked around the campus and said good-bye to each other. 

Salah TS # 13

Salah (Child)  TS # 13: 

Date/Time: 15/4/15  17:50-18:50

Location: Leroy Collins Public Library

Topic/Skill: reading, words with the 'i' sound, world geography. 

Young's mother told me that her daughter got 100 on a test because of my help.  I was very pleased.

We started the session by reading another page of the Cinderella story.  As usual, I wrote a couple of stars and check marks (on the printed pages) after Young had finished reading, as recognition and a reward.  

We moved onto words that have and elongated 'i' sound.  For example, 'bike, kite, nine' etc and talked about how the 'i' sound can be made with the letter ‘y’ as in 'sky'.  We discussed how the sound can come in the middle of the word, or at the beginning (as with 'ice'), or the end of a word.  We went through several examples, as Young's mother said she was struggling with this a bit. 

Next we played a game about geography.  I found a very useful children's book in the library that labelled country names in an easy to read manner.  I started to read the name of the country and then asked what are the people from this country were known as and what language they spoke.  For example: Canada...Canadian and English, or Ireland....Irish, English.  I found this game was a good way to teach world languages/geography.

 

Robert TS#14

While tutoring Khalid we went over his PowerPoint that he was going to use for his classroom presentation. While reading the PowerPoint it came to my attention that the most attention needed for Khalid’s work is punctuation and verb tense. I noticed many mistakes with present and past tense. I corrected the mistakes made and explained why and had Khalid rewrite the sentence in the correct form. I gave Khalid a set of words to go home with to help him identify the differences between the tenses. This aloud Khalid to see the importance of using the correct verb tense when communicating.

Robert TS#13

Today, I got the opportunity to work and tutor with Mario again. Mario is going to start driving soon so he wanted to widen his vocabulary with driving and vehicle parts vocabulary. I took Mario for a drive in my car and pointed out everything I could to help him. I would point with my finger to each part and then say it with my voice to use both Visual and Verbal aides. This activity actually got Mario involved with minimal reading as well. The reading was involved with reading tags and handbook.

Inky_TS_15

The tutee had her TOEFL test last Friday. So, I asked how was it. She shared the story that kind affected her. First, she forgot to take her passport to the test center, she had to go back home and get it. Then, when she finally started audio did not work on her computer. She had to change the computer. All of these events preceding test itself, emotionally exhausted her. After, we talked about travelling. The tutee shared the story about her trip to Germany last summer. Then we practiced her presentation for speaking class. She occasionally mispronounced some words. 

Kerri TS #14

Tonight Mohammed asked me how he could improve his spelling. I mentioned sounding out words which led us to a lesson on phonetics. I showed him some of the rules we went over in class a few weeks ago, and he seemed to find the phonetic patterns to be much more helpful than any other resource that has been suggested to him before. I pointed out that the rules can be applied to each syllable as well and encouraged him to break larger words down when writing and speaking. We ended the session with a few practice rounds with words in his vocabulary notebook. I quizzed him with the definition, and he identified the word and practiced spelling it correctly. To help him I asked him to break the words into syllables and identify the vowel sound based on the phonetic rules. For our next session we will continue to practice spelling and vocabulary.

Brian TS#16

This was my final tutoring session with my child tutee, and my last tutoring session total.   It has been a great experience getting to know and learning with my tutees.  For this last lesson we worked on a lesson about the human body and the way it responds to allergens and other irritants.   The subject was interesting enough to keep him reading through the passages, and then grasping the concepts and explaining them back to me clearly.   I was very lucky this session to have tutees that were smart and easy to work with. I hope it will be a great springboard forward onto teaching my own class!

Robert TS#12

During my tutoring session with Mario I decided to challenge him a little more. What I did was I printed out a level appropriate paragraph that had minor punctuation errors and asked him to correct the mistakes that he believes is within the paragraph. Mario did it the first time by himself and then we did it together and compared our answers. I provided feedback to Mario about his minor errors that he missed when reading and making corrections of the paragraph. I decided to do this activity with him because this is the subject he was having trouble with during our last session.

Robert TS#11

During my tutoring session with Mario we decided to do something different. Mario had homework to do that involved him listening to a song and writing down 5 different vocabulary words he didn’t know. The vocabulary words that Mario didn’t know I tried giving him another word that means almost the something to see if that will help him understand the new word easier. Once we finished the assignment I told Mario to explain to me what he learned from the song to his best abilities. Overall, he did very good and comprehended most of what he heard but did have some minor punctuation errors when writing his vocabulary word definitions.

Wanda_TS_#16

Date/Time: Monday, April 13, 2015 / 2:40 pm

Location:  LeRoy Collins Leon County Public Library

                 200 W Park Ave Tallahassee, FL 32301

           

Nayun’s dad brought her homework assignments and books to read. The homework consisted of completing the sentence with the matching picture, looking for clues in the pictures, fill in the blank with the missing vowel and coloring. After she finished the homework assignment, Nayun read a book. Since Nayun loves to read the book “A tale of two sisters”, I brought a listening activity about the story. She enjoyed it. Today was my last tutoring session. Nayun’s dad asked me if I could continue tutoring his daughter.  I told him that I will call him next month and make arrangements.

Kerri TS #13

Abdullah and I focused on speaking, pronunciation, and culture today in our session. He just traveled to Tampa for an English exam, and he feels confident in every aspect of the test except for reading. He felt as though he was not given enough time to comprehend his reading passages, and there was a lot of unfamiliar vocabulary introduced within them followed by some fill-in-the-blank exercises. In our next session we are going to practice context clues with his vocabulary list because he forgot to bring it today. He decided we should focus on speaking and pronunciation, so we discussed various aspects of our cultures in order to practice. The subject of arranged marriages in Saudi Arabia was brought up, and Abdullah was happy to share his personal engagement story with me. Despite popular belief, marriages in the Middle East are not blindly arranged. Couples are able to meet each other before agreeing to become engaged, and they have the right to reject their potential spouse and even change their mind after accepting their engagement. However, the divorce rate in America is still much higher than in Saudi Arabia. Abdullah is doing a lot better with pronunciation, although he still needs to work on using gerunds and infinitives appropriately.

Mernelle TS#7

April 6,2015
10-11 pm
Tutee's home

Need help

On Monday I met with one of my tutees. She needed help with her writting assigment. So I sat there and taught her the basic writting steps that she needs to take. I thought about myself and how I write. It is hard for those who don't really know english to write in English.

Mernelle TS#9

April 11, 2015
11:00 am-12:00 pm
Tutee's home

Another fun day

I love working with my child tutee because she keeps me entertain. She is the cutest thing on the planet. While we were working together I received an FSU alert about a thunder storm. So I told her that a storm was probably coming. She then proceeded to make me close all the windows in her house. She said that she was afraid of thunder. She is so precious. 

Mernelle TS#8

April 11, 2015
9:00-10:00 AM
Skype

A CALL FROM AROUND THE WORLD

   This Saturday I got the chance to speak to my tutee in South Korea. His name is DJ, at least that's what he wants me to call him. I had a great time talking to him and getting to know him. He is a movie buff and his favorite movies are the Fast and The Furious movies. I was not surprise but more excited because we had something in common. At the same time I am very amazed at how technology can bring people who are half way around the world together.  

Salah CP #4

Salah CP #4

Date/Time:10/4/2015   13:40 - 14:40

Location:  various locations on FSU campus (touring campus)

continuing on with our tour and discussion (see CP #3)......

I showed Hani the ASLC building.  He was very impressed with the cinema and took a picture to send back home to his family and friends.  I showed him the meditation room where some Muslims on campus pray.  This word 'meditation' was new for Hani and I explained what it meant. 

I asked Hani why he chose to study Law in Saudi Arabia.  He said that a few years ago, his father had some legal trouble with a business partner who refused to pay him.  So Hani was motivated to learn the law from a young age and his ultimate goal was to study Law in the US.  First he needed to improve his English skills at CIES. 

Hani asked me how he could avoid eating pork (as his religion prohibits it).  I explained to him that pork is known in the forms ‘pork, bacon, ham, ribs and sausage’, so he should look for those on a menu.  Also, he should probably check with his server to be sure.  We headed into Denny’s on campus for a bite to eat and to practice this.

Hani is a smoker and was asking me whether it was okay to smoke on campus.  I was told later by a fellow student that there is a designated smoking area outside CIES.

Salah CP #3

Salah CP #3

Date/Time:10/4/2015   12:40 - 13:40

Location: various locations on FSU campus (touring campus)

Hani Almeer is a new CIES student who will be starting his session on April 23rd.  He is from Saudi Arabia and had just arrived in the US, the night before.  

When I met him, he was getting help on how to pay his fees, from Claire at the main CIES reception desk.  Claire was drawing Hani a map of the FSU card center and I offered to show Hani where it was.  

As were walking & talking, I noticed Hani’s English skills were fairly good.  He explained to me that he studied Law in Saudi Arabia and lived in the port city of Jeddah (on the west coast).

Hani explained to me that he was waiting for his cousin to come next week and that he was staying in a hotel in town. 

I showed Hani the FSU bookstore and soon after he had his picture taken and FSU card issued. 

Hani told me he had heard some bad things about the United States, but his experiences were good since he had been there.  In fact, a police officer at customs in the Airport even greeted him in the Arabic ‘Salaam’, when he first arrived. 

(We were both enjoying the conversation partner session, so we decided to do another hour.  That is posted under Salah CP # 4) 

Salah TS # 11

Salah (Child)  TS # 11: 

Date/Time: 8/4/15  17:50-18:50

Location: Leroy Collins Public Library

Topic/Skill: contractions, letter sounds, handwriting, new vocab

For this tutoring session, I wanted to focus on the use of 'contractions' and brought a printout of common contractions to assist me.  

I explained that we use contractions mainly to save time and used the example of Young’s name (her name is actually Youngseo), but most people just call her Young for short.  

We started with some of the more common examples such as: should not – shouldn’t etc.  She seemed to get the idea fairly quickly.  

Young had also brought some homework to work on.  We went through a few letter sounds like Rr, Qq, Tt, Bb etc.  I asked her to write out a line for each letter pair (to practice handwriting the letters) and then we went over the sound.  Finally, I asked her to try to think of words that had that sound in it) ex: Rr - sound - Robot etc.  I also tried to come up with a few words, if she was stuck. 

Other homework topics included: spelling words with a silent 'e', such as: cape, game, lake, base etc. and high frequency words like: help, too, have, they etc.

Young was going to have a birthday in two days, so I told her that next time I saw her, she would be 6 years old!

Salah TS #12

Salah TS #12 (Adult)

Date/Time:11/4/2015   18:00 - 19:00

Location: Starbucks on W. Tennessee St.

During this tutoring session, Abdulla needed help with a presentation he was giving in an upcoming grammar class, on 'gerunds and infinitives'.  

I used my own class notes to assist me during this TS session (as I didn't want to give Abdulla any incorrect information).

To begin, we went through the definitions of gerunds followed by examples in both positive and negative forms (ex:  The best thing for your health is not smoking) is an example in the negative form.  And followed the same pattern for infinitives. 

I explained that both gerunds and infinitives can be used in the positive and negative form and that both can be used as the subject, the complement, or the object of a sentence.

Finally we compared/contrasted the two together ie: past, present or real actions – gerunds vs future, abstract or hypothetical actions – infinitives.

I suggested that to structure the presentation, Abdulla could follow the same order ie: definitions then examples (in positive and negative) followed by a slide that compares and contrasts the two. 

Last but not least, I told him that he should pause at the end for questions from the audience.  

Matthew_TS#16

Mrs. Hong requested that I work on reading and writing skills for this session but both boys were very reluctant to do any reading or writing activities. Both boys through a fit so I found some great educational games like Jeopardy with verb tenses and "Millionaire" that asked for various things from T/F to Multiple Choice. After this, I introduced some schema about airplanes and international travel. I asked the boys to describe their flight to Korea for me. After, we watched a video on Boeing airplanes and listened to a sample conversation about flying. They really enjoyed this activity and responded well to the activity instead of "Speed Reading".

Wanda_ICCP_# 7

Date/Time: Thursday, March 12, 2015

Location: CIES Lounge

Topic:  INTERCULTURAL WORKSHOP

            Today I met Sarah from Saudi Arabia. We converse about what  would be a polite behavior if I invited her to my house and I offered her lunch. She said that she would have to refuse it even she was hungry. Sarah said that she would consider it to be very rude If I didn’t pressure her to eat my food. I told her that she would starve to death in most homes in US. if that was the case, but in my house I would make her eat until she couldn't anymore and as if that wasn't enough, I would give her takeout. She said I reminded her of her mother. I guess that was a good compliment. We decided to use this conflict in our script to be presented at the next IC workshop activity.