FSU TEFL 120 Summer 2 2019

TS #4 Marcia #1: 26 June On Wednesday, June 26 at 4 PM after meeting with Andres in the CIES conference room, I met with Marcia Myung Hye Ahn, a Brazilian college graduate of Korean descent who majored in Materials in Engineering at her home country, for the first time. I took this first session as a time to introduce one another as well as to analyze Marcia’s English skills. I got to know a lot about her, her interests and her family members, as well as about her future goals and aspirations that to her are achievable by acquiring English as a third language (she speaks both Portuguese and Korean), such as getting a Masters Degree in the United States. Marcia told me that her level in English was between Upper Elementary and Lower Intermediate, and when asked about what troubles her the most in English, gave a prepared list of grammar and speaking points: speaking, pronunciation {specifically past tense consonant (such as -ed/-et) pronunciation} and prepositions, with prepositi...

TS #3 Andres #3: 26 June On Wednesday, June 26 at 3 PM, I met with Andres at the CIES conference room and started the session by asking him to briefly explain to me both what he learned from the last session and what he may have not entirely learned or understood. I then briefly clarified some of the misunderstandings from the previous tutoring session before going on to doing a practice activity. I gave Andres an FSU newspaper and asked him to highlight words from a short article in both blue and orange; the blue words being words he had never seen before and the orange words being words he had seen before but not in the same context as in the article. When he was finished with highlighting, I went down the list of words one by one according to the article by asking Andres to read the sentence and tell me what he thinks the word means by using context clues. He was able to make good guesses at the definitions of the words using the context clues in the sentences and when words ...

TS #2 Andres #2: 24 June On Monday, June 24 at 3 PM in the CIES conference room, I met with Andres and I began to tutor him on the difference between synonyms and depth of vocabulary (as well as shortly explaining breadth), as he seemed to be slightly confused on their differences when asked further about what exactly about vocabulary seems to trouble him the most. I told him that synonyms are different words that have the same or nearly the same meaning as one word, while depth is when one knows how to use a specific word, as well as when one is able to use that exact same word but in a different context to have a different meaning. I suggested that perhaps knowing multiple synonyms for one word means that one has achieved breadth of vocabulary rather than depth. After explaining the difference between the two, I gave example sentences with words used in different contexts and asked Andres to tell me what he thinks the word in the sentences means by using context clues; I used...

TS #1 Andres #1: 19 June On Wednesday, June 19 at 3 PM in the CIES conference room, I met with my tutee Andres Velasco, a Colombian college graduate with a major in Business, for the first time. The session only lasted about 30 minutes, as I took this first meeting as a time to introduce one another and for me to analyze his English skills. I got to know him a little bit and learn about his personal interests as well. I asked him specifically about what he thinks of his English skills and about what may be particularly troubling or confusing him as he studies, as well as what level he is in (which is Intermediate-Advanced). Andres told me that he mostly has trouble with vocabulary, specifically with depth of vocabulary, a term learned during the first two weeks of class. He also said that he felt confident about his grammatical skills and fluency in English otherwise. After introducing one another and taking notes on what to focus on during future tutoring sessions, we decided ...

I met with P.J on campus at CIES on June 29 from 1:00-1:50PM. During this session, I planned on covering the topic we went over in TS#13. He had trouble with those terms, so I used a different method with the periodic table. I first made sure he remembered how to navigate the periodic table and how to find the number of neutrons, electrons and protons. Then I had him build different compounds, and I then asked him what kind of ion they formed. Then I had him build multiple types of elements, and I asked whether they shared or donated/gained electrons. Eventually, it registered that covalent bonds are formed from nonmetals and ionic bonds from metals and nonmetals. By the end of the session, he was able to define covalent bonds and ionic bonds and find elements in different groups and rows on the periodic table. When we meet for our final session in a week, I plan on going over this again to see if he still remembers. After, I will move onto mixtures and solutions.

I met with P.J on campus at CIES on June 29 from 12:00-12:50PM. The topics we covered were both vocabulary words and a reading about acids and bases in an eighth grade textbook. First, I gave him a test on the words that we covered so far. He had five minutes to complete an exercise matching terms he learned throughout the week. He got six wrong, so we covered those terms first. The first two terms he mixed up were gas and liquid. I explained again why each was different, and he let me know that he misread the choices. The next two he had problems with were Charles' law and Boyle's Law. This one he also had trouble with due to wording, and he remembered each of them incorrectly. The last one he got wrong was the difference between ionic and covalent compound. I had already planned on going over again in the next session, so I spent little time on this word. After the test, we went over the terms acid and base and talked about pH scale. This was mostly review, so he had little t...

I met with P.J at his home on June 27 from 12:40-1:30PM. The topics we covered were both vocabulary words and a reading about chemical bonding that I found online. After the break, I reviewed what we had talked about before the break by pointing at the periodic table and asking him to define the terms. He had trouble remembering the terms, but when I defined them he was able to remember most of the terms. Next, we moved onto the vocabulary list on bonding and types of bonds. He had never been exposed to this concept, so he had trouble when trying to define the terms on his own. I used table salt as an example for an ionic bond and water as an example for covalent bond. Then I had him try and move through the periodic table to see why some form ionic and others form covalent bonds. He was having a lot of trouble by the end of the session, so I planned on covering this concept again during the next session.

I met with P.J at his home on June 27 from 11:40-12:30PM. The topics we covered were both vocabulary words and a reading about the periodic table of elements from the internet. I started the session by giving him a fill in the blank exercise of an atom. He was able to identify each part, and he was able to define the properties we discussed in the previous session. After this, we moved onto the periodic table of elements. The goal of this session was for him to identify elements using the terms in the vocabulary list. I first had him read over the terms on the vocabulary list. After each term, I had a periodic table with me and asked him to show me where the term was on the table. I did this for each term and ended with him explaining where each of the terms were on the table. After this, he read through a few paragraphs on the history of the periodic table, and I asked him questions on what he read.

Caleb and I met in the computer lab at the Hecht house at 2:30 on the 25th of June. Shortly into our conversation a very interesting difference in educational styles in our pasts became apparent. On St. Martin, Caleb informed me, there are not really any "multiple choice' type testing styles. This was kind of a shock to me, a child of the American education system. He said that when he had to study for the SAT he was quite stressed out about the Multiple choice. He even had to go to a a school which specialized in SAT style testing to learn some strategies. I told him I found that funny because we are very comfortable here with the multiple choice, but the Short Answer scares us very much. We moved on then to discussing reading; Caleb informed me that he was impressed with how much reading people here do compared to on St. Martin. Through this we learned that both of us have an affinity for poetry and for the creative side of writing. 

I met with P.J at his home on June 26 from 12:40-1:30PM. The topics we covered were both vocabulary words and a reading about atoms from an online article. After the break, we started with the vocabulary list, and I had him read the terms and definitions aloud. I asked him to define the words that we covered in his own words. He had trouble with the term nucleus, so I moved onto the reading to let him become more exposed to the term. The website showed many different images about the atom and the parts that make it up. My only goal was to have him understand what makes up the atom and their properties, so the website was on level for him. After going over the readings, he was still having trouble deciphering between them, so I ended the session by drawing out an atom with labels to help him remember the terms. I planned a fill in the blank exercise for the following session to make sure he understood what he had learned.

Suiliman and I met at 12, at local coffee shop The Paper Fox, on the 30th of June. I had some exercises planned ( such as a "listening to a song and filling in the words" exercise) but when I arrived Suiliman was working on a presentation for class. We went through his speaking outline and corrected some sentences. Definite articles (or as the is our only one, "a" definite article) were a big focus, and misuse of tense also came up several times. After we got the presentation ship-shape we moved on to reviewing a few idioms I'd selected (at Suiliman's request at the end of our last session). Along with "getting cold feet", "All in all", and "hold your horses" Suiliman rather enjoyed these fun sayings. Learning the meaning of "pig out" elicited an outright belly laugh! He wants to go over the definite article, some uses of the word "as", and some more idioms next week. 

I met with P.J at his home on June 26 from 11:40-12:30PM. The topics we covered were both vocabulary words and a reading about the behavior of gases found in an eighth grade science textbook. First, we went over the worksheet I gave him for homework. He had trouble completing it because the way the sentences were structured confused him. I spent some time at the beginning of the session explaining each of the words, and he was able to understand the words better. After we covered the worksheet, we moved onto the vocabulary list. He read the list aloud and I answered any questions he had about the words. Next, we moved onto the readings and I asked him questions on what he had read. He was able to correctly answer questions that pertained to pressure, Charles's Law and Boyle's Law. After he finished reading, we took a 10 minute break.

After a brief break from the previous session Kang and I met again in room 311. WE decided, as we normally do, that this second session should focus around more organic conversational practice. We continued on the political theme by speaking about some immigration based issues surrounding Global Warming, which lead to some excellently composed oratory from Kang recounting the change of one of the beaches at a popular Korean Vacation spot. I spoke a bit about a similar experience, and was able to help him practice his listening and also offer some grammar and a few more idioms. We moved on next to discussion about North Korea, which he seemed grateful for as he believes that when he returns to South Korea he may need to touch on such topics in English. We agreed to do some specific research on the North Korean region and use that as a base for our tutoring next session.

On the morning of June the 26th I sat in on Rebecca Turk's 4b Reading class. She began class by answering a student question regarding the pronunciation of the word "specific". This lead to a 5 minute whiteboard demonstration about how to break down words phonetically and was conducted with an emphasis on meta linguistic skill. This, I felt, was an excellent way to give students their own tools to decode English. After this Turk pulled up a projection of an article about Bio-criminality. The students had a handout of the article. Turk handed out a type of note taking assistance form for the students to note details about the article as they read through it. After taking around 15 minutes for this exercise Turk called the class back to order and asked students about specific parts of the article. This ensured that the content retention and comprehension were taken note of and improved. 

I met with P.J at his home on June 25 from 12:40-1:30PM. The topics we covered were both vocabulary words and a reading about changes in states of matter from an eighth grade science textbook. After the break, I reviewed what we had talked about in the first session. Then, using the prior knowledge, I asked him questions about what would happen if we changed water into a solid, liquid, or gas to test what terms he already knew. Once we finished that exercise, I had him cover the vocabulary words I had prepared. He would read the vocabulary words out loud, and I answered any questions he had about the words. Next, we went over the readings with him reading out loud, and I asked him questions about what he had read. For homework, I gave him a fill in the blank assignment that used all of the words we covered during the second session.

I met with P.J at his home on June 25 from 11:40-12:30PM. The topics we covered were both vocabulary words and a reading about states of matter from an eighth grade science textbook. I started the session going over a worksheet about chemical and physical changes that I gave him to complete for homework. He was able to complete the worksheet and got them all correct. Then to reinforce the topic we covered some more changes, and he was able to label them correctly. Next, we went over the vocabulary sheet that was about states of matter. I used the visual of a cup to reinforce the three states of matter: solid, liquid and gas. I first dropped a pencil into the cup, then poured water and finally "put" air into the cup. Then I had him tell me if the substance had a definite volume, a definite shape, or both. After covering the vocabulary, I had him go over a reading about more properties of solids, liquids and gases. After the reading, he was able to answer the...

In my second tutoring session with Yan, we recapped material from our last lesson, specifically regarding the differences between "from" and "of." I did this to make sure there was a full understanding, and to open the floor for any further questions. From there, we workshopped the difference in describing what an object is made of versus what it is made from. As we were in the computer lab for this tutoring session, I used the object of a computer as an example. I taught Yan that to ask what something is made of is to describe its components, whereas asking what something is made from is to describe its materials. I created two DIY flashcards (torn sheets of paper because I’m bad at tearing) for two words, “composition” and “component” and wrote cues on them to help her remember their connections to the mentioned words. I sought to guide the tutoring session by asking questions and encouraging responses. I noticed that Yan would get nervous when trying out sentence...

My third class observation was of a Grammar session. The format here was also discussion-based, and the teacher had an energy that felt as if she had a background in Theatre. The way in which she got grammatical concepts across to students was through student practice and speech, an approach I prefer to that of drilling grammatical rules. The beginning activity was focused on asking students what they did the day before. The teacher would take a guided approach to correction, either asking a question in relation to incorrect grammar, or writing a spoken sentence on the whiteboard and workshopping it. This was the most conversational of the class: in an exercise where students were asked what they had for breakfast, the teacher would respond with comments on the choice of food, in a way that she was both sharing her views and giving more room for the student to continue a discussion. I noticed how relaxed the students were in experimenting with grammar, and the class felt intimate in th...

My second class observation was for a Listening class, and was the most open and pleasant of the three classes I observed this past week. The class was far more student-led than the previous Reading course, and the teacher brought a youthful, engaging, and fun energy to the class; this helped to ease any anxieties of the students, and showed me the importance of attending to students in a way that will make them feel safe and comfortable in making mistakes and in engaging with the material. The teacher also introduced me to the class, which helped in making me feel welcomed. The class was focused and listening and responding to a reading on the life and death of stars. I appreciated the choice of topic, as it maintained familiar vocabulary while also pushing comprehension boundaries with an intermediate-to-advanced-level subject. Students showed lowered affective filters in their eagerness to ask and answer questions, and to talk about the reading. To maintain focus on words to learn, ...

During my 1st class observation, I chimed in to a conversation between two TEFL students, who asked me a question on the grammar of the sentence they had just said. The student who asked was Chinese. I had arranged for my first tutoring session to happen after this class, and began downstairs in the lounge. I asked for a "Yan Zhao" and was led to her by a fellow student. Lo and behold, it was that very student I met upstairs in-class. We went upstairs and began our session. I gave a brief introduction of myself, talking about my academics and name. Yan shared how long she was studying at FSU (for three sessions; she had come over from Xi'an in the summer to learn better English). She remarked in discussion that it was harder to learn English in an environment where there was less immersion for the language, and this observation motivated her to come study in the US. This opening conversation served to help get an idea of where our tutoring would be focused. We covered the...

My first Class Observation was a reading class with Dr. Pollack. The class began with a rundown of upcoming assignments, then transitioned into a recap of a reading from last week. The teacher asked students to summarize the reading from last week. I remember there was relative silence at the beginning, as students were unsure on speaking up. The teacher took the initiative to improve students' level of comfort, and guided volunteers through summarizing. This served as the pre-reading. Dr. Pollack then handed out the main activity, an article on artificial intelligence; I was also given the text so I could see what students were engaging with. The piece had highlighted text to help students grasp its main topic. There was teacher-led conversation with the students on the reading, intercutting with class readings of a passage from the text. Students made observations that showed their understanding of the content of the text, and were able to voice their opinions on the dangers of A...

       My second tutoring session was Wednesday, June 19 th . This time I met with my other tutee, Futa Kuroki, from 2:55 to 4:00. We first introduced ourselves, and I mentioned how my major is Japanese and I had an interest in their culture as well, since I knew he was a Japanese student. I went over the needs assessment packet, paying most of my attention to the packet’s questions since Futa said he wanted a lot of help with speaking. He did well overall, but he did stumble a bit and sometimes had to ask for words or explanations of words used. We also talked about some difficulties he faces learning English as a Japanese student. For example, they do not have a “th” sound in Japanese, and the “v” used in borrowed words is pronounced as a “b”. Of course, we also talked about the differences between “l” and “r” since there is no distinction between the two in Japanese, and I said them each a few times and he tried repeating after me. At the end, he said he would w...

For my first tutoring session, I met with YJ Kim on Tuesday, June 18 th . The session lasted from 2:50 to 3:30. We introduced ourselves using the non-academic questions in the needs assessment packet, and I further assessed his speaking and listening skills with the academic questions. He did very well with this section and was able to answer all the questions and comprehend my comments as well. Towards the end of the tutoring session, he told me that he mostly wanted to learn slang and other terms that are used by native speakers but are not taught in the classroom and textbooks. Since he had done so well with the assessment, I was happy to help him with this and decided to keep an eye out for anything I saw or heard outside of class.   It was hard to think of anything on the spot, but I did teach “alrighty” because I used it in our conversation.

Today, June 28th, I met with my conversation partner, Faisal, in the computer lab of the Hecht House from 12:30 to 2:00. Faisal and I discussed a number of topics, ranging from second-language learning to travel experience. These discussions came very naturally due to Faisal's conversational English being flexible in both idiomatic and formal speech. That being said, Faisal expressed that he was concerned about his writing and reading skills, and he showed me a workbook that he had trudging through recently. Though the workbook appeared rather simple in content relative to his speaking skills, any confusion I had was dismissed when Faisal related that he will often know how to say something in spoken English but will be confounded by the task of translating it to the page. To remedy this recurring problem, I suggested that Faisal should start doing more English reading in his free-time, and he was enthusiastic to hear recommendations. I plan on doing research into level appropriate...

Today, June 28th, I met with Hyo Sang Yong in the computer lab of the Hecht House. Much of this session was comprised of Hyo Sang and me combing through the idiom sheet he brought last time. As before, I would have Hyo Sang give me examples of an idiom in use, and then I would correct any problems afterwards. This time, I attempted to construct communicative scenarios for the aforementioned idioms. This allowed us to cover multiple idioms in a realistic, conversational context. Hyo Sang and I got many laughs out of this, and it seemed like he was picking up the proper usage of the idioms much faster with this method. In addition to this, Hyo Sang expressed confusion regarding determiner usage and how it related to the words "other" and "another", and as a result, we spent a lot of time going over this relationship. We also targeted some confusion arising from prepositions and gerunds, though in both scenarios, Hyo Sang's misunderstanding was quickly rectified by...

Today, June 28th, I observed Felicia Ciappetta's speaking class for Group 2A. The class began with the students recording samples of themselves speaking English. Basically, the students had to respond to a question within three minutes and submit recorded samples of their answers to Canvas. Following this, Felicia had the class transcribe their recordings into Word documents. The rest of the class period was occupied by individual work time, wherein the students chipped away at show-and-tell presentations that they had been assigned. This project required the students to create an English-language presentation on any topic that interested them. The majority of the students chose to center their presentations around aspects of their native cultures, with subjects ranging from YouTube channels and music groups to writing systems and urban life. While much of this observation was comprised of simply watching the students work, it provided great insight into how to foster intrinsic mot...

I met with Dakhil at the W Tennessee St. Starbucks on June 28 th at 3:15. Since it was our first conversation partner meeting, we spent the time getting to know each other with small talk. Dakhil is an IT security graduate student from Saudi Arabia and has only been in the United States for 3 weeks. He is currently living with a host family close to FSU campus. He said that, since he doesn’t have a car at the moment, it has been difficult for him to get around town. He asked me for any recommendations for buying a car in Tallahassee. I recommended a couple of the used car dealerships in town, and to look on craigslist and Facebook for people who are trying to sell their car. We also talked about the election and he asked me about my opinion on Donald Trump and his policies. I also told him about a few local events he might want to check out, or we could use for our meetups, such as First Friday and Food Truck Thursdays at Lake Ella. We both agreed to keep an eye out for events that ...

I met with Hyeon-Seop at CIES on June 28th from 2:00-3:00 PM. Since I had the interview questions on hand from my earlier tutoring session, I decided to also do a mock interview with Hyeon-Seop for the first half of the session. I asked him questions about a hypothetical mechanical engineering job with Hyundai. He struggled somewhat with using correct articles in his answers so we went over when ‘a’, ‘an’, or ‘the’ should be used. For the second half of our session I had him read a news article about the G20 summit that is set to take place in Japan this summer. I had him underline words or phrases that he did not understand so that we could go over them. The vocabulary in the article was very technical, so it was an adequate challenge for him. One of the things that confused him was the use of the word ‘chair’ when it was used to indicate that Japanese Prime Minister Abe would be leading the summit. At the end of our session, Hyeon-Seop said that he found the mock interview to be a ...

I met with In-young at CIES from 12:30-1:30 PM on June 28 th . For this session we did a mock interview in order to practice speaking skills that would be used in a professional setting. For this activity I had her choose her dream job which turned out of be being a Korean as a second language teacher. She did very well with catching most of the mistakes in her answers and we went over the cultural differences between the American and Korean interview process. For the last 15 or so minutes of our session we talked about things that she could do to continue improving her English once she returned to Korea in the coming week. She indicated that she will be live chatting with an English speaker when she returns to Korea. I recommended that she look into programs similar to the FSU CIES in Seoul or volunteer work/ tutoring that involves English speakers to find as much contact with spoken English as she can.

Today, June 28th, was my second session with my student from South Korea. We met at the CIES building.  As per her needs assessment, we focused on the use of the future continuous tense. She is going to Itchnetucknee Springs next week, so we practiced the verb tense by talking about what she and her friends will be doing on the trip. She took notes and wrote out the sentences. We created many examples and then I explained the rule using a worksheet with an explanation, examples and practice questions. She successfully completed the practice examples. She was able to use the tense correctly in describing in detail what she will do at her job when she returns to South Korea. She had the basic knowledge before we met and her usage improved by the end of the session.

Today, June 28th,  I met with my conversation partners. I am leading a conversation group at the volunteer ESOL program at the Leon County Library on Friday mornings. The students were from China, India, Saudia Arabia, and Venezuela. We began our discussion by talking about the upcoming 4th of July celebrations. We discussed how American's celebrate the occasion. The students shared information about similar holidays and celebrations in their home countries. I learned that each of the countries has similar national holidays and that they are also celebrated with fireworks, parades, and social gatherings involving food, family and friends. The topic branched out into how America is different from their home country. Except for the woman from India, they all agreed that the major difference is the amount of freedom Americans enjoy in their everyday lives.

I observed a reading class for group 3A from 11:00-11:50 on June 27 th . For the first fifteen minutes of class, the teacher read aloud from Bridge to Terabithia as the students followed along with their copies of the book. Afterwards, the teacher asked the students questions about chapter that they had just read. Some of the students asked their own questions, such as what grits were. The teacher explained what they are and looked up a picture so that the students could understand what it was. This was a great example of teaching the schema of the reading since grits are a very American food item. For the rest of the class period, the teacher had the students work on an intensive reading assignment from the textbook in pairs. They were to read a short passage, making sure to stop after every paragraph in order to summarize it. The students also had to answer questions on the passage and turn in the answers at the end of the class for the teacher to grade.

Date/Time: 06/27/19 Topic/Skill: Grammar 4B Teacher Presentation: The students were supposed to have a grammar quiz today but Canvas wasn’t working. The topic of the day was modals. The teacher started by having the students read a page in their textbook by themselves so they could get an idea of what they’re learning (deductive approach). Afterwards, she asked the class to define what a modal was. Next, she gave a more detailed description for the class. Then, the class worked on activities from the textbook to practice using modals.  Classroom Management:  Materials:  Textbook Student  Participation:  Students raised their hands to answer questions. Students worked on activities in partners. Students called out their answers from the activities.  Feedback Provided:  When a student had a grammar question, the teacher explained the answer by first giving an example and having the student work through the example with her. Then, she would g...

Date/Time: 06/27/19 Topic/Skill: Composition 3A Teacher Presentation: Ryan started out by outlining the plan for class today. This class was dedicated to learning how to write coherent paragraphs and writing an outline for the first draft of their paper. First, the students read about coherent paragraphs and topic sentences in their textbook. The teacher made sure that everyone knew the definitions of important words such as “topic sentence”. Every time a student got an answer correct or gave correct information, the teacher made sure to congratulate them and encourage them. When students got something wrong, he corrected them kindly and gave them positive feedback. As the students wrote their outlines, the teacher looked over their work one by one to give them feedback and make sure they are going in the right direction. Classroom Management:  The teacher had previously assigned groups so students wouldn’t waste time finding one. Whenever students weren’t paying attention, ...

Last Tuesday, on the 18th, I met my CP Alex at Calvin's Coffee House. Our conversation spanned across a number of topics, namely our second language, our family backgrounds, and our views on global thinking. There was a stark contrast in our genealogies: Alex could trace his family back, and with greater ease, to 18th-century settlers in Maine (I hope I remember correctly that they were French; otherwise, they may have been Scottish or German; curse my memory) who moved down to Madison, Florida and have remained there ever since. I on the other hand talked of a history that really comes into form only during the late 19th century, and which is marked by martyrdoms, and migrations spanning the world. When I asked of the language and interests Alex had, he told me Russian had been his first stint. In detailing my language, Farsi, I delved into both a heavily abridged explanation of 20th century Iranian history followed by my mom and dad's immigration stories. The intersection we ...

Today, June 26th, I observed Dr. Derrick Pollock's speaking class for Group 3B. Dr. Pollock began the lesson with an activity by the name of Hot Seat, in which he would select a student and have them talk about a randomly assigned topic for forty-five seconds. From what I could gather, this activity is designed to train quick and accurate speech in the face of a looming time limit. Some of the topics the student discussed ranged from technology to bullying to general life experiences. Following a student's forty-five second presentation of the topic, Dr. Pollock would point out every mistake made by the student and urge them to make the necessary corrections on their own. If the students were unable to do this, then Dr. Pollock would explain the mistake in detail and provide the correction. After the fifteen-or-so minutes that this activity took, the class broke off into individual work time, wherein the students got to make some progress on a presentation that they had been as...

Today, June 26th, I met with my tutee, Hyo Sang Yong, again. As I mentioned in my last post about Hyo Sang, his handling of conversational English is impressive. For this session, Hyo Sang brought me a long list of common idioms and other expressions that he had been studying in his free time. He feels that studying this list will help improve his spoken and written English. We went down the list, item by item, and Hyo Sang would give me several spoken examples of each idiom. If I noticed any mistakes, I would wait for him to finish and then point out that his examples were not working in certain regards. If he was unable to then rectify these mistakes on his own, then I would correct them and explain why they posed problems within the examples. Through these frequent corrections, we segued into mini-lessons about gerunds, infinitives, and a litany of verb tenses. Ultimately, we ended up covering a lot of ground, and Hyo Sang quickly incorporated our lessons into his speech. This was s...

Kang and I met again in room 311, at 3pm on the 26th of June, for our session. Previously I had asked Kang what he would like to focus on for our "guided conversation" exercises; he asked if we could talk about immigration, I told him I would study it for a discussion. We started by reading an article he brought in on the subject, dealing mainly with tariffs on Mexico. He highlighted the strange and idiomatic (the writer had a penchant for sports metaphors that proved quite useful) phrases and words he did not understand. Throughout his general summary of the article I slowly corrected his English and enforced some of the words and phrases we had studied last session. By the end of the analyzation of the document we had developed an excellent arsenal of words for use in small-talk (and some more specific scenarios) based political talk.

Tutee On Wednesday, I had met with my Turkish tutee. Kubra and I have been working on the present perfect tense because she had explained to me from our first meeting that she did not fully understand it. I had found an activity with me to use with her as well as a great sentence structure rule for present perfect tense. This handout had different sentences using the present perfect tense with explanation and examples. There would be one about when to use present perfect with time frame, or when to use it with a negative concept, etc. I gave her that handout to review and to use to study the present perfect; however, I handed that to her after the activity. Because she is mostly a higher level than the students I teach at the camp, I always do an activity with her first before teaching her about the topic. The activity I had given to Kubra was a chapter 6 present perfect tense exercise I had found online:  https://www.colomboarmenia.com/files/documentos/6820140219091338.pdf . ...

Class Observation On Tuesday, I had gone to my third class observation. This class observation was a grammar lesson class and the instructor was Rebecca Turk. Although Rebecca apologized at the beginning of the class because she was feeling quite unwell to the point that she could not raise her voice too high, or be standing up for too long. She gave her students back a worksheet plan that they were working on and told all of her students that they needed to redo the last part of it. Because all of her students' response to the question "What will you do to improve your English language skills?" and almost all of them replied "I will study" or "I will practice". Rebecca Turk wanted her students to form an actual schedule plan of how to improve their English. She gave her students about 10 minutes or less to work on their plan, she gave them an explanation first before letting them work on it on their own. After everyone was done with working on th...

PACE Summer Camp Tutee On Tuesday, I had gone to the summer camp where I volunteer to tutor English to migrant children. I mostly help with the older kids instead of the younger kids. The activity we had done with the older kids was reading, writing a response, and speech exercise. All of the students had to read a short story out loud, every student was given a turn to read a paragraph. We had helped anyone that was struggling on the pronunciation of the words. After the reading activity was over, the class was open to discussion. Ms. Soto and I had asked the students questions about the reading. We used a clear and not too of a slow voice when asking them questions. All of the students were to respond back in a whole sentence and not a "yes" or "no" answer. When the open class discussion was over, the students had an in-class worksheet about the reading that they had to fill out. This worksheet was a scaffolding type. It would start off easy and with lots of ...

I met with Hyeon-Seop at CIES on June 26th from 3:15-4:15 PM. We started the session with the writing sample I had him write before we met up. He had written about some of the differences and similarities he observed when he first came to Tallahassee. Like the previous writing activity, I underlined the grammatical errors and awkward word placement/choices that I could see and guided him so that he could figure out the mistakes and correct them himself. He still had some trouble with articles and demonstrative determiners, but there appeared to be less of these mistakes in this sample then there were in the previous one. We spent the rest of the session in conversation in order to work on his speaking skills. We talked a little about current events in the news, the current American political landscape, and movies that he likes to watch. Since Hyeon-Seop mentioned that he liked crime drama and mysteries, I recommended a few movies like The Departed and The Usual Suspects to him. As w...

I met with In-young at CIES from 2:15-3:15 on June 26 th . For this session, we decided to focus on idioms. I had found a list of common idioms online that came with an explanation of how they are used. First, I would pick an idiom and use it in a sentence and have In-young try to guess its meaning through context. If she was unable to guess what it means, I would write down the idiom and explain the meaning and then have her try to think of an example of how to use it in a sentence. A few minutes before our time was over, my second tutee, Hyeon-Seop, arrived and decided to join us. At this point, we had the two of them compete to see who could guess the idiom first. At the end of the session, I recapped on a couple of idioms to make sure the meaning stuck (devil’s advocate, taste of their own medicine) and confirmed our next meeting for Friday.

I observed Felicia Chiappetta’s (who had another teacher, Meagan, assisting her) speaking class for group 2A on June 26 th . The students were in the process of making a show and tell type of presentation and were currently working on outlines. At the start of class, the teacher handed back their outlines with feedback written on them and had the students work on revisions. During this time, the students were able to talk to each other about their projects in order to both practice their speaking skills and provide each other with feedback. While the students worked, Meagan walked around the room and answered any questions that the students had about their writing. A few students asked about the meanings of idioms that they had learned and wished to use in their presentations. Felicia would continuously respond to students’ requests for assistance with questions of her own in order to get the students to think of the solution themselves. While there was not much instruction on speaki...

Class Observation #3 at CIES Ms. Turk TOPIC: Grammar 6/25/2019 GROUP 4A; Advanced and ready to go to FSU Rebecca Turk is high energy. I’ve noticed that ESL professors have their own distinct energy. She’s teaching grammar. When students don’t say something she has no qualm correcting them. This class will help me to learn how to talk to ESL students while allowing them to correct themselves. She ended with a lesson as to ‘what you’ll plan for the next day’ and asks students today to say who did a part of their plan. This was a beginning exercise. When Ms. Turk uses an idiom, she writes it on the board and explains it. “We’ll play it by ear---" was the idiom of the day and explanation is simple. ‘we will see as it happens’ and ‘we will see as it develops’.   My first way of explaining it would’ve been to explain its roots in jazz music, but I see now keeping it as simple and functional as possible is all that’s needed.   They were engaging in contextual co...

6/25/2019 Today I met Hayden at the CIES computer room. We talked about the education system differences between my home country, Sint Maarten, and America. We talked about standardized testing and how testing back home is more essay and open-question oriented than other tests I've seen in America. We also talked about how this affects how we learn or teach. The most interesting part was how we talked about our own academics---we are both English Creative Writing majors. We talked a lot about the differences between American education standards, especially a transition from a potential home country to America. Reading is always a hurdle, even for native speakers. We talked about our interests in creative writing as well. The more you speak with a person from a different culture the more you may realize you have things in common that don't appear obvious on the surface.

Date/Time: 06/25/19 Topic/Skill: Reading/group 2A Teacher Presentation: Teacher gave good instructions about the tasks the class was doing today. She provided worksheets for everyone. She went over the syllabus with the class and explained what is expected from them in this course. The students had to read an article in class. She read the article out loud for them and whenever she came across a complicated phrase or word, she would pause and ask class if they knew what it was; if they didn’t she explained it to them. She used Merriam-Webster Learner’s Dictionary to help students define words. Classroom Management: When the students would stop listening and talk or stop paying attention, she would calmly say “my dear students,” and that got their attention.  Materials:  Computer lab (computer and Canvas), worksheet about whales, articles about whales, Merriam-Webster Learner’s Dictionary (online). Student  Participation:  Students logged onto the computers...

6/25/2019 Today I met Ngoc at the CIES conference room. I started a conversation with her so we can learn new terms in context of our home countries. She would bring up sentences like "Income is cheap", and we would break down why this sentence doesn't work with applicable examples.  We talked about the differences in Migration, namely Immigration and Emigration. We then talked about population and density in terms of migration from traditional (rural) landscapes to cities. We went through key words and their antonyms, synonyms and examples in the realm of cultural exchange. This ended up painting a contextual picture around the 'income is cheap' phrase. She cancelled for tomorrow, and I confirmed that we will meet next Monday. I told her to bring a composition she's worked on recently and we will develop through it in order to encourage more structured conversation.

Class Observation #2 at CIES Angel Rios TOPIC: Reading Summary of Mr. Rios’ Observation Class 1.       Reading paragraph 2.       Highlighting trouble words (Antonym, synonyms, simpler words and explanation, connotations). He’s stressing utility and context over ripping a word apart. Context clues are key to understanding a word, not necessarily a dictionary definition. This is because words change depending on what’s around it.  Words are like water. 3.       Main idea 4.       Supporting details 5.       Paraphrase or summary for own understanding Independence: He repeats this process again till paragraph 4 by asking questions to the class. He’s doing the asking and students have control to do it themselves. It was a 4-step process for 4 paragraphs. 50 minutes. So 50/4 is about 12 minutes a paragraph. The goal of these sessions seems...

I observed Ryan Flemming’s grammar class for group 3A on June 25 th . The topic for the day was verb tenses, specifically present continuous and past continuous. For the present continuous tense, Mr. Flemming brought up a picture depicting several things occurring in a museum and read aloud several sentences that were describing things in the picture. The students were to either answer true or false if the sentence was correct, and unrelated if the verb tense was not right for the action. Next, the teacher had the students work in groups to make their own sentences about the picture and to have the rest of the group answer true, false, or unrelated. For past continuous, the teacher used a few sentences to explain the verb tense before having the students right their own sentences about a time they were surprised by something. After they were finished, the teacher wrote a few of their sentences on the board and had the students find the errors in verb tense/work placement and correcte...

Yesterday, June 24th, I met with my tutee, Sumi, again. Sumi has recently begun completing exercises in a new English writing and grammar book that she purchased. From what I have seen, this book is a clear step up, in terms of difficulty, compared with her previous practice book, which provided little challenge during our last session. The lesson that was tripping her up in the new book covered gerund phrases. This proved to be a problem for Sumi as it was her brush with irregular restructurings of the typical 'Subject-Verb-Object' format that English more often adheres to. I spent a great deal of time breaking down the lesson bit by bit, having her provide me with examples of her own at multiple points along the way. A breakthrough came when Sumi realized that she had been using gerund phrases, in essence, when utilizing dependent clauses that contained words like 'when' and 'while'. She was able to understand and correctly utilize gerund phrases following thi...

Kang and I finished speaking with Ryan and began our second session. Kang expressed his wish to simply converse, and so I suggested that I would correct his sentences and provide linguistic support for him as we spoke as organically as possible. We covered a wide range of topics both in and out of his field in politics. We learned several good terms involving politics, including such complexities as gerrymandering. HE was happy to practice speaking about his line of work in the Ministry of Unification, and I guided him into being able to more smoothly explain what he does. This type of practice seems to be his goal with me, because he does so much studying on his own time that he feels guided conversation is something he cannot easily access, and so I believe we are steadily improving his ability to easily interact with, and understand the speech of, native speakers.

I observed Dr. Pollock's Speaking class for level 3b students. He began the class by asking what the students did over the weekend. He patiently listened to to each student, and asked follow up questions to encourage them to elaborate. I noticed he used several types of implicit feedback when students made "beautiful mistakes." Next, they continued a game they began last week. The students were divided into two teams. They took turns individually speaking on a topic, then other team would point out mistakes to garner points. The students seemed comfortable and eagerly participated. After that, they played a game called "rapid fire" where a topic was displayed on the board and they discussed and debated their opinions on the topics. He reminded them not to be concerned with grammar because he wanted them to focus on fluency. He told them they would need to contribute in order to get their class participation points. I noticed some students spoke slowly and correc...

I observed Mr. Flemming substitute for Ms. Coleman's Reading class for level 2A students. He began the class by giving the students a reading assessment. They read a passage silently, and answered questions independently. He explained it was to help determine their level and needs. After a few minutes he noticed some were using smart phones. He made an announcement not to use them on this assignment. I noted this because I can see how valuable the phones are, and that students must rely on them quite a bit. When the assessment was over, he introduced the activity, which was to begin the novel they would be reading ( Rainman ). First, he referred to the movie version and they discussed what they knew about the movie. Next, he played the first 10 minutes of the movie (with English subtitles) and discussed the characters, plot, and action so far. He gave the students each a copy of the book and he read aloud while they followed along. When he finished reading for the session, he asked...

Today, I observed Mr. Flemming's grammar class for level 3A students. He began the class by going over the syllabus for this week. Next, he reviewed the simple future that they had discussed previously. He asked some students for examples, and then had them complete an exercise for practice. The students worked with a partner to plan vacation activities for each other as if they were a travel agent. While the students were completing the activity Mr. Flemming walked around the classroom taking notes on the students' progress. After the students made plans for each other, he asked students to share their plans. Next, he told the students he would put examples on the board of things he overheard that he didn't understand. I believe he had a prepared list that he projected and he asked the students for assistance in correcting the mistakes. His manner was very supportive and friendly, and the students appeared eager and comfortable to participate. He provided positive feedback...

I had my introductory session with my tutee, Song-Yi. She is from South Korea and is in the US with her family for six months to learn english. She will return to Korea where she will resume her studies at the university she attends. We shared information about ourselves, and I completed an informal needs assessment by asking questions related to her knowledge, skills and goals. She is a level 4 in all areas of CIES instruction except grammar. She would like to focus on improving her grammar, specifically verb tenses. Although she is quite easy to understand and has a confident command of spoken English, she said she tries only to use the simple for of the verb tense. I admitted that grammar isn't my strong suit, but assured her I would find the answers to her questions. She said she likes to learn by reading and practicing. I will find written explanations to her questions and provide worksheets to practice the targeted skills.

Date/Time:      June 18 th , 12-1 Location:         Student’s home Topic/Skill:      Vocabulary acquisition within context of science book. I demonstrated the thought processes required for comprehension while reading a text. After analyzing the vocabulary words for the section, I read the material aloud and stopped to “think aloud” about questions I had with the text. I explained the process.  Next, he read and “thought aloud.”  Feedback:        Praised him for bringing knowledge to the vocabulary before looking at the technical definitions. Reminded him to look at parts of the words for affixes/roots that may be familiar. Reminded him to read the text features before we read the content in the paragraphs.  Lessons I  Learned:          Because he seemed mor...

I met with P.J at his home on June 24 from 11:30-12:30PM. The topics we covered were both vocabulary words from the previous session, with two additional words, and a reading about changes in matter from an eighth grade science textbook.  I prepared a vocabulary sheet, and we went over them before the reading. I then asked him to complete a worksheet to reinforce his understanding of a physical and chemical property. After he completed the sheet, he was still having trouble understanding what a physical property was, so I decided the reading would help him better. I then had him read aloud from the text and asked him questions. After the readings,  I pointed around the room asking questions about the items in the room. He was able to list physical and chemical properties of some of the items, and then I asked him questions that caused the items to change. He then answered whether it would be a physical or chemical change. I left him with a short assignment on physical and chem...

I observed Felicia Ciappatta's speaking class for group 2A on Monday June 24. The class started with students reading a passage on prepared and unprepared speaking. The students then shared with one another what they thought about the reading. After, a video was played of a good and a bad presentation. After the bad presentation was played, students were asked what made the presentation bad. The students were then shown a good presentation, and the class discussed how the speaker improved their speaking. Then students were put in groups, and they were asked why the tips can improve a presentation. I liked that the teacher encouraged students to participate in the groups. After, the entire class came together to discuss what makes a good presentation. The teacher did a good job of encouraging active discussion that allowed the students to speak more. Also, I like that the students are going to make presentations about where they come from.

I observed Felicia Ciappetta's grammar class for group 4B on Monday June 24. The topic covered was both the past perfect and the past perfect continuous tenses. The class started out with having the students pair together and come up with examples using both tenses. She then called on the students to share what each pair had come up with. After, the students read a section on phrasal verbs. They were then told to match phrasal verbs and their definitions. Once they understood what phrasal verbs are, they learned the difference between separable and inseparable phrasal verbs. At the end of class they were encouraged to write a story using both phrasal verbs and the two tenses. I liked that the students where given many chances to speak and were engaged. Also, I liked that they were given a chance to apply the grammar they had just learned.   

Tutee On Monday, I had met up with my tutee after completed my class observation for the day. I had messaged with Kubra about what she had wanted to work on, and she told me that she wanted to work on present perfect tense. Because Kubra had skipped two levels, she did not fully understand the present prefect tense. The night before, I had researched ideas for best teaching present perfect for an intermediate level student. Not only did I found a worksheet that best explains present perfect sentence structure in different ways, but I also found an activity for her to practice in. We started on the activity first before I went on to explain what present perfect tense is. The activity I had picked to do with her was called "Connect 4". In which, on the left side column would be the sample verb and object while the top row was the different time frame. For example, the top left box was "study English" and the first box on the top row, on the far left, was "2 ye...

Class Observation   On Monday, I had gone to my second class observation. This class was being instructed by Ryan Flemming, who was teaching on speaking for students in level 3A. I enjoyed the way Ryan spoke to his students, he spoke slowly and clear as well as repeated himself or asked the students. Ryan had to go over the syllabus with his students again since they did not have it with them, after every selection in the syllabus Ryan would ask "do/did you understand this?" and everyone would nod their head yes. Only twice did a student ask the teacher to go over that selection or rule or objective one more time. There was this one student in this class that during the syllabus and the class activity, he would repeat any new word or a word he does not know how to say properly out loud after Ryan had said it. To get his students to speak, Ryan had an activity where there will be a list of three words or phrases, in which, the students must pick one of them. After the s...

Class Observation   On Monday, I had attended my first class observation with Dr. Derrick Pollack, who he was teaching a reading course. The students in this reading course are at level 3A. During my observation, I liked how Dr. Derrick wrote down on the whiteboard his agenda for the day. He began the class by having the students pick from two different books to read. The majority had picked "Bridge to Terabithia." After they all picked, Dr. Derrick had gone on to get the rest of the books for his students. A few of them had to share a book, the student that was sitting across from me on the little table again the wall had shared his book with me. At first, I had thought that everyone would read the book aloud; however, that was not the case here. Dr. Derrick had read the book aloud in a clear and slow manner for his students to understand him. I had appreciated how Dr. Derrick would give them another word if it was a word that the students did not understand during th...

I met with Hyeon-Seop at CIES on June 24 th from 3:30-4:30 PM. He had unfortunately forgotten to complete the writing sample that I had asked him to complete the last time we met so I had him work on one for about 10 minutes at the start of the session. He wrote about his experience in his CIES classes and what he had learned so far. When he finished, we went over the grammatical errors as well as articles that were missing in a few sentences. For the most part he was able to figure out what mistakes he had made once I had underlined them and explained what kind of error it was (missing article, grammar tense of a verb). He asked about how certain things were used in a sentence (as well as, not only…but also...) and we went through a few examples after I explained how they were used. We then switched to a speaking exercise, going back and forth with conditionals (If I had……, I would….). At the end of our session I gave him another writing topic to work on and bring to our next sessi...

Today,  June 15 th , I tutored J.P Chang at his home. We c ontinued working on vocabulary acquisition within the context of the science workbook. We began with the vocabulary words. To activate background knowledge, I asked him what he knew about each word before we discussed the definition. We discussed using affixes and root/base words to help recognize parts of the word he may already know to assist with understanding. We read the section together, I Gave him crossword puzzles to complete.  I pointed out when he used background knowledge to help define words.  I Reminded him to read/scan the text features/pictures before reading. He likes to contribute his thoughts and is curious about learning more than just  what is presented in the text. Due to time restrictions, I need to shorten the length of the lesson to allow time for sharing thoughts and ideas which are essential to understanding.

Michelle TS #1 Date/Time:      June 14 th , 12-1 Location:         Student’s home Topic/Skill:      Introduced myself and my background. As can be expected, the 13 yr. old student was a bit reserved, but very cooperative and interested in the science material.  The focus of the lesson was vocabulary acquisition within the context of a science workbook. I introduced using text features (“icing”) before reading the content in paragraph forms (“cake”) as a way to prepare to receive the new information. Feedback         Emphasized that he has background knowledge to bring to the task of learning  to tutee:          new material and demonstrated/practiced how to activate it.                ...

6/24/2019 Today I met Ngoc at the conference room at CIES. She didn't have questions at first so I began talking to her about YouTube videos she watched. I was a little concerned that because she didn't bring anything that I'd have nothing to do for an hour. Enough chatting brought enough things to teach for an hour. I explained the idioms of to be able to, ability, in general vs majority and the idea of 'supposed to' was linked to all of this. I am trying to layer words together to build a network of understanding. One idea I am trying to do is to give Ngoc something tangible to practice rather than give her example after example. "Can you be happy?" Yes, I am able to be happy.  I'm supposed to be happy.

I met with In-young at Strozier on June 24 th from 12:30-1:30 PM. We started the session with the assignment I had given her last time we had met. I had asked her to read an English language news article and to come in with any words or phrases that she was confused about or did not understand. For the most part she had a good grasp of the vocabulary within the article, however some words through her off due to their low frequency of use or how they were used in a way that she had not learned before (Taxi-hailing, respective). I also had her watch a short clip from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to practice her listening skills and to see if she could pick up the meaning of idioms used through context. At the end of our time together we talked about how she would like to work more on learning idioms and figures of speech before she returns to Korea. Having told me that she enjoys watching Netflix, I suggested that she watch some English language tv or movies before our next sess...

Today I observed the 4A level Grammar class held at the CIES. Rebecca Turk was slated to teach, but there was a substitute as she was sick. He began by asking everyone about their weekend. By going around and patiently allowing the students to speak, he engaged the class and gave excellent real life conversation practice. After this exercise he began to explain the introduction portion of the textbook. In doing so he was able to get another bit of speech practice in by asking students about their grammar goals. He finished with an exercise where he broke students into groups of 3, and had them discuss a question he wrote on the board: how long had you studied English before coming to CIES? He observed the conversations, and concluded the class by giving a lesson on the Past Perfect based on what he overheard during the group activity.

June 24, 2019 Today I observed a reading class, level 4. Ms. Turk was sick today so Dr. Kennel taught the class instead. I sat and observed Dr. Kennel as he taught and noticed his pattern of teaching while he took the class through the example text. Group 4 is almost done with their preparation into the world of FSU enrollment. I observed Dr. Kennel use the inductive approach by explaining the importance of reading. I can see Dr. Kennel is using the ‘interesting story—explanation of concept—lingual support then allowing students to follow the example concept on their own’ approach. The inductive process followed by independent work due to their advanced level. He’s creating stacking blocks to guide students through a reading process. The class is open-air. Students get to do their own work. In fact, active reading on the student’s part makes the classroom quiet. This professor uses a very similar method to what we are currently learning about reading this week in chapter 9. H...