Erfaan Mahmoodi TS #1

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 differences between “from” and “of” in relation to possession, where I wrote and workshopped sentences, spoke, and asked and answered questions to create a clear understanding of the differences between “from” and “of.” I used a sentence, “This text is from the 13th century.” By replacing ‘from’ with ‘of’, I explained how this changed the meaning and how each word indicates a different relationship. It was a fun and engaging tutor session, made so by the atmosphere I helped establish and by the creativity I employed in tutoring.