FSU TEFL 120 Summer 2 2019

Wednesday, July 10th, I met with Hyo Sang Yong. For this lesson, we continued with the idiom sheet, covering phrases such as "That's what", "That's where", "That's when", "That's how", and "That's why". Though these phrases may seem common, Hyo Sang had difficulty parsing the vast and varied amount of scenarios that they could be utilized in. To address this difficulty, I created a number of role-play scenarios, where these phrases could be used in appropriate, helpful contexts. These role-play scenarios were, of course, great speaking practice for Hyo Sang. To close out the lesson, Hyo Sang expressed some worries about the pace of his language learning, and they more or less reflected the classic "plateau" mindset often experienced by intermediate language learners. I let him know that many learners feel the same way and provided a number of listening and reading strategies that would be beneficial for him...

Monday, July 8th, I met with Su-Mi at Starbucks from 3:00 to 4:30. The entirety of this lesson was directed towards alleviating Su-Mi's confusion regarding complete sentences versus sentence fragments. To practice this grammar form, I utilized a set of exercises from Su-Mi's workbook that asks the student to decide whether or not a number of example sentences are complete or fragmented. I approached this inductively, wherein Su-Mi would try the questions herself, before I would lend my assistance, which she ultimately did not need with around half of questions. From this lesson, we branched out into a mini-lesson on prepositional phrases. After this, Su-Mi was able to complete all of the exercises without any trouble. That about sums about everything we covered on Monday.

Date/Time: July 10, 11:30-12:30 Location: Student's home We read and discussed Topic 6, Lesson 4. After having the student use schema to define the words we read the text.  He found the definitions to the vocabulary words within the text and wrote them down. We discussed the material in depth, because it related to people using chemical processes to create new products. There were lots of issues and examples that we were able to discuss. This helps add to his schema for future studies.

Date/Time: July 10th, 10:30-11:30 Location: Student's home We began with a review of the words from the previous day. Next, we defined and discussed the vocabulary words for Topic 6, lesson 3 in the science book. Instead of having the words already defined, I had the student find the definition within the text to write. He did this with ease. As we read the text we discussed the words and the concepts and their practical applications to real life. He frequently pointed out root words and prefixes as he was reading and used them to find meaning in the words. This is something I have been emphasizing during our sessions. His mother said he does this because he is bilingual and actively thinks about language more than a native, monolingual speaker.

Date/Time: Tuesday, July 9th,  2-3pm Location: Stone Building, FSU campus My conversation partner told me about her experiences in Africa. She is very knowledgeable about the Rindalli tribe in Kenya, because she lived with them and helped train their teachers. She gave me a beautiful book that she wrote about her life in Africa. We talked about the problems they face as a result of global warming and the lack of funding for schools. Our conversation turned to the conditions of teaching in South Korea. She said the profession is stable and teachers are well paid. She believes a downside to teaching profession there is that teachers have very little autonomy or ability to be creative in their classrooms. I told her about some of the struggles I encountered as a teacher in the United States. I gave her some honey from my backyard hives and told her a little about my beekeeping hobby. I look forward to our next session!

Date/Time: Tuesday, July 9th 11:30-12:15 Location: Student's home I prepared a vocabulary list to study before we read the next lesson in his science book. The lesson was related to chemical and physical changes. First, we went over the vocabulary words and their definitions. Next, we read the text while discussing the new words in context. When we finished reading the lesson I gave him a matching worksheet with the new words and their definitions. He was able to match most definitions with my assistance. He needs more exposure and practice with the words. This brief, quick introduction to the words will hopefully increase his ability to comprehend the words and concepts in his next science class.

Date/Time: Tuesday, July 9 Location: Student's home I prepared vocabulary definitions and examples for the next lesson in his science text book. The words related to mixtures and solutions. First we studied the new vocabulary words and then read the text together. We stopped to discuss the words and concepts as we took turns reading. When we completed the lesson I gave him a worksheet to complete. The worksheet had a word bank to use to define the new words. He struggled to remember the definitions, which is to be expected with one quick reading of the text. He needs more usage with the words if he is to comprehend and remember them.