Date/Time: Saturday 9/5/2020
Do-jun
Location: Zoom
Topic/Skill: Current events/ past WW2 history with Japan
Tuesday, September 8, 2020
Stefanny TS #16
Stefanny CP #6
Date/Time: 8/30/2020
Location: ZOOM
Topic
discussed:American School System
Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned:
Juan is getting ready to start his first year of school in the US, and with the new normal of COVID and wasn't sure what to expect. We spoke about his concerns and my experience in school & ESOL classes. I told him about how I did virtual high school classes and wasn't sure if it would be the same for him. I told him it would be a good transition probably and to look at the bright side. I also taugh him about junior year being the most important and how and when to start applying for colleges when he is ready. In Colombia the first two years of college aren't like in the USA and in high school they take more inclusive courses depending on the school.
Stefanny TS #15
Date/Time: Saturday 8/28/2020
Do-jun
Location: Zoom
Topic/Skill: Current events / Real estate
Session / Lesson I learned:It has become a trend that our lessons are more conversational to practice his speech and listening skills which will better prepare Dojun for the English speaking world. My attempts to have him actually write out sentences have failed so I decided to keep it simple. We start our lesson by talking about our week and what has happened. I told her about my discovery of being highly allergic to cats after moving into my new place and that process and he told me about how he has gone back to work and completed his certificate. After we talk for a while we review the sentences which he didn't understand. This time about I told him about my friend who got a new job in the real estate field and we went through more real estate vocab after I told him about my attempts to move again due to my allergies.Stefanny TS # 14
Date/Time: Saturday 8/21/2020
Do-jun
Location: Zoom
Topic/Skill:Current events & the different between begin & start
Tuesday, September 1, 2020
Stefanny TS#12
Date/Time: Saturday 8/31/2020
Ye-won session #9
Location: Zoom
Topic/Skill: Final Review
Stefanny TS#13
Date/Time: Saturday 8/27/2020
Ye-won session #8
Location: Zoom
Topic/Skill: Sessions Review Part 1
Session
/ Lesson I learned:Since including this lesson, Ye-won could only do 2 more sessions before school started for her, I decided to review everything we have gone over this summer. I fist played a short 10 minute video of Princess Anna and Elsa preparing a birthday celebration. After watching the video I went over spelling and writing. I had prepared a power point with all the Disney princess, with their name and favorite color. I had Ye-won practice her writing by greeting the princesses and writing what they would say. (" Hi my name is Ariel, my favorite color is red") We did this with about 6 princesses until I realized she was getting bored.Afterwards I refereed back to the video I had shown her in the beginning and went over several scenes asking her about the weather, what they were wearing and finished the lesson with an I spy game she enjoys. With Ye-won, games is definitely the best way to keep her entertained with learning.
Monday, August 31, 2020
CP #4 Holly Kilgore
CP #4
This discussion took place on Friday, August 28. During this
time Moctar’s online classes started. Moctar told me that he had a full schedule
this semester and I told him that I got a new job. Because we were both exhausted
by the week, we decided to watch a portion of our favorite television show and
then discuss what we watched. We started with my show and we watched about
fifteen minutes of it. My show was ‘Nailed it’ which is a baking show where
contestants have to try to create an elaborate baked good. Most of the time, the
end results are hilariously bad. Moctar seemed to enjoy the show a little bit
and we discussed our own personal cooking abilities. My cooking abilities, as discussed
before, are non-existent. Moctar mentioned that he can cook eggs and easy meals
like that. I was impressed. Unfortunately, both of us did not have time to
watch Moctar’s show, but for our next meeting we will.
CP #3 Holly Kilgore
CP #3
For this discussion we talked on Friday, August 21. The
reason our discussions were so sporadic was because of our respective work schedules,
but for this session we were able to meet up on Friday. For this meeting, we
talked about our favorite festivals and I mentioned the different celebrations
that I wanted to see in New Orleans. Primarily Mardi Gras. Moctar didn’t know
what Mardi Gras was or what it was in honor of – and I honestly didn’t know
either – so we wound up researching some of the history surrounding the festival.
We found out that the festival itself has roots in Catholicism and French
history. Because Louisiana was a French colony, France invested much of their
cultural celebrations into the newfound colony and many of these celebrations
and cultural landmarks – language, architecture, practices, culture, art, etc –
are still visible today. It’s really incredible and Moctar appeared to
enjoy some of the videos that we found about the celebrations. I enjoyed looking
for them, too.
CP #2 Holly Kilgore
CP #2
For this conversation, Moctar and I met on Saturday, August
1. Due to both of our busy schedules it took us both a few tries to finally
meet up for the second time. During this meeting, we talked about our interests
and what we wanted to do when we finally finished with class. This discussion
was a bit of a rehash from our first conversation, but it was still cool
hearing about him wanting to build his own business. It is incredible what he
has planned, and it is amazing what he has in mind for his business. I wish I
had my future planned like that. We also discussed our favorite movies! I
mentioned how I enjoyed baking shows on Netflix and how ‘Nailed It’ was one of
my favorite shows. I could not come up with a favorite movie. Moctar asked me
if I could cook and I told him the truth: me cooking is a terrible idea because
I cannot cook at all. Moctar told me that his favorite movie was ‘The Nun.’ I
wound up having to google what the movie was, and it turned out that ‘The Nun’ is
a horror movie. I was really surprised to learn that he enjoyed horror movies.
This led into us talking about our favorite genres. He didn’t really have a ‘favorite’
genre, he could watch anything. I prefer calming movies that don’t scare me.
Holly Kilgore CP #1
CP #1
My conversation partner was a student named Moctar Ouedraogo.
Our first conversation was Sunday, July 19, 2020. For this discussion we talked
about our hometowns and what it was like respectively growing up where we did. My
hometown is Tallahassee and I talked about how I wished to leave the city at
the first chance I got. Moctar did not tell me specifically where in Burkina
Faso he was raised, but he talked about where the country was (along the western coast
of Africa) and what it was like. He said that he missed his home and that he loved
growing up where he did. The funny part about that conversation was that Moctar
seemed honestly surprised when I said that I wanted to leave. He told me that
the weather where he grew up was similar to Tallahassee, but it was hotter. I
honestly could not even imagine that. Moctar
also told me that he was a student at Tallahassee Community College and that he
was going to transfer to Florida State. He wants to major in business. He wants
to open an import/export business. I told him that I was not quite sure what I
wanted to do. I would love to do something community-centered, but right now I
am trying to figure everything out as they come.
Sunday, August 30, 2020
Camryn TS #16
Date/Time: Friday 08/29
Location: Zoom
Topic/Skill: King Tut, Archeology, and Motel of Mysteries (Listening)
Feedback provided to tutee: Grammar error correction/Comprehension question
Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: To start off our session, we spoke about King Tut and I asked Sanghun if he was familiar with the excavation of his tomb. He said he had not studied it in school, so I gave him a little context and showed a brief video that further explained how this discovery came about. This pre-lesson was used for me to introduce the idea of archeology as well as key vocab that would be necessary in the lesson. We did an intensive reading of Motel of Mysteries. I read the story allowed and Sanghun listened carefully taking notes as we conducted a comprehension discussion afterward. The story followed the excavation of a motel in Usa, a continent that was destroyed by pollution. Sanghun said the story was interesting and some points hard to follow because of the funny description of everyday objects like a TV or a remote. Overall, he understood the main points of the story.
Friday, August 28, 2020
Camryn TS #15
Date/Time: Friday 08/28
Location: Zoom
Topic/Skill: How to Read English (Speaking and Listening)
Feedback provided to tutee: Grammar error correction/presentation feedback
Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Sanghun wanted to choose the video for today. He found a Tedtalk by a woman who has developed the Nardagani reading system which helps people learning to read English decode the sounds of letters. She noticed that through her own daughter's experience learning to read, the English reading system in America is not very helpful to children who struggle in school. By creating symbols to indicate the sound letters make, it is easier for children to learn the pronunciation. Before the video, we talked about our own experiences with learning to read as well as how much we enjoyed reading. After the video, we did short presentations to each other about the books we are reading. Sanghun told me about the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book and how he finds them easy to follow. He also mentioned that the font size is big and clear which makes it easier to read. I told him about the book I am reading in Chinese. We talked about the difficulties of reading in another language and then ended our session by talking about our favorite books.
Tuesday, August 25, 2020
Signe CP #6
CP #6
Alice
8/25/20
Today was my final conversation with Alice. We talked about many different things. To start, we talked about the differences between university in America vs. Italy. She said that she was shocked when she came to America to learn how expensive school was and how most kids take out student loans. We then talked about taking gap years, which are really popular in the UK and Australia. We also talked about the idea that is very prevalent in American and Italian cultures where you need to go to college right after high school and not waste time. Finally, we talked about the weather differences and how it was harder for her to adjust to Florida weather and its humidity than to adjust to a completely different season in Australia.
Signe CP #5
CP #5
Alice
8/24/20
To start, we talked today about the Coronavirus situation. I was telling her about how my dad is a teacher and is dealing with teaching half online and half in person. We were talking about how difficult it is for parents and teachers. We talked about learning languages as well. Alice was talking about some of her difficulties with learning English and being able to understand different accents. We also talked about some of the differences between teaching languages in Italy and the United States and they seemed rather similar because Italians don't put huge priority in learning English either.
Holly Kilgore TS #16
TS #16
This was our final session and we talked about Hang-ah’s
recent trip to Destin and how much she enjoyed it. She told me that she visited
the mall, that her and her husband went to snorkeling, and how they both
enjoyed the water of the Gulf of Mexico. The two had a lot of fun and were in
the process of planning another trip. We discussed different places to visit
and what fall looked like in both Florida and in South Korea. We read sight-seeing
blogs and articles where people talked about their adventures and the best
places to visit in South Korea. Places like Nami Island, Asan Gingko Tree Road,
Seoraksan National Park and others. Going through the different travel sites
and seeing all the incredibly pictures and stunning places to visit was fun. This
discussion veered into all the different events and programs that normally take
places in Tallahassee during the fall and winter, like Market Days and
the different programs that are put on by the different museums in town. I hope
that by Halloween everything calms down. I also hope that Hang-ah and her husband
get to experience some of the fun seasonal things that the city puts on.
Holly Kilgore TS #15
TS #15
This session took place on Thursday, August 13, 2020. For
this session we discussed pets growing up and Hang-ah mentioned that, while she
would love to have a dog or any pet, her current situation would not be
appropriate to have a dog. I told her about my dogs and how I have pretty much
always had a pet. We also talked about the weather and how Floridians react to
and plan for massive storms. We read through many of the different reactions to
past storms such as hurricane Irma, Harvey, Hermine and others. We also found
formatted jokes that Floridians have made in the past about the hurricanes.
This session seemed to focus predominately on Florida storm humor, personal
preferences with pets, and how Florida weather impacts businesses, locals, and
the state as a whole. This was an especially good session given that Florida
and much of the south is currently in the middle of hurricane season.
Monday, August 24, 2020
Signe CP #4
Signe CP #4
Alice
8/21/20
Today I had my 4th CP meeting but my first with Alice. We mostly talked about our lives and Alice talked about her experiences living in the United States, Australia and Sri Lanka. We also discussed the impending hurricane headed towards Florida, and I told her about how most Floridians aren't really worried about hurricanes because we are used to them. However, I can understand how someone who isn't used to them would be very concerned. Alice was telling me about the earthquakes in Italy and how they were a lot scarier because they couldn't be predicted and they were usually in the middle of the night. Finally, we talked about how crazy things were in the world right now with the election in America and the coronavirus, and her difficulties with moving back to Italy.
Camryn TS # 14
Date/Time: Monday 08/24
Location: Zoom
Topic/Skill: Noodle from around the world (Speaking and Listening)
Feedback provided to tutee: Grammar error correction/presentation feedback
Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Sanghun and I started by talking about all the types of noodles that we could think of. We came up with a good number and then picked ones that were our favorite from the countries we were born in. I explained that after watching this video about the various types of noodles around the world, we do a mini-presentation on our own. After the video Sanghun took 10 minutes to plan out a quick presentation and select pictures. I told him to focus on the process of making the noodle as well as why it is popular and his earliest memory of eating it. I learned a lot about a Korean dish that was primarily served in the summer as it is a cold soup with noodles, eggs, vegetables, and sometimes meat. Sanghun described fond memories of eating the dish as a way to cool down in the summer. I told Sanghun about toasted ravioli which is a St. Louis special in which people take normal ravioli, cover it in bread crumbs and toast it in the oven. At the end of our session, we talked about what it is like in Tallahassee right now with everyone back on campus.
Saturday, August 22, 2020
Camryn TS #13
Date/Time: Saturday 08/22
Location: Zoom
Topic/Skill: Artificial Intelligence and Technological Singularity (Speaking and Listening)
Feedback provided to tutee: Grammar error correction / Comprehension questions from the video
Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Sanghun chose the video for this session which focused on technological singularity, something I had never heard of before. The video was brief, but pretty complex so we focused on taking notes as a part of a dictocomp activity. Sanghun reviewed the concept and provided me with a summary of the video. We took some time to talk about some of the ideas about technology then had a short debate on whether or not this advancement was good. Before the end of our session, we did an intensive listening exercise with an article about the technological singularity, spending ample time afterward discussing some of the vocabulary words.
Camryn TS #12
Date/Time: Thursday 08/20
Location: Zoom
Topic/Skill: Sea monkeys and Childhood toys (Speaking and Writing)
Feedback provided to tutee: Grammar error correction / Feedback on advertisement and comprehension questions
Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Sanghun had been on vacation so we spent a little time at the beginning of the session talking about what he did when he was in Destin. After that, we had a discussion about what our favorites toys were growing up as our video would focus on the genius behind the creation and advertisement of the Sea Monkey. Sanghun expressed that this was the first time he had heard of sea monkeys and found them funny. Once the video was over, we made advertisements for our own childhood favorite toys. We choose an audience to market to as well as a list of benefits that comes from using that toy. Sanghun's advertisement for Legos was really effective and well thought out. We also interviewed each other on different aspects of the toys we choose.
Friday, August 21, 2020
Naomi TS #16
Today I had my last tutoring session with Je-ah. Since I could not finish the lesson last time, I started off by completing the lesson on comparative and superlative adjectives. For the activity, I had Je-ah turn adjectives that end with a y into its comperative and superlative counterparts. I also had her give me the opposite of certain adjectives. In the last activity, I had her play find the object where she looked at a group of objects and she tried to find the biggest and the smallest one. For the remainder of the lesson we played act it out to review vocabulary we have looked out throughout all our sessions. Je-ah really impressed me with her English skills and I could see that she was able to pick up a lot throughout our sessions.
Naomi TS #15
On August 19th, at 8 am, I had my fifteenth tutoring session. We went over superlative and comparative adjectives. In the activity incorporated common short stories like Goldilocks And The Three Bears, The Tortoise And The Hare, and The Three Little Pigs. I paused at different points in the stories and had Je-ah compare different elements within the stories. Lastly, we started going over the form of the adjectives but we ran out of time. In the next lesson, I will continue to go over the remainder of the lesson. Overall, this lesson was somewhat easy for Je-ah she only got confused with certain adjectives like old and soft. Therefore, I will give a short explanation regarding the adjectives or provide a visual next session.
Naomi TS #14
On August 17th, at 8 am, Je-ah and I went over singular and plural nouns and verbs. This lesson was pretty simple for Je-ah. Therefore, for the activity, I had her incorporate prepositions of place along with the plurals and singulars we had learned in this lesson. I had Je-ah look at pictures and tell me how many of a specific item there was and where those items were. We also played a matching game, and I had her fill out a crossword puzzle for the plural and singular nouns. The crossword puzzle was fun and easy to do, and it challenged Je-ah to spell some simple words. I will incorporate the crossword puzzle activity in future lessons.
Naomi TS #13
On August 14th, at 8am, Je-ah and I went over holidays and prepositions of time. We looked at New Years, Halloween, and Christmas. I showed her videos of common ways that Americans celebrate each of those holidays. Then we moved on to prepositions of time once more. I broke down each preposition a bit more. For the activity, I had her fill in the blank on sentences relating to the holidays we had just covered. The internet was not very cooperative during this lesson which made the lesson a bit more challenging to teach because I could tell at times that my voice would cut out and there would be a delay. However, Je-ah was able to understand most of the lesson. In the next lessons, I will try not to use as many videos because sometimes those can lag when there are internet problems, making the video difficult to understand.
Signe TS #16
Tutoring Session #16
Tutee: Soojin
8/21/20
For our final tutoring, we started by watching a Ted talk video about the future of species/life on earth. It was very interesting. Afterwards, we discussed the video and talked about climate change for a little bit. We went over some more slang and idioms, and then I asked Soojin what shocked her when she came to America and what she didn't expect. She said that she was shocked that when someone is hosting a party, they sometimes expect the guests to bring their own alcohol/food, and then afterwards the guests take their food home! She said that in Korea, usually you don't take the food that you brought home because it is considered a gift for the host. She also talked about how the portion sizes in America were so big. She visited a Korean market in Orlando, and even there the portion sizes were huge. She then taught me some funny Korean idioms and I noticed that many of them were fairly similar to English ones! At the end of the session, I told her that if she needed any help with her English in the future to just let me know. Overall, I think that Soojin improved a lot in her speaking skills and learned a lot of new advanced vocabulary.
Signe TS #15
Tutoring Session #15
Tutee: Soojin
8/21/20
For today's session, we met for 2 hours to complete the last 2 sessions. For this first half, we discussed Soojin's recent trip to New Orleans and Orlando and went over slang, idioms, and feelings. We also went over a lot of current slang, particularly slang that is commonly seen on the internet. It was really interesting to try to explain things that seem obvious to someone who doesn't have the background knowledge. Afterwards, we went over common antonyms that can help Soojin improve her vocabulary.
Naomi TS #12
On August 12th, at 8am, I had my twelfth tutoring session with Je-ah. Since the last lesson was a bit difficult, I decided to shift my focus back to vocabulary. For this lesson, we went over days of the week, months, and prepositions of time. Je-ah knew the days of the week pretty well she just needed a review on them. The months of the year took a bit more time to learn but she was able to get them in the end. For the prepositions of time, we went over in, on, and at. The prepositions were a bit confusing for Je-ah. For the prepositions, I used a premade PowerPoint so it did not exactly fit my teaching style completely. But I thought it had good information and activities. I think for the next lesson I will go over prepositions of time once again and create a PowerPoint that goes more in-depth.
Naomi TS #11
On August 10th, at 8am, I had my eleventh tutoring session with Je-ah. We went over simple present tense. This lesson was more challenging for Je-ah, and it did not help that our internet connection was not the best. In the beginning, we went over the affirmative verb tense and the negative verb tense. Since we had gone over parts of speech in other lessons, we quickly reviewed those and moved to forming simple present tense sentences. For the activity, I had Je-ah look at a picture and tell me what is happening in the picture. Throughout the lesson, we had a lot of connection issues. Je-ah had to message me through the chat feature to tell me in Korean that I was cutting out. This lesson was a bit more challenging for Je-ah, and it did not go as I expected. In the next lesson, I will try to reduce the difficulty of the lesson, especially since we have been having internet connection problems. I also noticed that with the grammar lessons my approach has started to become more teacher-centered. Therefore, I will try to shift my approach to be more student-centered in the next lessons.
Thursday, August 20, 2020
Naomi TS #10
On August 5th, Je-ah and I went over the sentence form when using prepositions of place. We reviewed the prepositions and went over the basic parts of a sentence. Je-ah was pretty comfortable with the parts of a sentence so we went over how to form the sentences. This part of the lesson was a bit more challenging but I did not feel like it wasn't level-appropriate, it just took Je-ah a bit more tries to finally understand it. For the activity, I had her unscramble sentences. This activity was good because Je-ah was having difficulty forming her own sentences but when given the words she was able to form the sentence correctly. I feel that Je-ah is almost ready to form her own sentence, she just needs more practice. In the next lessons, I will focus more on forming sentences than on vocabulary.
Naomi TS #9
On August 3rd, in our ninth tutoring session, Je-ah and I went over prepositions of place. This was a really good lesson. I felt that the vocabulary was on level and it gave me the opportunity to slowly incorporate full sentences. For this lesson, we used hand signs to learn the prepositions and this worked wonderfully. It kept Je-ah's attention and was a great learning method. In the activity, I had Je-ah do a true or false, fill in the blank, and try to create her own sentences. I will incorporate more hands-on activities in the next lessons because they seem to really help Je-ah. In the next lesson, I will also go over the form for the sentences. I tried to do it in this lesson but I did not have enough grammar knowledge to be able to teach her it well enough. I will do more research for the next lesson to help her form complete sentences with the prepositions.
Naomi TS #8
On July 29th, at 8am, I had my eighth tutoring session with Je-ah. In this session, we went over basic family vocabulary and rooms in the house. With the family vocabulary, Je-ah mostly just needed a reminder of what each family meber was called. The only one she had a bit of difficulty with was cousin. For the activity, we watched how to draw a family tree, then, I modeled how to draw it, and lastly, asked Je-ah to draw make her own. For the rooms of the house, we went over the vocabulary, played a matching game, and drew floorplans of our house. In this lesson, I realized that it was a bit challenging to read drawings over zoom. Je-ah surprised me with her ability to write the names of the family members on the family tree. We had never gone over writing in our previous lessons. Therefore, that gave me a bit of insight as to how advance Je-ah's English was. In the next lessons, I want to focus more on grammar than vocabulary because Je-ah does not seem to be at beginner level.
Stefanny CP #4
Date/Time: Thursday 7/30/2020 @ 1pm
Location: ZOOM
Topic
discussed: We watched another Avatar episode, we got into the series together and after he asked me questions regarding things he didn't understand in the episode. We also spoke about my major in entrepreneurship and how he is taking a class in that right now at school.
Stefanny CP#5
Date/Time: 8/18/2020 @ 4pm
Location: ZOOM
Topic
discussed: Covid/ school / spider man
Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned:He told me how now in school they are reviewing: should/ shouldnt/ must/ must have to. Also, we watched half of spider man homecoming and I told him about the brox and explained why spider man's mom spoke Spanish and cultural references.
Stefanny TS #11
Date/Time: Friday 8/5/2020 @ 8pm
Dojun session #5
Location: Zoom
Topic/Skill: Current events
Naomi TS #7
On July 27th, at 8am, I had my 7th tutoring session with Je-ah. In this lesson, we went over times of the day and how to do introductions. Going over the times of the day was a bit difficult because keeping track of when each part was became a bit challenging. But Je-ah was able to get the general idea when I gave her pictures of each time and asked her to identify them. After the parts of the day, we moved on to introductions. We watched a video and then I broke down the dialogue in the video. After modeling the dialogue I had helped her fill out the parts of the dialogue as if we were introducing each other. I think this part of the lesson went smoothly because I broke up the introduction into smaller parts therefore it wasn't too difficult for her to fill it out piece by piece. For the last activity, we watched a different introduction and I asked Je-ah to tell me some of the basic information that the characters presented. I noticed that Je-ah had some difficulty identifying the difference between brother and sister. Therefore, in the next lesson, I will go over family. Overall, this lesson went relatively smoothly. There were some parts that were a bit challenging but I think this was more on her level than some of the vocabulary I was teaching previously.
Naomi TS #6
On July 22nd, at 8am, I had my sixth tutoring session with Je-ah. This time we went over body parts and senses. Je-ah had a lot of fun playing along with the head shoulders knees and toes song. For the senses, we went over words associated with the senses like big and small for sight and quiet and loud for hearing. We played a short game of I spy with pictures on the screen. I should have made the game a little longer because she seemed to enjoy it. She also was able to pick up the vocabulary fairly quickly. Overall, I think this lesson might have been a bit easy for her so I will try to increase the difficulty in the next lesson. I will also continue to incorporate more hands-on activities like the ones I used in this lesson.
Naomi TS #5
On July 20th, at 8am, I had my fifth tutoring session with Je-ah. We went over common vegetables and adverbs of sequence. I had her look at an animated video where it showed a person explaining their daily routine and then had her tell me hers with simple sentences using the adverbs of sequence. Then we read a kids book that showed the steps to make a pizza and she helped me build a pizza. This lesson felt a bit rushed. I think I had too many activities planned for
Naomi CP #6
On August 11th, at 4pm, I had my final conversation partner meeting with Mohammed. He had recently moved to a new apartment, so we talked a bit about moving and how we felt about it. He's recently been having issues with the sponsorship he receives from the Saudi government. Before, I thought that the international students all received funding from FSU. I was surprised to learn that in Mohammed's case, he was funded by the Saudi government. They are the ones that pay for the classes and give the international student an allowance. We also talked about the master's programs at FSU. The summer session was Mohammed's last CIES classes, and now he was going into law school. This was a big shift for him, but not one that he was scared of because he had already taken law classes in Saudi Arabia. Post-secondary education in Saudi Arabia is very different than in the United States. In Saudi Arabia, students go directly into their majors, they do not take prerequisites like students in the United States do. These conversation meetings have been extremely fun and informative. I've had a wonderful time being able to speak with someone from a culture that I was not very familiar with.
Naomi CP#5
On August 10th, at 9 pm, I had my fifth conversation partner meeting. This meeting was after Eid Al-Adha. Therefore, we discussed the reasons Muslims celebrate Eid Al-Adha and what they usually do to celebrate. Before going to FSU, I had not had many encounters with Muslim individuals since I lived in a mostly Christian area. I was not even aware of this holiday. It was interesting to learn that Eid Al-Adha is usually celebrated by sacrificing an animal and eating it with family. Mohammad told me that his family would usually pick out a sheep. Since he was not in Saudi Arabia, he was not able to celebrate in the way that he would with his family. Instead, he went to Tampa, where he was surprised to find a significant Muslim community as compared to Tallahassee. He mentioned how he felt like he was back in Saudi Arabia when he went to Tampa. We also talked about different tourist locations in Tampa and Miami and how a person's identity affects their interactions with others and one's self-view. Mohammad expressed how he is extremely proud of being Muslim, therefore, when he gets islamophobic comments he does not get too bothered by it. Overall, this session was a wonderful opportunity for me to learn more about Muslim culture.
Wednesday, August 19, 2020
Stefanny TS#9
Date/Time: Saturday 8/8/2020
Ye-won session #6
Location: Zoom
Topic/Skill: Emotions
Signe TS #14
Tutoring Session #14
Tutee: Soojin
8/18/20
For today's session, we watched a video where people were debating about the proposed wall on the border of Mexico. We talked about the video and I think it was a helpful one because the topic of illegal immigration is a big topic in the United States that Soojin will probably encounter at some point. Afterwards, we went over some food and cooking vocabulary and some slang words/phrases. Soojin had some questions, so we went over them. They were: ways to say that you didn't get much sleep and the differences between see, watch, and look. I plan to go over similar things next session, such as words that might sound similar but have different meanings depending on context.
Tuesday, August 18, 2020
Giovanna TS #16
For our final tutoring session on August 18th, from 5PM-6PM, I decided to do a fun activity. We did a madlibs-esque activity where I asked Talal to provide me with words from different parts of speech to fill out a story. After we did each madlib, we went through the story with the words Talal came up with. Then, we would change words so that they made more sense within the context of the story. We did about three of these madlibs. This activity was great for working on Talal's vocabulary, speaking, reading comprehension, and error correction skills. It was a great last session overall and I will miss tutoring Talal!
Holly Kilgore TS #14
TS #14
This session took place on Wednesday, August 12, 2020. For
this lesson we also talked about trips. Hang-ah mentioned how she and her
husband had just booked an AirBnB in Destin and how excited they were to be
going on a trip. We researched different places that they might be able to
visit and what they were most excited about seeing. I mentioned how the water
in he Gulf of Mexico was stunning. We read over some of the best tourist
locations and looked at prices. It was fun. We also discussed overall summer
plans: I was supposed to go out to Texas, but the plane cancelled my flights in
late July without telling me. I also just recently started a new job right
before I was supposed to leave for Texas, so I just pushed the trip back to
December. Hopefully by then this pandemic will have calmed down so that more
things will be open.
Holly Kilgore TS #13
TS #13
This lesson took place on Saturday, August 8, 2020. Given
that the previous lesson was a discussion predominately about Halloween and the
historical background, I asked Hang-ah about Korean holidays and celebrations. She
talked about New Year’s, Children’s Day, Chuseok (which Hang-ah explained was
like a Korean Thanksgiving), and a holiday where children exchange poke sticks.
She also told me how Valentine’s day is becoming a more popular holiday in
Korea. She joked about how most Korean holidays are about eating, which makes
sense to me. Most American holidays are about eating, too! During this lesson,
we also briefly touched on favorite television shows and she mentioned how she
enjoys crime shows and ‘The Good Place’. I mentioned how most of my favorite
shows are baking shows. ‘Nailed it’ on Netflix is right now one of my favorite
shows. The funniest part about this discussion is that near the end Hang-ah made
a pun. When I mentioned how I get excited when I do something right on the
first time, she joked that I ‘nailed it.’ I agreed completely. I loved hearing
about Korean holidays. Many of the Korean holidays kind of mirror American holidays, but sharing food is also a huge cultural exchange. Food is the soul of a culture and having
the opportunity to share it is one of the best feelings in the world.
Monday, August 17, 2020
Camryn TS #11
Date/Time: Saturday 08/15
Location: Zoom
Topic/Skill: Quarantine and loneliness (Speaking and Listening)
Feedback provided to tutee: Grammar error correction / Comprehension questions from the video
Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: To start our session, we spoke about quarantine and how people have been coping with being separated from friends and family due to the inability to travel. Our discussion mostly centered on the trend of quarantine projects and how people have started doing a lot of projects to stave off the loneliness they are feeling. Then, we watched a video that explained loneliness and why humans struggle so heavily when they are suffering from loneliness. We talked about the main point of the argument then Sanghun told me about his experiences living alone and what activities he chose to do when feeling lonely. Sanghun and I learned a lot about the science behind loneliness.
Saturday, August 15, 2020
Margot CP #6
Alice and I met once more to have a conversation meeting. We discussed the cultural similarities between Italy and the USA. I had always believed that Americans were very loud compared to other cultures, but Alice does not see Americans as particularly loud. Alice talked about how when she lived in Australia, there were designated spaces on the train where people could not talk because Australians talked so much even on public transit. We also talked about public transit in America vs Italy. It is much more expensive to ride public transportation in the USA vs anywhere that Alice has lived. She was rather shocked at the cost of taking the train between cities in the USA.
Margot CP #5
Alice and I meet on zoom for a conversation meeting again. We talked about how Florida is handling COVID in relation to kids returning to school, as I have started nannying for children attending virtual school. Alice talked about how she used to work at a school but left because of the circumstances surrounding the virus. We also talked about how Alice cannot currently return home to visit her family because she would not be able to return to the USA afterward.
Margot TS #16
For our last tutoring lesson, I told Alice that we were both going to be teachers. We spent time having Alice teach me a few Korean words. She was very excited about teaching me Korean and telling me about Korea. We also read the first half of a chapter book about a princess with superpowers. Having a book with short chapters was great because there were frequent and convenient stopping points to have comprehension checks and have Alice make predictions about what will happen next. Alice and I finally went over her checklist for school again and I told her to let me know if she ever needs help with homework!
Margot TS #15
I told Alice that for our last two sessions she can choose whether we cover grammar, writing, or reading. She was very insistent that we read books for our last two lessons. I am really impressed with Alice's reading skills and her love of reading. Today we read A Fancy Nancy book about losing teeth. We did our usual pre-reading predictions based on the title and the cover. After reading, we talked about if Alice has ever lost a tooth at school and talked about the tooth fairy. The second book Alice read was about Getting ready for a bake sale. Our comprehension questions included asking what the main character brought to the back sale, what ingredients she used, and what obstacles she faced while cooking.
Margot TS #14
Alice is beginning to get ready to go back to school, so today we practiced writing important phrases for third grade. We covered where to write our names on school papers, how to write the date in America, and how to write all of the subjects she is going to study at school. We also talked about punctuation and when to use question marks, exclamation points, and periods. Alice is fond of using a lot of exclamation points. We also talked about what she is going to need for school and wrote a checklist of things to remember for her first day. Alice got a new backpack for school and seems excited rather than nervous!
Margot TS #13
Alice got a new set of books about Halloween that she really wanted to read today. For our pre-reading discussion, we talked about Halloween and what usually happens on Halloween day. We looked at the covers and titles of each of the books we were going to read ad made predictions about what the stories would be about. The first book Alice read was an "Amelia Bedelia" book. This is a challenging choice for her because the premise of these books is that Amelia takes everything literally which can often cause issues. It takes a certain amount of American cultural knowledge to understand the jokes. Alice did an amazing job! We also read a book about baking Halloween cookies.
Margot TS #12
Alice and I talked about the irregular forms of the verb "to be" today. I gave Alice a brief lesson on am, are, is, was, and were. We reviewed the simple past first to introduce to idea of regular vs irregular verbs. I modeled sentences for Alice using I am, She is, We are, They were, and I was. Next, we moved on to a fill in the blank exercise using a word bank. We also talked a bit about verb agreement and making sure that all our verbs "match" in a sentence. Finally, we had Alice come up with her own sentences using each of the words in the word bank.
Holly Kilgore TS #12
TS #12
This session took place on Thursday, August 6, 2020. When the
session started, Hang-ah asked me immediately to tell her about Halloween and
its cultural significance in the United States. I got incredibly excited. I
began by telling her a very condensed version of the historic significance of
the Holiday and how it made its way to the United States through immigration.
However, by the dawning of the 20th century, the celebration that
was first brought over was very different than what was being celebrated. We also
talked about different cultures and some of the different holidays celebrated
around the same time with similar themes. We discussed Dia los Muertos
in Mexico and how the holiday is used to honor the dead with flowers, foods,
and gifts. Hang-ah mentioned a similar holiday in Korea, although for that
holiday it was mostly food that was left at the grave to honor the dead. We watched
a clip which talked about decorations and the significance of these decorations
and we also talked about costumes and the history behind dressing up. This session was
predominately about the cultural significance
of Halloween.
Holly Kilgore TS #11
TS #11
This lesson took place on Saturday, August 1, 2020. Due to
personal reasons, I had to push this lesson back a few days, however! For this
lesson we talked more about art, social media/social customs, and tea in both
the United States and in Korea. For art, we began discussing favorite artists
and works of art. I was a fan of many of Van Gogh’s art, and Hang-ah easily
recognized Gustav Klimt’s art pieces. It was fun reading through some of the
information provided about the artists and their works. I learned a few new
things about both Van Gogh and Klimt. We discussed common customs in both
country as well as social media and some of the social media platforms that we
trusted/liked and some platforms that we did not like. During one of our
searches, we stumbled upon an image of a lotus flower. Hang-ah recognized the flower
but was not quite sure what it was. We wound up researching a little deeper and
this got us on the topic of tea. She told me how there were so many tea shops in
Korea that she would always pass by them without a second glance. Now that she
is in the United States, she misses them very much.
Holly Kilgore TS #10
TS #10
This session took place on Tuesday, July 28, 2020. At the
beginning of this session, Hang-ah mentioned traveling. Around this time, I had
planned to visit a friend in Texas. Those plans later fell through, though.
However, this got the two of us talking about potential vacation spots for
Hang-ah and her husband. Due to the pandemic, Hang-ah’s own classes, and her
husband’s research at FAMU, both wanted to leave the city and visit somewhere
else. At first, they mentioned Atlanta, because Atlanta was home to Koreatown
and both were feeling homesick. However, Hang-ah was concerned about traveling
to a busy city like Atlanta during the pandemic. Due to this, we began talking
about places in Florida that they could visit, places close to Tallahassee. I
showed her pictures of St. Augustine, Apalachicola, Panama City and
Jacksonville and we read through trip descriptions and tour pamphlets. For St.
Augustine, because of the city’s history, we even read through some of the local ghost stories legends that the city is well known for.
Holly Kilgore TS #9
TS #9
This lesson took place on Thursday, July 23, 2020. For this
lesson we mostly discussed politics. We read through some articles and we
discussed the current political climate in both the United States and in Korea.
We talked about our political opinions and how neither of us had a lot of trust
in the current administration in both of our countries. We also talked a little
about how the structure of the respective governments worked. Checks in Balances
here in the United States and how Korea has what is called a National Assembly
to represent the Korean people. It was an interesting topic. This is part of
the reason I asked about Korean politics on that last day of class because
Hang-ah told me a little bit about Korean politics and the government
structure, but I wanted to see if Dr. Kim would expand on what Hang-ah told me.
She did, too! It was really cool hearing about the different political structures
and how different, but similar the two nations are!
Holly Kilgore TS #8
TS #8
This lesson took place on Tuesday, July 21, 2020 and we
discussed more in depth the different climates and environments of Tallahassee,
Florida and Daegu, South Korea where we are both from. We discussed temperature
differences and what it was like for Hang-ah and her husband when they first
arrived in Tallahassee in March. She described how it was a bit of a culture
shock at first, but then with Covid-19 her and her husband had to stay inside. Her
husband is currently working at FAMU and that is the reason why they came to
Tallahassee. Hang-ah told me that she is looking forward to fall and winter,
although she’s mostly looking forward to fall because the weather will cool
down substantially (hopefully) and she wants to see Tallahassee in the fall and
the leaves changing colors. I also told her that Tallahassee in the Springtime
is stunning. She agreed, but she said that because they arrived her so soon
after the Pandemic began, they weren’t able to see too much of the city in the
springtime.
Friday, August 14, 2020
Holly Kilgore TS #7
TS #7
This session took place on Thursday, July 16, 2020. For this
Hang-ah began the discussion by talking about an application to the Florida
State University master’s program for education. We talked about different experiences
and people I know that applied for a master’s program at Florida State and how
they were affected. This was a fun lesson because we began discussing personal
information. I learned that Hang-ah had been a teacher in Korea and how she had
worked with younger students. We also discussed pets and pet names and the
different meanings. This lesson was more informal, and we were able to talk
about more personal matters, like childhood pets and favorite Disney movies.
The biggest point of discussion for this session was the about our later plans.
Hang-ah told me about the application process for the FSU education master’s program.
It was interesting learning about personal lives and my experience growing up
in Florida and Hang-ah’s experience in growing up in South Korea.
Holly Kilgore TS #6
TS #6
On Tuesday, July 14, 2020, Hang-ah and I met to finish the previous discussion. This tutoring session was a continuation of the last session
because there was a lot of research involved and I wanted to ensure that
Hang-ah got as much information about Tallahassee as possible. This session consisted
mostly of the natural elements of the state of Florida. This would include parks,
springs, nature walks, climate, and weather. This session was cool because after
discussing the varied climate that is Florida, Hang-ah began talking about
Korean weather patterns and the natural landscape of Korea. This discussion
turned into a lesson for the both of us because I was able to teach Hang-ah
about familiar Florida weather and nature patterns, and she was able to tell me
about Korea and how the weather is both similar (warm summers) and very
different (cooler winters). This discussion was also fun because we began
researching record breaking temperatures (high and low) from Florida. Hang-ah
was really amazed at seeing the temperatures that were over 100 degrees. This was an important lesson because learning about the weather here will come in handy for Hang-ah later in the summer when the weather gets even warmer and Hang-ah will be able to properly prepare herself.
Diana TS #16
Friday 08/14 @ 8am
For my
last tutoring session with Je-won, I found short clips from popular movies and
shows like Finding Dory, Zootopia, Victorious, and Wreck-it-Ralph, which all
have very simple dialogue. I made sure that the clips contained old vocab words
too. I created slides in PowerPoint showing common words and phrases that will
be present in the clips. These are simple things like, I’m sorry, are you okay,
thank you and Yay/Yes! These should already be somewhat familiar for Je-won, so
I am using the videos to reinforce what he has already learned before and show
how the words are used in context. We watched the video once and then I paused
and repeated the clips to point out where the words were being used. After this,
I pulled up old vocab sheets and PowerPoints, and with my index cards I
demonstrated how Je-won can create flashcards to practice and study English on
his own. When we were out of time I had him call his mom over so I could give
her some final information and tell her what a great kid Je-won is! I thanked
them both and we said our goodbyes.
Holly Kilgore TS #5
TS #5
On Thursday, July 9, 2020, we discussed local histories. This session had to be split into two sessions because there
was a lot involved in planning and during the session. For this session we talked
about local history from Florida State, FAMU, Tallahassee, and the different
state symbols. This session was fun because both of us were able to find and
learn something new about Florida. For example, I learned that the state has a
state play and a state gem. We also investigated the state symbols from other
states to spot the differences. Florida, for example, has saltwater and freshwater
mammals and reptiles, whereas an inland state like Nebraska would not have a
state saltwater mammal. We also discussed the early history of Florida and how
these early influences would still impact the state. For example, the Spanish
influences on the state flag and then the English influences on Tallahassee
being the state capital. This session and the following session were both created
and researched to help Hang-ah familiarize herself with Tallahassee and
Florida.
Holly Kilgore TS #4
TS #4
On
Tuesday, July 7, 2020, Hang-ah and I discussed popular southern phrases and
sayings. This was a great opportunity for my tutee student to learn and
familiarize herself with the different phrases and sayings that she might
overhear when she is in Tallahassee. We talked about the etymology and different
meanings of the sayings. Hang-ah noticed that for many of the sayings, there
was a common trope of nature – ‘lord willing and the creek don’t rise’, ‘madder
than a wet hen,’ etc. We discussed why there might be this trope might have
something to do with the agricultural heritage of the south. Hang-ah mentioned
that a Korean phrase that she was familiar with roughly translated to, ‘talk
less, listen more.’ I found this phrase really interesting and it was especially
cool because hear in the south, there’s another familiar phrase here in the
south that declared, ‘children should be seen, not heard.’ Although the phrases
don’t literally translate to mean the same thing, there are some similarities.
Giovanna TS #15
For our August 13, 5PM-6PM, session, Talal and I continued to work on speaking practice. I asked Talal a series of questions about his culture and we had conversations about his answers and I would relate, or differentiate, his answers from American culture. I would also correct his grammar or vocabulary mistakes throughout the session. Talal really seemed to enjoy the session as his main goal in his English learning journey is to be able to communicate well with Americans. Indeed, throughout our sessions I have seen Talal's speaking fluency improve!
Thursday, August 13, 2020
Gabriela CP #6
I had my sixth and final meeting via Zoom with my conversation partner Suyeol on Thursday, August 6. This week, our meeting had a more serious tone, because Suyeol had some questions about the Black Lives Matter movement and recent political developments in the United States. We discussed topics such as the upcoming presidential election and how polarized the discussion of politics has become in the United States. We also discussed recent developments with the virus and the significant difference between how the Korean and U.S. governments are handling it. It was very interesting for me to learn more about the political system and major political parties in Korea, and it was equally fascinating for me to discuss the current political situation in the United States with someone who has more of an outsider’s perspective on the topic.
Gabriela CP #5
I had my fifth meeting via Zoom with my conversation partner Suyeol on Thursday, July 30. For today’s meeting, I asked Suyeol about a critical incident while in the United States. Our conversation ended up turning to food and, in particular, Popeyes, which, according to Suyeol, is one of the few places in the U.S. where you can buy a spicy chicken sandwich that is actually spicy. The first critical incident that Suyeol mentioned was an event that occurred shortly after his arrival to the U.S., when he was attempting to order food but got confused because he did not know that “hot” is often used as a synonym for “spicy” in English. We also discussed the myriad dialects and accents present in English and how they can inhibit understanding as well if one has not practiced listening to them. From this conversation, I was especially interested to learn about the dialogues and accents that Suyeol specifically found the most difficult and easy to understand.
Gabriela CP #4
I had my fourth meeting via Zoom with my conversation partner Suyeol on Tuesday, July 28 at 3 pm. During our meeting, I showed Suyeol the Korean minimal pairs that we had gone over in class the previous week, and we decided to practice pronouncing the words together again. While some of the sounds were just as difficult for me to recognize and pronounce as before, Suyeol was very patient and offered a lot of helpful suggestions for English words that have similar sounds. After this, we discussed some minimal pairs in English that Korean native speakers often have difficulties with (such as the “r” and “l” sounds) and practiced them together. The main thing I learned from this meeting is that although minimal pair sounds can seem extremely obvious and basic for native speakers, it can be exceedingly difficult for language learners not only to pronounce these sounds but also merely to recognize them.
Gabriela CP #3
I had my third meeting via Zoom with my conversation partner Suyeol on Thursday, July 23 at 3:30 pm. During our meeting, we primarily discussed our favorite types of movies and TV shows and exchanged Netflix recommendations with one another. We also discussed the K-pop industry in South Korea, and Suyeol actually showed me a presentation he had made for a CIES class about K-pop. In particular, we discussed how many years of training K-pop singers must go through and the fact that they often must sign very long-term contracts once they join a group. It was fascinating for me to get further insight into K-pop culture from someone who has experienced it first-hand, and I was also excited to get some good music and Netflix recommendations from our conversation!
Gabriela CP #2
I had my second meeting via Zoom with my conversation partner Suyeol on Thursday, July 16 at 3 pm. During our meeting, Suyeol showed me a YouTube video in which popular Korean actors and singers were interviewed while eating a meal with typical Korean dishes. This video reminded me of the popular American YouTube series First We Feast, so I showed him a video in which Gordon Ramsay is interviewed while eating hot wings that get progressively spicier. One cultural difference we discussed is the forms of respect used in situations such as interviews in Korean and the fact that the equivalents of such forms do not exist in English. We also discussed differences between Korean and American food and that American food is often not spicy enough for either of us.
Diana TS #15
Thursday 08/13 @ 8am
Today
Je-won and I reviewed the physical description vocab from last session. We focused
on things he had trouble with last time, like using the word blonde instead of
yellow hair and differentiating between straight, wavy and curly hair types. Then
we did a quick round of match the picture with the sentence, similar to last session.
I had Je-won review the parts of the body for the purpose of the game we were
about to play. I explained that we each had to draw on a sheet of paper. I would
describe my drawing and based on my verbal descriptions alone, Je-won would
recreate his own. For example, I would say “draw a boy with an oval face,
square glasses, dimples, long wavy hair and a skinny body.” I would repeat my directions
twice. Then, we would reveal our drawings to each other and see how close we
got. This was a very fun game to play with Je-won and, as always, we got a good
laugh at our drawing skills. Our drawings were the same about 95% of the time. Through
this game, I understood that Je-won was very familiar with the vocab we had
covered and is very good at listening and comprehending my sentences. I am
certain that he would have done very well with just listening to clear
directions once, which is amazing!
Diana CP #6
Date/Time: 8/01 @ 10am
Location:
ZOOM
Topic
discussed:
Cultural
and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: I started today’s
meeting explaining what a critical incident is, making sure to give examples. I
know that Hang ah had only recently came to the United States in February, just
a couple months before we entered quarantine, so I kept that in mind as I asked
her if she has experienced any critical incidents. She explained that she
cannot think of anything drastic she has experienced in the U.S. She did mention,
however, that she was taken aback initially with how open Americans are. She
says she is not used to the culture of strangers asking how you are and striking
conversation about anything. She also said that in Germany, people laughed at she
and her friend while on the subway because their way of opening the cart door
was different to how she was used to in Korea.
As a
last activity to mark the end our conversation partner meetings, we took a Buzzfeed
quiz that gave each of us a U.S. national park recommendation. Afterwards, I prepared
a compilation of short 20 second clips on 'Tik Tok' showing the many beautiful
national and state parks in America. The videos were stunning and Hang ah ended
up making a list of the places that she would like to travel in the future. We said our goodbyes and ended the meeting there.
Diana CP #5
Date/Time: 7/26 @ 2pm
Location:
ZOOM
Topic
discussed: Today Hang ah and I had a long discussion on a variety of different
topics. I realized that I hadn’t her why she came to CIES to learn English, so
that was the first question I asked. I learned that she is here because her
husband is at FSU and that she was an elementary school teacher in Korea! I
thought that was so cute. Then, we changed the topic to talk about more
cultural differences between us. We discussed social media, movies and music
streaming services that are popular in our countries. Next, we got into a long
conversation about college culture. I talked about top schools, safety schools,
state and community colleges and Ivies. Hang ah talked about the top colleges
that are in Seoul and the college entrance exams. As a teacher, she explained the
stress she faces on the day she has to proctor the exam for high school
students. We mentioned the most desirable jobs in our countries, and we shared similarities
there. Hang ah pointed out that engineering is a very high-level career in the
states while it isn’t as prestigious in Korea. I did not know that. Finally, we
ended up closing our meeting on the topic of the upcoming election. Hang ah
wanted to talk about it and we realized that we share similar views. She said, very
enthusiastically, that she will be cheering me and the rest of America on this
November. I laughed and thanked her for her kind words.
Diana CP #4
Date/Time: 7/19 @ 2pm
Location:
ZOOM
The
topic I discussed today with Hang ah was popular English songs with lyrics that
require a little bit of analysis. The songs included lots of metaphors, personifications
and references. I instructed Hang ah to read the lyrics and make her own inferences
on what the song is about. Then I gave her some hints to help her put the
pieces together. Once we did our full analysis, we watched the music video
together. One song, Mrs. Potato Head, was about a young girl who constantly
changed her appearance for a man who would eventually leave her. The lyrics
compared her to Mrs. Potato Head from Toy Story. Other songs included shared
knowledge common in America, like using the word “green” to describe jealous people
and using the phrase “the Golden” to refer to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
Hang Ah asked a lot of questions on these specific examples and was very pleased
to learn new things. I was glad to see her enjoy this activity!
Diana CP #3
Date/Time: 7/11 @ 10am
Today
I introduced Hang ah to the popular American media company, Buzzfeed. Firstly,
we went over a Buzzfeed article about things that are normal for Americans that
non-Americans find bizarre. I asked her if she related to anything on the list and
we had a good discussion. Then we started doing their famous Buzzfeed quizzes!
These are my personal favorite and I thought Hang ah would enjoy them as well. The
first one we did was a trivia quiz in which we had to identify the correct English
homophone used in a sentence. I corrected and explained the ones she got wrong.
Hang ah said she learned a lot from this quiz. We also took some fun world
geography quizzes and eventually ended the session with fun personality
quizzes. We took one that was about finding your inner ‘aesthetic’, which is a
topic that has become very popular recently. I explained and gave her real
world examples of words she wasn’t familiar with, like ‘coming-of-age’ movies and
the different types aesthetics.
Diana CP #2
Date/Time: 7/4 @10am
Location:
ZOOM
Topic
discussed: Cultural Shock, differences in describing sounds in our countries
(Korea and America)
Cultural
and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: I found a video
from an American man living in Korea. He does many cultural videos and I found
one that was interesting to share with Hang ah. It talked about culture shock
he experienced while living in Korea. Topics included hospital culture, restaurant
service culture, and a variety of places not common in America, like karaoke rooms,
PC rooms and many themed cafes. This sparked a lot of conversation between the
two of us. I told Hang ah about a common joke American college kids have with
each other, which is to promise to call an Uber instead of an ambulance when one
of us gets hurt. I explained the unfortunate reality of the high cost of
medical treatments, meanwhile Hang ah explains that it is common for Koreans to
go to the hospital for minor things. The video also touched on the fact that we
have different noises we associate with animals and separate onomatopoeia. It was
a silly and fun time finding the differences in the sounds Americans and
Koreans have for dogs, cats, trains, clocks, etc.
Diana TS #14
Tuesday 08/11 @ 8am
Today
Je-won and I covered physical descriptions. On an ESL website, I found a very colorful
and fun poster on Word displaying common physical descriptions. It covered
things like face shape, age, hair, build and other features. After that, we
took a few minutes to review a simple diagram of body parts that I got from the
same website. Je-won seemed to already be familiar with the body parts, so this
portion was a breeze. Finally, I prepared a fun activity which involves
matching the picture to the sentence. I used pictures from popular American movies
and tv shows. He practiced his listening skills as I read the sentences aloud. Some example sentences includes, “Carl (Up) is old, wears glasses
and has a square face,” “Charlie (Charlie Brown) is short, has a round face and
is bald,” and “Vanellope (Wreck-it-ralph) is short, slim, has black hair in a ponytail.”
I made sure to repeat the sentences slowly and clearly. Je-won did very well
and answered correctly 80% of the time. I spent more time explaining tougher
words like well-built and braids.
If I
had more time before the lesson, I would have loved to compile clips of these
movies/shows and played them for Je-won. I will think incorporating more videos in my lessons for the future.
Diana TS #13
Friday 08/07 @ 8am
I
was feeling a little under the weather today, so I made our session short and
simple. I decided to work on a family tree with Je-won. Together, we both drew a
big tree on our piece of paper. I instructed to draw himself and his siblings at
the root of the tree, his parents at the base of the tree and his grandparents
at the top. Then, we presented our drawings using “This is…” statements. I felt
this was a fun listening and speaking exercise. We even laughed at our drawing
skills.
I
love seeing the progress Je-won had made with our tutoring sessions. If we were
in the beginning of our sessions, it would take a couple minutes of modeling
and repeating directions to get him to participate, but today all I did was
present my family tree and he immediately did the same afterwards. I was very pleased
with this! To end the session, we continued to practice listening skills with a
couple of short scripts I made up using learned phrases and vocab words. He did very well at answering the comprehension questions.
Diana TS #12
Thursday 08/06 @ 8am
Today’s
lesson was on family members and birthdays. My PowerPoint showed parents,
siblings and grandparents with their correct labels and shorten versions. For
example, mother/mom and grandfather/grandpa. I also taught him the words little
and big when referring to sister and brother. For the birthday portion of my lesson,
I played him the birthday song. We also worked on a worksheet about birthdays. It
had sample dialogue of a teacher asking students when their birthday was. I
asked Je-won to listen as I read it aloud. The worksheet has a chart that briefly
introduced him to ordinal numbers. He had trouble pronouncing the “th” sound,
so I had him focus on listening to my pronunciation. When working on birthdates,
I allowed him to say the cardinal numbers when he couldn’t remember the ordinal
numbers but reminded him that we use ordinal numbers what stating our
birthdates. We did more practice with the months of the year. For example, the
worksheet says that Mina’s birthday is on 07/12 (I always remind him of the
format mm/dd) and it would ask to write the correct month and day. After lots
on support, he was able to identify many correct answers on his own, which I though
was wonderful!
Diana TS #11
Tuesday 08/04 @ 8am
I
started off today’s session with a quick review of the months and seasons. I had
another worksheet prepared similar to last week. I asked Je-won the questions
and he answered accurately for most of it. I corrected and explained any mistakes.
We worked together to list the order of the months and soon enough, he was able
to list some months correctly on his own! After our review, I showed a
PowerPoint to introduced common greeting and goodbyes. My slides had short
sample dialogues with pictures. I introduced the parts of the day and taught
him good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night. I showed
pictures that created a setting (either morning, afternoon, evening or night)
and asked Je-won what greeting two people would use with each other. He did
excellent with this.
Because
we had more left, I had Je-won do a quick activity with our hobby vocab, as it
had been a while since we reviewed them. I told him to rank the hobbies using
the phrases; I love, I like, its okay/so so, I don’t like, & I hate. I
corrected him whenever he didn’t use ‘to’ for example, I like TO cook or I don’t
like TO play piano. We recorded his responses in a chart with color coordinated
rows from green descending to shades of orange and red. I feel like I learned a
lot about him with this activity. We had a good laugh when he admitted to really
disliking writing stories.
Diana TS #10
Friday 07/31 @ 8am
Today
I went over the months of the year and the seasons with Je-won. In PowerPoint,
I showed him one of those colorful classroom posters depicting the months, each
with their own corresponding pictures. To start, I just had him listen to how I
pronounce the months. As I slowly and clearly said each month, I was glad to see
Je-won mouthing the words on his own in response. He then transitioned to
repeating after me. We followed the same process with the four seasons. I
showed him plenty of pictures, so he can differentiate between them. Next, I
pulled up a worksheet on Word that I got off an ESL website. The first portion showed
pictures of weather and temperature (hot and cold) and he recognized all of
them with ease. He also had little trouble listing the days of the week in
order, and he did very well at matching the seasons to the correct picture. For
the months section, however, he understandably had trouble listing them in
correct order. Therefore, we took extra time repeating the correct order to
complete worksheet. I thought it was great that he was able to complete 3 out
of 4 sections with little to no support. I will make sure to continue practicing
the months in future sessions.
Diana TS #9
Thursday 07/30 @ 8am
Today
I introduced Je-won to the word ‘belong’ and created a vocab review lesson in
PowerPoint to teach it. I started by explaining what the word meant by using pictures
and arrows. For example, a fish belongs in the water and the sun belongs in the
sky. I formatted it fish à water and sun à sky. After a couple
more of these examples, the following slides had questions using the word ‘belong’
along with our vocab words. I asked yes or no questions like, “does food belong
in the fridge?” “does desk belong in the bathroom?” “does tea belong in a cup?”
After a few modeled responses, Je-won really got the hang it! I pulled up our
vocab word sheets to explain any incorrect answers. Next, I asked him “Which
does NOT belong” questions. For example, I had three pictures of fruits and one
picture of a vegetable. He had a little more trouble with this type of question,
so we took more time to work through the problems together. I really enjoyed
how much Je-won talked today and how quickly he would reply with answers. I
learned through this lesson that it is best to do these quizzes and games with
him to get the most interaction and participation possible.
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