Giovanna CP #5

For our conversation partner meeting, from 3:30-4:30 PM on July 31, Abdulaziz and I talked about many topics. He told me that he had finally done his TOEFL exam and was confident he did well. He said this Fall would likely be his last session with CIES because he feels confident enough in his English skills that he will do well in grad school. We talked a little bit about the grad school application process and I told him about some of my anxieties preparing for the LSAT and law school. We also discussed some of our concerns about going to back to in-person classes. Both of us are excited to do so but worry that it will be so different that it'll be a bit depressing. We also talked about family vacations (since I am going on one next week) and the different shenanigans that can happen when multiple people who aren't used to being together for an extended period of time stay together in one house. All in all, it was a very entertaining conversation!

Naomi CP#1

On July 13, 2020, I had my first conversation partner at 4:30pm. It went better than I expected. I thought it would be awkward, especially since it was over zoom. The conversation flowed well. We talked about our different cultures. Most of the conversation leaned towards food. It was interesting to find out that both our cultures had similar food staples like rice and beans. Mohommad is from Saudi Arabia, and he mentioned how he missed having well-seasoned food. He had a huge cultural shock when he came to the U.S and could not find food that was similar to his home food. We also talked about geographical differences between Saudi Arabia and Cuba. Our meeting had to be cut short by a couple minutes because his phone ran out of battery. However, it was a great meeting where we were able to share different aspects of our cultures. 

TS#7 Thalia Iglesias 07/30/2020

Today Renata and I went over her research paper for her composition class! Her paper is about Homeschooling in The United States.  We fixed some grammar, punctuation, and pronunciation. We fixed some errors and discussed how her classes were going. She says they are going very well and that tomorrow is her last day! We will continue doing tutoring sessions until the 13th. 

Margot TS #4

    Mondays are grammar lessons for my and Alice's tutoring sessions. On this day we worked on adverbs, as last week we talked about verbs, nouns, and adjectives. We first reviewed these terms and worked on some fill in the blank questions about verbs, nouns, and adjectives. 

    I gave Alice a small lesson on adverbs. We talked about using clues like detectives to see if a word is an adverb. One of the clues we talked about was "-ly" at the end of a word. We worked on recognition skills first (which word in the sentence is an adverb) then we moved on to productive skills (change this word into an adverb and choose an adverb to go in the blank) We finished out the lesson with a worksheet of fill in the blanks with a wordbank of adverbs. Alice struggled a bit with the words politely and smartly, but was otherwise very capable. I closed the session by asking Alice to pick out a topic for our reading lesson on Wednesday and she chose cats.   

Margot TS #3

    Today Alice and I decided on a schedule of covering grammar on Mondays, reading on Wednesdays, and writing/listening on Fridays. Alice loves to spend the first 5-10 minutes of our sessions introducing her stuffed animals and telling me about her day. Her intonation and flow are very natural. 

    For our lesson, we covered the concept of the beginning, middle, and end for stories. We used her comic that she drew from Wednesday and broke it into beginning, middle, and end.  During this, we also covered important transition words like: first, then, second, and finally. Alice has a tendency to ramble on about her stories, so it takes quite a bit of redirection to focus her on the task, but she has incredible intrinsic motivation to improve. 

    Alice also likes to take short breaks where she teaches me math. Her math books are in Korean, so it also serves as an opportunity to introduce vocabulary that she will hear in school classrooms. 

Margot CO #3

    For my third observation class, I sat in on Felicia's 6/29 intermediate course. At the beginning of class, she greeted everyone and made sure to have everyone speak before moving on to her lesson to make sure they were at least somewhat engaged. She began class by reviewing a video on painting they had watched in a previous class. After briefly revisiting this topic and answering questions any students had, she moved on to the main activity for the day. 

    The main activity included watching a Mr. Bean video wherein he paints his room by putting fireworks in a can of paint. Before the video began, Felicia went over some important vocabulary including a can of paint, paintbrush, and firework. As the video played, she would pause it every minute or so to ask students what just happened and what they think will happen next. After the video finished, she split the class into small groups to come up with a summary of what happened in the video. After that, the students presented their summaries to the main group. 

Alice CP#6

I met Hongru today (July 29) and we talked about critical-incidents. I explained him the meaning of these words, and I asked him If he had any personal examples in mind.
The first one was related to his first experience with an American police officer. He told me that in China police officers are not armed, and they are quite friendly. In China when a police officer pull you over from the street while you are driving, you always get out from the car. So Hongru was driving in Florida, and a police officer stopped him. He instinctively got out from the car, and the police officer immediately pointed a gun to him. Hongru didn't know that in the U.S. people have to remain inside the car unless told to get out. He didn't expect that strong reaction and it was very clear to him that something went wrong. He tried to explain to the police officer that he was new in the country, and eventually nothing happened!
Hongru also talked about the differences in the health system and what people expect from doctors in China compared to here. In China most of the health services are for free or very affordable for everyone. He also mention that in China people don't use the same communication patterns that people use here. For example in China he never says "Hi" or "How are you?" to a stranger, and they don't always say "Thank you" as a form of politeness. This doesn't mean that they don't respect each other it is just different. It was very interesting talking to Hongru, I have been learning a lot of small details about his country, and he was very keen to explain everything to me!

Malyce TS #9

Date/Time: 7/29 at 3:30 
Location: Zoom

Topic/Skill: article summary

Feedback provided to tutee:

• helped tutee with writing a summary for an article 
• feedback on grammar, word usage, and sentence structure
  

Lesson(s) I learned about tutoring and/or the tutee:

• my tutee celebrates Eid al-adha
  
• he's actually, finally going to start applying to colleges!!!
  

Giovanna TS #11

For our July 29, 3-4PM session, I decided to play a Taboo style game with Talal. I gave him a list of pre-intermediate vocabulary words for each of us to draw on. We alternated rounds describing different words on the list, with the other person having to guess the word within a limited time frame. This fun game allowed us to work on several skills. Firstly, it was a speaking intensive activity that required relatively rapid speech. It also gave us the chance to go over any unfamiliar vocabulary words and to correct mispronunciation that affected meaning. There was some cultural discussion as well! One of the words was "joke" so, as an example, I introduced Talal to knock-knock jokes which are very popular in American culture. All in all, it was a very productive and fun session!

Camryn TS #7

Date/Time: Monday 07/27

Location: Zoom

Topic/Skill: Learning Multiple Languages (Speaking and Listening)

Feedback provided to tutee: Grammar error correction

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: We started with a dictation activity in which Sanghun was able to complete most of the blanks on the first pass. The biggest issue he had was filling in the blanks because of the format on Word, so he missed some phrases messing with the format. After that we watched a TEDtalk about Polyglots and he took notes in preparation for his own speaking activity. I asked him to follow her model of enjoyment, method, system/schedule, and patience. He told me about how these apply to the way he practices speaking, reading, writing, and listening. I think we both learned a lot as she explained that what is most important was finding something that you like to do and enjoy so language learning doesn't feel like a chore. 

Giovanna TS #10

For my July 27, 3PM-4PM, tutoring session with Talal, I decided to continue working on listening skills with a dictation activity. During our listening activity last time, I found that Talal really excelled so I decided to challenge him with a more difficult activity by doing a dictation using a scene from the movie Notting Hill. However, we found that this activity was a little too difficult and Talal struggled to do it without the subtitles. The session was not a waste, though. We were able to get a lot of good speaking practice in, discuss some differences between American and British English/culture, and we discussed a lot of new vocabulary that Talal found very useful. Talal also said how he has been learning a lot from our sessions, that he likes how many examples I provide, and that he sees how his speaking and writing is improving. Of course, it is always nice to hear that he is enjoying our sessions! Next time, I will tailor listening sessions so that they adhere to Krashen's 1+L theory and use more comprehensible input now that I am more certain of Talal's listening skills. 

Alice TS#9

I met Renata on Friday (July 24). We worked on her research paper, and we used it as a topic for a speaking exercise. Renata had to explain the main points of her research paper to me. As she was talking I noticed she was struggling with the pronunciation of some words, so we spent the majority of our time to look at the main decoding skills and we repeated some words together. There is a pattern in her mistakes which are influenced by the pronunciation that she uses when she speaks her first language, so I tried to model the pronunciation and she repeated after me. Overall it was a good session.

Stefanny TS # 8

Date/Time: Saturday  7/25/2020 @ 9pm EST . Sunday Korean time

Ye-won session #4

Location: Zoom

Topic/Skill: Numbers review & The Weather

Feedback provided to tutee: During the lesson I first asked Ye-won to show me the homework she had completed. She had to draw 21 different things and describe them to me. I learned she knew much more vocab than I was told/ expected and needs more help in sentence structuring. I told her today's lesson would be regarding the weather. Turned out she already knew the different kinds of weather, vocab wise. I showed her a 2minute video about the weather as an intro to the activity.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD6FRDd9Hew I had her cut out 8 pieces or paper and on each write and draw the different weather vocab: snowy, rainy, cloudy, foggy, hot, sunny, cold and windy. Then we played a game. I had her shuffle the papers around as I had my eyes closed until she picked a piece out. Once she did I opened my eyes and she would ask me hows the weather and I would have to guess which one she chose. She really enjoyed this game and we played a couple rounds with her asking the questions and a couple vice versa until it was time to end the session.

 Lesson I learned: Need to have a backup lesson which is more difficult as a plan B.

Camryn TS #6

Date/Time: Saturday 07/25

Location: Zoom

Topic/Skill: Renewable Energy (Speaking and Listening)

Feedback provided to tutee: Grammar error correction

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Sanghun found a video on YouTube that he shared with me for our session today. The video was a TedTalk all about the importance of renewable energy as well as local energy sources which act as a viable option as opposed to the standard grid. He said he enjoyed being able to choose a video and talk a little about his field of study. He had to give me a little more background information on the topic so I learned a lot from him. We also had a nice discussion after the video to talk about ways countries are incorporating this belief into their everyday energy practices. 

Camryn CP #4

7/24/2020

Marcia and I spoke about different birthday traditions as I had celebrated my birthday the day before. I told all about how my friends and family had planned a fun, typical 21st birthday. She found it interesting that there were so many common activities and events that happen on someone's 21st birthday in America. She also told me more about her application process for grad school as she has an application deadline coming up at the end of the month. We talked about the experience of getting recommenders and found that both of us felt the same awkward feeling about asking someone to write a recommendation letter. We discussed having a lot of homework to do as well as finals because the summer semester is almost over. 

Malyce CP #5

Date/Time: July 25 at 2:00pm

Location: Zoom

Topic discussed: 

• talked about all kinds of things 
• college experiences
• camping and getting away from technology 
• differences/similarities in culture 
• hand signals 
• idioms and other sayings

Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: 

• my partner learned about some different hand signals in America and about the "speaking of the devil.." and "oh yah! betcha bottom dolla der boy" sayings

• Eid saeed= Happy Eid 
• basically a good wishes saying on Eid al-adha (an Islamic holy day)

•  Inshallah= everything will happen by God willing
• kind of like "don't worry, everything will be alright" 

• in Saudi Arabia, if someone compliments something you have (like a watch) and it isn't too expensive or sentimental, then it is customary to give the item to that person

•  hand signals 
• the "okay" symbol in America is really bad in Saudi Arabia  
• the  pointer finger being pointed up (as one might do to show the number 1 or to get someone to wait in America) is the symbol used by people to beg for money
• the symbol with all 4 knuckles facing someone and the thumb placed on the palm-side of the index finger is used in Saudi Arabia to tell someone to wait  

Giovanna CP #4

For my July 24, 3:30 PM-4:30 PM, conversation partner meeting with Abdulaziz, we started off by discussing critical incidents that both of us have experienced. Abdulaziz could not think of any critical incident that has happened in the United States but did have an experience on a layover in Paris. In this instance, an older American woman offered him some candy and he politely refused and she gave him a bad face. The only explanation I could think of for this was that the woman was probably from the South where hospitality and generosity are big cultural attributes and her age probably contributed to her reaction. However, I told him that offering things to strangers was not a universal cultural practice in the United States. I told him about some critical incidents I have had while moving from Miami (an overwhelmingly Hispanic city) to Tallahassee and  during my last summer in Europe. After this conversation, we also talked about restaurant culture in our respective countries and found a lot of similarities between the two. Overall, I had a great conversation with Abdulaziz and look forward to meeting with him again next week!

Malyce CP #4

Date/Time: July 24 at 3:00pm

Location: Zoom

Topic discussed: 

• listened to his story about his experience with roommates and other in his apartment and how they acted quite awfully towards him 
• talked about llamas and cows

Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: 

• learned some Egyptian expressions 
  
  • calling someone a donkey means they are stupid 
  • calling someone a donkey with big ears means they know nothing  
  • saying that someone has white (or maybe cold) blood means they will continue bothering someone even if they are polite (at least, that's how I understood it) 
  • if the dog bites, will you bite back? is a saying that is to say if someone insults you or speaks ill of you, you do not do the same but rather be polite and walk away 
   
• in Egypt, during Ramadan (when the Muslim people are fasting), the Christian and Jewish people will bring food to the mosques to help feed the Muslim people  
• Egyptians, or at least my CP, hold the view that it doesn't matter what you look like or what religion you practice or anything. What matters is who you are, if you are a good person or not
  
  

Malyce TS #8

Date/Time: 7/24 at 12:30 
Location: Zoom

Topic/Skill: article summary

Feedback provided to tutee:

• helped tutee with writing a summary for an article 
• strategies for summarizing, paraphrasing, and using your own words 
• some grammar and word usage feedback

Lesson(s) I learned about tutoring and/or the tutee:

• better to ask the student their thoughts on something before just giving them the answer, but also good to provide model/sample sentences at times 
• good to have student talk something else before they write, especially if their writing skill as not as strong as their speaking skill 

Stefanny #CP 3

Date/Time: Thursday 7/23/2020 @ 1pm

Location: ZOOM

Topic discussed: We watched Avatar the last Air bender & Conversation Partner surprised me with a written summary of an episode he wanted to discuss with me.

Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: 

Different vocab meanings in context  & Infinitives ( specifically going + to)

Stefanny TS # 7

Date/Time: Friday 7/23/2020 @ 8pm

Dojun session #4

Location: Zoom

Topic/Skill: Idioms and American Culture

Feedback provided to tutee: In the previous tutoring session we watched a step brothers clip where they could pronounce the name PAM correctly. We realized there was plenty of idioms in the video which made him not understand the video and very briefly understand what it was about. Before the lesson I reviewed and wrote out each idiom and phrase used in the video and added definitions about it.

The first part of the session we just talked about our week. He has greatly improved in his speech, I think he may just feel more comfortable around me now because he does less mistakes.

Afterwards, we went through each section of the 3 minute video and discussed the idiom/ phrase and meaning behind it. We did not finish going over the whole video so we will continue during the next session.

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Native speakers need to be more receptive to phrases and idioms we use in a normal basis in order to properly educate non native speakers for increased understanding and communication.

Alice CP#5

I met my conversation partner, Hongru, on Wednesday,July 22, and we had an interesting conversation on how our culture influences our life choices. I had the opportunity to learn more about what Chinese people think about life in the United States, and we also talked about our personal views and experiences on our previous important decisions related to our culture. We also mentioned the concept of happiness, Hongru explained to me how people enjoy their life in China compared to the United States ways of pursuing happiness, and I also mentioned how Italians feel about reaching happiness in life. Every time I learn something new and I feel empowered as these new details are helping me to widen my way of thinking and to see things from a different perspective.

Stefanny CP #2

7/20/22

4pm EST

Conversation Partner: Juanfe

Today we watched the first episode of Avatar the last air bender. Juanfe enjoyed it, he said he had never heard of the series and it was interesting. we watched it with closed caption so it would be easier for him to understand. Avatar was age appropriate and level appropriate for him. His speaking skills are not very fluent but hes more skilled in reading and appears to do more of bottom up processing when watching the tv show. After the show we talked about it and what he liked about it.  He got a bit caught up with a phrase that he wasn't sure how to say so we broke it down word for word. I realized its not that he didn't know the vocab, but he just was not sure how to structure the sentence in a fluid way. He later told me he was just nervous and i was speaking a bit fast, which made him want to be able to speak as fast. He enjoyed it because he is being able to practice and wants to improve but I realized that I too need to speak a bit slower and understand his speaking skills are at a lower level.

Giovanna TS #9

For our 4PM-5PM tutoring session on July 22nd, I decided to do a listening activity using songs. I played three songs: "Feeling Good" by Michael Buble (Nina Simone cover), "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder, and "My Girl" by The Temptations. It was a dictation activity where I gave Talal the lyrics with blanks that he had to fill in after I played each song twice. Talal excelled in this activity and was very proud of himself! He had most of the words down after the first time the song was played, and all of them after the second time. He had minor errors where he spelled things phonetically in a way that was inconsistent with the correct spelling of the word. Otherwise, he did an excellent job. Prior to each song being played, I defined some vocabulary I thought he'd be unfamiliar with. For example, for the song "Superstition," I explained what a superstition was and we discussed some popular American superstitions. The next listening activity we do will be a bit more challenging given Talal's level of comfort with listening; I will probably do a dictation activity using a TV show or movie scene. 

Malyce TS #7

Date/Time: 7/22 at 3:00-4:30

Location: Zoom

Topic/Skill: Career Center feedback

Feedback provided to tutee:

• helped tutee with resume and personal statement that the Career Center reviewed 
• clarified some of their feedback 
• made suggestions

Lesson(s) I learned about tutoring and/or the tutee:

• I learned that my tutee values feedback (which is why he asked multiple people to review his personal statement), but that receiving all the comments from the Career Center was a bit depressing for him, as he had worked so hard on it only to find out that it still needs work 
• tried to be encouraging and help him see the benefit of the feedback they provided versus the feedback from others

TS #6 Thalia Iglesias 07/21/2020

Today Renata and I met through Face time because our zoom was not working. Today I timed her on her speaking skills for TEFL, where I timed her speaking for a minute. I gave her random topics, such as her favorite food, her experience in America, and what does she enjoy the most about Brazil. This meeting was very interactive and I enjoyed it! Renata did a great job and her English speaking skills are improving greatly. We will be meeting again on Sunday at 5pm.

Giovanna TS #8

For my Monday, July 20 3PM-4PM, session with Talal, I decided to do a listening dictation activity with him. We started off with me saying short sentences using common American phrases and Talal having to write what he heard in the chat box. I quickly found, however, that Talal had the hang of it and it was below his level! So, in order to challenge him more, I then played longer recordings of two or more sentences for him to copy. Talal still did well, but he did find it more challenging. Throughout, we were able to talk about new vocabulary, cultural and entertainment topics like the James Bond movies, and I was able to reinforce some punctuation lessons I taught him in prior sessions. Overall, Talal did a great job with the listening activity and responded very well to praise and instruction!

Camryn TS # 5

Date/Time: Monday 07/20

Location: Zoom

Topic/Skill: Beauty and why it makes us happy (Speaking and Listening)

Feedback provided to tutee: Grammar error correction

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I found a good youtube channel that explained a lot of interesting topics in a clear way so I selected a few videos I thought were level-appropriate. Sanghun seems to enjoy topics that break down the science behind the most basic things in life so I let him choose which to watch at the beginning of the session. We had a debate about the topic addressed in the video, beauty, and how it affects our daily lives. Before, we discussed some of the vocab terms from the video and then watched the short video twice to ensure that he caught all the main points. For the debate, Sanghun argued against the video and I argued for it. 

Camryn TS # 4

Date/Time: Saturday 07/18

Location: Zoom

Topic/Skill: The Importance of Sleep (Speaking and Listening)

Feedback provided to tutee: Grammar error correction

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: For today, we started our session by discussing the importance of sleep. From there I read two articles that explain why sleep is important and provided ten health benefits to sleep as a listening exercise. Sanghun took down notes as he listened and explained five of the ten reasons to me. Afterward, Sanghun and I had a discussion of our own sleeping habits. To close the session, we watched a game show called Awake which demonstrated some of the damaging causes of not getting sleep. He found the articles interesting and asked me to share the links with him. 

Camryn CP #3

7/17/2020

Marcia and I spoke more today about her experience of moving as I am in the middle of moving myself. She told me about what it was like moving to America as well as just moving around Brazil for school. Marcia helped me figure out where I should put some of the stuff in my room because I wasn't sure where I should put everything. We talked about pets as well and she was able to meet my dog, Puddles. It was a very good conversation as Marcia told me a lot about Brazilian culture and foods because I don't know much about Brazil. We plan to talk again on Friday the 24th at 1:30pm. 

Camryn TS #3

Date/Time: Monday 07/13

Location: Zoom

Topic/Skill: Conversations (Speaking and Listening)

Feedback provided to tutee: Grammar error correction

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: We watched a TEDTalk about how to have better conversations. The video highlighted ten main points so after the video we had a discussion about which one's Sanghun found useful. He made very minimal grammatical errors and seemed interested in the subject. There were a few points which I explained as the spoke a little quickly at times. I learned more specifics about Sanghun's listening level. 

Alice #TS8

I had a meeting with Renata on Sunday, very early in the morning. She had a presentation ready for her speaking class, and I let her practice a timed speech over and over again. We focused on the pronunciation of every single word, and we specifically focused on how to say the date in the American English. We spent the whole session on her presentation. She didn't feel very confident on her speaking, so I spent the last part of the session trying to let her practice one more time, suggesting her to care less about small mistakes, and to focus more on her enthusiasm and passion about the topic to gain people's attention.

TS #5 07/19/2020 Thalia Iglesias

During Todays tutoring session Renata did not need help with anything, so I asked her if she would be willing to get interviewed by me on her experience in America and her experience as a remote learner during the pandemic. The interview was a series of questions about her own culture, her American culture, and how her transition from living in Brasilia, Brazil was to Tallahassee, Fl. She answered a series of these questions and everything went smoothly! I will be using this interview (With her permission) for my capstone project for Global Scholars on her own experience as English learned Amidst a pandemic. We will be meeting again on Tuesday!

Thalia Iglesias TS #4 07/18/2020

During todays tutoring session, Renata and I discussed today a bit about ourselves and how our lives are going throughout the pandemic. Later we went over her power point for her speaking class with Dr. Rios, and I helped her with the appearance and grammar of her power point. Her power point discussed the life of a Judge Named Justice Sonia Sotomayor.  After going over her work we talked a bit more about how our life is going and ended the zoom call with a scheduled meeting for our next tutoring session. I enjoyed talking to Renata and will be seeing her again on Tuesday!

Stefanny TS #6

Ye-won Session #3

9PM EST / 10AM Korean time

7/18/2020

In today's session I made sure to not go over 45 minutes, though Ye-won seamed a bit sad I was ending it.

I started the session with a 15 minute Disney clip of Goofy getting a home theater system. Unfortunately  think the speech may have been a bit fast for ye-won but she was able to understand what was going on. I asked her about sports and if she liked them and if she remembered parts of a house we had gone over in the last class. I opened a quiz let I began with vocab we had gone over and reviewed it with her. https://quizlet.com/515302374/flashcards/starred

Afterwards, I had her show me her homework, the calendar she  made was for the month of September. We went over the days of the week & seasons. Ye-won already knew the seasons so we played a game of I Spy which she had really enjoyed in the first class.

I had made a collage of pictures representing each season. With that collage we played I Spy and reviewed additional vocab. This time, I was the one choosing a color and she was guessing the objects.

Our time was up after 6 rounds of I spy and I gave her homework.

We had learned how to write the numbers 1-20 in the first class. This time, I wanted her to write 21-39 and draw me a picture with 21 objects which she would describe to me in the next class.

Stefanny CP #1

7/18/2020 @ 4:30pm EST

Conversation Partner: Juan Felipe

Today I met Juan Felipe aka Juanfe. He is 14 years old and recently moved to the USA. He has been here for a couple months and has been learning English since Elementary school in Colombia but if not very fluent in speaking it. We got to know each other and in some instances he would stop not knowing what to say so I would translate it to him in English and have him repeat after me. We started a google doc for the words he didn't know; it acts like his personal dictionary. He told me about an article he had been reading bout healthy foods and I realized his pronunciation with the CHE was as the Spanish CHE and not in the English format, making it difficult to understand what word he was saying. I realized that for Spanish speakers its easiest to explain the pronunciation as the word QUE. We decided we would see each other again tomorrow since he is available in the weekends.

Stefanny TS#5

Do-jun tutoring #3

717/2020 @9am EST

Do-jun was not able to do the assigned homework from the past class. We ended up talking about his job and the cultural differences between working in America vs. S.Korea. The tutoring lesson focused on his speech since that is what he mainly wants to work on. For the whole session I wrote down sentences in which he made any grammatical errors and notes for myself to use also regarding the information he gave me regarding S.Korea. Toward the end of the session I showed him clips from Step Brothers when they interviewed for a job and then one from SPanglish to explain the idiom Sleep on it. I was surprised that he did not understand many of the sentences in the Step Brothers video clip due to the amount of cultural references which are normal for any native speaker. We decided that in the next session we would go over the references in that video and I would have him write 10 questions and interview me as if he was an employer.

Giovanna CP #3

Yesterday, July 17 from 3:30-4:30 PM,  I met with my conversation partner, Abdulaziz, for the third time. We talked about random things as we always do! He told me that he moved his TOEFL exam for next Monday because there were some technical difficulties so we discussed the struggles of taking a proctored exam online in your home. The conversation then shifted to a discussion about food and the different things our cultures eat/drink when we're sick. I was incredibly surprised to find out that in Saudi Arabia, people do not drink soup when they are sick! I previously thought drinking soup was a universal custom when one has a cold. The conversation somehow then shifted to different myths and superstitions in our cultures. I shared some superstitions from both Cuban and American culture and Abdulaziz shared some Saudi ones as well. As always, I had a very fun and light-hearted conversation with Abdulaziz!

Alice # CP4

I met Omaima today, she is from Saudi Arabia, and to be honest time flew really fast. We have a lot of things in common even if some patterns of our culture are completely the opposite. I can not even describe how I love learning new detail about a different culture, and Omaima was able to explain a lot of interesting aspects of her country. Her English is super good, so we were able to deal with some challenging experiences that she faces in the United States. Her religion, her physical appearance, her accent and her clothes make her feel different and judged by people. We tried to find some positive options to overcome these challenges, especially in her professional environment as she is a dentist. I really liked the flow of our conversation, and we decided to talk about how women are treated by men in our respective cultures during our next meeting.

Malyce CP #3

Date/Time: July 17 at 2:30pm

Location: Zoom

Topic discussed: 

• the immigration law being rescinded
• his presentation outline 
• including my thoughts on it and my experience/knowledge of the topic 
• cultural differences

Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: 

• Saudi Arabia is very similar to the South in that southerns are known for talking and for saying many good-byes before actually ending the conversation and leaving
  
• In Saudi Arabia, it is common for neighbors to know one another and for newcomers to introduce themselves to their to-be neighbors
• this is less of the case for America, especially in cities, but more similar to smaller towns, especially in the South, where people are known for their Southern hospitality 

•  It is common in Saudi Arabia for people to be more indirect in asking questions 
• for instance, my CP says that if he needs help from his friend, he will beat around the bush until he finally gets to question of "Would you mind helping me with...?" 

• housemaids are fairly common in Saudi Arabia, and they typically do all the cooking for the family members in the home 
• so, most of the family, at least the guys, do not really know how to cook 

• it is not common for Arabic people to move often 
• typically, once they have found a home to rent or buy, that is where they stay 

Malyce TS #6

Date/Time: 7/17 at 1:30

Location: Zoom

Topic/Skill: presentation outline, Career Center 

Feedback provided to tutee:

• reviewed and suggested edits for tutee's presentation outline 
• helped tutee get his resume and personal statement submitted to the Career Center for review

Lesson(s) I learned about tutoring and/or the tutee:

• sometimes a tutee needs be be held accountable in some way if they are to finish something you have suggested or asked that they complete 
• I suggested several times that my tutee submit his materials to the Career Center before he applies to colleges and explained to him that they are very helpful and can provide insight that others simply cannot because of their experitse in this field 
• yet, every time I asked him if he had done it, he said that he hadn't yet
• since we had enough time this session and because I really want his resume and personal statement to be the best it can be for his college application, I had him share his screen, and I walked him through submitting the materials all the way until he hit the submit button 

Signe CO#3

Teacher: Felicia Ciapetta

Grammar

6/24/20

For my 3rd Class Observation, I observed Ms. Ciapetta's grammar class. Ms. Ciapetta was so nice and funny! She started by asking some questions to the students to help them practice using the present continuous tense. These questions included: "What time is it where you are?" "What is your family doing?" "What are your friends doing?" This really helped them practice using the present continuous tense. She also taught the class a very common English/American phrase: "to hang out." This is a very common phrase used in American English and I think that it was very beneficial to the students to learn and understand this common phrase. Then, she showed funny pictures and asked "What are they doing?" She wanted to challenge them and have them use compound sentences. We also went over the FANBOYS for coordinating conjunctions. Finally, we worked on independent and dependent clauses. Ms. Ciapetta emphasized that the students would need to know how to use complex sentences.

Alice CP#3

I met Hongru for the third time. Today we had a really interesting conversation on the cultural shock that he experienced coming to the U.S. He shared a lot of interesting facts about China, about its movie culture and social media culture. For example, all of the Western websites like Google, Twitter, Youtube etc. are banned in China. Also, all the movies with violence, blood, ghosts or drugs are banned. He explained quite in details all these differences, and we extended the topic introducing the concept of safety related to the type of community that people live in. He told me that in China police officers are not armed, and they are quite friendly. Then he shared a personal experience where a police officer in the U.S. pointed a gun to him just because when he first moved here he didn't know that, when a police officer pull you over from the street while you are driving, you have to remain inside you car. Hongru told me that in China you always get out from the car. In this occasion the police officer immediately pointed the gun to him, and I can only imagine how shocking that experience was for Hongru,

Giovanna TS #7

I met with Talal today, July 15, from 3PM-4PM. We started our session by discussing the situation of coronavirus in the United States. After our conversation, Talal and I went over the sentences he wrote during our previous session. We corrected a few minor grammar errors and went over some of the appropriate uses of commas. After that, we did some paragraph correction. Talal really enjoys correction activities because he excels at them! During this activity, I introduced him to some new vocabulary and we did a quick review of gerunds and infinitives. I also covered the appropriate uses of colons. Our session today further emphasized to me how well Talal responds to praise; it boosts his confidence and actually allows him to perform better! 

Malyce TS #5

Date/Time: 7/15 at 3:00

Location: Zoom

Topic/Skill: resume

Feedback provided to tutee:

• did a final review of tutee's personal statement
• showed him how to and encouraged him to use the Career Center's career docs resource for assistance with his college application materials 
• reviewed and provided grammatical and some resume-specific feedback on his resume 
• talked a bit about the immigration law being revoked and how that has relieved him so much 

Lesson(s) I learned about tutoring and/or the tutee:

• it helps, even when not necessarily "tutoring" to provide models/examples/samples of what is "expected of" the student 
•  I sent the tutee my resume so that he could compare it with his own and use it as a model 
• throughout the session, he would reference my resume and ask questions in regards to his resume (ex. in the education section, I listed my school first and then my degree, and he did the opposite, so he asked what the correct way is) 

• he's expectecting to apply to FSU's grad school soon!!! 
• to anyone who reads this: cross your fingers and wish him luck! he's been working really hard on this!

Giovanna TS #6

For my July 14th (3-4PM) session with Talal, we started off by revising the paragraph he wrote in our previous session. Overall, Talal did a good job with his writing, but there were a few grammar/syntax errors that we corrected together. I also noticed that Talal’s writing is relatively simple so I hope to eventually develop his skills in using more complex grammar and in writing more complex sentences. After this portion of the session, I wanted to develop Talal’s ability to use the present continuous to describe different scenes. I showed him several images and asked him to describe each picture and what specific people in the pictures were doing. With the final picture I showed, I asked Talal to write one sentence about what each person was doing in the picture (we will go over what he wrote tomorrow during our session). I hoped through this lesson to work on Talal’s ability to describe scenes through writing and speaking. It was also further emphasized to me during this lesson that Talal responds incredibly well to praise and positive reinforcement—I will ensure I use both regularly during our next sessions!

 

Steanny TS #4

Ye-won Tutoring session #2

Saturday 9pm 7/11/2020

This week we did the tutoring session through Skype. Ye-won's mother was in the session and let me know ye-won was sick so she may be a bit sleepy. I offered to postpone the tutoring but she denied. As I said hello to Ye-won, her voice sounded terrible and she kept coughing so I changed my lesson plan; I wanted to avoid her using her voice as much as possible. I first played a video on the parts  of a house and would stop and have her answer vocab related questions while we were at it. (https://en.islcollective.com/video-lessons/parts-house-1). Then I played two Disney short stories videos and also asked her questions about it as she watched. The first was the story oh John Henry which her mom was mostly interested in but was a bit more difficult for ye-won to understand. The second was the marriage of her favorite princess Rapunzelle (Tangled) and that was was more entertaining and easier for her to understand. I was going to end the session there for her to rest but she immediately showed me her homework and we continued. I asked her to bring her colors and we proceded to learned about the months of a year. I had Ye-won think about something that reminded her of each month and draw that next to writing the month in English. By the time we finished, the time was up. Her mother taught me how to say see you later in Korean which I was very happy to learn and we left it there until next time.

TS #3 Thalia iglesias

Today, Renata and I discussed gerunds and infinitives, and when to use them. We had a bit of difficulty with the internet connection from my end and hers, as my WiFi has been down and she was on her way to Miami! Overall, the session was successful and we will be meeting up tomorrow as well. We learned a lot from one another during this session and am excited to continue working together!

Alice TS#7

Today I met Renata, my tutee, for our session. When she joined the meeting I noticed she was inside her car. First, I made sure she wasn't driving, and then I told her that we could have moved the session to a different time. She told me that she was driving with her fiancé back to Tallahassee from Miami, and that having the tutoring session in that moment was fine to her.
It was a rough meeting, she was not focused 100%, and I was distracted by the presence of her fiancé in the car. I thought about ending the session earlier, because I was not enjoying the atmosphere, but Renata tried her best, so I decided not to give up even if the conditions were not the best. We practised the use of the infinitives and gerunds using a speaking activity. I think I will propose her the same activity on out next tutoring session because I am not satisfied with today's experience.

Alice TS#6

I met my tutee on Friday, July 10, and we had an amazing lesson on the difference between gerunds and infinitives. We spent the entire session trying to really understand the topic using a lot of practical examples. I prepared the lesson applying some useful grammar tips that I learned during the TEFL course, and it worked. My tutee told me that she was able to finally understand the topic, and I was quite happy about it. We decided together to keep practising this topic for the next tutoring sessions, I usually ask my tutee to tell me her preferences about future lesson's topics, because she is pretty aware of what she needs to work on.

Naomi TS#3

Today Monday, July 13th, I had a tutoring session with Je-ah at 8am. For this session, I wanted to challenge Je-ah to speak in full sentences. Throughout the last two meetings, she has only given me one-word responses, so I tried to teach her simple sentences. The topic was likes and dislikes. Before I got into the lesson, I quickly reviewed what we had learned in the last one because I incorporated the vocabulary from that lesson into this one. We started with a video, and then we went over some of the examples in the video. Then I asked her if she liked different things ranging from food, colors, and weather. Once I could see that she had a good grasp on likes and dislikes and how to form the sentences, we moved on to an extensive reading activity. The book we read was "Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr. Suess. I asked her comprehension questions regarding whether or not the character liked green eggs and ham at the beginning and at the end of the story. For the last activity, I increased the difficulty a little and had her come up with her own items out of a category. For example, I asked her, "What fruit do you like?" and "What color do you not like?" Overall, this lesson went smoother than I expected. Je-ah was able to pick up the material much quicker than I expected. There were times where I could see she was having a little bit of difficulty, and I did have to help her out. However, she was able to answer the questions with ease most of the time. I think going over the questions and answers in the first video was really helpful. In the next lesson, I think I need to improve the way I wrap up the lesson. The ending in this one felt abrupt, and I should have checked for overall comprehension. However, I do think this lesson allowed me to learn more about Je-ah and it was a great way to help advance her English skills.  

Camryn CP # 2

7/10/2020

Marcia and I started by talking about our families and the places that we grew up in. She said that she didn't have any siblings, but had a lot of extended family. We talked about the differences in our experiences as I grew up with three older siblings. My siblings have always been some of my closest friends so it was interesting to hear about how Marcia grew up with closer relationships to her aunts, uncles, and cousins. She told me about the school system in Brazil and her experience as an undergrad in San Paolo. The school system sounded very different as she said that the college had 80 campuses for all the colleges for each major. We also talked about moving abroad to study because I feel nervous about moving to China next year for grad school. Marcia explained how she was able to get out into the community and was able to feel more comfortable after a while. Before we hung up, Marcia told me more about her research and we made plans to talk again next Friday. 

Camryn TS#2

Date/Time: Saturday 07/11

Location: Zoom

Topic/Skill: Motivation and Coming of Age (Speaking and Listening)

Feedback provided to tutee: Grammar error correction

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that a lot of times the student can be nervous and afraid to ask for what they need. I need to spend more time encouraging him to speak up when videos move too quickly as well as stop to ask him frequently about the pace of the dialogue. We conducted practice interviews with each other then a video to practice listening followed by a short discussion of the main points. 

Giovanna CP #2

Abdulaziz and I met for our second conversation partner meeting on 7/10 from 3:30-4:30. We talked about a lot of different things! He told me that he is taking his TOEFL exam on Monday and he told me about the different components of the exam since I only had limited knowledge. We also talked about the different sports that are popular in our respective in our countries. Abdulaziz thought it was very interesting that the U.S. has so many different kinds of sports--this wasn't something I realized previously! We also talked about how Saudi Arabia is handling the coronavirus (apparently they aren't faring much better than ourselves). Abdulaziz is also looking forward to the fall because CIES classes will be in person (I can't relate unfortunately). I look forward to meeting with him again next week!

Malyce CP #2

Date/Time: July 10 at 3:00pm

Location: Zoom

Topic discussed: 

• mainly just a get-to-know-each-other meeting 
• talked about our how to pronounce each other's names, college studies, geology, places we've traveled and want to travel, skydiving and fear of heights, hobbies, food, and the international student immigration law

Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: 

• I learned that the h sort of sort in Arabic is difficult for English speakers to pronounce (but I am determined to pronounce his name correctly!) 
• I learned about Kabash, which is my CP's favorite dish

                     

• *learned that I might just have a new skydiving partner! 

Malyce TS #4

Date/Time: 7/10 at 1:00

Location: Zoom

Topic/Skill: Emails, Immigration law situation

Feedback provided to tutee:

• tutee did not have anything he needed to work on 
• explained email follow-up etiquette and helped him to craft a follow-up email to send to a professor who is reviewing his personal statement  
• talked with each other about the differences in his culture and American culture in regards to sending emails vs. talking in person 
• discussed the situation he is facing as an international student with the law saying that international students have to take in-person classes in the Fall or they will otherwise have to leave the country 

Lesson(s) I learned about tutoring and/or the tutee:

• learned that emails are not a very common form of communication in Saudi Arabia, as they tend to just schedule a meeting with the person 
• this is quite a shift for such international students, as professors tend to only want to meet in person if the matter will take some time to discuss and prefer emails for anything else  

Stefanny TS #3

Dujun

Advanced English

Session # 2

7/10/20

8am EST / 9pm Korean 

Today I had a speaking lesson plan organized where Dujun would interview me and vice versa. I will need to use that for a later session.  We said our hello's and started talking about our day. I mentioned how I was having a protein shake for breakfast, and he asked about restrictions regarding working out due to COVID.  The conversation was about 5-10 minutes long. Throughout the conversation I wrote down some sentences he mad mistakes on while speaking and we later reviewed each one.

By the time we finished the hour had passed and we agreed to meet next week.

Camryn CP# 1

Today was the first time that Marcia was free to chat over the phone. For the first few minutes, we got to get to know each other and I learned that Marcia is preparing to apply for a Master's program either in Texas, Ohio, or Pennsylvania. Marcia and I also talked about our majors and families as well as the stressful process we both have going through to apply to grad school. Working on our personal statements and studying for the necessary exams. Additionally, we spoke extensively about the coronavirus and how it has changed so much of our daily lives. She had not left the house for the last 4 months out of caution of getting sick. We are both really excited for classes in the fall though as life will begin to return to a more normal schedule. Talking to Marcia was really interesting as her family is from Korea, but she grew up in Brazil so she knows about 4 different languages. At the end of our chat, we made plans to catch up tomorrow and she invited me to attend a karaoke event that is being hosted on Zoom tomorrow. 

CP #2 Thalia Iglesias

Today I shared with my second Conversation partner some fun facts about one another. My partners name is Abdulla, he is 30 years old and is originally from Kuwait. He graduated from TCC recently with his AA, and is very excited about that. His religion is Islam, and he speaks two languages, both English and Arabic. His culture is known for its cuisine and pearl diving as a hobby. He did multiple internships throughout high school. Abdulla has three sisters and three bothers as well! I plan to meet with him soon sometime this week to do a fun activity and maybe watch a movie.

Malyce CP #1

Date/Time: July 9 at 3:30pm

Location: Zoom

Topic discussed: 

• mainly just a get-to-know-each-other meeting 
• talked about food, cultural differences, dogs, hobbies, etc. 

Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: 

• I learned that it is a common cultural practice for Egyptians to not smile or share too much information with people they have only just met 
• I think it may also be common for Egyptians to not like to ask questions of others, at least not those who they don't know well 
• It is commonplace in Egypt to refer to a man older than yourself as "Uncle"