FSU TEFL Certificate 2021 Summer 1

Date/Time:  May 31 / 3:30 PM Location:  Mission San Luis Park  Topic Discussed:  Kuwait Food, Family, Traveling, Favorite Activities, Learning another language Cultural and/or Linguistic Topics you and your partner learned:  For this conversation partner session, Saleh and I went out to Mission San Luis Park and walked around talking about various topics. We talked a lot about the different kinds of food you typically find in Kuwait and how shopping centers are typically much bigger in Arabic countries. It was interesting to hear how Westernized the food service industry has seemingly become in Kuwait as Saleh showed interest in pretty much every type of food except for traditional Kuwaiti food. After getting to watch Saleh, Husaam and Fahad dance at the CIES Grill Out, I found myself asking Saleh about the dance culture in Kuwait. These types of dances are very typical at big celebrations and events (to the dismay of Saleh) but his favorite dance was one in whi...

Date/Time : Thursday, May 27 / 9:00 A.M. Location : Zoom  Topic/Skill:  Casual Business Conversation / Idioms and Usage Feedback Provided to Tutee:  For this tutoring session, I created a dialogue that DoJun and I went through together. This dialogue included 14 various idioms that are commonly heard in every day talk in a business-like setting. As we read through together, I would provide feedback on various mispronunciations and phrases that he struggled with. After finishing, I allowed DoJun to identify the various idioms that were used in this script. Before giving him answers, I would give him the flexibility to figure out the answer himself. If he was really struggling, I would use metaphors and examples to help guide him to the answer. I provided him with the script we went over after our session, along with examples and definitions of each idiom so that he could go over them. Next class, I intend on allowing him to practice these idioms in use.   Lessons...

Date/Time : Wednesday, May 26 / 9:00 A.M. Location : Zoom  Topic/Skill:  The Olympics Discussion / Vocabulary and Grammar in Use Feedback Provided to Tutee:  Before this tutoring session, DoJun reached out to me about a sentence that he did not understand which was "The coronavirus has forced the hand of companies around the world". We began class by going over this and went through a few examples. We then typically start our sessions going through notable grammar mistakes that he made in the class prior. I let him read through the mistakes that he made, then allowing him to work through the sentence and correct his own mistakes, offering assistance when needed. After going through an article and the difficult grammar found within it, I allowed DoJun to work through a few of the vocabulary words and difficult phrases by having him come up with his own creative responses to questions that would elicit each specific word or phrase. As he went through these, I would offer di...

Date/Time:  May 21 / 1:00 PM Location:  Hecht House Courtyard Topic Discussed:  Various conversations with international students  Cultural and/or Linguistic Topics you and your partner learned:  For this conversation partner session, I chose to attend the grill/ping pong get-together that the administration of CIES put together. It was a great way for me to just get to know all of the international students that are currently taking ESL classes at FSU. I had the chance to speak with Husaam, Aziz and Fahad where we talked about what it is like living in a Middle Eastern country. I learned about some of the technicalities of Ramadan and spent time in a deep conversation with Husaam discussing the implications of the attack on the twin tours on Saudi Arabian culture. I talked with Ryan Flemming about his experience pursuing a Masters in ESL education which was helpful for me in determining whether or not I see myself doing this in the long-term. It was amazing to ...

Date/Time : Monday, May 24 / 9:00 A.M. Location : Zoom  Topic/Skill:  Difference between "Has" and "Have" in use / Discussion  Feedback Provided to Tutee:  After noticing that this is a mistake that DoJun periodically makes, I decided to find an article that included the use of the words "has" and "have" a good amount. At the beginning of our session, I explained to him the difference when using these two words. After reading through the script, I then gave him 5 minutes to fill in the blank spaces with the correct words. He then read through the article himself and included the correct usages of "have" and "has". Afterwards, we went over the mistakes and I corrected him on many of the pronunciation errors that he made. During our final discussion, I would ask him to clarify things and offer better ways to answer certain questions.  Lessons about the tutoring and/or the tutee that you learned:  In this lesson, I saw how much b...

Date/Time : Wednesday, May 19, 9:00 A.M.  Location : Zoom  Topic/Skill:  Grammar/Vocabulary in Use / Maintained Discussion  Feedback Provided to Tutee:  We began this class by going over various minor mistakes that DoJun had made in his speech during the last class that I had time to listen to later that day. I wrote these sentences/grammatical errors out on a sheet and had DoJun read me what he had initially said. We then went over these errors together and worked together to come up with a more sound sentence or statement. This lesson was based around coffee so we then went into many of the terms and phrases that might be used while in a coffee shop. I had him do a Word Match for 5 minutes and then provided him feedback on any that he had misunderstood and we had a conversation about why certain words meant certain things.  Lessons about the tutoring and/or the tutee that you learned:  As of this session, I really feel like DoJun and I have started t...

Date/Time : Monday, May 17, 9 a.m. Location : Zoom  Topic/Skill:  Grammar in Use / Listening Exercise Feedback Provided to Tutee:  We started today's session by going over various grammatical mistakes that DoJun had made in the last class. We spent time going, in detail, through things like missing articles, using the wrong tense and response to questions and how to use might in a sentence. We then went into correcting a few pronunciation errors from the class before which was primarily targeted at assisting him with words that have the letter 'l' in it (i.e. related, culture, children). Finally, we did a listening exercise where I read through a script and he listened, writing down areas that I had left blank. I then had him reread the entire script and corrected him where errors were made.  Lessons about the tutoring and/or the tutee that you learned:  Today, I found out that DoJun is having a baby in a month! He was extremely excited and couldn't be more happ...

Date/Time : Wednesday, May 11, 9 a.m. Location : Zoom  Topic/Skill:  Casual Conversation Tactics / Verbal Grammar Check Feedback Provided to Tutee:  Today was used more as a benchmark for where DoJun's spoken grammar is currently at. I recorded him as we went through the lesson and the dialogue that I had created. As we went through,  I would not certain grammar mistakes that he makes often. However, for the most part, I wanted him to just speak freely so I could identify where he makes the most common mistakes. I asked him to describe scenes from the video that was played (form Pursuit of Happiness) and gave him feedback on his accuracy and alternative ways to describe certain things.  Lessons about the tutoring and/or the tutee that you learned:  Today, I learned South Korea hasn't participated in Daylight Savings since 1988, when the Olympics was held in Seoul. I found this extremely interesting. I also learned to improvise a bit in the middle of a lesso...

Date/Time : Monday, May 9, 9 a.m. Location : Zoom  Topic/Skill:  Casual Conversation Tactics Feedback Provided to Tutee:  In the beginning of class, I started by asking him to describe Mother's Day for me and how it differed from Mother's Day in American culture. I wrote down any grammar mistakes that he made along the way and we reviewed them after our conversation was over. We then watched aprt of an episode from "Modern Family" that had to do with Mother's Day. As we went through, I would check his comprehension and ensure that he understood some of the slang usage within the video. Afterwards, we went over the grammar and new vocab that we had learned.  Lessons about the tutoring and/or the tutee that you learned:  In this lesson, I learned that there actually isn't a "Mother's Day' in South Korea. It is called Parent's Day and is meant to celebrate both of the parents and everything they have done for their children rather just the mother...

Date/Time:  Friday, May 7, 1:00-2:30 p.m. Location:  La Florida, Tallahassee Topic Discussed:  Introductions and Getting to know each other, Background Cultural and/or Linguistic Topics you and your partner learned: Saleh and I spent this first session really just getting to know each other. When I arrived, he immediately offered to pay for my muffin at La Florida and I learned that, in Arabic culture, it is not uncommon for men to fight for the checks after dinner. He was partaking in Ramadan and could not eat or drink while we were together and I got to learn a lot more about this interesting religious practice. As stated by Saleh, the primary reason he practices Ramadan is to feel what the poorest people around the world feel every day. It is meant to show that we are all equals on this planet. We talked a lot about our hobbies and our family backgrounds and he told me about his 3 sisters and loving parents that were supporting him on his journey to get a degree in Ind...

Date/Time:  Thursday, May 6, 1:00-1:50 p.m. Topic/Skill:  Speaking Teacher Presentation:  Overview of past homework assignment and sentence structure document Classroom Management:  Felicia Ciappetta Materials:  Past Homework Assignment, Document with errors and corrections on students' sentences, Thesaurus.com  Student Participation:  Professor Ciappetta opened the class by first going over the mistakes that students had made in the last class. This forced them to all get involved in the correction process. She went through and asked each student to list two things that they thought they needed to work on. Not only did this give her a better understanding of what her students felt they were struggling with, but it allowed them to feel like an part of the class rather than just an observer. One simple game that she did in this class was aimed at helping students with the difference in pronunciation between the "p" and "b" sounds. She asked each student...

Date/Time:  Thursday, May 6, 10:00-10:50 a.m. Topic/Skill:  Grammar Teacher Presentation:  Sentence Structure Document   Classroom Management:  Ryan Flemming Materials:  Sentence Structure document, Projector, Marker, Previous Homework Assignment Student Participation:  Today, I joined Ryan Flemmings class where he taught his students correct grammar. This class differed from the last one in that it seemed as though he was teaching lower level students. It was interesting to see the difference in teaching methods for a class that did not speak English as well. He used much more hand movements and articulated his thoughts much more clearly so that everyone understood. He would typically repeat anything he said so that he made sure to get his points across. One thing I really liked about his teaching methods was the fact that he would not simply tell students they were wrong if they made a mistake and proceed to correct them. He would say something ...

Date/Time:  Wednesday, May 5, 2:00-2:50 p.m. Topic/Skill:  Listening Teacher Presentation:  "Justice: What's the Right Thing To Do?" YouTube Video  Classroom Management:  Ah-Young Kim Materials:  "Justice: What's the Right Thing To Do?" YouTube Video, List of difficult vocabulary words covered in video, Projector Student Participation:  Today's class observation was interesting. Upon arrival, I met Aziz and Husaan, who are two Saudi Arabian students that are enrolled in Florida States CIES Program. We got to know each other a bit and I learned that Aziz was actually pursuing a degree in Sports Management, with a keen interest in Jeju (which I later learned was another form a Jiu Jitsu). The class started with warmup discussion, which I liked as it sort of primed the students for what they would be talking about the rest of class. The remainder of the class was essentially just going through a video of a speaker talking about the utilitarianism and cons...

Date/Time : Wednesday, May 5, 9 a.m. Location : Zoom  Topic/Skill:  Needs Assessment / Diagnostic / Introductions  Feedback Provided to Tutee:  I noticed that he also tends to use the verbal filler "uhh" or "uhm" a lot which could potentially be something we work on down the road. Our tutoring sessions will really be geared at practicing normal conversation and I will try to evaluate the various errors that he tends to make as he speaks. I told him that his English speaking skills are great compared to others and that I am very excited to be working with him.  Lessons about the tutoring and/or the tutee that you learned:  Today's first tutoring session left me with a smile on my face! I spent way too many hours obsessing over how this first session would go, as I tend to always overthink things for some reason. However, as soon as Do-jun got on the call, my anxiety dissipated and we proceeded to have a great conversation. We started the session by just gett...

Amelia CP #5 Date/Time: May 30, 4:30-5:30pm Location: zoom Topic discussed: education system of Switzerland, life updates Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Today, my second conversation partner and I talked about the differences in the education systems between the U.S. and Switzerland. I learned that in Swiss schools, students learn three languages. We also talked about what we had been up to, our plans for the week, and our goals for the rest of summer. 

Amelia CP #4 Date/Time: May 28, 6:20-7:20pm Location: zoom Topic discussed: university, holidays, TV shows, current issues Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: We talked about how American universities work and about the semester schedule. We also talked about Memorial Day and how Americans typically celebrate. Yesli asked me about some current topics, such as the LGBTQ+ community and BLM, and we shared our standpoints on those issues. Finally, we talked about TV shows and realized that we both watch the same show but that since I watch the American translation, it has a different name. 

Amelia TS #8 Date/Time: May 27, 7:00-8:00pm Location: zoom Topic/Skill: speaking and reading Feedback provided to tutee: I started out today’s session by having her read aloud from her favorite book. During this, the feedback I provided was on pronunciation. Most words she said right, so it was just correcting and helping her with words that were new to her. During our speaking, I would correct her mistakes once she finished a sentence. There was one mistake she was making consistently, so I specifically pointed it out by saying something along the lines of “when you want to say this, you want to say ‘this’ instead of ‘this’.”  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: My tutee likes our writing sessions more than our speaking sessions, so I try to make the speaking sessions more fun. I found that she likes games more than just lessons, so I try to make speaking activities out of games. Today, we did role playing, which she really enjoyed and got into.

 <TS Blogs>  Date/Time: Wednesday, May 26, 2021 7:59 AM to 8:45 AM  Topic Skills: Listening and Reading Skills  Feedback provided to the tutee: In the tutoring session on Monday, we finished the concepts involved in telling the time; however, for this session, I wanted to move forward with newer material. I also wanted to still incorporate these concepts into future lessons. The focus of this tutoring session was to continue to grasp question words. Je-won did express that he was feeling tired, so I also wanted to keep this session on the shorter side. I did not want to overwhelm him with new material.  Lessons about tutoring and/or tutee learned: Question words, class subject vocabulary, and reading activity that incorporated classroom objects and time Tutee: Je-won Lee  As always, for this Wednesday session, I began with asking him how he was feeling. I wanted this session to also be on the more creative side. After he told me he loves to paint and ...

 <TS Blogs>  Date/Time: Monday, May 24, 2021 8:00 AM to 8:40 AM  Topic Skills: Writing and Speaking Skills  Feedback provided to the tutee: Je-won was able to tell the time including using phrases like "quarter to" and "half past" in speaking. He also knew all of the conjugations for the verb "be," including its negative form and contraction forms. These two areas were review to further grasp these concepts. Aside from this, I introduced question words to him.  Lessons about tutoring and/or tutee learned: Questions words (who, what, how, etc...), Phrases in telling the time, and review on contractions, negatives, and present tense form of "be" verb  Tutee: Je-won Lee  For this Monday morning session, I wanted to review concepts we were learned the week prior and introduce questions words to him. I feel as though it is incredibly important to recognize different questions and what they mean. In knowing what "who" and "how...

  Date/Time: May 19, 6:45-7:45pm Location: zoom Topic/Skill: "If" conditionals Feedback provided to tutee: I gave a presentation about "If" conditional statements and phrases to my tutee. He has expressed difficulty in using these conditional statements effectively in his writing and speaking. This lesson covered these different used for "If" conditionals and the appropriate verb tenses used in each type. The beginning of the lesson was more lecture based while i was explaining the grammatical concepts. After each concept was introduced, I would share examples of this concept in use and check for basic comprehension before moving on to the next concept. After the presentation, we spent some time practice sentence building with these conditionals to reinforce the information presented at the beginning of the lesson. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that since my tutee is quite advanced, they always ask for deeper meaning and ...

Amelia TS #7 Date/Time: May 25, 7:00-8:00pm Location: zoom Topic/Skill: writing, tenses and vocab Feedback provided to tutee: My tutee has been getting better at writing since we’ve started working together, and there are some sentences that are perfect. I always try to point these out as encouragement. When there’s a mistake, I will highlight it on the screen and ask what she thinks we need to do to fix it. If her suggestion is right, I will say something like “good job” and if the suggestion is wrong, I say something like, “not quite, what else could we say?”.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: As she improves her writing, she is also getting faster. The first time we did writing, it took her the whole times to write a paragraph. Now, it only takes her about half the time, and she writes a lot more. In the future writing sessions, I think I need to come up with prompts that require her to write for longer. 

  Date/Time: 05/21/2021 Location: Hecht House Topic discussed: Studying abroad, culture shock, adapting to accents, our time in college Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned:  Aziz and I discussed many different things for our first conversation partner session. Though, in large part, we compared our experiences of going overseas to do intensive  language  study. We both agree that adjusting to local accents and idioms is one of the most  challenging  parts of going overseas. I did my best to help  explain some southern  colloquialisms  that he had been hung up on but  conceded that accents really do just take time and practice to understand. We then talked about what kinds of culture shock experiences we had and how we reacted/ adapted to them. After that we talked our majors. That is actually how I found out that Aziz is studying at FSU as a result of being sponsored by the Kuwaiti government to...

Date/Time: 05/21/2021 3:00 p.m. Location: Hecht House Topic/Skill: Adjective clauses, Adverb clauses, summary review Feedback provided to tutee: This was a very productive meeting for Aziz and me. We spent a majority  of our time going over adjective and adverb clauses   which  Aziz had recently learned.  After briefly  reviewing where and how such clauses are used I gave Aziz a few examples and had him try to make his own sentences. As always, he was more than eager to start trying, and after a while he was starting to get the hang of it. We then moved on to reviewing a summary he had recently written. I would mark where he had an issue, tell him what kind of an issue it was, and give him hints to help talk him through the review process. After doing this for a while we went back to the clauses that were giving him trouble to review. After making sure he still had a good grasp on adjective and adverb clauses we concluded our meeting. Lesson(s) about tut...

Amelia CP #3 Date/Time: May 23, 5:50-6:50pm Location: zoom Topic discussed: summer plans Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Today, I met with a second conversation partner from Switzerland. We talked about our summer plans and about the pandemic. In Switzerland, young people are just now able to register for the vaccine. Somehow, we ended up talking about how people who speak different languages sometimes have trouble pronouncing different sounds. She has trouble with Vs and TH sounds. She also tried to teach me some German words, and I have trouble with the guttural sounds. 

 <TS Blogs>  Date/Time: May 19, 2021  Location: Zoom Topic Skills: Grammar, Writing, and Speaking Skills  Feedback provided to the tutee: As I have stated in many other blog posts, I am always impressed with how quick Je-won picks up new material. I feel as though he is starting to become more confident with taking risks and participating. His pronunciation is always excellent.  Lessons about tutoring and/or tutee learned: Contractions with the verb "be," negative statements with the verb "be," time-related vocabulary, telling time (with phrases "half past," "quarter past," and "quarter to") Tutee: Je-won Lee  On Wednesday, I wanted to dive further into ways to tell time. On Monday, I introduced more basic concepts of telling time; however, this time, I wanted to go farther into specifics. Thus, we started to discuss different ways to say the time. For example, utilizing phrases like "half past" and "quarter past...

Amelia CP #2 Date/Time: May 21, 6:00-7:00pm Location: zoom Topic discussed: what we’ve been doing, our future plans, our interests Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: We started by talking about what we did today. Yesli talked about the CIES BBQ and how she learned a lot about Arabic culture that she didn’t know before. We talked about what we’ve been doing since we last saw each other. We also talked about living arrangements and how she is moving to a new apartment soon. We realized that we both watch Grey’s Anatomy and Bridgerton, so we were able to talk about those shows for a little bit. 

Amelia TS #6 Date/Time: May 20, 7:00-8:00pm Location: zoom Topic/Skill: speaking, asking questions  Feedback provided to tutee: We played the game 20 Questions. When she asked a question that was not phrased correctly, I would ask her to repeat the question. Often, she would correct it on her own. If she didn’t, I would repeat the question to her how it should be phrased and then answer the question. I gave her positive reinforcement when she phrased things right. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that games hold her focus for longer than other activities. She was already familiar with how to play the game and was excited to play it. I also learned to slow down my speech a little bit more. This was not because I thought she was not understanding me but rather to match her thought processing speed. 

 For my third class observation, I attended Olivia's listening class. Coincidentally, I spotted my conversation partner in the class! During this class, Olivia was going over the topics of mass mobilization and mob mentality with the students. I thought this was a very odd topic to use for teaching English, but I can see how it does spark more interest and more stimulating conversations among students who are in their 20s and early 30s. Olivia began the class by providing present-day examples such as the currently ongoing protests in Colombia. She then read over some theory behind protests and what is socially needed in order for them to form. For the second half of the class, she sent the students into breakout rooms where they would watch and listen to a series of videos about the Arab Spring. Interestingly enough, while a good amount of the students are Middle Eastern, some of them were not familiar with the Arab Spring.

 I had promised my tutee, Dave, in our previous tutoring session that we would be going over verb tenses during this session. I used my notes from our TEFL class, went through the context of when to use each verb tense, and provided examples of sentences using the verb tenses. I appreciate that Dave is a very motivated student because I did not have to ask him to provide his own examples, instead he would naturally participate and share his own examples as he though of them. Because there are twelve verb tenses, I quickly noticed how tired and unmotivated Dave was slowly becoming, especially since he had a long day at school. I then found a website that provided easy fill in the blank quizzes for each verb tense. This activity was very helpful because Dave had an easier time actively answering these rather than trying to comprehend the rules of each verb tense. I had told him that the subject and verb agreements will develop naturally for him as he practices his speaking and writin...

 For my second tutoring session with Dave, I had provided corrections for the writing prompt I had given him during our previous tutoring session. Additionally, I began a vocabulary chart where I should write out the new vocabulary word, definition, and a picture example. The most shocking thing from this tutoring session was how it took the entire hour to go over all the corrections from a short paragraph. His message and structure was very clear, so I delved deep into correcting the grammatical errors. We went through them together, and I realized that he was having the most difficulty with verb tenses and articles. Especially with the verb tenses, the same issues kept arising and I told him that I would go over all the verb tenses with him during our next tutoring session because we did not have the time for it during this session.

 Date: 05/13/2021 Location: zoom Topics/skills discussed: IELTS writing Feedback provided to tutee: My tutee has spent the past couple of weeks preparing for another session of the IELTS test. He has shared with me before that he would like more assistance with completing prepared writings. I provided feedback on writing samples he completed and gave some construction on writing strategies for writing prompts. Lesson(s) about tutoring/or tutee that you learned: I learned that prepared writings (especially with academic prompts) are very challenging and take different approaches for different people to complete successfully. This was a challenge for me because my personal deduction strategies I use to gather information from a prompt did not come very easily to my tutee so we had to take some time to work on other approaches. This was intimidating because I only had a couple ideas on how to explain writing prepared and having to come up with things on a whim was challenging, but tau...

  Date/Time:  05/010/21 3:30PM-4:30PM Location: Zoom  Topic/Skill:  speaking Feedback provided to tutee: I provided Hussan with feedback and correction on speaking and pronounciation. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Hussan is a very motivated student. During this lesson, Hussan wanted to go over a presentation that he had given in his speaking class that day to receive additional feedback and correction on his presentation. In this lesson, we went over Hussan's speaking presentation. This power point was 20 slides and covered his experience from graduating high school to the present. This assignment was particularly difficult for him because the slides would be shown for 20 second before moving on to the next slide. This required him to be able to speak his prepared thoughts on the slides in a concise manner so he would not fall behind the timer. We began by having Hussan present his presentation to me. Then we went through each individual slid...

 Date: 05/18/2021   6:45pm-7:45pm Location: zoom Topic discussed: Introductions, sharing of interests, life background Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Fahad and I shared basic introductions of ourselves to start our first conversation partner session. He is also a student at CIES currently so we were able to talk about his experience with his classes so far. We also discussed his goals for the CIES program and what he would like to achieve after this program. He is living in Tallahassee so we spoke about his experience moving from Kuwait to Tallahassee. He asked several questions about American social culture like how strangers sometimes stare at people in public for no reason. This was strange to him because staring can be more confrontational in his country. Fahad also shared that he was going skydiving the upcoming weekend and how he is trying to push himself out of his comfort zone while he is living in America. I am excited to hear how...

Date/Time:  05/06/21 8:00AM EST Location: Zoom  Topic/Skill:  Reading Comprehension, Conversation Building, Vocabulary Feedback provided to tutee: I provided Je-ah with feedback on her tenses and pronunciation Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that Je-ah is a very visual learner, we did an activity where we would hold up the school items as we reviewed the vocabulary. I would say things like, "show me a pencil", etc. She seemed to enjoy lessons that were structured this way compared to lessons where I just presented her with the new content. In today's session I prepared two picture vocabulary charts. These charts have been really helpful in our lessons because they served as a strong reference point for Je-ah whenever she came across a term or sentence she was unsure of. Together we wrote a paragraph describing the activities of her day. I had her do this after we had gone over the new vocabulary that would be used in th...

Amelia TS #5 Date/Time: May 18, 7:00-8:00pm Location: zoom Topic/Skill: writing, verb tenses and articles Feedback provided to tutee: I gave her a prompt about her best day ever. After having her write sentences, she shared them, and we corrected the sentences together. The most common mistakes she made were keeping the tense consistent and forgetting to include articles. I would provide her with options and ask which she thinks sounds the best. We would talk about verb tenses, such as how to say a verb in the present and in the past.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that providing her with an example helps her write better. Last time, I forgot to do an example beforehand, but I remembered this time, and her writing was noticeably better. I also learned she really likes to read, which could be helpful for our future speaking sessions. 

 <TS Blogs>  Date/Time: May 17, 2021 8:02 AM to 8:52 AM  Location: Zoom  Topic Skills: Speaking and Grammar Skills  Feedback provided to the tutee: I have attempted to build on skills as each tutoring session progresses. I continue to be impressed by how quickly Je-won picks up new material.  Lesson about tutoring and/or tutee learned: Time, Nouns, Simple Present Tense Sentences Tutee: Je-won Lee  This tutoring session we continued to practice nouns and simple present tense sentences. All of the nouns being taught focus on classroom objects. I want to reinforce what he has done in class, what we have done in our tutoring sessions, and introduce new concepts. As always, this session used a PowerPoint structure to provide the appropriate visual aid. After reviewing content, I introduced the concept of time. I felt as though it would be a good opportunity to transition into this topic because of his previous knowledge in numbers and the verb "be." A...

Amelia TS #4 Date/Time: May 13, 7:00-8:00pm Location: zoom Topic/Skill: articles and verb tenses/speaking Feedback provided to tutee: As she was telling my stories, I would correct her sentences. She would repeat them the correct way. We focused today on articles and verb tenses. I would read sentences aloud and have her correct them. She was able to hear the mistakes and correct them. In cases where she couldn’t, I would ask her if she was sure and then help lead her to the right answer rather than just correcting her right away.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that for her age, the sentences need to be a little bit simpler than I made them. There were some sentences that had multiple mistakes in one sentence, which stumped her and made her think that correct sections also needed to be corrected. I’ve learned that leaving time at the end of the lesson for fun questions helps her pay attention to the lessons I plan for her. 

 <TS Blogs> Date/Time: May 12, 2021 8:00 AM to 8:49 AM  Location: Zoom  Topic Skill: Grammar and Speaking Skills  Feedback Provided to tutee: As always, Je-won did an excellent job with today's tutoring session. We went over new material on Tuesday, which he had already memorized when we began the session. I was very impressed with how quick Je-won learns the material, especially considering this was new material he had not yet covered. I will also be reaching out to Je-won's mom to follow up with her on his progress, and to receive his textbook's table of contents.  Lesson about tutoring and/or tutee learned: Nouns, Present tense form of "be," Articles Tutee: Je-won Lee  As previously addressed, on Tuesday we went over new material regarding nouns and articles. For this session, I wanted to review this material. This was also a way to gauge how much he learned on Tuesday in our tutoring session. As I wait for his textbook's table of contents, I am fo...

   Date/Time: May 10th, 2021 from 1:00 A.M. to 1:50 A.M.  Topic Skills: Speaking  Teacher Presentation: Dr. Angel Rios Classroom Management: Some of the students for this class session were attending the class in person, and there were a couple on the zoom call.. This class was largely spent working on a presentation, and using the class time to get assistance and ask the instructor questions about it. Materials: With this being a hybrid course, the instructor had the students attending online pulled up on the computer and made sure that they had access to share the screen with the instructor as he went over assignment instructions on his desktop. All of the students had personal computers to pull up their presentation assignments to work on them. Student Participation: This class period was started with the instructor involving all of the students in a small conversation. He would ask students about their weekends or other updates they would like to share with the c...

Amelia TS #3 Date/Time: May 11, 6:40-7:40pm Location: zoom Topic/Skill: writing, verb tenses Feedback provided to tutee: After having her write sentences, she shared them and we corrected the sentences together. Her common mistakes were putting words in the wrong order and when an object should be singular versus plural. I would provide her with options and ask which she thinks sounds the best. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that 15 minutes is a good amount of time for writing prompts for this tutee. She needs clear examples on what she needs to do before she will attempt anything. In this case, I forgot to give her an example beforehand, so it took us a little bit longer to get started on the lesson I had planned. 

 <TS Blogs>  Date/Time: May 10, 2021 8:00 A.M. to 8:45 A.M.  Location: Zoom  Topic Skill: Articles, Nouns, Important Phrases  Feedback provided to tutee: Je-won did an excellent job grasping new concepts related to nouns and articles. We also went over a review of material we practiced in the previous session, which he remembered.  Lesson about tutoring and/or tutee learned: Grammar Lesson (describing nouns)  Tutee: Je-won Lee  In today's tutoring session, we focused on nouns and articles. As mentioned in blog entries before, Je-won is very new to the English language. Je-won's mother told me she plans on sending me a photo of his textbook's table of contents, so I can align my sessions with the material he is learning each week in school. I decided to focus on expanding Je-won's vocabulary of classroom objects. Based on my own foreign language experience, classroom objects was the first aspect of the language I always learned in class. I al...

  Date/Time: May 4th, 2021 from 11:00 A.M. to 11:50 A.M.  Topic Skills: Reading  Teacher Presentation: Ryan Flemming Classroom Management: All of the students for this class session were attending the class in person. The instructor outlined the activities for the day's lesson and explained a brief overview of the concepts being covered. The lesson for the class was partially an extension of the previous class so the instructor made sure to connect the lessons together before moving on to new material. Materials: All students attending this class were present in person. The instructor chose to utilize the Zoom Polls function on Zoom to have the student answer questions about the reading passages they were covering. This required all students to use their personal computers to log onto the zoom call. Each student also had an online copy of the reading material and question for the class provided by the instructor on their canvas page.  Student Participation: All of th...

 Date/Time: 05/04/2021 Location: Zoom Topic/Skill: Introduction / Needs Assessment Feedback provided to tutee: Aside form the initial introductions and conversation about the goals the tutee wishes to reach through the tutoring, we went over a couple of grammar lessons from the previous grammar class they had. This covered simple future tense and future perfect tense. The tutee had a few sentence errors while speaking throughout the session which were corrected as they occured. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or tutee you learned: Through our introductions, I was able to learn a lot about Hussan, and his experience with English speaking and courses. It was very insightful to learn about his background and what his goals moving forward with his education and career are. Knowing that he is planning to take the IELTS test in order for him to eligible for his graduate programs next year is very helpful when planning the tutoring sessions to come. Hussan feels like his conversational Engli...

  Date/Time: 5/07/21  3p.m. Location: Hecht House Lounge  Topic/Skill: Writing, Summary, Review of classwork Feedback provided to tutee: During this tutoring session we began by going over a summary that Aziz had written for class. I helped him correct this summary by pointing to where in the article he had problems and what kind of problems they were using the note taking shorthands provided to me by Dr. Rios. Ultimately  it still came down to Aziz figure out the answer, but this system worked well for us in allowing me to provide feedback while also giving Aziz the opportunity to practice correcting his own work. After this I had him perform  a free writing activity in which he gave me a brief description of Ramadan. We followed a similar  method of review for this activity. Additionally, I explained what his future work during our tutoring sessions may be like and why I intended to give him this  kind of work. As further feedback after our tut...

  Date/Time: 5/06/21 11:00-11:50a.m. Topic/Skill: Reading G4 Teacher Presentation: Ms. James had the students read from an academic article covering the possible uses of music as a tool for pain relief. Students were later given time to work on creating sentences using their vocabulary words to prepare for an up coming quiz. Classroom Management: Ms. James taught a very small class so the general mood was very casual. Materials:  Computer, Internet access, Zoom, Canvas, Google Docs Student  Participation: When I first joined the Zoom call Ms. James asked a student to give me a brief summary of what they did last class. Following this the students continued to work through the article taking turns reading and describing paragraphs. After finishing the article the students were asked to give their opinion on and explain why or why not they would try using music for pain relief. The last classroom activity the students performed involved Ms. James giving each stude...

Date/Time:  5/4/21 8:00AM EST Location: Zoom Topic/Skill: Introduction/ Needs Assessment Feedback provided to tutee: In our first tutoring session I did not provide much feedback because I wanted to get a clearer picture of Je-ah's English proficiency. Most of my feedback was words of encouragement and correction of simple mistakes; I was very impressed by her reading and comprehension abilities.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I hope to continue to build Je-ah's confidence in conversation capacity. I can tell she understands almost every task or instruction I give her. She showed me her English workbook so I was able to get an idea of what sorts of lessons she is working on. Je-ah seems really eager to learn and engaged in all the content we worked on.  During our session, I used my iPad to display labeled pictures of weather, fruits and colors. I would ask her questions related to the images and have her wr...

 <CO Blogs>  Date/Time: May 6, 2021 from 2:00 P.M. to 2:50 P.M.  Topic Skills: Listening Skills  Teacher Presentation: Felicia Ciapetta  Classroom Management: This class was a mixture of level two and level three students. For this class, the instructor placed students into different breakout rooms. In the breakout rooms, they would have about six minutes to answer a set of questions with their partner. For example, one of the questions was "What is the difference between media and technology?". After the time ended, students would return to the main room where the instructor would review each question. She asked different students different questions each time. If a student did not fully answer the question, she would ask if another student could help. She ensured to be optimistic and positive with each student. When they finished reviewing, the instructor informed the students on the listening activity. She gave a lecture three times. The first time, she...

Amelia CP #1 Date/Time: May 7, 3:00-4:00pm Location: zoom Topic discussed: introductions, things we like, where we are from, etc. Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: My partner and I went back and forth asking each other questions about the other, such as where we are from, what we like to do for fun, books, movies, music, and other things. There were several times when my partner did not understand what I was saying. Sometimes, she would tell me and I would rephrase what I was saying. Other times, she would just say “oh okay” and give a little laugh, but it came across and not knowing what I was saying. She was not as advances as I originally thought, so I had to slow down the pace of my speaking and choose my words carefully to ensure understanding.

 To be fully honest, I felt totally clueless coming into my first tutoring session because it was during the first week of our TEFL course. My tutee is an 11 year old boy whose family came to America from South Korea two years ago. He currently lives in New Orleans, Louisiana and goes by his American name, Dave. I call him Dave because that is what his mom presented him to me as and that is how he introduced himself, although I would personally prefer to use his real Korean name. When I first Dave, he was very responsive to me and seemed motivated for our tutoring sessions. After I asked him basic questions that were appropriate for his age, I decided to give him a writing prompt about his everyday routine to gage his writing and grammar levels. I immediately recognized some mistakes and told his I would take time to correct them and have grammatical explanations for him for our next tutoring session. This allowed me to have something ready for our next session. Afterwards, I gave ...

 This past week, I observed Ah-young Kim's listening class. I believe that one of the most admirable teaching traits that Kim has is her ability to effortlessly and effectively teach a hybrid class in which half the students are in person and the other half are attending through Zoom. She is able to do this by incorporating a visual lesson that is accessible to all students. Although this class is focused on improving the students' listening skills, it is still important to provide a visual guide because all students have different preferred learning approaches. Kim showed the class a video about the morality and whether or not murder is ever excusable. This was an interesting video in which the students can learn about how Americans perceive this topic and how it may challenge their own cultural perceptions. Kim would pause throughout the video and jot down vocabulary words that students do not know in order to expand their knowledge and understanding of the topic. At the end,...

 This past week I observed Ryan Flemming's speaking class. The first thing that I immediately noticed was how dynamic and enthusiastic Ryan was with his students. He always kept up a motivational demeanor to keep his students engaged with their class discussions. During this speaking class, Ryan was going over the rubric and the expectations for a project that his students are going to complete. The project revolves around the introductory process that these international students usually experience when they meet a new person in America. The students usually talk about where they are from, what they are studying, and what they want to do in the future. I thought this was a clever project idea because it takes an indirect learning approach in which the students reflect on their own real life experiences and reiterate it orally. After Ryan was done going over the project expectations, he then began to ask the students to reiterate the main points he touched open throughout the class...

Amelia TS #2 Date/Time: May 6, 7:00-8:00pm Location: zoom Topic/Skill: American culture, speaking Feedback provided to tutee: I corrected mistakes she made in her speech after she finished her sentences. The mistakes were minor, such as the order to say words or the correct form of a verb (the difference between doesn’t and don’t was one example). Most of the corrections I did were done by repeating what she said back to her but correcting her mistakes.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that I am not current on what kids enjoy. I tried to talk about TV shows I thought were current and that she would want to talk about, and she had never heard about them. I also learned that if I find a topic she is very interested in, she will talk about it until I tell her it is time to move on. 

  <CO Blogs>  Date/Time: May 6th, 2021 from 10:00 A.M. to 10:50 A.M.  Topic Skills: Grammar  Teacher Presentation: Felicia Ciappetta  Classroom Management: All of the students were online for this class. The instructor had students working together in a small group to complete a story writing activity that was started in the previous class. The instructor provided clear instructions to complete a written story including several examples of different verb phrases. There was a list of examples for each verb phrase to give students some reference and allowing them to complete this assignment without an extensive amount of guidance.  Materials: Since this class was in an online learning environment, the instructor only used Google Docs and Zoom breakout rooms for the class meeting. The instructor had a provided google doc with the assignment instructions and verb phrase supplement that the students were able to access and complete their assignment on. Stu...

 Wednesday, May 5, 2021  <CO Blogs>  Date/Time: May 5th, 2021 from 11:00 A.M. to 11:50 A.M.  Topic Skills: Reading/Writing Skills  Teacher Presentation: Olivia James  Classroom Management: All of the students were online for this class. The instructor (Olivia James) managed the classroom by asking questions to spark conversation. As listed, this class time focused on reading skills. The students had to read an academic article titled, "Can Listening to Music Help Control Pain?". The instructor wanted students to (1) analyze the main ideas and paraphrase each paragraph, (2) describe methodologies, (3) review vocabulary, and (4) take a vocabulary quiz on terms. She used an inductive teaching style by asking questions about the article the students read. The students wrote responses and she gave feedback on them. For terms that were difficult, she highlighted them in a different color and provided pronunciation for the words. For example, "questionnaire'...

  Date/Time: 4/30/21 2:00p.m. Location: Lucky Goat on Northeast Capital circle Topic/Skill: Introduction/ Needs assessment Feedback provided to tutee: When did not cover much of any real content this meeting so there was not much feedback to give. However, we did discuss  in depth what exactly Aziz will be looking for in these tutor sessions and how I can best help him achieve his English learning goals. I only had to provide occasional corrections or assistance in speaking. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: This  meeting was predominantly  to allow us to introduce ourselves to each other, get an idea of how we wanted to schedule our meetings, and find out which aspects of Aziz's language learning I can help shore up. I was very excited to meet Aziz, he is an extremely  friendly person and he certainly  does not lack the motivation to learn. After discussing for a bit about our families and where we are from we moved on to ...

  Date/Time: 5/05/21 1:00-1:50p.m. Topic/Skill: Speaking - Timed speaking assignment Teacher Presentation: Dr. Rios briefly reviewed the expectations of the assignment, what material they must include in their timed response, and took questions from students before they began working. Classroom Management: Once more Dr. Rios did his best to keep an air of levity  in his class to help offset the anxiety of the students and make them more comfortable with the assignment. Materials: Computer, Internet access, Zoom, Canvas, Microsoft  Word, Timer Student  Participation: For this class students had to complete a timed speaking assignment. For the first half of class Dr. Rios gave students the opportunity to practice this assignment and receive  feedback before actually recording  their attempt. To do this Dr. Rios displayed the rubric for the speaking assignment over the Zoom call and then gave the students about a minute to think of their responses; A...

  Date/Time: 5/05/21 10:00-10:50 a.m. Topic/Skill: Grammar- Infinitives/ Gerunds Teacher Presentation: Dr. Rios gave a lecture explaining the different uses of infinitives while quizzing  students on the material along the way. Classroom Management: Dr. Rios maintained  a very positive atmosphere in the class and actively engaged with his students throughout by asking questions and providing verbal feedback. Materials: Computer, Projector, White board, Textbook PDF Student  Participation: To start the lesson Dr. Rios had the students break into groups to discuss several questions from the textbook that would encourage them to use infinitives in their answers. Such as, "What are three things you must do this weekend?" Dr. Rios also made sure to ask each student to read aloud from the text or provide example sentences at least once.  Feedback Provided: Dr. Rios provided constant verbal feedback throughout the lesson.  Whenever a student misspok...