FSU TEFL 120 Certificate Course Summer 2, 2021

Today I met with Aziz at Lucky Goat Cafe. We first discussed summer camp opportunities for his children. I don't remember how this topic started, but I had previously worked at a summer camp in Tennessee and told Aziz about this experience. Aziz mentioned that he thinks it will be a great experience for his kids to go to camp and explore outside and become independent in the future. I agreed and I told him about my experiences with the younger children. Some would come to the camp crying and homesick and leave feeling great and more independent, plus, it was a fun experience for them no matter what. Next, the conversation shifted to COVID and my plans after I graduate. We discussed our opinions of different European countries and Aziz's experiences traveling to them, as I would like to get my Masters degree in Europe. We talked about how COVID impacted last summer and how I did an internship online. Overall, it was a good conversation session.

Today I met with Masoud, a beginner level CIES student. Date: 7/30/2021, 4-5pm Location: Starbucks Feedback provided: For our last lesson, Masoud wanted to practice pronunciation. I wanted to do something fun, so I found a list of tongue twisters to try. Because it was a pronunciation lesson, we went pretty slow with them, but I found all of the similar words grouped together to be a very helpful tool. Masoud sometimes messed up long and short vowel sounds, but overall has improved so much since our first week. Certain minimal pairs Masoud could differentiate at all in the past, but now does very well. Lesson learned: I think tongue twisters or using minimal pairs in sentences is a very good exercise for when students progress past minimal pairs. It is also a way to make the lesson fun. It was great seeing how much Masoud progressed this session.

Today I met with Masoud, a group 1 CIES student. Date: 7/28/2021, 5-6 pm Location: Momo's pizza Feedback provided: Today Masoud and I practiced for his reading exam. We did he vocabulary Kahoot provided by his teacher and I saw he had a pretty clear understanding of the words. When we tried to answer questions with them, however, Masoud showed he did not have a full understanding of each word. Because of this, we went back to the text and read line by line. I asked Masoud to point out what he did not understand and we worked on it together. After doing this, we tried the questions again, and Masoud did much better after understanding the context. Lesson learned about teaching: I think this lesson showed the difference of fully understanding the vocabulary and just being able to match definitions to words. Understanding the context of a word is just as important as the definition.

Date: 7/28/2021 Time: 3-4 pm Location: over Zoom Topic/Skill:  Speaking (comparing cultures) Feedback provided to tutee: Sometimes, my tutee would conjugate the verb in the wrong past tense so I would get her to correct herself by asking "What?". I also provided several vocabulary words to her in reference to our conversations, like "grocery store" and "aisle". Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:  This week, she had finals so she wanted the lesson to be more casual as she had a lot on her plate. We compared living in Korea to living in Tallahassee. She seems to be getting more confident speaking for longer periods of time within our conversation.

  Date/Time: 7/20/21 7PM- 8PM Location: Zoom Topic discussed: Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary Comprehension Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: I learned that it is important to repeat the comprehension questions. I think it reinforces the questions so that all aspects of the question are understood. Also, with Reading Comprehension practices it is important to provide a vocabulary list. However, I had us read the vocabulary words together and we worked on defining the words together. I think it would be better if I provided a vocabulary list with their meanings before reading the story. There were several words that Ruth was confused about, so I should have provided example sentences. 

Date/Time: Friday, July 30, 2021, 2:20-3:30 p.m. Location: Zoom Topics discussed: Children, job opportunities, cultural customs Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Hussam taught me that people in Saudi Arabia really love to drink coffee. When we had our call, he was in a cafe and it was around 9-10 pm. He said that lots of cafes are open 24 hours and that the people there drink coffee at all hours of the day. We also talked about how Covid has changed the way a lot of people see their jobs. We both agreed that lots of people are realizing that companies see them as disposable. There is really no such thing as a secure job anymore. We also talked about being intentional about major life decisions.

 Thursday evening, July 29th, I had my 4th conversation partner meeting with Maher. We spoke for quite a while at the International Dinner event, continuing our previous conversations about soccer and bringing in other people to help contribute to the conversation. We talked about music, dancing, and food as well, of which there was plenty. He commented that he quite liked the BBQ chicken pizza, which I thought was quite funny, and we then discussed good places to find pizza in Tallahassee. We talked also with Aziz about how funny American dances can be. The conversation was very entertaining and it was great to actually have the opportunity to talk in person, rather than over zoom. 

Date/Time: Friday, July 30, 2021, 8-8:50 a.m. Location: Zoom Topic/Skill: Reading Feedback provided to tutee: I had Je-won repeat sentences, phrases, and vocabulary words after me. If he didn't say them properly or clearly, I repeated them and had him repeat them back again. I also looked up words that he didn't know, showed him images, and used gestures to explain them. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: We read one short story together today. It had a few difficult words, so after I read it once and he repeated after me, we looked up the difficult words. After making up sentences for the unfamiliar words, we read through the story one more time. He was tired today, so we only did about 50 minutes instead of the full hour.

 Today I met with Masoud, a beginner level CIES student. Date: 7/25/2021, 10:30-11:30 am Location: Lucky goat coffee Feedback provided: Masoud had a grammar test on Tuesday, so we did a recap of all the verb conjugations we had reviewed in the past. We practiced sentence writing in all forms of the conjugations he has learned. I wrote short prompts for him to write answers to, but did not explicitly tell him what verb tense to use. He did pretty well with this but would sometimes not use the right form. Additionally, I had to keep encouraging Masoud to keep adding more details, as he was very short with his answers. Lessons learned about tutoring: I liked coming up with the different prompts for Masoud and wish I got more creative with them. Masoud kept getting distracted during our lesson, so I had to keep working to keep him interested. 

 Today I met with Zahrae, an upper level CIES student. Today was my last meeting with Zahrae, as her pregnancy is due soon. Surprisingly, out conversation turned somewhat political and we compared and contrasted marital laws and norms in Kuwait and the US. First, we discussed polygamy in law and practice. In Kuwait, I learned it is legal for a man to have as many as 4 wives, but this is very rare in practice because husbands have high respect for their wife and only marry one now, though it is still legal. Zahrae asked about polygamy in the US. I told her that I think it is legal in some places and illegal in others, but it is very rare in practice as well. Next, I asked Zahrae about gay marriage in Kuwait. She said that although two people of the same gender cannot get married, many gay couples do exist in private in Kuwait. We discussed the role that religion plays into this and I told her about how there are many different opinions on the subject in the US. We respectfully share...

9:00am - 10:00am Paper Fox Coffee Cafe We reviewed some verb and noun uses today. Some were confusing for him because some words can act as both a noun and a verb, such as gerunds. We also looked at different forms of words and which can describe a noun compared to which can describe a verb. Adverbs were a little harder for him to understand. I had trouble explaining a solid way of identifying adverbs other than the "ly" they usually have at the end of the word. Other than that, I told him to look for what word the adverb/adjective is describing. If he can identify it as a noun or a verb, then the describtor can be identified as either an adverb or an adjective. But in the case of gerunds, it was especially difficult to make that identification for him. Another fun thing we talked about was Justin Bieber. At our last conversation partner meeting, I overheard a justin beiber song and said "ugh". He asked me today why I didn't like him, so showed him Bieber's ...

 I met with Ruth in the Hecht House at 3 pm on July 27 in the Hecht House.  Topic/Skill: We worked on pronunciation and developing vocabulary in Speaking.  Feedback provided to tutee: I worked with Ruth to develop on finishing the entire pronunciation of words, long vowel sounds, and vocabulary she learned in her speaking class.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that beginner level students find almost anything interesting because they have so little exposure to English language. It can be difficult not to get pigeon-holed into an unrelated topic that students are interested in during a lesson. I will need to find a balance between investing in students' interest and following an agenda.

I met with Samuel via  at 3 pm on July 26 in the Hecht House.  Topic/Skill: We talked about Samuel's plans for after the end of his CIES session. We talked about his future plans to pass an English exam at his university in Colombia. We worked on pronunciation and automacity in conversation.  Feedback provided to tutee: I worked with Samuel to develop the pronunciation of words that he uses frequently to talk about his research in talent searching in college athletics. I gave him feedback on grammar during his explanation of his thesis.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I worked with Samuel to develop new ways to imagine pronouncing English words that are particularly difficult for Samuel. This tactic of separating the parts of words and imagining them being spelled differently to better understand the pronunciation is something I find useful, but I think it could cause problems with spelling in the future. 

Date/Time: Wednesday, July 28, 2021, 8-9 a.m. Location: Zoom Topic/Skill: Reading Feedback provided to tutee: I had Je-won repeat sentences, phrases, and vocabulary words after me. If he didn't say them properly or clearly, I repeated them and had him repeat them back again. I also looked up words that he didn't know, showed him images, and used gestures to explain them. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: We read three short stories together today. I found more difficult ones this time to give him more of a challenge. I am learning that I have to push him out of his comfort zone just a little bit so he won't get too bored during our sessions. This time, I read the paragraphs before having him repeat after me. After the lesson, I asked if he still wants to work on reading since we have been doing the same thing for a few sessions now, and he said he does want to keep reading. To me, it seems like he is getting a lot better at reading in a very short perio...

9:00am - 10:00am Paper Fox Coffee Cafe Today, we worked on word emphasization, and pronunciation. Since meeting Hengwei, I have noticed that when he talks, he does not emphasize words or take pauses in logical areas. It was something I hadn't even thought of as part of English learning until this point. I realized that in Chinese, emphasis can't be shown through tone because different tones change the meaning of the words. So today, we used one of his old discussion posts to work on showing him where emphasis should be in each sentence. I started by having him read the sentence aloud, then guess where the emphasis would go. I would then read the sentence (giving a little more emphasis that I would have naturally to give hints to where it would be), and then have him underline where it would be if spoken aloud. Then I had him practice the sentence again with emphasis. I also showed him where pauses in sentences go, and how long they should be. I wasn't sure how to describe i...

 7/27/21 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Hang-ah Kim Today Hang-ah and I went over how to properly build a debate and back up opinions. I first introduced the elements of a debate, as well as the key phrases that we would be using to build our debates. That included the following: The Issue The main idea/thing is ... In my opinion, _____ Most importantly, I want to mention that... I believe that Therefore,   Listening in a Debate It's true that____ but consider that, _______ I agree with you that____ On the other hand, _____ I believe that_____ I can understand that_____. However, _______   Listing Your Points First of all, ________ Firstly, ______Secondly, ______Thirdly, ______ For starters, ______ In addition to that, _______ Furthermore, ______ Not to mention that_____   Ending Your Argument To recap, ______ My final thought is _______ To sum up, _______ Finally, ______ Agree to disagree. I then presented a sample debate that ...

 Date: 7/26/2021 Time: 3-4 pm Location: over Zoom Topic/Skill:  Writing a personal essay Feedback provided to tutee: We went over next few body paragraphs to her personal essay and edited it based on grammar. I also showed her how I look up synonyms on Google to help me find the best word choice in sentence.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:  I can definitely see her writing skills improving! We had to make fewer edits compared to her previous essays and she can more clearly express her ideas to me. It is exciting to see her progress and makes me more confident in the lessons I've been planning.

Isabela de Oliveira Soares (Brazil) 7/20/21 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM Isa is a dear friend of mine that I met at school when I went on exchange to Brazil. She learned English as a second language in school, but when we talk we usually speak in Portuguese. For these conversation partner sessions she will speak with me only in  English so that she can improve her speaking/listening skills. This is a little outside of her comfort zone, and she expressed that she is embarrassed about her English skills. I think that because I am also her friend, that the informal manner of our conversations will encourage her to speak English more with more confidence. At first we talked about icebreaker related material, that though we already knew many of the answers to, we had never expressed in English. We talked about our favorite foods, movies, colors, etc. I then realized that I did not know very much about her family. She then tried to explain her rather large family to me, though she struggled to know...

 7/21/21 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM Hang-ah Kim In today's session Hang-ah and I went through a guided dialogue together that had elements of the three main topics that we have been covering: prepositions, modal auxiliaries, and idioms. I also wove in a cultural aspect by making the dialogue focus on a conversation ensuing at a baby shower. The conversation would have me first verbalize the role of the expecting mother. Hang-ah was then expected to respond with a proper sentence or two that utilized a provided modal auxiliary, preposition, and idiom. For example, I prompted the dialogue with:  "Because the baby is a girl, I do not have to get rid of my hand-me-downs, and I can also dress my baby more affordably!" The words that Hang-ah had to use were "best of both worlds, "need to", and "to", Hang-ah responded with, "That is the best of both worlds! You don’t need to spend too much on buying new baby clothes. I can also give my hand-me-downs to your ...

Date/Time: Monday, July 26, 2021, 8-9 a.m. Location: Zoom Topic/Skill: Reading Feedback provided to tutee: I had Je-won repeat sentences, phrases, and vocabulary words after me. If he didn't say them properly or clearly, I repeated them and had him repeat them back again. I also looked up words that he didn't know, showed him images, and used gestures to explain them. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: We read two short stories together. I found more difficult ones this time to give him more of a challenge. I am learning that I have to push him out of his comfort zone just a little bit so he won't get too bored during our sessions. This time, I had him read them first, but I think that was too difficult because he didn't know certain words, so on the second story, I read it first and had him repeat after me.

  Date: 7/23/2021 Time: 5-6 pm Location: Bubbly Tea Bar Topic discussed: We met at a boba shop and discussed our weeks while playing games.  Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned:  We learned about various games we each liked to play. At the tea shop, we played  the board games there. Some games we both knew how to play (tic tac toe and Jenga), while others we got to explain to each other. I explained Uno and my partner explained dominoes.

Date: 7/23/2021 Time: 1-2 pm Location: over Zoom Topic/Skill:  Writing a personal essay Feedback provided to tutee: We went over her introduction to her personal essay and covered how to write the rest of the essay. I also explained a few phrases to her and how prepositions are used to express emotions.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:  As a student, I always hated outlines because I preferred to write my essay from scratch and then would fill in outlines required by teachers after. I gave my tutee an outline to do, and she cited the reason why she didn't do it as why I always hated doing outlines. Because she had a plan and narrative for what she wants to do, I accepted that she didn't want to write an essay. But it was funny being on the other end!

Date : 07/23/21 Time : 11:30am - 1:30pm Location : San Miguel  Topic Discussed : Ordering Food, Card Games Cultural topic : Trying ethnically diverse food for the first time, and learning American card games like Uno and Sushi Go. Personal Thoughts : We actually had a lot of fun. I think my tutee and I have gotten to be good friends now. He invited his brother to come, and I invited my boyfriend to come to make sure we had enough people to play cards with. We started with ordering the food. I explained some of the dfferent kinds of Mexican food. I think he and his brother enjoyed the food. Next, we explained the rules of the games we chose, and played them. Once the rules were understood by everyone, it moved a lot smoother. 

 On Thursday, July 22, at 7:00pm, I met with my conversation partner, Maher. We spent a little over 45 minutes talking about life in the US, how his family is adapting, how much they love trampoline parks, and another extensive conversation about soccer. I made a powerpoint detailing common soccer terms in English, including out-of-bounds, goal kicks, free kicks, and golazos. We spent a significant amount of time searching YouTube for our favorite goals and soccer moments of all time, and only had to stop when his internet disconnected. We will likely pick that conversation back up next time, perhaps moving onto other sports as well. 

Date/Time: Friday, July 23, 2021, 8-9 a.m. Location: Zoom Topic/Skill: Reading Feedback provided to tutee: I had Je-won repeat sentences, phrases, and vocabulary words after me. If he didn't say them properly or clearly, I repeated them and had him repeat them back again. I also looked up words that he didn't know, showed him images, and used gestures to explain them. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: We read a series of short stories together. I found more difficult ones this time to give him more of a challenge. I am learning that I have to push him out of his comfort zone just a little bit so he won't get too bored during our sessions. I read them first, then had him read them. I repeated difficult words several times before I had him repeat them after me.

Date: 7/21/2021 Time: 3-4 pm Location: over Zoom Topic/Skill:  Speaking and culture Feedback provided to tutee: Today we talked about speaking and listening with various accents. We discussed common accents in America and which accents Americans liked/preferred. I helped her with some pronunciation of words she was confused about.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:  Her laptop still wasn't working so once again, I figured out a lesson and discussion we could just have verbally. I learned that she had trouble understanding certain strong accents, like Southern accents. She also told me some of what she was learning in class so that gave me a better idea for how to teach her.

 I met with Samuel via  at 3 pm on July 22 in the Hecht House.  Topic/Skill: We discussed noun clauses and their functions.  Feedback provided to tutee: I worked with Samuel to identify noun clauses in sentences. We then identified the function of the noun clauses. Finally, we converted questions into noun clause sentences. I provided feedback on verb tense agreement and noun quantity agreement. We worked on reorganizing words to convert questions to sentences.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that since I am a visual person, I teach best using visual aids. I like to use arrows when demonstrating the reorganization of questions to sentences. 

I met with Samuel via  at 3 pm on July 21 in the Hecht House.  Topic/Skill: We discussed vocabulary related to vacations, and we practiced talking about our coming vacations using the future tense.  Feedback provided to tutee: I worked with Samuel on his pronunciation. I corrected his excessive use of articles, and his tendency to make nouns plural. We worked on his automacity when I encouraged him to speak freely and excitedly about his future plans.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned more about finding a balance between correction and encouraging fluidity in conversation when practicing speaking. I learned about Samuel's homeland and the way he likes to travel in Colombia. 

9:00am - 10:00am Paper Fox Coffee Cafe We reviwed more writing skills today. His usual issues with "the" and pluralities were much less prominent this time. It seems that the extra review in his writing and speaking abilities has greatly improved his skills. I am really glad that I can see his progress actively as time goes on. I was really worried that I wouldn't really be able to help him through my tutoring because of how advanced he already was. We also went over a lot of slang phrases and cultural references in movies and shows. A lot of the cultural references were from religion and African American culture. It was strange because what seemed normal, or easy to understand to me was very strange and hard to grasp for him. I hope to keep teaching him slang and cultural references that pretain to America. 

Today I met with Masoud, a beginner CIES student. Date: 7/21/2021, 3-4 pm Location: Strozier Feedback provided: Masoud and I prepared for his grammar quiz the next day by going over his review sheet and working on sentences with different forms of grammar, like modals, contractions, and conjugations. We compared what was different about different modals when used in sentences. Masoud showed that he had a good understanding of these topics. Sometimes he would conjugate to the wrong tense, so we would discuss why it was wrong and he would quickly correct himself. Lessons learned about tutoring: We transitioned to more difficult activities such as sentence and paragraph writing instead of fill in the blank. This was an effort made with the scaffolding theory which I believed helped Masoud in this situation. 

 July 21, 2021 at 6:30pm. I met with Steven at Strozier Library for an hour. The majority of our lesson revolved around the past and present progressive tense. I had a print out for him of the "formula" to structure a sentence with it and when he would want to use it. After going over some examples I had two dialogues for him to listen to with the transcript to follow along. After each one he pointed out any vocabulary he did not know then we listened to it again. I asked him comprehension questions like "What is Jon doing?". After this we talked about him classes and I answered any questions he had about an upcoming quiz. 

 July 21, 2021 @ 3:30pm. I met with Paola for about an hour at Sweet Shop. We talked a little about our weekends. She remembered that I went to a wedding so I told her about it and showed her pictures of what I was talking about. Then we did a review lesson on what homophones and homographs are. I provided examples of each and showed the patterns between similar spelling but different pronunciation and meaning or same pronunciation but different meaning and spelling. Then we talked about homonyms that can be determined as a noun or verb depending on stress placement. The next activity was a listening activity. I showed her a clip from Seinfled after showing her some vocabulary to listen for. After the video I asked her what she thought the vocab words meant after hearing them in context and had her answer some general comprehension questions. Lastly we went over some reduced words and phrases that were heard in the clip.

Today I met with Masoud, a beginner level CIES  Date: 7/14/2021 Time: 4:30-5:30 pm Location: Strozier Topic/skill: Simple past tense, simple future tense Feedback Provided: This was the first week that Masoud has used simple future tense in English. I made a review for him of the different signifiers such as "will," "am going to," "shall," etc, and we practiced these. He did really well, so we started practicing simple future in combination with simple past and simple present. He did really well with these too and just occasionally got an irregular incorrect. Lessons about Tutoring Learned: It is great to see Masoud already improving a lot. Because of this, I did a more integrated lesson for the first time with other things he had been learning.

Date/Time: 7/19/21 5:30PM- 6:30PM Location: Zoom Topic/Skill: Vocabulary Comprehension and Sentence Formation Feedback provided to tutee: Alice was able to successfully read the story from start to finish. We also looked at a list of vocabulary words, and we defined these terms together. There were some terms that Alice found hard to define. She also did not know the meaning of the vocabulary words. I had to provide the meaning, and an example image for the words she was confused about. I asked her to choose a few words, and she would create a complete sentence including the vocabulary words. I encouraged her to use some of the new words she learned. She was able to make sentences with details, while accurately using the vocabulary word.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that Alice loves to share about the books she has read, and also likes to show some of her favorite items around her room. When doing reading lessons, I think it would help to incorp...

Date/Time:  7/21/21 5:30PM- 6:30PM Location: Zoom Topic/Skill: Synonym & Antonym Feedback provided to tutee: At first, we looked at synonym and antonyms for grade 4 students, as Alice has just finished 3rd grade. I thought it would be helpful if we worked on a grade 4 level. However, she was having trouble with the vocabulary words provided. I tried my best to define the words without giving away the answer, but it proved to be quite difficult for me. We had to go down a level, and we started on the grade 3 level. She did excellent with this level. I think this level did not test her enough. I do think that she should gradually work up to the grade 4 level. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:  For today's session, we spent a long time talking than usual. I can see now that Alice is more comfortable with me and is opening more. This is a drastic difference from our first session, which I am so glad about. I notice that she is more engaged in our session, ...

    Date/Time: Wednesday, July 21, 2021, 8-9 a.m. Location: Zoom Topic/Skill: Reading Feedback provided to tutee: I had Je-won repeat sentences, phrases, and vocabulary words after me. If he didn't say them properly or clearly, I repeated them and had him repeat them back again. I also looked up words that he didn't know, showed him images, and used gestures to explain them. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: We read a series of very short stories together. About halfway through, I had him read them alone instead of repeating after me, and he did a great job. Next time, I am going to find him some more difficult stories to read through in order to challenge him a bit further since this lesson seemed pretty easy for him.

Today I met with Aziz, and upper level CIES student. Date: 7/19/2021 Time: 3:30-4:30 pm Location: Strozier Topic/skill: Speaking Feedback Provided: Aziz went over his speaking project about Japanese culture. Though he did not have his full presentation ready, I asked him to give me a verbal summary about each section. Though Aziz normally uses very good sentence structure in conversational English, he struggles a bit when trying to find the words in a presentation format. After each section, I would stop him and we would discuss the mistakes he made. From here, he would try again or ask for guidance if he didn't understand why something was incorrect. Lessons about Tutoring Learned: Critiquing Aziz on his presentation is a useful one on one skill for tutoring. I tried to find the best way to help him and ensure my corrections stick with him after. Certain patterns in his speaking were important for me to pick up on, such as the incorrect use of articles, so I tried to show these pa...

Today I met with Masoud, a beginner CIES student. Date: 7/14/2021 Time: 3:30-5 pm Location: Strozier Topic/skill: Reading, vocabulary Feedback Provided: Masoud and I had a last minute tutoring session to practice his reading skills for his test the next day. The passage was more advanced than his level because he was in a combined reading class with group 2. First, we went over the passage and made sure he comprehended each sentence, going over vocabulary as needed. Once we completed the passage, he was able to answer the questions that he was struggling with before and we practiced these more. Lessons about Tutoring Learned: This was the first tutoring session where Masoud was very frustrated. It was a last minute session and our main goal was to prepare for his quiz. I initially made practice exercises for him, but quickly realized his understanding of the article was not where it should have been, so we took extra time to go over it. I learned more about the importance of comprehens...

 I met with Hang-ah over Zoom on Monday, July 19, 2021.  Topic discussed: Coffee orders, Call Me By Your Name, Korean traditions versus American traditions Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: I learned about Korean culture in coffee shops and my conversation partner's favorite Korean dishes. We discussed alcohol use in the United States versus Korea. We talked about the trip I plan to take to Maine after I finish my TEFL certification . We talked about one of my movie recommendations that Hang-ah watched since the last time we spoke. 

 Hang-ah Kim 7/20/21 1:50 PM - 2:50 PM Today Hang-ah and I continued our conversation about idioms. In the beginning of the lesson, we watched a video from YouTuber, Domics, about the origins and oddities of American idioms. This was helpful in that it introduced a few more idioms, explained their origin in an entertaining way, as well as gave examples of their usage using visuals. As we watched the video, I wrote down all of the idioms that were listed so that I could go back over them in depth with Hang-ah. In particular, we reviewed: Beat around the bush Take it with a grain of salt Raining cats and dogs Turn a blind eye Eat your heart out  In a pickle It is all downhill from here Tickled pink Wouldn’t be caught/seen dead Happy as a clam Goodie-two-shoes Piece of cake/pie No brainer Bob’s your uncle  Pulling my leg Twisting my arm  The ball is in your court No use crying over spilt milk Following going over the idioms, I presented...

9:00am-10:00am Zoom Meeting Today, we reviewed some of his homework. He is still having issues with when to pluralize certain words and when not to. I did my best to point out why each individual word would or wouldn't need to be pluralized. Each situation is a little bit different so its impossible to have one overall rule. Another issue he still struggles with in writing is when to use "the" in a sentence. Once I point out that there is a problem with the sentence, he usually gets it though. The "the" he struggles with is the one to show specificness of a noun in a sentence. After that, we reviewed idioms such as "On the ball", "to give someone props", "every cloud has a silver lining", and "to get ahead of oneself". They were a little tough to explain, but he understood most of them after a bit. Issues mostly came from vocabulary misundersstandings (because some words mean different things in idioms). 

Date: 7/19/2021 Time: 3-4 pm Location: over Zoom Topic/Skill:  Speaking using grammar involving the past Feedback provided to tutee: I would listen to my tutee and anytime she made a mistake with her grammar, I would correct it by rephrasing what she said with correct grammar or repeating it back to her as a question with the correct grammar. I also helped explain some apartment vocabulary to her. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:  This week, her laptop wasn't working so I learned to improvise because my original lesson plan involved the computer. We used her apartment hunting as an opportunity to practice her speaking and listening skills, especially because she said she wasn't super comfortable talking or listening in English for extended periods of time.

 July 14th, 2021- I met with Paola at Sweet Shop for an hour. As usual we caught up a little bit and talked about our weekends. Then we started by going over the difference between acronyms and abbreviations. We talked about the differences, how to use them, when to use them, and how to pronounce them. Then we did some practice where I had her turn some words into the abbreviated version and had her try to guess what the full word or phrase was out of an acronym or abbreviation. (Her favorite one was PB&J). Then I had her read a short story about decoding a letter with homophones. I had her write a summary of the story and then we discussed what homophones and which ones were used in the story. Finally, I showed her a video about people from different states describing what their regional accent sounds like. After we discussed if she had heard any of these and which was the most interesting/hardest to understand. Since she is an advanced student I am finding that she knows the ...

 The last class I observed was Olivia's grammar class, I felt like I learned the most out of all the observations I have completed. Overall, I would say grammar is one of my weakest points even in the English language. So teaching it is a little bit more of a struggle for me, compared to if I was better at it. One thing I saw utilized alot was tables on the white board, words would be organized if they were for example past tense, present tense, or plural.  I also found that kids had the most questions in this class compared to any other class I observed.

 Since, I observed classes later on in the semester I feel like I missed some of the more hands on teaching. I observed Dr. Rios reading class, and they were mainly doing individual comprehension questions and summaries that they have been working on. One thing I did notice is that with more advanced/intermediate students the class has the same atmosphere as a normal classroom. I observed that Dr. Rios was not super involved but any time students needed help he assisted them and made sure no one was stuck or confused.

 During my first tutoring session I was super nervous and did not know what to expect. The experience ended up being much smoother then I was anticipating and I ended up enjoying my time. My tutee is an 11 year old female located in South Korea, she knows much more English then I expected. The one thing Im having the most trouble on is that if she doesn't know a word often times she doesn't know words that would be used to explain the original word. Often, we use drawing as a way to show words or sentences she gets caught up on. My tutee loves to draw so I try to center alot of our activities around that or at least involving some drawing to keep her engaged. 

During my first conversation partner meeting we met through zoom, and I was surprised at who my conversation partner was. He ended up being a professor that teaches about sports in Columbia which he refers to as "athletics". This meeting was almost similar to my tutoring session but much more laid back and the conversation flowed easier. This was due to him being much older than me, and his advanced level of English. The one thing Is I feel awkward sometimes correcting or helping him because he is so much older and knowledgeable then me. 

 I observed a level one speaking class, I learned a lot of new habits I want to start implementing in my tutoring sessions. First, was the way the instructor spoke to the students which was at an audible pace annunciating every word and speaking very clear. While, this is an obvious thing during my tutoring sessions I tend to forget sometimes. Also, observing this class was a good portrayal of the way I should teach my tutee, since she is a beginner as well. The pace I noticed was a little faster then how I teach my tutee but I think that has to do with the age differences. 

 Hang-ah Kim 7/15/21 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM The center of today's session was idioms. While teaching past sessions with Hang-ah, I had come across the issue that she does not understand many idioms or references. For example, she did not understand, "your guess is as good as mine", "off the hook", or "We will cross that bridge when we get to it". She told me one story in particular where she had heard coworkers say, "your guess is is good as mine", multiple times, but had come to think that that they were saying that they indeed knew the answer to her question, but where choosing to not answer. This was just one example of why it is important to learn the slangs and idioms of English, so as to not misunderstand down the road.  I found a list of common idioms, as well as their meanings, and presented it as a worksheet for Hang-ah. We then went over the meanings of each one that she did not recognize, and them put them in a sample sentence. After ...

Hang-ah Kim 7/13/21 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM During this session we finished up our conversation regarding prepositions, and worked on some fixed dialogues. At the beginning of most sessions, we do a fixed dialogue that asks Hang-ah to think about her response to a prompt. The dialogues will also have situational themes. In this case, we were ordering food from an Italian restaurant. I roleplayed as the waiter, and Hang-ah ordered. I would ask a question, and Hang-ah would have requirements that would go along with her response. For example, I would ask, "What can I get for you ma'am?" and Hang-ah could reply however she wanted as long as she used "Calzone", "on", "with", "extra", and "add". This kind of role play aided in three skills. Firstly, it added to the preposition practice that we had been doing the past few sessions, it aided in life skills if needing to order food in the U.S., and finally it introduced new vocabulary...

 Hang-ah Kim 7/9/21 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM During this lesson, we delved a little deeper into our conversation regarding prepositions. Last class we specifically focused on the prepositions "in", "on", and "by". I have noticed that Hang-ah is better with strictly relational prepositions, such as "behind" or "under", but struggles with more vague relations, such as, "from", "for", and "to". As such, we went over the usages of all of the more vague prepositions. With every preposition I reviewed, I included a definition, multiple example sentences, as well as a fill in the blank practice example. After we covered all of our prepositions, of which there were five, I included ten fill in the blank questions where Hang-ah had to find the correct prepositions. Hang-ah did very well with the exercise, though she still struggles with the difference between "from" and "with". Finally, we read a news a...

 Hang-ah Kim 7/8/21 1:30 PM- 2:30 PM Today Hang-ah and I followed the structure that we decided on, and began the session with a guided dialogue. We have been focusing on some colloquialisms, as they are a bit more difficult to pick up. Most notably, many of the questions that I get from Hang-ah revolve around low-frequency words and idioms. I plan on covering idioms in a later session after we finish up with prepositions and guided dialogues.  Due to our focus on low-frequency words, I decided that the activity that we did in Professor Kim's class would be level appropriate and beneficial for future sessions. I used the friends clip between Chandler and Rachel fighting over a stolen cheesecake. We first watched the clip without subtitles, and I had Hang-ah listen for comprehension purposes, as well as for anything she did not understand. The second time around, we turned on the subtitles and saw what she gained from the second listen. We also started in prepositions with a wo...

  Felicia Ciappetta   Date: 07/01/21 Listening   2:00-2:50 PM Topic/Skill: Listening/Comprehension   Materials: Canvas, computer Teacher Presentation: There was no presentation in class today, the instructor let the students get right into work with their partners.   Student participation: The students are given partners. In the Module tab on canvas, each pairing has their own set of activities specific to them that they must complete. One example was an assignment due today was one pair of students, who had to watch a 10-minute video on Motivation and then answer discussion questions together by talking about what they saw in the video. In another pairing, the students were assigned to watch and listen to a video while filing in the blanks according to what the audio was talking about.   Feedback provided: Students mostly worked by themselves with their partners but sometimes, they had questions on whether or not a sentence that they wanted to say was corr...

 On Friday, July 16 at 2:00pm, I met with my my student Hussam for an hour over zoom. During the session, we spent some time talking about his recent move back to Saudi Arabia for a job interview and what he hopes to accomplish while he is there. After that, we spent a little more time working on the IELTS speaking sections, working more on opening sentences, general structures and requirements, and what he needs to do to communicate his ideas effectively. We covered the TOEFL speaking rubric given out in class, as well as a long talk about prepositions and their common uses to help him better use them when doing controlled speaking. We capped off the session by doing one more speaking practice, trying to get him to use some common prepositional phrases that we had discussed. We will pick up with the same thing next time, working more on prepositions, speaking, and being intentional about the sentences used to explain his ideas. 

 Date: 07/07/21 Time: 10 AM- 11 AM Location: Zoom Topic/Skill: Listening and Writing Feedback provided: One of the goals that Dave mentioned to me was how he wanted to practice his listening skills. He mentioned that he has a hard time listening and writing at the same time. To help him work on this, I used a Youtube channel that I saw used when I observed a listening CIES class. The videos are listening exercises with short audio clips based on a current news event. To test where Dave's listening skills are, I transcribed three different videos levels 1-3 and created a fill in the blank type exercise. He said that level one was too slow for him to even understand, that level two was a good speed, and that level three was a bit more challenging. As he listened to the video, he filled in the blanks with the missing words and got mostly all of them correct. Next thing I did was read him a story and ask him to take notes in order to answer some comprehension questions and write a summ...

 Date: 07/02/21 Time: 10 AM-11 AM Location: Zoom Topic/Skill: Past Verb Tenses Feedback Provided: For today's lesson, Dave and I started off reviewing the worksheet that I gave him for homework. It consisted mostly of fill in the blank style questions in which he had to write down the proper future and present verb tense in the empty space. He also had to write two sentences for each verb tense. He got 100% on the fill in the blank and for the most part, he used each verb tense correctly in a sentence minus a few structure errors. After going over the homework, we continued with the powerpoint and went over past verb tenses. We went through their form and example sentences and after learning each past verb tense we did fill in the blank exercises that I found online. Lessons about tutoring learned: I was a bit confused on how I would correct Dave's mistakes during this lesson. He is great at speaking but when it comes to writing he sometimes will have an idea but it will be bac...

   Date/Time: Monday, July 19, 2021, 8-9 a.m. Location: Zoom Topic/Skill: American foods Feedback provided to tutee: I had Je-won repeat sentences, phrases, and vocabulary words after me. If he didn't say them properly or clearly, I repeated them and had him repeat them back again. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that Je-won wants to learn English in order to help him get a job. He told me he wants to work on reading, so I am going to find some short stories to read with him for our session on Wednesday. I also asked him to download Duolingo to start learning on his own to help him with reading.

Date: 7/16/2021 Time: 4-5 pm Location: Bowling Topic discussed: We talked about our weeks and other random topics, like what we want to be for Halloween. We went bowling so we also talked about that as we played.  Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned:  I learned more about her country of Kuwait and its weather. I explained fraternities and sororities to her.

 Date/Time: 7/13/21 7PM- 8PM Location: Zoom Topic discussed: Picture Prompt Discussion, Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary Comprehension Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: For this session, we worked on Ruth's speaking and reading comprehension skills. At first, we looked at a couple of pictures and I asked her to describe to them, so we could practice her speaking skills.  I asked her to describe what they were wearing, their emotions, and the surrounding. Next, I asked her to read the story and we answered some questions. We also looked at vocabulary words, and she was able to accurately describe them. Next, I will find a story with more words and harder vocabulary words. I noticed that it is good to repeat the questions back to her. Also going back to the story helped her answer the questions better.

 Date : 07/16/21 Time : 11:30am - 1:00pm Location : LongHorn Steakhouse Topic Discussed : Ordering Food, Travel Plans Cultural topic : Differences in the way steak is ordered in the U.S., and the different sauces used for steak and fries.  Personal Thoughts : This was a really cool experience. This was my first conversation partner meeting with my tutee (since I had to get a new conversation partner). A few weeks ago, my tutee had asked me to teach him about ways to order steak. I then got to see this lesson put to pratical use as he ordered steak without needing any help. I am really glad I got to see that I am actually helping to improve his English skills. 

 I met with Ruth via Zoom at 4 pm on July 14.  Topic/Skill: We went over regular and irregular conjugations in simple past.  Feedback provided to tutee: I worked with Ruth to improve her automaticity in producing simple past verb conjugations. We looked at some verbs she was having trouble remembering the simple past conjugation of, and created sentences with them to help her remember. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that repetition is valuable in learning grammar structures, as it helps to gain automaticity. In addition, consistent language work is key to gain automaticity.

 I met with Samuel at the Hecht House at 3 pm on Wednesday, July 14.  Topic/Skill: Speaking, pronunciation of mountain, tired, work, and other difficult words Feedback provided to tutee: I helped Samuel organize a 1-minute speaking presentation answering a specific question. We went over transition words and phrases commonly used when speaking, how to make speeches flow better, and general grammar issues. We went over the pronunciation of words that are difficult to Samuel many times, and we tried to think of creative ways in which he could think of the words to ease the pronunciation difficulties. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned when to draw back and let the student lead the activity, rather than me leading. It is easy for the English tutor to want to quickly give writing/speaking suggestions and edits, but it is valuable for English-language learners to try to figure out how they want to express themselves first, and then assist them wh...

    Date/Time: Friday, July 16, 2021, 8-9 a.m. Location: Zoom Topic/Skill: Activities Feedback provided to tutee: I had Je-won repeat sentences, phrases, and vocabulary words after me. If he didn't say them properly or clearly, I repeated them and had him repeat them back again. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Repetition is very important when it comes to learning new vocabulary words. I went over the same words several times and then had Je-won use them in sentences to solidify his learning. I also learned that he loves to paint and garden.

At 7:00pm on Thursday, July 15, I met with my conversation partner Maher over zoom. We talked briefly about what we had discussed last time before we were cut off: his family, his reasons for coming to America, the history of his studies, and more. Then we switched the conversation to the topic of COVID responses, both in Saudi Arabia and the US. We both decided that both countries could've done better with their responses, enforcing masks more forcefully and shutting down more parts of society to prohibit the spread of the virus. After that, we turned the topic to soccer, something that we are both very passionate about. We discussed at length favorite moments, France's World Cup experience in 2006, and how many matches we had both been to. We swapped stories and opinions for quite a while, finally hanging up when he had to go back with his family for dinner. Overall, it was great to get to know him and his passions better, which we will hopefully continue to talk about in fut...

  Sulaiman Alfarrj 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM 7/8/21 Today I met with Sulaiman Alfarrj from Kuwait. We started with introductions and spoke a little bit about ourselves. Mr. Valentine provided us with a reading passage about six blind trying to figure out what an elephant is like. We broke up the story into pieces and I had Sulaiman read it aloud. Throughout the passage, Sulaiman would understand certain words when I said them out loud, however he would struggle connecting words to how they were written. By breaking up the passage into 2-3 sentences, he would be able to read through the sentences fully, before I corrected pronunciation or answered questions about unfamiliar words.  We also talked a little about Sulaiman's home culture. He asked about the word "rope", and said that he used the to pitch giant tents in the desert in Kuwait. He told me how families would sleep in these tents and look at the stars. After we finished the passage, we recapped the moral of the story, and ...

Today I met with Zahrae for our third conversation partner meeting. We discussed the differences in our living situations during our college years. Zahrae was curious what it was like living with roommates in college. I told her that at times it was great and one of my roommates feels like family to me now. I also told her that one of my friends who became my roommate had a lot of drama with us and was very selfish, so it hurt our friendship. Zahrae told me that in Kuwait, students live with their parents until they get married. Since Zahrae got married at 24, she lived with her parents longer than I did. Additionally, Zahrae was surprised that I shared a room with 2 others my freshman year and that 4 people shared a bathroom. We also discussed pets. I am cat sitting for my friends kitten, and he is very crazy. Zahrae told me she is very scared of cats, but her kids want a pet. She is going to get them a turtle, which I thought was a great idea. She said that once her children become m...

9:00am - 10:00am Paper Fox Coffee Cafe Today, we worked on essay and paragraph structures. I explained a lot about how and when to separate paragraphs based on content. He was confused by the idea that when bringing in a new topic, you need to create a new paragraph unless it can be connected to the previous paragraph's main idea. I also was able to explain how an apostrophe shows possession. It was an interesting way to explain it because I used Chinese to explain it (since my second language is Chinese, and his first language is Chinese). Chinese has a possessive word that is used in conjection with other words to say things like "my friend's...", and I was able to explain it with my second language. I am starting to see the benefits of teaching myself the host language in order to communicate clearer with my tutee. We also reviewed listening drills for words he didn't understand or know. Words like "Adverse" and "overly" were confusing becau...

   Date/Time: Monday, July 12, 2021, 8-9 a.m. Location: Zoom Topic/Skill: Lunch and dinner vocabulary Feedback provided to tutee: I had Je-won repeat sentences, phrases, and vocab words after me. If he didn't say them properly or clearly, I repeated them and had him repeat them back again. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that Google Translate is a helpful tool when it comes to low-level students. If Je-won didn't understand what I was asking, I could type things into Google Translate. Modified English is helpful in a lot of situations, but no amount of slowing down and enunciating will teach a student a vocabulary word that sounds completely foreign. Google Translate helps me when modified English is not enough.

   Date/Time: Wednesday, July 14, 2021, 8-9 a.m. Location: Zoom Topic/Skill: Restaurant vocabulary and etiquette Feedback provided to tutee: I had Je-won repeat sentences, phrases, and vocab words after me. If he didn't say them properly or clearly, I repeated them and had him repeat them back again. I gave him a multiple-choice dialogue of a conversation between him and a waitress. When he picked the incorrect choice, I would explain why it was incorrect and help him choose the correct one. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that multiple choice quizzes are a good option for lower-level students. I need to work on lowering my tutee's affective filter because I think he is quite nervous when it comes to speaking. Either that, or he doesn't understand what I ask him. It is hard to tell because he knows a lot of vocabulary about some things but not others. I learned that I will need to find a better way to gauge what vocabulary he kno...