Christina TP #3 (Child)

The second time me and Jeffrey met for tutoring I decided to break the session up into three parts. We did listening, reading and then new vocabulary. For the listening part we used a level one audio-book for reading along and I made sure he followed along and then asked him questions after. For the reading I had selected a two short books with a lot less words for him to read this time. The books we read last time were way above his level so I didn't want him to be so discouraged this time. He did a lot better reading that time since he felt more confident knowing more of the words. After we finished that I took out some flashcards I had printed out with pictures and the English definitions. The flashcards were describing physical characteristics and the names of family members. The book we read correlated to the flashcards as well. He had fun guessing the words. After going through them all I asked him to describe certain family members using the characteristics we had just learned (tall, short, strong, young, old, etc..) I also bought a mini white board and asked him if he remembered how to spell any of the words we had learned. He did his best to write out a few of them and he was pretty close. I corrected him afterwards. That was the end of the lesson.

Christina TP #2 (child)

I had my first meeting with my child tutee at LeRoy Collins Leon County Public Library. We decided to meet every Monday in the afternoon. The first day I went early and asked one of the librarians for help finding the lower level books. When my tutee Jeffrey and his father arrived we all introduced ourselves and I talked to his father about what level of English Jeffrey was at. Afterwards, Jeffrey and I sat down at a separate table. We talked for a few minutes just so I could get to know him a little bit. Then I asked him to come with me to pick out a book. He said he wanted to read a book about sharks so we found that one first and then a few others. Sometimes I read to him and then I would have him repeat some words after me. His speaking skills were very good and he really loved telling me stories (most of which weren't true haha) but practice is practice. When it came to reading, however, his vocabulary was very limited and he wasn't really able to sound out words. That was understandable as a bilingual student only in kindergarten. He got bored with reading so I asked him comprehension questions about what we read until the end of the session. Before they left I had his father sign the tutoring agreement.

Rosalie CO #2: Foundations Reading with Debbie Carretta

September 26, 2013

            Ms. Carretta was a little surprised to see me last Thursday—she didn’t know she would have an observer. She quickly made me feel welcome, though. My partner, Isabella, is in all Foundations courses, so I saw her there immediately. She had made brigadeiros, a Brazilian sweet made with cocoa and sweetened condensed milk. We discussed the recipe, and then Ms. Carretta moved into the lesson.

            She told the class, “So today, we are going to be catching up.” She realized they didn’t know what the word meant, so she asked. Some students were familiar with the word catch, so she used the board to draw a cat and talked about catching the cat or catching up to it. To further explain, she drew a timeline, asking students, “What day is today?” When they said, “Thursday,” she said, “Keep going!”

“Thursday, September 26^th, 2013.” She explained that since yesterday they hadn’t finished part of their lesson, they would have to do it today.

 She then drew a picture of her and her husband. “My husband can’t hear very well. So if I yell and he doesn’t hear me, I have to run” (and she ran), “until I get next to him. I am catching up to him.”

Ms. Carretta then went over the story that the class had read the day before. It was about the length of a long paragraph. She gave me her copy, and I saw she had highlighted some vocabulary to go over (thrift shop, regular customer, volunteer, browse, clerk, faded, couldn’t beat). She had asked the students to prepare answers to comprehension questions the day before, and they went over them together in class. The first question was interesting: what should the title be of the story? One student offered the first sentence: “Bob went to the thrift shop.”

“Well, that’s a little long to be a title,” Ms. Carretta explained. “Titles are usually long if the passage is long, but for stories we read, one or two words are usually good.”

“Thrift shop?”

“Bob and the thrift shop?”

She accepted these types of answers. I enjoyed that she didn’t seem hung up on students having something exact, but just something to show they understood the story. I noticed she corrected word order: “Shirt brown? Remember that an adjective comes before the noun?” The students laughed and agreed. She also made a point of calling on quieter students instead of the two or three that always wanted to volunteer: “Wait, I’m asking him!” “Who have I not heard from?” She also used the price of some of the clothes to review how to say _____dollars and _____ cents.

After catching up, we moved on to a lesson on –le words, like table or eagle. I was impressed that all the students were comfortable with marking words to be pronounced. Ms. Carretta often asked the students to come to the board to mark a word while the other students marked it on their sheets. After a quick discussion of the pronunciation of –le words, she had students come up and do some examples. Then, individually, students chose the stems of words from a word bank to create new words. “You can help each other!” she said while moving around the room. Ms. Carretta then led the class in a discussion about words that the students created, first from the word bank and then ones that they generated themselves (like turtle). She assigned the back of the worksheet (fill-in-the-blanks) for homework after a quick discussion of new vocabulary. I was impressed by her familiarity with her students and easy guidance of their activities. It’s clear that she is an experienced, accomplished teacher.

Christina TP #1 (CIES)

My CIES Tutees' name is Isabela. She is from Brazil just like one of my conversation partners. The first day we met was just for evaluation so I could gauge her level and what she wanted to work on most. She is level one on everything but speaking where she is level two. I can see why they placed her at level two for speaking because she has good pronunciation. I decided to help her work on her reading assignment and I had her read it out loud. I corrected all her pronunciation errors because she asked me to. I also helped her by explaining a few rules to her such as the way to pronounce words with two vowels in the middle. It really helped her and she didn't make that mistake reading the rest of the passage. We worked on it until the end of our time together. I told her that next time I would have something else for her to do besides her homework. We hugged goodbye and planned to meet the same time next week.

Rosalie TP #12: Miss Mary Mack, Hand Games, and Rhyming

September 25, 2013

            This week, PJ had only five vocabulary words: rhyme, verse, rhythm, describe, and imagine. Marianna did the groundwork on Monday, so by Wednesday the words were more familiar to PJ. I had brought Dr. Seuss as the perfect rhyming book, but PJ informed that it was “not his level.” I asked him, “Do you know why I brought this book?” I asked him.

            “Because it rhymes,” he replied. I was satisfied—if he knew about rhyming, we could practice later and he could read something on his level. He chose to read Something Good by Robert Munsch. I was heartened by PJ laughing as he was reading and discussing the plot. The story is of a family’s trip to the grocery store. The father gets exasperated with his youngest daughter’s running around and choosing junk food, so he orders her not to move. She doesn’t, even when someone runs over her toe with a cart (“Wow!” PJ exclaimed) or when people knocked on her head. A saleswoman, believing the girl is a doll, puts a price tag on her nose and sticks her on a shelf with other dolls. PJ was incredulous. “But she’s heavier than the other dolls! And she looks skinnier!”

            After our story, we practiced rhyming. I started with a word (cat, or you), and he continued. We tried out different consonants until it made a real word. Then, I taught PJ how to play Miss Mary Mack, since that chant has so many good rhymes. He was smiling as I taught him but soon looked hesitant.

            “Is this a girl’s game? Or is it a boys’ and girls’ game?” he wanted to know.

            “I taught my brothers!” I told him. He wasn’t convinced.

            “How about we play rock, paper, scissors? Or catch?” he proposed, his eyes casting around the room in search of games appropriate for boys to play.

            “Do you only see girls playing these types of games?” I asked him. He nodded. “Well, we can play rock, paper, scissors one time, but I want to teach you this game because it rhymes. Okay?” It was a deal.

            After we tried Miss Mary Mack, I wrote the lyrics on the whiteboard so we could find the rhymes. I think at first PJ was thinking of alliteration (Mary and Mack?), but he quickly caught on. We finished up with his homework, in which he was required to make sentences with vocabulary words. Maybe they weren’t supposed to rhyme, but the directions weren’t clear. Our sentences rhymed just in case! We first would generate options of rhyming words and then create a sentence. PJ really enjoyed the rhyming, telling me for the word climb, “Oh, that’s easy! I climb with my lime.” We ran over time a little bit, but we got everything done. And we even had a litt

Rosalie TP #11: Kanafe in a Downpour

September 22, 2013

            Mehmas requested that I tutor him on a Sunday since he was concerned about a reading assignment. I suggested Black Dog Café at Lake Ella as a meeting place, but that afternoon it was remarkably crowded. To make matters worse (and further crowd the coffee shop), the skies opened up just at 4 pm when we were to meet. Mehmas and I are texting back and forth, and he informs me that he rode his motorcycle to the lake and is currently stranded in the gazebo. I drove around to find him, and after a bit of driving we settled on Aladdin’s. It was a welcome respite from the rain and one of Mehmas’ favorite haunts.

            Mehmas’ reading assignment was to summarize an article about energy. It was hard for me to judge how his teacher wanted him to format his homework, as he didn’t have any graded assignments to show me. I think the choice of reading material is interesting since it’s not a five paragraph essay. The passages I have helped him with have an article format, which means there is rarely a thesis statement or conclusion. The information just seemed to flow. Luckily, I was familiar with the topic from my physics classes, and as he had already completed the summary, we just added a few more useful details. I also chided him for including, in the paragraph on hydroelectric energy, that it is used for agriculture. “How do you know that?” I asked.

            He shrugged. “It is how they do it,” he explained. “It is used for the plants, to grow.”

            “But where in the article did you read that?” I asked. I told him, “I used to get in trouble for that too (on the GRE). I always wanted to put in what I already knew about the topic. But when you’re summarizing, you can only write what they said in the article. Not what you know from outside!” He smiled and nodded.

            After we finished the reading, Mehmas took out his vocabulary notebook which he updates faithfully. He told me it is his second one; the first one had words like “he” and “she,” he told me, laughing. He reviewed them, reading them out and asking me for the meaning if he no longer remembered (like the word cuddle). I think his knowledge of grammar is very solid. We sipped tea, and Mehmas offered me the grape leaves he had ordered as well as something I’d never seen before. It’s called kanafe, and it has the same coral color as sushi or caviar. I tried a forkful and was utterly surprised. It tasted like honey and cheese! It’s made with phyllo dough (I researched it later), ricotta cheese, and a sweet syrup. There are Greek versions as well as Turkish and Syrian. It was delicious. Mehmas bought an extra one and surprised me by handing it to me as we were leaving. “For your parents,” he told me graciously. I was touched.

Tom - Abdul, TP # 12, Saturday, September 28

Abdul invited me to help him to study English in his home.  His sons, of course, speak English much more fluently than he, since they attend American schools.  He kindly offered Arabic coffee, dates, and date bread.  

Abdul's receptive skill is considerably better than his productive skill.  An example of his productive capacity can be seen in his sentence 'Today, the man I rent for you came clean yard'.  It was understandable in context, although obviously lacking in certain respects.

The most difficult material for Abdul to study, and therefore what he wants to focus on are listening and speaking.  He had been studying listening lessons at www.esl-lab.com when I arrived, so we decided to continue with that effort.  There are easy, medium, and difficult lessons, and he had been working on a difficult lesson.  This is a reflection of his ambition, although his skill level is at the easy level.  We continued with the difficult lesson, listening to the story and answering questions.  

There was no written text, which therefore provided a truer test of his listening skills.  Although there was a lot of vocabulary that he could learn from and which we covered, real understanding was difficult to arrive at, since the material was so far over his head.  Largely, we had to repeat the material   that contained an answer to a question at least three times, I would have to answer each question, and then I would describe how the material answered the question.  He did manage to answer one question correctly on his own, although I believe that he guessed more than understood.  However, he did catch some keywords.

Although I recommended that he study first at the easy level, then work his way through medium and difficult material, I do have hope for him even if he studies way beyond i+1.  He was a teacher of Arabic in Saudi Arabia, so probably has some understanding of what is required to truly master material.  He has been working on his English-language studies for a long time, so knows what kind of effort he is willing to invest, and what level he prefers to study.

Our last speaking activity was for him to describe what he was going to do with his family after we finished our session.  We eventually arrived at the following disorganized story after much clean-up conversation:

My sons will go to Chucky Cheese after 10 minutes (in 10 minutes).  I have a problem when I go out with my family, because they don't choose one place.  Abdul Mujid wants to go to Chucky Cheese because he likes to play video games.  Turki wants to go to Fun Station because he likes to ride the go carts outside; Abdul doesn't like to drive the go carts.  My wife wants to go shopping.  I don't like to go out, because I want to study English.  

Christina CP #3

Me and Angel went to Tally Fiesta! It was really fun and we both had a great time. I wasn't sure if it was going to be a good idea at first because I knew a lot of people would be speaking Spanish and I was supposed to be helping her with her English haha but it wasn't a big deal. It was on a Saturday downtown in Kleman plaza. I wanted to go somewhere cultural and fun and I think I accomplished that goal. We met up around 7pm because her cousin said she could drop her off there. We went immediately to the dance stage set up outside because they had some couples dancing professionally and it was really cool to watch. After that we decided to walk around and look at all the booths. Although it was loud, I was still able to practice English with were. She will need to be able to communicate in busy areas like this anyway so it was good skill building. We saw face painting, a moon bounce blow-up for kids, and they even gave away free snow cones. After seeing all the booths we decided to try some of the food. I asked the vendor in Spanish about the prices and then told Angel. They only took cash and I only had my card so I was a little frustrated. Angel offered to pay for me but I wouldn't have felt right. All of a sudden this man in line comes up to me and asks "How much do you need?"... "Five dollars." I jokingly replied with a pouty face. He pulled out a five dollar bill, smiled and said "Here you go. Have blessed day. It's on me." I couldn't believe it. I wanted to decline but I was so hungry so I just told him thanks. We got our food and then went back near the dance floor. Angel finished her taco and I was half way through with my quesadilla when she said she wanted to go dance and left me! haha I was rushing to finish my food so I could join her. We danced for a while and I even ran into a few of my friends I had invited. I introduced them to her and let them ask her questions so she could get used to speaking in English more. She understands a lot of English but is very shy speaking. After we got tired we waited for her cousin to pick us up because he offered me a ride home. We all talked in the car for a while before deciding to meet up again the next week at an open mic nearby. We all had a great time.

Christina CP #2

My second conversation partners' name is Paula. We decided to meet at the sweet shop nearby campus. We both love eating sweets. She didn't have a phone so we kept emailing each other trying to figure out where the other person was. I didn't know exactly what she looked like so I walked right passed her at first. We finally sat down after getting some ice cream and started talking. She told me how she is from Brazil and missed her boyfriend. Luckily, he is getting his visa so that he can visit here in December. She one family member in the United States but not here in Tallahassee. She told me about how her school is pretty much free and they paid for her to come study here. They also paid for her apartment and her food. What a lucky girl. Her English still pretty slow and broken but I managed to understand almost all of what she was telling me. I did translate one word from Portuguese because I was confused and it ended up meaning "jealous". She was telling me how she shares a Facebook page with her boyfriend because he gets jealous and doesn't want her to have her own. She does, however, have her own instagram page and wanted to take a picture with me to put on there. I told her some more about myself and tried to speak slowly so that she would understand. It's hard to speak slowly all of a sudden when you're so used to speaking fast. I also tried to remember to use the simplest words possible since she is a low beginner. She seems like a really nice girl and I'm glad I got her as one of my conversation partners. :-)

Tom - Abdul, TP # 11, Tuesday, September 24

I met with Abdul in the downtown public library after my meeting with Fawaz.  We went over the same homework reading material and five questions that I had reviewed with Fawaz earlier in the evening.

Abdul most wants to study and practice listening.

As a method of studying regular and irregular verbs, we reviewed the lists of verbs in his picture dictionary, and looked specifically for those having to do with food and cooking.  We looked the words up on my cell phone to provide him with Arabic equivalents to the verbs we found in the lists.

Tom - Fawaz, CP # 7, Tuesday, September 24

Fawaz and I met at the downtown library.  We first reviewed his reading homework, and I helped him to answer the five corresponding questions.  He still has (as of 9/24) relatively poor understanding of what he is doing; he didn't understand the questions very well.  I believe that this is partly cultural, in that it is possible that a certain kind of pride prevents him from believing that he doesn't understand something; humility might be an unacceptable sign of weakness.  This is interesting to me, but an obstacle to him.  However, the crucible of his efforts to learn English will likely cause him to overcome this impediment relatively quickly.  He has a great desire to learn, so will adapt.  Also, at 18-years-old, his age should be more of a help than not towards absorbing new material.

He next wanted to know the differences between the words 'Ms.', 'Mrs.', and 'Miss'.  I am not certain that I was able to get across the distinctions to him, in particular, what 'Ms.' means.  This was  frustrating.  It may have been a purely conceptual problem, rather than a linguistic problem.  I may not have stayed on the topic long enough to ensure that he understands.  I want our time to be used productively and so do not like to stress him excessively with certain finer cultural points, given the lowish level of his productive English skill; the resulting fatigue could make him resistant to learning other material covered in the lesson.

Of the topics covered in his thematic picture dictionary, Fawaz currently considers vegetables and clothes to be difficult.  He finds fruits to be easy.  We therefore studied the topic 'Clothes'.  We then looked at a book on animals with photographs of each.  I asked him to identify the group of animals that each animal in question belongs to:  'fish' instead of a specific type of fish, etc..  His skill again was relatively weak.

Last, we spoke about the concept of a topic paragraph.  Again, I am not certain how well he understood me.

CP #4 Madison

For our fourth conversation partner session Erico and I met up at Coliseum. Unfortunately, we weren't able to converse too much; however, we had an awesome time enjoying some American culture together. It was very difficult to talk to him and understand him though so I had to resort to using a lot of sign language which he generally understood. When I first met up with him I introduced him to all of my friends so he would feel comfortable. Then we started dancing with my girl friends. Erico had a friend with him and he danced with us too. Then some of Erico's friends joined us. Two of them were the girls that came to my house warming party, Emily and Barbara. We all danced and then my roommate came up and I danced with her next to Erico's group of friends. Then Erico's friends left so we went into the VIP booth. It was my best friend's boyfriend's birthday so he had a VIP booth. We danced in the VIP booth and I got a drink or two.....(Erico is 24 so it was okay if he drank). Then after we danced in the VIP booth we went to the dance floor and danced there because it was pretty empty at this time, and my friends were up in the DJ booth. Once Coliseum closed we all hung out at my house with the DJ because he is friends with my roommate. Then my roommate drove Erico home because she was sober. I think he had a good time and enjoyed all of the dancing. I think after my experience of going to the club with Erico I will do my cultural class on Tallahassee's nightlife if no one else has chosen this topic. I think student's genuinely want to know what the places to be are and what nights they should be there.

TP #7 Madison

Friday during my tutoring session with Erico we focused on his pronunciation. He told me he was having trouble pronouncing words beginning with an 's' sound and a 'th' sound. I had him say a list of words like 'sink' and 'think', 'sin' and 'thin', and 'sank' and 'thank' to practice stressing the differences. I also had him pay attention to the way he was moving his mouth and positioning his tongue. We also worked on saying words that ended with the 'th' sound. Then I had him practice saying words in the past tense with an 'ed' at the end. Sometimes when Erico pronounces words in the past tense he puts an added 'ed' sound at the end that shouldn't  be there like 'lookeded'. After we practiced his past tenses he practiced differentiating between pronouncing words starting with 't' and 'th' and 'd' and 'th'. I told him to practice all of these differences before our next tutoring session and that I'd quiz him the next time. He struggled the most between his 's' and 'th' sounds and his 't' and 'th' sounds.

CO #1 Madison

For my first class observation I observed Mr. Ryan Fleming's class. It was an advanced level listening class. I noticed at the very beginning of class that he called roll- just as a "house keeping" duty. Then he immediately went over the agenda so the students knew what they were doing that day and even included the amount of time it would take to complete each task. He effectively used humor throughout the class to help lower the students' affective filters and get them to feel more relaxed. He then transitioned into asking the students what they did the week before- using a schema to help incorporate previously learned information. The students were talking about the UN in class which gave the students a cultural lesson. Mr. Fleming used a lot of hand movements while he was talking also, despite the fact that they were an advanced level class. For the active lesson Mr. Fleming had the students do group work- talking with a partner about a video they watched on the UN. The students had to compare and contrast that video with a previous lecture they had watched (this is once again schema building). While the students were comparing and contrasting, Mr. Fleming walked around and listened to their conversations. He maintained good control over the class by quieting them when he wanted to transition back into a group discussion. During the class discussion he called on students specifically. He wrote down their answers and encouraged all of the students to participate. He didn't wait for students to raise their hands, instead he called them out. If a student didn't know an answer to a question he would come back to them and move on so he didn't wasted too much class time waiting on students' responses. Then, as a class they analyzed the video they had watched together. While the students were watching the video Mr. Fleming sat in the back and took notes on the video also. Overall, I think he is a very excellent teacher. I noticed him using a lot of skillz that we have talked about in our TEFL class~

Jordan CO#3 Repeat Offender

I enjoyed Vicky Ledbetter's class the first time so I decided to become a repeat offender. This was a listening course. The first activity she had the class do was listen to Speed of Sound by Coldplay. I'm not going to lie when I tell you hearing that song for fifty continuous minutes made me memorize it. The lyrics of the song could be heard but there was some difficulty hearing the words clearly with the melody in the background. Ms. Ledbetter handed out the lyrics in cut up pieces and the students would have to put them in order. She then proceeded in asking if there were any words or phrases unknown to them. The line, Japan and China all lit up, was difficult to understand. This activity ended up taking close to fifty minutes but the students were able to understand the entirety of the song and wanted to know more about coldplay.  

Jordan CO #2

This past Thursday I observed Victoria Davis's listening class. It was fun on account of the activities done in class but what was more fun was the students outgoing personalities that made the class exciting. It reminded me of high school in some ways. Mainly because each of the students fit into a classic high school stereotype, the class clown, smart kids, etc. I enjoyed Victoria's group lesson where she had each of the students at their table introduce words they learned outside of class to the students at their table. Some of the words were incentive, remarkable and I introduced procrastinate. The students seemed to enjoy this word because they all fulfill the true definition sometimes. The students would then say the word and then use in in a sentence. Mrs. Davis finished the class with the students listening to a radio story about one billionth download from iTunes and they had to also answer question about it. The atmosphere of the classroom impressed me the most because students were freely asking questions and talking among themselves sometimes, which is perfect because it is a listening course.    

Mel CO # 3

On Wednesday I observed Debbie Carrettas beginners reading class. The energy of her class was infectious; the dynamic was exciting and playful. She came into the class and made fun of the coffee stains on the front of her shirt, and the students did later as well since the vocabulary was focused on clothes. The lesson was at a fast pace and while everyone was comfortable and casual the lesson was executed perfectly. There were a lot of pair activities and a worksheet matching activity. The final activity was to pick a person in the class and describe them based on what they are wearing and have the other students try to guess who it is, it was a very creative and interactive exercise. She would stop class and have the students make error corrections when it impeded the meaning of their sentence. I think that because the class is so fun the students were really motivated to learn and do well.

Jordan TP#4

Nasser and I met up at CIES and worked on a couple of things mainly reading and new vocabulary. Nasser underlined new words in the pages we read. After each page he wold have to make up a sentence using these words after I explained them. I used the same strategy with Husain and I believed it worked. The hardest part was explaining the word volunteer but I think it was fun for him watching act out the word. This was more of a lesson which would enhance his creativity with English words rather than a strict lesson mainly because when learning a new language it is imperative to be able to think on your feet especially with uncommon words.

Jordan TP#3

I met Husain at my apartment and we decided to read for a while. Since he was an advanced student, I asked him if he wanted to read any of my required reading. He read some and I was impressed due to the density and dryness of the book. He was reading one of the works of O. Henry for class and I helped him read after each page he had to tell me new vocab words and create a sentence with them and also tell me the main idea of the page. This single activity went well over an hour but he enjoyed it. Husain wants to read more modern books so we perused amazon for awhile and found a few books that he wants to read. Besides a book store he didn't know where else to look for cheap books. I'm curious what he'll decide to read. I told him "stay away from 50 shades".

Jordan TP#2

I met Nasser in the CIES Coffee for some no nonsense tutoring. We got down to work quick, he seemed to have difficulty explaining the topic sentence and the main idea of a paragraph. I explained to him the topic sentence and the main idea are very similar. The topic sentence is virtually demonstrating the main idea of each paragraph. I wrote a sample paragraph about the French soccer team, mainly because he was wearing their team shirt. I then asked him to read it and tell me what the paragraph is telling him about the team and then tell me what the main idea of the paragraph is. Due to the simplicity of the paragraph he was able get it instantly. I then found other example paragraphs in his book and he read and explained them all to me using his own words. He also used the word segregate in perfect context. I was very impressed by this because of the way he used it and because he is a beginner.

Jordan CP#3 yoghurt and light pollution

After describing to Husain where the yogurt place is on Tennessee, I realized that I might be lost as well. Eventually we found it. This was a new experience for Husain, being able to create your own yogurt. We delved into a few idiosyncratic combinations. That got us a few stares from some seemingly concerned customers who saw what we were about to eat. Husain and I spoke mostly about good food and when it is a good time to eat absolutely horrible but good tasting sweets. It was at this time we both discovered that were also tutoring partners and due to a confusion in last names we never knew. The lines blurred between talking about random things like interesting places to go on campus and giving advice on grammar errors from his last test which would seem to fall under to criteria of a tutoring session. I found out that in Oman during the Fall, Husain liked to go out into the desert and see the Harvest on since there were no artificial lighting. Unfortunately I told him it is impossible to see the moon without light pollution in Tallahassee.  

CP #5-Mark Garcia

On Wednesday night Gilles came over to my house because it was my birthday. I invited him over because I was having some friends over to celebrate and thought it would be great to include him. The first thing he told me when he came was that he was scared in my neighborhood because of the many trees. I laughed and told him not to worry but could see how he could be scared, something I hadn't put much thought towards before. I'm sure he felt a little overwhelmed but he kept his smile the whole time, even thought I think he couldn't understand everything that was going on. It was a good opportunity for him to practice English in a very real and natural situation. My friends were interested and liked Gilles, asking him lots of questions, complimenting him on his clothes and what not. At the end of the night Gilles went home on his bike. He was very grateful to have come over and liked all of my friends. I told him he had to come back another time and to be safe on the road. He left into the night as I closed the door behind me, turning off the porch light.

CP #4 -Mark G

I met up with Gilles the other day for lunch. It was very enjoyable! I took him to Pitteria because I wanted to show him some places he could get food around campus. As we were walking there he told me about the kind of things he ate back in his home country of the Ivory Coast. He said they eat lots of beans and rice there in addition to grilled chicken dishes. He told me that he has someone who lives in his house and cooks for his family on a regular basis. I asked him what he ate here in America and I cringed when he told me he eats a lot of McDonalds. Since he doesn't know how to cook thats something that is simple and recognizable to him. Mcdonalds by the way does not even exist in his country! We shared a very good lunch, I got a gyro and him a plate of meat skewers and pita fries. He enjoyed it very much and we got to learn more about each other. When we were done I walked him back to the CIS building and he was off to speaking class and myself a literature class.

Mel TP#7

On Wednesday I met with Mitsue and I had prepared a whole lesson to go over modal verbs and articles but when I got there she told me she was going to be tested on her pronunciation that Friday and would like to work on that instead. So we got to sit outside, thanks to the lovely weather and work mostly on pronunciation. She has trouble with her Voiceless “th” and “t” sounds. She had a whole worksheet that her teacher had given her for practice and we went over the words and sentences multiple times, and she got much better with the practice. Her biggest problem was saying the word “thin” she kept adding a “g” at the end but she got better towards the end of our session. We ended up talking at the end for a while and decided to work on modal verbs and articles next week. 

TP #6 -Mark G.

I met up with David last Wednesday for our weekly tutoring session. Like most weeks he had reading homework to complete as well as an entry in his reading journal. He had to read a short story and answer questions about it. We read the story together and I had to remind David a couple of times to slow down and to respect punctuation marks. This is a recurring problem for him. We then answered the questions which were about comprehension, vocabulary, and critical thinking. He did 90% of the questions just fine and only needed some help going back to the story to verify some facts. David has a very good memory!...Next we read his story and I quizzed him on the vocabulary in the back. I like the books he picks out because they have a glossary in the back of new words that were introduced. David has some issues with spelling and that is why I try to have him write down the word and figure it out. All in all it was a very good tutoring session and I am well aware now of David's needs and am working at them with him.

Mel TP#6

On Tuesday I met Maria at the library, and we continued reading Anne of Green Gables and she showed me that she had been keeping a reading log. She actually likes this book and enjoys reading it and wants to read it, so I think it makes a big difference in her willingness to comprehend. I can already see some improvements in her reading, both with comprehension and with sounding out the words. After we read, she pulled out her math hw, and I helped her read the problems and understand what they were asking, but I really didn't know how to solve them(long written division.) She also told me that her birthday was the next day and invited me to her birthday party this weekend at a roller rink. I think for next week I am going to try and find some interesting reading comprehension games, because although it is nice just reading I know she still is not grasping all the vocabulary words. 

Mel-CP #6

On Wednesday I met with Igor at CIES and we had decided last week to go to the art exhibition at the MOFA on campus. As we walked over there he told me about his weekend and how he ended up going to Miami, and got to go to the beach and the mall there. At the MOFA we got to see a bunch of student art in addition to the Rembrandt exhibit, which even featured a Picasso interpretation of a Rembrandt piece. We also talked about the differences between the U.S. And Brazil and I tried to think if Tallahassee has any Brazilian restaurants he could go to, because he says he misses the food the most. I was happy to show him a little bit of campus that he hadn't seen yet, and we made plans to go to market Wednesday next week, which I think will give him a better idea of the activities, clubs there are on a typical U.S. College campus.  

Tom - Jason, TP # 10, Saturday, September 21

Jason and I met in the Eastside public library.  We looked at the Encyclopedia of Sports, discussing the various images of sports activities that we saw on its pages.  Among the vocabulary we encountered were:  sumo wrestling, table tennis or ping pong, archery, bow, arrow, jersey, shorts, referee, glove, skiing, and bobsled.

I then spent a short amount of time with Jason's sister Sally, who had a school project to collect the various views of people on the topic 'freedom'.  If this was an English language activity, it was one of dictation.  In my opinion, her English-language skill is excellent, and she made few if any errors in the exercise.

Last, I worked with Jason's father, Jongkwon, on a letter he had composed to his boss.

Mel CP#5

I met with Rafael in the CIES kitchen during tea time. We talked for a while and ate the snacks, and I suggested we play a board game. He apparently hates board games, but loves poker. I grabbed the cards and while he was counting the cards Alice and her conversation partner came over to our table and played poker with us. We chatted and laughed and talked about how to bluff and gamble, while we ate the snacks. I had never had a joint conversation partner session but I found it very nice to talk with more people and it really helped the game. I had never played “Texas hold em'” before, but I think I may have a future in it, ha! It turned out to be a very pleasant time and I think I will try to implement more joint sessions, it really relaxes everyone and opened up a good forum for discussion. 

Tom - Abdul, TP # 9, Saturday, September 21

Abdul and I began by his reading 'Will there be a gold rush in China? - iPhone' from USA Today.  This was about whether there would be a rush to buy the newest model of the iPhone on the day it goes on store shelves.

Abdul then told the story of his day today:  I woke up around 7 o'clock; I took a shower, washed my face, brushed my teeth, and dropped off my children; I cooked lunch with my classmate; I got home maybe 12:13.

He next told the story of his day yesterday, as follows.  "Yesterday was a special day.  I picked up my son at 3:10.  I made dinner with my family.  I ate lunch.  I went shopping at Wal-Mart.  I went back (returned) home.  I watched TV.  I went to bed and I slept.  I woke up today."

Last, he told the following story, this time including conjunctions and other transition words.  "Yesterday was a special day because I cooked Mexican food with my classmate, and we ate with all the students and two teachers in my classes, and the program director.

I then asked Abdul to describe Iran.  "Iran does not allow the United Nations to search for nuclear weapons.  Iran supports Bashar al-Assad in Syria.  Iran and Russia support Syria.  The reason Russia supports Syria is that they sell Syria weapons.  Iran sends fighters to Syria."

Last, we worked on Abdul's pronunciation.

Tom - Fawaz, CP # 6, Thursday, September 19

Fawaz and I began by studying the present continuous versus the simple present.  We used as a basis of this activity 'everyday activities'.  He had got two zeros in Listening and Speaking two weeks before, and was frustrated because he thought that he knew the vocabulary related to everyday activities.  Our work demonstrated that he did not really have a good command of the subject, but I am not sure that he understands his weaknesses.  He was really upset, so I tried hard to reassure him that time and effort would yield the positive results that he was seeking.

Then the two of us collaborated on a composition about the general sweep of Fawaz's life.

Last, we collaborated on another composition about eating in a restaurant in Kuwait.  He named the restaurant, described the meal, and described the process of entering the restaurant, being seated, getting coffee, ordering food, and last, asking for tea and dessert after the meal.

Tom - Jason, TP # 8, Wednesday, September 18

I met with Jason and his father at Starbucks.  We used as the basis of our English studies a homework paper that Jason was working on which had specific questions about people that the student admired.  We first studied South Korea's Ji Song Park, Jason's favorite soccer player.  We investigated when and where he was born, what teams he played for, and finally watched a video of highlights of goals he made during his career.

Next, we did a computer investigation into Sejong the Great, a Korean ruler who died in 1450.  Sejong the Great invented the Korean alphabet.  Jason has difficulties with certain prepositions:  e.g., "He died at (in) 1450."  He also struggles with certain verbs, e.g., "He born" instead of "He was born".

We read aloud an article in the magazine Time Kids about Lionel Messi, an Argentine who is currently considered to be the best soccer player in the world.  Among the vocabulary we considered were:  on loan from, discipline, impressive, Europe, and the soccer terms striker, middle fielder, and defender.

To better identify Jason's interests, we spoke about what some of Jason's favorite films were:  Transformers, Harry Potter, Ironman, and Superbad 1 and 2.

My last activity with Jason was for him to relate a true story related to soccer.  He told a story about someone on an opposing team kicking the ball, which hits one of Jason's teammates in the back of the head, and the ball rolling into the goal for a score.  You will find that Jason has a sense of humor if you pay attention to him.

Before leaving, I helped Jason's father, Jongkwon, with a cultural and language problem he was having with a rental car agency.  It appears he may have been taken advantage of, and false accusations leveled against him for supposed paint damage to the bumper two months ago.  He had not signed any acknowledgement of the damage done.

Tom - Abdul, TP # 7, Tuesday, September 17

Abdul and I began by speaking about the simple past for regular and irregular verbs.  He gave me a rundown of his day:  I studied English; I picked up my son; I got home; I ate lunch; I slept; I came to the library.

We discussed the difference between got, as in 'got home', and went, as in 'went home'.  I drew a timeline and showed him the duration of the actions and the point or period in time of each.

He then described specific facts about his life, again using the simple past of regular and irregular verbs, which began as follows.  "My birthday was May 5th, 1981.  I started school in 1987.  I began middle school in 1993.  I began high school in 1996.

We then spoke about certain adverbs of time:  first, next, then, and finally, and how they would be used in thee narrative of his life above.

Next, we had a long conversation about banking, the different types of bank accounts, overdraft fees, etc.

We then read aloud an article about the new leaders of Egypt.  Among the vocabulary we explored were:  military, Christians, constitution, elections, protest, supporters, improvement, and cooperate.

Last, we looked at a picture book about reptiles and amphibians.  I asked him to name the general categories represented by certain of the pictures, and asked him to write down those that he did not know.

TP#8 Alice

       Last night I met with Neto for our second tutoring session this week. My young tutee, Jun, is out on vacation this week, but luckily, Neto was more than happy to meet twice. I had intended on using this session as a group tutoring opportunity. However, one of my conversation partners texted me before the session to let me know that they would not be able to make it, because something had come up. Luckily, the lesson that I had planned to do as a pair activity could easily be adapted to individual work.

       For this session, I used my speaking lesson plan that I created for class on the topic of complaining politely. I introduced the words complain and complaint. For the schema building activity, I introduced courtesy words and phrases which are as follows: “Please”, “Excuse me”, “Pardon Me”, “I am sorry to bother you but”, “Would”, “Could”, “Thank you”, “Do you mind”. I also asked Neto to share past stories about when he experienced situations in which he needed to complain. What did he say? How did he feel? After we reviewed the vocabulary, I asked him to read a situation that I typed up the night before. (I wrote two stories, both of which included some element of soccer, in which someone needed to complain. I included a sample dialogue of the complaint.) Neto seemed to really like the stories.  For each story, I asked him to first read it silently. Afterwards, I read it aloud while he circled any unfamiliar words so that we could discuss them. For one of the stories, a dialogue using the vocabulary was provided. For the other story, a dialogue was not provided, and I asked him to write his own dialogue for it using the dialogue from the first story as a guide. Finally, I asked him to write his own situation and to provide a dialogue using the courtesy words and phrases. After we completed each story, I would make sure that we reviewed it so that he understood what was happening. For each story, I acted out alternative situations that might have arisen if the complaint was made in a rude manner. He thought this was hilarious. Neto worked very hard throughout the session. He was attentive and responded well to the activities. It felt really good to see one of my lesson plans come to life.

CP#9 Alice

       Yesterday I met with Binshan and her friend Ariel, whom I have met on one other occasion. I was really looking forward to meeting with Binshan, because I haven’t seen her in over a week due to conflicting schedules. We met in the CIES lounge. I complimented her on her attire (a polka-dot button up with overalls). I have noticed that she wears a lot of polka-dotted fabric. Consequently, for the next twenty minutes or so we talked about fashion and shopping. She is just as addicted to retail as I am!! Binshan is always energetic and happy, which seemed to rub off on me. Initially, before we met up, I was very tired from a long day at work, but my mood quickly began to change. Somehow we got on the subject of relationships. Both girls were very curious about my relationship status and the subsequent history between my boyfriend and me. Among many things, they wanted to know if I planned to get married and have children. Ariel and Binshan even gave me suggestions for potential honeymoon sites. Afterwards, Binshan invited me to come to her house one night for dinner. Ariel quickly suggested that we use her house since it is bigger, and she lives alone.  I am looking forward to our dinner next week!!!

CP #1 Hwa Won Lee

I met my conversation partner Chang for the first time today.
She is from China, and has been in America for one month.
Her speaking in English was really good because she majored in English in her bachelor's degree in China, and came to study more at FSU.
She already passed Toefl exam, so seemed like enjoying her CIES classes without any stress.
After we talk about ourselves, I took out a copied paper which has a lot of topics for English conversation. We talked on about 5-6 topics, and I was glad that I brought this printout from home.
We talked about dating, and some general hypothetical questions which start with What if...?
We couldn't talk on one question for long enough, because she tended to express her feeling in very short sentences. She liked to talk on these topics more in our next session, though.
I was glad I finally met my first conversation partner.

TP #1 Dana

   I had my first tutoring session not too long ago with two Chinese CIES students, Ariel and Ivy. They asked to work together, so after sending out a couple emails to the both of them, and only receiving one combined “…we will meet you...” email in return, we met up in the CIES lounge on a Friday afternoon. Ariel’s mother was visiting during this particular week, and she greeted me with a huge smile followed by a stream of Chinese that I could not comprehend whatsoever.

   “She says that you are very beautiful!” exclaimed Ariel. I smiled and thanked her. It was a great beginning.

    Ivy, Ariel, and I began our session with your average getting to know you discussion. I asked where they were from, how long they had been in the United States, and if they liked it so far. This gave me a chance to see and hear their exact levels of English. They answered each question enthusiastically, interspersed with a number of giggles. Ariel’s English is a bit more advanced than Ivy’s. She comprehends most of my questions as well as uses some advanced vocabulary. Ivy understands me decently well, however she asks me to repeat more often and speaks with less advanced vocabulary.

     We went over the English subjects they found to be the most important, which included speaking, and then writing, followed by reading. Since they were eager to work on speaking and pronunciation, I pulled out a few tongue twisters to work on. I also sifted through their notebooks for the speaking section, played with a couple of examples they hadn’t seen yet, and went over tongue positions, sounds, and explained how specific sounds should feel. After this I asked to see a recently graded paper from each of them and went over the corrections by using context clue questions as a way to figure out what was wrong. Both Ariel and Ivy quickly picked up on the reasons for their mistakes. At the end of the session they graciously thanked me, and left me excited for our next meeting. 

TP 8: Caitlin

This week when I met with PJ, we had two things on our agenda: vocabulary building and reading. We were going over the vocabulary words that were on a worksheet of PJ’s that he had had some trouble with. I made flashcards and had two vocabulary games for him. The first game was a quick matching game. PJ knew all the words but didn’t realize how some words were connected. For example, he explained to me what start and begin means but he didn’t realize that they are synonyms before this activity. He really liked the second activity. I used the whiteboard and drew a big cloud with a word bank. I put random words and PJ had to find the 3 words that had something in common. PJ was supposed to move the words that had something in common to a circle on the board and “put” the other words in the trashcan that I had drawn.  In the first round, there was one group of words. In the second round, he had to find 2 groups of words with something in common and tell me why they went together. The last round was the trickiest. There was only one group of 3 words but several pairs of two words He really liked this activity and was able to match all of the words that he had gotten wrong on his homework assignment. PJ didn’t know that my word lists came from his old assignment. I introduced the list as some words that he probably would know and introduced the activity as a vocabulary refresher activity.

 We spent 30 minutes reading this session. I could tell that PJ was getting a little tired towards the end but he is definitely more engaged when we alternate pages. I thought about it and as important as it is for me to hear him reading, I hate reading out loud and I comprehend a lot less than when I read silently so I can understand why it’s easier for him to comprehend when we read together.

TP 7: Caitlin

I met Rachida at her house to study this time. Rachida was practicing her vocabulary and grammar structures when we met. She offered me a glass of water and we talked about our weeks for a few minutes before we started. She wanted to work on modal verbs so I had prepared some activities beforehand. I ended up forgetting my nice little summary that had the definitions of the different modal verbs and my activity ended up being a British English activity with a lot of examples of the modal verb “ought”  but it went well overall. When Rashida and I had first tried to meet up, she didn’t understand when I asked, “when would you like to meet?” I wrote out a sentence with different verbs to explain when modal verbs can be used and how the different sentences can sometimes mean the same thing.  For example:

Would you like to meet at 5:30?

Can we meet at 5:30?

Do you want to meet at 5:30?

She liked the worksheets that I did but I wish I had not forgotten my paper that had the definitions of the different verbs and when to use them. She kept the worksheets but wanted the scaffolding structure to help her remember the verbs we talked about and to help her remember when to use them. The next time we meet, I’m going to take her the info sheet and we will review the modal verbs and then we are going to work on reading some short articles/essays (level appropriate this time) for comprehension.

CP 6: Caitlin

I met with Ayoko at the Globe for lunch on Wednesday. This was nice because it was the day that I had planned to do all of my observations and the 1:00 class that I observed happened to be her speaking class. We just met in the lounge and chatted on the lunch break. She was really tired when we met from studying (until 4am!!!! ) for a test so it was nice to chat. She’s going to leave in 2 weeks because her semester starts in October so we are going to try to meet up as much as we can before then. I shared my Spanish/German word journal with her because she had shown me hers the week before. She thought it was really neat how I could have my German lists and Spanish lists alternating pages (I was studying the languages at the same time for awhile) but I think it’s interesting that she prefers to write her English word definitions in German because it’s easier to write than the Japanese characters.

We talked about jobs and careers. Ayoko will graduate in March and will start her job in April. She’s already got a job lined up for 8 months from now. That blew my mind. She told me she had done almost 100 interviews. I thought she was exaggerating but then she showed me in her calendar how she had kept track.  That really blew my mind. She explained how difficult it is to find a job in Japan right now and I wonder how much harder it is to find a job than here in the US.

After we ate, we walked to class together but I’ll save that for another blog since it was also one of my classroom observations.

CP:5 Caitlin

I met with Renan again on Tuesday and today we ate together at Suwannee. It’s been years since I’ve been to the Suwannee Room so it was nice to change things up meet there for lunch.  Renan is part of a large group of Brazilian students at CIES and they all have meal plans I think. I ran into one of my tutees and invited her to join us but it was just Renan and I. It was tough to hear each other in the Dining Hall but it was still a nice conversation. We talked about our weekends and what we had done and we talked about what we like to do for fun. Renan doesn’t like reading but he does love movies, especially Harry Potter and he thought it was awesome too that the dining hall looks like Hogwarts J. I told him a little about where I’m from and explained what a spring is and why Wakulla Springs is great. He told me a little more about his home and about Carnival then we got onto the topic of music. Renan gave me name of a Brazilian band which I want to listen to before we meet next week. All in all, it was good conversation but I’m hoping that Renan and I can hang out outside of campus in the next couple of weeks. It’s just been too difficult to plan anything on the weekends since I’ve been traveling so much this month.

CP #3 Madison

Friday I had a house warming party and decided to invited my conversation partners and my tutee (the CIES student, not the 3rd grader). Erico (my tutee) and Jessica came to my party and they brought two friends: Barbara and Emily. I talked with them for the first 15-20 minutes that they were there to make sure that they felt comfortable. Then I asked them if they'd like me to introduce them to some of my American friends. I introduced them to my friends Sam, a girl who was originally supposed to be in our TEFL class, and Dorie. They talked to my friends and met some new people. Later, they came into my living room while everyone else was outside and the five of us danced, it was a lot of fun :). After they left the party, Erico texted me to thank me for inviting them, and then he invited me to go to Coliseum with him the next day, but I didn't go. Erico has texted me several times asking my advice about several American customs. For example, yesterday he texted me saying that he bought beer at Publix and he was wondering if he could walk outside with it. He also asked me to help him find a TV, so if anyone is giving one away or selling one for a reasonable price let me know!!! Also, Jessica added me on Snapchat today. I am excited to start snapchatting my Brazilian friends!

TP #6 Madison

Friday I had a tutoring session with Erico. At the beginning of our session I read a few of his compositions that had already been graded. I helped explain to him the mistakes he made in is writing and why he got marked off for certain things. Then I looked at his homework and helped him with the simple past. He needed help remembering what some words were in the past tense; for example, to see- saw. After that I made an activity for him to complete. It consisted of ten questions, all of which were very similar verbs I had explained to him the week before in one of our previous tutoring sessions. I also combined the past and present tenses in this activity. I gave him a word bank to offer  him choices for the fill in the blank questions and I included the past tense of every present tense verb that was in the word bank. After he finished, I made him another activity using only the verbs he had gotten wrong. These verbs were very similar- such as made and did. However, this activity was very difficult for him so we ended up doing it together and I explained why he should choose certain verbs for the particular questions. When designing the questions I didn't realize that some of the verbs were interchangeable and multiple verbs could work for the same question, making the activity even harder for him than I anticipated.

TP #5 Madison

This week I decided to have Mathew read to himself rather than out loud for his reading log so that he could practice his extensive reading skills. Then while he wrote his summary I read his book to double check that he got all of the main points and relevant information for his reading log- since he was no longer reading out loud to me. Then, as usual, we edited his summary together. He is beginning to make fewer mistakes in his summaries and I can now start to be more nit-picky with his writings. We worked on his reading comprehension homework together after he finished his reading log. Mathew had to read a passage and then answer questions about it. If I remember correctly, there was only one question that I had to help him with, the rest he got right on the first try. For the last 15 minutes of our session I had him read the book of his choice to me. Of course he chose a book about Batman.

TP #4 Madison

This week when I met with Mathew's mom before our tutoring session she was very happy that Mathew had found a chapter book to read last week that he actually liked-which was Dinosaurs before Dark. She said that even after I left the library he wanted to stay and read because he was so excited about reading. To begin this session Mathew read a book for his reading log. He actually wrote two reading logs this week- one of which that was meant to be the following day's reading log. His second reading log was on a book about Neil Armstrong which he actually has to do a book report on. I helped show him how to refer back to the book to check facts and dates that he might have forgotten or might not be to clear on for his reading log. This is a good skill to master especially for readings that include a lot of facts that might be hard to remember or for comprehension questions. After he finished both of his reading logs we read over them and edited them together. Now when I edit his reading logs I circle his grammar mistakes and ask him why it is that he think I circled a particular word or phrase. Then I quizzed him on more facts about Neil Armstrong to help him prepare for his book report. Our sessions are back to being an hour long which I prefer, it is easier for Mathew to concentrate during this amount of time.

CO #3 Hwa Won Lee

After I observe a grammar class, I came to the composition class where Ms. Ciappetta teaches. When I came in, Ms. Ciappetta was chatting with some students before the class, and the atmosphere was really welcoming. She wrote today's agenda on one side of the board, and on the other side, she wrote down some details about Bell Ringer. Students needed to write a definition for some grammar terms (subject, verb, noun, adjective ), and complete a sentence with 2 blanks with a partner.
My first impression on Ms. Ciappetta's class was very active, and friendly. She really lowered students' affective filter effectively by class chat, and humorous gestures.
She welcomed me in a very special way. She told them to ask questions to me to figure out my name, nationality, and the reason I came here today. The teacher wrote down two sentences about me, and analyze these with grammar terms which they learn these days. It was creative idea to use that kind of practical sentences to teach.
Her pronunciation, tone, and speech speed was very level appropriate, and it was very fun class to sit in.
Finally, she asked the class to write 5 present progressive sentences after several practices.
The teacher asked me to circulate the class, and check their sentences, but mentioned not to correct before giving them chances of self correcting. It was exciting to be involved in a real teaching site.
The time went fast, and I was lucky to sign up her class to observe.

CO #2 Hwa Won Lee

I observed a grammar class group 1C today.
Ms. Ramos welcomed me, and I sat in a seat in room 110.
There were 8 students in the class today, and they were learning simple present tense.
Ms. Ramos used the white board most of time, because she had to teach grammar rules.
She wrote every sentences on the board to explain, and interacted with students by asking questions constantly during her writing.
 She gave many example sentences to make sure all students know how they can change a statement sentence to a question, and vice ver sa.
After she gave a lecture, she asked students to practice what they learned so far by giving them 2 sentences to change forms, and she also wanted them to practice positive, and negative forms on the same sentences. For example, John is a painter. Is John a painter? John is not a painter. Is John not a painter? She circulated during they work on questions to check the answers, and gave some help by asking, and giving them hints.
She gave grammatical help when students need, but gave them chances to correct their own errors first. She explained grammatical rules to students in a way very easy to understand, and help them to use in real conversation by using many example sentences.
It was a good experience to me to observe her class.

CO #2 Mark G.

This morning I observed a level two composition class at 10 in the morning.  When walking in the door I ran into Gilles, my conversation partner.  I was planning to see him that day anyway because it was his birthday, so when I saw him, I gave him a big smile and said "Hey Gilles, happy birthday!".  He replied kindly seeming a little embarrassed, and when I walked into the elevator I heard his teacher say, "Gilles, you didn't tell us it was you'r birthday!".  I went up to the fourth only to remember that the class was in fact on the first.  Re-descending down the stairwell way I found myself to room 110. Of course, as the grammar class I observed the previous week, Gilles was in the class.  I sat next to him immediately.  Ms. Stringer, started class and I knew already she was enthusiastic, talking freely with students while bringing over the projector to show some handouts of a model outline on the wall.  Today they were working on the first phase of the writing process, outlining.  They were working on their own outlines and the class was very much occupied by them doing individual work.  They talked as a class for the first 15 minutes.  Ms. Stringer put on some atmospheric music then walked around talking with individual students.  She welcomed myself to walk around also and talk with the students. Some of them were more engaging than others, one didn't want to tell me his topic at tall. Their papers were explanatory and simple. After two pass arounds I sat down and observed Ms. Stringer She was really helpful in answering grammatical questions and giving answers in a way that the students could understand. With such relaxing music playing and need, even I started working on my outline for a French essay! All in all a solid class even though it wasn't very active in a certain sense.

TP#7 Alice

Jose and I met last night for our weekly tutoring session in the Kellogg Building. I had heard from some of his friends that he prefers to be called Neto. Therefore, I will refer to him as such from here on out. Neto exceeded my expectations for his ongoing vocabulary assignment. Instead of the usual five that I requested of him, he wrote down fifteen!! I was so proud. We spent most of the time going over the vocabulary. He had so many questions! Using his vocabulary, we worked on pronunciation, parts of speech, conjugations, and simple sentence structures. I noticed that he has problems pronouncing the “r” sound, of which he pronounces like an “h”. Subsequently, I wrote a list of words that begin with an “r”, and had him pronounce them. We reviewed these words at the end of the session as well. Also towards the end of the session, I gave Neto lists of food items with their pictures. We went over their pronunciations. For some of the items, Neto wasn’t sure what they were. I tried giving him examples of dishes that the items could be used in, but sometimes that confused him even more!! For those moments, google image search came to rescue!

CP#8 Alice

Yesterday I met with Luichang in the CIES lounge before class. Her birthday was this past weekend so I inquired about her weekend festivities, if any. She said that her roommates and friends treated her to a dinner at a Chinese buffet (I can’t remember the name). Afterwards, she began to show me how to play a Chinese game that was similar to tic-tac toe, but instead of getting three circles or squares in a row, you had to connect five. Once we played a couple of rounds of this game, I noticed that Mel and her conversation partner, Raphael, were at a table near us with a deck of cards. In earlier conversations, Luichang had mentioned to me that she liked playing poker so I decided to ask Mel if we could join her. Mel graciously accepted our request to be a part of her roundtable. Neither Mel nor I knew how to play Texas Hold’em. Subsequently, her conversation partner attempted to teach us how to play the game. I ended up winning a round, but I still have only a faint idea of how to play! Mel’s conversation partner, Raphael, is such a character! He kept us laughing the entire time. At one point in the game, he showed us his Venezuelan currency. Mel commented on the pictures, one of which was a pair of armadillos. Raphael responded that he liked skittles. Mel agreed with Rapheal’s statement and said that skittles where delicious and that she liked eating them (I thought that he said he liked mosquitos). Raphael exclaimed, “What?! You eat skittles?!?”. It turns out he meant to say squirrels instead of skittles. It has been a long time since I laughed that hard!

TP #4 Hwa Won Lee

I met my tutee Angel again today. I read the article I gave her last week one more time before we met, and thought it's a little too long to handle in one session. But in my surprise, she already read it by herself, and brought her summary with her even though I didn't ask her to.
She really was a hard worker, and that is really good aspect for her learning.
I answered some vocabulary questions she brought--clasp, drainage, quartet, prostate cancer, and reside.., and talked our feelings about the article.
After that, we went to the next article. It was kind of sad, but impressive article we read today, and she read the whole passage alone this time. I am using 'Chicken Soup for the Soul' book because it has lots of short, but meaningful articles in it. Angel likes to read books a lot, but she said she doesn't have one like this. I will buy a good book for her soon as a gift.
I promised her to bring copies of more articles next time, because we are having fun to read together.
She was a little excited to take a bus ride for the first time today before we say good bye.

CO#1 The Coffee Shop/ Pam

September 5, 2:00 p.m. I deserved the listening class instructed by Debbie Carretta. The first 5 to 7 minutes of the class was used to go over today's date. "Who can tell me

today's date, in proper order?" One of the students calls out, " Thursday September 5, 2013". The instructor commends student for proper pronunciation of Thursday, because the 'th' sound is in very few languages. The attendance is then called, and the class gets moving. You can feel the energy in the class, studentsseem excited to get started, and Ms. Debbie is actively interacting with her students ? She addresses each student by name and allows each student to answer and participate in the classroom discussion. The class has been working on a unit called The Coffee Shop. Ms. Debbie collects the students' listening logs, and asks class does anyone know where most of the world's coffee comes from from? Students take turns answering question by raising their hands. Everyone wants yo participate, but the classroom is well managed, they knew to raise their hands. Ms. Debbie reveies new vocabulary words. I really liked how she didnt overwhelm her students, she only introduced a few new words, barista, customer, perculator,and woman. After she ask students if they know the meaning of the new words she plays a song called Coffee in Brazil. The song was originally sung by Frank Sinatra, She then explains unfamilar words in the song, by writing words along with picture illustrations on the board( crawler, percolator, dunking). Then, once the class had a clearer understanding, she handed them a worksheet that was a fill-in-the-blank print out of the song. A video of the Muppets was then shown to the class, the Muppets were singing the Coffee in Brazil song. I thought this was an excellent way to grab the class's attention. Not only were they encouraged to listen, but they could use this visual aid to help them remember. The song was then replayed and the class had to fill in the missing words. This was repeated twice more. Ms. Debbie reminded class that on on Monday September 9 a quiz would be given on the coffee unit. It was an awesome class to observe, I look forward to observing more of her classes.

Rosalie CP #6: Key Lime Pie, Corn on the Cob, and an Impromptu Piano Recital

September 20, 2013

            My parents and I had planned to invite my partners over for dinner, and last night was the night. I live almost half an hour away from campus, so Mehmas graciously drove the three of them over to me so I didn’t have to pick them up. They arrived at 6 instead of 5, but it could have been a miscommunication: does “dinner at 5” mean leave your house at 5 or be there at 5? Also, they probably didn’t realize how long it takes to get out here. It was no problem at all. I was excited to see them piling of out of Mehmas’ SUV.

Key Lime Pie in Progress

            They learned a new word—ants—when Mehmas stepped in an ant hill, poor thing. We got inside without further mishaps. I noticed my partners were pretty shy, hesitating in the front hall. I introduced them to my parents, and everyone shook hands. We ushered them to sit in our kitchen, and everyone got more comfortable chatting around the table. My parents did an admirable job slowing their speech and annunciating, and they were able to converse with minimal confusion. I come from a family of expressive people, so we know where I get it from. I looked over to see my mom explaining how she hated cooking growing up. “The kitchen was evil—bad!” she exclaimed, crossing her eyes and making a face of disgust. My partners laughed. They were very much at ease, and Isabella even told me, “Today, I was sad. But now, here, I am happy.”

Luis' Meringue Masterpiece

            Our project for the evening was making key lime pie. Luis inspired me by ordering a slice the day we went to the beach. He had told me that, though he had tried it before in Mexico, it didn’t taste fresh from all the preservatives. I promised him I would teach him to make it, and he lit up when I reminded him. Everyone helped, especially the boys. Isabella got into an involved conversation about cities in Brazil, including Belo Horizonte (her city) and Brasilia (the capital). Luis read us the ingredients, and I presented each one as he read. Mehmas was confused about the can of sweetened condensed milk. “Eagle?” he asked me.

            “Oh, that’s the brand!” I told him, and we laughed. Luis measured the key lime juice. Mehmas poured in the milk. I worked on separating the yolks from the egg whites to use in the pie, mixing them once. I learned recently that if any bit of yolk gets into the whites, the protein in it won’t allow the meringue to form peaks. Mehmas learned to operate the electric mixer and taught Luis. It was a team effort! We made the meringue as well; Luis valiantly beat the egg whites the whole time, while Isabella added the sugar. Luis swirled the meringue in a spiral pattern, and we put the pie in the oven.

            My friends were curious about my backyard, especially the relic of our childhood, the playset. Before I knew it, all three were gleefully swinging. As I took a picture, Mehmas got concerned. “Wait, wait! There’s a…” he said, agitatedly gesturing at the top of the swing. As I got closer, I could see that the bolt was mostly out of the wood that attached one side of the chain.

“Isabella, he’s right! Be careful!”

“No, no, I jump,” she said, unconcerned. She promptly jumped and didn’t understand until we showed her the loose bolt. I’m glad we narrowly avoided an injury.

Mehmas wanted to know if we had any pits. “What?” I asked.

“P-e-t-s!” he said.

“Ohhhh, pets!” He smiled when I understood. “Yes, I  have two dogs. Do you want to meet them?”

My partners chorused their assent. The dogs came out, and everyone was friendly. Luis was the most timid, as he never owned a pet. “Are they big?” he wanted to know. And everyone wanted to know, “Do they…?” as they mimed biting with their hands. Luckily, they don’t, and my partners and my dogs enjoyed meeting and the subsequent petting.

My dad fired up the grill and came to take orders. Everyone wanted a hamburger except for me. “I don’t like choose,” Isabella confided. “I just have what they have.” I completely understand her. Decision-making is always tough when you’re a guest, and doubly hard if it’s a foreign country and language!

We trooped in to eat, and my partners were intrigued by the corn on the cob. “I never had before,” Luis told me. I showed them how you can roll it in the butter, and they were impressed. It was a hit. The burgers also went over well. My parents ate with us, and they kept the conversation lively. They spoke more with Luis and Mehmas, as they have a higher level of conversational English, while I spoke more with Isabella. Isabella explained to me that she is frustrated with her inability to communicate. “I meet many cool peoples in my class, but I don’t meet them very much.” In Portuguese as well as Spanish, the verb conocer means to meet as well as to know, but of course in English we have two separate verbs. I took the chance to explain this to Isabella. “Ah, then I don’t know them very well,” she said, smiling with relief at expressing herself. Poor thing! She’s still limited in her ability to talk freely with people, and so she can’t get to know anyone outside of the Brazilians in depth.

“What is food like in Kuwait?” my parents wanted to know.

“You know Samurat?” Mehmas asked. Turns out they do know that Indian restaurant. “Is like that,” he concluded. He seemed much more comfortable than he had at the beginning, laughing and joking with my parents.

“No restaurant here from Kuwait!” my dad said, laughing. “Sorry!”

Mehmas retorted, “In my apartment! In my apartment we have restaurant from Kuwait!” They both laughed.

My mother asked if we were going to go swimming. “I can’t,” Isabella said.

“Oh,” my mother said, exchanging a knowing look with Isabella.

“She understands!” Isabella said. She had told me that earlier, when Mehmas wanted to know why she couldn’t swim, she explained it to him. I taught her the word period but had to wonder how she managed to explain it to him without the terms.

“I told him, women have a time…every month, and then he understood.” As we recapped the episode, Mehmas closed his eyes and looked away. He was clearly embarrassed, while Isabella was unperturbed.

“My life is a book that is open!” she proclaimed. “That is a Brazilian expression.” Of course, I told her we have a very similar one. “I am an open book!” she repeated proudly. “I have no secrets. Just tell everything.”

Our key lime pie! 

The key lime pie came out of the oven, and it was beautiful. The meringue was toasted on the peaks, and Luis’ spiral design was clear. We ate it warm, and everyone approved.

After dinner, it came up that Luis plays piano as well as dances. We requested that he play, and he graciously obliged. We gathered (along with my mom) in the living room to listen to him. He plays beautifully. He played the Transformers theme, as well as a classical Mexican composition and the song from Twilight. “I learned that for my girlfriend. You know the song that the vampire plays on the piano?” It was a joy to hear him, and we applauded after every song.

We sat around chatting for a time after, and Luis recounted a dance battle he had at the last Downtown Get-Down. I guess he was shy at first but ended up having a great time. “Dance now!” Mehmas said.

“No,” Luis shook his head, “but I show you a video I did on Youtube.” It was filmed in the streets and subways of New York City. That boy can dance! He is very fluid, making his arms look like they’re transmitting a wave, but he can also seem jointed and robotic when he wants. I loved how disinterested the folks on the subway were. I’m sure they see crazier things than a Mexican guy dancing hiphop in the aisle.

The only time that I was surprised and uncomfortable was when my friends were leaving. I don’t blame them because I’m sure it’s cultural. Everyone has their own way of being polite, and I noticed Mehmas didn’t want anyone to take his plate in for him or get him a drink. So I know it must not be rude in Kuwait to just announce, “Let’s go,” and head for the door. It made me smile because I realize now (with the contrast) that here you need to at least pretend to be sad to go and thank your host again (they all did during the dinner). We said our goodbyes and said we’d see each other again soon.

I’m so glad my partners could come over and equally glad my parents were such welcoming, warm hosts. I know my family had fun, and I think my friends did, too. I am grateful for the opportunity to show them a US family and how we interact. I’m looking forward to hanging out again!