CP #14 Hwa Won Lee

I met Dana at Black Dog cafe again yesterday.
We talked about shopping for a while. I told her about Dong Dae Moon shopping center which is traditional old market in Korea, and my experience to the market's night time sale.

We talked about blind dates and dutch pay while we search good conversation topics on sheets.
We agreed on many situations in those topics even our cultures are different. I guess common sense always works in our life.

When I told her recycling procedure in Korea, and the critical incident one foreigner experienced when he dump his trash oneday in Korea which I found on website, Dana was surprised and found it funny.
She brought tarot cards to tell me my fortune for fun. I thanked Dana, and it was kind of makes sense. The weather in the deck of the cafe was really good, and we enjoyed our conversation sessions.

TP 12 pam

October 25 I met Renan for tutoring. We began tutoring session by talking about his break from school. He and some friends had went to Panama City for a few days. Renan said the weather was beautiful and that they had a really nice time. he said he had gotten lazy and that it was hard for him to go back to class. I asked did he have any new instructors. Debbie and Derrick is who he said. I told Re an he was in good hands , and tbat they were great teachers. We started off listening to some short news articles I found in the Awake! magazines and we discussed the articles. Thesr are great articles to use for tutoring because they are short, and you can read them in print, as well as listen to the audio at www.jw.org/Awake. After we worked on dictation skills. I would read several phrases and have Renan write tbem down and he would repeat some of them verbally. He asked if I could continue to tutor him, I said I could until November 15. Ironically, I have his friend Karoline as a conversation partner. We all will meet this Friday.

TP 11 Video Culture Class

Octvocabuldn at 12:30 the video class was set to proceed. I think Tom & I were both nervous. There were no classes but to our amazement there was an influx of new students registering for the next session. I knew I could count on one conversation partner and 2 of my tutees to attend the class, but with 2 students it would be slim. Fortunately for us there was an influx of students, just off tbe airplane,testing and registering for the next session. we had 2 from Taiwan! 1 student from China, 1 South Korean student, 1 student from Cameroon Africa, 1 Russian student, 1 student from France, and a student from Columbia South America. I was thrilled! Prayer is no joke, because thats what I was doing. before class Tom had wrote the vocabulary words on the board and I hadput the agenda up. We made sufe the videos for the lesson were loaded, got our level appropriate worksheets out, and pens for everyone. we follow the agenda and we took turns teaching so I think everything went pretty smoothly. Only regrt, I wish we would have anticipated having newer students. The activity I planned should have incorporated more group and pair discussion. I think all in all the class went well. We had execelldnt participation, and the students indicated on their feedback forms that they really enjoted the class. For 6 out of 8 students it was their first CIES class!!!

TP 10 pam

onteachinlistiday September 27th I was supossed to meet Renan and Taku for anoth tutoring session. However Taku was a no show. I had prepared a script for the class I was teaching on Thor, and I had intended for Taku and me to read out the scenes and for Renan to listen and see how much he could comprehend. I wanted Renan to concentrate on 'chunking' whole phrase, instead of just trying to hear single words. It still worked out. I read the script and had Renan listen, and then I played the Thor video of the script. I repeated the video a few times. Yhings turned out relatuvely well, because he was able to understand what was being said. Renan did not understand several of the vocabulary words, such as diner, disrepect, etc. So I explained and modeled those words. unfortunately he said he will be out of town what I taught my class but it was still good practice for his listening skills and for my teaching skills.

TP9 pam

I met with Jane on September 26, for what would be our last, official tutoring session. Jane was leaving to go back to Taiwan in less than a month so she want to spend some time traveling before she returned home. so really for the first half hour we just kinda talked about her plans and what she would do when she got back home to Taiwan. Jane said when she goes home she would resume her degree program begin in medical billing and coding. She told me to forget about Mexico and come teach in Taiwan. She was happy to have an opportunity to come study here in the United States, and she look forward to possibly visiting here again. But, she really can't wait to see her family and her pet cats. last weekend she told me that her and her boyfriend Michael had saw the movie Thor and they really liked the movie. She said she could relate to how Thor felt coming to a new world, because that's how she felt coming to America. I took the opportunity to test out my class project and we reviewed the two video clips that showed Thor adjusting to his new environment. We watched the first video clip and then we discussed what Thor may have been feeling when he broke the glass and then I realized that it wasn't custom in this world to do that. We then saw the second video clip and how he was adjusting to culture and daily life, I asked Jason questions about how she had to adjust coming from Taiwan to America. Afterwards, we did a sample worksheet that I had prepared for the class on cultures and customs. Lastly, I had Jane to fill out the feedback form for tutoring and that basically wasit, We talked a little about how we enjoyed meeting each other and we said we would keep in touch on Facebook and through email.

TP 8 pam

I met with Renan and Taku at the library on Friday, September 20th, at 2:00 in the afternoon. I decided to do at least one group tutoring session, and since Renan was level 1 /level 2 and Taku was level 2/ level3 I thought it would be a nice balance for the two of them. Taku was working more on pronunciation and minimal pairs and Renan was working more on his listening skills. I decided to combined the two activities, so that each could benefit from it. At first, I had Taku work on a minamal pairs, as we were working on pronunciation, This is a cool activity from www.tinyteflteacher.co/uk. Idea 1: Number dictation1cutcatbutbatuncleanklefunfan Write the minimal pairs on the board, or paper, in a table, Drill the pronunciation around the class. Then, dictate four of the words, but tell the students they only need to write the number, not the word. So, if you say "cut, but, ankle, fun" the students should write "1,1,2,1". Then the students work in pairs - one dictates the words, the other says which number.

TP 7

September 24 I met with Jane after her class ended at 2:50. As usual, I opened the tutoring session and I asked her how her class was today and how her week was going, after we discussed speaking and listening activities she was doing in her classes. I told Jane about my upcoming class I would be teaching. I asked if she would please come and I explained that it was going to be on customs and culture. Jane said she would love to and she looked forward to it. I asked her had she ever seen the American movie Thor, she hadn't. I took the opportunity to show some YouTube clips of the movie. With Jane I tendvto do more intensive reading exercises. last week I had shown Jane websites she could practice listening to English. She had visited the websites and listened to several articles being read and that it really helped her with her listening skills.We then read short magazines articles, as I read them she took dictation of the articles. She was able to briefly give an explanation of the different articles I read. Keep in mind, that these were short articles that I had found in Newsweek for kids magazines so they were easy for James to follow along and be able to comprehend what the articles were about.

TP 6 pam

on September 17 I met Jane after her class, 3 o'clock, in the CIES break room. we usually start our tutoring session of by discussing jane's week, what she did, how her day going? In Jane's speaking class she had been working on how to order from a restaurant. Her instructor had given the students' menus, and they had to roleplay ordering as customers. She asked if we could reveiw some of the vocabulary words that they were going over in class. customer order server tip receipt We took a few minutes to discuss some of the vocabulary and I drew a makeshift menu and we did role play again in a restaurant. Using the vocabulary, Jane practiced ordering from the menu, employing etiquette common in the English language. One on one was easier for her to grasp the understanding then just having it in a classroom. After we finish reviewing class assignments we worked on are listening skills and I read for a worksheet that I had printed out on daily routines. After reading the article a few times I would have her read it to me. At the end I asked her to write down a paragraph to see how much she had remembered

TP 5 Pam

Sept 11 at 4 o'clock this afternoon I met up with Taku and we went over minamal pairs.These are some pairs we did. very berry van ban vest best vet bet burn barn heard hard hurt heart firm farm purse pass light right play pray pilot pirate born bone Taku said this exercise was something that he knew he needed more practice on. I encouraged him towrite down minamal pairs for next week. I suggested this cool website, www.pronuncian.com, he could check out. the website features pot test that uses minimal pairs for learn a foreign language.        

TP 4 pamela

Sept 11 I met with the Renan at 2 o'clock. Renan is working on listing skills. I had printed out this articleon patients on patients and so I started the exercise by reading the article and having him listen. After listening to the article twice I asked him short questions to see if he understood what the article was saying. He seemed to grasp the general idea of the article and so I repeated exercise several times. At the end of the exercise I asked Renan to write a short paragraph to see if he understood what the article on patience was all about. He said that he wanted more rxercises like this one, because this was his weakest area in learning English. I told him about several websites that he could go on to help them improve English listening skills so he can listen to modified English speakers, he said he would check it out. I was glad that everything was working out and that he was benefiting from his tutoring session.

CP # 10 pamela Weiji Chen

w.Iober 25 I received an email from Weijia on Wedday. We scheduled to meet on Friday after her class ended at 1 o'clock, at Starbucks on Tennessee Street. Weijia had arrived from China a fee weeks ago. She wants to pursue her Masters in the fieldvof communications. I asked her if she planned on working in America after she graduated and she said her goal is to work in Japan as communications specialist for for a major corporation. She said there is a high demand for communications specialist in China! but jobs are few. In Japan she can make just as much income and that tgere are more opportunities for employment. She also said that even though she is in America for education the chances ofvjer getting good employment here was slim. WeijiI asked her what was her interest in what she wanted to learn about American culture; and what kind of experiences she wanted to take back with her to China. Weijia said that she wanted to make a few American friends and maybe just talk. She has little free time, because she is trying to complete her assignments and focus on Grad school. I suggested that we could go to the North Florida fair, coming up in a few days. I explained that it is a custom in America for traveling carnivals and farming shows to come once a year. Weijia said they had similar festivals in China. She said she would let me know what her schedule was like in the upcoming weeks and we can discuss it later.

Cp#9 Pamela The Traveling Man

September 30th hH has been several weeks since I've talked with Hameed, I had only met him once. he's been a very busy person. I was happy to hear that he wanted to meet again. He was nervous about taking the TOEFL, because he plans to pursue the doctorate program starting in the spring semester in the area of topography Hameed said he had been traveling around the country visiting family and friends in California, Texas, and Alabama. He asked if I could teach him some common American phrases to say when he meets his friends. I'm assuming that he means his American friends. he want to learn how to properly include words like 'cool', 'I got this', ' no problem ', common words we as Americans may take for granted. We use such phrases so freely that we fail to think that it may not be understood by people outside our culture. We discussed a dozen expressions that he could use in his converdation with his friends and collegues. I also included some common idioms in one of my lesson plan that I had written for tje TEFL class. Yes, the lesson plan came in handy and we were able to role-play several conversational situations in which idioms were used.

CP#8 Pamela Saturday with friends

Tingandnd s 21, My friend Susie has been learning Chinese for the past 3 years and recently had spent almost a year in China. I told Ting ting about her and she wanted to meet her. I thought it'd be cool if they met because they had the culture in common plus Susie being American had a unique perspective into both cultures. I had texted Ting ting earlier that week aand we had arranged to meet up at a local cafe. We talkdd over coffee while we waited for Susie. Ting ting said since she's been in this country she really doesn't hang around anyone but her friends at the Chinese church she attends. It surprised me to hear that she attended church, knowing China does not encourage the practice of religion. I asked had she always had religious beliefs before she came to this country? She didn't, but she was curious and nwanted to learn about the Bible. She thought the Bible was a book of myth and stories, nbut admits that she only attends the Chinese church for friendship and to meet new people. she she asked what I thought about the Bible and had I ever read it. I said I had read it a few times. I thought the Bible was more than just stories but was actual facts and that the book was practical for our day. Ting said that a lot of the Proverbs in the Bible are very similar to what Confucius taught and the similarities between what Western culture believes and what Eastern culture teaches are amazing. Susie showed up and Ting ting was delighted to meet her. They shared a lot a of similar experiences Susie having lived in Beijing China for a year and Ting ting having lived there most of her life. I must admit I felt kinda left out of the loop but it was interesting to see Ting ting and Susie speaking Chinese. She said she speaks and hears English all day long and it was nice to meet an American that actually could speak Chinese well. I'm glad they were able to meet each other and we arranged to meet again in another week.

CP #7 Pamela Questions Young People Ask..........

destinjust Later that afternoon I met Judy again out on the green. I asked her if she was enjoying the book. She said she was enjoying reading the book very much, even though it started off sad she said that it funny the things that happened to the children as they went to different homes.she said the words in the book were easy for her to follow and understand. we discussed family and how she felt being so far away from her family and she asked me the same question. She said that she had to laugh when the the children came to live with their uncle. Because, she admits, she does all the cooking and cleaning and her brother sleeps all day until class, I gave her another book that was more practical and also easy to read but it talked about questions that she may have wondered about as far as family, friendship, and planning for the future. I told her the name of the book was questions young people ask and answers that work and that the book was more than just for reading but it also had a section in the back where she could write answers to comprehensive questions. judy was trying to decide where to go for her break off from school. She didn't know whether she wanted to go to Atlanta, Georgia or Orlando, Florida. We looked up some information about both cities. ice cream that both cities have their pros and cons but no matter which destination she chose just be safe. She said thatshe knows America is not a safe place and she never walks anywhere by herself. suggested that we meet for Downtown Gettdown. We could walk around listen to music, look in some shops etc. She said she would let me know by Wednesday and see if she would be able to make it.

CP #6 Pamela Ting ting

theytheir 17 Ting ting and I met outside nin r the Wesscosaidbetcoulf ettercoulding. She is a Chinese student, from Beijing. she is hoping to enter the graduate program at FSU in the area of statistics.we talked a little about our family life and our areas of interest. Ting ting said that she is the only daughter and when she returns home in two years she hopes to work in Hong Kong. I asked would she consider taking a job in America, she said she could make a better living in China, and she wanted to help her parents. Hong Kong offers more opportunities, and her parents worked hard for her to achieve in her education so she wanted to make sure they were taken care of as they get older. American culture today is usually the reverse. Parents work hard to take care of their children and then their children leave home and only come home when they need their parents to take care of them. I told Ting ting there is still so much we can learn from Chinese customs and culture. Her English was exceptionally well. She said the hardest part of English for her is communication, not knowing exactly the right words to say. She was nervous about taking the TOEFL test because that was going to be difficult part of the test for her, the speaking and listening. But she said she had several years of intensive English language learning, grammar and reading so that was not going to be a problem.

CP #5 pamela ( A Serious of Unfortunate Events)

September 17th I was excited to share with Judy a book I had in my personal library. Since niether of us wasnt crazy about the Harry Potter I chose another series, equally as popular, but focused less on magic, demons, and witchcraft. The first book from The children's novel series, Lemony Snickett's, A Series of Unfortunate Events, was comparitive to level 3 reading. Judy said that was good because she wanted a book that was a little more difficult for her to read. The book dealt with being apart from family. I thought it would be a story that she could relate to being so far away from home and her parents. Although, the book was about orphaned children, I thought she could relate to adapting to a new situation or new place might bring some unfortunate changes and adjustments. I asked Judy did she have to make some unexpected changes to adapt to her enviroment here, in America. she said that when she came to America her brother, who is also a FSU student, helped her; so it wasn't as difficult. She said the hardest thing in American culture is people tend not to want to talk, or to you or help you when you need directions or information. She asked if I could bring more books like this so she could practice her reading.

CP #13 Hwa Won Lee

I met Dana last Friday at the library in the morning.
We talked about cultural differences between our countries.
I remembered the situations that Korean usually very humber at compliment, so would say "no, I am not that good..or my daughter is not pretty.."something like that.
I told that happens all the time in my country, and some parts I wanted to change myself especially compliment on my children because I should be the one who praise and encourage my own children.  Dana agreed, and told American also dose the similar reaction if someone compliments too much.

She told me fun of the Renaissance Festival, and we searched interesting pictures of it through Internet.
We talked more about halloween and cultural traditions before we left the place.

Cp 4 Pam

I metJudy for tea time on Tuesday September 10. We talked about our past weekend. Judy said her weekend was not as exciting as her weekend before.Mostly, she watched TV, and and hung out with her friends at her apartment. She said she was interested in reading more American novels, she asked me if I would mind bringing her a book about love, family, or friendship. We discussed what sort of books she would be interested in reading. Non-fiction or fiction? Did she like suspenseful stories or fantasy? Imust admit I was relieved when she said no horror or scary stories, because I have never been into the whole Harry Potter series. We discussed our musical interest, the kind of bands we liked.There was common ground found with Coldplay I asked Judy what was her favorite band? She told me it was Coldplay, because she really enjoyed watching their videos. We went YouTube and watched several videos, and searched for concert locations.

Christina CP#6 shopping

The other day I met up at the sweet shop to take my conversation partner Angel with me shopping. We went to plato's closet by Publix since the shuttle goes there and I'm all about getting a good deal! ^_^ I told her about how I have a couple musical performances coming up on stage and I need some some stylish outfits to wear. I told her what I was sort of looking for and we started looking through the racks. There was so much that it liked so it was really hard to choose. I ended up sending pictures to my group members to get their opinion on which outfits were the best since Angel was never sure. I even found heels on sale in my size which almost never happens! Only $7 and I almost couldn't believe it. She helped me choose between two pair and I ended up getting the all black ones because they would match with more outfits. I helped her pick out clothes to try on as well and we had a fun time. I was glad I had a shopping buddy to come along with me and make sure I didn't buy anything too crazy. Hopefully we'll get to do something again soon even though our schedules seem to conflict a lot.

Christina TP #4 (child) animals

This lesson was completely dedicated to animals and the names of their body parts. I found a great lower level reading book that covered the animals that I wanted to focus on and we started with that. At times I would have him read and at times I would read to him and point to the animal parts and ask if he knew the names of them. If he didn't I would go over it a couple times with him since I know how much children need repetition. This led up to the card game I played with him. I got it from this website: http://bogglesworldesl.com/animal_body_parts.htm

We played go fish where the cards had an animal with a certain body part you had to ask about such as "Do you have an animal with spots? No? Go fish." and so on. He gets pretty competitive with games as I'm sure most little boys do. Once he fully understood the rules he made sure to point out every time he had more card matches than I did haha It was pretty funny. I'm just glad he was learning at the same time.

Christina TP CIES #5 Idioms

I found a great website that's helpful for teaching a few idioms:

http://www.stickyball.net/idioms.html

I used a couple of their worksheet to explain some phrases that we use that don't always translate literally. We went through all of the meanings and then I gave her different scenarios and asked her when idiom would fit with which. A few examples that they had were:

Back to square one

-      start over; back to the beginning

Bark up the wrong tree

-      Looking for information in the wrong place; asking the wrong person

Be careful what you wish for

-  When you wish (or hope) for something, it may not be as good as you think – there may be negative consequences that you hadn’t thought of.
  

Break a leg!

-      This is a (funny) way to say “Good luck” – we usually say it to someone before a performance or contest

 

Christina TP #6 (child) advice board game

Since I meet with my child tutee every monday, I always start of the lesson by asking him to tell me about his weekend. He likes to make things up but at least he's creative. If I don't stop him he will go on and on so I usually have to cut him off and get the lesson started :)

I starting off with some listening practice by reading him a story and then asking him comprehension questions. His father said he really wanted Jeffrey to be able to retain information more and pay attention.

After that, we played an ESL board game that focuses on giving advice in different situations. after you roll you would land on a question like "What should I do if my mom wants me to stop going to school." and He would have to answer my question with "You should do..." or "I think its best if you.." or one of the other options. I was impressed with his well thought out responses. He didn't just say anything, he really tried to give me good advice haha it was adorable. Often he would even ask me follow-up questions just to make sure he could give the best answer to the questions. He got really into it and wanted to finish so we spent the rest of the time playing that game.

http://www.esl-galaxy.com/boardgames/givingadvice.pdf

Christina TP#7 Culture class

My culture class was on "Second Hand Shopping"

I used a powerpoint as my main visual aid. I explained that second-hand shopping used to be considered more embarrassing than it is today. Now it is done by people of all economic levels that love finding a good deal. It's a great way to recycle and it even benefits local charities. I explained the details three kinds of second-hand shopping: garage sales, flea markets and thrift stores. I talked about all the local stores they can go to (such a plato's closet, refugee house and good will), and also the best times to go for discounts. A lot of people don't know that they even offer student discounts at thrift stores and even buy clothing from you that you don't wear anymore. I had my students read main points on the slides as I went through all the information. I answered questions throughout and then passed out a worksheet with comprehension question and a fill in the blank short story on what I had just taught. After that I showed them a quick 3 minute video of a few people shopping in a thrift store and giving advice on what to do. We talked about it before moving on to a reading exercise about the store in which they were shopping during the video. I called on students to read each part of the reading aloud and then we answered the questions together.

My last activity was showing a music video called thrift shop (I used a cover since it was a cleaner version) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ke-sS8dPKk

I told them how my whole outfit was from a thrift store and they were surprised. Nothing was priced over three or four dollars. I gave them the lyrics to the video with some slang terms highlighted and then afterwards I had them guess what they might mean before revealing the meaning. I passed out a list of the slang definitions ad well for them to take with them. It was definitely an interesting conversation, especially showing them an example of all the words in sentences. Fun stuff! ^_^
 

Christina CP #5

Market Wednesday

I met my conversation partner and tutee at the student union one day after classes were over because we were all a little hungry. Market Wednesday was still going on which was great because I had some friends working booths and I wanted to show them what it's like. They usually can't go since they it happens during the time they have class. There are lots of vendors, dancing, food, and music. People sell clothes, jewelry and other things that I can't quite remember. We met up with my friend at her jewelry booth and I introduced them to her and some others. They talked about where they were from and what they were studying. It was good practice for them to talk to people in a normal context outside of CIES. One of my friends came with us to eat at yogurt place at the union and we all stuffed our faces and had girl talk. I was planning a trip to Miami at the time so we all talked about that and the festival we planned on attending. I showed them pictures of what it was like and my friend offered them a chance to go on the trip with us if we had enough room. In time another friend of mine joined us and we had a long, funny conversation. My CIES partners loved meeting my friends and upon leaving they promised to meet us at international coffee hour on Friday that week to talk more about the trip. It was a fun time.

Christina CP #4

On this day I met with my CIES conversation partner and tuttee because they both live in the same apartment complex. I decided to have a game day with them so I brought board games for us to play. I had trouble finding the apartment because once I got there I had to call my tuttee for help and of course her English still needs work haha. They ended up meeting me outside somewhere and walking me the rest of the way. Once we got inside I pulled out my laptop and they offered me snacks and something to drink like the gracious hosts they are. I pulled up pandora radio website and made a station that would play music in English and in Portuguese to make it more fun and lower their effective filters a little. After a little small talk I pulled out the ESL board games I had gotten from online and application on my phone that simulates rolling a dice since I didn't have a real one. The game was practicing talking about situations with family and friends. This was a topic they enjoying talking about so it got them talking more and thinking less which was good. We also talked about their favorite American music artists as well as back in Brazil. My tutee really likes Bruno Mars. I had my guitar with me and I know some Bruno Mars songs so I played some music for them. They couldn't resist taking instagram videos of me and putting them online. I didn't mind though. They are really sweet. I plan on bringing them to an open mic show with me eventually.

Christina CO #3

LEVEL 3: Listening

The class was started with a review discussion about the lecture from the day before. I still felt like the teachers' speech was a little modified but she did speak faster than the other classes I observed. There was some pretty high level vocabulary but the students seemed to have a good grasp of the information as they looked at their notes. They also had much better speaking skills and confidence than the lower level classes. Next, the teacher showed a youtube video for about 10 minutes or so. It was about one of the most intelligent parrots ever that had died named Alex. when it was over, she asked as many students as possible comprehension questions. The way she called on students by name was a great way to make sure everyone participated. Their responses were more detailed than I'm used to hearing tutoring level 1 students.

I noticed this class has the most complex subject matter out of all the ones I attended. It made sense since it was a level 3 class. Students had to use strategies like dictation which isn't required of lower levels. Some of the topics they went over were: psychology of the brain, infant brain development and critical intervention.

Ning Liu TP#12 Culture Class

 I taught the class about Sarcasm for my culture class. To my dismay, only my two conversation partners were interested. Or rather than interested, I’d say they were there to support me. I wrote down the agenda on the board, stating exactly what I was going to do. I had name tags prepared so I could call the students of the class by their names. However, since initially there were only those two, I did not need them. I introduced the concept of sarcasm, and asked the students if they knew what it was. The common answer was “to make fun of somebody.” Unbeknownst to them, it carries a second meaning. When using sarcasm, a sense of negativity can also be conveyed. Sarcasm does not necessarily have to be aimed at somebody. It can be aimed at something. For example, for an unpleasant day, the sarcasm remark could be aimed at the rain, or just how the day has been going in general. I introduced words that had to do with sarcasm, each of which I asked the students to define. If the students could not define the words, then I would explain it. In the middle of the class, three students came in. Sadly, since sarcasm is a relatively higher level speech pattern, I was disappointed that the three students were also only in group 1 like my conversation partners. Once I reached to section of the class where I showed them video clips, I had students explain to me what parts of the clips were using sarcasm. After the video clips, the three students left. Where the three left, one entered. This extra student was participating much more than the three that left, so that made me feel better. I had the grand total of three students in the class at the moment to get together and throw out some sarcastic remarks. To show them examples of sarcasm, I had written up a model where I gave a setting and a dialogue. Given this dialogue, the students were given a few minutes to create small dialogues to show their understanding of sarcasm, to which they used pretty well. One particularly fun one was “Last night, I went to a (American-style) Japanese restaurant. It was really delicious.” Afterwards, I asked if each student’s respective country used sarcasm. Surprisingly enough, Japan does not.

Ning Liu TP#11

Again, Sally and Rayna were not present. However, I assumed that this was the case, thus I was relatively prepared. Jason was very excited to tell me about his upcoming fishing trip with his father. Apparently his father and he are going to go fish near Destin with 3 other families (though it seems to be a man trip). This gave me the idea to have Jason write an essay of what he’s going to do. I did not restrict him to a 5 paragraph format, as that would be too long at his level in my opinion. Thus, I asked him to write one paragraph essay about his future fishing trip. I gave him about 20 minutes to write it. I would say that his fluency is fine, but his structure and grammar needed work. There were a lot of dependent clause sentences. I fixed a few grammar errors such as mixing up simple present and in progress. Afterwards, we looked for a book about fishes and fishing. To Jason’s dismay, there weren’t any children’s book about fishing, so we picked up a book about fish and read it. This book talked about a salmon’s journey from birthday to adulthood. This turned out to be intensive reading than extensive, as there were jargons in the book. The concept was understood, but the words themselves were foreign. As I explained what the words meant, he understood them and gave synonyms to support his understanding. I asked him to create some example sentences, which he did perfectly on.

Ning Liu TP#10

Instead of meeting Sally and Rayna, I only met Jason this time. Expecting to meet the girls, I did not plan anything in particular for Jason. Since it came to this, I asked Jason to pick out a book from the library. We sat down and read about soccer since Jason enjoyed playing soccer. This was more of an extensive reading exercise. While reading aloud, I noticed that Jason will sometimes skip words, or mutter a sound in substitution. This is when I told him to sound out the word, and asked him if he knew what the word was. I realized that he did not actually understand some sentences. To make sure he understands, I asked him to tell me what each sentence meant from then on. He had some difficulty understanding the word “proud.” I tried to explain this word by telling him how his father was proud of him. Of course, I first told him that proud meant being very happy towards someone because something they have done. I told him that since he played soccer, spoke amazing English, and was a good child, his father was proud of him.  We went over some example sentences, few of which he created himself. During the reading, the words he knew, he knew well. However, he would stumble on a word every so often, but overall it went well. He learned new words and was able to use them well.

Ning Liu TP#9

Sally and Rayna had completed the homework I had asked them to do, but there were multiple errors. In the homework, I asked for both the definition and their own sentences for each word. I went over each of the words one by one. For the most part, they understand each word. Adhere, for example, was one that they understood perfectly. However, the word adapt was a little bit difficult. They did not understand what “adapting to the surrounding” meant. Their definitions were fine, but to actually use them in sentences was still a bit difficult. I created multiple scenarios with multiple example sentences. For example, I talked about how in middle school, I only had 4 T-shirts and 3 pairs of pants. Once I went into high school, I noticed that nobody only wears normal T-shirts and pants anymore, so I went to the mall and bought new clothes to fit in. I adapted to my new high school surroundings. After a few tries, the two understood the word a bit better. We created more sentences to make sure Sally and Rayna understood how to use the word. Afterwards, I tested them on 4 new words, since last time, 10 was too much. In the same fashion, I asked them to spell the word, and then write what they thought the words meant. This was a relative success, with the words:

Parody
Priority
Precise
Provoke

The girls seem to have understood these words much better than the ones previous. Sadly, time ran out before we could play the Apples to Apples game. Again, I gave the girls the same homework.