FSU TEFL 120 2024, Fall 2

Tutoring session #13: November 26th Date/Time: Tuesday November 26th 6pm Location: facetime Topic/Skill: Exam review  Feedback provided to the tutee: The previous tutoring session miguel had expressed that he has an exam coming up with all of the grammar topics he has learned this session and wanted me to create a practice test. Since I was going to be on facetime I created a practice test that covers his first chapter completely which was verb tenses. I found a lot of very good exercises from a textbook online. I provided feedback by having the answers up on my side and we went exercise by exercise and I gave him corrections after each one. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: A lesson I learned was to listen to the students when they ask for a specific thing to review. Although we have spent extensive time before doing verb tenses, I'm more than willing to give him the resources like a practice test to study and give him the enforcement and confidence he needs t...

  Date/Time: Monday  november 25th 3:30 Location: CIES Topic/Skill: Adjectival clauses  Feedback provided to the tutee: Today we worked on Adjectival clauses. To begin we looked over his textbook and worked to define the difference between non definitive and definitive adjectival clauses. I provided feedback on the definitive clauses through fill in the blank exercises and providing explanation of usage for the word bank which was “ who | that | whom | when | where | which | whose | preposition + which | preposition + whom | no relative pronoun.” I immediately corrected him when it was wrong and then the words he repeatedly got wrong I developed many examples of sentences in which those words would be used.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned once again, well more of a reinforcement. That it is ok to admit if one doesn’t understand a certain grammar rule. For example I did not know how to use who or whom and what the object or subject ...

  Tutoring session #10 and #11: November 10th Date/Time: Saturday november 10th 3:30 Location: Student union Topic/Skill: Gerunds and Infinitives  Feedback provided to the tutee: Today was a much more productive lesson of Gerunds and infinitives. I spent the majority of the time giving linguistic support as it was clear to me from the previous lesson that he had not entirely grasped the concept of gerunds na dinvities. Therefore I provided definitions, incorrect and correct examples, and explanations for why each sentence was correct. After reviewing the guides of information I made then we did a mad libs for choosing either a gerund or infinitive for a verb. What made this more successful than last time was that for every mad libs sentence I made I put a definition for the main verb. That way by understanding the acton he could understand whether or not the preposition took place before or after the main verb. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned h...

  Tutoring session #9: November 6th Date/Time: Saturday november 6th 3:30 Location: Student union Topic/Skill: Gerunds and Infinitives  Feedback provided to the tutee: Today wasn’t the most productive tutoring lesson. Last class he told me that we should work on Gerunds and Infinitives so I showed him a slideshow of fill in the blanks for gerunds and infinitives after giving him linguistic support of the purpose and when they are used. Although he was able to grasp the concept of the infinitive is used for abstract ideas and the gerund is always used after prepositions. he didn’t really understand the idea that the gerund and infinitive exist at certain times before and after the main verb therefore the feedback I provided was mostly just giving fill in the blanks that have prepositions before it or have an abstract idea.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that it’s important to have a lot of patience. It was very frustrating that Miguel kep...

  Tutoring session #7 and# 8: November 4th Date/Time: Saturday november 4th 3:30 Location: Student union Topic/Skill: Decoding skills  Feedback provided to the tutee: Today we started with decoding skills. These included 5 patterns. I came up with a list of words and it was a lot of repetition after me then reading paragraphs that had alot of the words planted in there. The feedback I was able to provide was that Miguel genuinely just did not know the sounds of vowels and how they differentiated. Therefore I pulled up clips from the movie leapfrog's letter factory. It’s a children’s cartoon that goes through each of the vowel sounds by giving them a personality. It was very helpful in him being able to learn to pronounce the vowels. Then in the passage the consonants he had difficulties with I pulled up the clips from those letters as well  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that it’s important to for lack of better words commit to the bit. M...

  Tutoring session #5 and # 6: November 2 Date/Time: Saturday november 2nd 2pm Location: Student union Topic/Skill: Pronunciation  Feedback provided to the tutee: Today we worked on minimal pairs and phonics. I had a list of words first with the same vowel sounds. I did a repeat after me. He seemed to do very well when he repeated after me but often forgot the pronunciations after. Then we also worked on minimal pairs by fill in the blank sentences by choosing two word options. I was able to provide feedback by showing him that the sentence's meaning changes depending how he pronounces as he is saying two different words. Then we worked on voiced and voiceless th. The feedback I provided was also having to fill in the blank sentences where the different words would change the meaning. Then we worked on final sound clusters. Since this was something he struggled with the most for pronunciation we mostly just did repeat after me to get pronunciation and reading passages. Lesson(...

  Tutoring session #4: October 30th 3pm Date/Time: Wednesday october 30th 3pm Location: Student union Topic/Skill: Verb tenses Feedback provided to the tutee: Today I created a worksheet to focus on the verb tenses he is learning. The exercises were fill in the blank and two free responses per each exercise. AS well as we focused on adverbs of frequency. I was able to not only provide immediate feedback when there were errors but also provide the linguistic support to the explanations to each verb tense  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: The lesson that I learned is that one has to come prepared with almost triple the knowledge that one has displayed on a worksheet or activity. I learned this especially by tutoring Miguel as he likes to know explanations for everything. Therefore just having examples and modeling isn’t enough I have to have on google ready the explanations for using each verb tense and specific speaking patterns

  Tutoring session #2 and #3: October 26 2pm Date/Time: Saturday October 6 2pm Location: Student union Topic/Skill: Diagnostic exam Feedback provided to the tutee: Today Miguel completed the diagnostic exam I made for him. This consisted of testing grammar and composition with verb tenses, short paragraph writing for composition, reading comprehension with multiple choice questions, a speaking activity done with the shadowing method. And a listening activity done with a spoken script. I found that I made the exam a little too difficult as he told me he wanted to be challenged so a lot of the diagnostic was me modeling and then him being able to complete the exercises on his own. I was able to correct all his errors immediately after each question by writing down my own response on another piece of paper. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: The lesson that I learned is that you have to keep asking a tutee whether or not they understand the topic at hand. I ended u...

  Tutoring session #1: October 23 3pm Date/Time: Wednesday October 23 3pm Location: CIES balcony Topic/Skill: Diagnostic Feedback provided to the tutee: Today Miguel and I met and got to know each other and just talked about his goals for tutoring this semester. He said that he already has another tutor and his main goals are to improve on his pronunciation. We talked a lot about how much he wants to improve and the spaces he wants to be in once he can speak english proficiently. I noticed that he can hold a conversation pretty well and correct himself often. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: The lesson that I learned when speaking to him today is that I need to speak slower. He told me that I talk too fast and in order for him to understand I need to slow down. He showed me his textbook and what he is currently working on and that is what I plan to use for the diagnostic test for next session.

Student:  Je-Ah Date/Time:  Tuesday, 11/26, 7 a.m. Location:  Online (Teams) Topic:  Reading discussion/conversation practice Feedback provided to the tutee:  As usual, we read through a book and then discussed it, taking time to carefully go over words she didn't know or had problems pronouncing. I'm really pleased that she's starting to monitor herself when it comes to l and r ! (and also pronouncing the s at the end of sentences). We read Mr. Putter and Tabby Stir the Soup and also discussed different types of soups and cooking. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:  Nothing groundbreaking, but I enjoyed our warm-up activity in which we each drew a hypothetical idea for what Mr. Putter and Tabby should do next and then explained it. Je-Ah is actually a really good artist for her age!

Student:  Abdulaziz A. Date/Time:  Monday, 11/18, 5 p.m. Location:  Online (Google Meets) Topic:  General catch-up Feedback provided to the tutee:  I discussed the essay he had sent me earlier and made some suggestions as to how he could improve it. Grammatically and organization-wise it was mostly fine, but since it was about team-work but had no examples of team-work, it felt a bit abstract/boring to read. I gave him some examples of relevant teamwork that he might want to include. We also discussed how his reading through the books we got last week was going. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:  Always ask students if they are using AI/ChatGPT to help them write essays. Although I can't stop them from using it, if an essay feels too "good but generic" I usually find there was some AI involved and give some suggestions for improvement. While ChatGPT can be a good short-term tool for easily fixing English errors, ultimately I think it ca...

Student:  Je-Ah Date/Time:  Monday, 11/25, 7 a.m. Location:  Online (Teams) Topic:  Reading & Discussion Feedback provided to the tutee:  Since reading through Mr. Putter and Tabby has seemed to be a successful approach, we continued with Mr. Putter and Tabby Take the Train . As usual, I tried to focus on fluency, but after each page we would review any vocab or pronunciation Je-Ah was unsure about. Then we discussed the book.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:  Richard Scarry is a children's illustrator for American kids, but his books are SO good for ESL because they mostly focus on illustrations + vocab words/definitions. I sent Je-Ah several pages on cars, trains, and transportation. 

  Student: Wei Wang  Date/Time: November 27th 10-11am  Location: Zoom  Topic: Speaking Feedback provided to tutee: We talked more about her housing situation and went over possible situations. I had her explain in more detail about what happened to her and what lead to her current situation. This again was good speaking practice, and in her speaking I was able to note and correct some of her errors. Some common things I found were pronoun confusion, she would interchange he and she when talking about the same person, so I asked questions to clarify what she meant. There were also some issues of noun and article agreement. For example she might have used "a" or "an" to describe something plural.  Lessons I learned about tutoring: I was able to put into practice the importance of accuracy vs fluency correction. Since she is not a beginner level speaker, fluency is less of an issue and I was able to correct her smaller mistakes. 

  Student: Wei Wang Date/Time: November 26th, 11-12pm  Location: Dirac Library Topic: Speaking Practice Feedback provided to tutee:  This session was interesting because I planned to do a speaking exercise with her to practice using correct grammar when telling a story. Instead, she asked for my help with finding a house because she suddenly has to move out and is having problems with her landlord. It is very serious situation, and I was trying to help her find places to sublease. Overall, I was asking her a lot of questions about her situation and it was a good opportunity for her to practice speaking and explaining herself, even if it wasn't my original lesson plan.  Lessons about tutoring I learned: I learned that things can come up that might be a bit unexpected, and being flexible is important. I also learned how difficult it is to set boundaries, and this is a very hard situation because I am just her tutor but also want to help her since she is an internationa...

  Student: Wei Wang  Date/Time: November 22nd, 4-5pm Location: Dirac Library  Topic: Listening Comprehension Feedback provided to tutee: In this session we practiced the listening portion of the TOEFL exam. The section included listening to conversations, some formal or informal, or lecture topics. During the exercise, I sat with her and did the activity for myself, taking notes and answering questions. She got every question correct, however it her speed that prevented her from finishing the section. We talked about note taking, and how it can be hard to take notes when the lecturer is talking quickly, however you can write down main points that will jog your memory later.  Lessons about teaching I learned: I learned that listening can be overwhelming, and trying to take notes can lead some students to freeze up or give too much of their focus to the wrong thing. I found that teaching how to recognize tone and emphasis can be helpful, especially when listening on th...

  Student: Wei Wang  Date/Time: November 21st, 4-5pm  Location: Dirac Library  Topic: Subjunctive Tense Feedback provided to tutee: Today we emphasized speaking with the subjunctive tense. We followed the structure provided by a textbook she had, and she did a really good job since she memorized the patterns and rules for the tense. Part of her struggle included understanding the differences in some of the verbs associated with this tense (suggest, ask, demand, urge, etc.) I explained that while they all are technically synonyms, they have different connotations and levels of severity when used in American English.  Lessons I learned about teaching: I think parts of this session were frustrating for her because she told me there isn't a similar tense like this in her native language, so she struggles with gaining automaticity. I learned that in cases like this it's very important to encourage the student and celebrate the small wins with them. The intermediate l...

Student: Letizia Gerbotto Date/Time: November 25, 3:00-4:00 Location: Outside Strozier Library Topic: Listening, Verb Tenses Feedback provided to the tutee: We reviewed a video she watched in class and made sentences in the past continuous form in preparation for her exam tomorrow. We also studied the other verb tenses that will appear on her exam by giving her prompts where she had to craft her own sentences in the different tenses. I gave her feedback on the ones she got wrong and had her correctly write them, then write an extra sentence for each one she got wrong to practice.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: My tutee mastered the verb tenses and feels ready for her grammar test tomorrow. She learned how to look for important details in a scene and write them out in specific verb tenses with ease. By the time we reached the last four sentences, she did them entirely on her own without corrections. 

 Student: Do-jun Kim Date/Time: November 25, 9:00-10:00am Location: Virtual/Zoom Topic: Speaking Presentation, Reading Practice, Writing Introduction Feedback provided to the tutee: He presented his 3-day itinerary to me. I introduced samples in our last session. I gave him feedback about his speaking according to the TOEFL speaking rubric. He gave an in-depth 15-minute presentation with pictures; he did a great job! We continued with reading an excerpt from a novel, and he answered comprehension questions; this was a little above his level, so I will definitely pick a more level-appropriate reading for next time. After he had responded to and explained his answer choices, we moved on to his homework, a writing assignment. We reviewed the academic essay writing structure in class, and I gave him another reading, where his homework is to break down each essay component and then write his own outline based on the prompt.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Hi...

Date:  Wednesday, 11/20: Group 3 Speaking w/Dr. Ryan Flemming, 1 - 1:50 p.m. Group 3 Listening w/Dr. Rios Angelos, 2 - 2:50 p.m. Key Takeaways: In the speaking class, it was great to be able to both listen and participate (a bit) in the students' presentation on violence and video games. The student would present on a topic (usually one that has two sides) and then open it up to the class to add their own points of view. In the listening class, the teacher and students went through a pre-reading exercise on hive minds.

Student: Geena K. Date/Time:  Friday, 11/22, 4 p.m. Location:  Student Union Topic:  Conversation practice Feedback provided to the tutee:  We discussed a variety of topics (future holiday plans, school, etc.) in which I focused mainly on listening to Geena speak more, but I did occasionally give her a missing word/phrase she was searching for or correct her grammar. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:  Sometimes it's good to take a break from our regular reading discussion schedule and have more back-and-forth conversation!

Student:  Je-Ah Date/Time:  Thursday, 11/21, 7 a.m. Location:  Online (Teams) Topic:  Reading Feedback provided to the tutee: We continued to read through and discuss the Mr. Putter and Tabby series, this time going through Mr. Putter and Tabby Bake the Cake . I continued to focus on fluency while correcting some grammar mistakes. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:  This was a great book for us to read as it involved the topic of Christmas! We discussed different American vs Korean Christmas/holiday traditions and both learned some new things.

Student: Geena K. Date/Time:  Wednesday, 11/20, 3 p.m. Location:  CIES Building Topic:  The Hunger Games Feedback provided to the tutee:  Since our session was mostly speaking, I corrected some of her speaking errors and also prompted her to complete spoken summaries about the chapters she read . Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:  Besides discussing the book, we also continued to watch some of the corresponding clips from the movie. It's definitely been interesting to re-visit this series from a teaching perspective.

Student:  Je-Ah Date/Time:  Tuesday, 11/19, 7 a.m. Location: Online (Teams) Topic:  Reading Feedback provided to the tutee: We read another book in the Mr. Putter and Tabby series, Mr. Putter and Tabby Walk the Dog. Although I corrected some of her repeated pronunciation errors ("walk" was the most common issue), we mostly focused on reading fluency and discussing the text. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:  I love this book series because it provides great opportunities for discussion and seems at the perfect level for her. And the artwork is very engaging! I definitely want to incorporate some minimal pairs for r and l sounds next week.

Student:  Abdulaziz A. Date/Time:  Monday, 11/18, 3 p.m. Location: CIES Building Topic:  Homework Feedback provided to the tutee: I helped clarify the perfect tenses to him as he had had several questions about them from his classes. We also went to the library to pick out more level appropriate books for him to read, as he had decided not to continue with the Hobbit (it was too difficult). We picked out some science and mythology graphic novels aimed at middle schoolers. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:  If a book turns out too difficult, switch to an easier level! Also, never miss the chance to turn an idea into practice, ie., we found it better to just go to the library then and there, because I was worried that on his own he might not find an appropriate book.

  Student: Wei Wang Date/Time: November 20th, 4pm-5pm  Location: Dirac Library Topic: Grammar Practice Feedback Provided to tutee: Today we practiced the conditional tenses. Specifically, we practiced the present conditional tense, the zero, first, second, third, and forth types. The hardest parts for her included the use of modal verbs: could, would, and should. I used fill in the blank exercises so she could put these into productive use, and these helped her see how these tenses should be used.  Lessons I learned about tutoring: I have never heard of the different “types” of the conditional form that she had in her textbook, so I had to learn how to adapt to this new strategy and still make a productive and effective lesson. I also became aware of the difficulty that lies in being a native speaker and not learning English in this way. Some of her questions I could not answer, and I had to tell her it is just the most common way of speaking. For example, the sentence “s...

Student: Letizia Gerbotto Date/Time: November 20, 3:15-4:15 Location: FSU Student Union Topic: Grammar and punctuation worksheets. Feedback provided to the tutee: We reviewed the feedback her teacher gave her on two articles in which she needed to correct punctuation and grammar. We went through the feedback together, breaking down each correction and explaining why her answers were marked wrong. I found another example online, and we went through it together to see if she had a better understanding of capitalization and commas when making corrections.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that sometimes students need a more in-depth breakdown, and once you do that, it is much easier for them to gain more fluency. I also learned that she does not particularly enjoy making punctuation corrections, and I feel like if she was more interested in what she was reading, she would be more motivated to make corrections. 

  Student: Wei Wang Date/Time: November 19th, 11:30am-12:30pm  Location: Museum of Fine Arts Topic: Reading Practice Feedback provided to tutee:  We walked around the museum and looked at the different pieces and read the description panels. I noticed she was hesitant to read these and wanted to go straight to making assumptions about what was going on in the work. I had to remind her to practice reading the descriptions, and if there were unfamiliar words we could talk about them so she would understand. I think this was a good activity because the reading level was pretty academic, although the content was a bit unfamiliar to her since it heavily focused on American history.  Lessons about tutoring I learned: I learned that in order to fully comprehend a text it can take a lot of repetition and time. I recalled our discussion on the differences between listening and reading teaching practices, and a benefit to reading is that the student can go at whatever pace the...

Student: Letizia Gerbotto Date/Time: November 18, 3:15 - 4:15 Location: FSU Student Union Topic: Reviewed Me, Mine, My, and Myself, Practiced her debate topic for class Feedback provided to the tutee: I corrected her when we did practice with Me, Mine, My, and Myself and helped her with a few rules on their use. We went through 50 fill-in-the-blank questions until she got the hang of it, and by the end, she felt confident. I listened to her debate and gave her feedback on how she can speak more fluently by practicing pronunciation of the more difficult words for her.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that she understands much more when I bring materials similar to what she does in class as a review and for more practice. My tutee learned how to deliver her debate in the most efficient way; she practiced her points with me multiple times until she felt confident enough to have her points challenged, to which she gave great responses.

Student:  Je-Ah Date/Time:  Monday, 11/18, 7 a.m. Location:  Online (Teams) Topic:  Talking about books Feedback provided to the tutee:  We read through  Mr. Putter and Tabby   Pour the Tea , a book that I think was appropriate for her beginner level. She understood most of it, but I was able to give her feedback on some of her pronunciation and also explain vocab she didn't understand. We discussed the book afterwards. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:  I'm glad I picked a reading topic because it allows her to do a lot of speaking, and the Mr. Putter and Tabby books are so engaging! The Internet Archive library is the best.

Student: Do-jun Kim Date/Time: November 18, 9:00-10:00am Location: Virtual/Zoom Topic: Prepositions HW Review, Short Essay Review, Speaking assignment Feedback provided to the tutee: We reviewed his writing assignment, and I corrected the first draft. He will resubmit with those revisions. I also told him to check for grammar issues without explicitly saying what the right way was so he could fix them himself. We reviewed the prepositions sheet I assigned him; he did great on it and has become much better at prepositions. I introduced a speaking activity based on the lesson plan I made with Tessa and asked him to prepare a presentation for our next meeting.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: My tutee benefited greatly from the reviews that we did, and he has grown a lot in grammar. I will keep integrating some form of grammar in all of our sessions because that is what he is most eager to improve on. As far as speaking goes, I think he needs conversational prac...

Student: Diego Moros Date/Time: November 15, 12:30-1:30pm Location: Zoom Topic: Reviewing a writing sample, Reading an article Feedback provided to the tutee: I reviewed his second article with him, and he asked me questions as we read. I also gave him feedback on his article review after we read the article together and suggested some additions that could be made after highlighting critical points in the research article. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I read through one of his articles he needs to write a review for before the session, which helped me prepare. I took notes on it for this session for our discussion to make sure he hits all the key points and mentions them in his writing. I sis assessed if he summarized it according to the directions and found some critical components of the article missing, but he overall did a great job. 

Student:  Geena Date/Time:  Friday, 11/16, 1 p.m. Location:  CIES Building Topic: Real life excursion (painting at the Student Life Center) Feedback provided to the tutee:  Since I was feeling a little low on Friday, we decided to do an easy activity we had planned to do sometime during the semester: paint at Paint-A-Pot. So, although we had natural conversation before/after/during, I didn't provide much feedback; it was more of a casual outing. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:  I think it's good to sometimes have a backup easy plan in the cards in case you have a bad day. I'm glad Geena enjoyed it, and I hope it was good for her because she said that she doesn't explore around FSU much; I hope she sees that there's many environments she can indirectly hang out in and it all still builds towards learning English, even if she's not even speaking English. Finding everyday spaces to hang out in is very important in acclimatizing into another c...

Student:  Je-Ah Date/Time:  Thursday, 11/14, 7 a.m. Location:  Online (Teams) Topic:  Talking about art Feedback provided to the tutee: I provided Je-Ah with some new words and vocabulary related to art, including design, illustration, animation, character design, sketch, pose, shape, layer, model, composition,  etc. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:  Because art is a subject I know pretty well, I fear this turned into more of a lecture lesson than a mutual discussion lesson. But, we at least still went through questions related to art together. I've started making a mini lesson plan via Google slides before every lesson now, which is very helpful in guiding our time together.

  Student: Wei Wang Date/Time: November 15th, 4-5pm  Location: Dirac Library  Topic: Listening Practice  Feedback provided to tutee: During this session, we watched a short clip from the TV show Friends. I would pause the clip after a few sentences, and ask her to summarize (to the best of her ability) what was going on in the scene. This was a really helpful technique because there were lots of parts that she did not understand because the characters would speak in euphemisms. I explained what euphemisms were and how they were used, and how they require a lot of cultural context when watching an American show like Friends. Lessons about tutoring I learned: I learned that especially with listening activities, it's important to pause and repeat parts to ensure comprehension. As I recall from the textbook chapter on listening, often students can get really frustrated with listening activities if they feel it is beyond their level, since they may not be able to und...

  Student: Wei Wang Date/Time: November 13th, 4-5pm  Location: Dirac Library Topic: Listening practice Feedback provided to tutee: We watched a Jimmy Fallon interview with Taylor Swift. We watched it all the way through and then once again, and she had trouble with a lot of what they were saying. In the interview they were talking about a surgery, so there were a lot of terms and expressions that she didn’t understand. There were also a lot of jokes that she didn’t understand because of cultural context. To practice listening we would pause the video and I would ask her to summarize what was said or what they were talking about. Lessons about tutoring you learned: It became very clear to me how even though everything is still in English, different speech patterns can make understanding it very difficult. In a talk show setting, people were talking over each other and it could be difficult to understand. I learned the importance of slowing down and replaying things to fully und...

Date:  Tuesday, 11/12, 9 a.m. - 2:50 p.m. I watched a whole day of classes--Group 3 Composition with Dr. Flemming, Group 4 Grammar with Dr. Flemming, Group 3 Reading with Dr. Ciapetta, Group 3 Speaking with Dr. Flemming, and Group 3 Listening with Dr. Rios. Key Takeaways:  It was fun to be able to shadow CIES students for a whole day! Some of the classes (like the grammar class) were more interactive, and I got to engage in the class or with the teacher. Others, like the listening class, were more quiet and the students worked on their own. (Listening is not normally like that, but the students had a midterm today, so I was basically just sitting in the class. However, even then it was good to be able to observe the format/structure of the midterm.)  At the end of these observations, the only thing I potentially regret is that I've mostly only shadowed Group 3 & 4 students. I wish I could have observed Group 1/2 students more as elementary students are the ones I feel...

Student:  Geena Date/Time:  Wednesday, 11/13, 3 p.m. EST  Location:  CIES Building Topic:   The Hunger Games book discussion Feedback provided to the tutee:  Geena still makes a few grammatical errors in her speaking or finds it difficult to provide the right vocabulary word; I often asked her if she understood a certain word or suggested/defined new words to her. I think I could correct her grammar even more, but I also do not want to interrupt her talking. I should take more notes while she talks. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:  I think turning our meetings into a book discussion was a good idea, as she read many chapters over the weekend and seems to be getting into the series. She also talked a lot about its ideas in response to my questions, and we watched some of the corresponding scenes from the movies again. 

Student:  Je-Ah Date/Time:  Tuesday, 11/12, 7 a.m. EST (9 p.m. KST) Location:  Teams (online) Topic:  Basic Conversation Practice: Travel Feedback provided to the tutee:  Since Je-Ah is still a beginner student, I mostly focused on encouraging her to speak and explaining/modeling words/structures she didn't understand. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:  I adapted my beginner ESL listening lesson on travel to provide us with topics. This time, I shared some Google slides with her, which made it even easier for her to see/respond and for me to explain. I think we had the most fun yet, learned new words (like available or transportation), and I also shared a lot of cultural info about Florida with her which I think she enjoyed. I still wish Teams had a whiteboard feature or that she could edit the slides with me somehow. Next time, I'll try sharing the document of slides with her, but I'm not sure if she can open them on her iPad while als...

Student:  Je-Ah Date/Time:  Monday, 11/11, 7 a.m. EST (9 p.m. KST) Location:  Teams (online) Topic:  Basic Conversation Practice: Friends Feedback provided to the tutee:  Since Je-Ah is still a beginner student, I mostly focused on encouraging her to speak and explaining/modeling words/structures she didn't understand. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:  We started the session with an online game of storytelling/drawing (Gartic phone), which I thought was good for loosening the ice and also practicing writing skills. It would be more fun with more people. I also started taking notes in a Google doc which she could see; this helped because I was able to start writing down sentences for her and modeling them/explaining them. I think this helped her not feel helpless when listening, as the explanation is present continuously. Overall we had more than enough material going over some ESL questions related to friends; at first I had her ask me...

  Student: Wei Wang Date/Time: November 12th, 11:15-12:15  Location: Dirac Library Topic:Reading/Comprehension practice Feedback provided to tutee: We continued our lesson from the last time of dissecting terms and concepts from the video about the Renaissance. This time, we focused more on vocabulary terms that were unfamiliar to her. I focused on providing her with synonyms and antonyms, as this will help expand her vocabulary. In this session, a lot of my feedback was centered on her pronunciation and usage. Her grammar is very advanced, and I’m finding that she’s hardly making grammatical errors relating to verb tenses or agreements, but her struggle areas are in the pronunciation and fluidity in her speech.  Lessons about tutoring you learned: I learned that provided synonyms can be very very useful. When explaining new words to her, I would give both a literal definition in addition to giving her synonyms, and she found the synonyms much more useful. She also expres...

 Student: Do-jun Kim Date/Time: November 11, 9:00-10:15am Location: Virtual/Zoom Topic: Writing Review, Prepositions Practice Feedback provided to the tutee: We reviewed his writing assignment, and he did great overall, with a few grammar errors that we later did practice questions on. He struggled with the "on" and "at" preposition usage the most in our grammar review. We continued doing practice with over 50 questions, and he did very well.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: My tutee benefited greatly from the grammar lesson, and I am confident in his ability to use prepositions properly. He is also a great writer, and I look forward to reading his essay based on a prompt I gave him after watching a video on small talk. 

Student: Geena Date/Time: Friday 11/8, 1 - 2 p.m. Location: CIES Building Topic:  Discussing The Hunger Games Feedback provided to the tutee: As discussed, Geena had started reading through the first Hunger Games book, and I asked her to provide a summary/feedback. Initially we had planned to do this via writing, but instead I just wrote down what she verbally said in a Google doc journal while we were meeting. I corrected incorrect grammar and asked more specific questions if the answers were too vague. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: It's important to integrate reading, speaking, and even listening! After discussing the book, we also watched clips from the movie of the corresponding scenes that she had read. I think this really helped solidify what we'd talked about. We also further discussed our plans to undertake a short story writing project.

Date: Listening Group 3 w/Dr. Angel Rios on Monday, Wednesday, Friday (11/4, 11/6, 11/8) Key Takeaways: It was great to be able to watch a specific group/teacher for the week! A lot of times the format revolved around making an outline of the thesis, main points, and supporting points of a passage that the students had listened to before class. Topics included coquí (a type of frog), dark skies, and Deaf culture. Going through an outline together was a great teacher-and-whole-class activity that also allowed the teacher to correct any student errors. I also learned some helpful definitions to help students put into words an author's purpose and tone: Author's Purpose: verb + main idea (eg, to explain the impact of frogs on the ecosystem... ) Author's Tone: emotion + topic (eg, critical of racism... )

In our tutoring session, I prepared sentences that used incorrect prepositions, and the focus was on having her identify and explain why they were wrong. For example, sentences like "She is in the bus" or "I will meet you at Friday" were presented, and she worked through figuring out the correct prepositions—"on the bus" and "I will meet you on Friday." This activity helped her sharpen her understanding of preposition rules while improving her critical thinking skills in grammar. In addition to the prepositions, we introduced some new vocabulary words that she was excited to learn. She was excited to use the new words in her own sentences, and this gave her an opportunity to practice both her new vocabulary and her grammar skills in context. Overall, the session was engaging, as she enjoyed the challenge of correcting the sentences and expanding her vocabulary at the same time.

In our tutoring session, we focused on improving sentence structures by exploring the use of different verb tenses—past, present, and future—and understanding when to use action verbs with the "-ing" form. We began by reviewing the rules for each tense, such as using the past tense for actions that have already happened, the present tense for ongoing or habitual actions, and the future tense for actions that will happen later. Then, we practiced incorporating "-ing" verbs, which are used to describe actions in progress or continuous activities. For example, Daniella created sentences like "She was reading a book" (past continuous), "He is running every morning" (present continuous), and "They will be traveling next week" (future continuous). Through exercises and examples, she learned how to combine tenses and action verbs with "-ing" to express different time frames and ongoing actions, which enhanced her ability to communica...

In our tutoring session, we focused on improving sentence structures by practicing the correct use of prepositions like "at," "in," and "on." We started by reviewing basic rules for when to use each preposition, such as using "at" for specific locations or precise times, "in" for months, years, centuries, and long periods, and "on" for surfaces or specific dates and days. Then, we worked through several exercises where sDaniella had to complete sentences with the appropriate preposition. For example, she practiced sentences like, "She is at the park," "The book is in the bag," and "We will meet on Monday." By breaking down each sentence and discussing why a particular preposition is used, she was able to better understand how to form grammatically correct sentences.

In the Halloween-themed activity, students watched a video featuring a spooky, animated witch, and they used the present progressive tense to describe its actions. For example, they might say, "The witch is laughing loudly," or "The cat is spinning around in circles," focusing on the ongoing actions of the witch as they unfold in the video. This exercise helped students practice the present progressive form while also engaging with a fun, thematic context that made learning more enjoyable and relevant to the season.

Student: Wei Wang Date/Time: November 8th, 4-5pm Location: Dirac Library Topic: Speaking and Listening practice Feedback provided to tutee: During this session, we watched a short video on the Renaissance. During the video, I wrote down on a white board concepts and phrases that I think could be challenging or maybe unfamiliar to Wei. After the video, we went through them and discussed their meaning. I found that she was familiar with most of these concepts, but just needed help with the English descriptions of these things. The biggest potential roadblock of this session was the meaning of AD and BC when describing times in history. It became clear to me that this is a western way of describing time periods, so it took us some time to come to an understanding of what this meant.  Lessons about tutoring you learned: I learned how important it can be to have a white board and be able to write out some of the words I was saying. That way, she could read the word while also hearing me...

Student: Diego Moros Date/Time: November 9, 10:30-11:30am Location: Zoom Topic: Talking about persuasive presentation topics, Reviewing a writing sample Feedback provided to the tutee: I reviewed his writing sample with him and gave him feedback on his presentation idea, pointing out how a more focused scope would benefit it. I also gave him feedback on his article review after seeing that some ideas were repeated more than once.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that reviewing his work before our meetings and making the session a discussion is the best for him because he benefits from making corrections or annotations as we go through his writing. I read through one of his articles he needs to write a review for. I took notes on it for our next session for our discussion to make sure he hits all the key points and mentions them in his writing, also so I can assess if he summarized it according to the directions or is missing critical components of t...

Student: Letizia Gerbotto Date/Time: November 6, 3:35 - 4:35pm Location: Student Union Topic: Food Presentation Structure & Content Feedback provided to the tutee: I gave her feedback on the charts and graphs that she made for her presentation on healthy foods based on street interviews she did. We talked about how she wanted to format her presentation, and I gave her feedback on how she could make her structure more cohesive.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that as a tutor, it is vital to allow your tutee to have as much autonomy as possible when it comes to presenting their ideas and to step back and allow them to express their ideas first before giving any grammar checks. My tutee learned the best way to show her ideas in a manner that keeps her audience entertained while getting her points across. 

Student: Je-Ah Date/Time: Thursday 11/7, 7 - 8 a.m. (9 - 10 p.m. KST) Location: Online (Teams) Topic: Introductions, getting to know one another, establishing goals Feedback provided to the tutee: Je-Ah's mother had told me that practicing basic conversation would be helpful, so I came with a list of some basic conversational questions . Since we would go off on tangents, we had no problem filling up the time, and I don't think we even hit 25% of the questions! I did not provide much specific "feedback" to Je-Ah yet, as I mostly want to get her to speak fluently as a beginner and not really nitpick her grammar or pronunciation yet (although those were quite good already).  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Je-Ah is my first younger EFL student this semester, and as with other quieter students, I find my biggest struggle is just letting them talk and not interrupting or assisting. I tend to be talkative and want to "fill up" any awkward s...

  Student: Wei Wang Date/Time: November 6th, 4-5pm Location: Dirac Library Topic: Speaking practice Feedback provided to tutee: For this session we focused more on free speaking to practice Wei’s fluidity and fluency in speaking. What I did notice during this session was that Wei often made the mistake of mistaking gender pronouns. She would often confuse “she” and “he”, although she would notice her mistake and correct herself which is very good. We also talked a lot about the election, given that is a very prevalent topic right now. This was also a great topic of conversation as we got to talk a lot about American culture and cultural differences between American and Chinese politics and ideals.  Lessons about tutoring you learned: This free speaking session allowed me to see the importance of letting her speak without interrupting and allowing her to fully form her thoughts. I also found myself asking some clarifying questions after she would finish some sentences, and this...