Yesterday I met with my tutoring group at the Multicultural center. The group always has different people in it each week with some returning tutees, which makes it difficult. I try to think of activities that everyone can learn and benefit from. I was trying to think of what I could possibly do for the Wednesday tutoring session when I suddenly remembered the video that we watched in class. The video mentioned idioms in the U.S. and abroad and how confusing they can be. So I looked up several idioms/ common sayings in the United States and typed them on a piece of paper with the meaning of each one. I made many copies so I could give them out to each of my tutees after we went over them. They really enjoyed learning certain phrases like "spill the beans" and "play it by ear" because they had heard them before and not known what they meant. After we went over each phrase I asked them to use them in a sentence. They all did very well with the idioms. I then asked them if they use any of the phrases in their country or if they have any different phrases. Hyejin said that in South Korea they say, "Are you eating honey?" for "Cat got your tongue?". Ayni also came to this group meeting and she said that in Turkey they say, "Forgot your tongue?" for "Cat got your tongue?". It was really neat to hear phrases used in other countries! Overall I think the exercise went well.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Tutoring #7 and 8
On Tuesday from 3 to 4, I met with Ayni as usual. We went over one of the papers she had written. It seems to me that writing and speaking are two main concerns. Her paper topic was "Does failure lead to success?". She had some good ideas in the paper, and it was pretty well written for the most part. The mistakes she tends to make are when to make a word plural and when to use 'to' plus a verb. She has improved some since I started tutoring her. When I read Ayni's papers, she now can point out some of her errors.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Ali-Observation #2
Another class that I observed last Tuesday was Ryan's grammar class for advanced level students. They did an interesting activity with noun clauses where the students asked a question, and no matter what, their partner had to respond with "I don't know". The students had fun with it and Ryan later said that he enjoyed the activity and that it keeps the students on their toes when coming up with questions to ask.
The students also created a survey with their group members and Ryan walked around the class while they were working and chimed in when he felt like help was needed or the group was getting off track. He seemed well-liked by the students and was not thrown off task when students kept asking difficult questions concerning the grammar rules that were not on the original agenda. Ryan mentioned that he made a mistake with one of the example sentences because it had a second possible answer that he hadn't considered and the students brought it up, so he said that if he could do it over, he would have considered the sample questions more carefully.
He provided me with some good grammar resources like: EnglishPage.com and Practical English Usage by Michael Swan, because I asked him how he develops a successful grammar lesson with diverse examples. He also uses the CIES book that he helped develop and it seems pretty extensive and inclusive of all the information that the students would need for basic language building. Overall, it was a good class.
Ali-Observation #1
I observed Ah Young's speaking class for intermediate to advanced level students last Tuesday. When I came into the class she handed me a feedback form to fill out because one of the students was going to give a 20 minute long presentation in class that day. She wanted me to take notes on her grammar, intonation, pronunciation, phrasing, and any other comments that I had. Ah Young introduced the class and had a very approachable personality and teaching style. I could see that the students responded well to her when she spoke and listened to her, as well as joked around with her. As an observer, it seemed like a classroom environment that I would want to be a part of.
The presentation was on Pixar, so the majority of the class paid attention throughout it because the students did keep it entertaining by including pictures and videos. Ah Young was also taking notes during the presentation as well. I noticed that her pronunciation of certain sounds like "th" and "or" were repeatedly wrong, and made note of it. There were several chunks of time that were dedicated to watching the videos, so that she did not have to speak for the entire 20 minutes. As a teacher, I would have limited the use of videos in the presentation and how long that video could be, only so that the student would have to prepare to speak for the majority of the presentation and not rely on a video to speak for them.
After the presentation ended the class was about over and the students started editing mistakes that they had made in a previous lesson and then Ah Young wanted me to briefly discuss my notes with the student. I did so, and she was very nice and receptive of what I said to her. I emailed Ah Young afterwards and she also liked giving tangible feedback; she said that she would like to have allowed more time for editing; and she also said that she allows for plenty of class discussion to give the students an equal amount of speaking time. Overall, I think that the class went well.
McKenzie- Observation- 3
Yesterday was my third and final class observation. I observed Michele’s composition class. She was the first teacher to really acknowledge my presence in the classroom; she had me stand up and introduce myself and made all of the other students introduce themselves as well.
The thing I noticed about Michele’s teaching style is that she excels in communication. She communicated with the students better than any teacher I have ever observed! She wrote things on the board and clarified them as students brought questions up, She gave very specific instructions for assignments, was really clear about where she was in the grading process, and when students would get back old papers. She communicated with the students their entire schedule for the week. When she gave them an assignment, she communicated the pace, difficulty, and expectations in advance. As a result of her excellent communication skills, all of the students were on the same page.
The writing class started with journals. Michele stressed that they would not be judged on grammar, she just wanted them to write. After that they focused on the integrated writing. Monday, they would focus on the reading portion, Tuesday on the listening portion, and they would combine the two on Wednesday. The whole class did one example together (like Ramin tells us to do) and the last two examples were left as homework for students to do individually.
The thing I noticed about Michele’s teaching style is that she excels in communication. She communicated with the students better than any teacher I have ever observed! She wrote things on the board and clarified them as students brought questions up, She gave very specific instructions for assignments, was really clear about where she was in the grading process, and when students would get back old papers. She communicated with the students their entire schedule for the week. When she gave them an assignment, she communicated the pace, difficulty, and expectations in advance. As a result of her excellent communication skills, all of the students were on the same page.
The writing class started with journals. Michele stressed that they would not be judged on grammar, she just wanted them to write. After that they focused on the integrated writing. Monday, they would focus on the reading portion, Tuesday on the listening portion, and they would combine the two on Wednesday. The whole class did one example together (like Ramin tells us to do) and the last two examples were left as homework for students to do individually.
McKenzie- Tutoring- 7
Abby and I met at Black Dog Café for tutoring today. It went really well and we decided to meet there from now on. We met on a Tuesday this time because I will be out of town this weekend.
To start the session, I played her a recording of Shel Silverstein reading his poem True Story. I gave her a copy of the text with some of the words blanked out. She listened to it twice and filled in (she only missed two of the words!) We then went over the poem, discussing its context, some of the words she was not familiar with (den, swamp, swooped, and quicksand).
After this, I brought in a handout on countable and uncountable nouns. Using know when to use “a” is a big problem for Abby. I taught her that you can use “a” with countable nouns, but not uncountable nouns. For example, dollar vs. money, song vs. music, job vs. work, tip vs. advice, view vs. scenery.
To close up our session, we went over a list of idiomatic expressions I brought in. Abby had actually heard of a few of them but didn’t know what they mean! I made her use each in a sentence and we named a few situations for each in which she could use the phrase. They included:
Make yourself at home.
Do you own thing.
Make the best of something.
Do one’s best.
To start the session, I played her a recording of Shel Silverstein reading his poem True Story. I gave her a copy of the text with some of the words blanked out. She listened to it twice and filled in (she only missed two of the words!) We then went over the poem, discussing its context, some of the words she was not familiar with (den, swamp, swooped, and quicksand).
After this, I brought in a handout on countable and uncountable nouns. Using know when to use “a” is a big problem for Abby. I taught her that you can use “a” with countable nouns, but not uncountable nouns. For example, dollar vs. money, song vs. music, job vs. work, tip vs. advice, view vs. scenery.
To close up our session, we went over a list of idiomatic expressions I brought in. Abby had actually heard of a few of them but didn’t know what they mean! I made her use each in a sentence and we named a few situations for each in which she could use the phrase. They included:
Make yourself at home.
Do you own thing.
Make the best of something.
Do one’s best.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Tutoring #6
I met with Edgar to tutor him for the first time today. He wanted to go over a graded paper of his from his writing class. He wanted a further explanation on gerunds, past tense and if/when you use 'to' in regards to verbs and in what tense. I was able to successfully explain to him what he wanted to know. He basically just wanted to go over the specific examples in his paper because he didn't have much time today. Other errors I noticed while speaking to him and in his paper involved his grammar. Edgar is from Mexico, so a lot of the time he would use Spanish grammar in English instead of English grammar. I have encountered this problem many times before with friends and relatives, so it was easy for me to help him with that. Hopefully next time we will get to meet for longer time period.
Tutoring
I met with Tuba for tutoring during her lunch break. She ahd been studying interviewing and wanted to do an interview with me. She had several questions written down to ask me. I suggested that it might be good practice for her if she would write down my answers.
She really did an excellent job asking me the interview questions. When she was finished we went over the answers she had written down and made a few corrections. Then, I asked her the interview questions. She had a little problem with sentence structure that we corrected. She also had a few problems with answering in complete sentences.
Overall, she did really well and I can tell she is becoming more and more confident about her speaking ability.
She really did an excellent job asking me the interview questions. When she was finished we went over the answers she had written down and made a few corrections. Then, I asked her the interview questions. She had a little problem with sentence structure that we corrected. She also had a few problems with answering in complete sentences.
Overall, she did really well and I can tell she is becoming more and more confident about her speaking ability.
Convo partner(7)
Today I met again with Sultan. He had many questions ready for me. He really does a great job with his speaking. He wanted to know about Orlando and the Disney World attractions. I told him it had been a while since I had been there, but I explained how much tickets cost, the different kinds of tickets you could buy,what parts of the attractions were included with the price of the ticket, the hotels that are on Disney property, etc. It was basically an Orlando 101 class. Then we covered how far Orlando was from Tallahassee and the different transportation options that are available.
The next big topic was where to get his hair cut. I never really stopped to think about how difficult or frightening something so simple as getting a haircut could be. He did not know where to go, so I told him a few different places. He asked if men and women went to the same places or if they were separated by gender. I told him where I go and how to get there. He found a picture of a soccer player that is famous in Portugal. He told me what he liked about this guys haircut and how he could tell the stylist to style his hair that way. I explained the terms he would need, such as what cutting the hair close to the head means and what length means. He wanted to be able to "spike" his hair and needed to know how to tell someone that.
In the end, I think that we were able to get it all sorted out for him. I am looking forward to seeing if he go and gets it cut before I see him again.
The next big topic was where to get his hair cut. I never really stopped to think about how difficult or frightening something so simple as getting a haircut could be. He did not know where to go, so I told him a few different places. He asked if men and women went to the same places or if they were separated by gender. I told him where I go and how to get there. He found a picture of a soccer player that is famous in Portugal. He told me what he liked about this guys haircut and how he could tell the stylist to style his hair that way. I explained the terms he would need, such as what cutting the hair close to the head means and what length means. He wanted to be able to "spike" his hair and needed to know how to tell someone that.
In the end, I think that we were able to get it all sorted out for him. I am looking forward to seeing if he go and gets it cut before I see him again.
Convo partner(6)
I met with Sultan Friday after classes for conversation. He was not feeling well, but really wanted to stay and talk. He had his computer and we looked at his Facebook page and he showed me pictures of all the places he has visited.
He also feels that Tallahassee is "boring" compared to Istanbul. He feels it is small and does not offer much opportunity for diverse activities.
He had many questions about cities in the US. He wanted to know about Vegas and Hollywood. He was under the impression that Hollywood was more of an attraction than an actual city. He was not totally incorrect, but he did not realize that was an actual functioning city. I explained about the movie studios and there were many famous people in Hollywood, although most of them owned homes in other places.
We spent the rest of the time talking about the barbecue that he wants to have. It took me a few minutes to realize what he was talking about because he kept saying that he wanted felt like "throwing up a barbecue". So, I explained that usually you "throw a party" or "have a barbecue". I further explained the meaning of his statement about "throwing up a barbecue". We also talked about the different foods that are present in a typical American barbecue
He also feels that Tallahassee is "boring" compared to Istanbul. He feels it is small and does not offer much opportunity for diverse activities.
He had many questions about cities in the US. He wanted to know about Vegas and Hollywood. He was under the impression that Hollywood was more of an attraction than an actual city. He was not totally incorrect, but he did not realize that was an actual functioning city. I explained about the movie studios and there were many famous people in Hollywood, although most of them owned homes in other places.
We spent the rest of the time talking about the barbecue that he wants to have. It took me a few minutes to realize what he was talking about because he kept saying that he wanted felt like "throwing up a barbecue". So, I explained that usually you "throw a party" or "have a barbecue". I further explained the meaning of his statement about "throwing up a barbecue". We also talked about the different foods that are present in a typical American barbecue
Convo partner (5)
I met with Asena again during the lunch hour at CIES. We brought our lunch and sat in one of the classrooms with a couple of her friends. She had been feeling a little homesick for Istanbul. She thinks Tallahassee is too small and there is not as many things to do as there is in Istanbul. We also talked about how much easier it is to travel and visit other places when you are in other parts of the world. They felt that travel is much harder to do in the United States.
I answered a lot of questions regarding things to do in the area. I told them about Wakulla Springs, Vortex Springs, a few of the state parks and some of the other larger cities that are close enough to visit over a weekend.
I answered a lot of questions regarding things to do in the area. I told them about Wakulla Springs, Vortex Springs, a few of the state parks and some of the other larger cities that are close enough to visit over a weekend.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Jennifer- Classroom Observation 2- 9/15/10
Today, I observed Debbie Carretta’s reading class. Since a few of the students were missing, I had the opportunity to sit at one of tables and look on with one of the students. Debbie started the class by taking attendance, but since she couldn’t access the website she ended up passing around a sheet of paper for the students to sign. The students were reading an article from the Tallahassee Democrat about the Integration Statue on campus. I had never really given much thought to the statue, but I found the lesson pretty interesting.
The lesson was trying to get the students to think critically about what the article was saying and the controversy behind the statue and its design. Before the student’s read the article, Debbie went over the term segregation and gave the students some background on American history. The students then read the article from the newspaper and were asked to start on the questions that went along with the article. Most of the students started to struggle when they got to this part, they were unsure about what the questions were asking and how to answer them. Time was just about up and Debbie explained to the students that they would work on this again as a group tomorrow. Later, she told me that they usually spend the last 10-15 minutes listening/reading along as she reads Holes aloud to them.
Jennifer- CP04- 9/13/10
This afternoon I was supposed to pick up Biou so that we could get some coffee and talk. However, when I got to CIES I ended up picking up Biou and her friend Alan and they were both very hungry so we ended up at Panera. When we got to the restaurant Alan asked if we could have a few minutes to go over the menu before they went up to order. We ended up spending a good 15-20 minutes going over the menu and all the different options they had. They had a few questions about some of the different words used on the menu (tangy, the different types of chicken, etc), but once they knew what they wanted they had no trouble ordering for themselves.
I actually had a lot of fun talking with Alan and Biou as we all ate together. Biou and I went through our normal routine of naming all the ingredients in our food, but this time I had her go through and tell me what she knew first. We got on a discussion of fruits, trying to guess what the fruit was by giving each other hints. Alan was trying to get me to figure out a special fruit that they ate back in China but I couldn’t figure it out even though he described it in every way possible (I did some research and found that it was the hawthorn fruit). We also got on a discussion as to what each of our names meant. Alan’s name means “big snow,” Biou’s name means “blue/green seagull” and I told them that mine means “white wave.” Biou really liked the fact that both of our names had a color and had something to do with the beach. The next time we’re going to meet up is for the Mid Autumn Festival at FSU this weekend where Biou is going to preform. I'm really excited to see what she's been working so hard on these past few weeks!
I actually had a lot of fun talking with Alan and Biou as we all ate together. Biou and I went through our normal routine of naming all the ingredients in our food, but this time I had her go through and tell me what she knew first. We got on a discussion of fruits, trying to guess what the fruit was by giving each other hints. Alan was trying to get me to figure out a special fruit that they ate back in China but I couldn’t figure it out even though he described it in every way possible (I did some research and found that it was the hawthorn fruit). We also got on a discussion as to what each of our names meant. Alan’s name means “big snow,” Biou’s name means “blue/green seagull” and I told them that mine means “white wave.” Biou really liked the fact that both of our names had a color and had something to do with the beach. The next time we’re going to meet up is for the Mid Autumn Festival at FSU this weekend where Biou is going to preform. I'm really excited to see what she's been working so hard on these past few weeks!
Jennifer- CP03- 9/11/10
Tonight, Alison and I took Biou and Wenbo to dinner over at Mid-Town. We ended up eating at a new restaurant/bar called the Filling Station (we had originally planned on taking them to the Winery but it had closed). They had the game on one of the big screens and we ended up talking about their first FSU football game experience. Wenbo said that she kind of liked it but would have enjoyed herself more if she had better understood the rules of the game. We all went over the menu together and ended up each ordering something different so that we could all share. I’ve quickly learned that Biou is very interested in naming each of the ingredients in her food so we spent a good deal of time going over what was in everyone’s food.
After dinner we took the girls over to Lake Ella so that they could walk around for a bit. It was actually a really pretty night and we talked as we walked around the lake. They filled us in on what life was like for them back home versus what they’re experiencing here. They taught us a couple of words in Chinese, the word for crane and friend. We took pictures and listened to the old gentleman playing the drums in the gazebo. We walked around for a bit more discussing the different trees and ducks and then made our way back to my car to go home.
After dinner we took the girls over to Lake Ella so that they could walk around for a bit. It was actually a really pretty night and we talked as we walked around the lake. They filled us in on what life was like for them back home versus what they’re experiencing here. They taught us a couple of words in Chinese, the word for crane and friend. We took pictures and listened to the old gentleman playing the drums in the gazebo. We walked around for a bit more discussing the different trees and ducks and then made our way back to my car to go home.
Jennifer- CP02-9/8/10
Biou and I met for dinner before I took her over to LeMoyne (where I work). This was her first time going to Jimmy Johns so we spent a good bit of time going over the menu before we purchased our food. She was very self-assured and confident as she ordered, and didn’t need any help from me. After we had picked a table, Biou had me go through each of the items on both her sandwich and mine (she’s very curious!). We had a pretty good conversation about what kinds of music we like, what movies we’re interested in, what types of food she’s tried, etc. We also briefly talked about a Chinese festival she’s training for, apparently she’s going to dance and play the keyboard during the ceremony. I’m really excited to learn more/ watch her performance that will be coming up in the next few weeks!
Biou ended up really liking LeMoyne. Once she got out of the car she started dancing around and talking excitedly. I think she really enjoyed walking around in the sculpture garden, which made me think to suggest that we go to Maclay Gardens one afternoon.
Biou ended up really liking LeMoyne. Once she got out of the car she started dancing around and talking excitedly. I think she really enjoyed walking around in the sculpture garden, which made me think to suggest that we go to Maclay Gardens one afternoon.
Conversation Partner 3
This past Thursday Lu and I went to get frozen yogurt and then to go watch the Florida State women's lacrosse practice. She waited for me in Strozier and did homework until I got out of the TEFL class at 7. The lacrosse coach said to come to the practice around 7:30ish, so I asked Lu if she wanted to get some frozen yogurt. She enthusiastically agreed. Lu had never been to Hiro's on Tennessee before and absolutely loved it. At Hiro's you get to make your bowl of yogurt yourself, which she enjoyed. She mixed all sorts of flavors and toppings together! From there we went to the practice and she was amazed. I tried to explain the game to her as she was watching it. I figured verbally and visually showing her would help her understand this sport which she had never heard of before. Lu borrowed one of the girls sticks and tried to play. I told her it takes a lot of practice to play like the girls she saw on the field. She was a good sport about trying to play. Lu took out her iphone and started taking pictures of me, the stick, the team, the field. She loved it so much she wanted a picture of her with a stick! The girls were so nice to her too, helping explain and asking her questions about where she was from. I was overjoyed to introduce to her something that I am so much in love with. I think she could tell how much I loved being there on the field. From there I took her home. She invited me inside to see her house and meet her roommates. Lu showed me her room which was immaculate. I could not believe how clean it was! I told her that her room puts my messy one to shame. We plan to cook together soon- she wants to teach me how to use chopsticks. I can't wait!
Class Observation #3
On Thursday I observed Dr. Kennell's Advanced Reading class. I enjoyed this class immensely because he kept the atmosphere very lighthearted. He had a smile on his face and would joke and laugh with the students, which is what I am all about! I noticed that he wrote on the board as he spoke to give them verbal and visual explanation, which is what we have discussed in class before. He wrote the word 'assumption' on the board because the students would be doing a lot of that in their reading for the day. Kennell asked the class what assuming does and they all laughed because they knew the joke. I know a lot of second language learners have a hard time picking up on humor in English, so it was nice to see them laugh at that joke. The first activity they did was to interpret a pie graph about U.S. Greenhouse Emissions by Sector in 2007. Kennell gave them specific time limits to read it and answer questions about it. He then called on students to answer the questions. They did a second activity which was very similar to the first one, except was with a table of information instead of a pie graph this time.
Even though it was a reading class, he would correct even their small spoken mistakes. I believe that at an advanced level teachers should be doing that because the students are near fluency. This was my first advanced class that I observed and I noticed that the students were using complex sentences and expressing their opinions more so than in the lower level classes I previously observed.
Even though it was a reading class, he would correct even their small spoken mistakes. I believe that at an advanced level teachers should be doing that because the students are near fluency. This was my first advanced class that I observed and I noticed that the students were using complex sentences and expressing their opinions more so than in the lower level classes I previously observed.
Class Observation #2
I observed Debbie Carretta's AE-LI Speaking class last week. She was very excited to have me observe her class. The class started with a conversation starter activity. It was done in a cocktail party style, an example that we learned. Debbie gave directions verbally and did a few conversation starters with the class first. The students then walked around and asked other students questions from the class. Debbie had me join in the activity too, which I thought was really neat. A lot of the students came up to talk to me and were curious about what my answers would be to their questions. I was just as curious about their answers as they were with mine. After the activity we went over each question aloud as a class. This took up the bulk of the class period. Debbie then suggested that each of the students come up with a question about anything for me. I thought this was really cool, however since it was a speaking class I felt that I should have been asking them questions so they could practice speaking. The overall atmosphere of her class was very relaxed, which made me feel welcomed and comfortable.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
McKenzie- Tutoring- 6
For tutoring today Abby and I went to the Tallahassee Flea Market. I had never been there and neither had she. She said there used to be many markets like it in Korea, but now there are only big stores like Wal-Mart. We mostly just talked for the full hour while we shopped and I learned a lot about her. I didn’t realize, for example, that she is going to be in Tallahassee for five years! She is from Seoul, but really likes the small town charm of Tallahassee because she says the people here are more friendly. She used to teach Korean back in Korea but has given it up to be a housewife because she and her husband have a two year old son. Her son goes to preschool twice a week, but cries so much because he doesn’t understand English that she has to pick him up early from daycare because the teachers can’t handle him.
She told me she has mostly Korean friends here, and it reminded me of being in Ecuador. I made a lot of Ecuadorian friends, but for the most part I hung out with other volunteers who spoke English. It’s funny how we move abroad only to hang out with people from our native country.
In the end, I bought a baking dish and some fresh sweet potatoes. Abby found a toy fishing set for her son. She was nervous about using coins because she says although she has been here a year, she rarely uses them and hasn’t figured it out yet. I helped her count out fifty cents when she needed to pay $2.50 for the toy. We decided to meet next week at Black Dog Café instead of the library because we both think the library is a little stuffy sometimes and we don’t feel like we can do too many speaking activities without insulting someone nearby.
She told me she has mostly Korean friends here, and it reminded me of being in Ecuador. I made a lot of Ecuadorian friends, but for the most part I hung out with other volunteers who spoke English. It’s funny how we move abroad only to hang out with people from our native country.
In the end, I bought a baking dish and some fresh sweet potatoes. Abby found a toy fishing set for her son. She was nervous about using coins because she says although she has been here a year, she rarely uses them and hasn’t figured it out yet. I helped her count out fifty cents when she needed to pay $2.50 for the toy. We decided to meet next week at Black Dog Café instead of the library because we both think the library is a little stuffy sometimes and we don’t feel like we can do too many speaking activities without insulting someone nearby.
Friday, September 24, 2010
McKenzie- CP- 5
Yesterday I met Elly at Tea Time at CIES. We decided to take a walk because it was a pretty day out and go to the library. I haven’t been inside the new library yet, and because she told me she was scared of it last week, I asked her if she wanted a tour. Elly loves the library!
I took her to the Scholars Commons in the basement, showed her multiple computer labs, taught her how to rent a room for a study session which could come in handy when she starts attending FSU, and showed her the fiction floor. Elly really wanted to rent a movie but can’t with her CIES card, so I rented it on mine and Elly promised she would return it today.
After that, we headed back to CIES. I met her roommate, who, apparently, is a boy. Elly often confuses he with she, so when she discussed her roommate, she always said “she this, she that.” I told him that the next time Elly and I go out for food, he should join.
They said they wanted to go to Fermentation Lounge with me, but then that night when I called her, she canceled. I have noticed Elly is really not good with keeping plans, that is the fourth or fifth time she has canceled on me. It is really hard to get my hours in with someone who doesn’t seem that enthused to leave her house! I am going to try and ask her to go to a coffee shop and do homework with me this weekend.
I took her to the Scholars Commons in the basement, showed her multiple computer labs, taught her how to rent a room for a study session which could come in handy when she starts attending FSU, and showed her the fiction floor. Elly really wanted to rent a movie but can’t with her CIES card, so I rented it on mine and Elly promised she would return it today.
After that, we headed back to CIES. I met her roommate, who, apparently, is a boy. Elly often confuses he with she, so when she discussed her roommate, she always said “she this, she that.” I told him that the next time Elly and I go out for food, he should join.
They said they wanted to go to Fermentation Lounge with me, but then that night when I called her, she canceled. I have noticed Elly is really not good with keeping plans, that is the fourth or fifth time she has canceled on me. It is really hard to get my hours in with someone who doesn’t seem that enthused to leave her house! I am going to try and ask her to go to a coffee shop and do homework with me this weekend.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Tutoring #3 at the Multicultural Center
I tutored Kayla from China, Younsung, Sungsub, and Seongbong from South Korea today at the Multicultural center. I'm always a bit more nervous to tutor non-CIES English learners for some reason. Maybe it's because they don't have a set agenda for me like a CIES student with homework. It's good practice for me though- it brings out my creative side! Last time I met with Sungsub he told me that he wanted to work on job interviews in English because in South Korea job interviews are mostly in English. A mock interview sounded like a fun and advantageous thing to do for both of us! I printed out several copies of interview questions with the name of the website that I found them on. I was prepared when 4 people showed up today. We sat in a circle as I interviewed each of them. I asked them each one question at a time. We went over several questions within the hour that we were there. I learned that men in Korea have to serve a mandatory 2 years in the military there and that there is a law saying that women in China aren't allowed to marry until age 20 and men until age 22. I know that I am helping them with certain skills in English, but I feel like I learn new things everytime I tutor them without even anticipating it. It is one of the best and most worth while trade offs I could ever ask for.
Conversation Partner
I met with a new conversation partner at lunch today. Her name is Asena and she is from Istanbul, Turkey. Asena suggested that we go to the student union to have lunch. We met in the lounge at CIES and progressed from there.
She was a little confused as to where the student union was, so it was a great educational walk. Instead of relying on me, I suggested that she ask people where it was located and get directions.
This was a bit tricky because she was confusing the student union with the Center for Global Engagement, so I had to help with that.
I noticed she was very hesitant about stopping someone and asking, because she is not really confident with her speaking skills.
Over lunch I found out that her roommate is the gentleman that I conversed with(roped into talking to me for an hour) during tea last week. Small world inside CIES, it seems.
The main conversation was focused on the hijab. This is the material that Islamic women wear on thier heads. Asena does not wear the hijab, but was very passionate about the rule that requires women to remove it when entering inside a university in Turkey. She said that she did not feel that it was a fair rule and that women should be free to wear it no matter where they are. She went on to say, that she thinks the rule will be changing soon. Although, she does not wear the hijab, it is something she feels that she might commit to eventually.
Asena seems really eager to practice and I am very happy I was able to meet her today. She has some pronunciation problems, but is not hesitant about speaking English to those she knows. I have had some written communication with her, so I know she has the knowledge to convey her thoughts in English. I really feel like she will benefit greatly by having a conversational partner.
She was a little confused as to where the student union was, so it was a great educational walk. Instead of relying on me, I suggested that she ask people where it was located and get directions.
This was a bit tricky because she was confusing the student union with the Center for Global Engagement, so I had to help with that.
I noticed she was very hesitant about stopping someone and asking, because she is not really confident with her speaking skills.
Over lunch I found out that her roommate is the gentleman that I conversed with(roped into talking to me for an hour) during tea last week. Small world inside CIES, it seems.
The main conversation was focused on the hijab. This is the material that Islamic women wear on thier heads. Asena does not wear the hijab, but was very passionate about the rule that requires women to remove it when entering inside a university in Turkey. She said that she did not feel that it was a fair rule and that women should be free to wear it no matter where they are. She went on to say, that she thinks the rule will be changing soon. Although, she does not wear the hijab, it is something she feels that she might commit to eventually.
Asena seems really eager to practice and I am very happy I was able to meet her today. She has some pronunciation problems, but is not hesitant about speaking English to those she knows. I have had some written communication with her, so I know she has the knowledge to convey her thoughts in English. I really feel like she will benefit greatly by having a conversational partner.
Class Monitoring (2)
This week I monitored Debbie's listening class. I found Debbie to be a very interesting teacher. She lived in Brazil for twenty years and taught English. I did not have the opportunity to speak to her as much as I would have liked.
Her classroom is fast paced and she does an excellent job of keeping control of the class. The students were not allowed to use their cell phones, she kept off topic conversation to a minimum, and she prohibits the constant use of electronic dictionaries. She felt it was more important to pay attention to the lesson, as a whole, instead of getting preoccupied by the meaning of a single word.
The lesson today was a continuation of a lesson from the previous week. The students have been working on units of measurement. Last Friday, Debbie brought the materials and the students were given a recipe to read which allowed them to make individual apple pies.
The listening exercise today was listening to a recipe and writing down the directions. She gave the students the recipe to make a Betty Crocker chocolate cake. During the reading of the recipe, she did not stop to tell the students how to spell certain words. One of the words they had trouble with was "rectangular". No one knew how to spell it and this caused some concern among the students. However, she did not allow them to look it up. She told them to sound it out and she would tell them how to spell it when she was finished reading the recipe.
When she completed reading the recipe, the students were given a list of questions to answer regarding the information she has just read.
I thought this was a great lesson. The students were interested. The topic was fun. Really, who does not like talking about chocolate cake?
As a side note........I learned that Betty Crocker was not an actual person. She was a fictitious character made to sell a brand of cooking products, books and pre-made recipes.
Her classroom is fast paced and she does an excellent job of keeping control of the class. The students were not allowed to use their cell phones, she kept off topic conversation to a minimum, and she prohibits the constant use of electronic dictionaries. She felt it was more important to pay attention to the lesson, as a whole, instead of getting preoccupied by the meaning of a single word.
The lesson today was a continuation of a lesson from the previous week. The students have been working on units of measurement. Last Friday, Debbie brought the materials and the students were given a recipe to read which allowed them to make individual apple pies.
The listening exercise today was listening to a recipe and writing down the directions. She gave the students the recipe to make a Betty Crocker chocolate cake. During the reading of the recipe, she did not stop to tell the students how to spell certain words. One of the words they had trouble with was "rectangular". No one knew how to spell it and this caused some concern among the students. However, she did not allow them to look it up. She told them to sound it out and she would tell them how to spell it when she was finished reading the recipe.
When she completed reading the recipe, the students were given a list of questions to answer regarding the information she has just read.
I thought this was a great lesson. The students were interested. The topic was fun. Really, who does not like talking about chocolate cake?
As a side note........I learned that Betty Crocker was not an actual person. She was a fictitious character made to sell a brand of cooking products, books and pre-made recipes.
McKenzie- Observation- 2
Today I observed Felicia's Reading class. She started off by writing on the board:
Today's Agenda:
1. Attendance
2. Bias, Tone, Purpose, Audience
3. Great American Stories
She told them they had 3 minutes to review in groups what they discussed yesterday. She then gave them ten minutes to read two articles. After the ten minutes was up, they had a class discussion about the articles. Everyone volunteered and contributed to discussion and asked questions.
Felicia spoke very slowly, and probed the students to pick out details from the story. She was really good at guiding their discussion and it was clear all of the students were comfortable. One phrase in the article was "footdragging" and to explain, Felicia trudged around the classroom very slowly, dragging her feet, which made it easy for the students to guess that it just meant to go slow.
Felicia also allowed the students to self correct. When she said that she would be gone on Friday and they would have a substitute, one student asked, "Where are you?" and she said "I am right here." He said, 'No, on Friday. Oh wait. Where WILL you be on Friday?" He was able to fix his own mistake.
Overall, Felicia is clearly a great English teacher. Her students really like her, she is organized, good at time management, and made the class interesting.
Today's Agenda:
1. Attendance
2. Bias, Tone, Purpose, Audience
3. Great American Stories
She told them they had 3 minutes to review in groups what they discussed yesterday. She then gave them ten minutes to read two articles. After the ten minutes was up, they had a class discussion about the articles. Everyone volunteered and contributed to discussion and asked questions.
Felicia spoke very slowly, and probed the students to pick out details from the story. She was really good at guiding their discussion and it was clear all of the students were comfortable. One phrase in the article was "footdragging" and to explain, Felicia trudged around the classroom very slowly, dragging her feet, which made it easy for the students to guess that it just meant to go slow.
Felicia also allowed the students to self correct. When she said that she would be gone on Friday and they would have a substitute, one student asked, "Where are you?" and she said "I am right here." He said, 'No, on Friday. Oh wait. Where WILL you be on Friday?" He was able to fix his own mistake.
Overall, Felicia is clearly a great English teacher. Her students really like her, she is organized, good at time management, and made the class interesting.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
McKenzie- Tutoring- 5
Today I tutored a student from South Korea. His name is Sungeun. His speaking skills were not very advanced and he had to look up a lot of words in his dictionary as we were speaking. He will be here at CIES for the next 4 sessions! His brother lives in Tallahassee and he has relatives in Tampa as well.
We worked on some of his homework. He had to outline a Description Essay, and Sungeun chose to describe a famous street in Seoul. He had picked out the topics he wanted to cover in his paragraphs already, so I helped him form a full thesis statement, topic sentences, and concluding statement.
He told me here is NOT here to take the TOEFL and is frustrated by all the writing he does at CIES since he does not see how it is applicable to his future. The reason he is here is because he is a bartender and he wants to improve his English skills so that when he returns to Korea and opens his own bar, he can appeal to a more international crowd. He wants to own a fancy nightclub and told me he can juggle liquor bottles.
Sungeun brought in a newspaper, but when we looked at a few of the articles, he got frustrated with the hard vocabulary. Next week I will bring in something easier for him to read.
We worked on some of his homework. He had to outline a Description Essay, and Sungeun chose to describe a famous street in Seoul. He had picked out the topics he wanted to cover in his paragraphs already, so I helped him form a full thesis statement, topic sentences, and concluding statement.
He told me here is NOT here to take the TOEFL and is frustrated by all the writing he does at CIES since he does not see how it is applicable to his future. The reason he is here is because he is a bartender and he wants to improve his English skills so that when he returns to Korea and opens his own bar, he can appeal to a more international crowd. He wants to own a fancy nightclub and told me he can juggle liquor bottles.
Sungeun brought in a newspaper, but when we looked at a few of the articles, he got frustrated with the hard vocabulary. Next week I will bring in something easier for him to read.
Tutoring at CIES
Today was my first time tutoring a CIES student. It was quite a bit different than tutoring people at the Multicultural Center. The student today, Aylin from Turkey, actually had homework that I could help her with. That made it easier on me! Instead of having to come up with activities or a lesson plan, I just helped her with her homework. She had to write a "definition essay", which I had never heard of before. I read the definition of a definition essay in her notebook and it made sense. Aylin had to choose a topic and define it in essay form. She chose the topic of, "What it means to be a Good Teacher." She came up with three supporting points- patience, helpfulness, and is a good listener. Together we then elaborated and supported each point with details and examples. She has a hard time speaking English and conveying her ideas, but I understood for the most part what she was trying to say. Aylin would mumble words in Turkish sometimes- hope she wasn't saying anything bad! We got along though. We plan to meet again on Thursday.
Ali CP #3
I took my conversation partner, Mandy to Panera for dinner, she had never been there before and wanted to interview me for an assignment, so I thought it would be a good place to eat and talk! She seemed to really enjoy her meal and ate all of it, even asking me what some of the ingredients in her soup and sandwich were and how she could make them herself. She interviewed me for her class, and I tried to make it a little less formal and more comfortable by asking her some things about herself too. She does seem very reserved, but really sweet and we found out that we have some similar interests in music and books.
She brought up that she was studying to increase her TOEFL score in the speaking section of the test, so we talked about that and what she was having difficulties with. I took her to Borders after we ate so that we could see what resources they had there. She had never been there before so I showed her where she could find test reference books and other books to enjoy for herself as well. We walked through the store and I showed her what some of my favorite movies and books were, and asked her what she liked too. I tried to keep it light and it was a little hard to get a lot of feedback from her, but she opened up more and we had a good time.
Monday, September 20, 2010
McKenzie- CP- 4
I took Elly out to lunch today, picking her up from CIES at noon. I gave her a choice: Spanish, BBQ, or sandwiches, and she picked Spanish food. I took her to SuperPerros, a really good Colombian restaurant on Tennessee. She was fascinated by the decorations, Spanish music, and Spanish menu. We ordered pollo encebollado, which is chicken with onions, plantains, rice, beans, and salads.
I learned that Elly has a degree in journalism from Taiwan. She graduated a year ago, but spent the last year preparing for the TOEFL exam and taking English classes and hasn't had a chance to use her degree yet. She wants to get a better score on the TOEFL here and go to FSU for communications.
At the end of the meal, I taught her to ask for the check, tell the waiter to split the bill, and how to tip. She wasn't going to leave any tip, so I explained to her that if you order food at a counter or a drive thru, you don't tip, but if you sit down and someone serves you, then you have to tip them. Elly made fun of how much I ate, but I think she just has a much smaller appetite than me!
I learned that Elly has a degree in journalism from Taiwan. She graduated a year ago, but spent the last year preparing for the TOEFL exam and taking English classes and hasn't had a chance to use her degree yet. She wants to get a better score on the TOEFL here and go to FSU for communications.
At the end of the meal, I taught her to ask for the check, tell the waiter to split the bill, and how to tip. She wasn't going to leave any tip, so I explained to her that if you order food at a counter or a drive thru, you don't tip, but if you sit down and someone serves you, then you have to tip them. Elly made fun of how much I ate, but I think she just has a much smaller appetite than me!
CO 9/8/2010 -1
Today I observed Michele Downie's grammar class. This class began at 9:00 in the morning. Due to the obstacle of being the first class in the morning, Michele had great energy to greet the students. As the students entered the room. Michele greeted them and told them the page she was going to be teaching from and asked them to begin to look over it. She also had the plan for the day written on the board and told them as they sat down that if they had any questions regarding where to begin they could reference the plan on the board.
Today Michele was teaching infinitives. I was happy I had chosen to monitor today because infinitives can sometimes be difficult. It was quite obvious to me that Michele had been teaching for quite some time. She sailed through the lesson giving great examples and thoroughly answering any questions the students had. She did not spend much time teaching in front of the class. She spent the majority of her time allowing the students to work in groups and spending time with each group to make sure they remained on task and understood their assignment.
She was very open to having someone observe her class. She made me feel very welcome. She introduced me to the class and encouraged me to walk around and help the students that needed help. She was grateful to have the extra hands and I can see that she is a great resource.
I would definitely suggest sitting in one of her classes.
Today Michele was teaching infinitives. I was happy I had chosen to monitor today because infinitives can sometimes be difficult. It was quite obvious to me that Michele had been teaching for quite some time. She sailed through the lesson giving great examples and thoroughly answering any questions the students had. She did not spend much time teaching in front of the class. She spent the majority of her time allowing the students to work in groups and spending time with each group to make sure they remained on task and understood their assignment.
She was very open to having someone observe her class. She made me feel very welcome. She introduced me to the class and encouraged me to walk around and help the students that needed help. She was grateful to have the extra hands and I can see that she is a great resource.
I would definitely suggest sitting in one of her classes.
Tutoring 1
Last week Ramin sent out an email asking the CIES teachers to inform their students that tutors would be available if the felt they needed tutoring. Today McKenzie and I met with those students in the lounge at CIES. The response was a bit overwhelming for the two of us. I was very happy to hear the responsibility would be shared by Ade.
One of the students I met with was Tuba. Tuba is from a small town in Western Turkey. She needed help with her composition homework. She was given the task of writing a comparitive essay about her home town in Turkey and Tallahassee. I was suprised to find the many similarites between the two.
She had a great start on her essay. She was given a template to help compose the essay. She had filled in all of the topic sentences in each paragraph and had chosen the main idea. Her thoughts were clear and her supporting ideas were solid.
I found that she was having the most problems with some of the sentence structures within the essay. She had difficulty understanding that her home town was located in western Turkey and not "west of" Turkey. I also had to explain the difference between a city which has alot of greenery and a "green city" in the environmental sense of the word.
The hour that was alloted today for tutoring flew by before I knew it. I was happy with the amount we were able to accomplish.
One of the students I met with was Tuba. Tuba is from a small town in Western Turkey. She needed help with her composition homework. She was given the task of writing a comparitive essay about her home town in Turkey and Tallahassee. I was suprised to find the many similarites between the two.
She had a great start on her essay. She was given a template to help compose the essay. She had filled in all of the topic sentences in each paragraph and had chosen the main idea. Her thoughts were clear and her supporting ideas were solid.
I found that she was having the most problems with some of the sentence structures within the essay. She had difficulty understanding that her home town was located in western Turkey and not "west of" Turkey. I also had to explain the difference between a city which has alot of greenery and a "green city" in the environmental sense of the word.
The hour that was alloted today for tutoring flew by before I knew it. I was happy with the amount we were able to accomplish.
CP - 3
My conversation partner was not at tea today, so I met with a CIES student who did not have a partner. The name of the person I met with was Ulash. Ulash is from Istanbul, Turkey. He is here pursuing a doctoral degree and will be attending for the next four to five years.
I learned many things about Istanbul today I did not know. Ulash told me about all the beautiful places and scenery there is to see in Istanbul. He said he missed how busy the city is. He made the comparison between Istabul and New York or Chicago. He told about all of the ancient buildings in Turkey and all of the rich history. Ulah thought it was funny that the houses in the cities in the United States were all in lines. He showed me a picture that was taken in Turkey, it is actually hanging in the lounge, and showed me how the houses and building there were all scattered about with no real symmetry.
I really enjoyed speaking with Ulash today. He is a very interesting individual and is well educated and versed in many different topics. I hope to run into him again in the future.
I learned many things about Istanbul today I did not know. Ulash told me about all the beautiful places and scenery there is to see in Istanbul. He said he missed how busy the city is. He made the comparison between Istabul and New York or Chicago. He told about all of the ancient buildings in Turkey and all of the rich history. Ulah thought it was funny that the houses in the cities in the United States were all in lines. He showed me a picture that was taken in Turkey, it is actually hanging in the lounge, and showed me how the houses and building there were all scattered about with no real symmetry.
I really enjoyed speaking with Ulash today. He is a very interesting individual and is well educated and versed in many different topics. I hope to run into him again in the future.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Class observations
The first class I observed was Michele Downie's IN-HI Grammar class last Tuesday. She did a lot of the things that we talked about in class. Downie wrote on the board the plan for the class that day and then asked if students had any questions about vocabulary that they had heard over the weekend. She gave precise time limits for each activity. THe students were split up in to small groups and then she explained what the lesson (complex prepositions) would be today. She did an example with them first and then answered each of their questions verbally and visually, which helped the students immensely. Downie walked around to answer questions and to make sure they were on task as the groups discussed and did the activity. She then went over the answers with the students, having different students answer each questions. Downie ended the class by writing the homework assignment on the board that would be due for tomorrow. She left about 3 minutes at the end of class for questions that they might have had.
Overall, she did what I would consider to a perfect job of teaching that class. I could, "Hey! We learned about that in class!" almost after everything she did. Not only did she do things by the book, she did things on a more personal and fun level.
Overall, she did what I would consider to a perfect job of teaching that class. I could, "Hey! We learned about that in class!" almost after everything she did. Not only did she do things by the book, she did things on a more personal and fun level.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
McKenzie- Tutoring- 4
Today I met Abby at the library to tutor her. Last time we met, I asked her to write a list of ten differences between Korea and the U.S. for homework. I learned my lesson about being very specific with directions because she came in today with ten extensive paragraphs and I only intended her to write ten sentences! For the most part, the only mistakes she had was that she started sentences with because, and, and but, but once I explained to her that you can't start sentences with transition words like that, she self-corrected the rest of the paper.
Some of the differences she pointed out included:
Koreans eats more seafood
People are friendlier with greetings in the U.S.
Driving is more dangerous in Korea
Trees are preserved more in the U.S.
Next, we went over six different possible phone scenarios (ideas for the scenarios were provided in the literacy handbook the library provided). I had her pretend to call her friend and then told her she had the wrong number, had her try to make a doctor's appointment, dinner reservations, and practice calling her landlord about a plumbing issue. She really liked this activity because she said she has trouble on the phone a lot.
The last thing we did was go through a quiz in an issue of Glamour Magazine that I bought in. The quiz was about American beauty myths such as "sleeping with makeup on causes wrinkles, hair products must be changed every 3 months, toothpaste clears up zits, etc." I thought this would be fun and sure enough, Abby really liked hearing about American beauty traditions. I learned that in Korea, women clear up pimples by putting garlic on them!
Next week, instead of meeting at the library, we are going to meet at the flea market on Saturday morning. I got this idea from a comment Ramin said about taking a walk and asking them to name things we walk by. Abby is excited to go.
Some of the differences she pointed out included:
Koreans eats more seafood
People are friendlier with greetings in the U.S.
Driving is more dangerous in Korea
Trees are preserved more in the U.S.
Next, we went over six different possible phone scenarios (ideas for the scenarios were provided in the literacy handbook the library provided). I had her pretend to call her friend and then told her she had the wrong number, had her try to make a doctor's appointment, dinner reservations, and practice calling her landlord about a plumbing issue. She really liked this activity because she said she has trouble on the phone a lot.
The last thing we did was go through a quiz in an issue of Glamour Magazine that I bought in. The quiz was about American beauty myths such as "sleeping with makeup on causes wrinkles, hair products must be changed every 3 months, toothpaste clears up zits, etc." I thought this would be fun and sure enough, Abby really liked hearing about American beauty traditions. I learned that in Korea, women clear up pimples by putting garlic on them!
Next week, instead of meeting at the library, we are going to meet at the flea market on Saturday morning. I got this idea from a comment Ramin said about taking a walk and asking them to name things we walk by. Abby is excited to go.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
McKenzie-CP-3
I met Elly at Tea Time today at CIES for one hour. We talked a lot about what we like to do on the weekends for fun. I told Elly I liked beer, and she told me that she preferred tequila, which she used to drink when they would go out to clubs in Taiwan. I told her she should come with my friends and I to Metro night at Club Rayn some Friday (metro actually means gay night, which means lots of Lady Gaga and drag queens). She seemed intrigued so she might come along one of these weeks, and she seemed especially interested when I told her that everyone dances to Lady Gaga.
She liked sushi so much at Mr. Roboto’s that she asked me to take her to another sushi place, which we are doing this Sunday. We walked down to Landis Green today, and when I pointed out the library, Elly said she would never go in it because she heard a girl was raped in it last year. While this is true, I told her that they improved security a lot since then, so it is probably okay to go in the library now.
She also told me that next summer her best friend is coming to visit and they want to buy a car and backpack the US. Sounds exciting!
She liked sushi so much at Mr. Roboto’s that she asked me to take her to another sushi place, which we are doing this Sunday. We walked down to Landis Green today, and when I pointed out the library, Elly said she would never go in it because she heard a girl was raped in it last year. While this is true, I told her that they improved security a lot since then, so it is probably okay to go in the library now.
She also told me that next summer her best friend is coming to visit and they want to buy a car and backpack the US. Sounds exciting!
Conversation partner 2
Last week I met with my conversation partner. She was getting ready to go take the test to get her driver's license. She was having a little trouble with the written portion of the test. I was able to go online and find her a version of the manual that was written in Spanish. She was really excited to have the possibility of driving herself during her four months in Tallahassee.
I helped her out as much as I could with the information which could possible be on her test.
I am still not sure how the test went. I am looking forward to seeing her a tea today and finding out the outcome.
I helped her out as much as I could with the information which could possible be on her test.
I am still not sure how the test went. I am looking forward to seeing her a tea today and finding out the outcome.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
McKenzie- Tutoring- 3
Tuesday was my first time tutoring students at CIES. I got a group of four students who all wanted very different things. Two of the students from Turkry, Yakup and Ayni, were very vague about what they wanted out of tutoring. They said they wanted practice. Rasheed and Sultan were more specific about wanting help with certain homework assignments, and they both came with homework that they wanted me to look over.
Having four students at the same time who all want different things is near impossible. When I was trying to talk to Yakup and Ayni, Rasheed and Sultan continually interrupted me to ask questions about their homework (not in a rude way though). Then, when I tried to help those two with homework, Yakup and Ayni would seem bored and impatient. Next week hopefully I won’t have as many students, or I will have a group with similar wants.
Sultan and I worked on his “compare and contrast” essay. At first he didn’t really get the concept, but I wrote our names down and made him compare and contrast us as practice. He came up with “We both speak English, are at CIES, and are students at FSU. You are female and from America, I am Saudi Arabia.” After that we looked through his paper and tried to clean things up a bit.
Having four students at the same time who all want different things is near impossible. When I was trying to talk to Yakup and Ayni, Rasheed and Sultan continually interrupted me to ask questions about their homework (not in a rude way though). Then, when I tried to help those two with homework, Yakup and Ayni would seem bored and impatient. Next week hopefully I won’t have as many students, or I will have a group with similar wants.
Sultan and I worked on his “compare and contrast” essay. At first he didn’t really get the concept, but I wrote our names down and made him compare and contrast us as practice. He came up with “We both speak English, are at CIES, and are students at FSU. You are female and from America, I am Saudi Arabia.” After that we looked through his paper and tried to clean things up a bit.
Tutoring
I have tutored twice now. The first time was last week on Wednesday from 5-6 at the Global and Multicultural Center. There were three people there- two from South Korea and one from Ukraine. We basically just got to know each other during that session. They all did well in conversation from what I observed. When I asked what they wanted to work on, they couldn't tell me. So today I went in and there only was one person from last week and one new person also from South Korea. Again I asked Hyejin what she specifically wanted to work on in the future. She said everything, but mainly listening and speaking. She said that she doesn't understand when people talk fast or make jokes. I thought I could bring in some music that would be appropriate for her to listen to and have to try and guess the lyrics. Sungsuh wanted to focus more on just speaking. He is trying to prepare for a job interview in Korea, but he said that they interview job applicants in English. I thought I could set up and a mock job interview and interview him. He liked the idea of that. I will begin to tutor Mecit at CIES next Tuesday and look forward to meeting him!
Conversation Partner 2
I picked Lu up from campus today to go out to eat. And to be honest I wasn't having the best of days and wasn't really looking forward to it. Then I saw her run to my car with the biggest smile on her face. I suddenly forgot everything that I was preoccupied with and became excited just like she was. We went to Los Compadres because she had never eaten anything remotely Mexican in her life. We got to the restaurant and she promptly ordered in English- I was impressed! We got to know each other on a more personal level which was nice. She talked about how lonely it can be here in Tallahassee because she doesn't have many friends. And part of that is because she lives so incredibly far from campus and doesn't have a car. This made me want to do more things with her. I told her that we could go see a movie sometime soon or maybe I could take her to a lacrosse practice. Lu was and is ready to do anything, and that's what I like about her. She says that she is learning a lot from me, but I truly feel like I'm learning a lot just from talking to her.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Jennifer –Classroom Observation 1- 9/8/10
Today I observed the Advanced Composition class taught by Ah Young Kim. Going in I didn’t quite know what to expect, but I was hoping that it would give me some good insight as to how to move forward concerning Woon Jee. Ah Young started out the class by talking to some of the students and then progressively she started to hand out folders to each of the students. As she was passing them out, she reminded the students that this was their first draft and she was editing them solely based on their success at constructing a convincing cause and effect essay on the affects of television. Once she had finished passing out the papers, the students all began to work individually, correcting their mistakes and asking questions either to each other or to Ah Young.
Ah Young was very accessible to/open with the students and was joking with several of them throughout the class. She had to stress English only to several of the students who had switched back into their native languages while discussing their papers. Biou, my conversation partner, was in the class and asked me to look over her paper with her and explain some of the notes Ah Young had written. I thought the feedback that Ah Young gave Biou was great. She manages to focus the student’s attention on the problem without giving them one solution. She left it open for the students to figure out how to rework their essays in their own words. Ah Young later explained to me that the students spend the majority of their time writing during her class or reviewing the feedback that she gives them.
Ah Young was very accessible to/open with the students and was joking with several of them throughout the class. She had to stress English only to several of the students who had switched back into their native languages while discussing their papers. Biou, my conversation partner, was in the class and asked me to look over her paper with her and explain some of the notes Ah Young had written. I thought the feedback that Ah Young gave Biou was great. She manages to focus the student’s attention on the problem without giving them one solution. She left it open for the students to figure out how to rework their essays in their own words. Ah Young later explained to me that the students spend the majority of their time writing during her class or reviewing the feedback that she gives them.
Jennifer- TP03- 9/6/10
For the second review of Woon Jee’s paper, we decided to meet at my office so that we wouldn’t have any of the distractions that we had at Panera (she mentioned that it was a little too loud for her to completely concentrate all the time). I had assumed that we were going to be going over the newly edited version of her paper, however, Woon Jee was quick to tell me that she wasn’t able to finish after we stopped yesterday. She said that once I left, she didn’t have anyone to confirm her edits and she felt unsure of herself. I told her that this was perfectly fine, and that hopefully we will eventually get her to a place where she feels comfortable correcting her own work.
This meeting was very similar to our last meeting. Woon Jee was a little unsure of her edits at first, but as we went on she became more and more confident of herself. Once we were finished we decided what we would do for the remainder of our meetings. I suggested to her that we would focus on editing her work every other meeting and that we would explore other topics that interest her (understanding stories on NPR and other talk radio stations, phone conversations, etc) during the alternating times. During the next editing meeting, I plan to introduce her to editing short-hand as well as various other editing techniques (focusing on composition and grammar as two separate editing cycles).
This meeting was very similar to our last meeting. Woon Jee was a little unsure of her edits at first, but as we went on she became more and more confident of herself. Once we were finished we decided what we would do for the remainder of our meetings. I suggested to her that we would focus on editing her work every other meeting and that we would explore other topics that interest her (understanding stories on NPR and other talk radio stations, phone conversations, etc) during the alternating times. During the next editing meeting, I plan to introduce her to editing short-hand as well as various other editing techniques (focusing on composition and grammar as two separate editing cycles).
Jennifer- TP02- 9/5/10
Today I met with Woon Jee at Panera to discuss her paper that was due for her prelims this Thursday. During our first meeting, I really wanted to get a good understanding of the issues she struggles with concerning her writing skills. After briefly reading through her work, I got the impression that she has a good grasp on essay and paragraph construction and that she needed a little work on editing and word usage. Most of the grammatical areas that she struggled with were articles missing, subject-verb agreement, wrong word usage, and awkward phrases.
Instead of handing her a paper that already has all of the corrections, I thought it might be a good idea to see if she would be able to work through her paper and catch any corrections herself. One of the ways I edit my papers is by reading it aloud. I suggested this to her and for the most part it seemed to work. She quickly picked up on some of the issues she was having, and by the end of our meeting she was editing them out without any prompts from me. We had only made it about half-way through her paper and we were already two and a half hours in, but she felt confident that she could handle the rest of the paper on her own. We decided to meet tomorrow (Monday) to go over the paper once more before she turns it in.
Instead of handing her a paper that already has all of the corrections, I thought it might be a good idea to see if she would be able to work through her paper and catch any corrections herself. One of the ways I edit my papers is by reading it aloud. I suggested this to her and for the most part it seemed to work. She quickly picked up on some of the issues she was having, and by the end of our meeting she was editing them out without any prompts from me. We had only made it about half-way through her paper and we were already two and a half hours in, but she felt confident that she could handle the rest of the paper on her own. We decided to meet tomorrow (Monday) to go over the paper once more before she turns it in.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
CP #2
I met with Mandy for the 2nd time on the morning of the first FSU football game of the season, which was also her first football game ever. The CIES students were hanging out in the lounge and I was able to meet some of Mandy's friends from China and Korea. They were very nice and they even wanted me to explain some of the rules of football to them so they could understand it better when they watched it. We sat and talked until the 'chaperones' passed out the tickets and gave instructions on where everyone should go, etc. We walked down to the stadium together and passed by a lot of people tailgating. She asked what everyone was doing and why, and I had to explain to her that lots of people make the day of a football game a big party and eat, drink, and play games before the game starts. Once we got to the stadium I was able to show Mandy's group what gate to go to because my tickets were close to theirs. On the way they were able to take a picture with the "Garnet and Gold Guys" and of the Unconquered statue. They all seemed very excited and even participated in some of the chanting of 'F-L-O-R-I-D-A S-T-A-T-E....' :) They lasted through the first half of the game and left during halftime due to the extreme heat, but she later told me that they all enjoyed the part of the game that they were able to see.
CP #1
My conversation partner is from China and her name is Wang Man, but she goes by Mandy. She is working towards becoming a better English speaker so she can get a higher TOEFL score and eventually be accepted as a double major in Chemistry and Biology at a university, whether it be at FSU or somewhere else. We met during "Tea Time" and introduced ourselves by telling each other about where we grew up and some of our interests and hobbies. She was excited about having new experiences in America and I hope to take her to some good restaurants and local venues for her to enjoy. The topic of FSU football got brought up because she said that the CIES students had a group going that Saturday and she had never been to anything like a football game before. I am a huge FSU fan, so I gave her a brief overview of what she could expect at the game and we even practiced the War Chant Chop with the music on my phone! :) She said she was excited about going and so we decided to meet up before the game to hang out and I could show her some of the pre-game activities that campus has on Saturdays. I am looking forward to getting to know her more and hopefully helping her with her English fluency.
TP #2
My 2nd meeting with Karis went really well and lasted for a solid 2 hours. She had brought me a survey she had created, asking consumers what was important to them concerning healthy food. We went through each line of the survey and reviewed her word usage, phrasing, and sentence structure. One of the main mistakes she had made was not using the articles 'a, an, & the'. She told me that in Korea they don't really use them, so we had to spend extra time explaining when and why we use them in English. I told her that I would find and bring a guide sheet that further explains them for our next meeting. We also focused on possessives and plurals, because those were other grammar factors that she wasn't using. I came up with examples that were similar to what she would use and she then fixed her own sentences correctly. We made it through the entire survey and, even though we went an hour longer than originally planned, the time was well spent and needed. I even let her keep the notes and examples that I had made and written down throughout our meeting.
One more interesting thing that we went over was the difference between parenthesis and brackets. The concept wasn't hard for her to grasp, but saying the word 'parenthesis' was more difficult. They don't use the 'th' sound in Korean and it was hard for her to train her mouth to form that sound. We broke down the syllables in the word and slowly sounded it out together and she watched how I made the sound and mimicked it. I had never really thought before about some sounds that I don't even think of, may be really difficult for someone else to create. We are meeting again next week and I hope to continue helping her the best I can!
TP #1
My tutoring partner's name is Karis and she is from Korea. During our first meeting we introduced ourselves and she told me that she was in America to do research at FSU in her field of hospitality, focusing on food safety in restaurants. I could tell that she felt very strongly about her research because she did the best she could to tell me details about it. She is fairly fluent in her speech and she expressed that she really wants to focus on grammar and her pronunciation of difficult words. She is really nice and eager to improve her English. She said that she doesn't get much practice with speaking English because her co-workers are Korean and she only speaks Korean at home as well. I look forward to helping her to the best of my ability and learning from her as well.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Conversation Partner
I met my conversation partner Lu for the first time yesterday afternoon at tea time at CIES. I was pretty nervous about it, and was afraid that I wouldn't know what to say to her or that we might run out of things to talk about. What a pleasant surprise to find out that all of my assumptions were wrong. Lu and I ended up talking nonstop for the entire hour and then some. She was not shy at all and very open with her comments and questions, which made it easier for me. We started with the typical questions of a first conversation between two people like where she was from, how long we she'd been in the United States, how she likes it so far, etc. Then we both began to ease up to one another and started to talk about more fun subjects. She asked me about life in Tallahassee, where to go, where not to go, bars, and good restaurants. She said that she would love to cook for me, which got me super excited because I love Chinese food.
Time had flown by when I realized that it was already past 4 o'clock. I told her that I love talking with her, but that I had to go to class. We exchanged numbers and plan to meet up really soon. Overall, our first meeting went very well!
Time had flown by when I realized that it was already past 4 o'clock. I told her that I love talking with her, but that I had to go to class. We exchanged numbers and plan to meet up really soon. Overall, our first meeting went very well!
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Jennifer- CP01-9/2/10
I met my conversation partner for the first time during the tea at CIES. Biou is very outgoing and has a very vibrant personality. She seems to have made a lot of friends within the program already, several students came up to her during our conversation. One of the first things we talked about was how Tallahassee is so different from her home. Having grown up in Beijing, Biou prefers life in the big city and she was a little shocked at how small Tallahassee is (although, she did mention that she thought it was very peaceful).
Biou absolutely loves music and we ended up talking about it for quite a while. Back home she plays keyboard in a predominately male band. I got to listen to one of her songs, which I thought was awesome but totally didn’t expect heavy metal/rock to be her genre. She told me that her band was very popular back home, and even showed me some of the band photos that they’ve had taken. We talked about possibly going to one of the concerts either at Floyds or one of the other music venues in town which she seemed really excited about doing. We ended up having a lot in common and I’m really excited to meet up with her again.
Biou absolutely loves music and we ended up talking about it for quite a while. Back home she plays keyboard in a predominately male band. I got to listen to one of her songs, which I thought was awesome but totally didn’t expect heavy metal/rock to be her genre. She told me that her band was very popular back home, and even showed me some of the band photos that they’ve had taken. We talked about possibly going to one of the concerts either at Floyds or one of the other music venues in town which she seemed really excited about doing. We ended up having a lot in common and I’m really excited to meet up with her again.
McKenzie- CP- 2
For our second meeting, I took Elly to eat dinner at Mr. Roboto’s. Naturally, we talked about food a lot. Elly doesn’t know how to cook but we are going to cook an American meal together of fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy at my house. She loved Mr. Roboto’s but asked me to order for her because the system of ordering at a counter and then sitting down was confusing her. At Mr. Roboto’s, there aren’t waiters, but food runners bring the food to your table and this confused her. I think it’s funny that she told me that since she can’t cook, her roommate feeds her everyday. I asked her what she would do if she didn’t have her roommate, and Elly said she would just mooch off of friends.
We discussed her classes, and apparently she has a lot of homework. Elly likes to do homework at her house instead of the library or a coffee shop. She learned a new phrase from me: “one of a kind.” I told her I like “one of a kind” coffee shops better than Starbucks and this launched a discussion of the phrase.
I will be seeing Elly next week, I invited her to my friend’s birthday party. This will be her first big American “kegger” style party and she sounds excited.
We discussed her classes, and apparently she has a lot of homework. Elly likes to do homework at her house instead of the library or a coffee shop. She learned a new phrase from me: “one of a kind.” I told her I like “one of a kind” coffee shops better than Starbucks and this launched a discussion of the phrase.
I will be seeing Elly next week, I invited her to my friend’s birthday party. This will be her first big American “kegger” style party and she sounds excited.
McKenzie- Observation- 1
I observed Marilyn’s elementary composition class. Everyone in the class was able to communicate with relative ease. She started the class asking about their evening. Some of the things I noticed about Marilyn’s teaching style included: She recalls prior knowledge a lot, tying lessons to past lessons and information. Marilyn stopped to go over words in the assignment that the students might not understand (such as lack and virtual). She called on students by name to get them to participate. Marilyn was good at time management, for example, telling students exactly how long they had to work on assignments and handing back paper as they did individual work so as not to waste any time. She spoke very slow and used simple language, providing comprehensible input. When students answered something correctly she said, “Thank you, _________.” She probed them for the correct answers if they answered something wrong.
The assignment was to a write a compare and contrast essay on Gainesville and Tallahassee using statistics on size and population provided to them. The students did not seem very enthusiastic about the subject, but it was something in the workbook they had. Perhaps if the topic had been to compare and contrast their favorite bands or restaurants they would have been more interested. A few of them had their phones out under the table but for the most part were involved.
The assignment was to a write a compare and contrast essay on Gainesville and Tallahassee using statistics on size and population provided to them. The students did not seem very enthusiastic about the subject, but it was something in the workbook they had. Perhaps if the topic had been to compare and contrast their favorite bands or restaurants they would have been more interested. A few of them had their phones out under the table but for the most part were involved.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Jennifer- TP01- 9/01/10
Today I met my tutoring partner, Woon Jee Lee. Woon Jee told me that she grew up in Korea, but that her name is actually Chinese and means “Fragrance of Flower.” She is currently working towards her doctorate in Instructional Systems from Florida State University. Having spent the past two years living in Tallahassee, Woon Jee’s English skills are very impressive. She expressed interest in developing her academic vocabulary and writing skills, as well as her conversational English. She’s extremely nice and seems really excited about getting to work together. At first she was a little apprehensive about the age gap between us, but I think towards the end of our conversation she seemed to feel more at ease.
For our next session, Woon Jee would like to review the paper she’s written as part of her prelims for her doctoral degree. My goal for this first meeting is to allow her to work through her paper in an attempt to see how far she can assess and correct her own work. This will give me the opportunity to see what areas she might be struggling in and it will help direct our future meetings.
For our next session, Woon Jee would like to review the paper she’s written as part of her prelims for her doctoral degree. My goal for this first meeting is to allow her to work through her paper in an attempt to see how far she can assess and correct her own work. This will give me the opportunity to see what areas she might be struggling in and it will help direct our future meetings.
Convo Partner - 1
Today I met my conversational partner at the CIES tea. I was really surprised at how many people attended. I had a bit of a problem finding my partner, but persistence prevailed!
My partner's name is Marlena. She speaks Portuguese and is from Brazil. She and her brother Robert are attending FSU for four months to learn English. Marlena is 18 years old, so I could actually be her mother. She says that I remind her of her Mom. I am making a valiant effort to take this as a compliment. This is a bit frightening to me because, most days, I still feel as though I am 18.
Marlena is very outgoing and was really excited to meet me. One of the first things that she said to me was to be sure and correct any mistakes she makes when speaking. We have a few things in common and I am looking forward to spending more time with her and getting to know her better. I am excited to see the progress she makes throughout this process.
My partner's name is Marlena. She speaks Portuguese and is from Brazil. She and her brother Robert are attending FSU for four months to learn English. Marlena is 18 years old, so I could actually be her mother. She says that I remind her of her Mom. I am making a valiant effort to take this as a compliment. This is a bit frightening to me because, most days, I still feel as though I am 18.
Marlena is very outgoing and was really excited to meet me. One of the first things that she said to me was to be sure and correct any mistakes she makes when speaking. We have a few things in common and I am looking forward to spending more time with her and getting to know her better. I am excited to see the progress she makes throughout this process.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
McKenzie- Tutoring- 2
Last time I met Abby, I assigned her a paragraph to write on her musical interests. She brought it in today and we went over it. A few words were awkward because she had looked them up in an online dictionary that did not directly translate the words correctly. For the most part, her paper was great. She did get confused about the usage of the word “to,” omitting it when she should use it, and placing it inappropriately. We will go over this in another session.
Abby had told me she wanted to improve her vocabulary so I brought in a worksheet on prefixes such as re, bi, uni, mis, un, etc. We went over what these prefixes mean and looked at examples for each prefix so that she can decipher what words mean by the prefix, even if she does not know the actual definition.
I brought in 8 photos of events in current news. Abby looked at each photo and guessed what was happening in each photo. We discussed the photos and implications in global news. One of the photos was from South Korea’s Underwater Fashion Week and Abby was able to guess that it took place in Korea immediately because of the clothes the girl in the photo was wearing.
For the last 15 minutes, she and I looked over the list of “Bushisms” that I used in my grammar lesson plan. Abby was able to spot the error in every sentence and read them out loud in their corrected format. She liked this activity because she said her dad does not like Bush. I assigned her a homework assignment to write a list of ten differences she has noticed between Korea and the United States.
Abby had told me she wanted to improve her vocabulary so I brought in a worksheet on prefixes such as re, bi, uni, mis, un, etc. We went over what these prefixes mean and looked at examples for each prefix so that she can decipher what words mean by the prefix, even if she does not know the actual definition.
I brought in 8 photos of events in current news. Abby looked at each photo and guessed what was happening in each photo. We discussed the photos and implications in global news. One of the photos was from South Korea’s Underwater Fashion Week and Abby was able to guess that it took place in Korea immediately because of the clothes the girl in the photo was wearing.
For the last 15 minutes, she and I looked over the list of “Bushisms” that I used in my grammar lesson plan. Abby was able to spot the error in every sentence and read them out loud in their corrected format. She liked this activity because she said her dad does not like Bush. I assigned her a homework assignment to write a list of ten differences she has noticed between Korea and the United States.
Friday, September 3, 2010
McKenzie- Tutoring- 1
Today, Friday, September 3, was my first time meeting Abby at the library to tutor her. Her real name is Yoonjung Lee but she goes by Abby in America. Abby is not a student, she is a housewife who came here from Korea with her husband and son while her husband attends FSU for a year. I asked what she wanted out of the tutoring and she said to increase her vocabulary, and to be able to communicate better with her son’s teachers. We are going to meet every Saturday at 10 for one hour. Originally I was supposed to tutor two people, but the second girl did not work out so Karen Gotti is working out another tutoring appointment for me right now.
Abby’s English is somewhere between intermediate and advanced. She understands everything and can read fluently, but makes minor mistakes when she is speaking. Today, I just wanted to see what level she is at so we read a story about jazz music in America. She read it out loud and we stopped after each paragraph to discuss vocabulary or any questions she might have. There were a few words she did not know: mingle, improvise, forerunners, and emerge. I explained them and asked her to try and use them in another example. Afterwards, the article came with an activity. There were sentences about the article with words missing. There was a word bank next to the sentences that she could choose from. The words were unconjugated verbs, so not only did she have to know what word was appropriate for each sentence, she had to conjugate the verb. I asked her to write a paragraph tonight about her experience with music, what type of music she likes, is there any music in her country used for festivals, does she play music, etc. We will review it tomorrow!
Abby’s English is somewhere between intermediate and advanced. She understands everything and can read fluently, but makes minor mistakes when she is speaking. Today, I just wanted to see what level she is at so we read a story about jazz music in America. She read it out loud and we stopped after each paragraph to discuss vocabulary or any questions she might have. There were a few words she did not know: mingle, improvise, forerunners, and emerge. I explained them and asked her to try and use them in another example. Afterwards, the article came with an activity. There were sentences about the article with words missing. There was a word bank next to the sentences that she could choose from. The words were unconjugated verbs, so not only did she have to know what word was appropriate for each sentence, she had to conjugate the verb. I asked her to write a paragraph tonight about her experience with music, what type of music she likes, is there any music in her country used for festivals, does she play music, etc. We will review it tomorrow!
McKenzie- CP- 1
I met with my conversation partner, Elly, for the first time yesterday at “tea time.” We exchanged basic information before diving into real conversation. I learned that she is 23, from Taipei, Taiwan, and wants to major in communications but has to pass the TOEFL exam first. She plans on being in the U.S. for two years. Elly was extremely self conscious at first about her speaking ability, but I assured her that she sounded almost perfect! She confused he and she a few times but other than that, she didn’t make any mistakes! She told me that when she first came here she was so self conscious that she didn’t really speak a lot.
We talked about what type of things Elly likes to do. She can’t drive so she depends on friends for rides, and she has met a group of Taiwanese students that she spends her free time with. They went to a big nightclub last week but she said it was loud and overrated. We both love shopping so we planned on going shopping together sometime. I also invited her to Vortex Springs to go swimming with my friends because she said she likes swimming.
This was a cultural difference. When I invited her to the springs, she said she had a lot of homework so she didn’t know if she would be able. American students would jump on the opportunity to have fun and would put homework aside! Also, when we were talking about our families, I mentioned my dog and it was strange to her because in Taiwan, people don’t really treat dogs like humans. There are mostly just stray dogs on the street.
Elly is an only child who told me that she is very dependent on her parents. She cried when she first came here because she missed them but she is now feeling better. I am excited to meet up with her again!
We talked about what type of things Elly likes to do. She can’t drive so she depends on friends for rides, and she has met a group of Taiwanese students that she spends her free time with. They went to a big nightclub last week but she said it was loud and overrated. We both love shopping so we planned on going shopping together sometime. I also invited her to Vortex Springs to go swimming with my friends because she said she likes swimming.
This was a cultural difference. When I invited her to the springs, she said she had a lot of homework so she didn’t know if she would be able. American students would jump on the opportunity to have fun and would put homework aside! Also, when we were talking about our families, I mentioned my dog and it was strange to her because in Taiwan, people don’t really treat dogs like humans. There are mostly just stray dogs on the street.
Elly is an only child who told me that she is very dependent on her parents. She cried when she first came here because she missed them but she is now feeling better. I am excited to meet up with her again!
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