Valerie TS #1

I began my tutoring sessions with P.J. Kim yesterday morning. We are reading a level-appropriate novel, Frindle. As a fifth grader (going into sixth), P.J. is definitely more into moving around than sitting down to read a book. His ability to read aloud is very good, but because his focus is a little distracted, we took the time to re-read some of the passages in order to fully comprehend what is happening in the story.

If I noticed him struggling over a word, I would wait until the end of the paragraph and then ask him if he knew what that specific word meant. If he said no, I'd take the time to explain it with synonyms and examples and then have him re-read the paragraph and summarize what happened. If he told me he knew the word, I'd ask him to give me an example of it in a sentence or real-life situation in order to also help him with his productive speaking skills.

He loves real-world examples and sometimes we would get off on tangents about other things going on in his life after discussing a scene of the book that was related. I'd like to stay more on track during the next session, but I believe it was important for me to be interested in getting to know him and what he likes to do during this very first session.

Valerie CP #3

Soumaya and I decided to go to Target together for our third hangout session. She expressed a need to me to go shopping during our last meeting, so what better place to take her than every woman's dream store, Target. Her English is improving with every week! She can ask me all sorts of questions now and understand much more of what I say. I always have to remember to slow down my speaking pace when we hang out, as well as the amount of vocabulary I use.

When we arrived at Target, she told me she didn't have a swim suit, but that she loves to go to the pool. We went straight for the bathing suit racks, where I showed her how to determine the different sizes. She's a "small" so we were on the lookout for any "S" marked swimwear. I found out her favorite color to wear is black -- mine too! We moved on to the casual clothes, where I showed her the difference between everyday tank-tops and "activewear" tank-tops. We discussed going to the gym and she said she'd like to work out with me sometime.

We also looked at sheets for her bed, where we discussed the different sizes (twin, queen, king), as well as the different parts of the bed -- mattress, pillows, etc. She interacted with some of the store clerks, asking them questions and getting a fitting room. She ended up practically getting a whole new wardrobe! Overall, I think it was a really awesome first shopping experience for her in America. Knowing what size you are and the etiquette of shopping around a store is super important in her transition to the states.

Christiana TS #4

Date/Time: May 29, 2017; 3:00-4:00 P.M.
Location: Campus Circle study rooms 
Topic: Present Continuous, Simple Past and Simple Present
Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Did verb tense practice to study for upcoming quizzes, looked up grammar rules together learned about double consonant and syllable stress rules. 

For our third meeting Saeed and I once again met at the Campus Circle study center. He told me that he has a quiz on Wednesday on the the simple past, simple present, and present continuous verb tenses as they relate to the words yesterday, usually, and right now. I had printed out some information and examples on the tenses and briefly went over the rules and when they are used before pulling up some practice exercises on the computer that I had him work through. We also went over a list of irregular verbs that they had gone over in class and I made sure he knew the correct conjugations for those verbs so that he would be prepared if any of them showed up on the quiz. While we were practicing simple past we ran in to the word 'stop', which needed to be changed to 'stopped' and knowing that he may not have known about this I asked him how he would spell it and he said 'stoped'. I explained to him that that was not correct and explained that he would need a double 'p' for it to be correct and he asked why. Not being one hundred percent sure about the reasoning behind the rule, I googled it and found a very helpful video on a website, which he wanted to take down for his own later use. I was happy to learn something new with him and was also glad I was able to give him a resource to use in his future studies. After watching the video he was still a bit confused, but having grasped the concept I was able to further explain it to him until he understood more fully. We discussed this for a few more moments and then went over the points that we had practiced during our hour of tutoring one last time to make them stick. We decided that we would meet again this Wednesday to discuss how his quiz went, and I told him to decide what he would like to work on and let me know so I can prepare accordingly. 

Samantha TS#6

Date/Time: May 24th, 2017 - 7:30 p.m

Location: Tutee's Home

Topic/Skill: Reading Comprehension

Feedback Provided to Tutee: For this tutoring session I brought PJ a fiction novel I thought he might enjoy. I brought The Lightning Thief, which on the Scholastics website is for ages 9-12 and grades 4-8. During this session, PJ and I read through Chapter 1. As we went through the chapter, I explained the words he may not know and asked him short questions about the reading to keep him engaged.

Lesson(s) about Tutoring and/or the Tutee You Learned: I think this novel is longer than anything PJ has read before. He was even skeptical that it was his level when I brought it in for him. After reading through the first chapter, I think PJ became less intimidated by the size of the book. I learned that PJ really does have fun reading when the book interests him. I am hoping that as we continue to read, he will get more excited about the book. I would like for him to want to continue reading on his own even if we don't have a tutoring session.

Samantha TS#5

Date/Time: May 24th, 2017 - 3:00 p.m

Location: CIES

Topic/Skill: Passive and Active Voice & Speaking

Feedback Provided to Tutee: In our previous session Seongeun asked if we could go over passive and active voice. To this tutoring session I brought with me a review of passive and active voice. The review went over how to identify active and passive voice, when to use which, and how to change from passive to active. We went over the review together and then she worked on a couple exercises on applying those skills. Once she was finished completing these exercises, I went over them with her. For both her correct and incorrect answers I explained why they were right or wrong as a continuation of the topic review. I also gave her a short exercise reviewing Articles, which we had gone over in our previous tutoring session. Afterwards, we ended the remaining time of our session with some speaking practice.

Lesson(s) about Tutoring and/or the Tutee You Learned: During our speaking practice I noticed Seongeun was slow in replying and that she gave simple answers. I could tell that as she was forming her sentences she was primarily thinking in her first language and then translating in her head what she wanted to say without making any mistakes. She also expressed to me that she sometimes does not understand what others are saying. I feel like Seongeun is too embarrassed to make mistakes or ask for clarification if she doesn't understand, so I would really like to practice speaking and listening with her more often to improve her fluency.

Alexa TS #2

Today (5/28/17, 4:00-5:00) I met up with my second adult tutee, Sultan, for the first time. We met up at Starbucks, and the first thing we did was get to know each other and learn more about what he would like to learn from tutoring. What he would like to focus on the most is reading, but he would also like to focus on listening and writing. After that, I was able to answer some questions he had about English. His first question was that he was wondering the difference between you and your. While explaining this, I made sure to give him a lot of written and verbal examples. He also wanted help with how to verbalize that he is going to be doing something in the future. Also, during our tutoring session I said the word "plan," and afterwards he was curious as to what the word meant and how it would be used. There was one thing that he brought up that I didn't really know how to explain. He wanted to know, for example, when saying "Sultan's car" or "The car of Sultan," why he didn't say Sultan's in the second example. This was something that I didn't know to to explain, but I told him that I would be sure to look into it and get back to him with a response. It really is a good reminder of the importance of knowing the rules of English when teaching the language. I plan to work with children, so I don't think I will need to know all these rules. However, it is still a good opportunity to brush up on my own understanding of the English language.

Alexandra CP #4

On Saturday, May 27, 2017, from 10:30am to 11:30am, I met with my conversation partner.  I picked her up, and we went to Donut Kingdom.  Gabriela told me last week that she loves donuts, so I wanted her to try some of Tallahassee’s best.  She was amazed at all the flavors.  We talked about school, college, and sports in our countries.  I also tried to explain Memorial Day to her.  We talked about good stores to shop at in Tallahassee.  She said she saw the new Beauty and the Beast movie and was glad she could understand it completely.  I was very impressed by this!  Then we went to the Downtown Market to see all the vendors with their art and their fresh produce.  We tried boiled peanuts.  I asked about her family, and she said that she talks with them and sends pictures each day.  I loved getting to show her even more of Tallahassee this morning.