Date/Time: May 16th, 2017 at 6:45PM
Location: All Saints Cafe
Topic/Skill: Listening to News
Tonight I had Saad do an activity that focused on listening skills, particularly the ones used for news broadcasts. I found 30 to 90 second news clips on YouTube and selected a variety of different ones. We listened through it one time, pausing when he had a question, and then discussed it together. The two topics that we spent the most time on concerned Confederate monuments in the 21st century and terrorism. After a discussion, we listened through it again, and then I had him summarize what he heard in three sentences or more.
Feedback Provided to Tutee:
Saad and I discussed some of the new vocabulary (terrorist, monument, segregation) and the meanings that hold beyond the definition in America. We talked about listening strategies and the difference in speech patterns between reporters and the people being interviewed. Grammatical correction was provided for the summaries upon request.
Lesson(s) about Tutoring and/or the Tutee You Learned:
It probably would have been more beneficial to do the schema building activity before starting the videos.
Wednesday, July 5, 2017
Keira TS #11
Keira TS #11
Date/Time: June 28, 2017 - 6:30pm
Location: Starbucks
Topic/Skill: Gift-Giving Culture/Thank You's
Today's session with Hani had more of an immediate real world application than any of our previous meetings have had. There is a CIES employee who has apparently been a very big help and a good friend to him while he has been here, even going so far as to help him when he car was involved in an accident. Naturally, he wants to thank her, but was not sure about the proper way to go about doing so in American culture. According to him, in Saudi Arabian culture, it is normal to give gifts as a way of saying thanks, and usually nothing cheap, either. Therefore, he wanted to do the same here, but did not know what to get or how to go about this process. We spent the majority of our session talking about the different ways people usually thank each other or give gifts in American culture, and some of the ways these practices can change depending on the context.
Feedback Provided to Tutee: To give him something visible and hopefully helpful, one of the things I taught Hani was the basic outline for how to write a thank you note in American culture. I divided this outline into the sections one might find in a thank you card accompanied by a nice message: the header indicating who it is for, a body section thanking the person or people and including any desired additional messages (e.g. when I send thank you's to my family and include something along the lines of "I hope to see you again soon."), and the closing including the sender's name. I told him that thank you cards are frequently given, perhaps in addition to gifts. We also talked about different gifts that might be given, and ways to pick something that the person receiving them will like without giving away the surprise. I also taught him the phrase "It means a lot to me," and gave him some examples of situations when it may be used.
Lesson(s) about Tutoring and/or the Tutee You Learned: I learned a lot about how influential this person has been in Hani's life while he has been in America. I also got to learn a little about how people thank each other in Saudi Arabia while getting a chance to more closely examine the ways we thank each other in my own culture.
Location: Starbucks
Topic/Skill: Gift-Giving Culture/Thank You's
Feedback Provided to Tutee: To give him something visible and hopefully helpful, one of the things I taught Hani was the basic outline for how to write a thank you note in American culture. I divided this outline into the sections one might find in a thank you card accompanied by a nice message: the header indicating who it is for, a body section thanking the person or people and including any desired additional messages (e.g. when I send thank you's to my family and include something along the lines of "I hope to see you again soon."), and the closing including the sender's name. I told him that thank you cards are frequently given, perhaps in addition to gifts. We also talked about different gifts that might be given, and ways to pick something that the person receiving them will like without giving away the surprise. I also taught him the phrase "It means a lot to me," and gave him some examples of situations when it may be used.
Lesson(s) about Tutoring and/or the Tutee You Learned: I learned a lot about how influential this person has been in Hani's life while he has been in America. I also got to learn a little about how people thank each other in Saudi Arabia while getting a chance to more closely examine the ways we thank each other in my own culture.
Kaitlin TS #1
Date/Time: May 9th, 2017 at 6:40PM
Location: Starbucks
Topic/Skill: Diagnostic
I met up with Saad at the Starbucks on Tennessee Street (as agreed over text message) and we introduced ourselves. Before starting the diagnostic, Saad and I got to know each other. He told me he is from Saudi Arabia, has a good size family, and loves to hang out with his friends. Afterwards, using the questions provided on the sheet, I asked him some diagnostic questions, as well as some questions about what he wanted to work on. He also provided me with a writing sample, his grades from last session, and his group placements in the CIES program. We determined that we would focus on essay organization with an emphasis on thesis statements, listening skills with an emphasis on the news and business, and grammar while speaking.
Location: Starbucks
Topic/Skill: Diagnostic
I met up with Saad at the Starbucks on Tennessee Street (as agreed over text message) and we introduced ourselves. Before starting the diagnostic, Saad and I got to know each other. He told me he is from Saudi Arabia, has a good size family, and loves to hang out with his friends. Afterwards, using the questions provided on the sheet, I asked him some diagnostic questions, as well as some questions about what he wanted to work on. He also provided me with a writing sample, his grades from last session, and his group placements in the CIES program. We determined that we would focus on essay organization with an emphasis on thesis statements, listening skills with an emphasis on the news and business, and grammar while speaking.
Keira TS #10
Keira TS #10
Date/Time: June 28, 2017 - 4:40pm
Location: Starbucks
Topic/Skill: Question-asking/Phrasing/Past Tense
Casias and I met today and spent most of our session going over some reoccurring problems he has been having in his classes. Despite his high fluency and his very fast rate of speech, he has a hard time with matters such as "Do I say 'were you' or 'was you'?" and "Is it 'many car' or 'many cars'?"
Feedback Provided to Tutee: Casias and I talked about a lot of different types of questions and sentences that he commonly comes across in his studies. This involved some discussion of questions beginning with or involving the worlds "were," "what," and "was," as well as the differences in use between "do," "does," and "did." Additionally, he is still struggling a little with knowing when to conjugate verbs to the past tense. We shared a lot of examples. I would explain the rule or rules of what we were discussing in its original context (e.g. the subject/verb agreement of "There are many cars"), share a different example, and have him provide new examples, too.
Lesson(s) about Tutoring and/or the Tutee You Learned: Casias' English is, in general, advanced enough that he wants to begin nitpicking certain aspects of his speaking or writing, such as the time he asked me for more transitional words he could use in his essays despite already successfully using a number of them. However, there are still some more basic concepts that he needs to focus on and master in order to improve the test scores he is receiving and stop receiving repeated comments on his assignments.
Location: Starbucks
Topic/Skill: Question-asking/Phrasing/Past Tense
Feedback Provided to Tutee: Casias and I talked about a lot of different types of questions and sentences that he commonly comes across in his studies. This involved some discussion of questions beginning with or involving the worlds "were," "what," and "was," as well as the differences in use between "do," "does," and "did." Additionally, he is still struggling a little with knowing when to conjugate verbs to the past tense. We shared a lot of examples. I would explain the rule or rules of what we were discussing in its original context (e.g. the subject/verb agreement of "There are many cars"), share a different example, and have him provide new examples, too.
Lesson(s) about Tutoring and/or the Tutee You Learned: Casias' English is, in general, advanced enough that he wants to begin nitpicking certain aspects of his speaking or writing, such as the time he asked me for more transitional words he could use in his essays despite already successfully using a number of them. However, there are still some more basic concepts that he needs to focus on and master in order to improve the test scores he is receiving and stop receiving repeated comments on his assignments.
Keira TS #9
Keira TS #9
Date/Time: June 16, 2017 - 8:30pm
Location: Moody's Pita & Hummus
Topic/Skill: Idioms & Vocabulary
For tonight's session, Hani and I met at a restaurant he likes so he could eat as soon as fasting for the day was completed. Tonight, at his request, we dedicated the bulk of our session to going over different common idioms in the English language. This is something that Hani has expressed an interest in before, as has Casias, so it was no surprise that he wanted to dedicate a little more time to this topic. I found an excellent website that lists idioms, their meaning, and whether they are used in a sentence or as a full sentence themselves, which helped support this session. I recommended the page to him when we were done, so he can study idioms more in his free time if he so chooses. We talked about some idioms that I felt he would be likely to come across in his English studies, such as "beat around the bush," and some that he had heard and did not understand, such as "putting your foot in your mouth." We also covered some new vocabulary words such as "acquire" and "aggravate" that were mixing Hani up a little due to some translation confusion. I also helped him correct an example sentence that he had written so that his word choices supported his intended meaning.
Feedback Provided to Tutee: We mainly spent this session going over different examples of the idioms we covered, and clearly defining some vocabulary that had been confusing him a little. There was a handful of words that got a little mixed up in translation, so Hani was using them incorrectly, and we discussed what they actually mean, the correct context to use them in, and the words that would convey his intended meaning. The biggest example of this was when he brought in a sentence he had written prior to this session in which he had accidentally used "acquired" in place of "won" and "aggravated" instead of "cheered."
Lesson(s) about Tutoring and/or the Tutee You Learned: Hani always has questions he wants to ask or topics he wants to cover, and he listens very intently in all of our discussions. His desire to learn and willingness to work hard is always very evident. Today he shared an anecdote about driving alone to an auction in Georgia where he learned the hard way that auctioneers are nearly impossible to understand. I think I got rather lucky in being his tutor, because his eagerness to learn and how hard he works make my job a little easier.
Location: Moody's Pita & Hummus
Topic/Skill: Idioms & Vocabulary
Feedback Provided to Tutee: We mainly spent this session going over different examples of the idioms we covered, and clearly defining some vocabulary that had been confusing him a little. There was a handful of words that got a little mixed up in translation, so Hani was using them incorrectly, and we discussed what they actually mean, the correct context to use them in, and the words that would convey his intended meaning. The biggest example of this was when he brought in a sentence he had written prior to this session in which he had accidentally used "acquired" in place of "won" and "aggravated" instead of "cheered."
Lesson(s) about Tutoring and/or the Tutee You Learned: Hani always has questions he wants to ask or topics he wants to cover, and he listens very intently in all of our discussions. His desire to learn and willingness to work hard is always very evident. Today he shared an anecdote about driving alone to an auction in Georgia where he learned the hard way that auctioneers are nearly impossible to understand. I think I got rather lucky in being his tutor, because his eagerness to learn and how hard he works make my job a little easier.
Samantha TS#16
Date/Time: July 5th, 2017 - 3:00 p.m
Location: CIES
Topic/Skill: Listening
Feedback Provided to Tutee: This session Seongeun and I did something a little different. We still used clips from Gilmore Girls, but I made the activity more into a dictation activity. The clips were shorter and slower. Before we began the activity we went over the vocabulary together. Showing her the new vocabulary before the dictation activity was important because there were a lot of words she did not know.
Lesson(s) about Tutoring and/or the Tutee You Learned: After completing the activity I showed Seongeun a fun video about some of the different regional accents that are in America. It was a little difficult for her to hear the differences between the accents. But, we had fun trying to mimic the different accents together.
Location: CIES
Topic/Skill: Listening
Feedback Provided to Tutee: This session Seongeun and I did something a little different. We still used clips from Gilmore Girls, but I made the activity more into a dictation activity. The clips were shorter and slower. Before we began the activity we went over the vocabulary together. Showing her the new vocabulary before the dictation activity was important because there were a lot of words she did not know.
Lesson(s) about Tutoring and/or the Tutee You Learned: After completing the activity I showed Seongeun a fun video about some of the different regional accents that are in America. It was a little difficult for her to hear the differences between the accents. But, we had fun trying to mimic the different accents together.
Alexa TS #16
Today (7/5/2017, 6:00-7:00) was the last day for tutoring. I was supposed to meet up with Sultan at Starbucks, but it started to storm really badly. What I decided to do because of that was just communicate with him over the phone. I emailed him a website of reading comprehension worksheets that he can use to continue to grow in his English skills. I also asked if he had any more questions about the vocabulary that he has been studying. It's been really cool to see him improve in his English skills over the course of our tutoring sessions. He actually moved up from level 1 to level 2, and he was very appreciative to me for helping him make that possible. I also gave him some other websites that can help him with his English skills. One of the websites I gave him conjugates any word into every tense. I hope the resources I've given him continue to help him in his English skills.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)