David_CP#2

Earlier today I met with Hamad. Hamad is from Kuwait, and like a lot of the students here, has only been here for about a month. Hamad was very out going and very talkative and had a lot of questions... this made it really to find things to talk about. He and I really connected very quickly... we both seem to like food quite a lot, and he was thrilled to find out that I was born and grew up in Tallahassee. Yeah... we spent probably more time then we should have talking about good places to eat in Tallahassee. He really likes seafood, so we are going to go out to Po-Boy's some time soon... He didn't have to say much to convince me that it was a good idea.

He had a little bit of a hard time understanding the concept of Black Friday. He started by asking me about "that" day after Thanksgiving. I knew what he was talking about, and I did my best to try and explain the mentality behind the holiday. His mind was blown when I said people will stand in line outside of a store all night just to get good deals. We talked about it a lot, and eventually he came away with a good lesson in the more violent side of capitalism.

We started talking about the formation of America, and how cultural aspects of America carry through to today. He was very interested in New York and how even to this day there are still whole sections of the city are inhabited but people form other countries. China Town and Stanton Island were just two of the various places we talked about. Meeting today reminded me how people can really connect over common interests... Even if it's just food

David_CP#1

My first meeting with one of my conversation partners was with Yousef! He is from Kuwait and has been here in the US for about a month. We started talking about common things... the weather, how it is different form what he is use to, but as he (and I) got more comfortable, we began talking about the different cultural differences that he is experiencing in Tallahassee. Coming from a loud bigger city, he was still trying to adjust to the smaller and not quite as bustling city. 

This soon developed into a conversation about languages and how hard it can be to keep all these new things in our heads. I was able to relate to the position he was in due to me doing something very similar while living in Russia studying Russian. We were able to compare stories about things that we went through in different cultures. I think it was refreshing for him (because I know it would have been for me) to just kinda vent on some of the things that annoy you in a new place. I told him that every culture has their crazy "things" that don't make sense to people who have not grown up it in. 

After a while we started talking about things we liked doing, and we talked about things we could do in Tallahassee, and I found out that he had not played disk golf yet. I offered to take him and some of his friends to Tom Brown park next week for a while to play some baskets. Over all I really enjoyed getting to know him and talking for that hour. He seemed to be excited about doing something next week, and that is really all I am going for. If I can help someone understand a culture better and feel less awkward while doing it... it's a job well done in my book.    

Nicole TP4 - (CIES)

    Today I met with Ahmed and Sultan in the strozier starbucks cafe. I checked on their quizzes from last week that we had practiced material for and both of them had done extremely well! Both Ahmen and Sultan got at least 80% on them! This week they were working with  conjugations of "to be," classroom words, prepositions, and money. I started off with reviewing classroom words and prepositions. I had them both use the book to write 5 sentences describing items and their placement in comparisin to each other. Once they both finished Sultan read his first sentence, which was properly executed, then Ahmed read his aloud and I asked Sultan if the sentence was correct. He told me it was incorrect but could not tell me why. Ahmed had missed teh word "is." I explained to him teh reason we put why in the sentence and it's importance in the sentence. We repeated thsi situation having the two men corrrect each others erros, both striggled immensely with the placement of "is" and "are." Once we  went through the sentences my tutees decided they would write three more to show me that they now understood their mistakes, both of their work was at 100% at the end of this exercise.
    We moved on to coins, first I asked them to name each. Ahmed was extremely knowledgable with this activity and helped Sultan through the coins. Next I asked them to spell and write the value of the coins I named. This was a slow process as I went one by one and helped with spelling errors as we went.  They both struggled with the "-ar" aspect of "dollar," plurals, and diferentiating whether words were spelled with an "e" or "y."  We then played a game where each of us talked about something we bought and how much it cost, then Sultan or Ahmed would write and then tell me what coins/ bills equaled the correct amount. Ahmed loves math and the study of money, it was fun to teahc them but also attempt to teach each other by only using english. This was a good game and helped them grasp the value and written value. In arabic there aren't zeros in a number just periods to show the values. This led us to a conversation about currency exchange rate between the Kuwait  Denar and the U.S. Dollar, one Denar is aproximately $3.50. They told me they flet ready for the next quiz and that this lesson was useful for when pay for food or any checkout line.
   I sometimes find myself struggling with this age group as I'm never sure what kind activities would be most suitable. Suggestions welcome!




These two are my most challenging students.

Nicole TP3-(CIES)

   It was a long day of tutoring for me as I met with my child tutee in the early afternoon and an adult session tonight at 5. Abdulrahman was the only tutee that showed for this meeting , but that was ok because his needs do not completely align with the other two students. If anything this was a great time for us to meet and make some goals for our session and begin working on them. He came to my sorority house where I live, I figured it was nice day we could sit on the back deck and converse. He walked in teh front door and he immediately saw our "Phi Mu Phights" raffle table that based on teh honor system anyone was welcome to donate and enter the raffle, he asked me about it and I explained that we were raising money to find a cure for cancer. Abdulrahman immediately pulled out a dollar and asked where he could put his contribution, it was fantastic and warmed my heart as he was the first to donate.Abdulrahman is an excellent studier, he taught Arabic in his native country and therefore finds oue time best suited with speaking and listening activities as opposed to grammar or writing.
    We went to the back deck and began our session with some small talk about both of our weekends. We talked about places we liked to go, what activities we do with our families, and how we spend our free time. During this simple excercise I asked for my tutee to make thoughtful simple sentences. He told me a lot about himself and when answering questions about myself I had him recap the conversation to make we were communicatig effectively.  Next we talked about vocal fillers, when he has to think of what to say next he should make an effort not to mumble but take his time. As time went on we began using the book prompts and his homework to lead our disscussions. The book led us to the cultural section so we talked about Abdul's native country, Saudi Arabia. He told me a lot about the culture, how men and women are educated seperately, how the rich nation has afforded him this oppurtunity and his plan to study business here in the U.S. to practice at home. He explained he that he is here to learn English while his wife  earns her doctorate in Bio-Statistics. At our next meeting he wants address the college admissions process, understand the application essay prompts,  and potentially write a practice essay or at the least outline one. To improve Abdulrahman's conversational linguistic, vocabulary, and listening skills we decided we would start watching documentaries. In doing so I hope to replicate some of the activities we did in class.

Emily_CP_2

I had been conversing with one of my conversation partners all weekend to try and figure out something to do for Halloween.  I met Laura at the beginning of this past spring semester when I signed up to get a conversation partner.  I’ve had fun seeing her English progress from when I first met her!  Laura is from Panama. She was actually born in Colombia but has lived a lot of her life in Panama. We are the same age and get along really well.  I have been to the capital of Panama, which is where she lives, so that is one of the first things we bonded over.  My sister studied abroad this past summer in Panama with FSU, so she and Laura talk about that a lot.  We are all friends.  Laura has even come to Thomasville with me, eaten some southern food (she actually really liked grits), and hung out at my house with my family.  I’ve met her whole family as well.  We all had dinner together in August when her parents and sister came to Tallahassee at the start of the fall semester.

I told Laura about the Halloween event that InternatioNOLE was having today, so she came to that, and we ate dinner at Chili’s together afterwards.  I was Lil’ Wayne and she dressed up as a hippie. It was nice catching up with her.  She was originally planning to go back to Panama in February, but she told me that she already took the TOEFL, and if she did well she will go back in December. 

Her English was pretty good when I first met her, and as the months have passed I’ve noticed fewer and fewer grammatical errors in our texting conversations when trying to plan things as well as our actual conversations in person. She is not shy when she isn’t sure how to say something and always asks for clarification, which I am happy to give.  Today, I also noticed how comfortable she has become in speaking that language and talking for a long time.  I will miss her a lot when she leaves, but I know I’ll see her again.  She plans to spend some time taking classes at FSU Panama.  All of the classes there are taught in English, which is why she came to CIES. Then she wants to come do the last two years of her undergrad in Business here in Tallahassee.

Bobby - TP_child 2

There are several reasons why I like tutoring Jun:

• he's smart as a whip, and enjoys trying to trick me
• I like to believe that he really likes learning
• his mom is so appreciative...and gives me yummy Korean food :)

In all seriousness, working with Jun has been a really great experience so far. Today, we worked briefly on contractions before reading through a book on which he has a test tomorrow. At first, I could tell he'd seen contractions before, but he couldn't tell me what they were. I explained several common ones to him: were vs. we're, there vs. their vs. they're, and words of possession (for this, I used his name: "Jun's"). I explained that using contractions makes speech more conversational, whereas the full phrase would make speech more formal. I asked him to fill out a worksheet that I designed. There were 7 multiple choice questions for him to answer, and after going through each statement, he was able to answer most of them perfectly. We went over those that he didn't get on the first try, but I think he got the gist of it.

After this, we read through a "chapter book" that he will be tested on tomorrow. It was from the Magic Treehouse book series. The premise was that two young children ("master librarians"...what great role models!) are somehow allowed to time travel to the Ancient city of Pompeii on the night of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius so that they can recover a book for someone named Morgan. Why Morgan would send these children on such a daunting and terrifying mission is beyond me, but alas, Jun seemed to like it. He read through the first five chapters, carefully but surely, and only stumbled on a few understandably difficult words such as "amphitheater", "Vesuvius", "tunic", and "cackled." I asked him comprehension questions at the end of each chapter. He had already read the book earlier today, so he got most of them right! I know he's going to do well on his test.

Next week, I plan to work on determiners and (fingers crossed) eat an insane amount of kimchi.

Nicole - TP#2 (child)

    Today I finally got to meet up with my young tutoring partner at the Leon County Library. Jeffrey is six years old and just started kindergarten at the beginning of this school year, he is very energetic, sweet, and smart. Upon meeting he shared with me his love for police officers and learning about them, something I will keep in mind for incentives and activities. He knows his ABC's, numbers 1-10, and the names of most colors. His father gave me a list of words that the teacher tests the children on every week, there was a check next to the words Jeffery had mastered and so far he had been tested two times. His father asked me to help him with the words he was unfamiliar with. This was a perfect situation for the activity I had planned. I had written out the alphabet on large sheets of paper and planned a Hangman game. The four words I selected were: old, ran, black, and fly.

(Jeffery's activities from today) 

For this activity I choose the words and did not tell Jeffery what they were, he guessed letters 

from the alphabet I provided and when he struggled I asked him to guess from a certain color section. When he got a letter correct he had to say the letter and write it in the correct space he was instructed to by counting. Once he mastered placing the letter in the correct spot we would continue until the word was finished. After the word was filled in I asked him to sound it out, I then told him the word and asked if he understood what it meant. If he did I had him explain it to me and tell me about things in the room or that he knew about that related to the word. With the word "fly" he told me "Rocket ships fly to outer space." If he was not familiar with the word I provided him and example of its use in context. He then used line paper to write the word four times each and for the words he struggled with he wrote a sentence using the word he had just learned. Once he finished a word we went back to the top of the list and re-read what he had written and talked about the words again. On our last word Jeffery did a fantastic job and got to the word "black," (his second favorite color) before his man had two legs. I was so proud of his hard work! I rewarded him by helping him find a book about policemen and sent him home with his best paper. I kept the other sheets to be filed so I can keep track of his progress and provide his parents a portfolio of our sessions at the end. 

(Jeffery diligently working)