David_TP#6

With this group we were going over conversation. Seeing as conversation is a fast thinking exercise where students have to work fast on their feet, I wanted to help with that.  What I did was I brought with me some flash cards, and wrote various subjects on them. Things like: weather, sports, school, family, work, cars, food… ect. And I would place these on the table face down, and they would pick form them and have to generate a conversation either with me, or with one of the others there. It was difficult at first, because they were not sure what to say, so I modeled a conversation with several of them, and they quickly got the hang of it. I tried to stay out of it as much as possible, and would only come in if they were stuck and needed a word or direction. Some of them wanted to do it with me, and I was glad to let that happen. A lot of their out of class talking might be done with native speakers, and I was a little harder than I might have been. I modified my speech a little less. We had also talked about contextual clues, and they worked on that, and they seemed to really pick up on it… we might continue to work on these things in the future. I feel like they really responded well, because this is something they can use and it is helpful. I think they recognized that, and it gave them intrinsic motivation to keep on trying.  

David_TP#5

For today’s lesson, I planned something a little different for us to go over. I noticed in the past, that we were getting caught up on some of the vocabulary, and getting bogged down in some of the details and missing the big picture. I planned a two part lesson. This was the first part, and it focused in vocabulary. I have printed out a list of the words/phrases I wanted to go over, and gave a copy of them to everyone there. Words like: what a small word, good taste, wind chill, to have a car services, cough, hemming and various others. 
I went through each one of these and modeled the words in sentences of my own for them to see. I actually have on average three or four variations. I also wanted them to read the sentences I had written, and work on saying the words and getting comfortable with them. This seemed to work, and after we went through them all, I asked them to write or say sentences using the vocabulary we had learned. I asked them to look over the words before next time we met, because next time we were going to be doing some reading with these words. I try not to give them much homework, because.. well, I want them to come back, and I think they get enough of that from class... but sometimes it is necessary to have them do a little something.

Don_M_CP-#10

Tuesday December 3, 2013, 7pm:

Saud and Ahmed showed up.   Ahmed has only come twice before, so I was surprised.  Both had skipped my Culture Class to study for a grammar test tomorrow.  I showed them a video that I had played in my culture class of NASCAR, and I asked Saud how fast they were going.  His answer was pretty close.  Previously, Saud had bragged about how fast he can drive, and tonight was no different.  So I suggested that he drive in NASCAR.  Big laughs.

Ahmed had visited San Diego California the previous weekend.  He showed us pictures and a video he had taken while there.   Ahmed asked if CIES is better in San Diego.  He said that CIES in San Diego places its students in homes with English-speaking families.  I said that you get out of any program only as much as you put into it.  Then, as this is our last session together, I suggested that they start teaching themselves by practicing talking to Americans.

Ahmed wanted to talk with two co-eds that were studying nearby, but it took him a while to get his courage up.  When he did walk over and start talking to them, he stayed for about ten minutes.   I was impressed.  So, Saud asked what would I give him if he talked to a coed.  I agreed to buy him Chic-fil-A if he talked with five coeds.  I only counted encounters not individuals.  So, two coed's walking together only count as one conversation.  After three encounters with two coeds each, Saud finally mustered the courage to talk to a single coed.  I would like to point out that, after they realized that Saud and Ahmed are CIES students, all of the FSU students graciously paused to let them practice their English.  On the fifth encounter, Saud approached two coeds and introduced himself.  He was so nervous that he forgot Ahmed’s name when he tried to introduce him.  I realized that Kuwaiti men, especially 17 year olds, never have the opportunity to talk to girls their age.    I told Saud that American girls would find his bashfulness to be “charming”.  He looked up the word and seemed pleased.

Now they were unstoppable.  We ended up in front of a water fountain with the Prizm Concert playing in the background.  I told them that Daree, who has skipped all but on session, would never believe that they had spent the evening talking with coeds, and I suggested they take a picture of their next encounter.  After many pictures with coeds and a half-beef & half-chicken pizza at Pizza Hut, they had introduced themselves and practiced English with 19 coeds?  Oh, to be 17 again.   Saud said, “I won our bet and you lost, because I talked to so many coeds”.  I replied, “We both won because you talked to so many new people”.

After four hours of meeting people, they turned down my offer to drive them to their dorm.  With all of the coed's walking down Tennessee Avenue, they decided to walk back to their rooms and meet more people.  With my mission accomplished, I started the two hour drive back to P

Bobby - CP 7

I am a bit disappointed to say that I have not been able to contact anyone but Sangwook for my CP meetings. Not that I don't enjoy hanging out with Sangwook, but I wish Abdullah or Fahad (both of whom I only met with once) would stay in contact. That being said, I met Sangwook yesterday for an impromptu walk around campus, during which we got some coffee, went to the bank, and went to the bookstore. As we know each other pretty well at this point, we are past "small talk" and can finally discuss things as friends. I had been in the library all day before we met up, so I was ready for a break. We met in front of Strozier and got some chai tea lattes at Starbucks. I had to explain to him that "chai" in America was different from "chai" elsewhere. For example, the Russian word for "tea" sounds like "chai." I guess this is the same in Korean, because I don't think he was expected his drink to taste as it did. Following this confusion, we went to Suntrust because I had to deposit a check. Along the way, he explained to me that he had a presentation to prepare for, but that he hadn't done all the research yet. I persuaded him to try and tell me about his presentation. It was on the "history of the Korean letter", or so he said. I took that to mean the Korean written language. He was already very knowledgable about this topic, and I assured him that he would give a great presentation. We also talked about how we're both excited for the Jingle Bell Run, and he laughed when I said I'm going to smoke the competition. :) This led to a discussion on Christmas traditions and how they differ in our respective countries.

I still need three more CP meetings. I think I'll go to the International Dinner on Friday night and force Fahad or Abdullah to speak with me...

Bobby - TP_CIES 4

As crunch time rolls around and Hell Week sets in, these last few tutoring sessions and CP meetings are going to be a struggle, however, Bruno and I did find time to meet today for tutoring...I even taught him the meanings of "crunch time" and "Hell Week." Our session was cut short today because a teacher needed to use the room, but we still got some solid work in. Basically, we talked about his schoolwork this week and his experience with the TOEFL two weeks ago. It didn't go as he'd hoped. Apparently, there are 27 Brazilian students all vying for a chance to go to FSU starting in the Spring. Although he won't get his chance this time around, Bruno is going to keep taking CIES classes. This is great! I love that he is so driven and knows exactly what he wants to do. He told me that even when he graduates from CIES and passes the TOEFL, he hopes to take English classes (as in with other native speakers) along with his regular coursework. This determination is very admirable, in my opinion. We went over some of his assignments from the last two weeks, including a reading/listening assignment of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. Key words and phrases were highlighted throughout the transcript, and the students were supposed to find the definitions of words they didn't know. Bruno also showed me his reading log for last week. I was not surprised by how detailed it was with readings about engineering or other sciences; I can tell he likes to learn and actively seeks interesting books and articles. We ended the session by just talking and catching up since we hadn't met for over two weeks. We planned to meet twice more, once on Friday and once next week.

Emily_CIES Group Tutoring_6

Giulio, Arif, and Amanda came to tutoring on Monday. Andre had already left for the beach. We began talking about the upcoming holiday and what everyone was going to do. Next, I gave them options of what we could work on and let them choose. They all agreed that they wanted to work on listening skills by watching TED videos. Arif already had one in mind. She really wanted to watch one about a father and daughter who have made a tradition of taking a picture at the same spot in New York with the same pose every year, and they’ve kept it up for 15 years. Arif said that she loves the dynamic of a father daughter relationship. After the video, we discussed it. I felt a bit frustrated because Guilio was pretty negative about the video and seemed to only want to disagree with everyone. I could tell that Arif and Amanda were frustrated too. It was definitely not an angry atmosphere though; it was a light-hearted frustration. Guilio said things like the father was being “possessive” over his daughter and “obsessive” by doing this routine every year and that there wasn’t really a point in taking these photos every year. I tried to explain that this is their tradition, and the daughter willingly goes along with it because it’s their thing. I asked them if they remembered what reasons the dad gave for doing this. Arif remembered and refreshed Guilio’s memory: the photos are a way for them to look back on every year and see not only how they physically changed from year to year, but also how other things about themselves and the world have changed. For example, the picture from 2001 reminds him of having to explain to his daughter what happened in 9/11. Guilio listened but still seemed to disagree. Amanda was a bit more shy and just sat back and giggled. Next, we somehow began talking about reduced forms. One of them had a question about “ain’t.” I wrote many example sentences on the board and answered all of their questions. I made sure to emphasize that it’s improper to use these words in writing. When time was up, we talked a little more about the holiday. Amanda did not have specific plans and was planning to ask one of her teachers to take her to Atlanta with her, but it didn’t seem promising. She mentioned wanting to experience a real, American Thanksgiving dinner, so I invited her to my house. My family was already planning to host several other international students. Amanda ended up accepting my invitation, and we had 6 international students spend Thanksgiving with us, and it was so much fun. One of my conversation partners came too, so I guess I’ll write more about it in a CP blog post.

Emily_TP Child_6

Monday was my last time tutoring Jun. This has been a good experience overall. First, while snacking on Korean-style sushi and blueberries, I helped him with a worksheet that he had to do for homework. It featured pilgrims doing different things, and Jun had to write sentences in their speech bubbles depicting what they are saying. Jun needed help mostly because he was not sure what certain things in the pictures were called. I had to explain what a rolling pin was. After talking about what was happening throughout the comic, he wrote down some good sentences. Next, Jun needed to read another book for an AR test that he had the next day. It was a sequel to the book that we read the last time we tutored. We continued with our routine of me asking him comprehension questions periodically. Jun tended to read too fast and brush over punctuation, so I reminded him to slow down. I modeled how to do it and made him read certain sentences over again when he did this because I found that he was not retaining the information when he read too fast. He started getting the hang of it and began answering comprehension questions confidently and correctly. Jun’s mom was very nice when I left and told me to let her know if I need anything in the future such as a letter of recommendation. She urged Jun to give me a hug goodbye, which he did shyly. I’ll miss him!