Emily_CIES Group Tutoring_5

I saw Arif and Amanda at CIES about an hour before tutoring. Arif told me that she misses my class but would not be able to come because she had a test and a presentation the next day. She also suggested meeting at 3:00 next time because that would be better for her. Amanda agreed that that would be a good time. Amanda also told me that she was really upset because she misread part of the TOEFL and did a bad job. I tried to make her feel better by telling her she’ll have another chance to take it. Giulio and Andre were the only ones who could stay for tutoring. It was just Andre and I at first, but Guilio showed up about 15 minutes later. Since last time he suggested working on listening skills by watching videos and talking about them, I decided to pull up the TED website and let them pick a video that interests them. Andre chose a video under the humor category first. He understood some of it and laughed, but at other parts I had to pause the video and explain the joke. The reason for that was because of schema that had to do with American culture that he did not know about. The joke was when the speaker said he wasn’t very religious and technically Jewish, but he considers himself “about as Jewish as Olive Garden is Italian.”  I explained the concept of chain restaurants. Giulio understood and insisted that, as an Italian, the Olive Garden food is probably not as authentic as real Italian food.  We spent some time discussing, which I can tell helped them with their speaking skills and trying to more quickly formulate their ideas. We did not have much time left after that, but I showed them a good website that has different stories. There’s a play button so that you can hear someone narrating the story, and the transcript is also provided.

Don_M_TP-#10_Child

Although the Korean tutee selected a book to read, I, instead, started our session with a review of the last session.  Tutee is still unable to form sentences with the new words even after I have given many examples.  For some of the words learned in the last session, he needed to read the original text to be able to recall most of the words. 

As he was feeling cocky, I had him read and answer the four questions about drawing conclusions which had some tricky questions.  He did very well missing only one question.  The key word was Cat not Cats.  After reading the text, he quickly identified the correct answer.  Impressed with his comprehension, I made him a deal.  If he would work through one vocabulary sheet and one reading work sheet, then I would let him read his Star Wars book.  He learned the new words ubiquitous, rash, bashing, esteemed, and controversial.

The Star Wars book that he selected was in dialogue format with pictures of the characters.  To prevent him from reading in a monotone voice, I requested that he read the dialogue in the voice of the char actor.  I demonstrated with my best Yoda voice, and then went high for the girl's voice.  That last wasn't pretty.  But, it gave the tutee a laugh, and he enthusiastically started his read.   He added the words disruptive and unnecessary from this text to his vocabulary.

I wrote all vocabulary words from this session and the last session on the back of a worksheet, and then I quizzed him on them.  When he couldn't give me a sentence example, I made several for him.  I should have written these sample sentences down.  My bad.

I reviewed this lesson with his mother, and I requested that she quiz him on the vocabulary words before our next sesson.

Don_M_CP-#8 critical incident

Meeting with my Bedouin CP, I explained what a Critical Incident is, and then I asked him if he had such an experience.  After much thought, he related the following.  While in a Foundation Reading class, he was struggling with the concept of rhymes.  The teacher called on him for an example.  Thinking very hard over the previous examples, he gave the teacher his rhyming words.  The teacher turned to the white board to write the sample sentence that she expected him to provide.  Not hearing any sentences, she asked him again.  He abruptly commanded, "Write, write."  The teacher looked over her shoulder, and sarcastically said, "Excuse me."  Only much later, did a Group 3 Egyptian student explain that he was being rude by talking to his female teacher in such a commanding voice.  He still seemed unconvinced and confused as to how he had sounded rude.  I asked if he would have talked to a male teacher the same way.  The operative word being "Teacher".  The light came on as he realized he wasn't in Kansas anymore.

Greg - CP # 10

Marco and I met during the lunch break today so that I could help him with his reading practice for he TOEFL.  It was actually a very interesting hour.  Other than knowing what the test is and being familiar with the rubrics we have looked at in our TEFL class, I didn't have much prior knowledge about the contents of the test.  Today I observed how he read for comprehension in order to answer the questions in the book.

Instead of reading the passage as a whole, Marco was trying to find the answers as if on a treasure hunt.  After finding out from him what "test day" looks like (he told me the passage will be projected, that they will have the questions, and that they should only spend 1 minute and 20 seconds per question), I discussed with him a better test taking strategy than his treasure hunt approach.  Each section we dealt with had a maximum of 3 multiple choice questions.  I suggested that he read one or two of the questions (just the questions, not the choices) for focused reading, and then read the passage as a whole for the gist and for a general outline (key points and their supporting details).  Then answer the questions.

While it was still difficult, he seemed to have a better sense of needing to remember the gist of the whole passage so that the questions and choices could read with context in mind.  Before, he was reading the questions and choices without the context of the passage already circulating in his brain.  I could see the light bulbs turning on with some of the questions.  He was able to eliminate certain choices without a second thought, and then struggle to sort through the remaining possible (and kind of tricky) options until choosing the right one most of the time.  I also had to get him not to skip the instructions for each passage, showing him that sometimes they asked for him to choose one answer, and at other times to choose all correct answers (some had two correct answers). 

Marco seems to stay in the bottom up, intensive mode in all he decodes (listening and reading).  He definitely needs to be pushed towards extensive listening and reading, as well as more conversation for fluency rather than accuracy (he tries to pronounce everything correctly, self-correcting every few words).  I am afraid that, as our book mentions, he is one of the students who, though eager, will be a slow learner due to his "intensive" tendencies.  He feels the pressure to take the exam and get into grad school.  I am afraid it will be an uphill climb that may take longer than he expects.  I hope I am wrong.  He is a really nice guy.  I want him to win.

Don_M_CP-#7

Wednesday 11/20/2013
I emailed and texted the guys about meeting after class on Wednesday.  Also, I drove to Tallahassee early to catch them coming out of class at 1:55pm to confirm.  As they had a mid-term the next day, they decided to reschedule for 7pm.  After hanging out for the rest of the afternoon, only one showed up. He apologized for skipping the last meeting, and he explained that he was fasting.  So, we had a discussion on the meanings for the word "fast" in English.

We went to the library and practiced Simple Future sentences.  But, somehow we got redirected onto the topic of "the holidays".  So, I started to explain why we eat turkey on Thanksgiving.  (The English brought turkeys to the colonies, because they didn't know turkeys were and indigenous species).  And we got into a long discussion on the holiday of Christmas (e.g. Why do we celebrate Christmas, Why do we celebrate Christmas in December, etc.,) My Kuwaiti CP then pointed out the in his calendar is 1435.  This marks the date that Mohammed left Mecca to spread Islam.

Next we talked his possibly becoming engaged over "the holidays" to his cousin.  I drew the family tree, and I pointed out that we cannot marry our cousins. This led us into talking about the meaning of names.  The Kuwaitis take the meaning of the name seriously.  Also, it seems that they take their father's name, so this is pretty confusing to me.

We had a late chicken dinner at Grunthies which was surprisingly tasty.  As only chicken is served there, you order by quantity (e.g. box, bucket, tailgate, etc.,) The CP learned that his order was simplify called the "Box".

As I dropped him off at his apartment, I played him a sample of Cajun and Lee Ritenour (jazz guitar).  He thought the Jazz was ok, but thought the Cajun sounded like the German Polka.  I taught him how to use the phrase, "Speak of the devil."  He liked that.  Then I drove back to Panama City and crashed into bed.

Nicole CO#1

    Today I found my way into the Kellog building, and into Candace Walters 2A listening class. The class was very small as several students (including my conversation partner) were out sick. The class consisted of five Kuwaiti men, one Russian man, and one Sout Korean man. The laides were all out sick apparently. Ms. Walters began by giving the daily agenda, joking around a bit with the class, reviewing material from their last meeting. As she began her lesson she seperated some of the students so that they would speak English and not tempted to speak their native tongue. There was a great disscussion of informal and formal phrases. This then led to an assignment to summarize the movie they had watched in two sentences, without revealing too many details, and focusing on the big picture. Ms. Walters was very attetive to monitor the class and was sure to check in with eahc student before the end of the activity. Each students was read aloudn and they critiqued/corrected errors as a group.
    It was wonderful to experiance a class, Ms. Walters was so engaing, which looked challenging as it was teh last class of the day and the students can get so distracted at this point in the day. Throughout teh lesson she continued to call on students by name, promptig responses, facilitating discussion, and disciplined firmly but gently at the same time. I was so fortunate to attend this class it was a great atmosphere and, I hope to create the same kind in my own classroom.

Bobby - CP 6

Before TEFL today, Sangwook and I met at Atomic for an impromptu CP meeting. I invited him on a whim after his classes, and he obliged. We spent the first few minutes catching up on the goings-on of the past week. We were not able to meet up at all last week because I was too busy. He wasn't feeling well anyway, so that was not a problem. I asked him how school was going. He said it was fine, but that he was having trouble differentiating between the vowel sounds in "sat" and "set." I thought this was a great teaching opportunity, so I got out my notebook and started creating similar words and sentences for him to practice. I guess the Korean language doesn't really differ between these two sounds, but in English, using one instead of the other could completely change the sentence. I wrote down this sentence for Sangwook to say aloud: "We met Pat the cat on Saturday." It took him a while to say it correctly. I explained that the "a" sound is more verticle, and the "e" sound is more horizontal. Coming from a choir background where diction is so important, I can understand the importance of diction and how it can make an impact. I tried to empathize with Sangwook by telling him that we learned about Korean minimal pairs in our TEFL class last week (i.e. jada, jjada, chada). When I tried to pronounce these, Sangwook just laughed and laughed. Clearly, I was pronouncing them wrong, but I liked that he thought it was so funny! When it was time to go to class, I drove Sangwook back to the CIES building, and thus ended my sixth CP meeting.