FSU TEFL Certificate Course Spring 2019

On Wednesday, January 30 th at 3:00, Ngoc and I had our weekly conversation partner meeting.   We went to Chick-Fil-A and had a late lunch and then we went to Yogurt Kingdom on Tennessee St.   We talked about places she likes to go to in Tallahassee and she told me that she wanted to try a few different food places.   We agreed to go to the BBQ place next to the Copeland Starbucks then next time we meet since both of us have never been there before.   While we were at Yogurt Kingdom, we talked about what marriage is like in Vietnam and she told me that a lot of people get married young and that a lot of husbands do not work and that women work a job and do a majority of the household work on top of it.   I explained to her that it is common in the United States for women to work a job and do household work on top of that, but I also explained that most husbands work as well.   I was a bit surprised to hear that this is somewhat common...

I tutored Marcelle January 30, 2019 from 10 to 11:05 am at Gilchrest Elementary School. Today we worked on tracing worksheets for the letters A through D. As she traced the letters both in uppercase and lower case, I used a whiteboard to make dotted letters to reinforce what she had just learned. After tracing them again in the whiteboard, I would tell her to write a certain letter in either uppercase or lowercase. I did this to make sure she differentiated between the two and to make sure she was associating all of the spoken letters with the correct written form. Then we went over the French-English dictionary and looked at words that begin with the letters she had just learned. She practiced her pronunciation and I already see improvement. Next I read her a Kindergarten-level book and pointed at simple words to make the sounds together. Then I let her pick a book in the library and read it to her. I asked her questions throughout the book so she could practice her reading comprehens...

On Wednesday, January 30 th at 12:00 p.m., Yahyia and I met at CIES for a tutoring session.   He needed help with a presentation for his speaking class that he needed to present that day.   He wanted to go over the presentation with my and wanted my feedback.   His presentation was about motivation and setting goals and sticking to those goals.   Throughout his presentation, I wrote down some things he may have mispronounced or said incorrectly.   When he was done with the presentation, I would go over everything with him and explain how he could say those things correctly.   We did this about three times and he improved by using most of my feedback.   Towards the end of the tutoring session, his brother, Ali, came in and Yahyia presented one last time. From this session, I learned that Yahyia is more motivated to learn English than I had originally thought because he challenges himself a lot. I already knew he was motivated but ...

I met Sulaiman again at the coffee shop. When I got there he was working in his notebook on writing. He told me he wants to practice writing and asked me if I could help him. We did an activity where he would tell me about what he did yesterday and write down what he told me. I helped him with verb conjugations and placement. We did this with present and future tenses as well. Afterwards we talked about places he should visit during spring break. He wanted recommendations on places that weren’t Orlando or Miami. I told him he should visit St. Augustine and I showed him pictures. I also showed him pictures of Savannah, Georgia and told him that was a great place to go. He said he would like to visit one of these places during Spring Break. Afterwards he showed me a famous city in Saudi Arabia that was so beautiful and interesting. 

I met Andrea for our second tutoring session in the kitchen area of the CIES building. To begin the session I reviewed some of Andrea’s homework and helped her work through her mistakes. I can tell I’m getting better at assisting students with finding the correct answer instead of giving it to them. Afterwards, Andrea read two passages that I found on the News In Levels website and she summarized them for me and we went over any vocabulary she wasn’t sure of. Andrea said that the readings were perfect for her but they seemed too easy so next week I may bring her some more difficult readings. I gave Andrea a small book to read for the upcoming week so we could discuss it at our next session. I hope the book will be on her level. 

I met with Bao on Monday after I tutored Ngoc at Chick-fil-a. She also had a question on when to use “which” vs. “that” so I explained to her what I explained to her sister about specific scenarios that apply to this distinction and why that is. We went over examples where I had her also fill in what word she though best fit the sentence and why she thought that was. It took her a bit to understand why it was that way,  but after going over 5 sentences, she understood the concept:) Then, I helped her proofread her writing assignment about the benefits of being in CIES program and learning English. She was working on her second draft, so we were going over her teachers comments relating to her thesis statement, her main points, the flow of her writing, and her conclusion. I helped her edit her paper without telling her the right answers, I just assisted her in reaching an effective way of writing what she wanted to say, without intensely editing every word.

On Monday I met with Ngoc at Chick-fil-a to practice ordering food and to introduce her to different places around campus and different American foods. We began with having some casual conversation about our weekends, and then after we were done eating, I addressed any of her homework questions. In her grammar class they are learning when to use “which”, “that”, “who”, “whom”, “but”, etc. Ngoc understood when to use “who” vs. “whom”, but was struggling with when it’s appropriate to use “which” in a sentence. I referenced a grammar source online to refresh my memory on the topic, and then explained to her when it was appropriate to use “which” vs. “that” by writing example sentences where she had to choose which word would fit in best and why she thought so. She understood it by the 5th example sentence I gave, it was a successful tutoring session:)