Christian Ishak TS15

Do Jun and I spoke this morning. We talked about the meeting between North and South Korea's leaders and the agreement from Kim Jung Un to denuclearize North Korea. Do Jun is hopeful that this will be the beginning of change and the relationship between North and South Korea will improve. However, he believes South Korea still needs to keep a close eye on North Korea to make sure they stay true to their word. We also talked about different areas of South Korea and which were the most beautiful.

Christian Ishak TS14

Do Jun and I spoke on Thursday. We spoke about politics and the meeting scheduled between North and South Korea. We also talked about Donald Trump and I told him recent news about Kanye West supporting Trump. I taught him the meaning of sell-out. We also talked about basketball and the popularity of baseball.

Christian Ishak TS13

I spoke with Do Jun on April 18th. I have his English has improved since our sessions began. His speaking ability has improved. It doesn't take him as long to think about what he wants to say and how to correctly say it. His listening skills have also improved quite a bit. I don't have to repeat myself as often. Although I can see he doesn't catch every word I say, he usually understands the meaning I'm trying to convey.

Colleen TS 8- Maria

Yesterday Maria and I had our last tutor session.  We reviewed her glossary entries and corrected any sentence structure error that she had.  She has not yet been able to get a  public library card but will try to complete this next week and continue to read the books that I recommended to her. 

Darliin Khahaifa TS#16

Date/Time: 4/19/18 12:00 P.M.- 1:00 P.M.

Location: CIES

Topic/Skill: Mao Mao and I practiced his speaking skills, simulating the speaking portion of the IELTS test.

Feedback provided to tutee: Mao Mao has a very large productive vocabulary and an understanding of many grammar structures. Despite this, he is not confident in his speaking abilities, which causes his speaking to be very halted and unnatural. I tried to help him work on his confidence when speaking, pointing out to him how much he has already mastered when producing sentences in English. I also made sure to review the planning process before speaking. He will be give a minute of planning time when taking the test. I showed him how to organize his ideas and create a framework to follow. This will help him to be more comfortable and confident.

Lessons about tutoring and/or tutee you learned: It seems that the biggest obstacle for Mao Mao to overcome is his lack of confidence. Focusing on this caused me to become more aware of how important it is to reduce the affective filter when teaching English. When Mao Mao is comfortable, his confidence increases, and his English improves dramatically.

Darliin Khahaifa TS#15

Date/Time: 4/18/18 3:00 P.M.- 5:00 P.M.

Location: CIES

Topic/Skill: Mao Mao and I continued listening comprehension practice to prepare for the IELST test.

Feedback provided to tutee: Mao Mao needed to pay attention to synonyms and different phrasing of the practice materials. Many comprehension questions on the IELTS test do not use the same sentences and phrasing as the listening selection. I drew Mao Mao’s attention to this to help him answer the questions more effectively. Listening for the overall idea of the listening sample rather than listening for specific strings of words seems to be the most effective strategy for answering the IELTS listening comprehension questions.

Lessons about tutoring and/or tutee you learned: I learned that a test prep lesson can still be used to teach communicative skills. Although Mao Mao and I were practicing strategies for being able to most effectively answer test questions, we also had the opportunity to talk about synonyms and practice creating alternative phrasing for sentences.

Darliin Khahaifa TS#14

Date/Time: 4/16/18 3:00 P.M.- 4:00 P.M.

Location: CIES

Topic/Skill: Mao Mao and I reviewed the grammar topic of present and past verb tenses. We also practiced listening skills.

Feedback provided to tutee: Mao Mao at times gets confused when forming the past progressive and past perfect tense. He did not struggle to form the present progressive and present perfect, which allowed me to show him the pattern in forming all the verb tenses. Once he was able to see that the present perfect and past perfect follow almost the same format, he had fewer problems. We also worked on listening practice. We spent quite a bit of time reviewing how to stay focused when listening. Mao Mao tends to struggle when it comes to paying attention during listening activities. We practiced note taking and outlining to help him stay present during listening activities.

Lessons about tutoring and/or tutee you learned: Mao Mao wanted to focus our sessions more on preparing him for the IELTS test. I found that although tutoring with materials that are interesting to the tutee is very important, for Mao Mao’s purposes it helped to work with a variety of materials, both familiar to him and not familiar. I think it is important for him to learn how to focus on the material even if it is not of interest to him, particularly because he will not have any choice in what materials are presented to him during the official test.

Ellie Sims #6

Date: 4/18/18
Location: CIES Building

I met with MaoMao and I helped him out with practicing for the British English test. We talked about prompts and gave a few practice ones. He had to listen to the prompt and then say a short response involving three points that had to be brought up while he spoke. His prompt was: Name something important to you and list where you got it, how long you have had it, and why it is important. The first time around, MaoMao did not do so well. I gave him speech pointers. He tried again after our brief discussion and elaborated on each answer instead of giving a short reply. Overall, he did very well and was able to fix his speech tremendously. We talked about our session together and what he got out of our meetings. He liked our meetings very much. Overall, it was good session.

Ellie Sims #5

Date: 4/17/18
Location: Union Food Court

I met with MaoMao and we talked about relationships. I asked him what he thought would be valued in a relationship. He said that in his culture he would like a girlfriend who would cook and clean and take care of the house for him. I asked what he thought about relationships in America and if he thought he could date someone in the United States with the values of feminism here. He said that he could and would consider himself a feminist. He liked talking about social politics and I realized her really likes talking about any type of politics. We talked a lot about the #metoo phenomenon going on around the world and I said that it was a great thing, especially in predominately sexist oriented countries. He agreed. We continued to talk about the power of change and feminism and how it is different in each country. It was a really good session with MaoMao.

Ellie Sims #16

Date: 4/18/18
Location: CIES Building
Topic: Session Review

I met with Karina and we talked about how she thinks the session went and how she felt about my tutoring. She told me that she really felt like our tutoring sessions had helped her progress. I asked her what she thinks I should improve on or do differently and she said that it would help to do more activities together. We talked about what her goals were and if she was taking another session at CIES. She said that she was going to do next session and that she really wanted to continue to improve her speaking ability. We talked about her speaking some more and did a small activity for talking. We continued to speak for the rest of the session about her future in the United States and what she wanted to get out of her stay here. Overall, I think that our sessions went really well and it was joy to be able to teach Karina.

Ellie Sims #15

Date: 4/16/18
Location: Starbuck on Tennessee
Topic: Review for Exams

I met with Andrea today and we talked about her exams. We went over her grammar that would be on the exam. Andrea was very nervous about her exams. I reassured her that she would be okay. We studied the whole session and I gave her practice questions for her grammar. We continued to work on each section of the grammar until she felt comfortable with it. Since it was our last meeting, I asked her how she felt about her session. She told me that she had slowly started to notice her improvement. I asked what she thought of our tutoring sessions and she said that they helped her considerably. I also asked what she thought I could improve upon or do differently. She said a few things that helped me. Overall, I really enjoyed tutoring Andrea and thought it was a good learning experience for both of us.

Ellie Sims #14

Date: 4/16/18
Location: CIES Building
Topic: Listening

I met with Karina today and we went over listening. We practiced listening to a short piece and then I had her summarize what she heard. We talked about guitars and how the Spanish guitar was different than the American guitar. Then I gave her a short quiz about the short piece she heard on guitars and, using the information that we talked about, she answered the questions. Karina says that listening and answering comprehension questions is her weakest skill so we spent a lot of time doing the same thing over and over. We practiced quite a bit and Karina felt like she was getting better at comprehending the questions. She said that it was the hardest part of learning English and said that comprehending reading and listening questions was hard for her in Portuguese too. I gave her resources to be able to look up listening exercises on her own as well. Overall, it was a good session.

Ellie Sims #13

Date: 4/9/18
Location: CIES Building
Topic: Presentation

Today I met with Andrea and we talked about her final presentation. She was really nervous about having to speak in front of people because she thinks her speech is the weakest out of her skills. We finalized her presentation and then she went ahead a presented to me. We continued to practice. I timed her each time and I gave her pointers. She was also a little anxious about her other presentation we had worked on the time before this session so we practiced that one as well. She fixed her tense errors and made the presentation go smoothly. Overall, she had come very far this session and I think her presentation was very good. Her confidence was boosted significantly and I could tell that he fluidity had gotten better the more she practiced. Overall, it was good session.

Colleen TS 7- Maria

Today Maria and I met at the public library.  We worked on her speaking.  She told me the story of 'Call of the Wild' using the chapter headings as an outline.  This was a free speaking activity where she just kept on talking for as long as she could.  She showed me her end of session marks from CIES and it showed that she needs to improve/practice speaking and listening, both productive and receptive skills.  Our second activity for the session was reading from some youth books that I recommended for her, 'The 'Magic Treehouse'.  I had her read the first chapter and she identified 15 words that she was unfamiliar with.  She will record these words in her personal glossary, find their definitions and write a sentence for each.  She has begun the process of getting a library card and will read the first three book by Thursday when we meet for our final session.

Ellie Sims TS#12

Date:4/9/18
Location: CIES Building
Topic: Reading Exercises

I met with Karina today. We tried reading exercises were I timed her and she would read a short passage. We had done this in the past and she wanted to continue to do them to sharpen her reading and comprehension skills. After I gave her a series of comprehension questions that she had to answer. We went over the questions and looked at her mistakes. We questioned why she made certain choices that were wrong and I asked her why she picked those over the other ones. After that, I explained what made the correct answer right and had her explain what she thought about that answer. We continued it several times for the lesson and then we talked about what she wanted to improve on before he exams. We decided to do listening next time. The session went well overall.

Ellie Sims CP#4

Date: 4/5/18
Location: McDonalds on Tennessee

I met with MaoMao and we went to eat at McDonalds. We talked a lot about what he had done so far in the week and he said that he was very busy studying. We ate and then went on a short walk. We played a game were I would point out things as we went and he would have to name synonymous words to them. I would say, "car" and he would say, "vehicle" and so on. After a while we stopped playing and we talked about the difference in walking cultures around the world. I told him that America doesn't really have a walking culture, especially when it comes to countries like Korea and China. He agreed and said that it was so easy to get around his home town but in America he said he has become quite fat. I thought it was funny that most of my international friends usually say the same thing. We talked about how fast food and the accessibility of such things makes it easier to gain weight in America. As well as the fact that most people drive or take the bus. Overall, it was a nice meeting.

Ellie Sims CP#3

Date: 4/3/18
Location: Chick Fil A on Campus

I met with MaoMao today and we talked a lot about what he thinks he will do in the next few months. He was telling me how he plans to go to the U.K. and take the English test there. I asked him if he was going home for the summer and he said that he was. We then talked a lot about how he felt about global affairs. I asked him what he thought about China and if he thought China was the strongest country in the world. He said that he thinks that China and the United States are always fighting for the number 1 spot. I told him that Scotland was beautiful in the U.K. and he said he really wanted to visit. We talked a little about politics and I learned that he is very passionate about his home. He has a good sense of justice too. Overall, the meeting was very nice and we talked a lot more than we had before.

Ellie Sims TS #11

Date: 4/6/18
Location: CIES Building
Topic: Putting Ideas Together For Essay

I met with Andrea today and we went over an essay that she had to write for class. Since we have done this before, I wanted to mix it up a little and ask her to come up with ideas for her essay in a new way. She did not know what she was going to write about yet so we decided to think of her favorite parts of growing up in Venezuela. Andrea thought about many topics and wrote them down on her paper. Then we went about connecting all of the things that fit together. She connected the love of her parents, their favorite family trip together, and her reasons for coming to America. After that, we focused the points down and Andrea was able to clearly write topic sentences for her essay and a good thesis that had to do with the family trip she took that led her to want to study in America. Overall, the session went very well.

Rosalie Peyton TS#16 Tania

During my last tutoring session with Tania, we focused more on conversation. I helped her sort out some things that she needed to get done. We went to the library to scan papers for her visa, and we went to multiple stores in search of a good laptop and phone for her to buy. During this time, we had to talk with salespeople. This was a little bit difficult since the language of technology can be confusing. I helped to explain some things into language that she could better understand.

Ellie Sims TS #10

Date: 3/28/18
Location: CIES Building
Topic: Present Perfect Progressive

Today I met with Karina and we went over the present perfect progressive so more. She is doing very well and progressing very fast. We went over worksheets on the present perfect progressive and she answered them all. We then played a short activity where I would say sentences and she would have to stop me whenever I said a sentence that was present perfect progressive. We did this exercise for a while and then we went on to working on pieces of her homework that she did not understand. We went over the homework for a while and I helped correct her small grammar mistakes and all of the little things that she was stuck on. After that, we did more worksheets on present perfect progressive and then we finished off with just a short discussion of what she would like to do more of in the future. Overall, the session went very well.

Ellie Sims TS#9

Date: 3/28/17
Location: CIES Building
Topic: Presentation Discussion

I met with Andrea today and we discussed the presentation she was nervous about having to present to her class. We went over what she had to write on the PowerPoint and proofread what she had finalized to go on the presentation. After correcting and looking over the PowerPoint, Andrea put the PowerPoint together. We went over what verb tenses are used and where they should be in the presentation. After she finished, she practiced presenting in front of me and I gave her some pointers on the pronunciation and the tenses she used. Overall, she did very well in the session. We practiced a lot and then we decided to prep for her reading quiz. We did a practice a reading quiz scenario and then did some comprehension questions to help Andrea with her comprehension skills. It went over really well and Andrea seemed like she was ready for her quiz. It was a good session.

Darliin Khahaifa TS#13

Date/Time: April 13, 2018 1:00-2:30 P.M.

Location: CIES

Topic/Skill: Critical incident discussion and IELTS reading strategies practice.

Feedback provided to tutee: Mao Mao and I had a great time discussing the critical incident that happened between us, and it gave me a chance o clarify the use of common expressions for him. Our critical incident occurred when I asked him why a group of CIES students were recording a video in the lounge. He responded, “She is making a video because she has never made-out with a black person before.” I was very confused and asked him to repeat himself. We went back and forth in confusion about why someone would make a video like that, until I realized he mean to say make-up instead of make-out. We had a good laugh discussing this incident, and it gave me an opportunity to make sure he is using the correct expressions. We also practiced some reading strategies when taking the IELTS test. I made sure to remind him to take notes and use context to figure out unknown words.  He usually does not take notes, but I showed him that notes can make it easier to find answers to comprehension questions in the text.

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Discussing our critical incident reminded me not to become offended by things easily. Mao Mao’s mistake could have caused a negative experience for the both of us, but I stayed neutral, and this allowed me time to realize we were just having a misunderstanding.

Darliin Khahaifa TS#12

Date/Time: April 11, 2018 3:00 P.M.- 4:00 P.M.

Location: CIES

Topic/Skill: IELTS reading comprehension practice

Feedback provided to tutee: Mao Mao struggles with his reading speed because he gets stuck on words that are unfamiliar to him. We spent the session practicing increasing his reading speed and using context clues to put together the meaning of challenging texts. I instructed him to practice reading the text for the overall message rather than trying to understand every single word.

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Mao Mao is an avid reader, and because of this his vocabulary is already very large. Although the level of difficulty of the IELTS reading test is high, he was able to understand much of the vocabulary used in the practice selections.

PamelaB- TS#17

Meeting with Mardioli at 12:15p. I listened to a "conference" led by Mardi among four other female CIES students and some of their concerns. They spoke only in English.
She then rehearsed her short presentation due today " The dark side of the Internet" aloud. She has developed a short presentation about false news with well-presented ideas. Mardi is able to self-corrects herself and when some of her phrases are incorrect, she always wants to make her own corrections in her own words. I often do nothing more than suggest synonyms to her.

PamelaB- TS#16

Meeting on 4/18/18 ,3:30-4:30pm with Mardioli in computer lab
First,  she rehearsed her presentation about the need to recycle trash with few pronunciation errors.
We then went over her assignment to correct sentences with grammatical errors. Mostly she practices speaking while I give corrections, as needed. Most of her errors are pronunciation of words ending in -ed.
Mardi is very good at deciding how to correct her incomplete sentences, always using her own ideas. She often makes up terms and words that make sense but are not usually heard or seen, even though the concept is correct.

PamelaB- TS#15

4/18/18 Meeting at 12p-1p with Ali Talibi. I presented him with several children's books with vocabulary high use words as he had asked for ways to increase vocabulary last month.
We reviewed his essay " My favorite vacation" that he will be presenting today. His fluency and pronunciation shows marked improvement. Corrections to writing  made, mostly participle errors.
We then met with his wife Badria and she rehearsed her presentation about another beautiful vacation area in her country of Saudi Arabia.
They are both presenting today and should do well .

Pamela B- TS #14

Met with Aziz this 7pm-8pm. He discusses his imminent departure from Tallahassee and asks about pronunciation during his story on several words.
We also continue to practice reading aloud and work on enunciation. We continued reading from the article "Conquer the Challenge." He was able to complete he reading, learn new vocabulary and improve pronunciation of several words.

Rosalie Peyton TS#15 Caroly

I met with Caroly on Wednesday. We worked on her reading strategies. She has been having some difficulties with reading comprehension. I showed her a website that has a variety of reading samples that are followed by comprehension questions. I had her try a couple of these using different reading strategies that we talked about. We also discussed and practiced gerunds and infinitives. She did well on the practices, and I showed her where she could find more practice.

Rosalie Peyton TS#14 Caroly

I met with Caroly on Wednesday. We discussed how she can work further to improve her English. She wants to get a job and is worried about the interviewing process. I went over some possible interview questions with her and told her to practice them. A lot of her difficulties are due to her getting nervous when conversing, so I think that the more she practices, the more confident she will be. We also practiced just having conversation in general.

Rosalie Peyton TS#13 Tania

I met with Tania on Monday. She had forgotten that we were supposed to meet. She had planned on using this time to work on her powerpoint presentation about her vacation to Dubai, so we worked on her powerpoint during this session. I helped her write an outline for what she wanted to discuss in her presentation. She was having some difficulties coming up with ideas that she liked. She wanted to make sure that her presentation was exciting. I also helped her find some information on Dubai since she couldn't remember certain details.

Rosalie Peyton TS #12 Caroly

I met with Caroly at the library. We further discussed topics for her paper and worked on a simple outline for it. We also talked about reduced forms. She had noticed that people were often using reduced forms in conversations. We discussed the settings in which it is common for people to use reduced forms, and I found a list of common reduced forms. We also spent some time going over verb tenses. I showed her websites in which she could find more practice.

Rosalie Peyton TS# 11 Tania

I met with Tania on the 12th. We spent most of the time talking about verb tenses. I had worksheets printed out for her that explained the different tenses, such as present perfect. The worksheets had example sentences, identifying questions, and formulating questions. I also explained the tenses  to her in my own words and came up with my own example sentences to better explain them.

Rosalie Peyton CP#5 Fares

I met with Fares at Starbucks on Thursday. We sat outside and discussed some cultural differences between Kuwait and the United States. We then talked about traveling. He has a project in which he must give a presentation about his favorite vacation. He doesn't like traveling very much, so he is having difficulty choosing a vacation. He is excited to have a break in his classes so that he can sleep later into the day. When we were discussing when we would have our final meeting, he said that 3 pm would be too early because he would still be sleeping.

Christian Ishak CP6

For my last conversation partner, I talked with Melis' friend Ceren. She is also from Germany and is of Turkish background. Like Melis, she is also an Au Pair as well. She is an Au Pair in Connecticut though, and she traveled to Florida on vacation. Unlike Melis, Ceren is staying for another year in the States as an Au Pair. She likes the States but thinks Connecticut is boring.

Christian Ishak CP5

This weekend I spoke with Melis again. We talked about her upcoming trip to LA with her boyfriend. She was going to meet an Au Pair friend and go on a trip together across the West Coast, but it didn't end up working out. But she had already bought a plane ticket to LA, so she is bringing her boyfriend and they are going to explore LA for a week. She is really excited because that will be their last trip together before she goes back to Germany.

Darliin Khahaifa TS#11

Date/Time: April 9, 2018 3:00 P.M.- 4:00 P.M.

Location: CIES

Topic/Skill: IELTS sample essay analysis

Feedback provided to tutee: Analyzing good and bad sample essays helped Mao Mao understand what aspects of his writing need to improve to pass the IELTS test with a good score. I drew his attention to the organization of ideas in the high scored essays as compared to that of the low scored essays. At times, Mao Mao struggles to organize his ideas coherently in his essays. Analyzing the two different samples together helped him to see more clearly how to successfully organize an essay.

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: During this session, I learned more about using a variety of tactics to help a student understand a concept. Mao Mao has had some issues with organizing his ideas in compositions lately. Providing him with the visual of two writing samples seemed to have more of an effect than other methods I tried previously. It is important to revisit an issue with a different strategy to better help a student.  

Darliin Khahaifa TS#10

Date/Time: April 6, 2018 2:00 P.M.- 3:00 P.M.

Location: CIES

Topic/Skill: IELTS writing practice

Feedback provided to tutee: Mao Mao has a strong aversion to pre-writing planning. I spent the tutoring session trying to show him the importance of planning. I presented him with a practice IELTS test writing prompt. First, I had him write a shortened version of his essay without planning, giving him ten minutes to complete it. We then made a plan for the essay, and he used that to write a second version. We compared both of his essays, allowing Mao Mao to see the difference that planning can make, particularly when writing an essay under a time constraint.

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Discussing planning with Mao Mao gave me insight into why he doesn’t like to plan before he begins writing. He feels that it takes too much time away from his essay writing time. This discussion allowed me to tailor my lesson to his needs and show him ways to plan that are not time intensive while being effective.

Darliin Khahaifa TS#9

Date/Time: April 4, 2018 3:00 P.M.- 4:00 P.M.

Location: CIES

Topic/Skill: Modern art listening activity

Feedback provided to tutee: Mao Mao feels that listening is one of the more difficult skills for him to practice. The most challenging aspect for him is staying focused during the entire passage. During our session we practiced taking notes as a strategy for staying focused. The combination of the physical act of taking notes and the need to listen closely to produce notes helped him to stay focused for the entire passage.   

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I practiced building schema before having Mao Mao listen to the recorded passage. I had to opportunity to see first-hand how powerful schema building can be. We discussed modern art and its popularity in China. Starting with the discussion piqued Mao Mao’s interest in the recording, helping him to stay focused while listening.

Darliin Khahaifa CP#6

Date/ time: April 11 12:00 P.M.- 1:00 P.M.

Location: CIES

Topic discussed: Adrien and I discussed her love of rap music and its connection to poetry. 

Culture and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: I was able to share with Adrien information about the history of rap music, and how it has influenced culture in the U.S. for years. I introduced her to influential artists who she was not familiar with. Adrien also played music from several different Venezuelan rappers. It was interesting to see how an aspect of U.S. culture has found its way to Venezuela and been changed to fit the needs and esthetic sense of the people there.  She also performed some of her original poems and raps for me. I enjoyed seeing her use English in a more creative way, as opposed to her usual academic use of the language.

Darliin Khahaifa CP#5

Date/ Time: April 3 12:00 P.M.-1:00 P.M.

Location: CIES

Topic Discussed: Adrien and I discussed the topic she was researching for an upcoming presentation in class, the pros and cons of marijuana use.

Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Adrien was interested to find out more about how uninformed people in the U.S. are about the benefits and dangers of marijuana use. She found in interesting that in the U.S., there are many people who do not believe marijuana can be addictive. People have a very different view of marijuana in Venezuela. Adrien gave me the impression that people are perhaps more responsible when using it recreationally in her country. Comparing the stakes and consequences of using an illicit substance in the U.S. and Venezuela was very eye opening for both of us. We came to the conclusion that in the United States, people are willing to take more risk when it comes to marijuana use.

Colleen TS 8- SoYoung

15/04/18 This morning was our last session.  We continued to work on unprepared speech particularly with unique topics as this was what caused the most hesitation in SoYoung's responses yesterday.  We did two exercises, 1) I had her describe her home in Soul, using the five senses.  She had to think of new and unique vocabulary and construct sentence that were very descriptive.  2) We discussed the topic of 'superstitions'.  I learnt a number of Korean superstitions and she learnt a number of European based ones that have transferred to the US.  This was a quite fun cultural exchange.  Tip for Christian and Ellie- don't eat seaweed/kelp soup if you have an important meeting or event coming up, very bad luck!

Colleen TS 7- So Young

14/04/18 Yesterday So Young and I worked on her unprepared speech because she felt that this was an area where she needs more practice.  We did a mock interview.  I recorded the interview and gave her feedback based on the unprepared speech rubric from CIES.  She scored 3 or 4 points on all of the assessment categories.

Christian Ishak TS12

Today I spoke with Do-Jun about cell phones. I found out he has been using his cell phone to Skype with me. He told me he has a Galaxy Note 8, and used to have a Samsung Galaxy S6. He accidentally went snorkeling with his S6 and it ruined the phone. He said in Korea Samsung and Apple are close competitors and have almost equal market share, whereas in the States Apple is more popular. I asked him several questions and had a lot of input today, so he was able to work more on his listening skills. Do-Jun was able to understand and respond to everything I was saying. I can see improvement in his listening skills.

Rosalie Peyton TS #10 Caroly

I met with Caroly on Tuesday. She told me that she was having the most difficulty in her listening and reading classes. We went over things that could help her with her reading skills. I then had her complete the reading exercise that I had created for my reading lesson plan. I showed her some websites that had more practices that she could do at home. I also showed her a website that had a lot of listening exercises and had her practice one of the exercises. After that, we talked briefly about how to choose essay topics. She was having difficulty choosing a good topic for her upcoming assignment.

Christian Ishak TS11

On Tuesday Do-Jun and I spoke about his career in the airline industry. He used to be in a different position, but got a promotion three years ago and now he is a technical troubleshooter. He found his last position more interesting, but the schedule wasn't consistent. He would have to work night shifts some days, morning shifts on others, and would have to work one day on the weekend. So although he enjoyed his last position more, he is happy with the lifestyle provided by his new position.

Christian Ishak TS 10

I spoke with Do-Jun on Monday about funerals and weddings. We discussed the similarities and differences of these events between our two countries. In South Korea funerals are held on the day of death and last for three days. Meals and gifts are also provided. Our wedding traditions were pretty similar. The costs for weddings are astronomical in both of our countries and gifts of at least $50 are expected. It was an interesting conversation, and I can see Do-Jun improving in his English abilities, especially listening.

PamelaB- TS#13

Meeting on 4/11/18 at 12pm with Aziz. Discussed his imminent return home next week and how he wants to do well until the end of the course segment.
He reports that he did his presentation on "Suicide and got 33 out of 35 points.
We worked on his homework of taking noun clauses and making a sentence fusing each, vocabulary, pronunciation and enunciation (p vs. b) today.

Tomas Cordero CP5 Hanqing

This Monday I met up with Hanqing in the CIES lounge for conversation. He had a Tupperware full of pineapple and cantaloupe, and offered me some. It was very delicious. We talked about what kind of fruits we like, and more about his cooking. After, Hanqing began to tell me that he will be very busy this week, as he will be studying for the TOEFL exam coming soon. I offered to meet him at his apartment next time, so we can cook and I can help him review if needed.

Tomas Cordero CP4 Hanqing

Last Sunday I met up with Hanqing at our usual location, Dirac Starbucks. We picked up where we left off talking about music. Hanqing told me about this awesome music festival they have in China. He said it is very cheap since they give better prices for students. After, we talked about Hanqing's cooking. He told me he recently began to cook Chinese dishes as a hobby. I will probably try to cook with him and learn to make something authentic.

Tomas Cordero TS6 Rashed

Last Monday I met up with Rashed at the CIES lounge for tutoring. We went over his mistakes on a writing assignment assigned in one of his classes. He was using more complex sentence structure, so the grammar needed some work. To address this, we looked up some videos on YouTube that gave a more textbook definition, and then I modeled how to use these grammar points. Once we finished working, Rashed told me some stories of his life in Kuwait which were very interesting.

Tomas Cordero TS5 PJ

This Saturday I visited PJ to continue our tutoring sessions. He was assigned a narrative writing assignment using six new vocabulary words. His paragraph was good, but he used some words incorrectly in context. In order to address this, I will create an exercise involving sentence construction using the same word, but with a different meaning in each sentence. This will increase his productive vocabulary, and make him more familiar with the depth of the new words.

PamelaB- CP#7

Will continue to meet and talk with Yuhan about a number of subjects. We have a natural affinity, so we will continue our conversations as friends. I make note of this as "#7" only in the positive sense of friendship.
I hope to attend her graduation on May 4, 2018 when she graduates with her Masters in IT.

PamelaB- TS#12

Meeting with Mardioli, 4/10/18.
Review content and sentence structure in her summary of a film shown in class.
We hold a lot of conversation where she talks about her anxieties about her level of English, which, in fact, is quite fluent.
One vocabulary word we discussed at length was self- reinforcement and how she might practice some of this very concept. Validating her language skills has taken a low priority vs her shortcomings and her remaining time at CIES.

Pamela B- TS#11

Met with Mardioli, this p.m. on 4/9/18. She expresses some confusion and frustration with her classroom instruction. She speaks well at some length with a few pronunciation, verb tense and grammar errors. She often self-corrects.
Our focus today is on noun clauses and not giving up in frustration. I went ahead and broke down the sentences in her assignment and identified the grammar terms. She eventually was able to analyze the sentences and identify clauses in her homework assignment.

Rosalie Peyton TS #9 Tania

On Monday, I met with Tania. We discussed comparing and contrasting. She has to write a short essay in this format for her writing class. I had a worksheet printed out that had helpful transition words to use when comparing and contrasting. It also had a Venn diagram that we worked on filling out. The Venn diagram was very helpful for her. She was comparing Rhianna with a worship band called Hillsong. I had never heard of Hillsong, so she showed me a couple of her favorite songs.

Rosalie Peyton TS #8 Tania

In a previous tutoring session, I had Tania write a short essay about her new living arrangements. I had gone over the content of the essay with her, and she revised it. This time, I went over the grammar. I had previously given her the error correction sheet, and I used those symbols to mark the errors in her paper. She had never seen these symbols before, so I went over each one with her. I went over all of the errors that I marked in her paper, and we discussed and fixed them.

Rosalie Peyton TS# 7 Tania

I worked with Tania on listening exercises. She really wants to practice her listening skills. I found a good website that has a lot of speech samples for listening. They are arranged by levels of difficulty, and each sample has questions and vocab words to focus on. Before each sample, we went over the vocab words that would be in the sample, making sure that she knew what they all were. Tania is in the beginner listening class (I observed her class on a previous day), but she likes to challenge herself by doing listening exercises that are at a higher level of difficulty.

Rosalie Peyton CP #4 Fares

I met with Fares on Friday. We met at Cascades park. He had never been to Cascades before. He enjoyed the park and said that he would come back with his friends. We talked about the ways that schooling is different in the U.S. than it is in Kuwait. He had never experienced co-ed education before his classes at CIES. He said that he needs to get used to it. We also saw some students taking prom pictures at the park, so we talked about the tradition of prom.

Christian Ishak CP4

I talked to Melis again for my fourth conversation partner session. We hungout with a group of friends and played Mario Kart for a few hours. We talked about a lot of different subjects. We talked about me going to Korea in August and her going back to Germany. We were also having light-hearted, competitive conversations while we were playing games.

Christian Ishak CP3

I talked to Melis again for my third conversation partner session. Her English is really good. She makes mistakes occasionally with more complex grammar, but she would be considered an advanced level speaker. Melis likes learning languages and is currently learning French. She knows German, English, and Turkish. She was born in Germany but her family is from Turkey, so she grew up speaking Turkish and German, and learned English in school.

Christian Ishak CP2

For my second conversation partner, I spoke with an au-pair from Germany named Melis. She came to the States for a year and lives with a host family. She helps the host family with activities around the house such as watching the kids and bringing them to school. She is going back to Germany after this contract is up so she can study at university.

Christian Ishak TS9

I spoke with Do-Jun on Thursday. Our conversation was on celebrities and film. Do-Jun said many people in South Korea love Tom Cruise because he is a nice and kind person. They dislike actress Meg Ryan because she made negative comments about a Korean shampoo that many took personally. Do-Jun said when he goes to the movie theatres he likes watching Hollywood movies because they usually have a larger budget, which means the effects and sound are usually better and more worthy of being watched in a theatre.

Christian Ishak TS8

I spoke with Do-Jun this past Wednesday and we talked about the airline industry. He had to work late a couple days this week because his company is working on a project that needed to be complete. He told me he used to work in shipping but moved to the airline industry because that is what he studied at university. He said he makes less money at his job now, but he is happy with his company and the culture. I asked if he would be interested in working for a bigger airline company and he said he didn't want to leave his company because they care about their employees.

Christian Ishak TS7

Do-Jun and I spoke on Friday, March 30th. Most of our conversation was spent talking about Korea. I was asking him questions about Seoul, Busan, and Jeju. Those are the three cities I am interested in teaching in, and I wanted Do-Jun's input about each. Do-Jun said Jeju is a popular vacation spot and has a lot of nice scenery. However, Seoul is the largest and has the most activities so it may be a more entertaining city to live in. Do-Jun's listening skills are improving. I was able to ask him many questions and he understood what I was saying most of the time.

Ellie Sims TS#8

Date: 3/26/18
Location: CIES Building
Topic: Future Present Perfect Continuous and "Being"

I met with Karina today and we went over a timed writing quiz she had taken in class. She did not understand why her teacher had changed the verb from "be" to "being." I explained the differences and why "being" is used instead of "be" in certain situations. Karina struggled with the concept but eventually after many examples she understood. After the examples, we delved straight into the future perfect continuous because Karina is very enthusiastic about this tense. It is the tense she seems to struggle with most, especially in her speech, and going over the tense has really helped her with her speaking fluidity. We did a lot of examples and I brought the worksheets that I had promised. We went over the old worksheets I had given her last session. After correcting all her errors and answering her questions, we worked on the new worksheets that I had brought for her. We decided to continue to go over perfect continuous tenses. Overall, the session was a really good session.

Ellie Sims TS#7

Date: 3/23/18
Location: Lucky Goat Café
Topic: Present Perfect Progressive

I met with Karina today and we continued to focus on the present perfect progressive while dipping into learning the future perfect progressive and the past perfect progressive. Karina is a very fast learner. We practiced distinguishing between the three tenses and we did a few exercises I said the sentence and she had to tell me the tense. Karina did very well and was able to answer almost all of the questions correctly. We went over what she did not understand and corrected her handouts. After we went over the present and future perfect continuous we got stuck on the past perfect continuous. Karina struggled with the difference when trying to write them out herself. I printed out more worksheets for her and we looked them over together. She then wrote out some sentences in the past perfect continuous tense with small prompts that I gave her. She asked for more worksheets our next meeting and I agreed to print some out for her. I think that Karina is doing very well overall and I think that our session went really well.

Ellie Sims TS#6

Date: 3/26/18
Location: Starbucks
Topic: Composition

I met with Andrea and we discussed her composition questions she had over her homework. We mainly discussed when to use nouns and verbs together. She was having trouble placing present perfect continuous verbs in her sentences. We talked about the difference between simple tense and the continuous. She had started learning simple perfect continuous on her own and is progressing surprisingly fast. I told her to focus more on what she was learning in class and to learn what they are doing at her level and build up to harder grammar tenses. We did however, continue to go over the present perfect continuous for the duration of the session. We also went over Andrea's homework, and I helped her plan her essay better. We organized her thoughts on the essay again and brought out better, more concise details. Andrea does really well writing out sentences but still struggles focusing her ideas into clear sentences. Overall, the session went well.

Pamela B- TS #10

As my other tutoree M. cancelled our meeting today, I continued another hour with Aziz.

I read an article titled "Conquering the Challenge", a motivational piece that seemed to be of interest to him as well as instructional. First, I read, as he followed by reading the article while I spoke . We repeated new vocabulary words. Then Aziz read the introductory paragraph aloud.  This is level 3 reading , he is in level 2 class. My rationale is that he often states desire to advance in fluency. 

Next, he read his presentation, a homework assignment on " Suicide" . It is a coherent treatment( essay) including reasons people become suicidal and he offers possible solutions to each underlying cause. He is however missing his closing summary commentary. We discussed this and I suggested sample wordings he could use to craft his own paragraph or sentence . The gist of which is " there is a solution to every problem.

We are using both bottom up and top-down methods to improve his attention and focus on listening skills improvement.

Pamela B- TS#9

Met today with Aziz, who covered from CO to tutoree officially. Reports many problems, the major one is low grades. He may be leaving CIES shortly but wants to maximize his time. His listening focus has improved, at my request. He enjoys practicing speaking,  soliciting grammar and pronunciation correction.
He is fairly fluent and unafraid to use words correctly that he does not pronounce correctly, to his advantage.

Colleen TS 6- Maria

03/04/18 Maria and I meet at noon. We reviewed noun work from the previous meeting.  We worked on her glossary, and written sentences.  In previous sessions we had used The Call of the Wild for reading aloud practice, I had told her in summary what the story was about.  On this day, we looked at all of the chapter titles, Maria wrote them out.  We discussed some new words such as primordial from the chapter titles.  I gave Maria an assignment, she is supposed to think about the story using the chapter titles as prompts, and next time we meet she is going to tell me the story in her own words.  I told her not to write out anything, just to think about it.  This will give her practice in forming her own thoughts and speaking them in English.

Darliin Khahaifa TS#8

Date/Time: 4/2/18 3:00 P.M.- 4:00 P.M.

Location: CIES

Topic/Skill: Prepositions of time and place

Feedback provided to tutee: I advised Mao Mao to assess how specific the time or place is to help him decide which preposition to use. I told him to use in with more general time expressions such as months, years, and centuries. On should be used for more specific times, such as dates. Finally, I explained that at is used when discussing specific times like 6 o’clock. I also showed him that the same rules apply when describing places, using in for the least specific places and at for the most specific places.

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I used pictures to show the different uses for the prepositions. I found that pictures helped to illustrate the points in a more memorable way.

Darliin Khahaifa TS#7

Date/Time: 3/30/18 2:00 P.M.- 3:30 P.M.

Location: CIES

Topic/Skill: Reading comprehension and summarizing

Feedback provided to tutee: Mao Mao was struggling to create summaries of reading materials in class. After practicing with him, it became clear that he did not make a habit of taking notes while reading. I advised him to take short notes after reading each paragraph to make summarizing faster, and to help him remember details of the reading materials.

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned more about the importance of ensuring that the provided materials are level appropriate. The story that I provided to Mao Mao for practice was slightly too difficult. This made summarizing and note taking a more difficult and time-consuming task for him.

Darliin Khahaifa TS#6

Date/Time: 3/28/18 3:00 P.M.- 4:00 P.M.

Location: CIES

Topic/Skill: Present verb tenses

Feedback provided to tutee: Mao Mao seemed to quickly pick up the rules for using the different present verb tenses. I did need to remind him to make sure his verb tenses agreed when using more than one in a clause or sentence. After providing examples with and without verb tense agreement, he understood the concept clearly.

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: We continued practicing the present verb tenses by reading a short narrative. Looking at the relationship of the verb tenses in the context of the passage helped Mao Mao understand more clearly when to use each verb tense. I found that the context made learning more effective than generating individual and unrelated sentences.

Darliin Khahaifa CP#4

Date/Time: 4/2/18 12:00 P.M.- 1:00 P.M.

Location: CIES

Topic discussed: Adrien and I discussed the differences between dating culture in the United States and Venezuela.

Cultural and/or linguistic topics you and your partner learned: Adrien and I learned that the dating culture in the united states and Venezuela can be very different. It seems that people in the United States begin considering marriage at a much older age than people in Venezuela. Adrien also felt that people in Venezuela are more accepting of language barriers and cultural differences than American people. We did, however, feel that the types of activities people do on dates are roughly the same both countries. Americans and Venezuelans both do simple activities like having coffee, seeing a movie, or going to a park.

Rosalie Peyton CO#3

On Wednesday, I observed an advanced listening class. The class was taught by Olivia James. Two students presented opposing arguments about whether robots were harmful or not. The students had previously worked in groups to create their arguments and gather information about the topic. The class then discussed the importance of listening while debating. After that, the students watched a short video about Elon Musk's call to ban killer robots. There were English subtitles on the video. The video and specific vocabulary words within the video were then discussed. The students were very engaged and involved in the lesson.

Ellie Sims TS#5

Date: 3/22/18
Location: CIES Building
Topic: Reviewing Homework/Composition

I met with Andrea today and we went over the homework she was assigned in class. The homework consisted of her writing her own essay. I helped her think about her topic and make a word diagram to be able to think of a central idea and supporting sentences. Then we worked on constructing clear and concise sentences that got her points across without editing her work directly. Instead, we worked on helping her be able to form her sentences well and be able to actually relay the message she wanted. After that, we worked on simple past tense and third person plural. Andrea still has trouble pluralizing her words, however, she is progressing very well. Overall, the tutoring session went very well and Andrea was able to complete most of the beginning of her essay.

Tomas Cordero CP3 Hanqing

This Sunday I met with Hanqing once again. We sat at our usual spot outside the Dirac library. He was excited to see me and speak with me. We talked about our week and upcoming events. After he showed me some Chinese music he enjoys, Hanqing informed me about his violin playing background. Unfortunately he does not play anymore because he does not have much time.

Tomas Cordero TS4 PJ

This Saturday I met up with PJ to continue our tutoring sessions. First we went over the homework assignment I left him. It involved learning new vocabulary, answering questions, and creating sentences using these new words. He did well overall; I only had to correct two items. Once that was finished, we looked at six new words and practiced sentence construction with them. At the end of the session I assigned PJ an assignment which will make him write a short narrative incorporating the new vocabulary.

Colleen TS 6- Soyoung

This morning Soyoung and I began work on speaking and listening skills. We did some fun exercises where we used Ditocomp to read stories to each other.  Soyoung translated a Korean fabel and read it to me, I told her the story back.  We did a second exercise that included giving and receiving directions/information to draw a picture that the other person could not see.  For our final two sessions she has requested exercised to assist her with free speach and thought generation in English (unscripted).