Meghan TS #16

Date/Time: October 26, 8:00 am

Location: Skype

Topic/Skill: Listening

Feedback provided to tutee: In this session, we practiced his listening skills by watching some fun youtube videos and summarizing them. He seemed to enjoy the videos, but had a hard time with understanding them, so I advised him to pay special attention to context clues (like what's going on in the video action wise while the conversation is occurring).

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: 

I think listening is his weakest skill, although it is still fairly high level. I gave him a video to watch as homework and will review what it was about with him when we meet next.

Meghan TS #15

Date/Time: October 26, 3:00 pm

Location: CIES Building Student Lounge

Topic/Skill: Writing

Feedback provided to tutee: This session was sort of a continuation of the last session with this tutee. We practiced writing different answers to the same prompts we covered last time.

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: 

She made significantly fewer mistakes this time, and seemed to recognize her errors more easily based on what we talked about last time!

Meghan TS #14

Date/Time: October 22, 3:00 pm

Location: CIES Building Student Lounge

Topic/Skill: Writing

Feedback provided to tutee: In this session, my tutee wanted to practice her writing skills, so we practiced with three prompts I made up, five minutes to write each. I then helped her to go through each one and fix her errors.

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: 

There were a lot of small errors she made repeatedly, so I tried to find those errors and put extra emphasis on them so she could remember for next time.

Tatum TS #16

Date/Time: Monday, October 29th, 2018
Location: CIES lounge
Topic/Skill: Halloween
Feedback provided to tutee:  My tutee and I had a normal tutoring session and then we went and carved pumpkins at the CGE Halloween event. During this tutoring session, we talked about Halloween and the Halloween party she attended this weekend with her boyfriend. I gave her some Halloween and pumpkin carving related vocabulary and then we were able to use this vocabulary as we carved our pumpkins during the Halloween event. 
Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:
 I learned more about my tutee and her life back in Shanghai. She grew up in Shanghai, the biggest city in the world, so we talked about the difference between living in a smaller city and living in a bigger city. She also mentioned that she is really enjoying living in the US and being able to celebrate holidays like Halloween because it is something she has never done before. 

Olivia CO#3

On September 19th I observed a G2 speaking class. This class was a little difficult to watch because the students were listening to some recording they made earlier in the term in the computer lab. As they were listening, the teacher and I got to chatting about how listening exercises such as this one can be helpful for students to develop listening skills. By listening to themselves, they have the opportunity to hear how awkward certain phrases can be. No one likes to listen to themselves, and most people can be rather critical of themselves. This exercise capitalizes on both of those aspects, and uses it to teach students how to improve both their speaking and their listening. I thought it was a clever way to work on both skills.

Olivia CP#6

On October 31st I met with Maria at Lucky Goat on North Monroe. I really like Lucky Goat, which is why I decided we should go. We talked about how America perceives itself on the global stage, and what Danish people think of the United States. I gave her my own opinions, stating that America has never behaved as we are behaving currently. The Trump administration is taking us into new territories when it comes to foreign policy. Therefore, this is new for us too. We talked about Denmark being a really nice country, and its size. Maria said that since Denmark is so small, there is a fear that other countries will boss them around or something. This was an interesting view to me, because I had not considered it before. I enjoy talking to Maria, because she introduces me to new topics every time we speak. I have learned a lot from her.

Olivia CP#5

On October 23rd I met Maria at Los Compadres on Pensacola street. A big part of American cuisine is influences from other cultures. In the western parts of the United States, Mexican culture influences the food in dramatic ways, so I decided that Los Compadres was a good introduction to Mexican food. She told me she had never tried Mexican food, because there are no Mexicans in Denmark. Honestly, that had never occurred to me. Mexican food is such a prevalent part of American culture, it never occurred to me that other people weren't familiar with it. Anyways, we talked about Mexican food, Danish food, and American food. I got to talking about Cuban food, and how it is more influential in south Florida. We shared critical moments. She told me how she wasn't expecting a cashier to ask how she was doing, so she answered honestly. This isn't want the cashier wanted to hear, but went along with the transaction anyways. I told her how in my experience, Latinos have friendlier and warmer relationships than white Americans. I told her my own critical moment, which happened when I moved to Tampa, Florida and didn't realize that my culture was a lot more welcoming than American culture.

Olivia CP#4

I met Maria at Momo's Pizza. I took her there because I wanted her to know American food outside of McDonald's and Chipotle. College towns always have really good pizza, and Momo's is a Tallahassee icon. We both got regular cheese slices. She noted how much cheese was on the pizza, and told me how her friend was obsessed with cheese. I asked what her friends in Denmark were doing, were they also on a gap year? She said yes, and responded that almost every student goes on a gap year or two before college. She also told me how to college admissions process works in Denmark, and it sounds so much easier than here. I told her about all the essays I wrote, the recommendation letters I got, the deadlines, and the test scores. The more she tells me about Denmark the more I want to go, or at least visit. We also talked about some issues minorities face in both countries, which was really interesting to hear about.

Olivia TS #16

On October 25th after a half hour break I met with Domingos again at Strozier. He wants to become an immigration lawyer in Florida. He is already enrolled in an L.L.M. program at the college of law and will start in the spring, but he wants to apply to a J.D. program. He asked me to help him look at different law schools with him. I used the different law school websites as material to help him practice his vocabulary. For example, the Florida State College of Law website offers courses on the legalities of migrants. "Legalities" is a word he was unfamiliar with, but using top-down processing he was able to figure out the meaning of the word. "Migrants" was another word he was unfamiliar with. Again, after using some top-down processing Domingos was able to deduce the meaning. He still has more work to do in order to be a lawyer, because lawyers are known to read and write a lot. He can do it though.

Olivia TS #15

On October 25th I met with Domingos at Strozier. I agreed to stay extra time to go over some things with him. He needed some help with a few of the concepts and grammar structures of A Higher Loyalty. We went over some of the problems he had with certain sentences. I explained that the way we speak English is different from how we write English. Comey was writing as if he was speaking to the reader. This makes for a more enjoyable experience when reading, but can be a little challenging when it comes to analyzing writing styles. We took notes of certain structures, and got to talking about law and order in the United States. Since we first met I can tell that he has improved his speaking abilities. His pronunciation is clearer, and he sounds more sure of himself. I think his main difficulty has been speaking. Portuguese sounds very different than English, and Domingos frequently transfers those sounds into English, making his speech unclear. Though, after weeks of talking about guns, how the supreme court works, what a governor does, what do different political parties want, and James Comey, he has come a long way.

Olivia TS#14

On October 19th I met with Domingos at Strozier. He told me that he needed to find a book for his grammar class. Domingos is a lawyer in Brazil with an interest in law and order. He is also interested in elections, politics, the Trump administration, and Obama. I recommended a few political biographies, such as Dreams from My Father, by President Obama, What Happened by Hilary Clinton, and A Higher Loyalty by James Comey. He decided to read James Comey's book because that book has more to do with law and order than the other books. I explained who James Comey is, why he is significant, and why he wrote a book. Domingos checked the book out, and texts me whenever he finds something in the book he likes.

Olivia TS#13

On October 17th I met Domingos at Strozier. He brought his speech, and asked me to look over it. I read it and looked over his grammar. There were a few points that needed help but other than that it was a good essay. He told me that his own teacher liked his topic a lot. We looked over some of his examples, like the UC Santa Barbara shooter. He wanted to highlight certain groups in gun violence, such as women. He talked about how some people feel that gun issues are women's issues because of safety. After we cleaned up his speech he told me he was invited to speak at a Students Demand Action meeting. Students Demand Action, SDA, is a pro-gun control group on campus who invited him to speak on his outsider perspective on gun violence. He tells me that Brazil is a very dangerous place with a lot of violence, but one is more likely to get shot in the United States because of guns. Overall his essay is going well.