Isik CP # 1

Date/Time: Saturday, February 27, 2016

Location: Panera Bread on Blaire Stone Street in Tallahassee, FL

Topic/ Skill:  Culture, Economy, Politics, Family in Overseas, North Florida, and South Georgia

Charlene is a very nice conversation partner. In our first meeting, we had talked about our lives, experiences, and interest.

She has two undergraduate degrees from Criminal Justice and International Relations. However she worked in health department in Florida State where projects are based on mental health issue in Tallahassee and surrounding counties.  

She born and raised Apalachicola area where is south side of Tallahassee. Then she went to school in Tallahassee where she is long term resident. I have learned so many things about Tallahassee where I am very new. On the other side, I had lived in Valdosta, GA for eleven years which is very good source of experience for her to have an idea about living in South Georgia.

Charlene and I had shared our common interests about politics, culture, and environment. She likes to make good contribution to the world and different cultures and societies.  That is why she was asking me all kinds of questions about Syria, Oman, and Turkey.

During our first meeting, I observed my tone of voice which I didn’t keep at the same level while I was talking to her.  This creates some miscommunication between us in the conversation.  I am hoping that Charlene will correct me more to improve my conversation skills in English.

Charlene also gave me some hints to use the guide’s book for practicing writing in English.  I am very happy that she is my conversation partner. 

Charlene, CO #1

I was able to observe Rebecca Turk's Group 1A grammar class today. I was the first person there, and the students came in one at a time and sat quietly. This was a quiet group. I noticed that everyone self-segregated by gender, with the women in the front row and the men in the second row.

When Ms. Turk came into the classroom, I went forward to introduce myself, and she came my way simultaneously. She set me at ease immediately.

Ms. Turk was extremely outgoing and upbeat, in spite of having a somewhat hoarse voice today. She explained to the class this was because of her allergies and the three singing performances she had done this past week. She spent several minutes asking the students about their weekend activities and was clearly interested. She moved back and forth between the white board and among the students constantly for the entire class. She was funny and direct. High energy does not begin to describe her style. The students soon "warmed up" and responded directly to her also.

For part of the class, Ms. Turk reviewed the syllabus and explained rules. Apparently, coming to class more than five minutes late results in being marked absent. Ms. Turk took great pains to explain the benefits of staying in class after a late arrival. She also offered to be available for
consultation should students have questions about American customs and culture-specific appropriate responses in their day-to-day lives.

She told students that she prefers that they "teach yourselves then come to class with questions," explaining this would result in their learning more quickly. To help students identify techniques for self-teaching, Ms. Turk led the class through a written exercise in goal-setting. Students set personal goals for English language learning, i.e. goals that would result in their learning something that would personally benefit them in their own lives. Some students seemed to be confused about the concept and seemed to me to be "trying to get the right answer." Ms.Turk spoke with these students asking them more questions about their daily routines and habits to help them clarify the reason for the exercise. They soon caught on.

The last part of the class was devoted to reviewing the simple present verb tenses. Students were paired with partners to discuss things they do everyday to practice speaking in this tense. Students appeared to be have good knowledge of simple present tense. Ms. Turk moved among the pairs listening and asking questions to help students self-correct errors.

Next, she discussed how to make and provided examples of verb charts to use in the self-study of all verb tenses. She asked student to use a verb chart to review the negative form of the simple present tense for homework, since at that point, we had run out of time for the class.

When class was over, Ms. Turk asked if I had any questions. I did not, but thanked her for letting me observe her. I told her I would like to observe her again with an even more advanced group, if I could. She said I could come back anytime.

Michaella CO#1

Monday, February 29, 2016, at 9am

                Today I observed a 4A Grammar class instructed by Victoria Davis. I arrived early, which gave me the opportunity to interact with multiple students before the class began. They were very welcoming and curious to know why I was there. It was cool to see how the students interacted with each other as well. It was easy to see the close friendships that have formed throughout their time in the CIES program, regardless of what country or culture they originally came from. Before the lesson began, I formally introduced myself to the class and told them about my aspiration to teach in Spain. In order to get more involved in the classroom experience, Victoria allowed me to sit next to the other students as though I was a student too. 

The topic of the day was the Future Perfect tense. Each student had a binder filled with grammar lessons that would be covered during the 7 week period. Victoria began her lesson by explaining the basic components of the Future Perfect tense. She wrote down the will+have+past participle structure on the whiteboard so the students could reference it while completing their activities. Many of the students seemed familiar with the topic, and they were eager to participate in the class discussion. Victoria presented multiple examples on her own before proceeding to a group activity in the binder.

The group activity consisted of creating 5 sentences using the Future Perfect verb tense in a dialogue format.  I was able to work with Ayah. She was incredibly sweet, and I was amazed at how well she knew grammar. I helped her with any vocab she was unable to comprehend, such as “aliens” and “collaborate.” She revealed that vocabulary was her least favorite part about learning English, however, Ayah, like many of the other students I observed, were more than determined to grasp a challenging concept. This morning showed me how willing these students are to help one another understand the material, and even laugh together when someone makes a simple mistake. I learned that a lesson plan can be both structured and informative while teaching in a more laid-back environment.   

Erika Class Observation #1

Today I had the opportunity to observe Ryan Fletcher's grammar class. He started the lesson by having the students do warm up exercises in which they had to find and correct mistakes in a given set of sentences. After this exercise, he showed his students the breakdown of last week's results. This chart showed which types of questions students were having trouble with and which one were understood by everyone.

Ryan also passed out a hand out of 50 commonly used verbs so that students could familiarize themselves. The final exercise of the day was to have the students write in their grammar log, which is basically their daily journal that will be collected at the end of every week. In the grammar log, students have to write 4 sentences in the tense they are practicing. From sitting in this class, I learned what a good lesson plan looks like and how the teacher should be energetic and sparking interaction and participation from the class.

Michaella TS#1 Child

Thursday, February 28th, at 6:30pm

Jared, Wonmi, and I had the opportunity to observe a tutoring session with our child tutee, P.J. This session was beneficial in helping us understand P.J. as a student, while also teaching us useful techniques that will aid us in our one-on-one tutoring sessions. We learned that our tutee attends 4^th grade at Desoto Trail Elementary School and enjoys expository subjects like history and science.

The tutoring session began with a homework assignment from school. The tutor instructed the tutee to read the article out loud before answering the comprehension questions that followed. P.J. read slowly, making sure to sound out each word he struggled with. If P.J. mispronounced a word, the tutor was quick to correct him.

Once the homework assignment was complete, the tutor transitioned into more reading comprehension practice. The tutor presented a five minute, interactive video that defined and discussed what a main idea is and how to find it in a passage. Afterwards, the tutor had P.J. read several paragraphs from the textbook to practice distinguishing the main idea. P.J. did a great job of picking up the main idea the more they practiced.

I noticed the tutor provided minimal positive reinforcement when working with the tutee. This seemed to affect P.J.’s energy level during the session, which could easily be improved if there was more positive feedback. I learned how important it is to have patience and to allow the tutee to finish speaking before responding. It is also vital to constantly check that the tutee is grasping the concepts or terminology that we are discussing that day.

Charlene CP #1, Meeting on Saturday, February 27, 2016

I met with my conversation partner, Isak, who also happens to be a student in our class, at Panera Bread on Blairstone Road. We had decided in advance to keep things simple and to have coffee together to get to know each other a little better.

Isak is quite an accomplished woman. She has a PhD in Sociology and teaches at a college level. Somehow she pulls this off while being mother to her 13 year old, bilingual daughter. She told me-and, I do not think that she would mind me telling the class-that she graduated from her program in Turkey, married, and moved to the United States with her husband within ten days. (Did I get the time period right, Isak?) So, I believe I would add adventurous to her list of positive attributes.

It was fun to talk about politics, economics, and (of course) sociology with Isak. I know so few people these days who like to discuss serious topics. I suspect Isak is very good teacher; she is knowledgeable, and I left our meeting knowing more about globalization than when I arrived.

We found that besides valuing a knowledge of how the world "works," we have a sense of time in common. I was late for our meeting on Saturday and was worried that Isak would think I was rude or careless because of this. But, Isak was "late" also. She explained that in Turkey, the culture has a more fluid sense of time than what I am apparently used to, having lived my life in the United States.(I should probably visit Turkey. I hate to feel rushed.)

Whenever I am speaking with someone whose first language is not English, I try to be careful about not slipping into the southern accent that I grew up using and did not lose (in self-defense) until I went to college. Since she only asked me to repeat myself once, I think I was successful. As for listening to Isak, I had no problem understanding her. I did notice that she spoke with a lower, softer tone than I did. I wonder if that is a Turkish cultural convention, or maybe I just tend to be louder in public places. (I grew up in a family of extroverts.) I will have to ask Isak about this.

Wonmi TS #1 Child

25 February 2016

Today, we observed a teaching session with our future child tutee, J.P.

The session was started with a reading comprehension homework assignment. The tutor had the tutee read the passage and then answer the comprehension questions.

Then, this was followed up with writing comprehension. The tutor discussed what topics, main ideas, and supporting details were in a paragraph. He played a video that explored these ideas, and then used the text book to further the understanding.

Some tips that I thought of while observing the session:

• instead of sitting beside the student, maybe try sitting in front to better the lack of eye contact
• let the student finish talking, and after completing their thought, then correct them.
• also allow a sufficient student to teacher talking ratio
• have good reaction and give praise often
• let student sound words out and then get them an immediate response instead of correcting them right away
• turn your phone off and keep it away unless stating a short break time.
• ask student if there are any questions frequently.