Isik TS # 2 with Michaella Malone

Tutoring Section 2 with Michaella

Date/Time: March 23, 2016/ 4:00p.m.-5:00p.m.

Location: Starbucks near the CIES on the Tennessee Street  

Topic/Skill: Grammar, idioms, and Mid-term Exam/Study on a mid-term exam and practice grammar and idioms

Feedback provided to tutee: The first part of section, Michaella and I studied on basic theories of language acquisition.  The second part of section, I answered grammar questions for tenses and idioms

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: The basic theories of language acquisition are behaviorism, innatism, and Interactionism. Behaviorism was explained by Lada (1964) as an imitation, practice and habit. Innatims was explained by Chomsky (1959) as a set of principles for all languages. Interactionism was explained by Long (1983) as an interactional modification. 

I practiced the grammar. I wrote these sentences to practice correct tenses: “I tried to explain to him the problem, but he had difficulty understanding me.” “I don’t know why you didn’t go. If I were you, I would have gone.” “Kate claims that if had gotten she got an MBA after finishing her bachelor's degree, she might have been considered for the position.”

Idioms are “regret to inform”, “spoke on my behalf”, and “ended up getting.”

Isik TS #1 with Michaella Malone

Tutoring Section 1 with Michaella

Date/Time: March 21, 2016/ 4:00p.m.-5:00p.m.

Location: Starbucks near the CIES on the Tennessee Street

Topic/Skill: Grammar/Correct the grammar errors, prepare to write!, and to write an essay

Feedback provided to tutee: Michaella brought me an exercise to write an essay. First, I read an essay to correct the errors. Second, I wrote answers to the questions for a preparation to writing. Third, I wrote an essay by using the sentence patterns: although/even though and (not) …at all. In every step, my tutor gave me feedbacks.

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Verb tense, punctuation, and conjunctions are important in English writing. Past tense and simple present tense are common tenses to use. I wrote this essay:

My Favorite Place by Isik Akyollu Denizman

I have a very busy life. I take care of my family. I teach four classes at Southern Regional Technical College in Thomasville, Georgia. I commute to work from Tallahassee to Thomasville for half an hour. There are the reasons; my favorite place is my home. Even though my job is in Thomasville, my home is very close to the border of the state of Georgia. Driving to work is not boring at all. Although I have a very hectic work schedule, I spend good times with my family, and I can relax, listen to music, and read a book. I can see peace and harmony in my home. 

Isik TS #4 with Mitchell Hudson

Tutoring Section 4 with Mitchell Hudson

Date/Time: March 22, 2016/ 10:50 a.m.-11:50 a.m.

Location: CIES

Topic/Skill: Grammar Rules/ Find the grammar mistakes on my cover letter

Feedback provided to tutee: Mitchell pointed my repeated grammar mistakes. We practiced a proof-reading of my cover letter. He explained my grammar mistakes.

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: During the proof-reading of my cover letter, I realized that I wrote “in” before the name of university. I should write “at” instead of “in. One of collective nouns is “faculty”. It can be used as an adjective such as “a faculty member.”  “Maximum” as a noun takes “of”; for example, “a maximum of 180 students.” “Experience” as a verb takes different propositions; “I experience at Valdosta State University” and “I have experience in the field of teaching.”

I learned two verb idioms for my cover letters.  It is better to say “I would welcome an opportunity to expand on my qualifications for this position” instead of “I would welcome an opportunity to more fully describe my qualifications for this position.” It is also better to say “This academic position will give me an opportunity to carry out my teaching skills” instead of “this academic position will give me an opportunity to continue to improve my teaching skills.”

Isik TS # 3 with Mitchell Hudson

Tutoring Section 3 with Mitchell Hudson

Date/Time: March 17, 2016/ 10:50 a.m.-11:50 a.m.

Location: CIES

Topic/Skill:  Grammar/ How to avoid run-on sentences and using precise language

Feedback provided to tutee: I learned how to avoid  run-on sentences by practicing exercise with Mitchell. Run-on sentences are a sentence with at least two independent clauses (complete thoughts) which are forced together instead of being properly connected. Using precise language is also effective methods to avoid run-on sentences. A vague sentence is “Karen is wearing boots of the most extremely high quality in the world.” A precise sentence is “Karen is wearing very nice boots.”

Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned that period, comma and semi-colon are crucial in the sentences. Examples are “I like big families. When I get older, I want to have a big family.” “We usually leave at 11:00, but today we are leaving at 10:30.” And “I don’t want much for Christmas; just some chocolates and a little toy car.”

Isik CP # 6

Sixth Meeting with my conversation partner:

April 8, 2016 in the Black Dog Cafe at Lake Ella between 1:30p.m.-2:30p.m

Charlene and I have met the second time in the Black Dog Cafe. The weather was gorgeous. The spring was here. She paid my cafe (Thank you! Charlene). I made a critical incident by saying “fat free milk” instead of “skim milk” for my order. We had sat near of the indoor playground where kids were playing. We were so occupied by our lesson plan, so we hardly paid attention their noisy game. 

We dedicated our last conversation meeting to our teaching that will be on next Thursday, April 14. We talked about the vocabulary of the speaking lesson plan. The level of the classroom will be high intermediate. Charlene told me that we should give less vocabulary words to this level of students. We went through each word and took several words out of the list.

Our conversation was based on the meaning of words and the story from Drew Barrymore’s book. We decided to ask students conversational questions for expressing their thought and ideas. The story has several experiences about how to do laundry, work at the cafe house, and live in an apartment. We will ask to the students whether they have similar experiences.  We also censored several inappropriate words in the story. We didn’t want the students distract from these words.  

Isik CP # 5

Fifth Meeting with my conversation partner:

April 1, 2016 AMC 1:45a.m.-3:30p.m for the movie; My Fat Greek Wedding 2

This time, we decided to go to a movie. Charlene offered to go to My Fat Greek Wedding 2.  It was a fun idea. The movie was about one of the Greek families in United States.

I noticed how Mediterranean culture shares by nations; Spain, Italy, and Turkey. It is different than American culture and has delicious cuisine. During the movie they ate delicious Greek food which is a similar Turkish food. I surprised that they didn’t drink a “Greek Cafee”  : )

In the movie,  strong family ties shapes the relationship between Portokalos family members.  The older sister in the family, Toula married with American man contended with aging parents and their endless needs of cousins and friends.  She has also a teenager daughter graduating from high school. She wants her to say with the family to go to college.

Movie was funny and cheerful. Charlene and I had a great time.

Isik CP # 4

Fourth Meeting with my conversation partner:

March 25, 2016 The Cuban Grill on the north capital circle   1:30p.m.-2:30p.m

I finished my volunteer job early in Dearlake Middle School. This gave me an extra time to explore the plaza where the Cuban grill is.  This plaza also has the Carraba’s Italian grill.  It is big and front of the plaza, so that it was difficult to see the Cuban Grill right away.  The Cuban grill has a corner lot with beautiful plants and flowers. I realized how beautiful place but it is hiding behind the big restaurant.

The plaza also has a limited parking p. It took me five minutes to find a parking space for my car.  I also noticed the apple tech store in the plaza which was very busy with the customers. 

I walked to the Cuban grill, because I found a parking space the other side of the plaza. When I approached to the restaurant, I saw a man talking to customers. Later on I realized the owner of the Cuban grill.  I went in the restaurant, chose a table, and waited my conversation partner, Charlene. Restaurant has beautiful plants inside too.

Charlene and I talked about politics, education, and Tallahassee as usual.