Celina_TP #6

For my last tutoring session, I met with Yunseo and we went over reading and writing skills. We started off our session by completing her homework from school that day. Her homework is really not a challenge for her at all which is a little frustrating for her I think because she is so much more advanced than her expected level. Because she is moving back to South Korea this summer though, I worry that her advanced level of English will diminish a little bit if she is not speaking it every day and working on it with a tutor. It really would be a shame though because she is really smart and has a well developed knowledge of the english language for her age. After we finished and reviewed her homework we worked on some reading. I wanted to focus more on pronunciation of words this day so I had her read very carefully and listened for any particular errors I heard. This weeks novel was a kids history version of Thomas Edison's life. I probably wouldn't have chosen the book because I don't think she was very interested in the topic of how electricity was created. And keep interest is very important when working with kids, especially when its in regards to academics. She would get bored with whatever she was reading out loud to me and just stop and sit there. It was a little frustrating for me at first, but I figured I could coax her to read more if I promised I would read after her. Splitting up tasks is an easy way for me to persuade her to do anything actually, whether its reading outloud or speed writing or writing with new vocab words. If I promise her I am going to complete the same task as her, then it gets like a competition and she seems more inclined to do it. After our time reading, we did our usual activity of writing down new and challenging vocabulary words from the reading section and using them in her story about her imaginary monster. The one benefit of the tedious reading was that it did offer some very challenging new words, so it made for a much more productive writing practice.

Celina_TP #15

For this weeks tutoring session I met again with Saleh and Azuz. Our last group tutoring session was a little frustrating for me because I felt like I couldn't help both of them equally without offering more help to one or the other. This time I planned out an activity and specific things to work on instead of just letting them chose what to focus on. To being with, I came up with a productive activity to work on synonyms and antonyms. I gave them both a pile of notecards that had a word on it, simple words like wonderful, amazing, etc.. So they had to face each other and each one would hold up a card and the other would have to give a synonym and antonym for the word. The winner got a box of girl scout cookies, just to make it more motivational for them to actually try. This activity turned out to work really well, I like that they kind of had fun yet still learned valuable skills for speaking and writing. Next, to continue on with the synonym/antonym theme, we went over a short reading that was filled with some new and difficult vocabulary terms. I had them highlight the terms they were least familiar with and then when they finished we went over the words and created synonyms and antonyms for the new vocab words. This is a really helpful tool for usage in reading on exams like the IELTS or TOEFL. If they can figure out a words synonym then it can be simplified and less confusing for them to comprehend the full context in a short amount of allotted time. For the last twenty minutes or so of our session I let them take out whatever homework they had and helped them each go over it and work on any projects they had.

Celina_TP #14

For this weeks tutoring session, Yunseo and I worked more on reading comprehension and using vocabulary words from the readings for writing passages. I was worried that using the same strategy and activities every week with Yunseo to work on writing and reading would be too tedious for her and she would become bored, but in fact she insists that we keep working on her story using the vocabulary we learn. To start off this week, we did a quick speed writing exercise to talk about her classroom. It works best if I write together with her during the exercise, this way it is sort of a relay race and she seems more motivated to get more written down. It is always difficult for her to start her paragraphs, so I try to scaffold the process for her. I always help her with the beginning of her introductions so that she doesn't get too frustrated with it and give up. She stumbled a little about finding adjectives to use in order to make descriptions, but we paddled through it and she ended up writing two full paragraphs in 10 minutes! After doing some speed writing, we moved on to reading. Yunseo used to be very eager to read, but lately I think she might be a little bored with the books she is reading so it is getting harder to encourage her to read more and stay focused. After we finished a chapter and a half of her book about Helen Keller, we moved on to our activity where we find new vocabulary words and use them to work on a new 'chapter' of her story about her monster. Her mother was really impressed after we finished the session with just how much Yunseo had written! She is after all, only a kindergartener!

Celina_TP #13

For this weeks tutoring I worked with Azuz on reading skills. To prepare for the session I found some test practice for the IELTS exam that focused on the reading section of the exam. Azuz told me that he dislikes the reading section the most, and that he gets the worst scores on this section. I've noticed that none of the CIES students particularly enjoy reading in English and even when I suggest for them to do outside reading work to help develop their skills they often show their distaste for reading. I truly do think that if they found a way to read in English for enjoyment that their scores on reading sections would benefit from it. Azuz and I went over some of the different strategies for effective reading. We had previously worked on reading for comprehension so this time we worked more on skimming and scanning with the emphasis on IELTS practice tests and timing his ability to answer a set of questions after being given a reading passage. At first, I think it was a bit overwhelming for him to work quickly. But after reviewing with him more what some of the most important things to look for in a reading were, he began to get the hang of it. Hopefully he will feel more comfortable next time when taking a standardized test and that he score will benefit from our practice as well.

Celina_TP #12

For this weeks tutoring I worked with Abdulaziz again on writing skills. I like that we have our own system of assessing his needs each week based upon what he is struggling with most. It works well for me because I can more flexible when it comes to lessons to work on. This week he wanted to focus again on writing skills, and particularly in speed writing with a set prompt. He worries a lot about his ability to write for the IELTS exam so this is a great opportunity for me to help him edit his work and review some errors. We started by researching some sample prompts that he could write about. I tried to make them interesting for him and keep it relevant to him. We settled on the importance of studying abroad, which he mentioned was an actual prompt he saw once on the IELTS exam. I can tell that it is much easier for him to write an outline for an essay when he has a large amount of background knowledge on the subject and knows the vocabulary to utilize. However, this is not always the case when it comes to taking standardized tests, like the IELTS, so I wanted to work more with him on being able to format essays based upon opinions and experiences rather than just something he has a rehearsed answer for. After we chose a topic, I had him write out an outline for the paper and timed his writing for this. Although they are only given a set amount of time to write a response on the IELTS, I know that having atleast a short outline will take a lot of the stress out of the process. I then gave him a set amount of time to write a short essay for the prompt and when he completed it we went over the essay together and I had him edit it himself. This was a great way to encourage self-edit and for him to work more on finding his own errors rather than just being told what they are.

Celina_TP #11

    For my eleventh tutoring session I met as a group with two CIES students, Aziz and Saleh. To prepare for the session I compiled a list of grammar topics that I knew they had been discussing in their classes and came up with some activities to do to help practice some. I created a flash card game for adverbs and adjectives, and review game for pronouns and other topics. We met at Starbucks, which might have been a little to loud of a location for a tutoring session. After going over the games and working a little bit with the errors that I heard, I had the two of them show me their homework assignments for the week so that I could look over it and help them out. Saleh needed to read for his reading log so I offered him some articles from online newspapers to read. It was tough finding material in a newspaper that could be level appropriate but I guided him through some of the trickier words and he filled out his log. Aziz needed to create a presentation on explaining his favorite place. He chose to present about a resort in Kuwait that he enjoyed visiting, and together we worked on a PowerPoint presentation for him. I found that it was actually much harder to tutor as a group rather than individually. The students got distracted easily and were more prone to talking in Arabic to each other rather than focusing on homework. I think it would have been easier if we had met in a quieter place and focused on activities as a whole group, rather than me trying to tackle two different need sets.

Kayla_CP_#6

Location: RL Grime concert at Coliseum!

This may seem like a weird conversation partner blog, but I took Kaori to a dubstep/house music concert. She hadn't experienced anything this wild before. A lot of interesting scenarios popped up and I had to explain all of them--some relatively unpleasant. But overall, the concert was extremely fun and we all had a great time (she brought her boyfriend). I'm going to miss her a lot! She left for Japan two or three days after the concert. I'm glad she got to have at least one crazy American experience, haha.
We're going to continue speaking over Facebook and Skype. :)