Milton_TP_#13

Milton_TP_#13

Student Name: Mutaz Bakri

Date: Friday, February 27-2015

Location: Starbucks across CIES, 6 pm

Skill – Reading and Speaking

Mutaz is very eager to practice speaking. I did a review of the emotions and feelings materials. I made him read out loud from a set of slides and he was very interested in the new words that he was learning. Example: surprised, shocked, worried, scared, bored, confused, sad, tired, relived, cold, hungry, shy, in love, sleepy, frustrated, furious, disgusted, hot, exhausted, etc. While reading I help him correct some pronunciation errors.

We talked about some of the words because Mutaz never used them before, example – frustrated. He confused the word frustrated with mad. I explained that is a level of unhappiness but not at the level of being really mad. Is caused by the inability to change or achieve something. I had on hand pictures and he was able to visualize the word difference that I was talking about. He needs to work hard and expand his vocabulary, especially productive words.

I showed him a picture of a group of happy people and asked him to tell me a reason of why they were happy and he could not develop an idea. I told him of a possible reason or example, asked him again with no results.

Lesson Learned: I encouraged Mutaz to keep learning language and to talk more with people at CIES. He seems to be shy and he is spending to much time speaking on his native language. I keep suggesting the listening and watching TV in order to start developing his top down skills.  Not to let the fast pace talking discourage his desire for learning English.

 

Docster TP #12

Last week I met with Ali at CIES. He brought along a fellow student and friend who is also preparing for the IELTS exam. We decided to work on the composition portion of the exam. I had them both take a mock writing exam. We had to all go over the questions as a group, and the vocabulary was often above the level of both students. I have warned Ali in the past of the difficulty of the exam in relation to his current skill, but since he is taking the test anyway I will continue to do my best until he expresses different wishes. The duration of the exam was similar to that of the actual test, with the exception of the time taken to explain the topic. The writing was okay for the level Ali and his friend are at, but it is not yet enough for them to pass the exam. I continued to stress the need for diligent study on a regular basis, as the exam is at the end of the month.

Docster TP #11

Last week I met with Hector at CIES. He wanted to improve his speaking skills, so we had a more relaxed tutoring session than usual. We discussed travel mostly, telling each other about places we had been and places we would like to go in the future. We had Hector's tablet at the table so we could look up pictures of the places we were referring to. He showed me many sites from Peru, and places in both his country and the surrounding countries where he would like to visit when he returns. I showed him some places in the United States I had been, as well as pictures of Key West (where I'm going next week) and Torino (where I'm going in the summer). We also discovered that we both enjoy playing chess, so we plan to play at our next session. I am looking forward to it.

Docster CP #5

Last weekend I had Alban over to my house again. We played some video games and chatted a bit about how the break was going, and how Alban felt about the first session. He did very well in productive areas, but not as well in receptive areas. He has made significant progress in the past months. Eventually, we discussed the differences between languages, specifically, French, Spanish, and English. Alban felt that American English was "crazy" compared to these other languages due to what he described as harsh sounds and difficult to understand pronunciations. We had a brief discussion about how languages are not weird or crazy, but just different. I tried to express my empathy at learning a foreign language, especially when it comes to speech and listening.

Catherine_TP_#13

Friday I met with Yunseo. I began by asking her about her day at school, about her snacks and her likes/dislikes. She brought a book about Helen Keller with her, so I asked her a bunch of questions about it and other similar books, like the Thomas Edison one she brought last time. We primarily used this book for her lesson. I asked her to summarize what had happened so far, and I asked a lot of comprehension questions that I had her write the questions to. We then read for a while. She focuses more and actually wants to read a lot more when there is a timer. For example, I'll set it for 5 minutes and tell her she has to read until it is over. She is way less distracted this way, and accomplishes a lot more. Then I'll read for a little, and ask her questions about her part and mine, to make sure she's understanding what she's reading and speaking, as well as when she is listening to me read. She answered everything correctly! Then I did a dictation activity, and after we were done I let her read a few sentences for me to write down as well, because it helped her with her speaking, and she wanted to grade me. I made a lot of mistakes on purpose so she could correct them at the end. She thought it was incredibly funny how bad I did, and gave me a 50%, but after we fixed my mistakes she gave me a higher grade. She is very adorable and I love our tutoring sessions!

Catherine_TP_#12

Thursday I met with Dalal. She was happy to be in a new session, and we talked a lot about how the last session went, her finals, and reassessing where she was and what she wanted to work on. She expressed how she thinks speaking and writing are her worst two subjects. I like talking to her because I don't think she gets a ton of practice speaking English. She told me she doesn't speak English at home with her husband, even though I explained how helpful it would be if they did, even just for an hour each night. She told me she would try but its difficult, especially when talking about something she doesn't know the word for, and then she just switches to Arabic. She told me about how she ended up not being in the speaking class video, even though when I observed the class she had a part and had written a great script for it. I thought it was because she was not confident speaking out loud on camera and was embarrassed, but se explained it also was for religious reasons. I really enjoy my meetings with Dalal and learning about things from her point of view because its something I would not have considered before.

Catherine_CP_#6

I met with Ahmad (Jack) on Saturday. Last time we talked, we both said we liked bowling, so we agreed to go to the bowling alley on campus. When we got there, a bowling tournament was going on, so we weren't able to bowl. We decided to go get milkshakes at chik-fil-a instead. He had never had them before, and ended up getting a lemonade instead. We talked about sports and his workout he had just done at the Leach before we met. We also talked for a while all about his application process for American Universities. He told me all the schools he applied to, his favorite, and the problems he has been coming across with Communications programs vs. Film programs. He explained all his test scores and GPAs, and about how they should all be high enough to get into his top choice. He also said he didn't go to one school because they make all incoming freshman live in a dorm for the first year and we debated for a while the pros and cons of it. He was very set on not wanting to live in a dorm, even though I told him I did and it was a great college experience. We had a good meeting and agreed we'd have to try going bowling again soon!