FSU TEFL 120 summer2, 2025

Date/Time: June 30th, 5:00-6:00pm Location: Online Session Summary:      I started our first tutoring session by introducing myself. I shared about my goals for teaching English and my hobbies outside of school. This was to build rapport and make my tutee feel comfortable sharing about himself with me.     Then, I asked him about his life and he shared about his home country and experience with other languages. Through questions about his personal life, I am able to make more relevant lessons to his goals, experiences, and needs. After, I asked about his experience with learning English, what he feels is helpful and unhelpful, and his long-term goals for learning English.      I shared a Google Doc with him with assessments that I'd prepared. It consisted of highly-controlled grammar practice questions, a small reading passage with comprehension questions, and a free writing activity. After administering these assessments, I concluded his performa...

 June 30, 2025 11:00-11:50am Dr. Felicia Ciappetta Group 3 (High Intermediate) - Reading Dr. Ciappetta started the class by discussing an article the class was given to write a summary about "Healthcare Around the World".  The students have a google doc. that they share with Professor Ciappetta.  The google doc. allows Dr. Ciappetta to monitor and follow the progress of each student summary. The goal is for the students to be able to write good notes and to put the notes in their own words.  The students were given 8 minutes to read the article.  After reading the article the student along with a partner discussed answers to 2 questions they were given. The students had to read the article a second time.  After reading the article a second time the students had to take notes and summarize the main points of the article.   The goal is not for the students to memorize the entire article.  The students had to read the article a third time and th...

Advanced Listening Class Group 4 Observation, Professor Dr. Felicia Ciappetta Date/Time: Thursday, June 26th, 2:00-2:50pm  Topic/Skill: Listening and Summarizing a Lecture on Social Media Addiction Class Summary:      This class session had elements of cumulative listening and writing practice for the students. The class focused  on summarizing a lecture titled “Social Media Addiction.” Students had previously completed pre-listening and listening tasks earlier in the week. This includes building background knowledge on the topic and taking notes while listening to the lecture. During this session, they worked independently on writing a three-paragraph essay summarizing the main points of the lecture using their notes. The professor gave them about 30 minutes to write, with the option to finish at home.  At the end of class, they took a 10-question quiz on Kahoot to check their understanding, including vocabulary and detailed comprehension questions. The cl...

 June 30, 2025 10:00-10:50am Professor Felicia Ciappetta Group 1 (Beginners) Dr. Ciappetta class begin with the students interviewing me as part of the class assignment. The questions that the students ask included: name, age, gender, resident, place of birth, phone #, home & email address. During the interview the students would ask that I pronounce and spell my last name so they could get a better understanding of the pronunciation.   The students then took turns asking questions in reference to my daily activities using pictures from the "Word-by-Word Picture Dictionary".  The Word-by-Word picture dictionary is a vocabulary book with pictures for beginners.  It helps the students understand and remember the meaning of words.  Dr. Ciappetta than ask each student to give an example of sentences using the word every day.  The students were also asked the difference between a person's first and last name.   The last part of the class we pl...

In-Person Session - CIES Classroom June 30 3:00-4:00pm Conversational Vocabulary and Introducing new Vocabulary At the beginning of our session we focused on conversational vocabulary, specifically ordering food at a restaurant. Morel told me that when he goes out to eat, he typically just points to the item that he would like. So, we did multiple role-playing scenarios where I was the server, and he was the customer.  This taught him the many different ways that servers may ask customers what they would like to eat, and he also learned about appetizers and main courses.  While discussing new vocab words that might be used in restaurants, I noticed that Morel had a hard time pronouncing "knife" due to the silent "k". So, I taught him 7 new vocab words that all start with a silent k so that he can practice his pronunciation (knife, knee, know, knock, kneel, knight, knuckle).  After discussing our last word, knuckle, he wanted to learn about the names for the differen...

 June 24, 2025 10:00-10:00am Professor Ryan Fleming Group 3 High Intermediate - Grammar Professor Fleming begin the class by taking attendance and doing a review of week one.  In the first week of class the students discussed verb tense.  During the review Professor Fleming discussed whether or not the students understand verb tenses and their uses.   After Professor Fleming completed the class review the class participated in playing the game "Guess Who".  The students selected partners to play the game.  The first part of the game the students had to make a statement about the "Quess Who" person and put it in a sentence.  An example of a few of the sentences are: 1) He don't have brown hair - He doesn't have brown hair.  2) He have white mustache - He has a white mustache. During the second part of the game the students had to ask a question about the "Quess Who" person and put it in a sentence.  1) Is she wearing a glass? - Is she wea...

June 25th  2:00-2:50 Felicia Ciappetta Group Four Advanced Listening Today's class revolved around an audio lecture regarding social media usage. Dr. Ciappetta first had the students listen to the lecture and take notes, after that they would then discuss with a partner about what they took away from the lecture. After partner discussions, the students would then present to the class what their main takeaways were. Dr. Ciappetta also provided them a note taking guideline. The students then listened to the lecture again in pairs in an attempt to discuss new information found on a second listen. They were also given the opportunity to listen with headphones a third time if they needed extra time to summarize the lecture. The class then turned into an open discussion where Dr. Ciappetta asked them several questions about what they heard in the lecture.

In-Person Session - Strozier Library June 29  12:30-1:30pm Needs Assessment Meeting Today was my first meeting with my tutee, Morel. We spent our hour discussing the needs assessment questions. Morel is from France, and he came to the U.S. earlier this year in March. He is a beginner (A1) when it comes to learning English. He lives with a few roommates, but he rarely speaks to them, so he does not speak English much outside of class. When he is not in class he enjoys playing basketball. So far, he said that he really enjoys Tallahassee, specifically how quiet it is.  The reason he is studying English is because he wants to go to college in America and earn a master's, as well as another bachelor's degree. He enjoys learning English because he is able to enjoy a wider variety of music and TV, and he also likes to be able to communicate with his friends. When it comes to learning English, he said that watching movies and cartoons is helpful. His favorite subjects are listening, ...

 June 26th 2:00-2:50am Professor Olivia James Group 3 High Intermediate- Listening During this class Professor Olivia focused on the modern family in the United States. She was specifically focused on the adoption system and foster care. Majority of class was spent listening to a CIES podcast with Dr. Rios that discussed his journey with adoption. While the students listened to the podcast they would write down notes as well as questions for Dr. Rios. The following class Dr. Rios would come to talk with the class, and the students would ask him any questions they had about adoption that they had written down.  Professor James started this activity by first allowing the class to listen to the short podcast. Then everyone discussed what they had written down and what they had remembered from the podcast. After discussing then Professor James would play/pause the recording while continuing the discussion.  At the end everyone discussed the questions they had and worked toget...

 June 25th 10:00-10:50am Professor Ryan Flemming Group 3 High Intermediate- Grammar During this class Professor Flemmings focus was on past tense, specifically the pronunciation of words in the past tense.  Before the first activity Professor Flemming showed a graphic that describes the differences in -ed endings when they are pronounces (id, t, d). He had the students briefly practice before starting his first activity. The first activity was a game of connect 4. Professor Flemming projected a game board of short phrases written in past tense on the whiteboard. The class was then split into two groups. Each player on the team would pick a square on the board that contained a sentence and try to pronounce it correctly, if they did well that square would be their team's color. To win the game each team would have to get four sentences correct in a row.  This was a very engaging activity for the students. It was also a lot of fun because they could pick sentences that, if t...

 I observed the Listening class with on Friday, June 27th with Ryan Flemming. There were only two students in class that day, each with different levels of proficiency in English. I was impressed with how he was able to teach to both levels. Professor Flemming explained to me that he had prepared two different levels of work and listening samples for each student. He spoke at a slow place (for a native speaker) and started the lesson with tactfully introducing the activity by asking students if they had been to the Leach Center. He used facets of their personal life to connect them to the activity before asking them to listen to a commercial about Leach and answer multiple-choice questions. Then, they went over it in class before moving on to an opinion writing activity to practice what they had learned about health and fitness throughout the week. I enjoyed how he regularly introduced the students to new words and the dictionary definition of them, frequently prompted students to ...

I observed the Intermediate Speaking class on June 24th with Olivia James. Students learned about the "Music of English" and how native speakers intonate their words and sentences. I really enjoyed how Professor James incorporated relevant holidays into the curriculum to educate students about U.S. culture while practicing their speaking skills. At first, I was taken aback with how she would speak with her students. It was very direct and she did not hesitate in correcting her student's pronunciations and speech patterns. However, it became clear that while it initially seemed brash to me, it was helpful to the students and there was still a friendly atmosphere in the classroom. She wanted the students to get it right! Additionally, When Professor James noticed that one student was having trouble concentrating, she made a point to ask a student what their favorite rap song is as part of an activity that contributed to the lesson.  I admired Professor James' quick thin...

High Intermediate Listening Class Group 3 Observation, Professor Olivia James Date/Time: Wednesday, June 25th, 2:00-2:50pm  Topic/Skill: Listening and Discussing Non-Traditional Families Class Summary:      To begin class, the professor displayed the syllabus for the session. They are going to explore a wide variety of topics, such as, modern families, the deaf community, fairytales, the loneliness problem, and the qualities of a great leader.      The professor outlined the necessary assignments and exams the students will complete to advance to the next level or group. She explicitly mentioned the grades the students need to move from level five to six or seven. Group 3's listening goals include comprehending a "TED Talk"-style lecture, analyze information, take notes, summarize, and state main ideas and details.       Then, each student brought out their "Multiple-Listening Lecture" packet, a workbook designed for the topic of "M...

 June 25th  1:00-1:50 Ryan Flemming Group Four Advanced Speaking  The main emphasis of Mr. Flemming's class was to prepare his students for their upcoming in class discussions. Over the next few weeks each of his students will lead a discussion on a selected topic. They will present the pros and cons of their topic and what both sides of the argument believe in the matter. He gave his class ample time to select their topic in class and even begin drafting their introduction. Mr. Ryan provided a sample of his own topic introduction to provide his students an example of what they should be striving for. The class seems to be centered around the students engaging with each other on a variety of topics where they are able to build their communicative, argumentative, research, and listening skills in English. Overall Mr. Ryan's method of allowing the students to research and select their own topics will provide the students with a strong basis when it comes time to have their ...

  Class Observation  #2  June 25, 2025 10-10:50AM  Group 1 (Beginners) - Grammar with Dr. Felicia Ciappetta      To start the class she gives her student, because there was only one, the assignment of interviewing me and another person. He was to ask simple questions like "what is your name?", "where are you from?" and other similar easy personal questions and write down the answers. As he asked the questions she made sure he used correct grammar and corrected him in person as well as on his google doc if he forgot words. After he completed those questions she asked him those same questions about us, ensuring she asked, and he answered in complete sentences. If he did not know the answer she urged him to ask for the answer in correct grammar.  After that we did an alphabet game where we all took turns saying one letter of the alphabet in a circle switching people until completion, we did this until he was able to keep up with no mistakes until the...

June 24th 2:00-2:50pm Professor Ryan Flemming Group 1 Beginner - Listening Today Professor Flemming continued his discussion on health and fitness in the U.S. with his students.  At the start of class Professor Flemming reviewed vocabulary that had been learned the previous day. He would read the vocab word out loud and have his students explain to him what it meant.  The next activity combined reading and listening. The students listened to a video that talked about health and fitness in the U.S. while reading the same information. Afterwards they were presented with true or false questions about the material.  The last activity involved the students using the vocab they had just learned and matching it to its proper definition. Professor Flemming informed me that he adjusted the material for one student to have more complicated words and sentences to match the activity to his learning level. By doing this, all students were learning at their own level, and they were abl...

                       Tuesday, Jun 24, 2025           9-9:50AM            Ryan Flemming          High Intermediate- Composition          Topic/skill: Persuasive essay writing, Thesis statements               To start off the class Mr. Flemming briefly went over what they discussed last class and how it transitions into this one. The topic being persuasive writing, specifically essays. Students were assigned persuasive essays by previous CIES students to read last class as homework and have prepared for today. He then asked the class their opinion on the writing in the essays. He asks them to simply list some of the topics/arguments they read about and wrote them down on the board. He asks them questions like "what was their reasoning?" and "was this persuasive?" ...

June 23rd  1:00-1:50PM Olivia James Group Three High Intermediate - Speaking Ms. James began the class by outlining the main objective for that lesson which was the "music of English." She described the music of English as the certain tone and rhythm that native English speakers instinctively utilize to emphasize certain words over others in a sentence. To gives examples of this concept Ms. James used an AI Voiceover to read aloud a news article, and showcased how even the AI placed more emphasis on certain words over other. She then used an even more humanlike AI voice to read another article and showed how close AI is getting in its mission to emulate the music of English. After a few read throughs of the AI voices Ms. James then had the students mark up the article from the first Voiceover with where they believed the emphasis of the words was. After marking up the text she then head some of the students read their sections aloud so they can practice the music of English c...

Beginner Listening Class Group 1 Observation, Professor Ryan Flemming Date/Time: Monday, June 23rd, 2:00-2:50pm  Topic/Skill: Listening, Transcribing Sentences, Lecture & Listening Activity, and Syllabus Review Class Summary:       The professor, Mr. Ryan, began class by reviewing what prepositions to use when referring to the day. Then, he displayed the modules on Canvas to give a visual about the plan for class and the upcoming week. He used comprehensible input for his students' proficiency level, short, simple sentences with gestures and facial expressions. Mr. Ryan reviewed topics they discussed last week, including Juneteenth, and repeated essential sentences.      Following the overview of the class plan, the professor instructed students to get a pen and paper. He explained the transcription activity using simple directions and by typing them on the screen. He said each sentence three times, they were all related to the course material...

 June 23rd 10:00-10:50am  Dr. Felicia Ciappetta Group 1 Beginners - Grammar The focus of today's lesson was on the basics of grammar and sentence structure.  The first half of the class the students spent time practicing what they were learning on their laptops. Each student had a google doc. that was shared with Dr. Ciappetta. This allowed her to shadow them and see the different ways that they tried to fill out the different prompts that she had provided them. It also allowed her to provide them with feedback or remind them to revisit their notes. After they were done practicing writing with proper grammar, she then had them practice saying their sentences out loud without looking at their google doc. The main thing they were focusing on was how to write and say general information about themselves that might be needed to fill out a form. This included first name, last name, birthdate, gender, where they were from, home address, telephone number, and email.  After ...

 June 23rd 9:00-9:50am  Professor Olivia James Group 4 Advanced - Composition The topic discussed in Ms. James class today was how to write good emails. It was specifically geared towards writing emails to professors as a student.  Some students learned about writing emails last week with Dr. Kennel, so at the beginning of class Ms. James instructed the students who learned from him to try to explain to their classmates what they had learned.  The rest of the class time was spent on writing a succinct but informative subject line. Ms. James showed a PowerPoint with simple rules to follow while also providing a handout to her student to use and take home. However, majority of her teaching included asking questions to the students and getting them to respond and engage with the material. She provided very detailed explanations to her student's questions, and we even got into a discussion about Americans overuse of explanation marks in emails. She provided time for stud...