FSU TEFL 120 summer2, 2025

 On Sunday, July 26th, I tutored Ye-won with reading. I tried to lower her affective filter by asking her about what she thought about reading, things she liked to read, and her interests outside of school. She mentioned that she did not really enjoy reading but she liked Frozen and Sonic. I knew a bit about Sonic-lore so I tried to connect with her through that. We had some extra time outside of my lesson plan, so I found a Sonic-themed reading with a worksheet. I took this session to evaluate where she was at. We did a lot of main idea and support detail work. She was great at finding the main idea, but struggled to explain why she chose certain supporting details. We will work more on making sure she can understand the purpose of supporting details in future sessions. 

         McKenzie Heeter     Tutoring session #6     Group 4 (advanced)     July 31, 2025     12pm-1pm     Today we reviewed the differences in British and American English. I thought this was really interesting in class and thought it could be fun to do a mini lesson on. I quickly reviewed some of the main differences between them, before we watched a good YouTube video explaining it more in depth. Afterwards we talked about the different styles and I asked her, her opinion on which she favors.      Next we did an online activity where she was given a short schedule and had to fill the verbs according to the schedule. This one we spent more time on because there was many answers/tenses. After that we played hangman all having to do with American culture. This was really fun because she learned new words and if they weren't new I had her explain the definition to me. Like the word kettle.  Thi...

 Tutoring Session #12 Date/Time: Thursday, July 24th, 7:00-8:00pm Location: Online Session Summary:     We began this session by describing our weekend plans. We also shared the best and worst parts of our week.      I introduced some fun activities to do in Tallahassee, Mission San Luis and Maclay Gardens State Park. We explored the websites, and he asked questions about these sites.      Then, for our lesson, I introduced the concept of an "art heist" and tried to activate Rider's background knowledge.      After, Rider read a passage about the 1964 New York Natural History Museum gem heist. He identified unfamiliar words or phrases, and  we worked together to define them.      To end the lesson, I asked a variety of comprehension questions about the passage. I referenced the passage to help improve accuracy. Lessons learned about teaching:      When teaching reading, I want to let students ...

 Tutoring Session #11 Date/Time: Wednesday, July 23rd, 5:30-6:30 Location: Online Session Summary:      We started this online session by talking about our week so far. We shared the activities we'd been up to.     Then, for our pre-listening activity, I had Rider define some vocabulary words from the video clip.      For the listening portion of the lesson, we watched the clip from "Mind Your Language". After we watched it through with subtitles once, I paused frequently to check comprehension. I had Rider summarize each scene.      After, I assessed comprehension by asking the intended meanings of the same words from the beginning of the lesson.  Lessons learned about teaching:      It is important to teach English language learners pragmatics so they can understand the true meaning of statements in conversations. 

 Tutoring Session #10 Date/Time: Monday, July 21st, 5:30-6:30 Location: Student Union Session Summary:      We started our lesson by sharing about our weekends. I also had Rider describe how he felt over the weekend.      Then, we did a pre-reading activity. I introduced new vocabulary for our lesson about Apalachicola Bay: estuary, oil drilling, and bay. I used images to provide linguistic support and to activate his background knowledge. After, we watched a two-minute news clip about the oil drilling plan in Apalachicola Bay.     For the reading activity, I summarized main points in a reading passage from the "Kill the Drill Florida" website.   Rider read the passage silently. I asked a variety of comprehension questions after he read the passage.      To end the lesson, we looked at the "Kill the Drill" website and saw that the bill was passed to protect a radius around national estuarine research reserves.  L...

Tutoring Je-ah - Session 4 Date/Time: July 25, 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM EST (9:00 PM - 10:00 PM KST) Location: Google Meet Topic/Skill: Expressing Opinions/Writing Mini lesson: prepositions Today, I met with Je-ah for our 4th session. I asked her about how she’s doing and her busy week. Then, we got started talking about opinions. I reminded her that I asked her about things she likes when we started our tutoring lessons. Then, I introduced opinion paragraphs. I broke it down by sentence with a model paragraph and transition words/phrases. Then, I gave her a template with transition phrases and topics to choose from.  I initially told her she had 10 minutes to write 6 sentences, but she spent a larger portion of the session writing her sentences. She was stuck on a grammar question. I tried to ask questions to help her clarify some parts of a sentence, but she had a complex idea. I gave her a mini lesson about prepositions because she was trying to write a lengthy sentence but didn’t h...

      McKenzie Heeter      Tutoring session #5     July 24, 2025       Group 4 (Advanced)     11:50am-12:50pm     This is my 5th session with tutee Mariana, we will be working on speaking activities, since that is one of the main topics she mentioned wanting to learn.     To start we did an activity where I gave her a fun prompt, ex: "Why pineapple belongs on pizza", and she was to give me reasons for that position. We did about 5 different prompts and she gave me multiple reasons for each prompt. As she spoke I corrected her pronunciation and introduced some new vocab and easier way to say things.      Next we did an activity on culture, for this I asked her lots of questions, ranging from dating practices, to family traditions. We discussed differences and similarities and I made sure to keep correcting her.      Then, I pulled up stock photos of different people and...

Online Session - Zoom July 23 5:00-5:50pm Today we continued our discussion on prepositions, focusing specifically on adjective complements. I started by explaining to Morel that when prepositions appear after adjectives to complete or elaborate on the ideas or emotions the adjective describes, they are called adjective complements. Then we discussed the use of adjective complements with synonymous adjectives and antonymous adjectives through a variety of examples. After teaching Morel this information, I checked his comprehension by doing fill in the blank sentences, where he had to pick the proper adjective complement. This was a great way to guide is learning. Then I had him create a few sentences of his own using the specific preposition "of" because that is the preposition he struggles with the most.

       Tutoring Session #4 July 22, 2025 12pm-1pm Advanced student (Group 4)     We have not met for longer than usual, so to start this session we will be practicing a lot of conversational English. This will get her used to speaking about situations in the past tense in English and lower her affective filter. I asked her lots of questions about how she's been, how classes are, her job, anything I could think of to get her comfortable with me and talking in English.         After this I gave her the topic: "Why you should solo travel at least once." her task was to write me three full sentences using reasons based on her own experience. I provided her a few sentence starters to help her out. After she did this we went over each one and corrected her mistakes.       Then, I had her do a few online grammar activities where she filled in the blanks using a word bank. The first one she got completely correct, the second ...

 On July 21st, I met with Julio again. We talked about his family and family tree, and I helped him identify and pronounce the terms "niece" and "nephew." He was curious about what I studied in school. When I said psychology, he got very interested and we started talking about different modalities of therapy and pop-psychology concepts. While Julio seems to enjoy our sessions where we converse, I will prepare a listening and speaking exercise with something related to psychology for our next session to make it more structured. I am glad that I have more insight into something that may grab his interest and motivate him! 

In-Person Session - CIES Classroom July 21 3:00-4:00pm Today we focused on sentence structure, specifically prepositions of place and direction and where they go in a sentence. I started the lesson by placing a pencil on the desk and asking Morel to tell me where it was. Once he responded with "It is on the table" I began to write the sentence on the board and underline the preposition. Then I wrote a list of prepositions on the white board and we went over what each one meant. This was done by using objects in the classroom as an example. I also showed Morel a graphic that had different pictures using a variety of prepositions. After that I wrote a sentence on the board and had Morel tell me where the subject, verb, preposition, and object were. Then I wrote a few example sentences on the board. Next, I did a guided practice activity. I provided Morel with a word bank for subjects, verbs, prepositions, and objects. Using these words he wrote 5 sentences. After he was done, I...

For our session, Julio started off by talking about the assignments that he did in class on Wednesday. They were working on interviewing people on discussion topics. I asked why he chose the questions that he did, and he was able to explain it to me. He is getting better at identifying when he makes a mistake and correcting himself. He will also ask for me to help him at times when he is unsure about a tense or word. At first, I would just tell him the answer, but I have gotten better at prompting him to come to the conclusion on his own.  Somehow, we started talking about the weather. He expressed his distaste for the way the air turns into a sauna after it rains. I asked him what the weather is like back in Mexico, and he explained that it is not quite as humid, especially close to the U.S. border. I asked him more questions about his home country. Instead of simple answers, he worked to tell me anecdotes to go along with the question. It was very cool to learn about what life is...

Tutoring Je-ah -  Session 3 Date/Time : July 19, 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM EST (8:00 AM - 9:00 AM KST) Location : Google Meet  Topic : Simple Tenses and Present Continuous (review)/Minimal Pairs (<S> and <F>, <O> and <U>) Skill : Accuracy in grammar and pronunciation Today, I had planned to go over her homework if she had completed it. She told me she did but she lost it, so we planned to go over it next session. Then, I reviewed simple tenses and the present continuous tense with Je-ah. I had her describe some picture boards in each tense. Then, she wrote a short story progressing from past tense to future tense. She had only a few errors, and she understood and fixed her mistakes. If I had to review grammar again with her, I would do a different exercise. It gave me a better idea of her familiarity with these tenses and gave her some writing practice, but it was not very interactive or fun. As she read her answers aloud, I noted a few letters that she wa...

Tutoring Je-won - Session 2 Date/Time : July 19, 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM EST (9:00 PM-10:00 PM KST) Location : Google Meet  Topic : How to ask for help in understanding English/Summer Vacation Today, we talked about how to ask me for help in understanding English. I told him that I wanted us to focus on what we are talking about more than how we are talking. Then, I provided questions for him to ask me and example scenarios on a slideshow. We reviewed them after, and then he immediately practiced a phrase when I said something too complex.  Afterwards, we talked about summer vacation with some short warm-up questions like, "What do you like to do on vacation?" and how vacations make him feel. Then, we had a reading passage, “My Vacation,” which was a short description of a favorite vacation. I read first, and then I had him read aloud. I want to work on reading fluency with him too. I asked him if there were any unfamiliar words, and he told me no. Then, he answered comprehension q...

 Tutoring Session #9 Date/Time: Thursday, July 17th, 6:45-7:45 Location: Student Union Session Summary:      First, I started the session about asking my tutee to share something he was proud of from the week and what he was looking forward to for the weekend.      Then, we revisited the Full House video clip from our previous session. We watched it a final time without subtitles at .75 speed. We did a short writing activity with linguistic support about the video clip.     After, I explained some common idioms and Rider used each in an example sentence.  Lessons Learned about teaching:      I learned that I can use one material to have students practice a variety of skills. For example, with this video clip, he practiced listening, speaking, and writing about the same topic. 

 Tutoring Session #8 Date/Time: Wednesday, July 16th, 5:30-6:30 Location: Student Union Session Summary:      First, I started the session by checking in about how Rider, my tutee, and I were feeling about the week. We also discussed the weather and its impact on our day.      Then, for a pre-listening activity, I asked what Rider thinks about traditional and non-traditional families and where they are more common.      For the listening clip, we watched a four-minute scene from Full House, a popular American sitcom. I put on subtitles, paused frequently, and asked comprehension questions about the scene.      After, I asked discussion questions like, "Can families be chosen?" and " Do you have more biological related family or chosen family?".  Lessons Learned about Teaching:      I learned that even if I have many activities planned for the session, it is more important to ensure comprehension and spe...

 Tutoring Session #7 Date/Time: Monday, July 14th, 5:30-6:30 Session Summary:      First, I started the session by asking my tutee, Rider, about his weekend. We discussed weekend activities and taking time to rest.     Then, for a some listening practice, I gave a short lecture about The Philippines. My tutee was interested in learning about my heritage. I encourage him to ask questions.     He took notes about content and linguistic features during the lecture.      After, I asked him to summarize the lecture in his own words.  Lessons Learned about Teaching:      I learned that even if my tutee doesn't understand every word, they are still able to derive meaning with the proper linguistic support. Then, they can infer and use their productive skills to comprehend the message.

Online Session - Zoom July 19 10:00-11:00am During this session we finished this weeks lesson of practicing listening in speaking. I started the session by going over 8 new vocabulary words and providing example sentences. I had Morel repeat the word after me and then he would read the sentence aloud. If he had any questions about the word, we would discuss it further and I would provide the definition or more examples. Then we watched another video, and Morel would repeat each sentence that was said. By repeating it he was able to practice his pronunciation. After watching the video and further understanding the context of his vocabulary words, I had Morel create 5 sentences using his vocab words.  His writing is getting better but he still has a few issues with his sentence structure so that is what we will be working on next.

Tutoring Je-ah -  Session 2  Date/Time : July 18, 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM EST (9:00 PM-10:00 PM KST) Location : Google Meet  Topic : Summer Vacation/How to ask for help in understanding English Skill : Fluency in speaking/reading Today, Je-ah and I met and discussed her week and summer vacation. We chatted about her plans. I had her prepare written answers to some questions about vacation and read them aloud to me. I responded to her answers and told her mine. Then, I had her read a passage aloud about a "favorite vacation." Her phrasing and smoothness weren't perfect, but she didn't struggle with reading the words in the passage. S he also answered comprehension questions after. We reviewed the answers and the main idea of the passage, and we had a short discussion after about her favorite kind of vacation. I figured out that the passage was too easy for challenging her vocabulary because she told me she understood 100% of the words in the passage. However, it helped me g...

In-Person Session - CIES Classroom July 16 3:00-4:00pm Today we continued working on Morel's listening skills as well as broadening his conversational vocabulary. We started the lesson by going over the voiced and voiceless "th" sound since that is something that Morel struggles with. I had him put his hand on his neck to feel the difference in vibration when saying different words. This seemed to help his pronunciation. Then we went over a new list of vocabulary words before watching a video clip of a women ordering coffee to go. While watching the video Morel would repeat the sentences that he heard to practice his pronunciation. I would also clarify any confusion he had about what was happening. At the end of the video, I had Morel create 2 sentences using the new words he had learned, and I helped him fix his sentence structure.

I really enjoyed this session with Julio. We started by talking about his weekend, which morphed into him explaining a speaking exercise that he learned while living in Italy. It involved placing a pencil horizontally along his mouth to correct pronunciation. He noted that it was very helpful for him, and he is utilizing it for English as well. While I came into the session planning to continue reading the passages, we ended up just talking the whole time. I helped him when he was unsure about a word or a verb tense. He is very good at picking up and correcting mistakes. There were a few times when I did not understand what he was saying, but we worked together through context and translation to clarify things. Julio said that it was the longest he had spoken in English! He explained to me that he used to feel a lot of shame, but the teachers at CIES have helped him realize that making mistakes is part of the process. It made me very happy to hear! Next session, we will continue to hav...

In-Person Session - CIES Classroom July 14 3:00-4:00pm Today we continued working on Morel's listening skills as well as broadening his conversational vocabulary. We started the session by going over 10 new vocabulary words that would be introduced in a video we were going to watch. I spent some time clarifying what the words meant by providing him example sentences. Then we watched a video clip of a couple ordering tickets at a movie theatre. After each person spoke, I would pause the video and Morel would repeat what was said. By repeating the sentences out loud he was creating a connection to what he had just listened to. Finally, I had Morel create five sentences using five different vocabulary words that we had discussed at the start of the session. Then he read the sentences out to me (which I typed out) and together we corrected the mistakes he had made.

 I met with Julio on July 9th. We continued practicing the Catholic passages that he often recites during Mass. We started keeping a list of his commonly mispronounced words and broke each word down. He still struggles with an "ed" sound. Interestingly, he pronounces some words very well but struggles even if the words are similar. It made me reflect on how it seems easy as a native speaker, but I have a similar issue when learning Japanese. Certain sounds are difficult to enunciate when followed by a particular sound, but not others. We practiced breaking down the sounds and putting them together. I did some research after our session and learned that certain sound combinations are difficult for Spanish speakers. I am proud of Julio's commitment to practice and positive attitude!

Tutoring Je-won - Session 1 Date/Time: July 12, 8:00 AM-9:00 AM EST (9:00 PM - 10:00 PM KST) Location : Virtual (Google Meet) Today, I had my first tutoring session with Je-won. We met over Google Meet, and introduced ourselves.  Right off the bat, I had to simplify my English. I had expected a higher level of English from Je-won because his younger sister, Je-ah, was a high beginner, and he is 2 years older.  Je-won is a 17-year-old Korean student in his first year of high school. He considers his English skills to be at a very low level. His English classes have a lot of reading.  As I asked him about learning English and his thoughts, experiences, and motivators, I could infer that his receptive vocabulary was around a mid-elementary level. I asked him how he wanted me to help him learn English, and he mentioned reading.  I tried to have him take a short diagnostic quiz, but he has technical difficulties with the sound, so we postponed that. We spent the rest of t...

 Tutoring Session #6 Date/Time: Thursday, July 10th, 6:45-7:45pm Location: Student Union Session Summary:     I started the lesson by asking what my tutee, Rider, is looking forward to during the weekend. This helped spark conversation about common phrases that Americans use.    After, I shared a fun activity to do in Tallahassee, the Tallahassee Farmer's Market.    For pronunciation practice, I wrote a short passage using minimal pair words that have the sounds: /ch/ vs. /sh/ and /th/. He read the passage aloud slowly.      Lastly, we explored both Spanish and English idioms. We compared similar idioms between Spanish and English, and I explained some common idioms in English.  Lessons learned about teaching:      When teaching pronunciation, minimal pair practice is helpful for English learners to try and distinguish between sounds their home language may not differentiate. 

 Tutoring Session #5 Date/Time: Wednesday, July 9th, 5:30-6:30 Location: Student Union Session Summary:     We started this session by sharing our favorite and least favorite parts of our days for warm-up conversation practice.      Then, I shared about the FSU Lakefront Park, or the Rez. I recommended kayaking, rock climbing, and swimming in Lake Bradford.      For the pre-reading activity, I asked about my tutee, Rider, about his experience with driving and using cars in other countries versus the United States, and why cars are so necessary in America. We discussed cultural and geographical difference between the U.S. and other countries. I reviewed key vocabulary words before he read the passage.     I asked Rider to silently read the passage and then summarize it in his own words orally. Then, I administered a comprehension quiz. Lessons learned about teaching:      Building schema helps students be more invested...

First Tutoring Session with Je-ah L. Date/Time: July 11, 8:00 AM-9:00AM EST (9:00 PM-10:00 PM KST) Location: Virtual (Google Meet) Today I had my first tutoring session with Je-ah.  We initially had some technical difficulties with her computer's microphone, so I suggested she used her phone, and that worked. Then, we got to our introductions.  Je-ah is a 15-year-old Korean student in her second year of middle school. She considers herself a low-level English speaker. We talked about why she is learning English- it is a school requirement- and how she feels about learning English. Her classes are mainly focused on grammar, so it is hard. She wants to improve her speaking skills.  We spent the rest of our session talking. I asked her about her interests, such as sports, school subjects, reading, and music, and about her hometown, Daegu. We also talked about magic, ghosts, and video games.  She was very receptive and answered my questions well. I offered some light err...

  Listening - Group 1 (Beginning) - Prof. Ryan Flemming  Date/Time: Thursday, July 10, 2:00 PM - 2:50 PM Topic/Skill: Live Music/Opinion Writing, Listening comprehension Prof. Flemming began class as part of an ongoing discussion about music. He used slow, clear speech and read today’s writing prompt aloud while displaying it on the screen. He asked them 6 opinion questions and told student they had 10 minutes to write 60 or more words in response. He wrote his answer to the prompt with them. After everyone was finished writing, Prof. Flemming read his answer aloud while showing it on the screen. Then, he asked if the students agreed with his answer or if they had any questions about the vocabulary words he used.  Next, he asked them about their opinions and personal experiences regarding loud music, noises, or neighbors. Everyone had a story to share, from Tallahassee and from their home countries. They also discussed their feelings about loud neighbors and confronting t...

 McKenzie Heeter Tutoring Session #3 Advanced student-in person June 10,2025 - 12pm-1        This is the third meeting with my tutee Mariana, for this session I printed out a worksheet with fill in the blank questions regarding verb tenses. It touches on simple past, simple present, and will-future tenses, which are some she has struggles with prior. I let her complete it by herself, urging her to ask questions if she needs help, then after she reads each sentence to me and we discuss if it's right or not. If it happens to be wrong I go into a brief explanation and try to guide her to the right answer.       Next I had her do an online, multiple choice activity with grammar. She would answer each question by herself but I'd guide her if they were wrong. Lastly, we did a fill in the blank with past perfect continuous, past perfect simple, and past perfect verb tenses. This one was the most challenging because the program wanted the sentences ...

  Listening - Group 3 (High Intermediate) - Dr. Olivia James Date/Time: July 3, 2:00 PM-2:30 PM Topic/Skill: Adopting and Fostering Children/Listening comprehension, writing, speaking Pre-listening  Class started with Dr. James handing out a blank Venn diagram for fostering vs. adoption processes. She asked verbal questions to prompt students for ideas for comparisons. She led a discussion explaining the processes, needs, and complications of each. The questions on the worksheet were about the students’ personal thoughts about adoption, foster care, and their personal experiences or those of someone they know. Dr. James shared her personal experience having a biological sister and an adopted brother and how her brother had different life experiences. She also discussed her adopted brother meeting his biological brother.  The essay the class listened to in class, “What is a mother?” was part of the handout. Dr. James read this aloud while students followed along by reading...

 Tutoring Session #4 Date/Time: Monday, July 7th, 5:30-6:30 Location: Student Union Session Summary:      We started our session by discussing our weekends. We shared different events from our weekends and what we did on the Fourth of July.      Then, we did a pre-listening activity before listening to a clip from “Friends”, the sitcom series. After, we listened to the 5-minute clip with subtitles, and my tutee, Rider, mentioned unfamiliar words to me while we watched. I explained the context of these new vocabulary words, including the phrase “You're rushing me”.      To close, I had my tutee practice writing. He answered questions about what he would do in the situation of the clip.  Lessons I Learned:      Many idioms, like “to rush” are used frequently in colloquial English. Even phrases like “rush hour” or “rush hour traffic” can be confusing to English language learners if not explicitly taught. 

 McKenzie Heeter Tutoring Session #2 July 8, 2025- 12-1pm Advanced student Grammar/Speaking focused session      Today was my second session with my tutee Mariana. Last meeting I did a needs assessment and got to know her, and her goals for speaking English. She is an advanced student and wants to use English for scholarly, professional, and casual purposes. She expressed interest in wanting to work more on grammar and speaking the most.       To start the session we talked about our weekends and practiced some conversational English that will be super common to encounter. For the first activity I asked her to think of someone, anyone, she would like to interview. I then gave her a list of words: Decide, Hate, Love, Offer, Prefer, Move, Win, Continue, Buy, Wait, Consider, Change. I checked with her to make sure she knew and understood every word before continuing the exercise. Then I asked her to pick 5 of the verbs and write down 5 full sentences...

 I had my first session with Julio on 7/7/25. We met in the FSU student union. I started by asking him how his day was before explaining my goals for our first session. I asked him some questions about his relationship to English outside of school, what his goals were (both academic and non-academic), how he learns best, and what he wanted to get out of our sessions. Julio wants to practice speaking and pronunciation. He learns best through listening and repetition. He introduced me to a list of psalms and sayings he uses daily in Mass, and we ran through two sections. I had him first read chunks of the passage out loud, and we identified some sticking points. I learned that breaking the words into parts for him was very helpful. He struggles a lot with "th" sounds and "ed" or "d" sounds as well as connecting other parts of the word to those sounds. With isolation practice, he became a lot more confident with words such as "through," "though...

 July 2nd  In person session  Student Union 3:00-4:00PM For my first TS I met with Miguel, a student at CIES from Cuba who has been studying English since April of 2024. Most of our meeting consisted of the needs assessment where I spoke at length with Miguel about where he wants to improve most. Miguel is an advanced student in reading, writing, and listening, but considers himself closer to high intermediate in grammar and speaking. Naturally, that meant Miguel wanted to most help with improving his speaking and grammar in use. Specifically he identified gerunds and infinitives as a major place of confusion for him and requested more help with those grammar points.  From our conversations I noticed Miguel was a very good "content speaker" as he knew a lot of vocab and ways to convey personal ideas and feelings incredibly well. However, I did find that he does need some more work on his technical ability as he would semi frequently misuse articles and verb tenses. M...

In-Person Session - CIES Classroom July 7  3:00-4:00pm Today we focused on listening skills pertaining to ordering at a restaurant. At our last session Morel said that he wanted to practice his listening skills using his new vocabulary, so that is what we did.  I found a video on YouTube of a family ordering at a restaurant. I played the video and stopped after each sentence. Then I had Morel repeat what he heard and answer any questions he had about the vocabulary in the sentence. We did this for the entire video and the session. This was a great listening activity because we spent last week talking about the many different ways to order food at restaurants. So, as the video played, I would ask him what was going on and what part of the meal the customers were ordering. This way I could check his knowledge and see how much he had remembered. I noticed that he still has to spend a lot of time thinking about what people say after they have said it to try and decode what it mean...

July 6th Dr. Angel Rios Speaking Class Group 1/2 beginner and low intermediate listening  1:00-1:50 The main lesson of Dr. Rios's class was the teaching of phonics. Mainly, he focused in on the soft and hard pronunciations of a few letters and how they pair with vowels. Dr. Rios used several visual aids like writing out large charts on the board allowing his students to follow much letter and pronunciation he was covering.  Dr. Rios also did a great job of involving the students with the lesson as he was constantly turning to them for answers to his questions in order to advance the lesson. He then turned the lesson towards the projector where he gave the students a word bank and then asked them to place the words into the hard or soft pronunciation category. An excellent activity as it provides linguistic support for students yet still enables them to grasp the overall concept. Dr. Rios then moved the lesson to a reading activity where students would take turns reading aloud ...

June 30th  Ryan Flemming Speaking Class Group 1/2 beginner and low intermediate listening  2:00-2:50 Mr. Ryan's lesson for the day centered mostly around a conversation between two people discussing ways to eat and live healthier. Mr. Ryan opened his lesson by having the students listen and watch a recorded conversation between two people, which was about four minutes in length, and students then turned to the students asking them some questions regarding the video.  At first Mr. Ryan was asking some more free form questions regarding the video but noticing that the students were having some trouble following he then began using true or false questions. This change to using true or false questions worked well in allowing the students to better comprehend the question and take part in the activity. Mr. Ryan then gave the students a fill in the blank sheet following the dialogue of the video where the students were able to practice their listening compression by filling in ...

 Tutoring Session #3 Date/Time: Thursday, July 3rd, 6:45-7:45 Location: Student Union Session Summary:     My warm-up activity for our session was sharing the "highlight" of our day. We discussed the meaning of "highlight" being a colloquial word for "a good part" of an event or time. My tutee, Rider, shared a funny moment from lunchtime.     Since Rider has been curious about fun activities to do in Tallahassee, we explored the features of the Tallahassee Museum. I activated background knowledge, ask him to predict and infer, and I gave a short lecture about the museum.     Then, he read two short passages about the museum, focusing on his pronunciation. We discussed each paragraph for comprehension.      To close the lesson, we did a short writing activity about life in the 1880s on a farm.  Lessons Learned:      When asking students to read, the level of the passage needs to be at their instructional level. If not,...

 I observed Dr. Felicia Ciapetta's intermediate reading class. Students had been assigned a reading on disparities in U.S. healthcare compared to other countries. I liked that she allowed students to pick the topic that they were reading. For the first half of the class, students answered long-answer questions about the reading. Dr. Ciapetta explained to me what she was looking for when grading their answers. Besides grammar, she wants to ensure that they answer ALL of the questions asked. There was a bit of a segway while students were working on their assignments. Dr. Ciapetta took the time to explain the difference between "taxes" and "Texas." Very similar pronunciation, very different meanings. As an example, she explained the difference between "raise" and "race." "Raise" has a vibration to the pronunciation, while "race" is smoother. This was a very interesting distinction and got me thinking about how I produce soun...

I observed a beginner-level grammar class with Dr. Felicia Ciappetta. At first, we only had one student, but another joined us halfway through. Their focus for the day was on formulating simple sentences and practicing fundamental grammar rules through collecting personal information. Julio interviewed me using a guided script. It seemed that most of his difficulties arose in the speed of listening comprehension and word pronunciation. Dr. Ciapetta made a point to correct almost every error he made. With some pronunciation errors, she would demonstrate the correct pronunciation with her mouth. She would also compare the sound of the word to another, similar word. She made Julio repeat the word multiple times until he got it correct. I am proud of him for sticking with it and not getting frustrated. To end class on a fun note, Dr. Ciapetta had the students play an alphabet recall game. It took us many tries as a group to get through the game. Initially, I was a bit surprised that Julio ...

In-Person Session - CIES Classroom July 2 3:00-4:00pm Continuation of Vocabulary (specifically describing body parts) and Review of Conversation Vocab. When I last met Morel, he said that he wanted to broaden his vocabulary to describe body parts, so that is what we worked on. I started by showing a photo of the human body and had him identify as many parts as he could in English. This helped me to understand what he already knew vs what he needed to know. After that I started at the top of the body and taught him descriptive words for the body parts. I would provide him example sentences and have him point to his own body to make the learning interactive. I also had a graphic on my laptop that visually showed where each part was. Then I moved to the middle of the body doing the same thing, before moving to the bottom half.  After this process I went back to the blank graphic and had him describe as many body parts as possible.  The last thing we did during our session was pra...

 Tutoring Session #2 Date/Time: July 2nd, 5:30-6:30 Location: Student Union Session Summary:      I started the session by asking about my tutee's day and how he was feeling. I provided linguistic support to talk about the day's events.      Then, we read some passages with common minimal pairs that are difficult to pronounce for Spanish speakers. If there were pronunciation errors, he repeated the words, emphasizing the difference between the minimal pairs.      After, I listened to a sample of his speech and gave feedback on specific errors. He brought out his script for mass, and he practiced preaching with proper pronunciation. I repeated the words he had errors with, and he repeated the phrases, correcting his mistakes.  Lessons I've Learned:      During this session, I learned that pronunciation is specialized to each person, and it is a personal practice to better one's pronunciation. It can sometimes feel rude...

  Date/Time: 7/2/25 Topic/Skill: Grammar (High Intermediate) Dr. Flemming was teaching students about the simple future tense. First, however, he started the class by reminding students about their verb tense quiz that would be the next day. Students looked at the types of sentences they’d be tested on and were informed on the exact quiz layout, minus the exact questions they’d be asked. Dr. Flemming did not give out corrections to the sentences in order to motivate class attendance (so students could see the corrections for themselves in class time). Then, Dr. Flemming reviewed an activity from the class before called “paper telephone”. Students passed around papers to write a story together by adding on sentences through a rotation. The instructor guided them to correct some verb tense issues in their stories as more practice for their quiz. Moving on, Dr. Flemming began a review of the simple future. They briefly went over common forms of simple future and answered any lingering...

  Date/Time: 6/27/25 Topic/Skill: Speaking (Beginner Level) Dr. Rios was teaching students how to outline their speaking for a 45-second presentation. The justification he used is that often, they will be asked their opinion on a topic and will need to give a concise, direct answer. On the board, he wrote a brief outline they could use as an example for their own outlines. Then, he would give the students a question about their opinions, such as “Do you believe in ghosts?” Students would have about 10 minutes to write a quick outline. When everyone finished their outlines, Dr. Rios went one by one, asking them to answer the question in a spoken form using the outline as a guide. He did this about 4-5 times so the students would feel comfortable speaking and using outlines. Each time, you could tell the students got more invested and showed vast improvement between practices. Towards the end, Dr. Rios gave a quiz where students had 45 seconds to record themselves on their phones ans...

  Date/Time: 6/25/25 Topic/Skill: Grammar (Advanced) Dr. Rios was doing a review of simple present, present continuous, and indefinite articles. To start the class off, Dr. Rios wrote a chart on the board with each of the grammar topics. He then asked the class to volunteer information about any of the grammar topics and wrote a quick review outline based on the information they gave him. For each topic, he also had students give him some example sentences so they could demonstrate their understanding of grammar-in-use. To evaluate their understanding, Dr. Rios did a Kahoot! on the topics. Students had to fill in the blanks to the sentences within a timely manner to receive points in the game. When a majority of students seemed to not understand a question, Dr. Rios would pause the game and explain each answer as a method of feedback. Rather than getting a question wrong and moving on, Dr. Rios made sure students completely understood the reasoning behind the questions. If students...

  Date/Time: 6/24/25 Topic/Skill: Listening (High Intermediate) Ms. Olivia was teaching students how to indicate to someone that they don’t understand what is being said in a conversation. She explained two common ways: giving “the look” of confusion, or simply questioning what is being said by pulling one word out of the conversation and questioning it. To demonstrate, she had me roleplay a conversation with her where she pretended not to understand me, and then used the indications she taught the students. She then went to each student and had them practice “the look” for her. After, she split the class in half (3 and 3) and had them practice conversations where they were confused and had to show each other they didn’t understand. Every student took turns with one another, which ensured every student participated. The instructor had me help one group while she helped the other in order to give adequate feedback. The feedback centered around students being able to indicate confusi...

 McKenzie Heeter Class Observation #5 Grammar- Ryan Flemming Group 3 (high intermediate) 10-10:50am     This class the students are taking a grammar quiz, before starting Mr.Flemming asks the class if there is anything they need to review or have questions on. No one had questions on the topics which were changing sentences with unclear grammar, telling a story in simple past, describing and asking questions regarding simple characteristics, and some stuff on present and past continuous tenses. Next he does an overview of the quiz explaining the types of questions asked and what is expected of them.       There is technically two quizzes, a writing and a speaking. In the writing some questions they correct grammar errors, fill in the blanks, some they write short paragraphs using certain tenses, and some they have to listen to a video and write a few things about it. The speaking quiz has questions that require them to come up with their own questions ...

Reading - Group 3 (High intermediate) - Dr. Felicia Ciappetta  Date/Time : July 2nd, 11:00 AM - 11:50 AM Topic/Skill : RMS Titanic/Reading comprehension Class started with a pre-reading discussion about the RMS Titanic and its significance. Students were then given 10-minutes to read a short article about the Titanic. After, they had 5 minutes to verbally summarize the text with a partner. Then, they had a class discussion about the Titanic’s voyage, what they learned, what they were curious about, and how they felt about the reading. Dr. Ciappetta called on different students if no one volunteered to speak immediately. Dr. Ciappetta had them take notes during their second read though the article. An optional note-taking template was provided, and it was structured similarly to an outline to aid in the flow of their notes. Class ended as they finished their second reading, and it would be followed up in the next class by comprehension questions and a summary of the reading. There w...

  Grammar - Group 1 (Beginner) - Dr. Felicia Ciappetta Date/Time: July 2nd, 10:00 AM - 10:50 AM Topic/Skill: Simple sentence structure/Grammar, listening, and writing Summary : Class started with the teacher prompting students to exchange introductions with the class observers. The task for this class was to interview different people, including the class observers, using a template. The students asked us simple questions about ourselves and our daily routines, such as, "What is your name? What are 5 things you do every day?" They wrote down our responses in a Google Doc and constructed sentences based on our answers. The Google Doc was shared with the professor and acted as a method for providing immediate feedback and evaluation of their writing. Once the interviews were over, the teacher asked the interview questions again for the students to answer and confirm. There were some written answers that were incorrect due to spelling errors (after asking us how to spell our res...

  Listening - Group 4 (Advanced) -  Dr. Felicia Ciappetta Date/Time: Tuesday, July 1, 2:00 PM - 2:50 PM Topic/Skill: International Beauty Standards/Listening and writing Summary: Prior to class, Dr. Ciappetta asked students to submit a few topics about what they want to learn about to make class more engaging. This class session started with a brief discussion implicitly about beauty standards - appearance standards for men vs. women, cultural differences, and social media influence before introducing the topic. The students were then asked what they thought today's lesson would be about , which was "International Beauty Standards." Dr. Ciappetta transitioned into the main activity by asking students to shut down distractions, like phones and notebooks, so they could focus on listening. The students listened to a 5-minute passage, had 5 minutes to discuss the listening passage with a partner, and then had a 5-minute class discussion with Dr. Ciappetta.  After, they ...

 Speaking Class Group 3 (High Intermediate), Professor Olivia James Date/Time: July 2nd, 1-1:50pm Class Summary:       Ms. James started class by introducing the guests to her class. There were 3 guests in the class, so we each introduced ourselves to the students. Since they have been working to improve their pronunciation, another English language learner sat in on class to assist, part of an "Each one, Teach one" teaching philosophy.      The professor highlighted how pronunciation can feel like an identity and can be a blocker to communicating a message with another English speaker. She emphasized that pronunciation is a skill that needs to be coached, not academic content.      A student gave a presentation on "Lucid Dreams", practicing his speaking, pronunciation, and presenting skills in front of the class. After the presentation, Ms. James introduced a book about the Great Wall of China. She distributed packets that containe...

      McKenzie Heeter     Class Observation 4     Grammar - Group 4(Advanced)      Dr. Angel Rios - 10-10:50am           To start the class Dr. Rios greeted the class and took attendance, he also played some fun American artists like Katy Perry in the background which I enjoyed. He then asked the class to pull out their textbooks to review some sentences they had worked on last class. He then went through each sentence, which they were supposed to combine two pieces of information together to make one sentence. He works with the class and discusses grammar rules/patterns to help explain where they go wrong in each sentence. He also ensures they know there's different ways to write the sentences correctly within correct grammar rules, which I noted as important because some students (myself) do tend to want to find the "right" answer, and stress that there is only one.  He also asks them to read these se...