FSU TEFL Certificate Course Summer 2025

  Date/Time: May 30th, Thursday at 1:00 PM Location: Kellogg Building Topic/Skill: Understanding Regional Accents – New York City Feedback provided to the tutee: In this session, Thakshila and I dove into the rich, gritty, and iconic world of New York accents. We started by mapping out the history of the accent, how immigration, neighborhood identity, and good old-fashioned New Yorker attitude helped shape the way the city talks. We broke down the four major boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx) and examined how accent patterns shift between them, especially focusing on consonant drops, diphthong shifts, and the legendary “cawfee” vowel. We also looked at common regional phrases and sayings that give New York speech its flavor, such as “fuhgeddaboudit,” “on line” vs. “in line,” and “schlep.” Thakshila was particularly intrigued by the fast pace and musical rhythm of Bronx speech, and we had a fun time mimicking a few short clips together. Homework: Since T...

Hannah TS #12 Date: May 30 th  Friday Location: CIES Topic/Skill: Vocabulary Feedback provided to the tutee: I gave simple definitions and examples for the new vocab. I also corrected tutee’s errors in making sentences using the target vocab. Lesson(s) about tutoring you learned: It is important to continually review “old” words when building one’s vocabulary. 

Hannah TS #11 Date: May 28 th  Wednesday  Location: CIES Topic/Skill: Vocabulary and Pronunciation Feedback provided to the tutee: I corrected tutee’s errors in sentences that used target vocab. I also provided more example sentences using the target vocab and corrected tutee’s pronunciation errors.  Lesson(s) about tutoring you learned: The /I/ sound (like in “pit”) can be difficult for many native Vietnamese speakers. Vietnamese speakers may pronounce /I/ like /ɛ/ or /i/. 

Date/Time: May 28 Location: Strozier Library Topic/Skill: past tenses, pronunciation of minimal pairs (v and b, th sound), word choice in speaking Feedback Provided: I went over the 4 past tenses with my tutee, allowing her to explain each one first and then correcting and adding whatever she missed. We also went over how you sometimes use the present form when speaking in past tense when paraphrasing something that someone said. For example, saying “He told me that he likes me”. I also corrected her pronunciation for some minimal pairs as she was telling me a story. There were a few word she made that were either incorrect or awkward, as well. For example, she said, “We met us”. I explained that was incorrect because “we” and “us” were referring to the same thing.  Lessons Learned: I learned that it is very important to create lessons that mimic real life and conversation as much as possible. I created a small pronunciation lesson for my tutee, who is a native Spanish speaker, to ...

Date: May 24th, 2025 Location: Ye-won's Home Topic: Third Grade Reading Comprehension and Illustrating Passages Feedback provided to the tutee:  I offered my tutee feedback on capitalizing the names of brands and using quotation marks.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned from my tutee that there needs to be a balance between learning and fun, to maintain interest and keep learning a positive experience. 

Des TS #9 Date: May 27th (Tuesday). Location: Outside Kellogg building. Topic/Skill: Speaking/Nitpicking grammar in Conversation Feedback provided to the tutee: We discussed topics of ranging difficulty and complexity, and I stopped and corrected any mistakes I heard. Since this student is advanced, there were minimal mistakes and he would self-correct roughly 95% of his mistakes. He discussed his anxieties about being disconnected from the language since he returning to his home country for 2 months before starting his 1st semester at FSU. We discussed strategies to keep him engaged with the language while at home (talking to himself, listening to English language podcasts, etc.)

Des TS #8 Date: May 22th (Thursday). Location: Outside Kellogg building. Topic/Skill: Speaking/Nitpicking grammar in Conversation Feedback provided to the tutee: As with the Tuesday session, we discussed topics of ranging difficulty and complexity, and I stopped and corrected any mistakes I heard. Since this student is advanced, there were minimal mistakes and he would self-correct roughly 95% of his mistakes. He has good fluency, so we've been focusing on nitpicking his grammatical accuracy. Most of the mistakes that I did correct were related to preposition usage, which are typically one of the last things EFL/ESL students master in their studies.

Date: May 26th, 2025 Location: Ye-won's Home Topic: Third Grade Reading Comprehension: Cause and Effect, Capitalization and Possession of Plural Nouns  Feedback provided to the tutee:  I offered my tutee feedback on capitalizing titles.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Bilingual students may get confused when determining where to put an apostrophe for plural possession. 

Jasmine Smith TS#8 Date:05/23/2025 Location: Outside of Strozier Topic/Skill: writing and speaking Feedback provided to Tutee: He understands the organization of writing and the basic grammar components. He struggles mostly with making little mistakes such as prepositions. Lessons about tutoring and/ or the tutee you learned: I learned that he finds American small talk very weird because he's not used to talking to strangers.

 Jasmine Smith TS#7 Date:05/22/2025 Location: Outside of Strozier Topic/Skill: conversation cards/ vocabulary/ context clues  Feedback provided to Tutee: He is able to learn the meaning of new vocabulary words on the conversation cards by using context clues within the question being asked. He also informed me that some of the words we were talking about in English is the same in French. Lessons about tutoring and/ or the tutee you learned: I learned that incorporating a learner’s background knowledge, such as familiarity with another language like French, can be a helpful bridge for understanding new vocabulary.

   Jasmine Smith CO #4 Date: May 22nd Topic/Skill: debate/ speaking Teacher presentation: The teacher didn't present on anything during this class, but instead she allowed the students to present their opinions and rebuttals.  Classroom management: She directed the students through each step of the debate to keep students on task and to ensure clarity. She also used humor as a classroom management tool. Materials:  computers, projector, Student participation:  The students took turns sharing their arguments and rebuttals Lessons on teaching I learned:  When working on a rebuttal with one of the teams, one of the team members struggled to pronounce the word "bark" and kept pronouncing it as "park". I learned how important it is as an English speaker to understand how I am saying words to be able to explain the process to others.

Hannah TS #10 Date: May 26 th  Monday Location: Starbucks Topic/Skill: Passive vs. active voice, will vs. going to, pronunciation Feedback provided to the tutee: I corrected and expanded upon tutee’s errors in  passive vs, active   voice  and  will vs. going to  exercises. I also corrected tutee’s pronunciation errors.  Lesson(s) about tutoring you learned: The importance of clear, simple examples when explaining vocab and/or grammar points.

Date: May 24th, 2025 Location: Ye-won's Home Topic: Third Grade Reading Comprehension and Practicing Using Context Clues to Determine the Meaning of New Words Feedback provided to the tutee:  I provided my tutee with strategies for interacting with a new word, utilizing context clues.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I learned my tutee's strategy when interacting with new words in her day-to-day life. It allowed me to understand the techniques actually used by young students.

Date: May 24th, 2025 Location: Ye-won's Home Topic: Third Grade Reading Comprehension: Author's Purpose and Story Elements Feedback provided to the tutee:  Tutee was confused about the difference between persuade and inform as categories of the author's purpose.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Decerning the author's purpose of fables may be difficult as they may have multiple purposes. 

Hannah TS #9 Date: May 23 rd  Friday Location: CIES Topic/Skill: Vocabulary (with grammar and pronunciation) Feedback provided to the tutee: I corrected tutee’s grammar and contextual errors in sentences that used target vocab. We also went over some new vocabulary; I provided examples and visuals for each new term and corrected tutee’s errors in the practice activity. I also helped with pronunciation. Lesson(s) about tutee you learned:  In addition to /p/ and /b/, Vietnamese speakers also struggle producing the short “i” sound. 

Date/Time: Thursday, May 22 Location: CIES Building  Topic: Peer and personal editing, speaking (debate topic) Feedback: We worked on some pronunciation and discussed the meaning of learn vs. teach. I had my tutee grade/edit a paper that I wrote, and in doing that we were able to go over some verb tense errors that he missed. We also went over the importance of correctly introducing your topic in a debate or speech and not missing key words, such as “not”, that can change the whole meaning of what you’re saying. Lessons Learned: I learned that ESL students like the activity of recording their speeches and listening back to them in order to find the errors themselves. My tutee provided me feedback about this activity we did, saying that he found it extremely helpful. This tutee in particular is quite advanced in his grammar knowledge, but often makes mistakes when he’s speaking. I found that being able to listen back to himself helped him to recognize those errors in the future, and...

 Date/Time: Thursday, May 22 Location: CIES Building Topic/Skill: Pronunciation (past tense, s words, adjectives and adverbs), Speaking, and Storytelling Feedback Provided: I went over pronunciation of many past tense words with my tutee in order to work on the “ed” sound that she sometimes struggles with. She also had a list of adjectives and adverbs that we went over the pronunciation for. During this, I also got to teach her about the intonation of words, specifically how she was pronouncing motivationally (putting a lot of emphasis on “ally” and pronouncing like the girls name Ally).  Lessons Learned: I learned that the “ed” sound at the end of some English words can be hard to pronounce for a non-native speaker. This also opened my eyes to how difficult it can be to teach something that I just inherently know. I learned that I should probably focus more on how to teach things rather than what I’m teaching because it can be hard to explain how to pronounce something when I...

Hannah TS #8 Date: May 19 th  Monday Location: CIES Topic/Skill: Pronunciation and Conditionals Feedback provided to the tutee: I watched tutee go through their presentation for a CIES class and noted and went over pronunciation errors with tutee. I also corrected their mistakes in constructing first and second conditional statements. Lesson(s) about tutee you learned: Spanish speakers often struggle with producing the voiceless and voiced “th” sounds. 

Hannah TS #7 Date: May 19 th  Monday Location: CIES Topic/Skill: Vocabulary (with grammar and pronunciation) Feedback provided to the tutee: Practiced vocab by constructing example sentences with target vocab. I highlighted and corrected grammar and contextual errors. I also helped with pronunciation by providing examples and asking tutee to repeat.  Lesson(s) about tutee you learned: Vietnamese speakers often struggle differentiating between /p/ and /b/ when speaking.  

  Des TS #7 Date: May 20th (Tuesday). Location: Outside Kellogg building. Topic/Skill: Speaking/Nitpicking grammar in Conversation Feedback provided to the tutee: As with the Thursday session, we discussed topics of ranging difficulty and complexity, and I stopped and corrected any mistakes I heard. Since this student is advanced, there were minimal mistakes and he would self-correct roughly 95% of his mistakes. He has good fluency, so we've been focusing on nitpicking his grammatical accuracy. Most of the mistakes that I did correct were related to preposition usage, which are typically one of the last things EFL/ESL students master in their studies.

  Date: May 21st, 2025 Location: Killearn Church Topic: Third Grade Reading Comprehension: Author's Purpose and Fact v. Opinion Feedback provided to the tutee: Titles must be capitalized. We worked on differentiating the author's purpose, however, we might need to revisit it.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: ESL students may confuse the author's purpose when writing to give us information or to teach us something. 

 Date: March 21st, 2025 Topic/Skill: Listening Teacher Presentation: The teacher allowed students to finish their debate presentation on deep-sea mining. She then presented a video about food culture in the South.  Classroom Management: The teacher ensured students finished in about ten minutes.  Materials: Debate notes, PBS video Student Participation: The two students finished their portion of the debate, while the rest listened.  Feedback Provided: The teacher corrected students' pronunciation mistakes and clarified ideas they argued.  Lesson(s) on teaching you learned: There are creative ways to include culture in CIES classes. 

 Date: May 14th, 2025 Location: Killearn Church Topic: Third Grade Level Reading Comprehension and text annotation.  Feedback provided to the tutee: Names must be capitalized.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: I included math in this activity, and she enjoyed it more than other activities that we have done. It is important to learn about your students to choose activities that appeal to their interests. This is how you can achieve better student participation. 

   Jasmine Smith CO #3 Date: May 20th Tuesday Topic/Skill: listening quiz - Deep Sea Mining Paradox video and podcast Teacher presentation: Their teacher built background knowledge on the topic in previous classes and she assigned them a debate. Today she displayed a video and podcast. She paused the media every time she asked a question. Then after playing the video and podcast she asked a couple of more questions. Classroom management: The teacher uses humor throughout the class. Instead of getting mad at students for not engaging, she calls them out and makes a joke.  I found the topic to be a little boring but because she created a fun and humorful environment I found myself interested and engaged the whole class.  Materials:   teacher's computer and projector  paper and pencil  video  podcast Student participation:   The students had to actively listen to answer the quiz questions. Lessons on teaching I learned:  Energy is tran...

  Jasmine Smith CO #2 Date: May 15th Thursday Topic/Skill: listening/vocabulary Teacher presentation: Their teacher reviewed what they went over during their last class. He also explained what the quizzes they were going to take consisted of. Classroom management: The teacher had full control over the classroom. He didn't have to say things more than once unless for clarity purposes. When one student didn't have their headphones for the listening part of the quiz, he allowed the student take test in a different room which kept the environment quiet for other test takers. The teacher also circled the room while students were taking the test. Materials:   Computers, canvas, lyricstraining (website) Student participation:   The students used the 'lyricstraining' website as a study tool at home. During class, the students worked on their quizzes. The second quiz they took was open note. Lessons on teaching I learned:  As a student when teachers would circle the room...

Date/Time: Sunday, May 18th, 10pm  Location: Kellogg Building Topic/Skill: Verb Tense Application – Speaking & Writing Practice; Simple (Part 2) Feedback provided to the tutee: In our second session, Juliana applied her understanding of verb tenses through structured speaking and writing activities. We did a fun “Time Travel Interview” where she described her past weekend, current daily routine, and future plans. This allowed her to practice switching tenses naturally in conversation. We ended the session with a “tense ladder” writing exercise, where she wrote one sentence in each tense. Juliana showed notable improvement in sentence formation and began self-correcting when she noticed a mismatch between subject and verb tense. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Creating a safe space for Juliana to experiment and reflect helped her take more ownership of her learning. Using simple, relatable prompts and combining visual, verbal, and written practice ...

Date/Time: Saturday May 17th, 9pm Location: Zoom Topic/Skill: Verb Tense Review – Past, Present, and Future; simple (Part 1) Feedback provided to the tutee: In this session, Juliana and I focused on recognizing and using the simple past, present, and future tenses in both written and spoken English. We began with a warm-up activity where Juliana created short, personal sentences using each tense to build comfort and ease into the topic. From there, we used a color-coded timeline to visually reinforce tense distinctions and practiced sorting example sentences into the appropriate tense category. Juliana responded well to visual aids and expressed that this helped her understand the differences more clearly. Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Juliana thrives with clear visuals and guided repetition. She sometimes second-guesses herself, so affirming correct answers and giving space to try again without pressure was key. I was reminded that when a learner is stru...

Date/Time: May 15th, Thursday at 1:00 PM Location: Kellogg Building Topic/Skill: Understanding Regional Accents – Southern U.S. Feedback provided to the tutee: In this session, Thakshila and I explored the characteristics of Southern accents. We began with a brief video on the history and development of Southern accents to build contextual understanding. Then, we transitioned to a few light-hearted SNL skits to illustrate different variations of the accent in an engaging and humorous way. We discussed listening strategies for decoding the Southern accent typically heard in this region, focusing on vowel shifts, rhythm, and intonation patterns. For homework, Thakshila will watch Sweet Home Alabama and pay close attention to how the characters speak, particularly noting differences from standard American accent (ie. a soft nondescript accent) Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Thakshila continues to show strong engagement and a willingness to explore the cul...

Date:  Thursday, May 15th Topic/Skill: Composition (Advanced Group 4); note-taking strategies and summary writing using Cornell notes Teacher presentation: The class centered around teaching students how to take structured notes and summarize an academic article effectively. The professor began with a detailed walkthrough of the expectations for Cornell notes—covering how to format the page, what kinds of notes to take, and how much detail to include. Before diving into the article itself, the professor initiated a discussion about its themes and invited students to connect the material to their personal experiences. As the class read through the article together (with students taking turns as readers), the professor paused at strategic moments to interject with explanations, reflections, and context. When more complex vocabulary or abstract phrases came up, she offered definitions and examples. These interruptions were purposeful and used to model how students might identify ...

 Date/Time: Thursday, May 15th Location: CIES Building Topic/Skill: Speaking (storytelling and teaching) Feedback Provided: I corrected my tutees pronunciation on some words, as well as his grammar. Lessons Learned: I learned that correcting mistakes for a more advanced student is more difficult than I thought. This student does not often make mistakes that I can recognize as quickly as he’s speaking. As much as it helps to have a conversation partner, it’s more important to learn something new, especially when the student is already advanced in grammar understanding and speaking. Because of this, I learned that I need to find better ways to catch mistakes in these types of students. I was told that recording a conversation or speech and then listening back to it together is a great way to do this. I would also like to find some more complex speaking activities in order to encourage mistakes so that we can then correct them. 

Des TS #6 Date: May 15th (Thursday). Location: Outside Kellogg building. Topic/Skill: Speaking/ Nitpicking grammar in Conversation Feedback provided to the tutee: As my tutee requested, we focused on proper grammar usage during conversation. We discussed topics of ranging difficulty and complexity and I stopped and corrected any mistakes I heard. I would offer two types of feedback: direct correction and alternative phrasing. With the former I directly corrected mistakes, most notably with my tutee Noun-Verb agreement. For the latter, I provided different ways to communicate a specific meaning depending on context. During the session, my tutee was roughly 90-95% grammatically accurate. The most consistent mistakes were with prepositions, articles, and Noun-Verb agreement in the third person singular. Our next session will continue with this format.

Des TS #5 Date: May 14th (Wednesday). Location: Outside Calvin's Coffee Shop. Topic/Skill: Writing/ Structuring essays and coming up with supporting details. Feedback provided to the tutee: We focused on writing essays. My tutee discussed troubles with applying his limited vocabulary in explanatory essays and running out of synonyms by the time he is writing his supporting details. We worked on using graphic organizers to help plan his writing. We went over some editing and revising tips. One thing we particularly focused on was coming up with ideas for supporting details via asking ourselves questions such as: Who are the people involved in the context or problem related to the topic sentence?  Why might some people disagree with my topic sentence and why is my stance better? What are the continuity and changes related to my topic sentence? Our next session will focus on the feedback from his most recent writing samples.

Des CO #5 Date: May 8th Thursday Topic/Skill: Listening (Lower Intermediate); Listening to lecture  Teacher presentation: The instructor provided explanations on today and tomorrow's learning objectives. He provided pre-assignment questions for the students to answer. He created a PowerPoint with the students' inputs. He then divided the students into two groups to listen to two different lectures. Classroom management: The teacher set clear expectations on the assignments and what needs to be reviewed. The teacher kept the students on track if there were any distractions. Materials: computer, projector, audio playback device, PowerPoint Student participation: The students asked questions and contributed to the PowerPoint the instructor was creating with them. They listened to a lecture on homeostasis and learning and answered true/false questions based on it. Feedback provided: Instructor reviewed answers after class Lessons on teaching I learned: Use clear language, create l...

Hannah TS #6 Date: May 16 th  Friday Location: CIES Topic/Skill: Vocab and pronunciation Feedback provided to the tutee: I corrected tutee’s errors in using vocab in written and oral sentences. I also helped with pronunciation by providing examples and asking tutee to repeat respective words. Lesson(s) about tutoring you learned: The importance of interactional modification when providing explanations and/or examples.  

Jasmine Smith TS#6 Date:05/14/2025 Location: Outside of Strozier Topic/Skill: We worked on conversation and reading using conversation cards. Feedback provided to Tutee: He informed me that he really enjoyed using the cards.  Lessons about tutoring and/ or the tutee you learned: We were able to expand his vocabulary through the conversation cards. If he didn't understand a word he would ask for the meaning and I would give him synonyms and an example scenario for what the card was asking. He would then offer me an example scenario of his own to make sure he fully understood the word and what the card was asking. Once he understood we would share our answers for the questions. The game was a fun way for him to practice his conversation skills and expand his vocabulary. It also taught me that the tutee offering me an example scenario for the word helped me evaluate how well he understood the definition.

  Jasmine Smith TS#5 Date:05/14/2025 Location: Outside of Strozier Topic/Skill: We worked on writing. We did a fill in the blank activity using the beginning part of Taylor Swift's song '22'. We also did a writing prompt on what his favorite Taylor Swift song is and why. Feedback provided to Tutee: He informed me that his teacher told him his writing is good, but he makes minor mistakes. He told me that his goal is to fix that.  Lessons about tutoring and/ or the tutee you learned: From the writing prompt I was able to see that he has the basic components of grammar and writing down, but he occasionally struggles with adding prepositions and verb tense. I also learned that making the tutee sessions fun increases comfortability. 

Hannah CO #5 Date: May 14 th  Wednesday Topic/Skill: Reading comprehension, pronunciation Teacher presentation: The teacher demonstrated difficult English sound clusters and asked students to say words featuring those clusters (i.e.  sp ---). Then, the teacher told students to open their books to go over their responses to the reading. Classroom management: The teacher made sure that every student was off their phone/laptop before starting the lesson. Materials: Book on English pronunciation, class booklet Student participation: The teacher called on every student individually to say what they wrote for the activity and to practice their pronunciation.  Feedback provided: The teacher corrected pronunciation errors and asked students to clarify written responses. The teacher also provided many examples using visuals such as images and videos. Lessons on teaching I learned: Visuals, hand gestures, and demonstrations can be very useful for teaching aspects of pronunciation (...

Hannah TS #5 Date: May 14 th  Wednesday Location: CIES Topic/Skill: Going to vs. Will , pronunciation Feedback provided to the tutee: I explained and provided examples for when to use  going to  or  will  and corrected tutee’s errors on practice problems. I also helped with pronunciation throughout the session. Lesson(s) about tutoring you learned: Improvement entails frequent, comprehensive correction.

 Date/Time: 5/14 2-2:50 Topic/Skill: Listening (lectures) Teacher Presentation: The teacher sent a video lecture to the students and had them listen to it on their own as many times as they need to in order to fill in the blanks on a transcript.  Materials: computer, lecture, worksheet Student Participation: Students had to listen to the lecture as many times as they wanted to and fill in the blanks on a transcript and compare with other students. Feedback Provided: The teacher would not provide any feedback for students during this, as she wanted them to figure the words and placements out on their own.   Lessons Learned: I learned a lot about forming a listening lesson over multiple days/sessions. Since the students were working on their own today, the teacher showed me the progression of the activity they’ve been working on. First they do a pre listening activity where they have a conversation together about the topic they are about to learn. Then they listen to t...

 Date/Time: 5/13 1-1:50 Topic/Skill: Speaking (speeches) Teacher Presentation: The teacher did not present anything during this class as all of the students did a speech, but I believe it was mentioned that he gave a presentation on how to do a speech and presentation in one of the previous classes to prepare them for this   Class Management: The teacher timed all of the students’ presentations and told them they would have to be cut off if they went over a certain time in order to ensure that all students had time to go.  Materials: Student presentations, tripod to record presentations, computer/feedback assessment sheets  Student Participation: Each student had to do a research presentation on a topic related to something famous or important to America  They each had to record themselves and then watch it when they got home   Feedback Provided: The teacher gave students individual feedback on Canvas as they were presenting  After all the presentation...

 Date/Time: May 13th 11-11:50 Topic/Skill: Reading (Fusion Cuisine) Teacher Presentation: The teacher started the class with a partner activity with questions about food and fusion cuisine and then went over the questions and what fusion cuisine means. Classroom Management: The teacher timed the partner discussions to ensure they would be able to get through everything. Materials: Google doc with questions and fusion cuisine article made by chatgpt. Student Participation: Every student had to have a partner to ask and answer the questions with. They all also had to read the article and then discuss and summarize with a partner. Feedback Provided: The teacher provided her thoughts and own experiences with fusion cuisine in the US, as well as her own culture.  Lessons Learned: I learned that ESL students become more engaged when they have the opportunity to share their knowledge and opinions on their own cultures, as well as other cultures. It can be very beneficial for students...

Des CO #4 Date: May 8th Thursday Topic/Skill: Speaking (Advanced); Class Discussion  Teacher presentation: The instructor set clear discussion rubrics and explained it thoroughly to the students before the discussion began. Classroom management: The teacher made sure all students actively participated and spoke during the exercise. Materials: computer, discussion notes, phone (audio recording) Student participation: One student acted as the discussion leader with prepared material while the other students acted as discussion participants. The students had 15 minutes to get through the discussion. Feedback provided: The instructor recorded audio of the discussion leader's introduction and 1st discussion turn. He will likely give him feedback on his speaking. Lessons on teaching I learned: Set very clear expectations and explain those expectations clearly, use discussions to assess student success, use audio recording software to reference back to

Des TS #4 Date: May 13th (Tuesday)  Location: Outside Kellogg  Topic/Skill: Pronunciation of "R" sound in words like Stir and Oar. Feedback provided to the tutee: We focused on pronunciation of words most difficult for speakers of his native language (Arabic). Since he's going into his Master's degree, he wants to ensure he can speak clearly to his faculty members and his students that he'll be teaching later in his studies. We discussed tongue position (retroflex vs rolled Rs) and vowel sounds that don't exist in his native language. For the following session, he wants to focus on more conversation and highly specific grammar correction.

  Des TS #3 Date: May 8th (Thursday)  Location: Outside Kellogg  Topic/Skill: Pronunciation Feedback provided to the tutee: We focused on pronunciation of various words, names, and phrases used in his major. The Tutee is an advanced level student studying International Affairs. Since his field of study is interdisciplinary, we practiced proper pronunciation of the departments and names associated with the College of Social Sciences and Policy (i.e. Bellamy building, Economics, Urban and Regional Planning, Political Science, etc.)

  Date: May 13th, Tuesday Topic/Skill: Listening (Advanced Group 4); engaging with audio content and refining comprehension Teacher presentation: The session kicked off with a 5-minute speaking warm-up where students discussed the audio recording they'd been working with. This peer-to-peer exchange allowed students to practice recall, clarify meaning, and correct each other in real time. Shoutout to the student who dropped a solid peer correction with “the what? You mean…?” The instructor then used a student’s response to a question as a launchpad, offering context and modeling how to strengthen a response. The remainder of class was divided into a structured listen-and-comprehend activity. Students listened to an audio recording and were tasked with filling in missing words from a transcript. The first round was a straight-through listening session to get the gist. The second round was more targeted: the teacher played the recording in chunks, pausing after each segment to g...

  Date: May 13th, Tuesday Topic/Skill: Speaking (Advanced Group 4); discussion projects and PechaKucha presentations Teacher presentation: The class began with students diving into their discussion project work—each student chooses a topic, develops a speech/discussion prompt, and facilitates conversation with their peers based on expectations for leading and participating. The instructor reviewed these expectations and clarified the roles students would play during these presentations. The latter half of the session shifted focus to PechaKucha presentations—a speaking format where students deliver a 6-minute, 40-second presentation using 20 slides timed at 20 seconds each. These presentations were tied to either their major or their current work experience, making the assignment personally meaningful. The professor had the students explain the format to me before guiding them through their first draft task, which focused only on the speech outline without slides. He walked ...

  Jasmine Smith TS#4 Date:05/13/2025 Location: Outside of Strozier Topic/Skill: Conversation- use of past tense Feedback provided to Tutee: He is scared to say things wrong in English. He is holding himself back because of it. Lessons about tutoring and/ or the tutee you learned: I learned that creating a safe space is neccessary when working with tutees. Mistakes are a crucial part of learning and my goal is to make a comfortable learning environment that erases his fear of making them. 

Date: March 13th, 2025 Topic/Skill: Reading Teacher Presentation: The teacher worked on pronunciation while sounding out. They covered common words that use short vowels. The teacher continued reading an article from last class. Classroom Management: The teacher led pronunciation practice and gave student-specific examples to encourage engagement. The teacher read aloud the rest of the article that students started in the last class.  Materials: sight word flashcards, pronunciation book, article booklet Student Participation: Students practiced pronouncing difficult letter combinations for their native language and common words in sentences. Students independently highlighted and defined new words in their article.  Feedback Provided: The teacher corrected students' pronunciation mistakes and provided the spelling of words that are pronounced differently.  Lesson(s) on teaching you learned: When covering pronunciation in reading, you should use imitation to your advantage...

 Date/Time: May 13th 10-10:50 Topic/Skill: Grammar (past perfect tense) Teacher Presentation: The teacher explained how and when to use past perfect tense and then gave an example. Classroom Management: The teacher had every student participate in each of the questions and examples and stopped to facilitate editing the sentences whenever there was a mistake. Student Participation: Every student had to give an example of a past perfect sentence and then also had to answer two questions in past perfect tense. Feedback Provided: Dr. Rios immediately corrected any pronunciation issues but took a longer approach for grammatical issues. He stopped them and then asked clarifying questions whenever their sentences were correct in the past perfect tense. Lessons Learned: I learned how to better facilitate mistakes from a more advanced student. Dr. Rios used a lot of clarifying questions in order to get students to come to the error and fix it on their own rather than just correcting them.

Date: March 13th Topic/Skill: Grammar  Teacher Presentation: The teacher led the class to continue their assignment from yesterday. The teacher covered the difference between action and linking verbs.  Classroom Management: The teacher gave feedback on grammatical errors students made on their assignment. Materials: Computers, students' Google Docs, and students' textbooks.  Student Participation: Students fixed their errors and continued their assignment. Students gave examples using linking and action verbs.  Feedback Provided: The teacher provided feedback on grammatical errors in the comments section of each student's Google document and in their spoken examples.  Lesson(s) on teaching you learned: When incorporating technology into lessons, ensure you have continuous access to what the student is working on. This will allow you to monitor their progress and correct their errors throughout the class. 

 Date/Time: Monday, May 12th Location: CIES Building Topic/Skill: Speaking and Listening Feedback Provided: I corrected my tutees pronunciation in many cooking related words. We worked on the "ch" sound. Lessons Learned: I learned that ESL students haven't had the opportunity to see or use specific words in the English language. For more advanced students it's important to introduce them to those words especially when it relates to their field. I also learned that doing lessons that relate to my tutees future careers or interests is a lot more engaging for them.

Date: May 12th, 2025 Location: Killearn Church Topic: Third Grade Reading Comprehension Feedback provided to the tutee: I recommended writing in full sentences when answering questions, and clarified when to add es/s and apostrophes.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: ESL students may confuse new words introduced first in the plural with the dictionary form of the word.

Hannah TS #4 Date: May 9 th  Friday Location: CIES Topic/Skill: Vocabulary  Feedback provided to the tutee: I clarified vocabulary words, provided examples, and corrected tutee’s own examples, using visuals if needed.  Lesson(s) about tutoring you learned: The importance of contextual application of vocabulary.

Hannah CO #3/4 (longer Friday session) Date: May 9 th  Friday Topic/Skill: Speaking/writing (outlining speaking presentation, research) Teacher presentation: The teacher reviewed the presentation outline at the start of class. Classroom management: The teacher surveyed the room as the students worked, ensuring that everyone was staying on task. The teacher also projected a live countdown for the last 30 minutes of class to encourage students to finish on time.  Materials: Presentation outline handout Student participation: Students did research on their chosen topic and submitted three main points via Canvas for approval. Students then worked on completing their outline. Feedback provided: The teacher went through each student’s three main sources and either approved them or asked for alternative sources. The teacher also went through students’ completed outlines.  Lessons on teaching I learned: More class time for planning essays or presentations can encourage students t...