Taylor Simpson
TP#16
PJs House
10/25/2014
On Saturday I tutored PJ at his house. He needed to finish a book about bridges for an Accelerated Reading (AR) test. The book was long, but easy to understand. There was a lot of new vocabulary to discuss though. It took him about 30 minutes to finish reading the book. I asked him questions to check his comprehension along the way. I don't think he really enjoyed the book, it was a little boring, but I think he understood it well and will pass the AR test. Next we went over the vocabulary list sent home by his teacher. There were some sentences using the vocabulary, the student was asked to determine if the sentences were true or false and correct them if they were false. At first he had some difficulty understanding the exercise, but when we went over the words again and I explained the objective in different terms he completed the worksheet quickly.
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Savannah TP #11
I observed Sushila tutor Matthew and David. They both seem easily distracted with lots of energy which is understandable. Sushila handled them well. I remember in class Jenna, Sushila, and I were talking about how to handle kids. Jenna explained that giving them a way to reach an enjoyable goal they are more likely to be agreeable. Praise is also important in reinforcing desirable behavior. Sushila seemed to be trying to incorporate incentives with candy. It seemed to get their attention. They also cared deeply about not being wrong. It seemed like a productive session.
Taylor TP #15
Taylor Simpsons
TP #15
Atomic Coffee
10/24/2014
Friday I met with Ademir again. We continued practicing structure and written expressions to prepare for his TOEFL test. We spent the entire hour working on these problems. I think after two entire sessions of practice he is improving, but there is still a lot of work to do. I offered to read some of the sentences out loud to see if he could detect the mistakes through listening. This helped for some of the problems, but for the most part he is still struggling to find the errors. We are going to continue meeting for the rest of the semester, he wants to focus on the types of questions on the TOEFL because even though his English is improving he feels like the questions aren't getting any easier.
TP #15
Atomic Coffee
10/24/2014
Friday I met with Ademir again. We continued practicing structure and written expressions to prepare for his TOEFL test. We spent the entire hour working on these problems. I think after two entire sessions of practice he is improving, but there is still a lot of work to do. I offered to read some of the sentences out loud to see if he could detect the mistakes through listening. This helped for some of the problems, but for the most part he is still struggling to find the errors. We are going to continue meeting for the rest of the semester, he wants to focus on the types of questions on the TOEFL because even though his English is improving he feels like the questions aren't getting any easier.
Savannah CP #6
Igor and I went to Cantina on Friday night last weekend with my friends Jen, Melissa, and John. We waited forever for a seat due to the sheer amount of people around us. We finally got tacos and people watched. Igor pointed out that women dress very differently here. I explained to him that the Notre Dame game is a very big event and going out and dressing up is part of that for many people here. My friend John had an e-cigarette and was interested in knowing if Igor had ever seen or heard of one. He said that he had in movies and commercials but they are not common where he is from. John and Melissa left Recess after they got tired of the crowd. Igor, Jen, and I went up to my neighbor's VIP table. My sister texted me and told me she and her boyfriend arrived in town shortly after everybody was completing introductions. We left for home after that.
Savannah CP #5
Two Thursdays ago Igor and I went to the Tin Cow with my friends. It was bingo night. There were lots of us there playing at a table. I helped Igor with the menu. He had difficulty with some of the words but recognized quite a few. He was having trouble with subject and verb agreement such as using the infinite form with verb tenses that didn't need it. We played Bingo for a decent amount of time and ordered drinks. My friend John helped him with the rules of the game and explained how the blackout round worked. We had a nice time. I think it was a good opportunity for listening practice and American culture.
Friday, October 24, 2014
Jenna CP#6
10/18 @Panera
In addition to meeting with my tutee on this day, I also met with my conversation partner right after (I had forgotten to blog about this). I see this tutee quite frequently, so we're basically just hanging out. We spent a lot of time talking about traffic and the unfairness of the police, actually. My tutee had recently been in a car accident that was deemed her fault although she was clipped from the side by drunk drivers. She is Asian, and wasn't even approached by the cops when they came to the accident site. They spent their time talking to the other drivers. My tutee said that the other drivers smelled of alcohol but were not given breathalyzer tests. We were both disgusted by police favoritism and white privilege (which I talked about as well).
In addition to meeting with my tutee on this day, I also met with my conversation partner right after (I had forgotten to blog about this). I see this tutee quite frequently, so we're basically just hanging out. We spent a lot of time talking about traffic and the unfairness of the police, actually. My tutee had recently been in a car accident that was deemed her fault although she was clipped from the side by drunk drivers. She is Asian, and wasn't even approached by the cops when they came to the accident site. They spent their time talking to the other drivers. My tutee said that the other drivers smelled of alcohol but were not given breathalyzer tests. We were both disgusted by police favoritism and white privilege (which I talked about as well).
Taylor TP#14
Taylor Simpson
TP #14
Goldstein Library
10/22/14
On Wednesday I met with Ademir and Gabriela and the Goldstein Library. They each only had a little bit of homework to work on so I helped them as much as I could. Gabriela had homework practicing prefixes and suffixes. There were sentences with underlined words, the assignment was to replace the underlined word with a word using a prefix or suffix that had a similar meaning. For example the sentence might be: "In Antarctica the temperature is often below zero." The student would replace the underlined phrase with "subzero". Some problems were very easy for her, but others were more difficult because the answers sounded weird to her. I told her that with practice they would come to sound more natural.
Ademir had an assignment to write down a log of new words he learned and their definitions. He asked me to talk about my day and he would ask me about any unfamiliar words that I used. This ended up not really working because he has a very large English vocabulary. We ended up finding a dictionary and finding new words that he didn't know that way. We would look up a word he would write it down with the definition and then we would make sentences with the word, because it is important to teach vocabulary in context.
TP #14
Goldstein Library
10/22/14
On Wednesday I met with Ademir and Gabriela and the Goldstein Library. They each only had a little bit of homework to work on so I helped them as much as I could. Gabriela had homework practicing prefixes and suffixes. There were sentences with underlined words, the assignment was to replace the underlined word with a word using a prefix or suffix that had a similar meaning. For example the sentence might be: "In Antarctica the temperature is often below zero." The student would replace the underlined phrase with "subzero". Some problems were very easy for her, but others were more difficult because the answers sounded weird to her. I told her that with practice they would come to sound more natural.
Ademir had an assignment to write down a log of new words he learned and their definitions. He asked me to talk about my day and he would ask me about any unfamiliar words that I used. This ended up not really working because he has a very large English vocabulary. We ended up finding a dictionary and finding new words that he didn't know that way. We would look up a word he would write it down with the definition and then we would make sentences with the word, because it is important to teach vocabulary in context.
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