Kyle TS #16

Tonight, my last tutoring session for TEFL 120. My recent tutee, Enrique, moved to New Jersey so I have been assigned to Ki Woong. We met at Books a million at 7pm simply to meet each other and get to know one another. I had prepared a Needs Assessment questionnaire for Ki Woong and I planned on using it to figure out best who he is, where he's from, what his strengths and weaknesses are when it comes to the English language and plenty more information. I was quite excited to meet Ki Woong as I knew that even though he isn't a CIES student, he is very willing to learn and eager to get started. Ki Woong is from Korea and he is now actually my third Korean tutee, which I find quite interesting because I originally was hoping to tutor a lot of Spanish speakers. Ki Woong was incredibly nice and we were luckily able to find a time to meet three times a week. He wants to work mostly on his listening skills and I have a few ideas of where to get started. Maybe looking at colloquialisms like I observed in Felicia's class.

O'Neill TS # 16

After tutoring Rina Oh, I went on to tutor Zoe. I also came prepared to help with her writing skills, however her mother let Zoe chose which activity she wanted to do: reading or writing. Of course, she chose reading. We read from the Disney Princesses story book in which she chose to read two stories: Sleeping Beauty and the Princess and the Frog. I was surprised at her critical thinking on the characters of these stories. For example, she told me she didn't quite like Sleeping Beauty because she isn't technically a princess, her father is not a king. Zoe is definitely a smart girl. Anyways, although she read in somewhat a monotone soft voice, she went through both stories with little difficulty. Every now and then we would stop to review any difficult words, but overall she understood what was going on. I would also stop her every now and then and ask her what she would have done in the place of the princess. Would she have chosen to name her horse Buttercup or Brutus? She chose Brutus. I enjoyed asking her these small questions because it allows the child to think critically. I am a little critical as to the messages that Disney Princesses give off to young girls. I believe it is important they think for themselves and not follow the crowd, but follow what they feel is right for them.
Anyways, this final session was very close to my heart. I drew a dolphin for Rina and talked with her mother as to how she can continue broadening her child's English. After our nice conversation, Rina gave me a little charm with the Korean flag on it. Her mother explained to me what the flag stands for and we said our goodbyes. They were definitely such a friendly loving family. I had a great time tutoring both girls. I will miss them.

O'Neill TS # 15

Today I tutored my child tutee Rina Oh. Previously her mother had requested that I review the writing process with her, so I came prepared with writing prompts to discuss between the two of us. Before I started my session with her, her mother had changed her mind and made it Rina's choice as to what activity she wanted to do: reading or writing. She chose reading. So we read the Cinderella story from a Disney Princesses book. The reading was relatively fluid. She was getting most of the words, with a few troublesome ones along the way. Every now and then I would stop her at the end of the page and check for comprehension of the overall passage, and also check up on the tricky words. She did pretty well, although she did have some difficulty focusing on the reading, so we didn't go through it quickly. Once we were done with the story, it was my turn to tutor her sister Zoe.

Carolina TS#16

My last tutoring session with Jun was bittersweet. I have enjoyed getting to know him and practicing speaking with him. We talked about how his exams went this past week. I was very happy to learn that he did well on his science exam. After talking about our weeks, we talked about his favorite video games. He told me all about his XBOX and the games he enjoys to play. He even showed me videos of various people playing them and explained how to play to me. It was great to see him go into detail about something he enjoys so much. It was great to have Jun as a tutee and I am happy to have learned so much from him. 

Ebru TS#9

I observed Kyle’s child tutoring session with Nayun. She was very reluctant to answer Kyle. He tried to teach some body parts to her. Since two people observed her, she was shyer than usual and she answered to Kyle’s questions yes and no. I think it still worked because he made some true-false statements with her. Kyle told me that it was the first time he worked like that with Nayun.

Ebru TS#8

It was the last day with Nayun. We studied a couple of short stories. She answered to the questions perfectly. She did not forget to make some jogs about the stories. I am very glad to know her and work with her. I am sure she is going to be a very successful student   

Ebru TS#7

Nayun was very tired and she didn’t want to do anything at the beginning. I had prepared some reading comprehension activities for her but she didn’t want. We picked some books from her bags and read and I asked some questions about the books she read. Her reading skill is good but she still needs to comprehend what she read.