Kyle TS#5

I sat in on Colleen's session with her CIES tutee. We met at her house and she started the conversation very casually, asking him how his day went, and even discussing the IELTS test a little before getting started on the session. Colleen had prepared some work for him to do based on their last session. He said he needed help with reading, so she brought a worksheet with Greek and Latin roots and we spent about 15 minutes discussing the reason it's important to know them, how to use the worksheet, and we went over various terms that can be commonly used in daily language. We then did an intensive reading exercise and I was impressed at his ability to answer the comprehension questions at the end so easily especially because we spent such a long time dissecting the passage. I think Colleen did an excellent job both preparing for the tutoring session as well as engaging interest and importance.

Kyle TS #4

Nayun and I are making certain progress in her ability to speak. She is able to start her own conversation and make references to different things she knows based on what we're talking about. We have had issues with staying on track with certain sessions, Nayun has become very comfortable and sometimes I have difficulty keeping her focused on the task at hand. I'm looking into other ways I can help her speak and I've recruited one of my bosses to help me with some ideas. She has young children of her own and I wanted a parent's take on some interesting and interactive ways to keep young minds stimulated but focused.

Kyle TS #3

Nayun is a joy to work with. We are only able to meet for an hour per week, and I am going to ask her father if we could find time to set up another appointment during the week. Nayun has changed quite a bit from the first time we met. At first it was difficult to get a conversation going, she still has trouble telling me what she did over the weekend when I ask. We're working our way towards that. She is a great listener and enjoys our tutoring sessions, I try to keep them lighthearded while trying to maintain focus on subjects. Since our main goal is speaking skills, I try and keep her interested while allowing her to have some sort of control over what we talk about while still trying to steer the conversation in a productive manner.

O'Neill CP # 4

This past Wednesday night, Ebru and I met up for coffee at the Black Dog cafe. It was so nice meeting with her outside of the classroom setting. Although our class is fun and informal, there's always a certain formality hanging on regardless; therefore, meeting up outside of class makes it much more like a friendship. We sat out on the wooden balcony for a while while Ebru smoked. As we were in the middle of our conversation, a man came up and asked us if we had cigarettes on us. Ebru felt obliged to give him one but did not feel comfortable. Once he had left we talked about this American custom. I gave her my advice on what she should do. She told me this is not customary in Turkey, people buy their own cigarettes. We also talked about our plans on becoming ESL/EFL teachers and where we would like to go. We then went on a walk around lake Ella, and before we knew it, it was time to go home.

O'Neill TS # 7

This past Wednesday I tutored my child tutee Rina Oh. Noticing that last tutoring session didn't go as planned, I made sure this one would have an equal balance of fun and study time. This time I decided to provide my own material, previously it had been her parents providing material whether it had been her homework or a book of her choice. The great part about providing material for her is that she loves art and art history. This is very exciting for me since I am an art major and have minored in art history. The room in which we study has pictures of famous paintings on the walls. So for this session I decided to bring in a kid's article on the artist's biography on one of the paintings.
We started the session with crossword puzzles and coloring. I let her know that we would have some time for fun but also time for reading. While we colored, I asked her questions and tried to work on her spoken English. Once we were done, I brought out the reading and pointed to the painting on the wall and told her we were discussing the artist's biography. She got excited, and to further her excitement, I made sure to ask her questions during the reading. Her favorite part was figuring out how long ago the artist Jan Van Eyck was born. (It was about 735 years ago) she was amazed. Since she has a short attention span, she was tired after the first page. She wanted me to read the rest, but I did not give in. We made an agreement on which parts we would read, and before we knew it, she was done. I did want to show her a video about the painting, but decided to instead watch the video myself since I knew it would have been too boring for her. So I brought in the information I had learned and asked her to point out parts of the painting and tell me why she thought the artist made those choices. I taught her a bit about the symbolism of dogs and fidelity, and gave her further information on the painting. I believe we both had a great time, and I plan to continue using this method. She also plays the violin, so I plan on bringing in some information on musicians and music as well.

Catherine CP#4

I met with Ebru today for lunch at Jasmine Cafe. It was absolutely delightful. We ordered sushi and talked about living in Tallahassee, gender norms in our cultures, and astrology. We learned a lot about each other and our similarities. For example, in our countries, they are both traditional when it comes to family, women's labor, and age. Ebru is very happy to live in the United States and study because education is more flexible here than it is in Turkey. I explained to Ebru how standardized testing in inner-city public schools may be the exception to the flexibility of the American Education System. Beyond that, we shared our astrological charts. I showed Ebru how to read her own natal chart. I'm really excited to meet with Ebru again tomorrow.

Catherine TS#11

On Friday, May 29, I met with Zoe. She was very excited because it was also her last day of 2nd grade. Her mother had a worksheet prepared for us to complete. It was a short reading passage about Memorial Day. We had to fix the punctuation, capitalization, and spelling mistakes throughout the passage. Afterward, Zoe and I played a board game called "Story Cube". It's a game with 7 dice. The players are required to roll the dice and create a story using the images the dice land on. Zoe and I spent the remainder of our tutoring session creating a story about an apple who keeps falling into "story holes". Zoe had a lot of fun and was able to practice speaking English.

Alexandria CP #5

Yesterday, May 29, I met with Ebru. We were both a bit confused about which Starbucks to go to, since there are so many, but managed to find one another. We talked about the TEFL class, and how we both enjoyed the class. However, it was a lot of things that had to get done within seven weeks. Then we talked about our families, and Ebru has a brother and sister in Turkey. I thought that she was really lucky, and she said she misses them. I wondered if she had plans to go back to Turkey, and she was unsure if she was going to go back. She's has a lot of plans for the future such as planning on teaching English in Turkey, if she goes back, We needed our conversation on traffic in Turkey, and how it is driving their. She said everyone in the US follows the law, unlike Turkey. I always find it interesting to learn how driving is different in every country. I had a fun time talking to Ebru, and learning about Turkey.

Shanti CO#3

On May 28 I observed Felicias' group 2 grammar class at 9:00 am. I chose to observe her class because I really liked the way she taught in her speech class. Similar to her speech class she began with a bell ringer. She had this interesting method of teaching where she would have them do an activity and then ask them why they were doing that activity. For example one activity was she asked a student to describe her husband and then asked why she asked her to do that and the answer was "to review adjectives". I thought this was an interesting style because it was more like the students were doing the lecturing. I also like her way of correcting students by going "sorry. What was that?" The students would always correct themselves after doing this. The thing I found interesting about the students was that a lot of them came in very late to class and they all had to put their phones in "jail". I was wondering if this was maybe this was a class that had trouble paying attention. I found her way of dealing with the phone situation very impressive because she made it seem almost fun rather than a punishment. I really like the way Felicia teaches. If I take the TEFL 200 class I hope to be her TA>

Stephanie_TS#8

On Thursday, I tutored Anwer at Strozier library. He wanted to practice a presentation for his class so I reserved a smart room for us. We plugged in the laptop and I sat there as the audience simulating how the actual presentation would take place. His presentation was on the education system in Iraq. I took notes while he spoke, and marked down any errors that I noticed or sentences that I thought could use some rephrasing. He did very well, his speech was almost 8 minutes long. He only made a few grammar mistakes but for the most part I have to say it was very smooth and fluent. I made sure to emphasize everything that he did well, and use positive reinforcement to motivate him. Anwer works very hard at practicing his English and takes his studying very seriously. After the speech, we did a listening log assignment together. We found an interesting TedX talk online about two Dutch men who travelled to Brazil together and turned favelas into works of art. It was a very interesting and inspiring video. After we watched it, I helped him figure out the main idea and write a summary for the TedX talk. All of the murals that these artists painted in the video reminded me of Wynwood – the art district in Miami where I’m from. We talked about that for a while too because Anwer loves Miami. We both agreed that art is so important because it brings people together and can send very powerful messages. Altogether, it was a very good tutoring session with Anwer.

Shanti TS#9

On May 27 I observed Alexandria tutor Abeer. First she asked him about his weekend. Then they listened to a recording of the article before they read it together. He asked her questions when he didn't understand. She then asked him which words he did not understand. One of the words he wasn't sure of the meaning of was ink. Ali explained it to him as in this context it is another for tattoo. After this she had him read the passage out loud. During this she corrected his pronunciation on words he missed pronounced. He would then say the word correctly. Ali then read part of the passage to give him a break. He continued reading and finished the article. Ali then broke it down paragraph by paragraph so that he would understand all of it. Ali then asked him questions on the servile such as what the tone was and if it was bias. They discussed the article in length.After she had him read a TOFEL practice passage. He read this silently to himself. They then went over the questions that  came with it. Abeer kept going back to the passage to double check his answers.  Abeer did very well and has good speaking skills. I was very impressed with the his ability to convey his thoughts. After the session I had a little time to speak with Abeer personally. He is very interesting. Abeer likes to learn a few words from every language and would very much like to learn Spanish after learning English. I found it interesting that he wanted to learn so many languages. He also told me he plans to become a lawyer. I enjoyed talking to him and was very impressed with Ali's tutoring.

Shanti TS#8

On may 27 I tutored David. At the beginning he was in a mood and fighting with his mom about doing math homework. He was very upset and started crying. His mom lead him away and they spoke. She then brought him back and said he didn't have to do math. He just had to read. She then left and David was still visibly upset and crying. I gave him a minute and spoke softly with him to see if he wanted to take a minute before we started. He said he didn't need a minute but he still would not look at me. I asked him if he would like me to read he first chapter and he agreed to this. This allowed for him to gather himself. Then he seemed to perk up and read the next chapter. We read 50 pages of Space Ice Planet Adventure. This book had many difficult words in it an David struggled with a lot of the pronunciation. I would say the word the right way and he would pick it up right away. After I let him read a little from a comic book he wanted to read. At this point David was completely over being upset. We then spoke about what his dad does for a living and how he had promised him anything he wanted if he went to study camp for a month on the summer. Last he wanted to tell me about a movie he watched in school today. He did very well telling me about it and mentioned a lot of details from the movie. Normally I give him candy between every chapter to keep him reading but this time he did it all by himself. I didn't give him candy until the very end. I was very proud him. He usually resists reading but today he didn't need any incentive. After we finished his mother came to tell me how pleased she was that he was in a better mood and now happy. Over all it was a really good session. David is definitely improving.

Carolina CP#4

Camilo and I met up for coffee this week and had a great time talking about the future. We talked about how our week was going and how we are both preparing to leave Tallahassee. Camilo is going back to Colombia on June 15th and I am going to Japan on June 5th. He is excited to go back to see his family and his friends but is planning to come back to Tallahassee in August and start his Bachelors here, instead of in Colombia. We have talked about various opportunities and scholarships he can apply to, in order to make it a less expensive transition to the United States. He is doing everything he can to be able to study in the US, since he passed the TOFEL and sees more opportunity here. I think it is a great idea and hope to help him with anything I can, if he decides to go to school here.

Carolina CP#3

I met up with my conversation partner Camilo for an event at the Center for Global Engagement focusing on the history and culture of Argentina. It was very interesting to learn about a new culture and country from students at FSU. Both of us really enjoyed the event because we learned about the various regions of the country, their history, diaspora of people that established roots there, and their food. We got to try a delicious  tea and cookies named Alfajores, which were very good. We then talked about the presentation and some of the countries we would like to visit. It was a fun event to attend with Camilo. Especially because he learned how to Tango with some of the girls teaching Argentina's dance of choice.

Carolina TS#9

My tutoring session with DJ this week focused on talking about holidays in South Korea. Both of us were off on Monday due to our countries different holidays. DJ enjoyed the day off, especially since he works at an airport and still got the day off. He also enjoyed the day off since he is not religious and it was a Buddhist holiday. I told him about Memorial day and he enjoyed hearing the differences in holidays in the United States. He then told me the traditional celebration of the holidays in South Korea, which I found fascinating. It was very interesting to learn about each others cultures.

Carolina TS#8

This weeks meeting with Jun was after our last session got cancelled, due to him being sick. He told me about his cold, and that he was feeling a lot better. He was still very tired from the illness but he was almost 100%. We talked about how long our summer breaks were for and his plans for this summer. He told me how in South Korea they only have 2 months of summer break, but in the holiday season they have one more month. He was exited for his summer break because his mom was planning a vacation to either China or Japan. I told him how I was going to Japan this summer and how excited I was. I am happy that he is feeling better and that he stayed up to talk to me, even though he was a little bit tired.

Carolina TS#7

My meeting with Jun was very fun! He told me he received 2nd place in the speech contest. I was so proud of him and told him how great he did , even though he seemed a little bit unsatisfied with the results. He told me how he thought he did well and was happy with second place, but at the same time was a little sad to not have received 1st place. I told him that he did very well and that he will get first place next time! He also told me about his typical week and how his school days are set up. He said there was a lot of homework, but he liked it. He also told me about his English school and how he goes twice a week. I was very impressed by this young man and how studious and outgoing he is. I really enjoy tutoring him.

Carolina TS#6

My meeting with DJ was great! He told me all about the Jeju Islands and the various places that he has been to. Since he works for an airline, it is very easy for him to travel around North East Asia. I enjoyed hearing his travel stories and the cultural differences between some of the countries he has visited. He also told me about the trip to the Jeju Islands that he had planned with a few of his friends for the upcoming weekend. He was excited for a few days away from the city with his best friends. They planned to drive down the coast line and sight-see all over the island. I looked up a few images of the island and told him that it looked like a paradise. I am sure he will have a really nice trip with his friends, and I can't wait to hear about it.

Katie CP #4

Today I went to watch the movie Project Almanac with Youssef. I picked Youssef up and in the car he told me that this past week he went to Poor Paul's with his Saudi Arabian friend. He said that he thought it was fun when we went and they played pool and darts. He hurt his knee when we were at Poor Paul's. He re-injured an old injury so he is going to a doctor in New York soon about that. Project Almanac is a suspense movie about a group of teenagers that invent a time traveling machine. The movie had comedic and romantic moments. Youssef said that he liked the movie a lot and these are the kinds of movies that he enjoys. On the ride home we talked about celebrities. He said that at home he always watches shows about celebrities and thinks that they are interesting. We also talked about the education system in America. Youssef was confused how you can go to a school for two years and transfer. I explained that if you do that it looks the same as if you went to the university for four years. We will hang out again soon.

Stephanie_TS#7

Last Saturday, I tutored Jamil at the Starbucks across from CIES. It was my first time meeting him, so I wanted to assess his English skills. Jamil speaks very well, probably at about a level 3. He was able to correct a few of his mistakes, which was impressive. Jamil is from France and has a degree in Business Law. He is in America to learn English and then move back to Paris and continue his education as a lawyer. Jamil said that his biggest challenge is speaking.  He gets nervous, especially in formal oral exams. I told him that that is perfectly normal, and that I wanted him to feel comfortable in a one-on-one setting. So we just talked casually, and I asked him questions about his life and he asked me questions about mine. At first he was very shy and only giving me one sentence answers, but the more I opened up, the more he began to open up and go into detail. It turned out we have a lot in common, and he said that this was a very positive experience for him. Jamil said that normally whenever he has conversations with native English speakers, they make him feel insecure because they are always saying “what?”, and he things it is because of his thick French accent. I will keep trying to create this relaxed environment for Jamil throughout our sessions, because I can tell that it goes a very long way. 

Stephanie_TS#6

Last Saturday, I tutored Abeer at the Sstarbucks across from CIES. It was my first time meeting her, so I wanted to assess her English. Abeer is a very sweet woman that is interested in Information Technology and Business. She is from Saudi Arabia and has only been in America for a few months with her husband. Abeer is between a level 3 and 4, she speaks very well but still has a pretty limited vocabulary. She came prepared with a lot of questions about pronouns, past participle, who’s vs. whose, etc. I showed her a very useful, simple pronoun chart that I had used in my own lesson plans the week before. It described every type of pronoun and gave examples. As we went through each pronoun, I would give her an example sentence, and then have her provide an example sentence afterwards. We did that strategy for most of her questions involving past participle and who’s vs. whose. As long as she had examples, she seemed to understand. Abeer brought a homework assignment with her. It was an interview assignment that her teacher assigned to practice her listening and speaking skills. The questions were very simple (ex. What do you do on your free time?) which kept things flowing well, while at the same time we were getting to know each other better. Abeer said this session really helped her and that she is very excited to work with me again. 

Stephanie_TS#5

Last Saturday, I tutored Anwer at the Starbucks across from CIES. It was my first time meeting him, so I wanted to assess his English skills. Anwer is at a level 4, he speaks very well and even though he makes a few mistakes, he is able to go back and correct his own errors. Anwer is from Baghdad, Iraq. He is very passionate about his country and everything it has achieved, and wants to start a video campaign to educate FSU students about Iraq. Anwer says the only things we know about Iraq are the things we see and hear in the media. He showed me this really interesting video called the Iraq Project – and everything was in English. It was a video of a man surveying random people all over Canada to see how much they knew about Iraq (turns out people really do not know much about Iraq unless they are from there). Anwer also showed me a few articles about Iraq that he has been using to practice his reading and grammar skills. He says that he really does not enjoy the reading activities that his CIES teacher gives him, but enjoys leisure reading because he gets to choose the subject. We annotated the articles together and he said he thinks that is really going to help him in the future because reading comprehension is what he finds the most difficult. I told him to summarize one of the articles about Iraq and send me what he wrote over email. He did, and I sent him back my proofread version of it. He was very grateful and I think we might keep this system going for a while. I help him with his grammar and he teaches me about Iraqi culture!

Kane TS#8

On May 24th I met with P.J. for our last tutoring session. For this session I found an article that talked about experimenting and figuring things out by doing experiments. Once I again I had questions at the end of the article for P.J. to answer. I insisted P.J. take his time to read and answer the questions so he would only have to read the story once. The questions were a little harder than normal so I assumed we would have to read more than once. P.J. read the article and had a pretty easy time with the vocabulary words found within. When the we got the comprehension questions P.J. and I had to go back to the story multiple times to find the answer. I think the questions may have been a little too hard. P.J was able to answer all the questions but I told him that he needed to slow down when reading. If he slowed down he wouldn't have to read the story multiple times or get questions wrong he knew were right. I had a blast tutoring P.J. and I learned about what works and what doesn't work when it comes to teaching kids. P.J. is leaving for Korea soon and will be speaking Korean the whole summer. Hopefully he doesn't forget some of the vocabulary words we learned the past 4 weeks!

Alexandria TS #7

This afternoon, I tutored Hesham in reading and speaking. Before we started I told him about Shanti, and Katie that were going to observe us today. He was uncomfortable with the idea, and I felt the same way. However, we pushed those feelings aside and started to work on reading. I had him read an article called "No Tattoos for Apple" Before we started reading it I decided to play the audio first, and have him follow along with the reading. I then decided to go over the vocabulary before we started reading it. The article comes with vocabulary, so we just quickly defined the words. After that I decided that we should alternate turns while reading the article. I then asked him what he thought the article was about. He was confused at to what was going on, so I had him try to summarize each paragraph, and he eventually got the main idea. I continued asking him question on if he thought the article was objective or bias, and the purpose of the article. He told me that it was bias, and the purpose was to inform the audience. Once that was done I had him do a TOEFL reading test. Hesham thought that it was easy as well, so I decided that I probably need a better website to find practice exams. However, Hesham thought the exam would be better for beginners, and I thought that his feedback was useful. At the end we talked about our future plans, and the places he has visited.

Kane TS#7

May 20th I met with P.J. for the 7th tutoring session. I wanted to do some more reading with P.J. today so I found a level appropriate comic book. The comic book we read is titled “I am Rosa Parks”, its a short comic (20 pgs.) about Rosa Parks and her fight for equality. I started the session with a brief little YouTube video and talk with P.J. about who Rosa Parks was and what she did. Also we talked about segregation and Martin Luther King Jr. P.J. had learned about all these in school and had a pretty good understanding of who Rosa Parks was and what she did. We started reading the book, the pictures within the book definitely helped to keep P.J. reading. There were a couple times P.J. had trouble with the vocabulary that slowed us down but we powered through it and were able to finish the book. At the end of the session I asked P.J. some questions about Rosa Parks and what the book was about. He was able to answer all the questions and provide examples of what Rosa Parks accomplished. I believe the comic book helped to keep P.J.’s interest while reading about a topic he may not have been interested in.

Kane TS#6

May 19th I met with P.J. for our sixth time. This time neither his teacher nor mom gave me assignments to go over with him. I wanted to make this tutoring session fun, so I decided to find some articles and stories written about the popular video game MineCraft. P.J. multiple times had mentioned how much he likes this game, so I thought this would be good material for him. I ended up finding a story that was assigned a fifth grade reading level. I read through it and knew that P.J. could read and understand the story. I created ten comprehension questions to test whether or not P.J. was reading to comprehend or just reading because I said he had to. The lesson went very smooth and we were able to finish the story and the questions by the time our hour was up. This session was based once again on reading comprehension, but this time I was able to take an interest of P.J.’s and teach him through it. I believe this was much more enjoyable to P.J. that some of our last sessions with reading comprehension.

Kane TS#5

On May 13th I met with P.J. for our fifth tutoring session. P.J.’s mother gave me a reading comprehension test that he had taken and we were to go over the questions he missed. When I showed up P.J. had homework that was due the next day that he was struggling with, so we decided to work on that first. For his homework assignment P.J. first had to answer vocabulary questions. Some of the vocabulary words were tougher than others, such as anguish, but with a couple more sample sentences to look at P.J. was understanding. The second part of the homework assignment P.J. had to write a short story about the phrase  ‘never give up’. P.J. had remembered the story about the tortoise and the hare and decided to write about that. At this point it was getting late(7:30ish) and P.J. was not wanting to write a story. With a little encouragement P.J. was able to finish the story and his homework. At this point we had about 10 minutes left so I decided to jump into the comprehension test. With a little more encouragement and some bribery(I would look at his pokemon deck) we covered the questions he missed and made sure he knew why he missed them.

Catherine TS #10

Today, I tutored Zoe at her home again. She was very excited because today her class received their yearbooks. She read aloud the biographies for her principal, and showed me her teacher, classmates, little sister, and friends. Then we played BrainQuest for 5 or 10 minutes, and Zoe practiced finding low frequency vocabulary words in pictures. Afterward, I wanted to give Zoe a creative activity to cushion last session's ("boring") reading lesson. She would practice writing a dialogue and we would both act it out together.

I think Zoe has gotten accustomed to our routine for tutoring, which includes a journal writing exercise, new vocabulary words, an active lesson, and finally a "wrap-up". I asked her to answer a short journal writing prompt: "What is your favorite movie? Why?". Her favorite movie is the new Cinderella because it is magical. Our vocabulary word for the day was "script". I told her that she would be writing one, and modeled the exercise for her. Using Cinderella and Fairy Godmother, Zoe wrote a short dialogue about the two finding Fairy's wand in the middle of a desert. Once again, I keep being pleasantly surprised by Zoe's burgeoning creativity.

Katie TS #9

Today I observed Alexandria's tutoring session. She began by asking her tutee, Abeer, about his weekend. I would say that Abeer is at an low-intermediate level. Alexandria focused on reading, listening and speaking. She began with a video about the Apple iwatch and how it does not work with tattoos. After the video, Alexandria had Abeer read the article that went with the video. The article had vocabulary with it that she used it as an aid to explain new vocabulary words. Alexandria and her tutee alternated reading the paragraphs of the article out loud. At the end of reading the paragraphs Alexandria asked Abeer what the article was about but he did not know. Abeer said that when he reads aloud he does not focus on the whole meaning and focuses on the words instead. Then Abeer read it silently and said the article was about a problem with the apple iwatch. Alexandria asked concept questions such as, "what is the main idea?" "is the article objective?" and "is the tone serious?" Alexandria brought a reading example to practice for the TOEFL. Abeer had to read the article and then answer concept questions that are similar to those found on the TOEFL. Abeer said that the reading portion of the TOEFL is the reason that he didn't pass so I think that this is a good activity for him. Overall I think that Alexandria's tutoring session was well organized and catered to the students needs. I really liked the TOEFL practice activity and the topic of the Apple iwatch video and reading activity.

Katie TS #8

Today I tutored Matthew again. Today Matthew was in a better mood than last week. I began the session by asking Matthew about his three day weekend. He said that they went fishing at St. George but he didn't catch anything. Matthew's mom provided more math homework for Matthew to do so we began the tutoring session with that. I assisted Matthew when he needed it. While Matthew was working on math and didn't need any help I read through the book for this session to pull out vocabulary words and concept questions. Unfortunately he really didn't want to read Ender's Game so he picked out another book instead. Matthew picked another Magic Treehouse book. I wanted to get away from these book because they are not very complex. However, I made the most of it by writing down vocabulary words from each chapter and quizzed him on them. Today we got through two chapters. We will continue this book next week.

Stephanie_TS#4

Last Saturday, I tutored Ilbouldo at the Starbucks across from CIES. We worked on a listening exercise because that is the area he said he has been struggling the most with. We practiced some one-on-one conversation, and I spoke very slowly so he could understand. He liked that practice a lot. He also brought some homework with him – an audio exercise about a recipe for a Greek Salad. I really liked the activity; I thought it was a great way for students to practice listening comprehension. Ilbouldo did not care for the activity because he said it was kind of hard for him. He had to rewind the video many times, but we were able to complete the assignment together. The assignment asked him to listen to the video three times (we listened to it many more times than that because he needed it). The first time listening, he was instructed to write down the ingredients (exact measurements and everything) for a Greek Salad. The second time listening, he was instructed to write down the procedure of preparing the salad word for word. For example, he would have to write down the exact steps like when to peel the cucumber, when to add the olive oil, etc. The third listening portion consisted of more comprehension questions. For example, one of the questions was “What is the greek salad a good compliment to?”. Ilbouldo did not understand what compliment meant, he thought it was just an endearing phrase. I explained to him what compliment meant in this context, and the answer was “a meal”. The host of the cooking demonstration had mentioned that briefly at the end of the show. 

Catherine TS #9

Today I met with Saeed again. We worked on American English idioms, such as "cats and dogs" and "arm and a leg". I explained to him that idioms have a different meaning than their figurative, or literal description. I asked Saeed to give me an example of an idiom in Saudi Arabian Arabic. This brought us into a discussion about the Arabic vocabulary, and how Arabic is more about communicating direct meaning, rather than implied meaning. For example, in Arabic, the alphabet consists of symbols that represent the sounds of words. Simply by understanding the sound of a word,  and its matching Arabic symbol, one can learn the language. This session felt like another needs assessment. I was able to see exactly why Saeed struggles with writing English. It is because he is more of an auditory learner, possessing a very fluent spoken English, but very poor spelling. I helped Saeed understand that English also has rules for sounds, pertaining to how the words are joined together and spelled. We worked on words such as late, space, mate, ate; he learned the meaning behind the silent "e," and how to decipher when it is used, or not.

Catherine TS #8

I met with Saeed on Friday, May 22. I remembered from last session that he had problems with present perfect verbs. Using Saeed's vocabulary words from his grammar class, I made a "word bank" list of words. First, I made him change the verbs into the present perfect tense. Then, I asked Saeed to respond to a scenario: "What have you done since moving to the United States"? He was required to use the present perfect tense, using the word bank, to write sentences responding to the question. We spent the remainder of our tutoring session going over grammar, and would fall into discussion about things he has done.

Catherine TS#7

On Friday, May 22, I met with Zoe a third time. I remembered Zoe telling me that she does not like to do Reading Comprehension activities, "because they are too hard and boring". Being the kill-joy that I am, I decided to bring the Reading lesson plan from class.

To begin, I had Zoe answer three questions:

1. Do you like nature? Why? 
2. What are things you like to do outside?

As a visual aid, I gave Zoe two pictures of natural environments: a rainforest and an island. She wrote down her answers and shared them with me. Zoe loves nature because it is beautiful, but her sister likes it more. They love to look at nature, read in nature, and dance in nature. I followed this with a schema-building vocabulary activity. Using images, Zoe learned new vocabulary words: environment, global warming, pollution, and recycle. After this activity, I showed Zoe a picture from the article and asked her to guess what the reading would be about. Then we read an article from National Geographic for Kids: "Green Tips". Afterwards, I gave Zoe time to complete the reading comprehension questions on her own. Before leaving, I asked Zoe to tell me what she learned from the lesson using one vocabulary word.

Catherine TS#6

On Wednesday, May 20, I had my first group tutoring session with Osama and Saeed. We all met at Starbucks. They were both worried about passing their midterms, and preferred that I helped them study. With Saeed, he had to study for his Listening class. For Saeed, I had him listen to Drake's "Now & Forever" and complete a worksheet with questions pertaining to the song. Meanwhile, with Osama, we worked on conjugating "-to be" plus "-ing" verbs. I gave him a worksheet. I monitored as he conjugated verbs into the "-to be"+"-ing" format, and then wrote sentences for each word. Once Saeed finished with his listening activity, I helped him prepare for a verbal presentation. He was to give a speech about a topic pertaining to his culture. He chose to talk about greetings in Saudi Arabia, and how they differ between genders and within families. I simply had Saeed practice by explaining the customs to me, and I would intervene when he would make mistakes with his grammar.

Lane TS #7

This was my second tutoring session with Jun-Suk over Skype in Korea. Although I was very proud of all that I prepared for this tutoring session, it ended up being for naught since Jun had already read the book I found and prepared a lesson from for him. (It was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.) So, in a spur of the moment kind of thing, I decided to find something for him that would be short and simple, but at the same time helpful to him in his goal of being accepted to Harvard someday. Therefore, I selected the famous American short story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. I thought that this would be both important to forming Jun's understanding of the contemporary American literary canon, as well as appealing to his young boyish sense of morbidity. Still, I wasn't sure if it wouldn't scare him too much, but since we were unable to finish in this session, I'll have a better understanding of whether or not it was appropriate to suggest. I hope that he likes it, and that the surprising ending will kindle an intrinsic motivation in him!

Lane TS #6

My second tutoring session with Manal took place on May 20th, and this one was very similar to the last one. We worked on the listening assignments for her class as well as additional practice. This was a good tutoring lesson for me since I learned to employ different strategies of leading a tutee to an answer without giving it to them explicitly. It also put me more in touch with vocabulary needs that Manal had and things that she specifically needed to work on. Still, tutoring Manal is a pleasure since she is so focussed and hardworking. I look forward to tutoring session with her in the future.

Lane TS #5

On May 16th, I performed my first child tutoring session with Jun-Suk over Skype in South Korea. I had a lot of time to prepare for this tutoring session and I did; however, I didn't really know what to expect. I hoped to approach the tutoring session like Shanti's one that I observed. When I did make the Skype call with Jun-Suk, though, we mostly got distracted and talked about other things that were sort of diagnostic but also a little tangential. It helped me to better understand what he hoped to get out of the tutoring sessions, but at the same time all I really helped him with was the speaking practice. I was very impressed by the depth and breadth of his reading experience, since I planned to have him read from some of the online books I had found for children. When I showed them to him, it turned out that he had read most all of them and was at a much higher level, both in terms of reading and conversation, than I had expected. Still, I think that this was a productive and helpful tutoring session.

Catherine TS#5

I met with Zoe for the second time on Tuesday May 19. To begin our session, I asked Zoe to update me on her life since our last meeting. She explains that her teacher will be leaving the school at the end of the school year. As a gift, the class is filling out a questionnaire titled "My Teacher". In it, the students answer questions about why they love their teacher. I help Zoe fill this out, as a conversation practice, and ask her to describe her teacher.

Once we finished, I gave Zoe an assignment. Using a National Geographic Animal Encyclopedia from her library, Zoe picked two of her favorite animals from the book, and read (aloud) the facts for each animal. Then, she responded to two short-response questions using the facts from the encyclopedia for each animal:

1. What is your favorite animal good at doing?
2. What does your favorite animal like to do?

Once she finished, she shared her answers with me. For the remainder of our meeting, we talked about our favorite animals. One of Zoe's favorites is the polar bear. We talked a little bit about endangered animals and global warming. We would continue the discussion into our next session.

Lane TS #4

This tutoring session was on May 15th, and it came as kind of a surprise. My conversation partner, Ki Woong, asked if I could help him over the computer with the abstract for his PhD thesis. That was something I was anxious about and didn't know how to prepare for, but I accepted because I wanted to help to the best of my abilities. Then, this turned out to be one of my most helpful tutoring sessions as it allowed me to realize that I am best at helping with writing and editing aspects of English. I maybe should have known this since I am a Creative-Writing major, but I really got into this tutoring session. Also, I found it a lot easier to notice and correct the mistakes Ki Woong had asked me to correct from our early conversations in the format of a written essay. Even though it was unexpected, I was grateful for the opportunity to be of assistance and also for what this session taught me.

Catherine TS# 4

On Monday, May 18, I met with a second tutee. His name is Saeed and he is an international student at the CIES from Saudi Arabia. Since it was our first meeting, I once again focused on introductions and the needs assessment questionnaire. I learned more about Saeed as a person: his conditional acceptance to the University of Oklahama, his passion for architecture, and his love for soccer. Saeed's conversation skills are excellent. Right off the bat, I noticed that he had a high fluency, despite being a Group 1 student. However, when I gave him a writing assignment to complete, right away I noticed that his weakness was in writing. Saeed agreed, he needs most help in grammar, writing, and reading comprehension.

Lane TS #3

The next tutoring session I had was with a girl from Saudi Arabia named Manal, who was referred to me by my first conversation partner. As opposed to some of my other tutees, Manal had very specific extrinsic motivations (wanting to get her master's and PhD, wanting to improve quickly for her family), and so she had very specific priorities. Specifically, she wanted help with her listening and with her homework and presentations for CIES classes. This made my assistance to her fairly straightforward but still very engaged. A lot of my preparation kind of went out of the window when I went to meet her; however, I think that's an important thing to consider as well, since it's another way I need to learn to adapt to the needs of my tutees. Overall, we had an extremely productive tutoring session.

Lane TS #2

Later on the day of May 11th, I observed a child tutoring session of Shanti's. This tutoring session took place in the public library. She was helping the young Michael with reading, and she used candy to give him extrinsic motivation. I noticed that there was an extreme change between tutoring styles for an adult and for a child. With an adult, you have to let them have a certain level of control over the session, since their motivation is intrinsic, whereas with child there can't really be intrinsic motivation at all. Shanti kept having to convince Michael to keep going and to pay more attention, which was a good thing for me to notice because then I began to think of ways to focus the child tutee I would later have over Skype.

Lane TS #1

My first tutoring session was on May 11th with Juliana Balestro, a woman from Brazil. I spent the most time of all preparing for this tutoring session because I combed through all of the tutoring resources on the CIES Blackboard, so then Juliana and I performed a lot of diagnostic analysis of her needs together. We talked about the fact that she speaks both Portuguese and Spanish, and that she hopes to improve her English as quickly as she can so that she can work with the Autism and Speech Therapy Institute at FSU. I appreciated how hard she seemed to be willing to work, and so I was motivated to match her and to help her to the best of my ability. Overall we had a productive and good tutoring session together.

Lane CP #3

I met again with Ki Woong at Panera on May 20th. Because this was a continuation of a previous conversation partner relationship, I felt like we bonded more and had more interesting and less generic conversations. This time we talked about history and the relationships between our countries. I felt like I learned a lot from him, and he said that he learned a lot from me. He told me that South Korea thinks that someday they will be reunited with North Korea, like when the Berlin Wall fell. He also told me various things having to do with his PhD in Public Administration, which I didn't know about at first but was really interested by. I had no idea what that even meant at first, but I feel like I have a better idea now. I look forward to learning more from Ki Woong and to teach him in turn.

Lane CP #2

I met with an additional conversation partner named Ki Woong on May 13th at Panera. Initially we went to Books a Million, which was convenient for both of us because we both live on the north side of town there with our respective families. We walked to the Panera across the street and talked there for a long time about cultural differences and pronunciations as we got to know each other. He is a PhD student in Public Administration at FSU, and he attended Columbia in New York as well. It was an interesting experience having just a conversation without anything else to focus on. That was difficult at first, but it became easier and was probably more beneficial for Ki Woong on the large part. I look forward to getting to know him better and having more conversations.

Katie TS #7

Today I tutored Ahmed and Mohammed. I began by asking them how their three day weekends were. Mohammed said that he made traditional Saudi Arabian food in his apartment for the first time. He said it wasn't very good and I thought that was funny. Ahmed said that he didn't do anything special for the three day weekend and it was boring. We watched the action TV show at Mohammed's request. I chose the show Daredevil. The vocabulary was pretty advanced at parts but both of them were able to figure out the plot. The show contained a lot of phrases that are uniquely American such as "$1000 a head" and "dead in the water." I taught them the meanings of these phrases. I was surprised to learn that they didn't know phrase "You're hired." I explained it. I was also glad to see that Mohammad has a notebook where he takes down new vocabulary words and he used it a couple time during our session. He seems to have improved from our last session.

O'Neill TS # 6

Tonight I just finished tutoring Hamoud. I prepared our lesson today by focusing on his reading. Since he is taking his IETLS exam this weekend, I took our reading from practice tests online. Before working on the reading, I introduced him to Kyle who was sitting in today for the session. We talked for a little bit at first before entering our lesson. I started out the lesson by introducing him to a list of Greek roots and suffixes and Latin prefixes. The list had some low frequency words as examples, so I explained to him its importance through an online video on the many language influences English has. From there, we went over the words in the list. Kyle and I made sure to answer any inquiries he might have. After that, we went over the reading. I had him reading to himself at first, and later on he started reading aloud to which I could correct him for any errors. We underlined any words he did not understand and made sure he would leave knowing the meanings. Once we were done with the reading, he answered the corresponding question. I was impressed by his quick answer to the question, he didn't even have to return to the reading. If it were me, I know I would have gone back to reread the section in the reading. From there, I asked him how he liked the lesson, he told me he found it really helpful. We agreed on focusing on either writing or reading for our next tutoring session.

Shanti CP#4

Today Kyu and I went to the movies. He has only gone to the movies once since he moved to Tallahassee. Kyu went to the Governs Square movie theater so this time we went to the Tallahassee mall theater. On the way we talked about his girlfriend. She is back in South Korea getting her PHD. He told me that she wants to get married but he wants to find a job after graduating first. He was not sure how to really buy a ticket or how to find seats. He thought that we had to buy specific seats. I explained to him that we don't reserve seats that's why we come early. After the movie we discussed how we felt about the movie. We both agreed that are expectations were to high so the movie wasn't as good as we thought it would be. We both still liked the movie, but we were a little let down.

Alexandria TS #6

Last Friday, May 22, I tutored Abeer. It was my first time tutoring her so we had a quick conversation about her culture, and what she needed help with. She said she needed help with reading and listening. I had prepared things to read, and decided that "No Tattoos for Apple Watch" would be a good article to start off with. I had her read the first paragraph, and she was very confused at to what was happening. I realized that it was difficult for her to read, and that I should choose an easier article next time. We went over a lot of vocabulary after she finished reading it, and defined each word together. I realized that she would sometimes underline the same word twice, and had her define the word for me to see if she understood what we went over. She seemed to understand the majority of the words we went over, and I thought it was great that she was able to grasp the meaning so quickly. After we read the article we went over questions about the article as to what she thought the main idea was, and if it was bias or objective. Abeer got the idea after going through each paragraph, and summarizing it together. Our next class will involve a shorter article with easier words, and I will have us watch a short clip to practice her listening as well.

Alexandria TS #5

Last Wednesday, May 20, I tutored Badah. We had a short conversation in the beginning, and decided to wait a bit for Hesham. Hesham didn't know that we had tutoring today, and I told him that it was my fault for not texting him a day before. I decided to just tutor Badah for today, and Hesham would join us next week. I had Badah read an article called "No Tattoos for Apple Watch." Before he started I had him tell me what he thought the article would be about. He said people with tattoos could not have apple watches, and then started asking me why. I then told him to read the article to find out why. He did not have much difficulty with reading it, and understood what he was reading. The only problem he had was mostly vocabulary, which is what we went over before I started asking him questions on the article. After we went over the vocabulary, he got the main idea of what the article was about. I then asked him questions, such as what the article is informing him, and if it was objective or bias? His answers matched what I was thinking, and had a short discussion on it. When that was done I gave him a TOEFL practice that I found online. He said it was much easier then the actually TOEFL, and we got through it pretty quickly. After that we spent the last 15 minutes talking to each other, and I tried using new vocabulary in our conversation .

Alexandria CP #4

Last Thursday, May 21, I met with Ghadeer. I picked her up, and took her to Lake Ella. She did not know where Lake Ella was, but was excited to go somewhere new. On our way their we talked about school, and how her midterms went. She said that it was hard, and that she had more quizzes tomorrow. I thought she made a lot of responsibility because when she gets home she cooks, then cleans, and final she gets to do her homework. She said it was nice to be able to go out because she could take a break from everything. When we got to Lake Ella it was packed! I forgot that it was food truck Thursday, and we decided to walk around the lake. A lot of people were walking their dogs, and she did not like dogs as much. I felt bad, and took her to the middle of the lake where there was benches, and no dogs. We sat down, and talked about the ducks. She also showed me a part of her homework she did not understand. I was caught off guard a bit, but helped her. We then went to go see if the snowball shop was opened, but it wasn't. We decided that it was time to go back home because it was late. On our way back Ghadeer taught me a couple of Arabic greetings, which I thought was great because I was slowly learning new words. It was a fun day at the park, and I enjoyed spending my time with her!

Kane CO#1

On Wednesday May 20th I observed Ms. Vicky Golen’s foundation grammar class. This was a small class which allowed for meaningful classroom interaction. The activity for today's class was all about the present continuous tense. The first thing the class did was a quick review on Yes/No questions and how to answer them. We did a quick activity where we asked each other yes/no questions and had to answer them without using yes or no. This was a good exercise because it involved the whole class and showed them grammar in use. The main lesson for today was the present continuous tense. We quickly went over the rules of using this tense and had some sample questions for the student to see and solve. After the quick explanation we went outside and did an activity involving the present continuous tense. In this activity the students had to write 6-8 sentences using the present continuous tense about things they saw happening outside. I liked this activity because we got to go outside and learn, it was fun for me and the students! I liked this activity and cant wait to learn more about teaching through observing.

Kane CP#3

My third conversation partner is Ahmed. Ahmed is an advanced level student at CIES studying for the TOEFL exam. For this meeting Ahmed invited me for coffee at Panera Bread. Ahmed is 33 years old and has two kids that are attending public schools in Leon county. Ahmed insisted he buy coffee since he invited me in the first place. Automatically I knew Ahmed was a nice guy with deep rotted culture and traditions. Ahmed is from Saudi Arabia and spent a good bit on trying to convince me Saudi Arabia was the place to teach. Right off the bat Ahmed asked me if I could correct his mistakes when he was wrong, I agreed and we got to talking. Ahmed speaks very good English and has a lot of knowledge about the English language. Once again his biggest problem is confidence. I reassured him that people would be happy that he was trying to speak English and that they wouldn't judge him for making a mistake. Ahmed and I talked for about 2 hours covering many different topics and learning about each other. I told Ahmed to give me a call or send me a text if he ever had any questions or needed help with anything. I will soon meet up with Ahmed again to see how he is doing.

Alexandria CP #3

Last Thursday, May 21, I met with Sheymaa. We decided to met at Starbucks behind the Hecht house, and hang out there until her next class started. It was our first time meeting one another, and I was excited to get to know her! She told me a bit about herself, and that she is Arabic. I told her that I got to know a lot of people from Saudi Arabia, and she was not surprised because she said there are a lot of students from her country. We then talked about the language, and how I wanted to learn at least the basics. She thought that it was great, and taught me a few other words. She then told me about her family, and how much she missed it. I can only imagine how hard it must be because of the distant. She said it takes about a day to travel from Saudi Arabia to Tallahassee, Florida. I was surprised at how long it took, and told her that I admire how much patience she had. We then parted ways when she had to head back to class. We decided to meet another time next week, and I look forward to it.

Kane CP#2

My second conversation partner is Ali. Ali is a 23 year old from Yemen. He is also attending CIES in order to pass to the TOEFL to get into a university. Ali is a level 1-2 student at CIES and struggles with vocabulary(who doesn’t?). For this meeting we met in the CIES courtyard because it was a beautiful day. The first thing we talked about was soccer or futbal, Ali is a big fan of Juventus, an Italian club team. It was hard to get Ali to talk because he is not confident in his speaking abilities and gets embarrassed easily. About half way through out meeting Ali’s friends Thamer and Faisal joined in on our conversation. Thamer is from Kuwait and Faisal is from Saudi Arabia. The three of them did not know each other but all speak Arabic so they became friends quick. With his buddies there Ali started talking more. It was nice to meet Ali and his two friends Thamer and Faisal. Next time we meet up I will invite him to play soccer with me.

O'Neill CP # 3

This past Friday I got together with my tutee Hamoud in the late afternoon. This time he just wanted to hangout. He told me he wanted me to try arabic coffee and tea. So I came over to his apartment for coffee and tea. He told me they eat tamur along with the coffee. The tamur looked and tasted just like dates, so I believe they were dates. Anyways, we talked about Kuwait and the rules of being Arabic. He told me that in Kuwait the police can arrest you if you have been drinking alcohol. He told me tourists are allowed to drink, but only in their homes. So we talked about it and then started watching the show The 100. It was so funny watching the show with him because every now and then he had interesting questions such as the meaning to the phrase a "fair fight." It took me a while to explain to him what it meant. We took note of all and any troubling words or phrases he had and before I left we reviewed the new vocabulary. He is a lot of fun to hangout with, I am happy that I am making a new friend.

Kane CP#1

My first meeting with Kouanda went well. Kouanda is a level 2-3 student in CIES, but speaks good English if you ask me. I insisted that Kouanda be confident with his speaking abilities and never be embarrassed if he messed up. Kouanda is hoping to pass the TOEFL exam so he can continue on his way to getting a Masters in aquatic engineering. We met in the lobby of CIES because Kouanda is new to Tallahassee and doesnt know his way around yet. Kouanda is from the West African country of Burkina Faso. I had never heard of this country before so I was very interested in learning more about it from Kouanda. Kouanda greatly misses his family, but is able to Skype with them in order to feel less homesick. We talked about Netflix and offered some tv shows that he could watch. He loves comedy so I told him about The Office. He may not get the comedy right away but who doesn't love The Office? All in all I had a great time talking to Kouanda and look forward to meeting with him again.

Shanti TS#7

Today I had another Skype tutoring session with DJ. We started with our usually conversation about our weekends. He told me he had a 3 day weekend because Monday was Buddha's Day. DJ told me about how he went to the park. He is very good at telling me things and then expressing his opinion of that thing. The only mistake he still has trouble with is the word "the". He forgets to use it sometimes. Otherwise he is very good at expressing himself. Then he told me about how he got new glasses because he broke his. He wanted to tell me that frames in Korea are cheaper than in the U.S. I then was confused on how he got his glasses the same day he went in, Usually in the U.S. they send the prescription and frames to be fitted with the lenses. It usually takes about a week to get new glasses. In Korea he explained that usually they make the lenses right there in the store. At the beginning he did not understand my question about how he got the glasses so fast. I tried many times to explain it but what worked in the end was me explaining the process of how we get glasses here and then asking him if it is the same in South Korea. This seems like the method he likes the best. DJ ended with asking me what the word procrastination means. I tried to explain it with synonyms and example sentences but he still was a little confused. I told him I would try and explain it to him better next time after I did some research on it. I plan to do some research and find a better way to explain it to him next time. Every time I speak with him he is more and more willing to talk. This time I barely got a word in because he wanted to express himself so much about different things. Every time something would pop into his head he would immediately want to say it. I am very happy that he is so comfortable talking with me.

Shanti CP#3

On Wednesday the 20th I met with Kyu. We wen to the SLC and then to McDonalds. We talked about many things, He told me about the night clubs in Korea and how the waitresses brought women to him. He explained to me that clubs in South Korea are like match making services. He then asked me to explain the dancing that we do in the clubs in the U.S. because he did not understand our style of dancing. This was awkward because he had never seen this kind of dancing and was shocked by it. After I tried to explain the way clubs worked here he kept telling me how shocked he was by our culture. I also told him about white trash Wednesdays. He did not like that at all. He was shocked by this as well. Then he asked about my allergy shots. I tried to explain to him why I get them and how. He then wanted to know what happens when something I'm allergic to touches me. It was hard to explain what hives were so I just showed him a picture from google. Overall it was a good meeting if a little awkward. Next time we plan to go to the movies to see the Avengers.

Bria TS #10

            During this session, my tutee wanted to work on reported speech, such as he said/she said. I did know understand what exactly my tutee meant by he said/she said until he showed me some examples from his textbook, such as “He said that he had rented a movie last night” and “He said, ‘I rented a movie last night.’” From this, I learned that it is easier to tutor someone when they have the exact sentences and examples that they used in their class. Furthermore, my tutee wanted to know which sentence would be better for writing and which sentence would be better for speech. I explained to him that “He said that he had rented a movie last night” would be better for speech because a person cannot use quote marks when they speak in order to show what is being quoted. I also explained to him that “He said, ‘I rented a movie last night’” would be better for writing because a person can see the quotation mark and see what is being quoted. It is also easier to write because the quoted sentence does not have to change because it is a direct quote. All in all, it was a good tutoring session.

Bria TS #9

            During this session, I learned that my tutee wanted me to explain the errors on his test. He understood the sentences on the test. However, he has some problems with using the correct vocabulary. For example, there were a few fill in the blank questions about what a person does everyday, such as “She ______ at the school.” He wrote “goes” in the blank. I explained to him that because the person is already at the school, she cannot go to the school. I also explained that the sentence is talking about her location because of the preposition “at.” I continued to explain that the verb “go” uses the preposition “to.” If the sentence had said, “She _____ to the school,” then he could have written “goes.” He also had a few more mistakes like this. I explained to him why they were incorrect and what the correct answer would be. From this tutoring session, I learned that I should do some grammar exercises with my tutee. All in all, I plan to do this with him during the next session.