Jackson Barber's Blog

 Date/Time: Wednesday, 6/23, 9:00am Topic/Skill: Composition, specifically definition essays for paragraphs, Group 1 Teacher Presentation: The professor spent the first 15 minutes of the lecture reviewing the previous day's topic and leading into today's topic. He gave an example of a definition paragraph he had written about coffee and illustrated the steps taken to write such a paragraph. Then, he gave the students about 15 minutes to begin writing a paragraph of their own, checked in after that time, then gave them a little more time to finish up.  Classroom management: The professor presented nice and slow, making sure that his speech was comprehensible and he said each thing in 2 different ways to make sure students understood. After every few minutes, rather than asking if students had any questions, he would ask, "Do you need anymore information about what I have just presented," which I thought was an interesting and effective way of checking in with students ...

 Date/Time: Monday, 6/21, 6:00pm Location: Strozier library Topic/Skill: Introductory meeting and diagnostic Feedback provided to Tutee: I told this tutee, Hussam Sahli, that he should make sure that he revises his essays when he reads them, helping to ensure that he catches all the mistakes he possibly can. I told him that everyone will make mistakes in English, even native speakers, but making sure that you go back to revise your work will help you to catch as many as you can. I helped him to catch speaking mistakes, most commonly made when using the singular form of verbs in the present and past tenses when discussing plural nouns. Lessons learned about tutoring/the tutee: I learned from the tutee that he has been studying English for quite a while and came to the US following his sister, who just earned her master's degree. The tutee wants to continue on and do the same, and this is the reason for his pursuit of knowledge about the English language. We discussed at length his h...

 Date/Time: Monday, 6/21, 3:00pm Location: Room 315 of CIES Topic/Skill: Introductory meeting and diagnostic work Feedback Provided to Tutee: I told my Tutee, Yesli Carrasco, that she needs to be more confident in her abilities with English. She has only been studying it and speaking it for a couple of months, but her reading comprehension is quite good, as is her listening. As such, I encouraged her to believe in herself a little more and she will be surprised with what she can do after a few tutoring sessions.  Lessons about the Tutoring/Tutee that you learned: I learned that sometimes there will be awkward silence, during which it is best to give the tutee a little time to think for themselves and to stay judgement-free/encouraging. I learned that I need to be a little better prepared for future sessions, as we ran out of structured material in about 30-40 minutes. I have learned that Yesli hopes to study at TCC in the fall and that this is her biggest motivation for learni...