FSU TEFL120 2026 Summer 1

Blog Posts Date/Time: May 6th  Location: CIES   Topic/Skill: Speaking (Get to Know Each Other)  Feedback provided to the tutee: I corrected my tutee’s usage and grammar errors as they arose, giving brief explanations as she requested.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Catalina is a great learner; when she doesn’t think she used a word or tense properly, she is quick to ask for help.  Date/Time: May 12th  Location: CIES   Topic/Skill: Speaking (US contra Colombia) Feedback provided to the tutee: I corrected my tutee’s usage and grammar errors as they arose, giving brief explanations as she requested.  Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned: Teaching speaking, especially with a Spanish speaker, requires a great deal of usage correction; that is, ensuring that while two words are virtually synonymous, they can often have different connotations.  Date/Time: May 14th  Location: CIES   T...

  Date/Time: Thursday, July 16th, 4:20-5:35pm Location: Zoom   Topic/Skill: Grammar- Present Perfect Continuous Verb Tense Feedback provided to the tutee:  During the tutoring session, I began with a review of the verb tense we learned during our last grammar session (Past Perfect Tense), and asked my tutee questions requiring her to recall her knowledge of the previously discussed verb tense giving her direct correction and explaining why/if she had errors with her use of the past perfect tense, or if she had errors in any other area such as pronunciation or sentence structure. Then we reviewed the present perfect continuous verb tense using PowerPoint slides and completed a short activity on using contractions to shorten phrases in the present perfect continuous tense. During  this activity, I corrected my tutee's use of contractions and offered feedback on how to shorten a phrase by combining contractions. My tutee and I then completed a present perfect cont...

Date/Time: May 13th, 2026 Topic/Skill: Speaking/ Mr. Bean clip  Teacher Presentation: The teacher began by asking the students to recap what happened in the previous Mr. Bean clip they watched in the last class. The teacher then asked the students to predict what would happen in the clip being focused on in the lesson.  Classroom Management: The instructor paused the clip frequently to pose questions to students, ask them to describe what was happening, or give clarity when needed.  Materials: The professor used a laptop to show the video clip and take notes on students' answers.  Student Participation: All students participated, and the instructor called on those who were more hesitant to participate.  Feedback Provided: Given that this was a speaking class, all error correction was oral, and the instructor focused on correcting students' sentence structure and pronunciation.  Lesson(s) on teaching you learned: I learned from this classroom observation tha...

  Date/Time: May 14th, 2026   Topic/Skill: Case Study article/ Reading   Teacher Presentation: The instructor began by posing schema-building questions to students and providing additional background knowledge to help them tackle a more complex text.  Classroom Management: The instructor briefly circulated around the room, but most stood at the front, calling on students to answer questions or read the assigned article. The instructor introduced the term "qualitative data" and analyzed the case study data with students.  Materials: The instructor had previously given students a printed-out reading, which they brought to class. Student Participation: Most students participated in the schema-building activity, and all students participated in reading the text aloud as the instructor called on each student to read a portion.  Feedback Provided: The instructor corrected students on various things, from pronunciation to reading comprehension accuracy, ...

  Date/Time: May 18th, 2026  Topic/Skill: Universities Then vs Now/ Listening  Teacher Presentation: The teacher began with a schema-building activity in which she posed the question to students of how they believe universities are different now compared to the past. Classroom Management: Rather than circulating the classroom to check on students' work, the teacher used a shared doc to view students' work in real time.  Materials: The teacher used a laptop to show students a video because the classroom size was small. Student Participation: The instructor gave students the option to participate voluntarily, but called on those who were a bit more hesitant to answer questions or contribute to the class discussion.  Feedback Provided: The instructor was able to view students' work in a shared doc in real time and gave them feedback aloud, which they used to correct the error on their own computers. Lesson(s) on teaching you learned: I learned from this classroom o...

  Date/Time: May 18th, 2026  Topic/Skill: Speaking ("Free Speaking") Teacher Presentation: The teacher gave a brief introduction to the daily class activity, "free speaking," and emphasized that students should focus on two areas: accuracy and fluency, with fluency being the most important. Classroom Management: The teacher divided students into groups of 2-3 and had them discuss in groups while the teacher or a TA sat nearby, observing and interjecting with error correction when necessary.  Materials: The teacher briefly used the whiteboard to support instruction and error correction.  Student Participation: All students participated, and their affective filters were lower as they were able to work casually in groups, but productive conversations were encouraged with the teacher or a TA sitting nearby each group.  Feedback Provided: Error correction during this class was much more informal and frequent, as it was a speaking class. One correction specifically hi...

  Date/Time: May 4th, 2026  Topic/Skill: Grammar (Simple Past & Past Continuous Tenses)  Teacher Presentation: The teacher began by reviewing the simple past using simple images projected on the board, which students had to describe. The teacher then gave clear instructions on how to carry out the past continuous tense activity.  Classroom Management: The teacher demonstrated strong classroom management by calling on students during the schema-building activity to encourage participation. The teacher also circulated the room, answering/asking questions to students.  Materials: The teacher utilized the whiteboard and a projector to aid in his explanations and the activity.  Student Participation: Almost all students participated in the schema-building activity, and all participated in the main activity, in which they were tasked with writing down 10 things they were doing while getting ready for a wedding before someone interrupted them.  Feedback P...