Raymond Vickers TS Blog #11 & #12

Date & Time: 10/15/25 530-730 (2 hrs)

Location: Zoom

Topic/Skill: listening

For this long lesson with Luis, I picked a specific topic and showed him information and videos and discussion surrounding that topic. The topic I chose was the NFL and American football. I chose this topic due to its cultural significance. American football is one of the biggest cultural topics for American English, and so I knew it would be a good topic to show him new words while using words he already knew. I started by explaining football. I asked Luis, "do you know much about American football?". He said he knew only a little, that he knew there was a team in Tampa, and that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers reminded him of Gasparilla, which I thought was funny. I then explained to him the basic rules of American football, how to play, where to watch, how Sundays are only football in some households, the star players, the contracts, the teams, my favorite team, etc. This topic made me really excited so I knew it would be a good schema building activity. I told him about my favorite team (The Seahawks) and how they played the Jaguars a couple days before.This was a good segue into showing him an article about the Jags player Travis Hunter. I made Luis read half of this article while he listened to me read it, and then I asked him for comprehension of the article afterwards. From me reading only half of the article, I could allow myself to lead him slowly into longer videos. I then showed him a video on the basic rules of the NFL uploaded by the channel Lurks lesson. Before I started the video, I asked him if the speed was all right and to let me know whenever to pause the video. I paused him halfway to ask him for comprehension so far and he explained he understood how crazy the contract costs were. We then discussed the video for some time after we finished the whole video. We then moved on to the next video, and repeated the process. This video was more about the exact rules of the game, and it was posted by the NFL. I wasn't expecting him to understand the whole video, but rather the general idea. He did a good job at that, and I could already tell his listening was getting better. He asked me to explain the quarterback and the receiver, and he seemed enthusiastic about the topic. We finished the next video which was Aaron Rodgers on JRE. I know that channel can be a little inappropriate, but he likes JRE and I knew it would help with his interest and listening. We discussed the video afterwards, and I could tell he was right due to his comprehension being above my expectations. I was excited for the next lesson after this big one.