Hi everyone, I hope you're all enjoying the holidays. In our last class for 2013, you got the chance to meet my NPO partner and ask him questions about his life and Cambodia. You then received your last letter from your Cambodian partner. As usual, you had time to discuss your letters and ask questions about your partner. After the break, we brainstormed ideas about education in Japan. You can use these ideas and information from the handouts to write your final letter to your partner. Remember to bring it to class on January 9. Letter #3 Structure: a. comment on your partner's letter and give recent news b. write on the new topic (your education in Japan) c. answer your partner's questions d. give contact information (e.g. email or Facebook)
Homework: 1. Really English Units (finish all units) 2. Blog Comment #10 3. Letter #3 (theme: your education in Japan) 4. Writing Exchange Survey For the survey, you can either write or type it. Make sure to email it to me before our lesson on January 9 or to bring it to class on January 9. You can download the survey after our blog summary. Blog Comment #10: What did you think of our last class of 2013?
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Hi everyone,
I bet you're all relieved that we're finished our presentations. Most students did a really good job. I was quite impressed that many of you didn't even use your notes. Great work! Homework: 1. Really English Units #31-35 1. Blog Comment #9 Blog Comment #9
Hi everyone, I can't believe we have only three more lessons before the Christmas break. We finished our last interactions this week. I hope these activities helped you improve your listening skills, and maintain your speaking skills. In next week's lesson, we'll be busier than usual because we'll have our presentations. Presentation Schedule: group 1: 9:10 - 9:40am group 2: 9:40 - 10:10am group 3: 10:10 - 10:40am group 4: 11:10am - 11:40am group 5: 11:40am - 12:10pm Make sure you leave your home early enough so that you arrive on time (just before 9:00am). Those who are late will lose -20% from their presentation grade. Homework: 1. Presentation preparation 2. Really English Units #26-30 No blog comment this week! My Christmas Tree
Hi everyone,
It's definitely getting colder. Make sure you bundle up so that you don't catch a cold. Interactions: In today's interactions, we learned expressions for checking understanding. For group leaders, make sure your check your group's understanding after each skills activity: Main Ideas: Did you have trouble with any sections of the video? Details: Were there any words you couldn’t catch? For group members, when you are watching the video, note down the time of parts that you didn't understand. After, ask your group leader for help.
Visual Aids: At the beginning our our lesson, we continued with visual aids. We learned how to explain a graph. Many of your will need to include graphs in your presentations, so you can use these steps to help you: 1. Introduce 2. Explain 3. Emphasize There are a variety of expressions you can use to explain your graphs, and these are in your handouts from class. We learned three expressions in our lesson: 1. This ___ graph shows _____. 2. The x-axis shows _____ and the y-axis shows _____. 3. The key point is that ____. Explaining Maps: We also learned how to explain maps. When you explain a map, you need to: (1) Introduce and (2) Explain it. When you (1) Introduce a map, you can say: Here is a map of _____. When you (2) Explain a map, you can explain: a. its location b. its capital city c. major cities d. features Homework: 1. Interactions 2. Really English Units #21-25 3. Blog Comment #8 4. Presentation Outline
Blog Comment #8 We are coming to the end of our course - just four more lessons.
Hi everyone,
Christmas is just around the corner! Store decorations and Christmas lights are already up throughout Tokyo! Interactions Feedback: As part of your listening feedback, I demonstrated how to do shadowing with an audio file. Shadow practice will help you become a more fluent and natural speaker, and also help you with catching "elision" (=when words join together to produce a single phrase). Examples:
Shadowing Steps:
Presentation Visuals: For the second part of our lesson, we spent time on learning about different types of visual aids and how to make powerpoint slides. Type of Visuals: When you prepare your slides for your presentation, you can use a variety of visuals, such as:
Classroom Behavior: In today's class, I also had to remind you of our course expectations and behavior. Please be aware of our course guidelines (which you received the first day of class and are on the website):
Homework: 1. Interactions 2. Listening Report #6 3. Really English Units #16-20 4. Presentation Outline:
No blog comment this week! Hi everyone, We're now just a little half way through our course The following weeks are going to pass by quickly! Interactions: Your interactions are improving every week, especially your time management and moving from one section to another (e.g. with transitions or instructions). As usual, the feedback is attached in a file at the end of today's summary. Cambodian Letter #2: For the first part of the second period, you got the chance to exchange and discuss your letters, especially the cultural similarities and differences between Cambodian and Japan. I'll be sending the letters tomorrow, so your partner will read it in next Friday's lesson. Presentation Structure & Expressions: In the first part of our lesson, we talked about presentation structure. In your presentation, you will have the following: A. Introduction a. Greeting b. Topic c. Outline of main ideas d. Signal for questions B. Body a. Main idea #1 b. Main idea #2 c. Main idea #3 C. Conclusion a. Signal to end b. Summary c. Final thought d. Closing e. Invitation for questions We also learned expressions for each part of your presentation. You will need to learn these expressions and include them in your presentation. Presentation Outline: Each group will have to submit a presentation outline. Make sure you give enough information for your main ideas and include presentation expressions. You will have to email me your outline. I will then type my comments and email it back to you. In next week's class, we'll review the method for organizing your outlines. You can download the outline form from the main menu in Presentations > IE 3 Presentation Template. Homework: 1. Interactions (see schedule) 2. Presentation Research: outline due November 22 3. Blog Comment #7 4. Listening Report #5 5. Really English: Units 12-16 Blog Question #7:
Hi everyone, Many of you seemed a little sleepy in today's class. Hope you can get some more sleep tonight. Halloween Interactions: We had a Halloween-themed interactions in today's class. As usual, the feedback is the Interactions Feedback file at the end of this summary. From next week, you'll be starting your second interactions. If you chose a psychology theme for your first interaction, you'll need to choose a media theme for your second one. The same applies if you chose a media theme for your first interactions. Cambodian Letter #2: In the second part of our lesson, we learned how to describe cultural practices and artifacts. You'll need these skills to write Letter #2 to your Cambodian partner. After, you got your second letter from your partner and had some time for discussions. Homework: 1. Interactions (see schedule) 2. Presentation Research 3. Blog Comment #6 4. Cambodian Letter #2
Blog Comment #6:
*Write 10-12 sentences. *Use capitalization, punctuation & spelling correctly. *Submit by Tuesday, November 5 by 6:00pm.
Hi everyone, Since our class was cancelled last week because of the typhoon, we had two groups of interaction leaders. We've now caught up to our schedule! As usual, the feedback from today's Interactions are in a file at the end of the summary. Halloween Interactions: For next week's interactions, group leaders will have to choose a Halloween theme. You can choose from this list of movie trailers. After you choose your movie trailer, please email me to let me know your topic. Corpse Bride It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown The Conjuring The Shining Ghost Busters The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Six Sense Psycho Cambodian Letter #2: In next week's lesson, you'll receive your second letter from your Cambodian partner. If you are not in class, you will need to ask one of your friends to get your letter for you. Our theme for your second letter is a Japanese festival. We'll learn how to describe cultural activities in our lesson next week. Homework: 1. Interactions (see schedule) 2. Really English Units #9-12 3. Listening Report #4 4. Blog Comment #5 Blog Comment #5: For your Cambodian letter next week, you will need to choose a Japanese festival or cultural activity. Which festival or cultural activity would you like to describe to your partner? What do you know about this festival/activity? Why do you want to describe it? *Write 8-10 sentences. *Use capitalization, punctuation & spelling correctly. *Submit by Tuesday, October 29 by 6:00pm.
Hi everyone,
Unfortunately, our lesson was cancelled because of Wednesday's typhoon. I'm sure glad that I didn't have to walk through the wind and rain at 7am!! Interactions: Because of the cancellation, there will be a few changes to our lesson next week. We will have two listening interactions next week. 9:00 - 10:30: group 1: Hitomi, Yuri K., Haruka, Asami 11:00 - 12:30: group 2: Konomi, Shiori, Nao, Yuri W. For the 9:00am group, make sure you arrive on time. If you miss the first period, you will not be able to do your interaction during the second period. I would like each group to have the same number of students and it would not be fair to the leaders in group 1 if they have to have 5-6 members in their group. For both interactions, we will be in room 218. Really English: Some students have done a great job with their Really English units already! However, some students are already behind in their units. You need to complete the assigned number of units each week. If you don't, you will lose 1% each week from your Really English grade. The schedule for completing Really English units is in our syllabus. Homework: 1. Interactions preparation 2. Listening Report #2 and #3 3. Really English Units #4-#8 3. Blog Comment #4 Blog Comment #4: Tell me about your Really English progress.
*Write 8-10 sentences. *Use capitalization, punctuation & spelling correctly. *Submit by Tuesday, October 22 by 6:00pm. Hi everyone, Can you smell the ginko nuts on campus? They were really stinky this morning! Interactions: We had our first round of listening interactions. I was really impressed that ALL of you remembered many of our discussion skills from last semester, such as using showing interest and making eye contact. The feedback from today's interactions is attached at the end of this entry. For next week's leaders, please include these pointers into your interactions. Really English: I gave you new registration cards for the Really English website, and you were able to register for the program. We have 35 units to complete for this program, so try to do 3-4 units each week. If you do this, you won't have any homework over the Christmas break. To log-in to your account after you have registered, you need to go to this link: http://ac.reallyenglish.com/aoyama/account If you missed our lesson, you will need to set up your Really English account by yourself. Listening Activity: Phobias and Superstitions In the second part of our lesson, we had a listening lesson about phobias and superstitions. There were a few new vocabulary terms from the dialogue: a. surpass = overcome b. conversely = oppositie of something c. freak out = become crazy You did a good job with your discussions afterwards. I never knew that snakes will come if you whistle in the evening! Homework: 1. Listening Interactions preparation (see schedule) 2. Listening Report #2 3. Really English Units 1-5 4. Blog Post #3 Blog Question #3: Tell me about your experience in your first Listening Interactions in today's class. For example, if you were the group leader, what did you do well? what were some difficulties? etc. If you were a group member, what did you think of the activities? What were some difficulties? etc. *Write 8-10 sentences. *Use capitalization, punctuation & spelling correctly. *Submit by Tuesday, October 15 by 6:00pm.
Hi everyone,
It's only the second class of the semester, but we were busy as usual! Listening Reports: We reviewed the guidelines for your Listening Reports. You will have to choose a video / audio file from one of the websites listed in the "Listening Reports" section and complete a short report. You can either write or type your report. You can find the worksheet templates in the "Listening Reports" section as well. Listening Interactions: We also reviewed the guidelines for your Listening Interactions, and I modeled a Listening Interactions for you with the "How to Be Cool" video. Remember that you have to choose a theme for your interaction: psychology or media. These interactions are similar to our group discussions last semester, but you will be using video rather than a news article. Remember to go to Room 218 for the first period (9:00-10:30am) for next week's lesson. We'll need to use the computers for you to play your videos. Remember to also bring a pair of earphones. I'm sure you don't want to borrow mine! Don't forget that you'll have to make copies for your group members! You'll need 6-8 copies since you'll present your interaction twice and will have 3-4 members in your group. Cambodian Writing Program: Letter #1 Before I collected your letters, we had a group discussions on bias (=an unfair judgment made about a group of people based on your cultural values). Although your partner comes from a background of poverty, he/she shouldn't have "less of a life" (e.g. clean clothes, free time with friends, watching TV, having big dreams, etc.). I'll send your letters tomorrow, so you're partners will get them next week. You'll get your next letter at the end of October. Late Letters #1: For those students who did not submit there letters in class today, you will need to email them to me by Monday, October 7 before 12noon. You still must write your letter and then scan it. You will then have to send each page of your letter in an email to me (either a jpeg or PDF file). Do not ask me how to scan! Since you have not handed in your letter on time, you are making extra work for me and for my Cambodian teaching partner! You will need to go to the Aogaku computer lab and have one of the staff teach you how to scan documents. Please remember that submitting your letters late will result in a decreased grade for your letter. Homework: 1. Listening Interactions preparation (see schedule) 2. Listening Report #1 3. Blog Post #2 Blog Question #2: After today's discussion on bias, do you think any of your impressions of your partner or of Cambodia had bias? If yes, what was your bias? Why did you have it? Has it changed after our discussion? *Write 8-10 sentences. *Use capitalization, punctuation & spelling correctly. *Submit by Tuesday, October 8 by 6:00pm. Welcome back everyone!
It was really great to see everyone today, and I'm glad that you enjoyed your summer vacation. Even though it was the first day of class, we were still busy! Course Syllabus: I went through the IE 3 Syllabus in the first part of our lesson. We have finished with the writing component of our course, so now we are moving on to the listening component. The syllabus, schedules and guidelines are in the IE3 --> course information section on the website. Cambodian Writing Program: In the second part of class, you were able to learn about the lives of your Cambodian writing partner from my NGO school, the Bayon English Academy, in Siem Reap, Cambodia. You received your first letter from your partner, and got a chance to discuss your letter with your groups. For next week, please make sure to complete your letter and submit it in class. I will provide you with an envelope, so you don't need to bring one to class. Remember these points for your letter: 1. Write 5-6 pages on paper from an A4 writing pad 2. leave a space between each sentence 3. include pictures or drawings 4. make a copy of your partner's letter and your letter 5. bring the copies and your letter to class next week During the semester, you can follow your partner's studies on the BEA Blog: www.bea-cambodia.org Cambodian "Culture" Vocabulary: The "culture" vocabulary from your partners' letters are in a slide presentation in the Cambodian Research section of the website at the bottom of the page. Enjoy your weekend! Homework:
Blog Question #1: What is your impression of Cambodia and Cambodian people after reading your partner's letter? *Write 12-15 sentences. *Use capitalization, punctuation & spelling correctly. *Submit by Tuesday, October 1 by 6:00pm. Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great summer! As promised, here is all the information you'll need for the fall semester of our course. Please download, print and bring these to class this Wednesday. In the file, you will find: a. Fall Syllabus b. Fall Schedule c. Cambodian Writing Exchange Program Guidelines d. Group Presentation Guidelines & Groups e. Interactions Schedule (our listening discussions) It is also very important that you attend this Wednesday's lesson. You will get your first letter from your Cambodian partner and the program guidelines. Please respect the deadlines for this program, especially since we are working with another school, teacher and course in another country. You can click on the following link to view photos of your partners preparing their letters for you: BEA Kids and Writing Exchange Program Also, you can check the BEA Facebook Page for more information about BEA and your partner's involvement in the school. BEA Kids at BEA (Facebook page) It'll be an exciting first day, so I hope to see everyone bright and early at 9am! See you soon!
Hi everyone, In today's lesson, we reviewed gestures and learned about voice inflection; and we also have two rounds of discussion! Voice Inflection: In order to prepare you for your presentations, we spent some time on learning about and practicing voice inflection. This is when we change our voice in order to emphasize certain words/expressions in our presentation. There are three different types of inflection: 1. stress 2. stretch 3. pause When you use voice inflections, these types of words are usually inflected: 1. numbers 2. verbs 3. adjectives / adverbs 4. comparison nouns 5. negative words Homework:
Remember to complete your profile in PEN. If you make a mistake, you can download another copy after the blog question. Blog Question #10: (last one) What image do you have of Cambodia and Cambodians? Why do you have this image (e.g. from a visit, from the media, your own idea, etc.) ("I don't have any image" is not an acceptable answer.) *Write 8-10 sentences. *Use capitalization, punctuation & spelling correctly. *Submit by Tuesday, July 9 by 6:00pm.
Hi everyone,
I hope you all got home safely. It really started to rain cats and dogs as soon as our class ended. Literary Terms and Book Reports: In today's class, we spent most of our time on literary terms and reviewing the book report guidelines. We looked at theme, symbols and irony. Theme: This is the message that the author wants to tell the reader. You can ask yourself these questions to help understand the theme:
Remember that the theme is usually never directly stated in the story. You will have to infer (=guess) the theme. Symbols: Symbols usually have to meanings: (1) an obvious (surface) meaning and (2) a deeper (subtle) meaning. Also, the meaning of a symbol can change depending on the context. There are many types of symbols used in literature. For a list of some of these symbols, you can refer to the "Symbols in Literature" handout in the Reading-->Literary Terms section of the website. Irony: Situational irony is when something unexpected happens, and the outcome is usually humorous or tragic. In the case of Kakae the otter, her outcome was tragic! Book Reports: We also spent some time reviewing the essay questions for your book reports. Remember that you will have to use the appropriate structure (e.g. listing, compare/contract, hypothetical) depending on the type of question. When you complete the "literary terms" sections, make sure you give 2-3 specific examples to support your description. Homework:
Blog Question #9: What is the most important thing you have learned this semester in our course? Why? How will this help you next semester (or even after our course)? *Write 8-10 sentences. *Use capitalization, punctuation & spelling correctly. *Submit by Tuesday, July 2 by 6:00pm. Hi everyone,
I can't believe that in just three more weeks the first semester of our course will be over and we'll be on summer break! Literary Terms: For the first part of our lesson, we looked at literary terms: setting, plot and conflict. Setting: We use short excerpts from the movie The Wizard of Oz to identify setting. When you describe setting, you should include the time period, season, location and the mood. Plot: For the plot, we took a look at the different types of events that make up a plot line: exposition, inciting event, rising events, climax, falling events and resolution. Remember that the rising events contribute to the conflict and the falling events often resolve the conflict. The resolution is when the main character learns his/her lesson. Conflict: We also looked at the different types of conflict that can exist in a story, such as person against him/herself; person against person; person against the supernatural; and personal against group. When you describe conflict, make sure to give the names of the characters involved in the conflict. Also, do not use the abbreviation "vs." in your book reports. You can use this expression instead:
Discussions: Overall, everyone has shown a lot of improvement in their discussions. Group leaders are directly asking for opinions and all group members participated in the discussions actively. However, there are times when interactions are only between the group leader and each group members. In our discussions, there also needs to be interactions between group members. In order to encourage interaction between group members, group leaders can ask these questions:
Homework:
Blog Question #8:
*Write 8-10 sentences. *Use capitalization, punctuation & spelling correctly. *Submit by Tuesday, June 25 by 6:00pm. Hi everyone, The rainy season has started, which means we have a little more than a month left of classes. Graded Readers (GRs): For our next writing task, we will be completing a book report. In order to do this, you’ll need to choose a graded reader. GRs are books written for language learners. The purpose of these books is to improve your reading fluency. You need to choose one GR and bring it to class next week. When you choose your GR, remember these points:
Book Reports: We also spent some time reviewing the essay questions for your book reports. Remember that you will have to use the appropriate structure (e.g. listing, compare/contract, hypothetical) depending on the type of question. When you complete the "literary terms" sections, make sure you give 2-3 specific examples to support your description. Literary Terms: We also had a short activity that introduced literary terms. You will have to analyze each of these terms for your book reports. In today’s class, we looked at (1) point of view; (2) protagonist; and (3) antagonist. In next week’s class, we’ll learn about (4) setting; (5) conflict; (6) plot; and (7) theme. Make sure to bring the Wizard of Oz readings and our Literary Terms booklet. Discussions: Great work with your discussions in today’s class. You’ve all made a lot of improvement in presenting your summaries and opinions. Everyone is making a big effort to check their group’s understanding. However, in your summaries, it is ok to have some interaction with your group (e.g. repeat information, ask and answer questions). For group members, if you need to interrupt the group leader, you can use these expressions: 1. Can I stop you for a moment? 2. Can you explain that again? 3. What was that again? Homework: 1. Choose a graded reader (read 15 pages) 2. Wizard of Oz reading (chapters 3-6) 3. Journal Topic #6: scary experience 4. Discussion preparation 5. Blog comment #7 Bring your graded to class next week! Book Report: due Wednesday, July 3 (in class) Blog Question #7: How do you feel after writing your persuasion essay? What did you enjoy about essay writing? What difficulties did you have with the essay? *Write 8-10 sentences. *Use capitalization, punctuation & spelling correctly. *Submit by Wednesday, June 18 by 6:00pm. Revised Discussion Schedule Please be aware of the changes to our last two weeks of discussion. On July 3, we will be having two sets of discussions: one group in the first period and another group in the second period. If you are in the 9:00-10:30am group, makes sure you are not late. If you are late, you will not be able to do your discussion in the second group.
Hi everyone, I can't believe we're having such wonderful weather this week. I thought it was supposed to be the rainy season! Peer Editing Discussions: In the first part of our lesson, you discussed your peer editing activities with your partner. When you edit/revise your conclusion, you can use your partner's comments. Also, check corrections I've made in your essay. You may have made the same errors in your conclusion. Conferences: For the remaining class time, everyone got a chance to meet with me to ask me questions about their first drafts. Fortunately, there was enough time to talk with everyone! Discussions: In one of today's discussion, one group leader talked about breast cancer. As promised, here is more information about how you prevent this disease. Make sure talk to your mothers, sisters, aunts and girlfriends about this, especially since there is not a lot of social awareness in Japanese society. http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/breast-self-exam Wizard of Oz Reading: For the rest of our lesson starting from next week, we'll be learning about literary terms and how to prepare a book report. We are going to use The Wizard of Oz to help us understanding literary terms. For our June 12 lesson, you need to read chapters 1-2; for our June 19 lesson, you need to read chapters 3-6. The reading material is available in the IE3 Core Course Information section. They are also available at the end of today's summary. Make sure you download the readings, complete the required reading, and bring them to our lessons. June 12: Quiz #1 (ch. 1-2) June 19: Quiz #2 (ch. 3-6) Homework:
Blog Question #6: What advice did your partner give you about your writing in your peer editing discussions? *Write 8-10 sentences. *Use capitalization, punctuation & spelling correctly. *Submit by Wednesday, June 11 by 6:00pm.
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