IE3 Core Thursday: Lesson 4

Hi everyone,

Can you believe that it's already been one month since we first started our course? Time flies!

Literary Terms:
During the first part of our lesson, we continues with literary terms. Remember that your book reports are due in two more weeks, so I hope you're almost finished reading your graded readers.

Symbols:
We continued with learning about literary terms.  In today's lesson, we looked at symbols in literature. 
There is additional information about symbols in the "Reading-Literary Terms" section on the website.  The file is called Symbols in Literature.

Remember these points when analyzing symbols:
a.  a symbol usually occurs throughout your book
b.  a symbol can have one or many meanings

Irony:
We also learned about situational irony.  This type of irony occurs when the outcome of an event or situation is the opposite of what is expected.  The result can range from the humorous to the tragic.

Theme:  
The theme of a novel is the message from the author. This is what he/she wants you to learn or the main character to learn.  You can ask yourself these questions when thinking about the theme:

1. What does the author want me to learn?
2. What do the events teach the main character?

Discussions:
Before our discussions, we reviewed Conversational Style.  As you know, English conversational style is very different from the Japanese one.  During a discussion, you can "jump in" at any time to ask a question or to make a comment.  You don't have to wait to be invited to speak during a discussion. 

For next week's discussions, remember these points:

1. Use transitions to connect your discussion. You can use the expression "Let's move onto my..." (e.g. Let's move on to my summary."
2. During your summary and opinion, check your group's understanding. You can use these expressions: (a) Are you following me? (b) Are there any questions so far?
   

Homework:
1.  Discussion Preparation
2.  Blog Post #4
3.  Journal Topic #4: best friend experience
4.  Finish reading your graded reader
5.  Secret Garden literary terms (symbols, irony, theme)

Blog Question #4:

What are your plans for the Golden Week vacation?

• Write 8-10 sentences.
• Use capitalization, punctuation & spelling correctly.
• Submit by Wednesday, May 6 by 6:00pm.