Hi everyone!

I can't believe October is almost over!  

Presentation Structure & Expressions
At the beginning of our lesson, we review presentation structure and expressions from last semester.  We also looked at a model outline to help you organize your information for your outlines.  

You can find these handouts at the end of today's summary.  Don't forget to start your presentation research.  Your group will have to submit an outline by Friday, November 1.  

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

Homework:
1.   Interactions (see schedule)
2.   Listening Report #2 (due October 31)
3.   Blog Comment #5
4.   Presentation Outline (due November 1)

Blog Comment #5:

Which do you find more difficult:  our video discussions (this semester) or our newspaper article discussions (last semester)?  Why?  

*Write 8-10 sentences.
*Use capitalization, punctuation & spelling correctly.
*Submit by Wednesday, October 30 by 6:00pm.

Hi everyone,

Can you smell the ginko nuts (銀杏) 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.  These are the comments I typed on the screen during our lesson.  For next week's leaders, please include these pointers into your interactions.  

Presentation Guidelines:
In the last part of our lesson, you received the guidelines for your presentations in December.  For this semester, you will prepare a 20-minute slide presentation with your group on the activities of an NPO/NGO.  

Homework:
1.  Listening Interactions preparation (see schedule)
2.  Listening Report #1
3.  Blog Post #3
4.  Presentation Topic (make a list of 3-4 topics)

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 Wednesday, October 16 by 6:00pm.

Hi everyone!

I hope you're enjoying the weather this week.  It's beautiful.  I hope the rain stays away for a while!

Group Presentations:
For most of today's lesson, we went through the guidelines for your group presentations.  You were assigned a group and chose your presentation topic.  

We then completed activities about how to organization your presentation (structure and expressions) and how to prepare your outline 

You won't have a lot of time in class to prepare for your presentations, so make sure you arrange time with your group outside of class to plan and prepare your presentation.  

Discussions:
Since we spent most our our lesson on learning how to organize our presentations, we only have enough time for one round of discussions.  However, I'm quite impressed with how much everyone has improved this semester, especially with conversational style.  Keep up the good work!

For next week's discussions, remember these points:

1. Show interest when you are listening to others.  This lets the speaker know that you are interested in his/her comments (e.g. I see. / Yeah. / Uh-huh.)
2. No Japanese.  There are a few groups that are slipping in Japanese during discussions.  If you need to use Japanese for a vocabulary term, that is ok.  However, there should be NO long explanations in Japanese.  Please be aware that using Japanese (by the group leader or members) will result in a lower score for the group leader's discussion.   

Homework:

1. Blog comment #8
2. Discussion preparation
3. Presentation Research 
4. Start preparing presentation outline

• due June 19 before 12noon by email
• ntakeda.aogaku@yahoo.com

Blog Question #8:

What is your presentation topic?  Why did you choose this person?  

*Write 8-10 sentences.
*Use capitalization, punctuation & spelling correctly.
*Submit by Wednesday, June 12 by 6:00pm.