Mon Mar 9

Objectives:

- Writing: use of connectors in written texts

- Speaking: preparing a talk

The journal writing today was answering the questions "What's good about mobile phones? What's bad about mobile phones?" A number of good and bad things arose in a later discussion about them. The sts are quite happy to talk and share in class, even though many of them have had their first class at 7am in the morning and have been at the uni for the whole day.

I wrote some sentences on the board which were related but separate sentences, and asked the sts how they could make them into one sentence. Immediately they suggested by using connectors. So they gave a number of examples of connectors that could be used. We examined a little more closely the ones that were applied wrongly. Then I gave them a handout that has a lot of information about linking words taken from the website . I put gaps in the handout so they sts had to listen and volunteer possible answers and examples of linking words throughout. It was a lot of information, but more complete and easier to understand than the textbook. When they got to the exercise in the textbook (p. 92), they had very little problems with it, much less than previous classes have had. It paid off to do the extra work beforehand.

The rest of the class was devoted to preparing their talk for Wednesday's class. Most sts had brought their article and went through it. I answered vocab questions and checked understanding of the articles. Some who hadn't come on Friday had to use one from the textbook. One st, Jorge, seemed very unsettled and distracted and didn't work very well by himself. Mariela also was not willing to use any article from the textbook and so didn't have a lot to do. But before leaving I got sts to get into pairs and to practice their presentations, and their partner had to give them feedback and recommendations about their talk. This also gave the sts a chance to speak out loud and try to put their ideas into words. It's sometimes one thing to think "yes I'm going to talk about that article, it's about that lady" but actually getting the exact words out coherently is something quite different.

This exercise went well, even though it was close to finishing the class. Those sts who had not been distracted were able to get through both their presentation and their partner's as well, and make notes about how to improve their talk.

Wed Feb 11

Objectives:

Speaking - making observations about visual texts, exchanging information about carnivals

Language awareness - extreme adjectives

Writing - creating a social profile and writing observations on the profiles of others

The journal writing for today was "the last concert you went to". It could be a rock concert, classical, listening to music at a bar, etc. The sts had to describe it in as much detail as possible. I made sure the students felt comfortable not having to share anything they had written if they didn't want to.

I took some time to re-introduce myself, especially for those who hadn't come to Monday's class. Then we went straight to NCE p. 72 - Big Events. We did all the activities on p. 72 & 73, and they talked and participated a lot. The extreme adjectives seemed relatively easy for them.

Then we did an activity called Tunoumi. The sts discussed social profiles on the internet. A number of them are involved in at least one social profile, and talked about what they liked and disliked about them. Then they filled out their own "social profile" called Tunoumi. They could do it any way that they liked. Some were very creative and took a lot of time to fill theirs out nicely. Others did it quickly, and then went back and added more detail. Then they swapped and looked at each others' profile and made comments on them. Those who wrote quickly and had finished early got to see quite a few profiles. I think they really enjoyed this activity, both for writing and creating, and being the audience for others' profiles.

I gave them homework from the workbook - p. 50 & 51, ex. 2 & 3.