Class on 11/20/13

Warm Up: students went to:

 http://www.grammar-quizzes.com/fewerless.html

and practiced the lesson and quiz on when to use Fewer or when to use Less.


Student's got back their last Paragraphs with corrections. They re-wrote their paragraphs and tried to have an error free example of their writing.

Students read their "perfect" paragraphs in pairs and then in the whole class.

Students worked individually to write a new paragraph. Topic: Describe your family. Describe them both physically and a favorite activity of each.
Examples: "My daughter is five years old. She loves anything that is pink."
                 "My mother is full of energy and she likes to walk in the park."

Students practiced reading to classmates and to individually to the instructor.

Homework: email your two "perfect" paragraphs to the instructor: "Last Weekend" and "My Family"

Class on 11/18/13

Warm Up:
Fluent in Five Years?
Students finished sentences about longer term planning and learning English. Students discussed in pairs:

Students reported on one more recent news story. Students practiced in pairs.

Presentations to the whole group.

Students worked with Jenny Castello and Nadya Segova (Academic Councilor) to enroll in classes for next semester.

Students wrote a paragraph about what they did last weekend. They were told to treat it as a practice quiz.


Homework: Read pages 71 to 74. Write answers from page 75 in full sentences on separate paper. 

Class on 11/13/13

Warm Up: Interview a student. Record 4 things they did this last weekend.

Students worked in pairs and then reported individually to the whole class.

Students worked in the same pairs to recount the news story the read about for homework

Practice Quiz

Tutor Sign up and Tutor Assignment. Students went to Websmart and used the Student Services and the Schedule Appointment links to choose a Tutor and time and date to meet with them on the Canada Campus's Learning Center.

Assignment:

• Read pages 103 to 106 out loud with your tutor. 
• Act out and fill out the pages 107 to 110

The instructor discussed how there are only 8 more classes to go before the end of the semester. 

Whole class read from the reader pages 69 and 70.

Homework: Pick a different News Story and Do the same exercise as for 11/4/13

Class on 11/6/13

Warm up exercise:

Write a dialogue for one of the following:
You are late for work. What do you say to your boss?
You need a day off. How do you ask your boss?
Someone you work with is doing something suspicious. How do you approach your boss?

Example:

Some typical "clean" answers: 
Dave: Good Morning.
Jose: Do you know what time it is?
D: Yes. I'm sorry. I'm late.
J: Why were you late?
D: I was stuck in traffic.
J: I need you to be on time everyday.
D: Ok. I will try to leave earlier everyday.

Some not so good answers:
Dave: Oh I'm so sorry. You would not believe what happened to me?
Jose: Do you know what time it is?
D: It is 9:05. Oh my sister's car broke down and I had to pick her up and drive her to work and take her kid to school and he was crying the whole time. It was a mess.
J: You should have called.
D: Oh and then my battery died on my cellphone
J: I need you to be on time everyday.
D: Oh dude. I am so gonna try harder tomorrow. Plus my sister, she can just walk to work!

Students practiced writing and the reading out loud their dialogues. The instructor took the class through some general patterns or trends in Good or "Clean" answers to use with the boss.

Students read out loud their homework (on a recent news story) to a partner. Then they switched partners and tried to tell what they had read about without looking at the paper. Then each student did a presentation infront of the class without written materials.

Students re-wrote a corrected paragraph that had been recently returned.

Students took "Spelling" Quiz #5

Reading from the reader pages 65 and 66.

Homework: Do the same exercise as for 11/4/13 but pick a different News Story
Also practice logging on to https://websmart.smccd.edu/ 
Don't know your password? Contact the school. 

Class on 11/4/13

Warm Up: 

Students wrote a list of four things they did this weekend. Then they put them in chronological order. Students then read their list (or proto paragraph) to the whole class. 

1. across
2. believe
3. conscious
4. definitely
5. embarrass
6. friend
7. necessary
8. remember
9. tomorrow
10. tongue

Students "corrected" each other's practice quizzes. And were advised to study for a real quiz on Wednesday.

Students typed their Thank You letters in MS Word, saved the document and emailed it to themselves. 

The instructor shared how the students will work toward the following goals:

1. Save digital copies of Resume, Cover Letter and Thank You Letter

2. Create an on-line Portfolio to store these and more examples of writing.

Students in pairs researched a current news story. They reported back the Who, What, Where, When and Why of the story to the whole class. 

Reader Pages 61 and 62. Students read silently and identified new/difficult words. The instructor built a list of all students contributions

Homework: 

• Read a current news story (use NPR.com CNN.com or other) 
• Write the title and the source (did you use "sfgate.com" for example)
• Answer the following questions: What happened? Where did it take place. Who was involved? Why is it important?

Class on 10/30/13

Warm up: Students went online to read about the shooting of Andy Lopez in Santa Rosa. Individual students were asked to write about the following questions:

1. What happened in Santa Rosa last week?
2. Would the police have acted differently if Andy had looked like he was White or Asian?
3. Could the same thing happen in your town?
4. Did Andy do anything wrong? Could his parents have done anything to protect him?


Students then wrote a paragraph on the following question:

Do you trust the police where you live? Describe a specific story or encounter with the police. (Try to write about what has happend to you, your friends or your family.)

The instructor reminded students about the rules of the introductory sentence and offered several sentences as examples:

• "I trust the police in the town where I live."
• "I don't trust the police and try to avoid them."

Students then read out loud their paragraphs to a partner. The instructor collected the paragraphs.

Students took out their homework (20 sentences on words given on 10/28/13) and read out loud to a  partner.

Students then presented 3 of their best sentences to the whole class.

Students reviewed Cañada's Spring Catalogue and discussed briefly the class options.



Homework: Read pages 56 and 57. Complete 2 prep questions from page 58 and complete page 60 including the Thank you letter.

Class on 10/28/13

Warm Up: Students thought about three important or interesting events in their lives. They then wrote Three titles made to sound like movie titles to represent each. Students presented one or more for the whole class.

The instructor met individually with students and showed them a corrected homework paragraph from last week.

Students then were asked to write a paragraph about one event (or to describe the broadly the whole weekend).

Students turned the paragraph into the teacher. Students were then asked to prepare a short presentation for the whole class on the same topic that they chose to write about. The instructor gave feedback and recorded the one area that each student should focus on. Common strengths: students are more confident. They are standing still and talking clearly and loudly. Common areas that students should work on: focus on individuals in the audience (not just the instructor). Don't look to the ceiling when thinking. No hands in pockets. Important: the presenter should never apologize about their presentation. 


Pairs read from the reader pages 50 through 56

1. achieve
2. across
3. argument
4. believe
5. business
6. calendar
7. cemetery
8. conscious
9. definitely
10. disappear
11. embarrass
12. finally
13. friend
14. happened
15. immediately
16. interrupt
17. necessary
18. remember
19. successful
20. tomorrow
21. tongue
22. wherever

The list is pulled from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/words/common-misspellings

Homework: Choose 20 words from above and write a sentence for each one.