Merry Christmas to all!! I hope you're enjoying some time off with family and that you're on Santa's nice list for tomorrow.
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Today's Assignments:
We finished our Basic Quotes exercise. If you've missed that last couple of classes, you should finish it at home.
We went over the pronunciation and meanings of the new words from Body Art. When students kept asking me how to pronounce certain words, I had Selene, Lucia, Sandra, Jorge, and Franklin help met set up the computers, and then, help students who haven't used computers practice with the audio on this site. (We had some problems with the audio stopping because, I believe, the Flash isn't up to date on our computer browsers at school. Make sure your flash is up to date on your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome) if you have that problem. I gave the pronunciation test to the last students. I was really impressed by the progress of Maria Felix and Lilian. They said they've been practicing at home with the cards and having someone in their family who knows English correct their pronunciation. Finally, we did a speaking exercise, My Year in Review. Students rated 2013 as good, ok, or bad in relation to their family, job, friends, love life, money, English, and health. Have safe and happy holidays! See you January 13, 2014! We continued to practice quotes. I gave students a long exercise to practice. Not all finished it. We corrected the first ten. Tomorrow, we'll correct the rest.
We started a new story about Body Art. Students did a speaking exercise. Each student got a photograph and had to invent a story about the person. Students did a brilliant job!!! Today we had a very short class because of a teachers' meeting.
I introduced direct speech. It is a system of punctuation when we write the exact words someone said. These rules are for writing in English only. Imagine I'm writing this story: I went to the park last weekend. I met one of my students by accident. His name is Raul. He was with about 30 people. They were cooking carne asada. I didn't know if it was a party. Raul said, "All of these people are my family." I couldn't believe it. In that paragraph, I wanted to write exactly what I heard Raul say because it was dramatic. We introduce direct speech normally with: He said Then we put a comma after said: He said, Then we put open quotes to show those are the words he spoke: He said, "All of these people are my family Then we put a period at the end of his sentence: He said, "All of these people are my family. Now, because he's stopped talking, we put end quotes: He said, "All of these people are my family." We did some review before our test. Then, we took our test.
If you feel disappointed at your score, think about what you've learned. A test is not a perfect measure for the energy you've put into your education. Many of you worked very hard and should feel proud of yourselves even if you didn't get in the 90s. If you're score was low, think about taking advantage of this site and reviewing the exercises we do in class. If you didn't pass this test and the one before it, we'll have a private talk to see what's best for you. We need to be honest about what's best for you so you make the best use of your time. We'll continue the irregular verb pronunciation test tomorrow and Thursday. Today's Assignments: We started by getting students in groups of 3. One student was the teacher: he showed a verb card. The other two students had to pronounce the past and participles. Each card said correctly was won by the student. After about 25 cards, they stopped, counted their cards, and saw who won. The winner then became the new teacher and tested the others.
I started pronunciation tests of individual students. I called a student outside and told them 20 base verbs. I checked their pronunciation of each. I will continue tomorrow and the next day. If you miss more than 4, you won't pass, and you'll have to take the oral test again. We did the reading comprehension exercise on To Spank or Not to Spank. On the back was a crossword puzzle to practice the vocabulary more. Students played a game asking each other present perfect questions. Tomorrow's test: past participles (spelling and pronunciation), present perfect (how long, for, since, already, yet, ever, never, this month, just, recently), Comma Rule 5 (Because, If, When, While, After, Before---but only when those words start a sentence, not if they're in the middle), Simple Sentences (what's a sentence, what's a subject, what's a verb, what 6 categories can a verb be, SV, SSV, SVV, SSVV), and To Spank or Not to Spank (basic story information and vocabulary). STUDY STUDY STUDY!!!!!! Students who don't pass this test and didn't pass the first test will meet with me in a private conference. Click the items below to do the work you missed in today's class: We continued our study of writing grammar. We took what we learned about what a sentence is and looked at some simple variations. There are four most common types: a sentence with one subject and one verb, one subject and two verbs, two subject and one verb, and two subject and two verbs. We can write their structures in symbols:SV, SVV, SSV, and SSVV. Since they don't have more than 2, we don't normally need to use commas.
We also saw that we can use other words other than 'and' to connect two things. We use 'or' to show a choice. Jim or Rita will help you. (SSV--no comma, 2 things) He loves soccer but doesn't play, (SVV--no comma, just 2 verbs). And remember, 'I want to eat'--the verb is 'want'. 'To eat' is called an infinitive. It's a noun. It represent the activity. But in that sentence, I'm not eating. In that sentence, I'm expressing my desire to eat. We looked at the last use of Present Perfect: to describe an action we completed shortly before now. Are you hungry? No, I've just eaten a sandwich. (just=right before now) Do you still live on La Brea? No, I've recently moved. (recently=perhaps 2 weeks to a month ago) Students did a speaking exercise to practice "I've just _____past participle____" Students practiced their verb cards. Then, we played a game where students stood in circles and threw a towel to another student, calling out a verb. When the other student caught the towel, they had to say the past and past participle. I encouraged students to use this website to practice their pronunciation. I have a recording of the essential verbs and a video that help more with difficult words to pronounce. Our 2nd test will be on Tuesday: Present Perfect, Past Participles, Comma Rule 5, Simple Sentences, and To Spank or Not to Spank, story and vocabulary. Today's Assignments: We reviewed the very important question we learned the answer to yesterday: What is a sentence? There are 3 things it needs. You should know for the next test and for your future education. The exercise we did to practice raised a few points. A subject is the actor of the sentence. It can be more than one word:
Students got in groups and did an exercise to find out, for example, who has drunk the most coffee today, who has gone shopping the most this month, etc. Once again, we're studying how we use the present perfect to talk time frames (this month, this week, this year) that are still going on. We read To Spank or Not to Spank again. Tomorrow, we'll do the reading comprehension exercise. I wanted us to look at it one more time to get ready. Only about 5 students have listened to the audio recording of the story. That's a shame. Take less than 10 minutes and practice listening to it. It can help improve your pronunciation. (Go to the top menu, click on To Spank or Not to Spank) Finally, we did a game to see how students are doing on the irregular verbs. Students lined up and competed with another student writing the correct 3 forms of the verb or saying their pronunciation. We'll play more games like this tomorrow. Some students refuse to study these verbs. It's like a battle between me and them. They prefer to defy me: "No! I won't study. And you can't make me study! You won't make me learn these verbs!" Well, unfortunately, you can win this battle. As an adult, you can choose not to learn, you can choose not to progress, you can choose not to invest in yourself. But what I'm asking is nothing that will hurt you. I'm not asking you to do something dangerous or painful. All I'm asking is you do what you'd tell your kids to do: homework. Some people won't try because they believe if they try, they won't get any better. But how do you know? Take a risk. See if you put in 15 minutes, if the next time in class the verbs come to you more easily. Today's Assignments Due by Students Who Missed Class: We did an exercise on Comma Rule 5. Tip: Just look to see if the 1st word of the sentence is 'Because,' 'If,' 'When,' 'While,' 'Before,' or 'After.' If you see one of those, then you must add a comma somewhere in the middle. You should read the sentence out loud to know where. I taught some basic writing grammar: what is a sentence, a subject, and a verb. I lectured for about 40 minutes, but I was very happy to see students really paying attention and grasping these key concepts. I check students' homework. Congratulations to the 26 people who've finished making all their irregular verb cards. But making them isn't enough. You've got to practice and practice. It's got to be automatic!! I introduced the next use of the present perfect: present time frames. Students did a first, simple exercise on this. Finally, I did a dictation with rhymes to help students get the pronunciations of these irregular verbs. We didn't have time to go over the answers in class. So here they are: Irregular Verb Rhymes (sounds repeat--you can check your own pronunciation--if they don't sound the same, maybe you're not pronouncing them right)
Need more practice? Check out this video I made.
Today's Assignments: Today, we looked at another comma rule. We use commas when the first word of a sentence is: Because, If, While, When, After, or Before. For more, see Writing Rules, Lesson 6.
We reviewed the pronunciation of the vocabulary from To Spank or Not to Spank, and we did the vocabulary exercise. We went over the last set of irregular verbs, 51-75. I helped students with definitions and pronunciation. For homework, make cards for these verb. Finally, I introduced the 3rd reason to use the Present Perfect: to ask if someone has done something once in all their life, with the word 'ever.' We use this question when the action is rare, or we think the person hasn't done it in all their life. Have you ever gone to jail? (I think probably you haven't in all your life) If you answer affirmatively, there's no change to the normal structure: Yes, I have gone to jail. If you answer negatively, you must use have or has in the positive with 'never.' No, I have never gone to jail. Students asked their partner 'Have you ever ....?' questions and then started to write their own, long answers. We ran out of time but will finish this tomorrow in class. |
Teacher BruceI teach ESL at Manual Arts Service Center in Mid-City Los Angeles. Archives
September 2017
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