Tuesday, March 31

Carolyn McCoy will sub for me today.  I am sorry to miss class, but I will be at a funeral.  You will take your vocabulary quiz on pages 93-94 and then work on chapter 5 with Carolyn.

Homework:

You will hear an interview with Michelle, a woman from Canada who now lives abroad.  She is speaking about culture shock:  the difficulty we experience adjusting to a new culture.

Listen to the .mp3 file here.

Then write the answer to the questions.  Write in complete sentences please.  Use a capital, subject, verb, and period.  I will collect them on Monday, April 6.  Please do not email me the answers.  

1.  Where does Michelle live now? How long has she been there?

2. Is she totally used to the new culture?

3. What's one example of something she still struggles with?

4. What happened when she went back to Canada the first time after living abroad?

5. What did the interviewer, Joel, notice when he went back to the U.S. after living in Asia?

6. What does Michelle think she'll miss most about Japan when she leaves?

Monday, March 30

Today we worked on Chapter 5 in our book Tapestry 2. We listened to and then discussed a recording of a person talking about culture shock.

We also watched some video clips and discussed them.

You will have a vocabulary quiz tomorrow on the words that Rita presented last Monday and that I reviewed on Tuesday March 24 and today. The words are on pages 93 and 94 in your book.

Tuesday, March 24

Today my parents Bob and Sue and my son Will joined us in class and you had the opportunity to interview them. Please write ten sentences for me describing what you learned. Include new vocabulary and new phrases that you learned. You need to write a minimum of ten complete sentences and I will collect them on Monday. If you choose to write a few paragraphs instead that is even better.

Also, if you have not emailed me, you need to do so now.

Monday, March 23

Rita Mejias was the substitute teacher today and she introduced Chapter 5 in our book "Tapestry, Speaking and Listening 2." She introduced vocabulary that will will use again next week, so please make sure to review it before we meet next Monday. Tomorrow we will have guest speakers in class so we will not be working on Chapter 5 until next week. Tonight please write five questions to ask your guest speakers tomorrow.

Tuesday, March 17

Today we practiced pronunciation exercises for short i, some students practiced w, some ch.

Then we discussed what kind of learning activities are helpful for you. You said t.v., radio, listening CD's and tapes, having a topic with introduction, summary, and conclusion, subtitles, music, singing. Some people would like to work on the past tense.

Some websites that students shared as being helpful to them are npr.com, voanews.com, cnn.com, manythings.org,livemocha.com,learningEnglish.com.

We discussed the verb "introduce." For example, "My sister introduced me to her friend."

Homework: By Sunday morning you need to find a short video, conversation, interview, or some other example of spoken English, that is at the right speed for you, and then email me the URL. I will share some of these with you on Tuesday.

On Monday, I will be absent, and Rita Mejitas will be your teacher. Please welcome her and do not bring any snakes to class.

Monday, March 16

Today we got to know each other by interviewing our partners and introducing them to the class. Our class starts 12:40 on Mondays and at 1:10 on Tuesdays.

One student asked about the sentence, "Are you flipping serious?" I explained that "flipping" means "really" in this case, and it is slang and you will not see it on the TOEFL.

HW: Email me.