Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Week 3 Journal Topics

Here are week 3 journal topics, due this weekend. I have read your journals and tried to comment on everyone's. There are a couple issues to address:

  • Write at least 5 sentences for each topic (post). Some students are writing only one or two sentences. In the future, if you have less than 5 sentences, you may not receive full points.
  • Also remember to write one post for each topic. So if there are three topics, write three separate posts.

Thanks! And the topics are:

8. The weather in Ohio is changing. The cold winter is leaving and the flowers are blooming. They say, the month of "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb." What do you think this quote means? What does it say about March? Do you have a saying in your culture about the weather? Share it.
 

9. This week, we have used some different adjectives to describe people. Although one adjective might have one meaning, each person has their own ideas about its meaning. For example, "brave" means to not have or not show fear. But what does brave mean to you? Give some examples of brave people and why.

10. For learning, especially learning a language, it is important to have study strategies. A strategy is any good plan to do something. One of my study strategies is to make a list of all the homework I have to complete and the date each one is due. Doing this helps me to know what to do first. Another strategy is to keep a notebook of new vocabulary you learn. Everyday, you can review the vocab. Explain two or three of your strategies or strategies that you want to use.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Portfolio Status

It is important that you keep your papers in your portfolio throughout the module. By the end of Spring Break, your portfolio folder should contain the following:


  • Week 1 Writing Project - Holidays
    • Draft with teacher corrections
    • Student's corrected final draft (after teacher corrections)
    • Grading form with student's reflections
  • Week 1 vocabulary sheet with corrected sentences
  • Week 2 Writing Project - Favorite Places*
    • Draft
  • Week 2 vocabulary sheet*

*Week 2 draft and vocabulary sheet are due on the returning Monday (March 26).

Paragraph Grading Form

I passed out the paragraph grading form in week one, but if you need another copy, click here.


Spring Break Week Journal Topic

This vacation, while you put the final touches on your Favorite Place paragraph, I would like you to continue to practice your writing on the following topic:

7. Describe something new and interesting that you have learned about the United States or American culture. How do you feel about it?

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Favorite Place Writing Project


Write the first draft and bring on Wednesday.

  1. Topic Sentence – Main idea: favorite place, Supporting ideas: Description and Feelings
  2. Supporting Sentences
    1. Supporting idea – Describe what it looks like to the eye.
      Use prepositions of place on page 93.
    2. Supporting idea – How does it make us feel?
      See page 21 for some adjectives.
  3. Conclusion Sentence

Week 2 Journal Topics

Please write one post for each topic. You will have 3 posts. Try to write at least five sentences for each, but write more if you want.

4. What English skill (speaking, listening, reading, or writing) is easier for you to learn and why? Which skill is the hardest and why? How can you improve this skill?

5. What type of home do you prefer to live in? For example, an apartment, a large house, a house in the city, a farm house, a house shared with a large family? And... Why?

6. What do you want to do during spring break?

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Week Two Paragraph Topic: Favorite Place

Next week's writing project will be about some of our favorite places, how they look, and how they make us feel. Check out this poem about the beach by Walt Whitman. How do you think the beach makes him feel?

On the Beach at Night Alone   
by Walt Whitman

On the beach at night alone,
As the old mother sways her to and fro, singing her husky song,
As I watch the bright stars shining, I think a thought of the clef of the universes, and of the future.

A vast similitude interlocks all,
All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets
All distances of place however wide,
All distances of time, all inanimate forms,
All souls, all living bodies, though they be ever so different, or in different worlds,
All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processes, the fishes, the brutes,
All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages,
All identities that have existed, or may exist, on this globe, or any globe,
All lives and deaths, all of the past, present, future,
This vast similitude spans them, and always has spann'd,
And shall forever span them and compactly hold and enclose them.