Blog Archives

Lesson Plans for Winter Trimester 2013 – 2014 Block 2 Week 4 of The College of Chicago Intensive English Program 200 Class

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Mr. Danoff's Teaching Laboratory

Crazy week of Chicago weather has led to the College of Chicago being closed yesterday and today. Below are links to the lesson plans for the remainder of the week (Winter Trimester 2013 – 2014 Block 2 Week 4).

Core Lesson Plan

Download .odt file from danoff.org

News Hour Lesson Plan

Download .odt file from danoff.org

You can download LibreOffice for free to read and edit .odt files.

Lesson Plans & Text Copyright © 2014 by Charlie Danoff (contact@mr.danoff.org)/Mr. Danoff’s Teaching Laboratory (http://dalab.cc). Rights available under a CC Zero 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).

Posted in Adult English, COC IEP 200, EFL, ELT, ESL, Lesson plan, TEFL, TESL

What we Did in Our COC IEP 200 Class on Monday, November 18th, 2013

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Mr. Danoff's Teaching Laboratory

COC IEP 200 | https://www.mr.danoff.org/cociep200

Winter Trimester 2013-14 Block 1 Lesson 8

a | 09:30 – 09:45 | Welcome Back Discussion About Everyone’s Weekends

b | 09:45 – 10:46 | NorthStar 2 Listening and Speaking (Third Ed.)[1] | Unit 4 | Pages 60 – 62

c | 11:22 – 12:00 & 123:45 – 13:10 | News Hour | Breaking News English.com | Aid too slow in reaching Philippine needy (16th November, 2013)[2]

d | 13:10 – 14:15| Fast Listening | Listen A Minute.com | Business[3]

e | 14:15 – 15:00 | Elective

NOTES

HOMEWORK

1 | Make 11 vocabulary sentences with the vocab words on page 62 of NorthStar
2 | Finish your “introduction” paragraph and e-mail it back to me as 1 file with the “results” paragraph

Text Copyright © 2013 by Charlie Danoff (contact@mr.danoff.org)/Mr. Danoff’s Teaching Laboratory (http://dalab.cc). Rights available under a CC Zero 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).

Posted in COC IEP 200, EFL, ELL, ELT, ESL, TEFL, TESL, TESOL, The College of Chicago

What we Did in Our COC IEP 200 Class on Thursday, November 14th, 2013

Posted on November 14, 2013 by Mr. Danoff's Teaching Laboratory

COC IEP 200 | https://www.mr.danoff.org/cociep200

Winter Trimester 2013-14 Block 1 Lesson 7

a | 09:30 – 10:04 | Review Quiz 1 and Prepare for Quiz 2

b | 10:04 – 11:22 | Quiz 2

c | 11:22 – 12:00 & 13:45 – 14:40 | News Hour | Breaking News English.com | Only 10% of UK engineers are women (6th November, 2013)[1]

c1 | We got into a long discussion about the many different definitions of the present participle verb “tapping” and its base verb “tap”.

d | 12:00 – 13:45 | School Lunch for a Student’s Last Day | James R. Thompson Center Food Court

e | 14:40 – 15:00 | Fiction | Read the fifth and sixth pages of the the second “Fantom of the Fair” comic[2]

e | 14:15 – 15:00 | Wonder Years Elective

NOTES

HOMEWORK

1 | Give your questionnaire to 20 people; write your results paragraph and make 3 (or more) graphs
2 | Read Mobile Unit 2 “The Subject” http://eslau.ca/lesson/unit2.php and do Exercises 2.1 http://eslau.ca/exercise/ex2.1.php and 2.2 http://eslau.ca/exercise/ex2.2.php Athabasca University | Copyright (C) 2007 by Athabasca University | CCA 3.0 Licensed (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)

Posted in COC IEP 200, comics, EFL, ELL, ELT, ESL, TEFL, TESL, TESOL, The Fantom of the Fair

What we Did in Our COC IEP 200 Class on Thursday, November 14th, 2013

Posted on November 14, 2013 by Mr. Danoff's Teaching Laboratory

COC IEP 200 | https://www.mr.danoff.org/cociep200

Winter Trimester 2013-14 Block 1 Lesson 7

a | 09:30 – 10:04 | Review Quiz 1 and Prepare for Quiz 2

b | 10:04 – 11:22 | Quiz 2

c | 11:22 – 12:00 & 13:45 – 14:40 | News Hour | Breaking News English.com | Only 10% of UK engineers are women (6th November, 2013)[1]

c1 | We got into a long discussion about the many different definitions of the present participle verb “tapping” and its base verb “tap”.

d | 12:00 – 13:45 | School Lunch for a Student’s Last Day | James R. Thompson Center Food Court

e | 14:40 – 15:00 | Fiction | Read the fifth and sixth pages of the the second “Fantom of the Fair” comic[2]

NOTES

HOMEWORK

1 | Give your questionnaire to 20 people; write your results paragraph and make 3 (or more) graphs
2 | Read Mobile Unit 2 “The Subject” http://eslau.ca/lesson/unit2.php and do Exercises 2.1 http://eslau.ca/exercise/ex2.1.php and 2.2 http://eslau.ca/exercise/ex2.2.php Athabasca University | Copyright © 2007 by Athabasca University | CCA 3.0 Licensed (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)

Posted in COC IEP 200, comics, EFL, ELL, ELT, ESL, TEFL, TESL, TESOL, The Fantom of the Fair

What we Did in Our COC IEP 200 Class on Wednesday, November 13th, 2013

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Mr. Danoff's Teaching Laboratory

COC IEP 200 | https://www.mr.danoff.org/cociep200

Winter Trimester 2013-14 Block 1 Lesson 6

a | 09:30 – 12:00 | News Hour | Breaking News English.com | Toronto mayor smoked crack cocaine (8th November, 2013) [1]

b | 12:45 – 13:15 | Project | Students edited their questionnaires on their laptops

c | 13:45 – 14:10 | Grammar

c1 | Reviewed the basic sentence lesson from Athabasca’s Mobile ESL textbook with the PDF[2]

c2 | Read “1.6 | Be With Descriptions” and completed exercises 7 and 8 from Grammar in Context 1[3]

d |14:10 – 14:15 | Reviewed the quiz 2 study guide

e | 14:15 – 15:00 | Wonder Years Elective

NOTES

1 | http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1311/131108-toronto-mayor.html
2 | Lesson http://eslau.ca/ and PDF http://www.eslau.ca/lesson/unit1.pdf

3 | ISBN 978-1-4130-0736-7

HOMEWORK

1 | Study for Quiz 2
2 | Give your questionnaire to 20 people; write your results paragraph and make 3 (or more) graphs (due Monday)

Text Copyright © 2013 by Charlie Danoff (contact@mr.danoff.org)/Mr. Danoff’s Teaching Laboratory (http://dalab.cc).
Rights available under a CC Zero 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).

Posted in COC IEP 200, EFL, ELL, ELT, ESL, TEFL, TESL, The College of Chicago

What we Did in Our COC IEP 200 Class on Tuesday, November 12th, 2013

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Mr. Danoff's Teaching Laboratory

COC IEP 200 | https://www.mr.danoff.org/cociep200

Winter Trimester 2013-14 Block 1 Lesson 5

a | 09:30 – 09:50 | Greetings and Weekend Activities Discussion

b | 09:50 – 12 & 12:45 – 13:10 | News Hour | Breaking News English.com | Better tables for beautiful people in Paris restaurants (10th November, 2013)[1]

c | 13:10 – 14:15 | NorthStar 2 Listening and Speaking (Third Ed.)[2] | Unit 4

d | 13:45 – 14:15 | Project | Review Everyone’s Survey Questionnaires

e | 14:15 – 15:00 | Wonder Years Elective

NOTES

1 | http://breakingnewsenglish.com/1311/131110-frenchrestaurants.html
2 | ISBN 978-0-13-240988-9

HOMEWORK

1 | Bring laptop tomorrow
2 | Make 3 vocabulary sentences with trendy, good-looking and furthermore
3 | Finish the 2nd draft of your questionnaire
4 | Read Mobile Unit 1 “The Basic Sentence” http://www.eslau.ca/lesson/unit1.php and do Exercise 1.1 http://www.eslau.ca/exercise/ex1.1.php from Athabasca University

Text Copyright © 2013 by Charlie Danoff (contact@mr.danoff.org)/Mr. Danoff’s Teaching Laboratory (http://dalab.cc).
Rights available under a CC Zero 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).

Posted in COC IEP 200, EFL, ELL, ELT, ESL, NorthStar: Listening and Speaking Level 2, TEFL, TESL, TESOL

What we Did in Our COC IEP 200 Class on Monday, November 4th, 2013

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Mr. Danoff's Teaching Laboratory

Winter Trimester 2013-14 Block 1 Lesson 1

a | 09:30 – 09:40 | Greetings and Weekend Activities Discussion

c | 12:45 – 13:30 | Final Exam Review

d | 13:30 – 14:00 | Go Over this Block’s Syllabus

e | 14:00 – 14:15 | Fast Listening | Being Single[3]

NOTES

1 | http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1311/131102-most-powerful-people.html
2 | http://www.forbes.com/powerful-people/list/
3 | http://listenaminute.com/b/being_single.html

HOMEWORK

1 | Write 3 vocabulary sentences with today’s new words (listed below)

2 | Finish the “Being Single” survey

3 | Pick a topic for your survey project (due Wednesday)

NEWS VOCABULARY WORDS TO STUDY

compile [kəmˈp(-ə)l] transitive v.
organize things into a list, book, report, etc.
The students are compiling a list of the most popular Hollywood movie stars.

ongoing [ˈɔnˌgoʊ·ɪŋ] adj.
continuing to progress, develop, exist or happen
Learning is an ongoing process for everyone.

sphere [‘sfir] n.
an area of influence; the range of an activity
The bank had a lot of power in the financial sphere.

Definition sources include http://merriam-webster.com/ and http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ both via http://onelook.com

Text Copyright © 2013 by Charlie Danoff (contact@mr.danoff.org)/Mr. Danoff’s Teaching Laboratory (http://dalab.cc).
Rights available under a CC Zero 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).

Posted in COC IEP 200, EFL, ELL, ELT, ESL, TEFL, TESL, TESOL, The College of Chicago

Pronouncing the word “to” with an infinitive in informal American English

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Mr. Danoff's Teaching Laboratory

Today in class a student asked about the different ways to pronounce the word to prior to an infinitive in informal American English:

want to see dddx= wanna see
need to go = needa go
try to = try da

This came as we were discussing the note on page 265 of the textbook (Grammar in Context 1, Fourth Edition by Sandra N. Elbaum. Boston: Heinle. 2006. ISBN 978-1-4130-0736-7):

In other infinitives, we often pronounce to like “ta” or “da” (after a vowel sound) or “a” (after a “d” sound). [sic]

That rule seems like a good general guideline, but when to choose either “ta” or “da”? And what about “like to watch”? It does not end in a vowel sound, it ends in a “k” sound /lɑɪk/ (Source: the Cambridge American English Dictionary via http://onelook.com) and yet the book suggests we use the “ta” sound, and it does sound that way when I say it out loud.

I went to the internet and found some interesting resources. I hope to arrive with more precise instructions by Wednesday. Anyone reading, can you clearly explain when to pronounce “to” as either “ta”, “da” or “a” in informal American English?

Here is one video from ESL Video Courses about infinitives in general,

This video from Rachel’s English is more technical:

I imagine searching through her videos on the letter “t” will help answer:

When do you pronounce “to” as either “ta”, “da” or “a” in informal American English?

Posted in American English, COC IEP 200, Conversational American English, EFL, ELL, ELT, ESL, Grammar in Context 1 Fourth Edition, informal American English, TEFL, TESL, TESOL

What we Did in Our COC IEP 200 Class on Thursday, September 19th, 2013

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Mr. Danoff's Teaching Laboratory

COC IEP 200 | https://www.mr.danoff.org/cociep200

Fall Trimester 2013 Block 3 Lesson 8

Links and book information indicated by brackets [1] is available in notes at bottom.

WHAT HAPPENED IN CLASS

a | 09:30 – 10:25 | Core Quiz 2 & News Hour Quiz 2

c | 12:50 – 13:10 | Grammar in Context[2] 9.5 Exercises

d | 13:10 – 14:15 | Jungle Love[3] | Chapter 14 Discussion
d1 | Read through the final chapter 14 and discussed the novel as a whole
d2 | Comprehension Questions:
p. 90 | Why does Jennifer feel sorry for Lisa? (Because Lisa has to lie about her sad life back home.)
p. 90 | Why can’t Jennifer sleep? (Worried about misjudging Ian and if she made a mistake not calling Pete back.)
p. 92 | Why is the word “Lisa” written on top of the page? (Signify a change in narrator, we are now in Lisa’s head.)
p. 92 | Why does Lisa feel free? (Because her mom has found a man and Lisa can now move to London.)
p. 92/3 | What is Lisa’s plan for London? (Find a flat, job and then enjoy her life working, shopping and clubbing.)
p. 93 | What 2 things did Lisa know when she was Pete? (That he was Pete and that she was in love.)
d3 | We then had a brief discussion we will pick up on Monday about themes. To correct what I said in class, please read this quote from Kelley Griffith illustrating the difference between themes and subjects:

“The subject is what the work is about. You can state the subject in a word or phrase: ‘The subject of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 is love.’ In contrast, theme is what the work says about the subject. Stating a theme requires a complete sentence, sometimes several sentences: ‘A theme of Sonnet 116 is, “Love remains constant even when assaulted by tempestuous events or by time.’” (Griffith, K., 2006, Writing essays about literature: a guide and style sheet. p. 32)

e | 14:15 – 15:00 | USA History Elective

HOMEWORK

1 | Fix 1st article summary
2 | Find 2nd article & write a summary
3 | Study for Quiz 3, including new vocabulary from today’s news article

NOTES

1 | http://breakingnewsenglish.com/1309/130913-fertility.html
2 | ISBN 978-0-521-75084-9
3 | ISBN 978-1-4130-0736-7
4 | http://books.google.com/books?id=a05Efo1hOa4C&pg=PA40&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false via https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Theme_%28narrative%29&oldid=527636357
COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2013 by Charlie Danoff (contact@mr.danoff.org)/Mr. Danoff’s Teaching Laboratory (http://dalab.cc).
Rights given a CC Zero 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).

Posted in COC IEP 200, EFL, ELL, ELT, ESL, fiction, Jungle Love, literature themes, TEFL, TESL, TESOL, The College of Chicago, themes in literature

Worksheet: “One of the Lads” Short Story from Frozen Pizza and other slices of life

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Mr. Danoff's Teaching Laboratory

Worksheet for the ”One of the Lads” Short Story from Frozen Pizza and other slices of life by Antoinette Moses (2002; Cambridge University Press; ISBN: 978-0-521-75078-3).

You can find more questions to use with this short story in part 2 of this worksheet.

CHARACTERS

The Lads: Luke, Big Dave, Mick, Gerry and Steve
Luke’s Parents
Luke’s Teachers
the Chelsea Headhunters

QUESTIONS

Page 26:

What did Dave and Mick do to Luke when they first met?
What does “the lads” mean?
Why did they put Luke’s head in a toilet?
What happened after they put Luke’s head in a toilet and he gave them his money?

Page 27:

What is the lads’ favorite soccer team?
“He was never an equal in the gang.” what does that mean?
Who are the “names cut into the doors?”
Why are Eccles, Ginger Bill and King famous?
What is “the Shed”?

Page 28:

What do the fans do before and after games?
When Luke is at the games he is not scared, because he is “just another fan.” Why is he scared when he is not at the game?
How do the other fans feel about the Chelsea fans?
What changed things at Chelsea games?
What do the lads want?

Page 29:

Why did Luke stop doing his homework?
Why do you think Luke couldn’t tell his parents the truth about his problems at school?

Page 30:

What did 4 members of the gang do after they left school?
What did Luke love?
If Luke asked you for advice, what would you say?

ANSWERS

Page 26:

They put his head in a toilet.
It is British English for “friends,” “buddies,” or “the guys.”
They put his head in a toilet to get his money.
He became part of the gang.

Page 27:

Chelsea (Wikipedia article on Chelsea)
The other boys in the gang had more power than him.
Former players and fans
They were the “Chelsea Headhunters” who were the leaders when Chelsea fans fought.
Place in the stadium where Chelsea fans used to stand together.

Page 28:

Fight
Because he is worried about his role in the gang
They were the toughest, dirtiest fighters.
There were seats now so you couldn’t stand and families started coming to the games.
The lads want to “become the new Chelsea Headhunters.”

Page 29:

Because of the gang
Answers will vary.

Page 30:

Mick – electrician; Gerry – mechanic; Big Dave – tried and failed to join the army; Luke – carpenter
Working with wood
Answers will vary

Posted in Antoinette Moses, COC IEP 200, EFL, ESL, Frozen Pizza and other slices of life, One of the Lads, Worksheet