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What we did in our CoC IEP 200 Class on Monday, March 11th

Details from today’s (Mon. 11 Mar. 2013) COC IEP 200 lesson at the College of Chicago.

NEWS HOUR

Today’s News for You article was “Baseball Players Shut Out of Hall of Fame.” After completing the comprehension questions from the teacher’s guide I put the students into 2 teams to see who could come up with better answers to the discussion questions:

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Jane’s team beat the A team.

QUIZ 3 REVIEW

Went through last Thursday’s quiz and discussed some of the more troublesome questions.

Download Quiz 3 from danoff.org by clicking here (.docx file).

CHICAGO CULTURAL RESEARCH POSTER PROJECT

Went over the poster the students need to make this week as a visual aid for their project presentations.

Download the Poster Explanation handout from danoff.org by clicking here (.odt file).

SHORT STORY

Read through half of “One of the lads” together to review for Thursday’s exam. Had the students answer: Why did Luke forget how he joined the gang? (Because he was always afraid of the gang getting rid of him.)

FREE CONVERSATION PRACTICE

We began the afternoon with an extended conversation about what we had for lunch that led to talking about karaoke and the Matrix.

LESSON 1 OF GRAMMAR IN CONTEXT 1 REVIEW

Spent the duration of the afternoon going through lesson 1 again to prepare for Thursday’s exam.

Download the Final Exam Study Guide from danoff.org by clicking here (.odt file).

HOMEWORK

To Read

  1. Review “One of the Lads” story from Frozen Pizza and other slices of life for Final Exam
  2. News Hour: “Dramatic Meteor Strike” News for You article

To Do

  1. Project: Write second draft of your essay and e-mail everything to me as an .odt file AND post the link to the google doc on your blog
  2. Project: Finish the first draft of your poster
  3. News Hour: Write a 3 sentence summary of the News for You article and post it on your blog with the tags COCIEP200 and NewsForYou
  4. Study for the Final Exam

COPYRIGHT NOTES

  • Please respect the copyright plus terms and conditions of all links, books and media not by Charlie Danoff.
  • Unless otherwise noted, white board photos and text Copyright © 2013 by Charlie Danoff. Rights given a CC Zero 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Posted in COC IEP 200, ELL, ELT, ESL, Frozen Pizza and other slices of life, One of the Lads, TESL, TESOL, The College of Chicago

What we did in our CoC IEP 200 Class on Thursday, March 7th

NEWS HOUR

Had a long, wonderful discussion about and around the “North Korea Tries to Limit News From Outside World” News for You article. Talked about the country itself, its leader, Dennis Rodman’s visit, china and bias in the USA news media. Made sure to note to the students that I myself was biased in that I don’t typically trust the USA media and that many Americans would disagree with my attitude. 

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QUIZ 3

Took over 30 minutes for this week’s quiz. Had vocabulary and grammar questions as usual and this week i added 2 reading multiple choice questions about the short story we’ve been reading: “One of the Lads” from Frozen Pizza and other slices of life.

PROJECT

Spent about 20 minutes introducing students work to the thesis statement; how it summarizes your paper’s main idea in 1 sentence. Then the remainder of the paper is supporting/proving it.

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FICTION

Spent the afternoon working through the first 2 pages of the next short in Frozen Pizza and other slices of life, the self-titled story, “Frozen Pizza.” Along the way we got into a brief chat about the difference between normal monologues and interior monologues (I also shared the term “stream of consciousness” which is similar).

Put my comprehension questions on the board:

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To Read

  1. Review Frozen Pizza and other slices of life: pages 39 to 41
  2. News Hour: “Baseball Players …” News for You article

To Watch

  1. Watch the video below “Teach English EFL/ESL Part 2/6” by Genki English (http://youtu.be/Gwy3zpwA1rs OR http://is.gd/cociep200video3) from 0:48–1:30 minutes and then write a post in your blog answering: “Do you like this video? Yes or No?” and “Do you agree with rule #1? Why?”

To Do

  1. Project: Write the thesis and introduction for your paper, then e-mail everything to me as an .odt file AND post the link to the google doc on your blog
  2. News Hour: Write a 3 sentence summary of the News for You article and post it on your blog with the tags COCIEP200 and NewsForYou

COPYRIGHT NOTES

  • Please respect the copyright plus terms and conditions of all links, books and media not by Charlie Danoff.
  • Unless otherwise noted, white board photos and text Copyright © 2013 by Charlie Danoff. Rights given a CC Zero 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Posted in COC IEP 200, ELL, ELT, ESL, Frozen Pizza and other slices of life, TESL, TESOL, The College of Chicago

What we did in our CoC IEP 200 Class on Wednesday, March 6th

Details from today’s (Wed. 6 Mar. 2013) COC IEP 200 lesson at the College of Chicago.

You can compare what actually happened with what was planned in today’s lesson plan by reading it here.

NEWS & CURRENT EVENTS

Vincent started the day by reading his article summary. Students then completed the lesson plan exercise for the “Names from the Past Lead to Battles in South” article, finding details to support the article’s main ideas.

Afterwards we listened to the mp3 recording of the article and completed the article’s exercise from the teacher’s guide.

QUIZ 3 PREPARATIONS

Went through this recommended resource on the present perfect from englishpage.com together.

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Next we reviewed “One of the Lads” a short story from ‘Frozen Pizza and other slices of life.’

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Main Characters and short descriptions:

  • Big Dave – strong
  • Mike – he’s a loser
  • Gerry – big
  • Luke – weak, dreamer
  • Steve – quiet

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Plot:

  • 0) Luke met and joined the lads.
  • 1) The lads drink at a pub.
  • 2) The lads plan their trip.
  • 3) The lads travel to watch England vs Holland.
  • 4) Dave throws glass at a young boy and then Luke leaves the lads.

Chicago Cultural Research Poster Project

Prepared a handout (download PDF from danoff.org) for students to use as they write their conclusions and continue finishing their essays.

FAST LISTENING

Finished Lesson 4, completing the “Driving Road Test” listening quiz.

HOMEWORK

To Read

  • News Hour: “North Korea …” News for You article

To Do

  • Project: Write conclusion paragraphs then put the google doc link on your blog AND e-mail me the .odt file with all your paragraphs so far in 1 document
  • News Hour: Write a 3 sentence summary of the “North Korea …” article and post it on your blog with the tags COCIEP200 and NewsForYou
  • Study for Quiz 3
  • Buy a binder

CLASS NOTES

  • Following-up on a Monday discussion, I explained to the class that the shamrock is a symbol of Ireland, like a rose is associated with England. One girl had asked why the shamrock is associated with St. Partick’s day.

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Student drawing of a shamrock.

  • This chat led to the same student asking about leprechaun origins? From Wikipedia:

A leprechaun (Irish: leipreachán) is a type of fairy in Irish folklore, usually taking the form of an old man, clad in a red or green coat, who enjoys partaking in mischief. Like other fairy creatures, leprechauns have been linked to the Tuatha Dé Danann of Irish mythology. The Leprechauns spend all their time busily making shoes, and store away all their coins in a hidden pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. If ever captured by a human, the Leprechaun has the magical power to grant three wishes in exchange for their release.

  • We also discussed how in 2 Saturdays the Chicago river will be dyed green.
  • During the grammar review I was unable to explain the difference between meets and met. “Met” is the past simple form of the verb, while “meets” is the third-person singular (thanks usingenglish.com). 3rd person singular is the “form of a verb used (in English and other languages) with singular nouns and with the pronouns he, she, it and one (or their equivalents in other languages) [via Wiktionary] e.g., “He meets her at class every day.” vs “John has met her at class every day.”
  • Finally, we talked about American Indians and students interested in more should read this Wikipedia article.

COPYRIGHT NOTES

  • Please respect the copyright plus terms and conditions of all links, books and media not by Charlie Danoff.
  • Unless otherwise noted, white board photos and text Copyright © 2013 by Charlie Danoff. Rights given a CC Zero 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Posted in COC IEP 200, ELL, ELT, ESL, Frozen Pizza and other slices of life, present perfect, TESL, TESOL, The College of Chicago, third person singular

Lesson Plan for Wednesday, March 6th, 2013 COC IEP 200 Class

Lesson Plan for Wednesday, March 6th, 2013 COC IEP 200 Class: Read the HTML lesson plan here and see the source on Github here.

Posted in COC IEP 200, Collaborative Lesson Planning, ELL, ELT, ESL, Frozen Pizza and other slices of life, Lesson plan, One of the Lads, TESL, TESOL, The College of Chicago

What we did in our CoC IEP 200 Class on Monday, March 4th

Details from today’s (Mon. 4 Mar. 2013) class at the College of Chicago.

NEWS & CURRENT EVENTS

Read the “” News for You article together and completed the accompanying teacher’s guide questions. Had a discussion about the Oscars in general. Some students were wondering why the award for best movie was called “Best Picture”? I explained that “picture” was another way to refer to movies.

The reason is because it is short for “motion picture.”

QUIZ 3 VOCABULARY WORDS

Over the weekend students were supposed to find definitions of the words that will be used for quiz 3. In class we reviewed what they came up with to arrive at the following definitions:

  • Nonfiction (noun) – A real, or true, story.
  • Fiction (noun) – An imagined, or not real, story.
  • Literature (noun) – Written works, especially poetry, short stories and novels.
  • Narrator (noun) – The voice or person telling the story in a short story, novel or comic book, etc.
  • Point of view (compound noun) – The character whose eyes and mind we are viewing/seeing the story from
  • Shifting point of view (compound noun) – When the view changes from one character to another
  • Novel (noun) – Long work of fictional literature
  • Short story (compound noun) – Short work of fictional literature

COMIC BOOK

We started reading another Fantom of the Fair story!

Completed the “Driver’s License” listening quiz and an accompanying handout.

FICTION

Did review questions from the publisher about the “One of the Lads” story.

COPYRIGHT NOTES
  • Please respect the copyright plus terms and conditions of all links, books and media not by Charlie Danoff.
  • Unless otherwise noted, text Copyright © 2013 by Charlie Danoff. Rights given a CC Zero 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Posted in COC IEP 200, ELL, ELT, ESL, Frozen Pizza and other slices of life, TESL, TESOL, The Fantom of the Fair

Worksheet: “One of the Lads” Short Story from Frozen Pizza and other slices of life (Part 4)

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 1, part 2 and part 3 of this worksheet.

QUESTIONS

Page 35:

  1. Why were the lads quiet on the train?
  2. What was the next step in their plan?

Page 36:

  1. Why did Luke think the Lads looked awful?
  2. What did Dave cheer about?

ANSWERS

Page 35:

  1. They were out all night drinking.
  2. To meet Dave’s friend at a bar.

Page 36:

  1. Because of their shabby clothes.
  2. Dave cheered about throwing the object at the little boy.
COPYRIGHT NOTES
  • Please respect the copyright plus terms and conditions of all links, books and media not by Charlie Danoff.
  • Unless otherwise noted, worksheet text Copyright © 2013 by Charlie Danoff. Rights given a CC Zero 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Posted in COC, COC IEP 200, ELL, ELT, ESL, Frozen Pizza and other slices of life, TESL, TESOL, Worksheet

What we did in our CoC IEP 200 Class on Tuesday, February 26th

Details from today’s (Tue. 26 Feb. 2013) COC IEP 200 Class at the College of Chicago.

NEWS & CURRENT EVENTS

Discussed the “First ’Dear Abby’ Dies, But Column Lives On” News for You article and completed the accompanying teacher’s guide questions.

We arrived at a stirring discussion about working mothers. I outlined how house wives went to working mothers in the later half if the 20th century. Some female students were only interested in becoming working moms.

GRAMMAR IN CONTEXT 1 (FOURTH ED.)

Worked through pages 64 to 66.

CHICAGO CULTURAL RESEARCH PROJECT

Taught the students how to use LibreOffice, Google Drive and their blogs to use as a way to organize the essays they will be writing.

NORTHSTAR 2 READING & WRITING (THIRD ED.)

Reviewed students reading and homework introducing imperatives on pages 106 to 108.

FICTION

Continued with the ‘One of the Lads’ next story from Antoinette Moses’ Frozen Pizza and Other Slices of Life getting through page 30, and answered/discussed these worksheet questions.

HOMEWORK

Everything except “To Do” #1 is the same as in this week’s course calendar (PDF from danoff.org).

To Read

  1. Grammar in Context 1: “SUMMARY OF LESSON 2” on page 67
  2. Frozen Pizza and other slices of life: pages 37 to 38
  3. News Hour: “England Finds a King Under a Parking Lot” News for You article

To Do

  1. Project:
  2. News Hour: Write a 3 sentence summary of the “England Finds a King Under a Parking Lot” article and post it on your blog with the tag COCIEP200

    * Write the second draft of your survey in LibreOffice (ODT file)
    * Upload to Google Drive and share to me and the internet 
    * Put link to the Google Document in your blog

  3. NorthStar 2 R&W: Complete “WRITE: A Web Page” exercise 1 on page 108 and exercise 2 on page 109
  4. 4. Study for Quiz 2 on Thursday (download Quiz 2 Study Guide [PDF from danoff.org])
COPYRIGHT NOTES
  • Please respect the copyright plus terms and conditions of all links, books and media not by Charlie Danoff.
  • Unless otherwise noted, worksheet text Copyright © 2013 by Charlie Danoff. Rights given a CC Zero 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Posted in COC, COC IEP 200, ELL, ELT, ESL, Frozen Pizza and other slices of life, Grammar in Context 1 Fourth Edition, NorthStar: Reading and Writing Level 2 Third Edition, TESL, TESOL, The College of Chicago

What we did in our CoC IEP 200 Class on Thursday, February 21st

Details from today’s (Thu. 21 Feb. 2013COC IEP 200 Class at the College of Chicago.

NEWS & CURRENT EVENTS

Discussed “Iran Says it Sent Monkey into Space” News for You article. In addition to the exercise from the Teacher’s Guide, had the students engage in a mock team debate. One side was arguing that the monkey really did go out to space and come back, the other saying the monkey never came back.

Gave each team some time to meet with each other and prepare their arguments before going back and forth trying to make the best one!

CHICAGO CULTURAL RESEARCH PROJECT

Looked through the student summary paragraphs that have been published to make sure everyone is on the same page and making progress.

GRAMMAR IN CONTEXT 1 (FOURTH ED.)

Did a lot of grammar today, pounding through pages 56 to 62.

FICTION

Continued with the ‘One of the Lads’ next story from Antoinette Moses’ Frozen Pizza and Other Slices of Life getting through page 32, working through a worksheet I prepared.

COPYRIGHT NOTES

Posted in COC IEP 200, ELL, ELT, ESL, Frozen Pizza and other slices of life, TESL, TESOL, The College of Chicago

Worksheet: “One of the Lads” Short Story from Frozen Pizza and other slices of life (Part 2)

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 1 and part 3 of this worksheet.

QUESTIONS


Page 31:

  1. What is Luke’s perfect excuse?
  2. Who is The Cat?
  3. Why is Bonetti’s name sacred?

Page 32:

  1. Why did Luke begin to relax?
  2. Where do they the Lads want to go to see England play?
  3. What does Steve want when he says “my glass is empty” to Luke?

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ANSWERS

Page 31:

  1. Football
  2. Peter Bonetti, former Chelsea FC goalie (his Wikipedia Article)
  3. Because he is the best goalie in Chelsea FC history.

Page 32:

  1. Because there was not going to be a fight.
  2. Amsterdam
  3. He wants Luke to buy him a drink.
COPYRIGHT NOTES

Posted in COC, COC IEP 200, ELL, ELT, ESL, Frozen Pizza and other slices of life, TESL, TESOL

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

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:

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

Page 27:

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

Page 28:

  1. What do the fans do before and after games?
  2. 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?
  3. How do the other fans feel about the Chelsea fans?
  4. What changed things at Chelsea games?
  5. What do the lads want?

Page 29:

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

Page 30:

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

ANSWERS

Page 26:

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

Page 27:

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

Page 28:

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

Page 29:

  1. Because of the gang
  2. Answers will vary.

Page 30:

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

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