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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 Tuesday, October 15th, 2013

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Mr. Danoff's Teaching Laboratory

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

Fall Trimester 2013 Block 4 Lesson 5

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

WHAT HAPPENED IN CLASS

a | 09:30 – 09:49 | Welcome Back Chat
a1 | After 4 days off, took some time to catch up

b | 09:49 – 10:30 & 10:30 – 11 | News Hour | Breaking News English.com | Jet-lag drug is a step closer (7th October, 2013)[1]
b1 | Warm-up activity had student come up with names for new miracle drugs for studying, love, etc.
b2 | Student read the article then answered comprehension and synonym match questions
b3 | To practice inference I asked the student how the author of the article felt about people who work on airplanes (they have a stressful job with lots of jet-lag) and how Yoshiaki Yamaguchi felt about jet-lag and then had the student explain how he inferred the answer

d | 11:40 – 12:00 | Grammar in Context 1[3]
d1 | Completed instructor’s worksheet on Must, Have to, May/Might and Will corresponding to textbook lesson 9

e | 12:45 – 14:00 | Fiction | Fantom of the Fair
e1 | Older student caught up a student who is new in the class with whap has happened on pages 1 to 4 and we read page 5 as a class

HOMEWORK

1 | Make vocabulary sentences with the new vocabulary words from the Breaking News English article
2 | Finish the grammar worksheet

NOTES

1 | Download lesson at http://breakingnewsenglish.com/1310/131007-jet-lag.pdf via http://breakingnewsenglish.com/1310/131007-jet-lag.html
2 | ISBN 978-0-13-240988-9
3 | ISBN 978-0-521-75084-9
4 | Taken from the pages of “Amazing Mystery Funnies” Volume 2 Number 7 http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?dlid=756

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, ELL, ELT, TEFL, TESL, TESOL, The College of Chicago

What we Did in Our COC IEP 200 Class on Thursday, October 10th, 2013

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Mr. Danoff's Teaching Laboratory

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

Fall Trimester 2013 Block 4 Lesson 4

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

WHAT HAPPENED IN CLASS

a | 09:30 – 10:00 | Grammar Homework Review

b | 10:00 – 10:30 | Study Guide Review for Quiz

c | 10:30 – 11:00 | Quiz 1

d | 11:10 – 12:00 & 12:45 – 13:15 & 13:55 – 14:10 | News Hour | Breaking News English.com |4,000 could die building Qatar World Cup (29th September, 2013)[1]

e | 13:15 – 13:55 | Fast Listening Lesson 2
e1 | A Healthy Lifestyle[2]

f | 14:10 – 15:00 | USA History Elective

HOMEWORK

1 | Make vocabulary sentences with the new vocabulary words from the Breaking News English article

NOTES

1 | Download lesson at http://breakingnewsenglish.com/1309/130929-qatar-world-cup.pdf via http://breakingnewsenglish.com/1309/130929-qatar-world-cup.html
2 | http://www.esl-lab.com/health/healrd1.htm

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