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What we Did in our COC IEP 200 Class on Tuesday, May 14th

Spring Trimester 2013 Block 2

Lesson 14: (May 14)

In Class

  1. News Hour: Read the “Former U.S. Presidents Cost Nearly $3.7 Million in 2012News for You article and then completed the “Teacher’s Guide” activity where students wrote a paragraph explaining their opinions on whether or not former Presidents should receive financial assistance.
  2. Homework Check-in
  3. NorthStar 2 R&W: Finished Unit 7, as the students worked in pairs to develop brochures promoting one kind of produce (regular, organic or local) to a target audience (teenagers, parents, single people, etc.)

  4. Fast Listening: Did the I Love Trees and A Rare Solar Eclipse “Listening Quizzes for Academic Purposes [Prepare for TOEFL/TOEIC Tests with These Lectures, Interviews, and Conversations]”
  5. Reviewed Quiz 3
  6. Movie Project: Shot two of the class’ 6 movies today, finish the rest tomorrow!
  7. Student Question(s): One question that come up today was the difference between come and go. Go can mean moving anywhere, while come is only used if you are moving towards the speaker or subject.
  8. Difference between come and go

For Next Class

To Read

  1. Study for the Final Exam

To Do

  1. Grammar in Context 1: “LESSON 4 TEST / REVIEW” PARTS 1 to 4 on pages on page 125-7
  2. Movie Project: Edit your movie if you are finished

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, ELT, ESL, Movie Project, TESL, TESOL, The College of Chicago

What we Did in our COC IEP 200 Class on Monday, May 13th

Spring Trimester 2013 Block 2

Lesson 13: (May 13)

In Class

  1. News Hour: Read the “Project Brings Color to Haiti SlumNews for You article and then completed the “Teacher’s Guide” activity where students drew pictures of their version of a painted Jalousie home. “Shallow” was a wonderful vocabulary word that emerged from the activity.
  2. Homework Check-in
  3. Short Story: Read pages 54 to 55 of the “Sweetie” story on pages 52 to 53 of Frozen Pizza
  4. Grammar in Context 1: Reviewed student work on pages 119 to 123.
  5. NorthStar 2 R&W: Students worked together on exercises 2 through 5 on page 152, after there was a lot of confusion amongst students trying to finish the activity on their own.
  6. Movie Project: Students read eachother’s scripts and offered suggestions.

For Next Class

To Read

  1. Grammar in Context 1: “Summary of Lesson 4” on page 123 and “EDITING ADVICE” on page 124

To Do

  1. NorthStar 2 R&W: Exercises 1 and 2 on page 153
  2. Study for Final Exam on Thursday
  3. Movie Project: Finalize your script

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, TESL, TESOL, The College of Chicago

What we Did in our COC IEP 200 Class on Thursday, May 10th

Spring Trimester 2013 Block 2

Lesson 12: (May 9)

In Class

  1. News Hour: Read the “Despite Protests, Builders Remove Part of the Berlin Wall” News for You article and then completed the “Teacher’s Guide” activity that introduced students to the words “despite” and “in spite of”, having them make senteces about the article with those words. Afterwards we had a fun discussion about history and different ways it can be preserved or lost as well as who writes history.
  2. Homework Check-in
  3. Quiz 3
  4. NorthStar 2 R&W: Worked on pages 150 to 151. Students were having some trouble understanding the activity that had them make a brochure, but together we figured it out.
  5. Short Story: Read the third e-mail in the “Sweetie” story on pages 52 to 53 of Frozen Pizza.
  6. Fast Listening: Completed the “Battle at the Front” and “World News Stories”; 2 of the TOEFL listening quizzes from Randall’s ESL Cyber Lab.
  7. Movie Project: Reviewed the proper formatting students should be using for their stories.

For Next Class

To Read

  1. Grammar in Context 1: “4.9 | Making Generalizations” on page 120

To Do

  1. NorthStar 2 R&W: Exercises 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 on pages 151-2
  2. Grammar in Context 1: Exercises 16 to 21 on pages 120-3
  3. Study for Final Exam on Thursday, including vocabulary words from the “World News Stories” listening quiz.
  4. Movie Project: Finish your script.

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, NorthStar: Reading and Writing Level 2 Third Edition, TESL, TESOL, The College of Chicago

What we Did in our COC IEP 200 Class on Wedensday, May 8th

Spring Trimester 2013 Block 2

Lesson 11: (May 8)f

In Class

  1. News Hour: Read the “How Congress Could Change Immigration LawsNews for You article and then completed the 7 difficult comprehensin questions from the “Teacher’s Guide”. We had a informative discussion about immigration and emigration here in the USA as well as in their own countries. To finish I gave the faux Citizenship Test from the “Teacher’s Guide” orally to the class instucting them to answer as quickly as possible, with the stakes being only 1 of them would win and become a USA citizen.
  2. Homework Check-in
  3. Prepare for Quiz 3: We reviewed this quiz’s study guide (.odt file from danoff.org).
  4. Grammar in Context 1: Pages 114 to 119
  5. NorthStar 2 R&W: Reviewed exercises 3 and 4 on page 149, which (most) students already completed for homework.
  6. Short Story: Read the second e-mail in the “Sweetie” story from Frozen Pizza.

For Next Class

To Read

  1. Quiz 3 Study Guide

To Do

  1. NorthStar 2 R&W: Exercises 1 and 2 on page 150
  2. Grammar in Context 1: Exercise 15 on pages 119-20

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, 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 Tuesday, May 7th

Spring 2013 Block 2

Lesson 10: (May 7)

In Class

  1. News Hour: Read the “For Some, the Air Will Soon Be Thick With Cicadas” News for You article and completed the corresponding Teacher’s Guide exercise. The students were not happy to hear this summer will be very noisy with lots of bugs!
  2. Homework Check-in
  3. NorthStar 2 R&W: “Wh- Questions in the Simple Present Tense and with Can and Should” Grammar reading and exercises on pages 148 to 149 about making questions with auxiliary verbs, with a complementary handout of “UNIT B: Questions from the Understanding and Using English Grammar Volume A (2nd Ed.)” book as well as “Appendix C | Question Formation” (pp. AP4 – AP5) of Grammar in Context 1 (2nd Ed.)
  4. Short Story: Read page 48 of “Sweetie” our newest story from Frozen Pizza
  5. Fast Listening: Taped Library Tour and Airport Announcement
  6. Movie Project: Handed back their first and second scenese they turned in.
  7. Y as a Vowel: During a discussion about vowels it came up that at times the letter “y” can be a vowel. I mistakenly said it is only a vowel when the word has no other vowels. According to OxfordDictionaries.com “The letter Y can be regarded as both a vowel and a consonant. … Whether the letter Y is a vowel or a consonant is therefore rather an arbitrary decision.” Additionally, it should be noted that the letter “w” can also sometimes be a vowel. More reading:

For Next Class

To Read

  1. Grammar in Context 1: “4.8 | Articles with Definite and Indefinite Nouns” on page 118

To Do

  1. NorthStar 2 R&W: Exercises 3 and 4 on page 149
  2. Grammar in Context 1: Exercise 14 on pages 118-9
  3. Study for Quiz 3 on Thursday
  4. Movie Project: Revise your first and second scenes; write your third scene

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, NorthStar: Reading and Writing Level 2 Third Edition, Sweetie, TESL, TESOL, The College of Chicago, W as a vowel, Y as a vowel

What we Did in our COC IEP 200 Class on Monday, May 6th

Spring Trimester 2013 Block 2

Lesson 9: (May 6)

In Class

  1. News Hour: Read the Boston Marathon Bombings News for You article as well as the Simple English Wikipedia article about the event and then I had the students compare and contrast the two. Afterwards we discussed the event, whether people were talking about it in their home countries, how the City of Boston responded and how events like these affect people’s interpretations of Muslims.
  2. Homework Check-in
  3. Review Quiz 2 (.odt file from danoff.org) and Grades
  4. Short Story: Finished the “Don’t Miss the Mozart!”story from Frozen Pizza
  5. Movie Project: Handed back student’s first drafts of their first scene and explained tonight’s homework to revise the scene and write a draft of the next one.
  6. Poetry: We read and discussed “Byways and Hedges” by Marwan Fateen
  7. NorthStar 2 R&W: Reviewed student work and discussed the exercises on pages 144 to 147.
  8. Student Questions, two students asked the difference between near synonyms. I am going to do some research, anyone reading with a good answer, please contact meor leave it in the comments, thanks!
    • What’s the difference between really and very?
    • What’s the difference between whole and entire

For Next Class

To Read

  1. Grammar in Context 1: “4.7 | There vs. They and Other Pronouns” on page 115
  2. NorthStar 2 R&W: “GRAMMAR: Wh- Questions in the Simple Present Tense” on page 148

To Do

  1. NorthStar 2 R&W: “GRAMMAR 1″ on page 148 and exercise 2 on pages 148-9
  2. Grammar in Context 1: Exercises 12 and 13 on page 116
  3. Study for Quiz 3 on Thursday
  4. Movie Project: Revise your first scene and write the first draft of scene two

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, Don't Miss the Mozart!, ELL, ELT, ESL, Frozen Pizza and other slices of life, 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, May 2nd

Spring Trimester 2013 Block 2

Lesson 8: (May 2)

In Class

  1. News Hour: Read the “King Richard I’s Heart Held DaisiesNews for You article and completed the Teacher’s Guide exercise. We then had a fun discussion about what each student would like to have done to their bodies after they die: ranged from cremation to donating the organs to others.
    Tomb of Richard I of England at Rouen Cathedral, France. (Photographed June 2003). This work has been released into the public domain by its author, AYArktos. Via Wikimedia Commons.
  2. Movie Project: Students compared their storyboards they did last night for homework with one another, and then one student who did particularly good drawings shared hers with the class.
  3. Quiz 2 (.odt file from danoff.org)
  4. Short Story: Read pages 94 to 95 of the “Don’t Miss the Mozart!” short story in Frozen Pizza and Other Slices of Life
  5. Vocabular Words that Came Up in Class:
    • cremate = body burned after death
    • organ transplant = someone donates part of their body (heart, lungs, etc.) to someone else
    • disfavor – opposite of favor
    • announcement = share news with a small group, company, school, or organization
    • dough = mixture of flour and liqud that can be made into bread, cake, etc.
    • doughnut = fried dough

For Next Class

To Read

  1. Frozen Pizza and other slices of life: Review pages 95 to 96

To Do

  1. NorthStar 2 R&W: “EXPAND 2” on pages 145-6 and “CREATE” on pages 146-7
  2. Grammar in Context 1: Exercises 10 and 11 on pages 114 to 115
  3. Study for Quiz 3 on Thursday
  4. Movie Project: Write your first scene in Celtx and e-mail it to me
  5. Blog: Comment on your partner’s blog
  6. Blog: Respond to your partner’s blog

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, Don't Miss the Mozart!, ELL, ELT, ESL, ESOL, Frozen Pizza and other slices of life, Quiz, TESL, The College of Chicago

What we Did in our COC IEP 200 Class on Wednesday, May 1st

Spring Trimester 2013 Block 2

Lesson 7: May 1

In Class

  1. News Hour
  2. News Hour: Read the “Scientists Learn About Heart Disease by Studying Mummies” News for You article and completed the Teacher’s Guide exercise. Afterwards I had them search through one column of the text to find words ending in “s” and decide which of the three IPA symbols we learned in section 4.3 | Pronunciation of Plural Nouns (p. 105) of our Grammar textbook is the correct pronunciation.
  3. Homework Check-in + Quiz 1 and Grades Review
  4. Short Story
  5. NorthStar 2 R&W: Completed the vocabulary “REVIEW” exercise on page 144
  6. Short Story: Read pages 92 to 93 of the “Don’t Miss the Mozart!” short story in Frozen Pizza and Other Slices of Life
  7. Grammar in Context: Pages 110 to 112
  8. Movie Project: Reviewed everyone’s writeups of the “Seduced by the Dark Side” story then explained tonight’s assignment to story board the tale. Additionally I had the students act out one of the

For Next Class

To Read

  1. Frozen Pizza and other slices of life: Review pages 94 to 95
  2. Grammar in Context 1: “4.6 | Questions and Short Answers Using There” on page 112

To Do

  1. NorthStar 2 R&W: “REVIEW” on page 144 and “EXPAND 1” on pages 144-5
  2. Grammar in Context 1: Exercises 8 and 9 on pages 112-3
  3. Study for Quiz 2 on Thursday; be sure to review the study guide (.odt file from danoff.org) and quiz 1
  4. Movie Project: Fill out the Thumbnail Storyboard (.pdf file from wikimedia.org) worksheet from Wikiversity
  5. Blog: Comment on your partner’s blog
  6. Blog: Respond to your partner’s blog

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, TESL, The College of Chicago

What we Did in our COC IEP 200 Class on Tuesday, April 30th

Spring Trimester 2013 Block 2

Lesson 6: April 30

In Class

  1. News Hour: We read the News for You article about students doing the “Harlem Shake” in Tunisia and the reactions from others in their society. After completing the Teacher’s Guide activity, we had an interesting discussion about Tunisia and the Arab Spring in general.
  2. NorthStar 2 R&W
  3. Short Story: Read pages 90 and 91 of the Don’t Miss the Mozart Frozen Pizza story
  4. Fast Listening: Students completed 2 of the TOEFL listening quizzes from Randall’s ESL Cyber Lab:
  5. Movie Project
  6. Handed back Last Month’s Final Exam and Gave Grades

For Next Class

To Read

  1. Grammar in Context 1: “4.5 | Using There + Is/Are” on page 110
  2. Frozen Pizza and other slices of life: Review pages 92 to 93

To Do

  1. Grammar in Context 1: Exercises 6 and 7 on page 111
  2. NorthStar 2 R&W: Comprehension questions on page 141 and “STEP 2: Synthesize” on page 143
  3. `

  4. Study for Quiz 2 on Thursday
  5. Movie Project: Write a script for the story about the dark side in Celtx and e-mail it to me.
  6. Blog: Comment on your partner’s blog
  7. Blog: Respond to your partner’s blog

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, Don't Miss the Mozart!, ELL, ELT, ESL, Frozen Pizza and other slices of life, NorthStar: Reading and Writing Level 2 Third Edition, TESL, TESOL, The College of Chicago

What we Did in our COC IEP 200 Class on Monday, April 29th

Spring Trimester 2012 Block 2

Lesson 5: (April 29)

In Class

  1. News Hour: Read the “City in Estonia Gives Citizens a Free Ride” News for You article and completed the comprehension questions from the Teacher’s Guide. Afterwards we had a discussion about the pluses and minuses of the CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) and Metra trains in Chicagoland.
  2. Homework Check-in
  3. NorthStar 2 R&W: Reviewed student work on pages 138-9 and read this unit’s second passage on pages 140-1.
  4. Grammar in Context 1: Reviewed grammar concets and question answers, then read the passage on pages 108-9.
  5. Movie Project: Went over the weekend’s Analyze the story exercise in class. The students generally answered the questions correctly, but the story’s dark side/windows metaphor was lost. I gave a quick overview of the force from Star Wars and then the dark side, once that was understood the students got the metaphor that Apple computers were like the Jedi order (good people using the force), and Windows computer were like those who’d chosen the dark side and joined the sith. They didn’t find it funny (and I agree), bute they understood the metaphor joke was not the point of the exercise.
  6. Short Story: Read pages 88 and 89 of the Don’t Miss the Mozart story from Frozen Pizza and other slices of life.
  7. Student Grammar Questions (will be on Thursday’s quiz):
    • What’s the difference between “interesting” and “interested”? “Interesting” is a noun, while “interested” is a verb. Finding something interesting means you like it and/or want to learn more about what you’re describing. To be interested in something means you want to do it or learn more about it; you are interested in things you find interesting.
    • What’s the difference between “instead” and “instead of”? Both mean something replaces another thing; i.e., “rather”. Instead is an adverb, while instead of is a preposition. Instead of can come at the beginning or middle of a sentence; instead in the middle or at the end. Examples: “He chose to play computer games instead of doing his homework.” “He was going to study, but he played computer games instead.” “Instead of his girlfriend cleaning his apartment, he cleaned her house.”
  8. Student Vocabulary Questions (will be on Thursday’s quiz):
    • What’s the meaning of the idiom as a matter of fact? -> It is used when arguing or discussing something with another person to say something surprising; say “Actually …”; “In addition …” and/or to clearly state a fact. The word “matter” means something that is important.
    • “The ‘L’” taught students that in chicago typically the CTA trains are not called the subway, but its local nickname instead: “The ‘L’” which is short for elevated tracks.

For Next Class

To Read

  1. Grammar in Context 1: “Finding an Apartment” on pages 108 to 109
  2. Frozen Pizza and other slices of life: Pages 90 to 91

To Do

  1. NorthStar 2 R&W: Comprehension questions on page 141 and “STEP 1: Organize” on page 142
  2. Study for Quiz 2 on Thursday
  3. Movie Project: Download and install hte Celtx software from celtx.com by clicking “Get Started Now”
  4. Blog: Comment on your partner’s blog
  5. Blog: Respond to your partner’s blog

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, Don't Miss the Mozart!, 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