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

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Mr. Danoff's Teaching Laboratory

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.
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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

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Mr. Danoff's Teaching Laboratory

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. `

  3. Study for Quiz 2 on Thursday
  4. Movie Project: Write a script for the story about the dark side 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.
Read more ›

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

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Mr. Danoff's Teaching Laboratory

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.
Read more ›

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

What we Did in our COC IEP 200 Class on Thursday, April 25th

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Mr. Danoff's Teaching Laboratory

Spring Trimester 2012 Block 2

Lesson 4: (April 25)

In Class

  1. News Hour: Read the “First Lady’s Anti-Obesity Effort Gets Results” News for You article and completed the fun Teacher’s Guide activity that had the students develop a healthy breakfast menu for a food desert. As an astute student pointed out, the article was a nice complement to our current NorthStar 2 Unit on Organic Food. Trans fat commonly used to keep food tasting scrumptously fresh longer was a new vocabulary term. image
    Triglyceride Hydrogenation&Isomerization V.1 by Jü (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons. Afterwards we had a discussion about processed foods and the dubious quality of the AP statistics reported in the article.
  2. Quiz 1 on NorthStar 2 R&W Unity 7 Vocabulary Words; Grammar in Context 1: “4.1 | Singular and Plural-An Overview”

Frozen Pizza and other slices of lifeDownload .odt file from danoff.org

  1. Short Story: Started the “Don’t Miss the Mozart” Frozen Pizza story
  2. Movie Project: Began part 2 of Analyze the story the Wikiversity Film School’s Formatting the Script lesson. Developed a worksheet for the students to complete on their blogs.Download .odt file from danoff.org [54.8 kB].

For Next Class

To Read

  1. Grammar in Context 1: “4.4 | Irregular Noun Plurals” on page 106
  2. Frozen Pizza and other slices of life: Read pages 88 to 89
  3. NorthStar 2 R&W: “B) READING TWO: Miles to Go Before You Eat” passage on page 140

To Do

  1. Grammar in Context 1: Exercises 4 and 5 on page 107
  2. NorthStar 2 R&W: “READ FOR DETAILS” on pages 137-8 and “MAKE INFERENCES” on page 139
  3. Study for Quiz 2 on Thursday
  4. Movie Project: Complete the Analyze the story exercise on your blog.
  5. Blog: Comment on your partner’s blog
  6. Blog: Respond to your partner’s blog
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Posted in COC IEP 200, ELT, ESL, Frozen Pizza and other slices of life, Grammar in Context 1 Fourth Edition, IEP, NorthStar: Reading and Writing Level 2 Third Edition, Star Reporter, TESL, TESOL, The College of Chicago

What we Did in our COC IEP 200 Class on Wednesday, April 24th

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Mr. Danoff's Teaching Laboratory

To see all the classes from Spring Trimester Block 2 IEP 200 class at the College of Chicago, please read the course calendar (https://www.mr.danoff.org/COC-IEP-200-Spring-Trimester-2013-Block-2-Calendar.html).

Lesson 3: (April 24)

In Class

  1. News Hour: Read the “Colombian Woman Stands In for Baby Monkey’s Mother” News for You article and completed the True/False questions from the Teacher’s Guide. Afterwards we had a discussion about everyone’s pet history and heard a funny story about one student’s pet birds.
  2. Homework Check-in: Changed this up, met with students 1-on-1 to go over their homework and clear up any confusion individually.
  3. NorthStar 2 R&W: First I read the passage aloud to the class, then individual students read paragraphs out loud and I corrected their pronunciation. One of the paragraphs had a year, which led to a discussion about pronouncing numbers and years, the notes are below (next week I will make a handout for us to go over these again):

     
//pronouncing numbers

137
one hundred and thirty-seven
one-thirty-seven
106
one hundred and six
one-o-six

//pronouncing years

1950 = nineteen fifty
2000 = two thousand
2009 = two thousand and nine
2010 = twenty ten

1900 to 1999 = twentieth century
2000 to 2099 = twenty-first century

BC = Before Christ = Before Year 0 = BCE = Before Common Era
AD = After Death = After Year 0 = CE = Common Era
  4. Prepare for quiz 1: Students worked in teams to develop review questions and quiz the other teams. I incorporated their questions into the Quiz 1 study guide (download .odt file from danoff.org)
  5. Movie Project: Students worked to develop a draft of the first scene of their movie, focusing on 3 questions: Where are they? What do they do (in the scene)? and What do they say (in the scene)?

For Next Class

To Read

  1. Grammar in Context 1: “4.3 | Pronunciation of Plural Nouns” on page 105
  2. NorthStar 2 R&W: “ASK MR GREEN …” reading passage on page 137
  3. Frozen Pizza and other slices of life: pages 86 to 87 of the “Don’t Miss the Mozart” story

To Do

  1. NorthStar 2 R&W: “READ FOR MAIN IDEAS” exercise on page 138
  2. Movie Project: Write a blog post with a draft of the first scene of your movie, focusing on 3 questions: Where are they? What do they do (in the scene)? and What do they say (in the scene)?
  3. Study for Quiz 1 on Thursday
  4. Blog: Comment on 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.
Read more ›

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

What we Did in our COC IEP 200 Class on Tuesday, April 23rd

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Mr. Danoff's Teaching Laboratory

To see all the classes from Spring Trimester Block 2 IEP 200 class at the College of Chicago, please read the course calendar here.

Lesson 2 (April 23)

In Class

  1. News Hour: Read the “Word Worries About North Korea” News for You article and completed the comprehension questions from the Teacher’s Guide. Afterwards we had a discussion about how everyone felt about North Korea and its leaders recent actions. Some were afraid, others not worried.
  2. Tech Setup: Made sure everyone had a working wordpress.com blog and the latest version of LibreOffice. Then had the students develop an “About” page for their blogs, answering: Who are you?; What do you use this blog for? and any other information they wanted to share. Also introduced students to commons.wikimedia.org as a helpful place to get images. Wherever they found their image, they had to make sure to attribute its source properly.
  3. Fast Listening: Listening Quizzes for Academic Purposes from esl-lab.com Business Meeting (Short URL www.j.mp/17NI2C3) and ESL Program Meeting (Short URL www.j.mp/ZiAyqj)
  4. Short Story: Finished the “Star Reporter” story from Frozen Pizza
  5. Homework Check-in
  6. NorthStar 2 R&W page 136
  7. Movie Project: Had students work in pairs to share their answers to these 4 questions and support eachother:

    1. What is your movie’s topic?
    2. Where is your movie set?
    3. What happens in your movie? (3-5 minutes)
    4. Who are the 6 characters?

For Next Class

To Read

  1. Grammar in Context 1: “4.2 | Regular Noun Plurals” on page 104
  2. Frozen Pizza and other slices of life: pages 84 to 85 of the “Star Reporter” story

To Do

  1. NorthStar 2 R&W: “A) READING ONE: Organic Produce vs. Regular Produce” exercise on page 136
  2. Grammar in Context 1: “Exercise 2” on pages 104-5
  3. Movie Project: Answer the 4 questions discussed in class on your blog
  4. Study for Quiz 1 on Thursday: NorthStar page 136 vocabulary; Star Reporter story and plural vs. singular from page 102 of Grammar in Context
  5. Blog: Comment on 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.
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Posted in COC IEP 200, ELL, ELT, ESL, Frozen Pizza and other slices of life, Star Reporter, TESL, TESOL, The College of Chicago

What we Did in our COC IEP 200 Class on Monday, April 22nd

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Mr. Danoff's Teaching Laboratory

To see all the classes from Spring Trimester Block 2 IEP 200 class at the College of Chicago, please read the course calendar here.

LESSON 1

  1. News Hour: Read the “In Myanmar, Freedom of the Press Returns” News for You article and completed the comprehension questions from the Teacher’s Guide. Afterwards we had a discussion about freedom of the press in everyone’s countries.
  2. Short Story: We reviewed the beginning of the Star Reporter story and then read page 83.
  3. Introduce this Month’s Syllabus and Calendar
  4. Movie Project: Explained that all the students will be writing short films this month instead of doing a survey, essay and presentation.
  5. Homework Check-in
  6. NorthStar 2 R&W: Completed pages 134 to 136.
  7. Grammar in Context 1: Worked on pages 102 to 103.

For Next Class

To Read

  1. Grammar in Context 1: “4.1 | Singular and Plural-An Overview” on pages 102 to 103
  2. Frozen Pizza and other slices of life: pages 76 to 83 of the “Star Reporter” story

To Do

  1. Project: Choose a subject or place for your movie and write about it on your blog
  2. Grammar in Context 1: Exercise 1 on page 103
  3. NorthStar 2 R&W: “C BACKGROUND AND VOCABULARY” exercise on pages 135 to 136
  4. Study for Quiz 1 on Thursday
  5. Bring your laptop to school on Tuesday

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.
Read more ›

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

What we Did in our COC IEP 200 Class on Wednesday, April 17th

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Mr. Danoff's Teaching Laboratory

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Lesson 15: (April 17)

In Class

  1. News Hour: Read and discussed the “Multiple Explosions Hit Boston Marathon” English Wikinews Article. Before our class discussion divided the students into teams to create comprehension questions for eachother:
    • Who is Ed Davis? (Boston policeman)
    • Where was the third bomb? (JFK Presidential Library and Museum)
    • What did participants see on the street? (2 explosions)
    • How much money can you get for offering information to the authoritites? (None)
    • What time did the explosion occur? (four hours after the start of the men’s race)
    • How many explosions were at the Boston Marathon? (2)
  2. Homework Check-in
  3. Survey project: Had each student do a practice run of their presentation to prepare for tomorrow
  4. Fast Listening; students completed 2 of the Listening Quizzes for Academic Purposes:
  5. Final Exam Prep: Working from the (Study Guide) continued yesterday’s activity of having students quiz eachother in teams; these are the review questions:Grammar in Context 1 Lesson 3:
      1. How _____ do you brush your teeth? (often)
      2. I ______ wake up late in the morning. (never)
      3. Q: What time do you go to bed at night? (I got to bed at …)
      4. Q: ____ she ____ late? A: She is always late.
      5. Mother’s Day is _____ in June. (never [it’s in May])
      6. FIX THE ERRORS – Q: How often do he go to the club? A: He go usually to the club. (Q: How often does he go to the club? A: He usually goes to the club.)
      7. I don’t like to sleep in class, so I _____ sleep in class. (don’t)
      8. Q: ____ he _____ a girlfriend? A: Yes, he always _____.
      9. Vincent _____ _____ [is; never; are; sleeps] in class. (never sleeps)
      10. FIX THE ERRORS – She never does eat in class. (She never eats in class.)

      Ordinal #’s

        1. 983rd = nine hundred eighty third
        2. 85th = eighty fifth
        3. 90th = ninetieth
        4. 1,111th = one thousand and one hundred eleventh

        Expressing Habitual Present with When –Clauses

          1. CONJUGATE AND COMPLTE SENTENCE: I get very _____ [hungry] when I exercise. (hungry)
          2. FILL IN THE BLANK: Bob gets very lonely when he’s ____ home. (when)
          3. FIX THE SENTENCE: When I have a broken heart I always drink a lot. (need to add a comma after heart)
          4. FILL IN THE BLANK: When I watch TV __ ____________. (comma in first blank, logical response to watching TV in second)

        For Next Class

        To Do

        1. Project: Finish your presentation
        2. 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.
        Read more ›

        Posted in COC IEP 200, ELL, ELT, ESL, Grammar in Context 1 Fourth Edition, TESL, TESOL, The College of Chicago

        What we Did in our COC IEP 200 Class on Tuesday, April 16th

        Posted on April 16, 2013 by Mr. Danoff's Teaching Laboratory

        To see all the classes from Spring Trimester Block 1 IEP 200 class at the College of Chicago, please read the course calendar here. 

        Lesson 14: (April 16)

        In Class

        1. News Hour: “In Chad, Lack of Food Hurts Children’s Minds” News for You article
        2. Fast Listening: Lesson 9
        3. Short Story: Pages 79 to 81 of the “Star Reporter” story on pages 76 to 85 of Frozen Pizza
          • Question p. 79: What is the narrator’s name? Answer: Mike.
          • Question p. 79: What happens on Tuesday mornings? Answer: Student News meeting.
          • Question p. 80: Why does Mike think Angela is a good Editor? Answer: Because knows what is a good story and how to organize people to make a good article.
          • Question p. 80: Did the University tell people their new houses were on a flood plain? Answer: No.
          • Question p. 81: Did the mother want to be photographed? Answer: No.
          • Question p. 81: Why did Sue give Mike a dirty look? Answer: Because she wanted to take photographs of the mother with her stroller and Mike said no.
        4. Survey project: Discuss presentations and review “Survey Research Essay” (Download from danoff.org) handout

        For Next Class

        To Read

        1. Frozen Pizza and other slices of life: Pages 79 to 81
        2. News Hour: “Multiple Explosions Hit Boston Marathon” Wikinews article

        To Do

        1. Project: Reivew the handout and make changes to your essay
        2. Project: Finish your presentation
        3. Study for Quiz 3 (Download study guide 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, white board photos and text Copyright © 2013 by Charlie Danoff. Rights given a CC Zero 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
        Read more ›

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

        What we Did in our COC IEP 200 Class on Monday, April 15th

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

        To see all the classes from Spring Trimester Block 1 IEP 200 class at the College of Chicago, please read the course calendar here. 

        Lesson 13: (April 15)

        In Class

        1. News Hour: “Same-Sex Marriage Cases Fill Seats at U.S. Supreme Court” News for You article
        2. Grammar in Context 1: Parts 1 and 2 on pages 92 to 95
        3. Review quiz 3
        4. Homework Check-in
        5. Short Story: Started the “Star Reporter” story on pages 76 to 85 of Frozen Pizzaby reading pages 76 to 78
          • Question: Page 76 – Where was the narrator Tuesday morning? Answer: He was in the Student News office.
          • Q: p. 77 – What was the narrator’s job? A1: Journalist. A2: Editor of the paper.
          • Q: p. 78 – What are the differences between a tabloid and a serious newspaper? A: Tabloids focus on celebrities and do not always tell the whole truth. Serious newspapers focus on world events, economics, and more complex topics.
        6. Survey project: Essay and presentation status discussion

        For Next Class

        To Read

        1. Frozen Pizza and other slices of life: pages 76 to 78

        To Do

        1. Project: Write the analysis paragraph of your essay
        2. Project: Make the first draft of your presentation slides
        3. Study Quiz 2, Quiz 3 and the vocabulary words from the “Same-Sex Marriage Cases Fill Seats at U.S. Supreme Court” News for You 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.
        Read more ›

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