Hello again!
Now I am caught up and can begin today's post! Today, I was ready to burst with excitement, so I had to tell you my big news. Surprisingly, we found a house over the weekend. It looks like we'll be moving the very end of June/first of July. My husband no longer has cold feet. He took down all the pictures we have and fixed the holes on Monday. When I came home yesterday afternoon, he had packed up all the books in my home office and all of the clothes in the dressers in our bedroom. I feel very thankful that everything is falling into place. Sergey asked when the party will be. I know he was kidding, but I'm up for it. I'll have an email sign-up list and if enough students are interested, let's have a potluck picnic at a nearby park at the end of the summer. By waiting awhile, hopefully some of you will have returned from your summer trips.
Our vocabulary was count on me-- the same as depend on me/rely on me. I puposefully chose the song "Lean on Me" because it is another way to express the same idea.
Then, our grammar review was awesome. I was so excited about our discussion on run-ons and fragments. I strongly believe that punctuation errors in English often result from applying the rules from the native language. The same thing happens in pronunciation-- especially intonation. It also happens in pargraph/essay structure. We will definitely be going over this with a specific activity before the end of the quarter. My best advice for run-on sentences: After you write, check over your sentences. Find the subjects and verbs. If you have several subjects and several verbs with several commas, try changing the commas to periods. If you have a subject and a verb for each new sentence, you have probably corrected your run-ons.
The review seems to be going well for the grammar. You seemed to understand how to connect the sentences in different ways in the textbook exercise. You also identified most of the grammar in the Oregon Facts exercise. You seem to be ready for next week's quiz!
Next, I had you do the 4-minute quick write and follow-up discussion to begin thinking about the pioneers' move to Oregon. I will look for common themes in your writing to use when discussing the pioneers in more detail.
We finished the scanning activity quickly. We'll go over the answers tomorrow. This activity gives you practice in reading with time pressure, an important skill when taking a test. It is also a way to get the main ideas efficiently and, in this particular exercise, gives you practice reading a map.
I hope many of you will be able to stay after class tomorrow to say goodbye (though I'd rather say "see you later") to both Angie and Kim as they travel to their native countries, Mexico and Vietnam. It has been a special quarter for me as I have been very fortunate to have been given such a great group of students.
See you in the morning!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Week 8-- Day 29
Good evening! Here I am recapping Tuesday's class. I was in la-la land yesterday. Yesterday after class, I flew out of my office to pick up some papers at home and then went to the bank to begin the process of the paperwork.
Let's see. Tuesday was the first day of the week-- I kept thinking that yesterday was Monday! Was anyone else confused? We began class with tune in, tune out, stay tuned. Everyone seemed to be tuning in when we were talking about the different phrases related to "tune".
Then, we returned to adjective clauses and phrases by looking at the Mt. St. Helens article. The article gave me a good reason to explore the vocabulary a bit with you and show you the video clip. As I said in class, Mt. St. Helens is really one of my favorite places in the Pacific Northwest. I like it so much because every time you go, it looks a little different. Everything, the plants, trees, etc., is growing more and more each year. Go to this website for more information: http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm/. It wasn't an easy exercise to identify the grammar in the news article, a real-life, authentic context. However, I thought you were successful and demonstrating understanding.
After the break, it was CASAS day! The test is so important because it is a requirement for our program to continue receiving federal funding (which makes it such a great bargain). The CASAS test is a standardized test that is used across the country. It focuses on life skills, but students do demonstrate progress even if we don't talk about those specific topics in class. The idea is if you have strong reading skills, you can apply them to any context. I'll have your results for your final appointments. I can access your testing history (since you began the ESL program) any time. Just ask!
I'll close now and begin my next post! Stay tuned!
Let's see. Tuesday was the first day of the week-- I kept thinking that yesterday was Monday! Was anyone else confused? We began class with tune in, tune out, stay tuned. Everyone seemed to be tuning in when we were talking about the different phrases related to "tune".
Then, we returned to adjective clauses and phrases by looking at the Mt. St. Helens article. The article gave me a good reason to explore the vocabulary a bit with you and show you the video clip. As I said in class, Mt. St. Helens is really one of my favorite places in the Pacific Northwest. I like it so much because every time you go, it looks a little different. Everything, the plants, trees, etc., is growing more and more each year. Go to this website for more information: http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm/. It wasn't an easy exercise to identify the grammar in the news article, a real-life, authentic context. However, I thought you were successful and demonstrating understanding.
After the break, it was CASAS day! The test is so important because it is a requirement for our program to continue receiving federal funding (which makes it such a great bargain). The CASAS test is a standardized test that is used across the country. It focuses on life skills, but students do demonstrate progress even if we don't talk about those specific topics in class. The idea is if you have strong reading skills, you can apply them to any context. I'll have your results for your final appointments. I can access your testing history (since you began the ESL program) any time. Just ask!
I'll close now and begin my next post! Stay tuned!
Monday, May 25, 2009
Week 7-- Day 28
Hi! I'm usually an early bird, but tonight I guess I'm a night owl, too! I hope you're enjoying this very beautiful Memorial Day Weekend. We have been very busy (looking for a new home), but we're still having fun. On Friday night, we decided to go to the Rose Festival Fireworks in Portland. We haven't been to a fireworks display for a couple of years, so the girls got kick out of seeing them. Yesterday, we hiked up to the top of Multnomah Falls with the girls. My husband and I were so proud of them. They're in good shape-- they weren't breathing hard and could keep up with us. They were so excited to realize how high they had gone all by themselves! We also went on a nature walk and had a picnic in Camas today. I never realized that Camas has so many parks and trails! We haven't decided what we'll do tomorrow!
I'll review Thursday's class now. We began the morning with a couple of cow idioms. I used them to introduce the Wendy's commercial from the 1980s that was mentioned in class on Wednesday (cow-beef sort of relates, right?) Then, we returned to adjective clauses/phrases with the dictation. I have found that dictations are an efficient way to introduce the grammar, especially because several skills are being worked on at the same time (listening, spelling, grammar). On Tuesday, because you have a foundation of the rules, we'll be taking the grammar out of the textbook and into the real world by analyzing the adjective phrases/clauses in a news article. I will be giving you information about one of the most beautiful places in the area (and a personal favorite of mine) as we study the grammar! Any guesses of what place it is? I'll give you a hint: Something big happened at this place in the month of May years ago.
After the grammar, I explained the presentation rubric, so you understand how you will be assesed. You also had some time to talk in groups. It seems that most groups are organized. I have appointments scheduled with some groups this week. If you have a question, be sure to ask-- I want this to be a fun (and educational, of course) experience for you.
Since we had a few minutes left, we were able to do the on-line quiz. Since you aced it, it is now time to move on to the Pioneers/The Oregon Trail. We'll begin the in-class work on Wednesday.
Be sure to check out my web site for resources. I made quite a few updates before leaving work on Friday afternoon.
I hope you are all enjoying the sunshine. I look forward to hearing about your weekends on Tuesday. See you then!
I'll review Thursday's class now. We began the morning with a couple of cow idioms. I used them to introduce the Wendy's commercial from the 1980s that was mentioned in class on Wednesday (cow-beef sort of relates, right?) Then, we returned to adjective clauses/phrases with the dictation. I have found that dictations are an efficient way to introduce the grammar, especially because several skills are being worked on at the same time (listening, spelling, grammar). On Tuesday, because you have a foundation of the rules, we'll be taking the grammar out of the textbook and into the real world by analyzing the adjective phrases/clauses in a news article. I will be giving you information about one of the most beautiful places in the area (and a personal favorite of mine) as we study the grammar! Any guesses of what place it is? I'll give you a hint: Something big happened at this place in the month of May years ago.
After the grammar, I explained the presentation rubric, so you understand how you will be assesed. You also had some time to talk in groups. It seems that most groups are organized. I have appointments scheduled with some groups this week. If you have a question, be sure to ask-- I want this to be a fun (and educational, of course) experience for you.
Since we had a few minutes left, we were able to do the on-line quiz. Since you aced it, it is now time to move on to the Pioneers/The Oregon Trail. We'll begin the in-class work on Wednesday.
Be sure to check out my web site for resources. I made quite a few updates before leaving work on Friday afternoon.
I hope you are all enjoying the sunshine. I look forward to hearing about your weekends on Tuesday. See you then!
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