We went through weird weathers in the past few days. It was about to put away coats, sweaters and even jackets, but suddenly the weather changed. On April 27, we got started with “cold” weather (maybe it’s just cool or warm in the States) as our warm-up. “How do you like cold weather?” I asked my seniors students. “I like cold weather rather than hot weather; hot weather makes me sweat.” Jean said. Lucille agreed, “I don’t like hot weather, either. Summer in Taiwan is so hot and humid, and I feel uncomfortable.”
Laura created a story with the same cartoon pictures from last class. Although it was just a common story, I was glad that she wanted to practice English with telling a short story.
Today, we reviewed the song “The Greatest Love” with flash cards. I gave my students, who were divided into two groups, two decks of same word flash cards. While the music was playing, they had to lift up the word flash cards. It seemed to be a small competition; I’d rather say it’s just a repetition. Repetition is very important for seniors’ class according to Professor Terry Doyle’s theory.
Next class on May 4, my seniors students are going out for an outing. That means: No school on May 4. I’ll think about a skit or songs that my students would perform for the last day of this semester, June 19. I hope I can come out with something creative.
Cindy R Shih
2009年4月21日 星期二
Story-telling
April 20, I think my seniors students had lots of fun today. They told the stories according to the pictures (please see the attachment) that I gave them last week. Before doing story-telling practice, we did “outside reading”--- one story from the Bible, Joseph, as today’s warm-up. I took the low-level version that they might catch the main ideas easily. I made my students retold the story with what, who, why, where and how questions. In this way, they could apply to tell an organized story.
There were four stories coming out in class; story 1 was from Nancy’s group, story 2 was from Carol, story 3 was from Joseph, and story 4 was from Jean. I’d like to share the two stories of them; Carol’s and Jean’s were more creative and organized.
Story 2: by Carol
Picture A: A department store had a big sale. A thief stole some clothes when the salesclerk didn’t notice him.
Picture B: After the salesclerk found something wrong, he ran after the thief on the street.
Picture E: They had an argument, and there were some strangers watching them.
Picture C: Finally, the thief admitted stealing. He then kneeled down and begged forgiveness.
Story 4: by Jean
Picture D: My parents were watching TV at home.
Picture E: They then heard noises outside the window.
Picture A: They decided to go shopping. They shopped till midnight.
Picture F: My mom fell asleep when my dad drove her home.
Of course, they made some mistakes while telling stories. But they were still willing to try; and I always admire the good learning attitudes they have.
Cindy R Shih
There were four stories coming out in class; story 1 was from Nancy’s group, story 2 was from Carol, story 3 was from Joseph, and story 4 was from Jean. I’d like to share the two stories of them; Carol’s and Jean’s were more creative and organized.
Story 2: by Carol
Picture A: A department store had a big sale. A thief stole some clothes when the salesclerk didn’t notice him.
Picture B: After the salesclerk found something wrong, he ran after the thief on the street.
Picture E: They had an argument, and there were some strangers watching them.
Picture C: Finally, the thief admitted stealing. He then kneeled down and begged forgiveness.
Story 4: by Jean
Picture D: My parents were watching TV at home.
Picture E: They then heard noises outside the window.
Picture A: They decided to go shopping. They shopped till midnight.
Picture F: My mom fell asleep when my dad drove her home.
Of course, they made some mistakes while telling stories. But they were still willing to try; and I always admire the good learning attitudes they have.
Cindy R Shih
2009年4月14日 星期二
Making up Stories by Pictures
On April 8, I attended a special online class “Teaching English to Seniors” by Professor Terry Doyle of City College, San Francisco. Thanks to the useful software and websites, modern people can take long-distance courses easily. For some who are computer challenging, like me, it’s a great opportunity to improve English teaching and computer operating skills at the same time.
During the one-and-a-half hour live conference, I got some practical ideas about teaching seniors such as enlarging texts, seniors relevant topics and learning phrases through movie scripts. I’ve printed out all the power point scripts which would become one of my references.
My senior students go to church to take my class. The classroom is, indeed, a conference room where there are no TV set or computer and big screen that I can play DVDs with. Since watching movies is an effective way to improve English, according to Professor Terry Doyle’s observation in his classes, I would at least try to move the class to the equipped chapel and start with clips from movies or “commercial downloaded via internet” (an idea from my teacher, Aiden Yeh) in my class in the near future.
Today, April 13, we continued studying the article that story was about an argument-loving journalist. We got started with our small talk “What situation would you argue with others?” Cherry said, “I usually argue with my 35-year-old daughter while she’s wearing mini skirt. I think it is not suitable for her age.” I asked her, “Does your daughter listen to you?” “No, she says I’m not fashion.” Cherry answered. Meanwhile, I taught them how to use words: in fashion, out of fashion, fashionable… We also did all the exercises attached in the unit.
In today’s lesson, I applied the image-concept Professor Terry Doyle offered in class practice. I put eight drawing pictures with characters and scenes on the white board and made students pick four out of them. They then could make up stories in their own ways. For example, if they picked pictures A, C, G, H and put them in the order they liked. They then started to describe what happened, who they were, where they were, when it happened…. There were five groups working on this exercise. At the end of the class, there were no stories coming out yet. They took shrunk-sized copy to create the stories as their homework. (I’m looking forward to their interesting stories; some of them are pretty creative and humorous.) Time flies, we didn’t have any time left to review the three songs we’ve learned this semester. I hope they can spend a little time on practicing with the CD and lyrics offered by me previously.
Cindy R Shih
During the one-and-a-half hour live conference, I got some practical ideas about teaching seniors such as enlarging texts, seniors relevant topics and learning phrases through movie scripts. I’ve printed out all the power point scripts which would become one of my references.
My senior students go to church to take my class. The classroom is, indeed, a conference room where there are no TV set or computer and big screen that I can play DVDs with. Since watching movies is an effective way to improve English, according to Professor Terry Doyle’s observation in his classes, I would at least try to move the class to the equipped chapel and start with clips from movies or “commercial downloaded via internet” (an idea from my teacher, Aiden Yeh) in my class in the near future.
Today, April 13, we continued studying the article that story was about an argument-loving journalist. We got started with our small talk “What situation would you argue with others?” Cherry said, “I usually argue with my 35-year-old daughter while she’s wearing mini skirt. I think it is not suitable for her age.” I asked her, “Does your daughter listen to you?” “No, she says I’m not fashion.” Cherry answered. Meanwhile, I taught them how to use words: in fashion, out of fashion, fashionable… We also did all the exercises attached in the unit.
In today’s lesson, I applied the image-concept Professor Terry Doyle offered in class practice. I put eight drawing pictures with characters and scenes on the white board and made students pick four out of them. They then could make up stories in their own ways. For example, if they picked pictures A, C, G, H and put them in the order they liked. They then started to describe what happened, who they were, where they were, when it happened…. There were five groups working on this exercise. At the end of the class, there were no stories coming out yet. They took shrunk-sized copy to create the stories as their homework. (I’m looking forward to their interesting stories; some of them are pretty creative and humorous.) Time flies, we didn’t have any time left to review the three songs we’ve learned this semester. I hope they can spend a little time on practicing with the CD and lyrics offered by me previously.
Cindy R Shih
2009年4月6日 星期一
Practice with Games
Today, April 6, we moved on a new lesson, Unit 14; the story is about a journalist who likes arguing with others. He doesn’t care whom he argue with. Before the text start, we had a small talk: What situation would you argue with others?
The answer from Jean was: “I always argue with my husband while driving; we have different ideas about routes.” I asked her,” Who wins usually? She said, “My husband does. I don’t want to hurt his feelings, he thinks he is smarter.”
Joseph said, “I don’t argue with others. Especially, friends, I think friendship is more important than argument.”
This time I’d like to avoid boring class while working on the texts. I made them a few teams, and then we practiced words and sentences with games.
The first game: Use “air- conditioning” to make more words like, acting, riding, doing, condition..
The second game: I wrote a word on a piece of paper and let them make a long sentence; the longer the better. They both did a great job, but there were a few mistakes in the sentences. So, they learned from mistakes.
We didn’t finish the whole article yet, we were about in the middle of the passage. I’ve taught some vocabulary and phrases: whom, as adj. /adv. as, mind + V.ing, the more adj… the more adj…
I think, today’s lesson went smoothly. Hope they did learn something from me.
Cindy R Shih
The answer from Jean was: “I always argue with my husband while driving; we have different ideas about routes.” I asked her,” Who wins usually? She said, “My husband does. I don’t want to hurt his feelings, he thinks he is smarter.”
Joseph said, “I don’t argue with others. Especially, friends, I think friendship is more important than argument.”
This time I’d like to avoid boring class while working on the texts. I made them a few teams, and then we practiced words and sentences with games.
The first game: Use “air- conditioning” to make more words like, acting, riding, doing, condition..
The second game: I wrote a word on a piece of paper and let them make a long sentence; the longer the better. They both did a great job, but there were a few mistakes in the sentences. So, they learned from mistakes.
We didn’t finish the whole article yet, we were about in the middle of the passage. I’ve taught some vocabulary and phrases: whom, as adj. /adv. as, mind + V.ing, the more adj… the more adj…
I think, today’s lesson went smoothly. Hope they did learn something from me.
Cindy R Shih
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