For John's NEU Kaplan AM Proficiency Students to access articles, videos and audio recordings, check on assignments, and comment on what we're doing in class.
We decided that we're going to quickly go through Unit 14 of Grammar Dimensions (most of you already know the information in it) and Unit Two of Academic Connections, watch the movie It's A Wonderful Life throughout the week, and take a little quiz on Friday instead of a test on the Monday after the holiday.
Sound good?
Today we talked about "discourse organizers," the expressions that we use to help our readers understand the time relations and importance of our statements.
There's just a little homework: Exercise 2 on page 266. You'll have to make your own sentences. We'll check them together in class.
By the way, we started watching the cinema classic "It's A Wonderful Life." I have the DVD (an old Japanese copy--sorry about the Japanese subtitles!), but it's also available on Youtube. It may be taken down, so watch it while you can!
Here it is.
By the way, if it's tough to catch everything, there's a script available on the web as well. Click here to find it. Maybe while we watch it, you can look at it on your iPhones!
"Twas," in case you're wondering, is an archaic (old) way of writing "It was." It's very rare now, but there is an old poem that most Americans know called "The Night Before Christmas" which begins "Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house/not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse."
Today we met in our new room. I want to apologize to anyone who went to the YMCA and looked for us there. On Friday, Hope and Corey came to our class and told everyone that Northeastern suddenly told us that they were going to do a lot of work in the YMCA and that all our classes would be moved to Ryder for this week. I thought, "Oh, there are a lot of students absent today, but I'll put the information on the blog!" But I had so much fun putting pictures and vocabulary on the blog that I forgot about adding the most important thing: our move to Ryder. I assumed that you would receive emails about the room change, but apparently, that didn't happen. SORRY!!!
So if you missed Friday and Monday, today, please go to room 157 in Ryder Hall. If you're facing the stairs near Subway, go to the right and down the hall on the far right side. Room 157 is on the right side of the corridor.
Because of the change, the snow, and other reasons I suppose, a lot of people didn't come and most people were late (if you weren't late, thank you!!!). We started the test after the 9:30 break and didn't have enough time to finish. I let students take them home to finish them there. Remember, you're on the honor system! That means I trust you to not use books, dictionaries, notes, or anything else--just like on the test. But I know I can trust you, so I'm not worried.
I want to discuss one more thing today: what are we going to do this week? Our grammar subject this week is "discourse organizers," Unit 14 of Grammar Dimensions. There are extremely useful in writing paragraphs and essays. It would normally take us a full week to cover this, but we're going to have a week between the last class day and the test. I don't think this is fair to you. So here are some ideas:
1 Who care about being fair? Do it the normal way! Have classes until Friday, go on vacation, then come back and take the test just as if it were only a couple days since the last class.
2 Have a mini test or quiz on Friday based on Tuesday through Thursday's classes.
3 Goof off (fool around, play, have fun, etc.) all week, have a little quiz on Friday, then a party on Friday.
I'm leaning towards number two. How about you? Or do you have any better ideas? Let me know by email or in class this week!
I realize that I didn't put this on the blog--this week, our class is not in the YMCA. It will meet in Ryder 157. I'm sure you got an email from the Kaplan NEU office, but I should have posted this.
So, just in case someone who wasn't in class on Friday and didn't check their email this weekend checks this site, I'm putting this here.
No presentations or birthdays today, but we did go through three focus points of Grammar Dimensions (Unit 8), and watch a fun video about an old story/poem that I used to hear when I was a child.
Focus Three taught us how to make sentences with multiple restrictive clauses, and we watched "This Is The House That Jack Built." Of course, when we kids listened to it, we didn't think we were learning about restrictive clauses--we just thought it was a fun story. Listen to it again and pay attention to how each modified noun is modified by another restrictive clause. Can you make a story like that? How many times can you create another restrictive clause that continues your story?
We also covered Focus 4 and 5. Four showed most of the same points about omitting relative pronouns and be verbs that we studied in Unit 7 but added one more: omitting them in the case of adjectives.
Another example:
Everything (that was) valuable was stolen during the night.
Finally, in Unit 5 we studied how we can make restrictive clauses with prepositions at the end (less formal) or prepositions before the relative clause (more formal). Some students said the latter sounds strange--that's because most people don't speak that way. However, the formal way is often used in business and academic situations.
He lost the letter in which I stated the information.
He lost the letter which I stated the information in.
We can switch the position of the clauses--in this case, the preposition is not at the end of the sentence, but it's still at the end of the restrictive clause.
The letter in which I stated the information was lost
The letter which I stated the information in was lost.
There is a little homework for the weekend: Exercise 5 on page 156 and Exercise 8 on page 160. We'll check them on Monday. Pay special attention to Exercise 5 because there will be a similar exercise on the test. Also, go back and look at Exercise 1 on page 138, as I'm going to have a similar cartoon and ask you to describe it using relative clauses.
Another sad day: two students said good-bye. One has been with us for a little while: Carmen; the other was with us only a week, although I've taught him before in other classes. Farewell Carmen and SeokJoon--good luck and keep in touch!
We've had a lot of first-time presentations lately, but here's a last-time presentation by Lujain, whose last week is next week. Be extra nice to her! Today, she spoke about fashion don'ts, that is, things that we shouldn't do in fashion. I made sure to pull up my pants after her talk! Lujain's got a great sense of humor and good fashion sense--everyone enjoyed her presentation. Nice job!
I hadn't realized it, but Lujain's presentation happened to be on the same day as her 25th birthday! Wow! She has a wonderful friend in Rawan, who had prepared a special cake for her and shared it with all of us. Thanks, and happy birthday, Lujain!
This is a great picture, don't you think so?
And we did have a chance to do a little studying--we went over the homework from last night and started to study Unit 8--not much new information! We've talked about the differences between who and that (both can be used for people), that and which (which can be used for animals and things), who and whom (subject and object relative pronouns) and when we can omit them.
Our homework is Exercise 1 on page 151 and Exercise 3 on page 153 (only step 1--you don't have to do step two). No really new material but excellent practice and good vocabulary words. You can do it in the book or your notes--you don't have to hand it in. But I will check!
Finally, we went on ANOTHER field trip! We paid a visit to the Hilton Hotel on Broad Street, where all our Kaplan NEU classes will be held after the Christmas break. It's very easy to get to! Take the Orange Line to State Street, exit at the Old State House and walk down the hill, down State Street. Take a right at Broad Street (there's a Dunkin Donuts there--I think we lost a couple students there on the way back), go a few blocks and look for the "Northeastern University" banners on the Hilton Hotel. Then go up one floor.
Here we are checking out our new area, which looks BEAUTIFUL!
By the way, Fatimah will be taking a break, so we won't see her for a few weeks. Hurry back!
Tomorrow we'll finish up Unit 8, go over the reading and do some listening. We'll have a busy day, so come on time and be ready to learn!
Before his presentation, Young Jin told me that he was pretty nervous and that he really didn't like to speak in front of a lot of people. However, nobody in class thought that--he seemed quite natural and actually appeared to be enjoying himself. His topic: Korea, as you can see from the pictures below. We learned how a country that was destroyed by war and dirt poor rose to become one of the richest nations in the world, and went from becoming a recipient of aid to a provider of charity. Amazing! I can still see that work ethic in many of out Korean students...usually!
I got so involved in Young Jin talk that I forgot to keep taking pictures! Sorry--none of the audience!
Today we covered Focus Points 2 and 3 of Unit 7 of Grammar Dimensions. Pay close attention to Focus 3 on page 142--make sure you know in what cases and how to omit relative pronouns (whom, that, which, etc.) and in some cases be verbs and perfective constructions (have/had been...).
Please do Exercises 4 and 5 on page 143 for homework tonight and read the copies I handed out to you (pages 6 -8) of Academic Connections. While we'll talk about the vocabulary if we get a chance, we won't go into the article in any depth. But please read it carefully and be ready to discuss it by Friday.
Tomorrow we're going to go to Broad Street around 10 am to show the students who will be here in January where our classes will be. Think of it as another field trip! Wow! So many!
What is a meta-presentation? It's a presentation about presentations! That's what Fatimah gave today, and she had excellent timing as we have four (really five!) new students who have to do presentations in our class. It's obvious that Fatimah has a lot of experience, as her advice was excellent and most importantly, she taught by example. Good eye contact, posture, volume, intonation, organization, illustrations--everything! I should have filmed it so that I can make all my new students in the future watch it before they do their presentations.
Tomorrow Young Jin will have his first presentation--I'm sure he'll be sorry to have missed Fatimah's Please remember that CLASS BEGINS AT 8:00 and inside our room it's ENGLISH ONLY!
On Thursday, about 10 or so, we'll take a trip to see the new Kaplan NEU Site at Broad Street. It doesn't take very long to get there, just 20 or 30 minutes. I'll make sure that everyone knows the way. If you take the Orange Line, it's very convenient.
We began Unit 7 today, focusing on relative clauses. We finished Focus 1 and will do Exercise 1 on page 138 and Exercise 2 on page 139. Please write Exercise 2 on a separate sheet of paper and hand it in tomorrow.
Also, don't forget that for students who have been here since at least last week, your essays are due today by email and by tomorrow in class on paper!
We had to evacuate the building due to a fire alarm today--again!--and had a chance to stand in the lovely snow. I know some of you were hoping that it would be impossible to continue class, but no such luck. We were soon back in the building, but here's a picture!
Finally, I'd like to welcome our new students! Some of you I know from Specific Skills classes, others I've met for the first time. It's great to have you in Proficiency--congratulations! You worked hard to get here, and I hope you take advantage of the greater challenges to improve your English even more.
