2011年12月14日水曜日

Welcome to Writing 4!

Hi, everyone! Long time, no see. I hope you had a nice holiday, and that those of you who went abroad had a valuable experience and improved your English!
Let me tell you a bit about Writing 4. I'll talk first about the things that are similar to Writing 3, and then move on to the new things.

Familiar things

Book reviews

Similarly to the first semester, we will write regular book reviews. As a general guideline, you should write at least one book review a week. In fact, at the beginning of the semester, it's better to write more than that, to give you more time for other work at the end of the semester. This semester, you need to get a total of 20 points for book reviews. A level 1 book is worth 1 point, a level 2 book is worth 2 points, and so on. So you could read ten level 2 books, for example, or forty level 0.5 books, or you could read a blend of different levels of book. After each book review, please write:
Points:
Points remaining:
For example, if your first book is a level 2 book, you would write:
Points: 1.2
Points remaining: 18.8

Juppun ha Juubun

At the beginning of most classes, we'll do Juppun ha Juubun. Don't forget to add the tag (spelt correctly). If you come late or cannot do Juppun ha Juubun with everyone else for some reason, use the tag not Juppun ha Juubun to show that you were not absent and are still taking the course.

General blogging

You should write general blog posts about topics that interest you as often as you can. In particular, you should write a lot near the beginning of the semester, before you become too busy with other work.

New things

Topic blogging & Creating a website

We may do an essay or two at the beginning of the semester, but the big project for this semester is to create a website using iWeb. Over the first few weeks, you will decide on a topic, and your task will be to design and create a website that introduces that topic to the outside world.
We'll talk about the details in class, but here are a few important points:
  • You'll need to work on the website over several weeks, adding material, editing, thinking about the organization, always trying to make the website a better introduction to the topic.
  • You should use your blog to assemble materials for the website. Most of the writing in the website will be recycled and reorganized writing from your blog.
  • The topic should be reasonably narrow. The U.S.A. is probably too wide as a topic, for example.
  • Remember to save your work! You will need a USB flash memory stick.

2011年1月18日火曜日

Checklist

  1. More than 10,000 words
  2. 20 book points
  3. iWeb site
iWeb points:
  1. Send completed site (zipped) to rick.kgu@gmail.com
  2. Welcome; 1 Podcast with at least 5 episodes (entries); other pages. Other pages can be expansions on the podcast episodes, or other topics within your project.
Test:
  1. Blog stats
  2. Short essay

2010年12月24日金曜日

Do you know much about Christmas? The first thing that many people don't know in Japan is that Christmas is twelve days long. The best way to remember that is to remember the song The Twelve Days of Christmas:

On the 1st day of Christmas my true love sent to me… a partridge in a pear tree
On the 2nd day of Christmas my true love sent to me… 2 turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree
On the 3rd day of Christmas my true love sent to me… 3 French hens, 2 turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree
On the 4th day of Christmas my true love sent to me… 4 calling birds, 3 French hens, 2 turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree
On the 5th day of Christmas, my true love sent to me 5 golden rings... 4 calling birds, 3 French hens, 2 turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree.

partridge
ヤマウズラ
pear tree 梨の木
turtle dove キジバト
hen めんどり
calling bird = collie bird = 炭鉱用の鳥

2010年12月20日月曜日

Reading aloud

Today, let's practice reading aloud. Please print out one of your podcast episode scripts and practice. I shall come around to give you guidance. The basic rule for natural reading aloud is:
Emphasize only content words.

2010年12月13日月曜日

2010年11月29日月曜日

November & December events

November & December are very busy months. I was hoping that November would be a more relaxing because I overdid it in October, but unfortunately November was almost as busy as October. Maybe next year will be a little easier?

English Games

Let's play the Dolphin Game!

Then let's play the Frog Game!

Then let's try Fernando Goes to School!