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!

2010年11月15日月曜日

RED

They used to be the CIA's top agents, but the things they know just made them the agency's top targets.
RED means retired and extremely dangerous. I saw the trailer at Apple's trailers site. The movie stars Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Mary-Louise Parker, John Malkovitch, and Helen Mirren, with appearances from legendary actors like Richard Dreyfuss. Helen Mirren has been in many top movies, including The Queen, Excalibur, State of Play, The Last Station, Mosquito Coast, Gosford Park, and so on.

The movie's Japanese title is simply レッド
The PUK campus festival was held yesterday and on Saturday. I went both days and ate lots of things, including:

  • tacos
  • onigiri wrapped in beef
  • yakisoba
  • waffle
  • ramen
  • fried potato
  • cake
and so on!

I also enjoyed some of the stage performances, including the dance yesterday afternoon.

Movie Links

When you write a movie review or look for information on a movie, here are some standard sites to use:

  • iTunes Movie Trailers: see a 2-minute preview of the movie
  • the Internet Movie Database: find out all kinds of information about the movie, the director, the actors, and so on
  • AllCinema.net: find out the Japanese title, if it has been decided
  • the movie website: usually, you'll find this at the end of the trailer

2010年10月25日月曜日

Guidelines for the next class (November 8th)

By the next class, you should have reached the following targets:

  1. 3000 words on your blog (including typing homeworks, book reviews, and so on)
  2. 13 points remaining on book reviews (i.e. you have read 7 points' worth of books or more)
  3. 1 podcast episode (My Podcast)
  4. 4 posts (including the podcast episode) related to My Project

Introduction to Usborne Books


The first episode of my podcast is now available. In this episode, I talk about the history of Usborne Publishing, a leading publisher of children's books.


Format for links to podcast episodes

http://www2.kumagaku.ac.jp/teacher/wink/lavinmonday/______ss__.mp3

2010年10月4日月曜日

Project

Your project should be about:

  • Books
  • Movies
  • A place
  • Other (discuss with your teacher)


Your project should have:

  • About Me
  • Welcome
  • Podcast
  • others as necessary

2010年10月3日日曜日

2nd class (October 4th, 2010)

A reminder first: Next week (October 11th) is a holiday, so there will be more homework this week!

And a couple of things about the course as a whole that I may not have made clear last week:

  • You need to write a total of at least 10,000 words this semester
  • You need to bring a USB flash memory stick to class.
  • You need to write a total of at least 20 points' worth of book reviews

Today's menu:

  • Juppun ha Juubun
  • Start working on personal project

Homework:

  • Book reviews 3 & 4 (depending on the level of books you are reading)
  • at least 3 other posts (preferably at least 1 or 2 should be connected to your topic)

 

2010年9月27日月曜日

Reading Links

Yomiyasusa Levels


Please check out this page!

Cambridge English Readers


See the homepage.

2010年9月25日土曜日

Writing 4: First class (September 27th, 2010)

Hi, everyone. In the first class, we will start with:

  • Juppun ha Juubun.

Think about what you want to write about (maybe your summer holiday or your plans for this semester). Then we will kick off the book reviews by doing some reading in class and then immediately:

  • writing a book review on our blog.

Then I'll talk about my

  • plans for Writing 4. (Please take a look at the previous post.)

If there's any free time, you can do some free blogging or typing homework, or ask me questions about Writing 4, or start your homework!

Homework:

  • another book review
  • free blogging

2010年4月26日月曜日

My Totals

19
24
59
261
141
39
133


Total words: 676

Book reviews: 0

Total posts: 7

Alice in Wonderland

I went to see Alice in Wonderland on Friday night. It was important to go and see it as soon as possible because it is the theme of two of my classes this semester. To tell you the truth, I wasn't expecting very much, because my general impression is that Tim Burton's movies are gradually going down in quality, and I don't like the fact that he always uses Johnny Depp (although I like Johnny Depp).

However, this movie was great. I thought it was the first movie to really take full advantage of 3-D technology, much better than Avatar. And Johnny Depp did great work. I recommend that you see this movie in the 3-D subtitled version at Clea, where the 3-D glasses are light! And say hello to Kin-chan at the entrance!

133

2010年4月24日土曜日

Alice in Wonderland again

I saw the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland movie yesterday (the subtitled version, in 3D). I thought it was magical, the first 3D movie where the 3D really added something.

If you're interested in Alice, check out the graphic novel!

39