Unit 1 - Lesson 1 |
Thursday, September 25
Today's Goal: To practice writing and speaking
Agenda:
1. Speaking warm-up with the New York Times
2. Journal writing: Reading & writing practice to discuss "What makes an American?"
3. Impromptu speaking activity
Today's Goal: To practice writing and speaking
Agenda:
1. Speaking warm-up with the New York Times
2. Journal writing: Reading & writing practice to discuss "What makes an American?"
3. Impromptu speaking activity
Warm Up - Taboo
1. Two teams
2. One person from each team will choose a word and try to get their teammates to guess the word by describing it. But you cannot say the word! The team that guesses the most words correctly wins!
1. Two teams
2. One person from each team will choose a word and try to get their teammates to guess the word by describing it. But you cannot say the word! The team that guesses the most words correctly wins!
Activity #1 - What is an American?
Topics: U.S. Culture, Current Events, & Writing
Topics: U.S. Culture, Current Events, & Writing
1. Review yesterday's reading: "Is Spanish a Measure of Hispanic?"
Follow-up questions:
- When do Patricia Arias and Jorge Ignacio speak English?
- How does Richard Rodriguez describe himself culturally?
- According to the article, what are the two facets of Latinos in the New York metropolitan region?
- Which group of Latinos prefers Spanish, and which group prefers English?
- For whom does this division in cultural identity cause a problem? Why?
Follow-up questions:
- Are there other populations in NYC who may have a similar dilemma described in the article?
- Who are they and what could be the issue?
2. Journal Writing
Throughout this course, the teachers will ask you to write journal entries on various topics. These are informal writing samples for you to practice new vocabulary, grammar, and expressing your thoughts. They are also for you and your teachers to see your progress and improvements in English. The teachers will provide feedback, but will not penalize you for incorrect spelling or grammar. You may be asked to publish your journal articles on our class blog! Journal Topic #1
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Activity #2 - Impromptu Speaking
Topics: Speaking Skills
Topics: Speaking Skills
Activity #3 - A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Topics: Reading novels
Topics: Reading novels
Jennifer Egan (born September 7, 1962) is an American novelist and short story writer who lives in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Egan's novel A Visit from the Goon Squad won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Totally random trivia: Who did Jennifer Egan date in college? 1. Novel Preview Discussion Consider the quote that Egan uses to begin the book: "Poets claim that we recapture for a moment the self that we were long ago when we enter some house or garden in which we used to live in our youth. But these are most hazardous pilgrimages, which end as often in disappointment as in success. It is in ourselves that we should rather seek to find those fixed places, contemporaneous with different years." "The unknown element in the lives of other people is like that of nature, which each fresh scientific discovery merely reduces but does not abolish." -Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time (1913) 2. This quote is beautiful, but it was written a long time ago and a little difficult to understand. With your partner, can you change one of sentences into "modern" English? A. Poets claim that we recapture for a moment the self that we were long ago when we enter some house or garden in which we used to live in our youth. B. But these are most hazardous pilgrimages, which end as often in disappointment as in success C. It is in ourselves that we should rather seek to find those fixed places, contemporaneous with different years." Why do you think the author used this quote to start the book? |