Housekeeping:
- If you have an e-mail account and have never e-mailed me, please send me a short e-mail so I can make a class list of e-mail addresses.
- Remember to give me your tape today if you want me to respond to your composition verbally this week.
- If you have forgotten you tape, tell me and I will provide one.
Overview of the class home page:
- I have changed the home page to try to make it easier to navigate.
- If you have trouble navigating, and get stuck somewhere, please tell me.
- Journal: If you are having trouble thinking of topics for your journal, look at the Journal Topics page where there are more than 350 suggestions.
Developing pre-writing skills:
- Today we will look at ways of developing pre-writing skills and then apply them to writing an independent paragraph.
- Returning students can do the exercises with us today or choose something else that you would like to write about.
Brainstorming.
- Go to the generating ideas page and choose a topic for the teacher to brainstorm.
- Choose one of the topics and brainstorm for yourself.
- Go to the paragraphing page and look at topic sentences and paragraphing.
- Give me a paragraph that includes what you did when you brainstormed the topic.
- Underline the sentence in your paragraph that is your topic sentence.
Remember to give me your tape today.
Cultural Expectations:
- Both teachers and students come to a new class with cultural expectations of how a class will be.
- In your head you have a number of ideas about what I should do in class and what you should do in class. In your journal this week, write your ideas about the following questions and complete the sentences.
- How many of you have ever taken a writing class from a foreigner? Was it different from that of a Japanese teacher? How?
- A composition teacher will...
- A composition student will...
We will talk more about cultural expectations during the term. Don't be afraid to say to me in your journal, "Why do you do . . .?" or "Why don't you do . . .? or "Could we try . . .?"
