Good morning, everyone.
This is English Foundations 6/Composition/Writing 567
We’ll get started at 11:00.
Teacher: Al Haley
Email address: ahaley@vsb.bc.ca
Our class blog: haleyshec.blogspot.com
Today’s agenda:
• Finish course introduction
• Email protocol, emailing tests, attachments
• Paper format for quizzes and tests
• Classmate introductions- spoken IF TIME
• Pass-in writing NOT FOR MARKS
• HW
Monday
• Goalsetting
• Begin sentence types- simple
THE TOPICS WE WILL COVERING IN THIS CLASS:
*WRITING
- very important, most important for school, high school, college, university, job, life
· Being able to write well is a wonderful gift that you can give to yourself. I can help. I will teach you, but you have to do it.
FOUR SENTENCE TYPES
SIMPLE
COMPOUND
COMPLEX
COMPOUND COMPLEX
I will teach you these in great detail.
We will do quizzes on sentence types.
PARAGRAPHS- different kinds of paragraphs
narrative writing- personal story
literary paragraph -writing about short stories
PROBABLY - ESSAY – several paragraphs together, five-paragraph essay
* READING
short stories
poems
news articles, current events
No novel for this class
*LISTENING AND SPEAKING
I will be talking a lot. You will be talking too.
I will speak at a normal pace, slightly slower than if I were talking with my friends. It helps people to understand if you speak a bit slower than usual. For expert examples of very good public speaking, listen to CBC radio. 690 AM. 105.7 FM. Listen to how the announcers speak. They speak at a nice relaxed pace. News, interviews, interesting subjects
A good model for your spoken pace and style.
Podcasts are another good course of high-quality spoken English.
- wide variety of topics, happy to give suggestions
Commercial radio announcers tend to talk much more quickly.
My opinion – the quality of the discussion is very low.
e.g. KISS FM,
Speaking out loud – very important, essential skill
shy, introverted, reticent, taciturn- don’t like to talk
Push yourself. Step out of your comfort zone.
Don’t let your shyness stop you! It will hurt you, only you.
- communicate, express ourselves, express our ideas clearly
- job, school, career, socially
You have to practice do it! Jump in.
- mimic, follow, copy
- practice, adapting, making the language your own
If you are not speaking out loud, you are sitting in a car with the engine turned off.
IDIOM Chime in. join in a conversation
· Speak as much as you want can. Chime in. Join the conversation. Don’t be shy let shyness stop you. Ask as many questions as you want.
· “Sorry. I have a question. May I ask a question?” YES!! You don’t have to ask. Don’t be shy.
· I will be paying attention to who talks and who is silent.
· Don’t be a Silent Sam or a Quiet Quan. – reticent, quiet person
· Be a Talking Tim and a Chatty Cathy.
IDIOM- a Chatty Cathy – someone who talks a lot, talkative
She is a Chatty Cathy. She likes to talk a lot. She is gregarious. She is a very talkative person. She is very social.
IDIOM motormouth - talkative (negative)
He is real motormouth.
He is very quiet. He is very taciturn. He never opens his mouth.
SIMILE He is as quiet as a mouse.
Some people are more extraverted. – seek social interaction
Some people are more introverted – prefer solitude and deep connections with few people
People fall on the spectrum between extraverted and introverted.
If you are quiet and shy, no problem. You still have to talk in order to get better.
Sometimes we have to push ourselves out of our comfort zones.
shy – afraid of social judgement
If you want to learn to swim, you have to jump into the pool.
You can take the opportunities to use English in your daily life.
The best way to learn a language is socially.
Language is a social tool.
********************************************
MARKS:
YOUR MARKS WILL COME FROM THESE:
-QUIZZES- 6 points per quiz, worth about 25-28% of your mark
Quiz1- 6 simple sentences
Quiz2- 6 compound sentences
POSSIBLY Quiz2b- 6 compound sentences
Quiz3- 6 complex sentences with adverb clauses
Quiz4- 6 complex sentences with noun clauses
Quiz5- 6 complex sentences with adjective clauses
Quiz6- 6 compound complex sentences
Vocabulary for the quizzes will come from the non-fiction and news articles we read together in class. We will choose the vocabulary for the quiz together.
After we have finished all of the quizzes, there will be a opportunity for a replacement quiz, with which you may replace one of your quiz marks. The replacement quiz will cover all of the sentence types, not just the topic of the quiz you are replacing. You will have to sign up for this replacement quiz. I will talk more about that in a few weeks.
· TESTS- 12 points per test- worth about 52-58% of your mark
Test1,2,3,4,5?- 150-200 word paragraphs on the topic we are covering at the time.
After we have finished all of the tests, there will be an opportunity for a replacement test, with which you may replace one of your test marks. The replacement test will cover a new topic, not the topic of the test you are replacing.
You will have to sign up for this replacement test.
NEW THING FOR MY EF6 Test6,7?
Short presentations 6 pts for writing, 6 points for presenting
· **PROBABLY**
ESSAY- worth about 10% of your mark
One 300+ multiparagraph essay on a general topic
There will be NO opportunity for a replacement essay, as your essay will be written on the second to last day.
· EXTRAS, BONUS – 2-5%
Little things, HW, extra task
· SPOKEN WORK, PARTICIPATION, BEING ACTIVE IN CLASS- 10 points- worth usually around 10-12%.
-6 Quizzes 6pts each- about 25%
-5 Tests (paragraphs)- about 50%
-2 Presentation Tests 12pts each- about 10%
-Spoken 10pts- about 10%
-Extra 1pt each- about 2-3%
NOTE: The pass mark in BC is 50%.
WRITING QUIZZES AND TESTS
You can write your quizzes, tests, and essay on paper or in a word processor (on computer). If you use a word processor, you must turn spellcheck and grammarcheck off. If I see you are using spell check or grammar check , you will not be allowed to submit quiizes and tests by computer anymore.
Choice- paper or computer.
You will have 20 minutes for a quiz, 55 minutes for a paragraph test, and 2 hours for the essay.
I don’t take late work, so you must pass-in or email your work to me by the deadline, which will be during class time.
All of the quizzes and tests will be during class time at school. I do not do take-home tests, etc. If you need take-home tests, you can take a self-paced class.
If you need a lot of flexibility with your quizzes, tests, and essay, you can take a self-paced class.
· This is a chockful class and we get through a lot of material. If you miss class time, I can’t go back and reteach things. You can find the material on the blog.
If you miss a quiz or test, you can use the replacement quiz or test to make it up.
If you know you are going to miss a quiz or test, let me know a couple of days before. We can arrange another time for you to take the quiz or test.
** You must keep up the work. If you miss classes, are late, or miss quizzes and tests, you will fall behind. **
EMAIL PROTOCOL: ahaley@vsb.bc.ca
@ SHIFT 2
In the Subject line of your email, please put your name, class.
For example: Joe Chen, EF6
If you do not put this information in the Subject line of your email, I will not know who you are or what class you are in.
HOMEWORK Please send me an email today with a proper subject line.
PAPER FORMAT
Orient the paper rightside up, not upside down.
Please use lined 8 1/2 X 11 inch paper with three holes.
Put your name, class and date in the top righthand corner above the line.
Title line -Name of test, quiz.
Write in black or blue pen. No pencil or green ink.
NOTE: Black ink gets higher marks on Provincial Exams.
Please double space.
Write between the margins.
It’s easy to forget these details when you are focussed on writing.
I will remind you.
American spelling and Canadian spelling differs sometimes.
focused focussed
meter metre
center centre
neighbor neighbour
color colour
airplane(Can) aeroplane(UK)
Canadian spelling is closer to British spelling.
You can choose what you want- try to be consistent.
neighbor colour – inconsistent
neighbour colour- consistent
Style choice for you.
spellcheck – see errors, not errors
Write a short paragraph introducing yourself. (150-200w)
Possible topics:
1. Name
2. Home
3. Family
4. Job
5. Travel
6. Hobbies
7. Future plans
Pen.
Doublespace.
Margins.
