Congratulations
Bonus Point Winners.
Bonus Point Winners.
Six students took the Bonus Point Challenge and earned some extra points: Andrew, Carlos, Debby, Irmina, Nobuko, and Ryohei. It's like having a savings account in the bank. Look for another Challenge in a few days.
Almost the Weekend Again.
Thursday is the note-taking quiz on "Skills for College Success." You can use your notes from class for this quiz. We will also go over the vocabulary for newspapers so that you can "compete" in a friendly competition on Friday. I'll also give you the handout about how to take notes in the academic classroom.
On Friday, we will begin our first lesson in the textbook, so I expect everyone to bring that book to class. If you do not have a book, please make arrangements with a classmate to copy the pages until you can purchase a book. Also, don't forget to bring me the information about your novel. I need the name of the book, the author, and the number of pages. On Monday, we will have a "silent reading" time at the beginning of class, so you will need to bring the novel. This is a class participation activity, so you will receive points for this.
Bonus Point Challenge Answers.
1. Attendance is mandatory in almost every class at the university.
Answer: True.
2. It is ok to be late to class at the university.
Answer:False. It is NOT ok to be late to class. Don't do this. It disrupts the class and disturbs your classmates and your professors.
3. Do not leave the classroom during the lecture.
Answer: True. You NEVER leave the classroom during the class period for the same reason as number two.
4. Most instructors collect homework at the beginning of class.
Answer: True. Professors expect students to have their homework ready to turn in at the beginning of class. Late homework is not collected or graded.
What's the Mistake?
I hope you took good notes on the Error Correction assignment today. Each sentence was taken from the summaries you wrote about the newspaper. Most of the errors are common mistakes and are found on the TOEFL. Every time you write something, you should take a few minutes to look for these kinds of errors and try to correct them yourself. Your Error Correction Challenge from the newspaper assignment is posted on the Learning Resources page.
Asking Permission.
I realize that asking permission to visit a class may be stressful, so I have put an example of a conversation on the website. You can find it in the archives at the bottom of this page. Click on January 22, 2003, and you can find an example.
Reading Information Questionnaire.
Everyone received 10/10 points for this assignment. Almost everyone likes to read and most students read the best in their own language. Some of you read English 30 minutes a week, but some of you read up to 16 hours a week! Almost everyone has problems with unknown vocabulary in English, but several also wrote that they had trouble with grammar structures and long sentences. Most students understand more than 50% of spoken English, and if you don't, you ask the speaker to repeat the sentence or question. The most common sources of reading for pleasure are newspapers and magazines in the mother tongue, and there was a wide variety of reading interests that included history, sports, food, travel, art, music, science, and business, to name a few.