ESL Class Blog

Online BPS class for 6/5, Part I

To replace our Monday, 6/5, class follow these directions and post your reply (your "comment") by no later than Tuesday, 6/6, 5pm.

Write 30 - 50 words describing, in detail and in complete sentences, the topic you will be investigating for your Ethnographic Topic.  Include in your posting answers to some of the questions listed as part of the required structure for your Proposal Speech in the "Instructions for Proposal Speech" handout.

After you post your comment describing your topic, go back and read everyone else's postings, and then post another comment where you list your advice, suggestions, or general reactions to their descriptions of their topics.  Complete this by Tuesday, 6/6, 10pm

Practice online BPS class

Today, in class, you will practice how to access this blog, post comments to it, and read other students' comments.

Below this message you should see the word "comments."   Click on this and in the next window you will see any comments that have already been posted to this message and below that a box where you can post your own comments.  In this comments box answer (with complete sentences) the following questions: What previous experience do you have with giving speeches and presentations?  How did you feel today when you gave your Self-Collage speech?  What do you most want to improve in your speech-making techniques?  What are you most concerned about in this class?  when you are through, click the "post" button below the comments box.

A new summer class!

Hello, everyone.  It's only two weeks from the start of summer school at Columbia College Chicago where I will be teaching two classes, an ESL Speaking and Listening Skills class and a Basic Public Speaking class (a mix of native and non-native English speakers).  I plan to use this blog for both classes, with podcasts about both classes.  While I've been listening to podcasts, mostly from NPR, for a while, I have never created one before.  Today's podcast is a very short introduction of myself, but over time I plan to include more podcasts, both for and from my students. 

While listening to and creating podcasts won't be dominant feature of my two summer classes, I plan to use podcasts to provide additional opportunities to use and improve their listening and speaking skills.  I'll be creating some podcasts to provide information about Chicago and capture samples of authentice native speech, my students will add podcasts where they respond to what they see and hear around them, having fun and teaching each other in the process.

Download intro.mp3