A Good Class Session (in Contrast to Last Tuesday's not-so-good)

Just as my brain has fair and foul weather, so do my class sessions.  Tuesdays left me feeling scattered and incompetent--out in the rain and taking them with me.  Today's class session was sunny and bright.  Things just flowed.

To avoid wasting time, I asked them to read the Korean-American mother-daughter dialogue (from StoryCorps) in pairs while I gave back papers, which takes a span of time and distance in such a big class and with so much homework (because we meet three hours at a time).  Then I had Phi and Natalia read it aloud.  After that, while I gave back the Scantrons from a 10-point reading test, I asked them to let their partner read the report they'd written on their partner after interviewing their partner on Tuesday.  (Sometimes those reported on say, "No, I didn't say that!")  We then went over the reading test so it could be a lesson and not just an assessment.  (They learned the word yearn for, which is what Frank McCourt and his brothers did for a better life.  I see that there's something in today's Chronicle about yearning for a piece of the old bridge span.  That should enable me to complicate the lesson this coming Tuesday.) 

We then went over the exercise in NorthStart on a good paragraph on overcoming an obstacle, and I drew it to their attention that the book often directs the students to discuss or work with a partner.  Then, after a ten minute break, I gave them 50 minutes to write one really good, vivid paragraph.  We'll see what they came up with.

We did an error correction exercise on gerunds and infinitives--an exercise I've had for years and didn't want to waste this, my final semester, which they worked on in pairs and then wrote on the board.  We finished with their reading aloud the beautiful, poignant essay that Yoshiko, my former student wrote for the 30th anniversary of the FME, the English circle she belongs to in Tokyo.  (I think I posted her essay here a few days ago.)

I've sent my speaking and listening class students a message about the guest speaker we'll have from the Personal Counseling part of the Student Health Center, and I plan to send my reading and writing students something in today's paper about the StoryCorps, which will open its West Coast headquarters at the SF Main Library this Friday!

Now I have more homework to do, and I want to wish West a happy birthday!