January 17th 2011 lesson

Dear students,

Please hand in your portfolios for inspection today. There are three short academic word gap fill exercises for you to do. After that, you may study for the final test.

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

December 20 lesson

Dear students,

Today, you will have a thirty-minute practice test. You may spend more time or less time on this exercise, if you wish. After the practice test, please carry on with your portfolio. At the end of the lesson, or when everyone has finished, we will go over the test.

Kind regards,

Chris

December 13 lesson

Dear students,

Today you will have your final academic word list test. There will be twenty paragraphs about science related topics. For each paragraph there will be an average of five blanks for you to fill in from the list of academic words which are below each paragraph.

The test will be 70 minutes in length.

Kind regards,

Chris

December 6th lesson

Dear students,

Today there is a 10-point academic word matching test. This will be similar to the one we did on November 29th. After this, please carry on with your portfolio.

I would also like to check everyone's portfolio today to see how you are getting on. Please have your portfolio ready.

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

November 29 lesson

Dear students,

Today is the deadline in your Cornell homework, so please hand it in at the beginning of the lesson. In class, you will have two practice tests to get you ready for the two 10-point academic word list tests coming soon. You do not need to print out the files because I will be bringing copies to class.

The two prints are:

gap fill test 6

matching 1-10 A

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

October 22 lesson

Dear students,

Today, you will do a thirty-minute reading fluency exercise which will count as 5 points toward your grade. After that, you will do the matching exercise for the last academic word sub-list, 10.pdf. If there is time today, you may carry on with your 10-article portfolio.

Note, that you no longer need to download anything from the blog, as the office will print for you. This includes sublist 10 matching above. However, please check the blog every week for announcements about homework and mini-tests.

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

November 15 lesson

Dear students,

Today you will do matching test 9b, practice an academic word gap fill exercise, and if there is time start your Cornell note taking 5-point homework. You may choose any article or text for this assignment. The deadline is November 29th.

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

November 8 lesson

Dear students,

Today we will have a text structure 5-point test. (There will be ten short passages for you to identify the structure, similar to what we did in class). Today is also the deadline for you to hand in your 5-point SQ3R homework. After the test, you will do the matching exercise sublist 9A. If there is free time, please continue with your portfolio.

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

November 1 lesson

Dear students,

Please analyze the article below using SQ3R:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827834.600-bisphenol-a-is-everywhere--is-it-safe.html. The deadline for this homework is November 8. It is worth 5 points towards your grade.

In today's lesson, You will do test 8B, learn about the Cornell note taking method in your textbook, and take a practice Academic Word Gap Fill test: 9.4(4).

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

October 25 lesson

Dear students,

Today, you will do AWL matching exercise 8A. Then we will look at unit 8 of the textbook (time order / cause and effect). After that we will read about text organization and do an exercise on text organization. If there is time, you may carry on with your portfolios

October 18 lesson

Today, you will take test 7B. Then we will look at Unit 7 of the textbook (comparison / contrast). After that, please carry on with your portfolios. I can check them, if you wish.

Here is a print you may use for doing SQ3R.

Text structure: Within your article, identify the text structure of any one paragraph. Highlight the signal words within the paragraph, too.

TOEIC test dates

Dear students,

I have been asked to remind you all to please take the next TOEIC test which will be on January 30, 2011.

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

http://www.celese.sci.waseda.ac.jp/node/52

October 11 lesson

Dear students,

Today we will look at the new and finalized 2010 syllabus (which has changed), and the grading system for AR2. After that you will do the AWL test 7A, and then we will look at the Cornell note taking method in the textbook. If there is any time left, please show me your portfolio article(s).

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

How to find the Academic Words in your articles

Dear students,

Here is a link to a website that will find the Academic Word List words for you automatically.

Just paste in your words (to a maximum of 2400 characters), and your academic words will be highlighted.

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~alzsh3/acvocab/awlhighlighter.htm

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin

CHANGES TO THE COURSE

Dear students,

There have been some changes made to the course which makes my initial course outline invalid. Please download the course outline again. This outline is now final. Sorry for the inconvenience.

(There is no reading for pleasure in the new course).

Please start work on your portfolio soon. You may not be ready to identify the text organization, or take notes using SQ3R or the Cornell method yet, but you will be doing this in class, soon.

Kind regards,

Chris Elvin