Weeks+10-11+(June+23-July+4)

[|Image credit] toc As you have probably noticed, I decided to keep the activities in this page as tasks to be completed during weeks 10 and 11. June 24th was a holiday and we were not able to go to the lab and write the assigned essay. I thought I should not compromise quality over quantity. So I expect you to come to the lab on Tuesday July 1st.

Tuesday week 9 we started writing essays according to a certain structure and with the purpose of including the elements expected by exam correctors. We will write a new essay and will be thinking about our next steps in the international exchange.

There is so little time left and so many things I would like us to do in the remaining weeks. I was hoping you could go back to weeks 5 (something about your life), 6 (procrastination) and 7 (first impressions) and verify if you included an introduction, body and conclusion/summary in the texts you wrote and how you could re-arrange them in a more essay-like structure. You were also expected to revise your first formal 30-minute essay and improve it week 9. Yes, I know it takes time, but that´s the only way you would improve your writing by composing, proofreading, revising, re-writing, publishing ... letting it sit for a while and then returning to it to re-read and revise it again.

We will also have the next student-teacher conferences at my office as soon as possible. Eduardo already came Thursday week 10. Let me know when you are able to come to set an appointment. The sooner, the better. Remember I am usually in my office everyday from 9:30 to 2:00 after my first-year courses, except Tuesdays when I have class with you from 11:30-1:30.

Materials

 * pictures preferably taken by you or from open source sites
 * essay test to be completed in 30 minutes (Tuesday July 1st)
 * information about Readability of texts
 * online survey.

Activities
1) Write a 30-minute Toefl-like essay on [|a given topic] //**in class**// following the appropriate essay structure. Include it in your wiki page. Later, [|evaluate your essay], identify if there are sections that are missing, if you discussed all aspects of the given topic, check subjects and verbs in every sentence, see if you included transitions to connect some sentences and paragraphs; in sum, try to improve it to get to the test standards.

2) Complete an [|online survey] about the course ID5128. It will help us plan and improve our next writing course.

3) If you have not completed the following activities from week 9, please do so:
 * Upload a picture to our international project wiki page (and your personal blog, as we decided last Tuesday) and write a paragraph about it to share with our Japanese friends. Select something of our country or culture that you think would be worth mentioning to them. Remember that they do not know much about Venezuela and what you tell them will be part of their first impressions about the country, its culture, etc. (Jeannette already completed it)
 * Go to the wiki pages of our Japanese friends and read the posts of the students you were assigned to, write brief comments in the discussion tab, answer their questions and ask some questions in return (most of you have already started doing this. Keep the ball rolling).

4) Complete grammar exercises from [|this page] depending on your perceived needs. I will recommend you take a look at these: [|article or no article]; [|gerund or infinitive]; [|neither, nor, both, either] ([|extra 1], [|2]); [|count/noncount nouns]. After completing the selected grammar exercises, __write a couple of sentences in your wiki page about them__ (if you found them easy, difficult, things you would have to watch out for, things you learned from them, etc.)

5) Remember to hand in the benchmarks copy I gave you Tuesday June 17th to fill in.

6) Find out about [|readability formulas] and vocabulary analyses to know more about the texts you write.

Benchmarks
I have:
 * written an essay in 30 minutes about a given topic
 * completed an online survey with your opinion and recommendations about this course
 * uploaded a picture to the international project wiki page and written a paragraph about it (and copied the same information in my blog)
 * written comments to three of our Japanese guests
 * completed some grammar exercises according to what I feel are my needs and frequent problems, and written a couple of sentences about them in my wiki page
 * handed in my benchmarks copy (weeks 1-8)
 * set an appointment for my student-teacher conference
 * reviewed my texts from weeks 5, 6 and 7 to make them more essay-like. I have also read the teacher´s feedback and made the corresponding revisions.