Good-bye

Dear Students,

First, the business: Please EMAIL me your updated story. (I don't want to retype them all!) Thank you! Second, more business. Tomorrow is the final exam - you will do great!

It has been my great pleasure to work with you this semester. Thank you for being so accepting and so kind to me. Thank you for laughing at my jokes, for listening to my lectures, for your courage in writing. You have inspired me.

I have been delighted to see how much you all progress. In particular, it was wonderful to see you trusting each other when you started to edit each others’ work. That takes a lot of trust – trust to let someone read and trust to tell someone if they made a mistake. Also, I know you wrote some difficult essays – something that embarrasses you, a bucket list, and letters to your teachers. That was so powerful to see! You all “stepped up to the plate” and worked hard.

I have said many times in class how good your stories are. I will be putting one of them on the website every Thursday – they will be in no particular order. Look for comments from other people! The website address is www.studentwritingshufs.blogspot.com – please look at it, and please read the stories your classmates wrote! It would be great if you gave your feedback to your classmates on the website.

If you want to continue working with me in English, send me a note. I will help you. I have a class program set up for creative writing. I will gladly work with you if you want.

If we don’t meet again, please know that I wish you the very best that life has to give. You deserve the best!
Pamila Jo Florea

If you didn't get swept away by the rain!

Hi everybody!
We only have a couple of more classes.

Tomorrow, Thursday, your stories are due. Please also bring your edited copies so I can compare them. We will work on one more writing piece - we will write letters. Also, please write a note on your paper.

Pamila, you may put my story on your blog.
OR
Pamila, please don't put my story on your blog.


Please read page 182 in the book tonight. We will practice writing letters tomorrow.

Friday is the final exam. I finished it today, and as I promised, it is half the size of the last test.

One of the important things about writing is putting things together. Writing is about seeing things differently, experiencing the world differently than other people do. Here is a video about that. I thought it was interesting.

(The link: http://wimp.com/fibonaccisequence/ )

See you tomorrow!
Pamila

A Lie of Omission

I have 2 things for you today:

First, here is a commercial about people all having the same hair features! Have fun and enjoy it!



Journal Suggestion.

A Lie of Omission

Do you think a lie of omission is still a lie?

A lie of omission is when you don't tell everything. You tell the truth about SOME of what happened, but you don't tell everything.

Reading your friend's story...

Hi Everybody!
Please read your friend's story. Relax, and enjoy it!

Then, please write an email to me. In your email you should say 2 things you liked about reading the story and two things you didn't like. You can write about the story, the person's way of writing (is it interesting / confusing / frightening / boring / fun / etc.?), whether you enjoyed it, etc.

Remember, for the adjectives with "-ing" or "-ed" at the end, YOU were borED / frightenED / interestED / confusED. (-ED is for inside a person, it's an emotion or feeling)

The STORY was borING, frightenING, interestING, confusING. (-ING is for an experience or a thing outside of the person. It's easy to remember - how do you spell thing? t h ING!)

Your comments will be private between me and you, and I won't tell your partner what you say (good or bad). If you want some help about how to say something, you can ask. For example, you hated the story. Don't say that to someone. You can say, "It didn't appeal to me." or "I don't like that kind of story." If you want to say that something was confusing, you can say, "It was confusing."

Say what you mean (be clear about what you are saying)
Mean what you say (speak the truth)
Don't say it mean (be kind)

See you in class!
Pamila

Writing a Story

You need to write your first draft of a story for class. It is due on Monday. The story should be from your notes on Music Day. You should easily have who, the relationship, what they are doing, and where they are. Also, you should add a thing that is hidden in the picture you got in class today. It is a mystery! What did someone hide? Why did they hide it? How did someone find it? It should be fun!

*500-600 words
Typed, double spaced
Printed with regular margins
Your name should be on it.

When you type, you should indent 5 spaces at the beginning of every paragraph. You should write in paragraph form. After a period (.), question mark (?), or an exclamation point (!) you should leave 2 spaces before you type the next word. After a comma, you should leave one space before you type a word.

You can send any questions or a draft to me at my email.

See you on Monday!
Pamila

How to do Spell Check!

There are a couple of things you can do when you want to spell words correctly in English. First, please realize that English spelling is very hard to learn. Because we use so many words from other languages, the spelling can be strange. Many native speakers have the same problem!

If you are typing in English, there are several computer programs that can help you. In the USA, we have spell check programs in our Microsoft Word programs, but that doesn't happen in Korea. I noticed that my words don't get corrected or underlined if I use a Korean program.

Here are some options(choices) you have.

* You could type in an English version of Word that has a spell check as part of it. The library in our building should have that.
* Also, gmail, yahoo, and hotmail all have spell check programs. When you write an email to me, do you do "check spelling"? You can if you are using one of these programs.
* Lastly, you can use Firefox as your internet browser program. It will automatically check your spelling.

Those are your options for typing.

If you are spelling when you write by hand, there isn't a lot to do except learn and memorize or read. You will learn spelling better if you practice writing / reading. I don't like to give spelling tests because to me that is not what writing is.

For the final exam, don't worry too much about it. I have been teaching content (what to write and how to express it) not grammar and spelling. WHAT you say and how you say it are more important than the grammar and spelling in this class. It is like building a house. What you say and how you say it are like the framework for your house. I don't care what kind of nails you use as long as they hold the house together.

Descriptions

Hi everyone....
Here is your homework for tonight -
Please use this online game to find people of different descriptions. The idea is that you are looking for different criminals and you will use the descriptions to find them.

http://www.english-online.org.uk/games/findPerson.htm

Find 5 different people.

Also, for homework: Please look at your writing about the 5 senses (remember good things in your life). Please edit it. Check for the following things:
1. Correct capitalization.
2. Correct punctuations (periods, exclamation points, question marks)
3. Does your subject match your verb? IS your subject plural? You will need a plural verb? Is your subject singular? You need a singular verb.
4. Look for number words (several, many, a few). After these words you should have a PLURAL countable noun.

We will work on these papers tomorrow. Please bring them EDITED to class.

See you soon!
Pamila