class notes: dan’s “lesson plans”
Conversational English
Six classes, freshman and sophomore English majors
Third Semester
* Field Day: In response to the students’ campus quarantine, we headed outdoors and played a avriety of games … including American football. One student actually broke her ankle. (Not kidding.)
* Iraq and SARS, SARS and Iraq: Talked a lot about the two main news stories in the world.
* Just talking: After two semesters with me, students seem more comfortable. So, often no lesson plans are necessary. I go into class and ask, “What do you guys want to talk about today?” And the rest of the class is spent talking … which is what a Conversational English class is all about.
* Two days in Shanghai: Students proposed an itinerary for foreigners with only two days to tour Shanghai.
* Anti-war songs: We listened to and talked about the following songs: “War” by Edwin Starr, “I-feel-like-I’m-fixin’-to-die rag” by Country Joe McDonald, “For what it’s worth” by Buffalo Springfield and “Nuclear War” by Yo La Tengo. (I taught my students many words and phrases that I probably shouldn’t have.)
* Second-grade pen pals: Two classes have corresponded by mail with Miss Cornell’s second graders at Shaker Road Elementary School in Albany, New York. I will post some of the letters soon. (Miss Cornell is a fellow Elizabethtown College grad.)
05.26.2003, 12:43 AM · School
