Dear students,
Please use the form below to provide feedback to your discussion leaders.
Discussion Feedback Form
Dear discussion leaders,
Please use the form below to upload your vocabulary.
Vocabulary Building Spreadsheet Form
Kind regards,
Chris Elvin
Thursday, 29 September 2016
Tuesday, 13 September 2016
September 29th class
Dear students,
Welcome back to Oral English II. Please read the course outline below.
Oral English II
Spring 2016
Instructor: Chris Elvin
Email: chriselvin@gmail.com
Course Description
Welcome to Oral English. This
class is designed to accomplish the following:
1) Discuss stories in the news.
2) Keep a vocabulary notebook.
3) Research a topic, and give a group
presentation of it.
Course Assessment and Grading Criteria
a) 20% Serving as discussion leader
b) 30% News summary writing
c) 20% Vocabulary tests
d) 20% Group presentations
e) 10% Vocabulary notebook
a) Serving as
discussion leader (20)
You should introduce yourself to the others,
address the others by name, make eye contact, and use body language to communicate.
Choose a news item from a newspaper, or an online
source. Prepare your summary before class. Orally summarize it in class to your
group (do not read from notes). Solicit opinions from others about it. Ask
follow-up questions. Paraphrase others. Express an opinion in your summary if
you wish to do so.
How did you do? Rate yourself using the “assessing
discussions” guidelines below.
If you are not group leader, you may still engender
a lively talkative group by agreeing, disagreeing, asking opinions,
interrupting, clarifying, asking questions, and giving reasons. You are
encouraged to do so.
Discussion leader vocabulary
homework:
After you have served as group leader, you should
upload three vocabulary items to the class vocabulary database via the online
form:
For each word, you should give a meaning (in
English or Japanese), and use the word in a sentence, that helps learners to
understand its meaning.
Assessing
Discussions
After your discussion leader has finished, please
provide feedback via the online form:
Discussion Leader
Feedback Form
Explaining
a) Described the main
points of the article without reading – 1 point
b) Explained
vocabulary when needed, using only English – 1 point
c) Paraphrased
partners’ comments accurately – 1 point
Questioning
a) Asked partners
questions, used their names, and encouraged their participation – 1 point
b) Used follow-up
questions and rephrased them as necessary – 1 point
c) Employed
questioning to direct the discussion and to clarify points – 1 point
Non-verbally Communicating
a) Frequent, natural
eye contact – 1 point
b) Appropriate,
helpful gestures – 1 point
c) Good posture and
sensitivity to the body language of other group members – 1 point
b) News summary
writing portfolio (30)
After every lesson you should summarize one of the
day’s six discussion topics. (who, what, where, when, why, how). Write about
the others’ opinions, too. Conclude with your opinion. Each summary writing
exercise should be about 150 words. At the end of the semester, hand in your
eight summary portfolio.
c) Vocabulary tests
(20)
There will be two online vocabulary tests based on
all of the words that you uploaded to the database as discussion group leaders.
One will be mid-term, and the other at the end of the semester.
d) Presentations
(20)
There will be a mid-term presentation and a final
presentation, both of which will need preparation before you speak. Research a
topic. Then deliver your presentation. You will be assessed on fluency (not
reading), grammar range and accuracy, vocabulary, pronunciation and content.
You should speak for at least three minutes, and you should not read your
speech nor bring a script.
e) Vocabulary
notebook (10)
Keep a vocabulary notebook of new words that you
learned in class. Write their definitions in either English, or Japanese, or
both. Use your words in a sentence to demonstrate your active knowledge of
them. You should add at least ten words per week to your notebook. If you did
not learn as many as ten new words per class, you may use the class vocabulary database
words to make up the difference. Your notebook is personal, so it should not
just be a copy paste of the spreadsheet; It should show your endeavor to learn
new words.
Schedule
You will normally have six discussions per class
led by the discussion group leaders, who will rotate from group to group. Your
group members will be chosen at random by the teacher. After the discussions,
there will be time for summary writing, vocabulary notebooks, or studying the
words in the database.
Week 1: Orientation: Watch a video of student
discussions
Week 2: Group discussion 1
Week 3: Group discussion 2
Week 4: Group discussion 3
Week 5: Group discussion 4
Week 6: Group discussion 5, online vocabulary test
Week 7: Mid-term presentations preparation, start
mid-term presentations
Week 8: Mid-term presentations
Week 9: Group discussion 1
Week 10: Group discussion 2
Week 11: Group discussion 3
Week 12: Group discussion 4
Week 13: Group discussion 5, online vocabulary test
Week 14: Hand in vocabulary notebooks, discussion
summaries portfolio, start final presentations
Week 15 Final presentations
Anything else?
Why not
visit the chat room? It is a great way to practice English.
Aoyama Gakuin
University Attendance Policy
Your absences may
affect your final grade.
There is a grade ceiling
policy depending on the absences you have from class.
Between zero and
three absences per year: no effect
Four or five absences
per year: maximum grade; A
Six or seven absences
per year: maximum grade; B
Eight or nine
absences per year: maximum grade; C
Ten absences per
year: automatic failure.
These ceilings should
not be interpreted that all students may be absent from class up to three
times, nor that weak students may be absent from class more than strong
students. (Weak students need to come to class at least as much as strong
students). Your
teacher expects you to attend ALL classes.
Kind regards,
Chris Elvin
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
May 21st lesson
Dear students, You have been invited to Google Classroom. Please accept the invitation sent by email. I will probably stop using the blog f...
