|
|
||
| Introduction:
At the beginning of Chapter 4 the authors outline their goals in the areas of writing, content, and grammar. Due to the nature of the environment in which I am creating this activity plan, it’s important to concentrate on the goals put forth in the areas of grammar and content with the understanding than any progress in these areas will undoubtedly have a positive influence on the student’s writing. The grammar goals can be divided into three areas: 1) structures that show logical relationships, 2) noun usage, and 3) conveying tone. The content goals can be divided into two areas: 1) criteria for evaluations and 2) recognizing bias. I want each of the goals to be addressed in my activities in a clear, tangible manner, and I don’t want my activities to lean too heavily in any one direction. Since the final writing task at the end of
the chapter is for the students to write an original evaluation, I believe
it is important that they be exposed to multiple examples of movie reviews
and summaries. Consequently, several of my activities use links to online
evaluations and critiques as the basis for the exercises.
|
||
| Activity 1: Choosing the Right
Verb (multiple choice)
Based loosely on Activity 4-6, this multiple choice activity gives the user a chance to read a sentence and insert the missing verb/phrase. The learner has to understand the meaning of the sentence in order to pick the right verb, and then has to choose the correct tense. The words used are taken from Ch. 4 and provide the learner with needed, additional practice. This exercise currently only has 6 sentences, but I would like to add at least 4 more. |
||
| Activity 2: Evaluating Tone (matching)
The chapter emphasizes the use of adverbs/adjectives to convey tone, and as indicated by the instructor of the course, these students still struggle with conveying and interpreting tone. I’ve chosen statements of praise/criticism for the students to evaluate on a scale from strongly positive to strongly negative |
||
| Activity 3: Choosing the right noun
(crossword)
I guess students can never have too much practice with word forms! I’ve taken verbs used in the chapter and put the noun forms in the form of a crossword puzzle. Students are given the verb and then provide the noun form. I might expand this crossword to include adjective and adverb forms as well. |
||
| Activity 4: Gone with the Wind reviews
(multiple choice)
Since the students are dealing with evaluations, I decided to link them to a few online evaluations to read and then answer some basic questions. The more examples of evaluative writing the students are exposed to, the better equipped they will be when it comes time to write their own. |
||
| Activity 5: Godfather movie review
(cloze)
Once again, I have the students read a review, but this time the focus is on the use of logical connectors. Here I combine the grammar goal of working with connectors with the content goal of examining evaluations. |
||
| Activity 6: Subject verb agreement
(short answer)
Even though these statements are pretty random, they provide the students with subject/verb agreement practice using sentences that contain complex subjects. These still present a challenge for me. (I hope my answers are correct!) |
||
| Activity 7: Examining writers judgments
(multiple choice)
Based on Activity 4-11, this multiple choice activity gives the student the opportunity to interpret the writer's judgment in each statement. The statements are taken from actual movie reviews (and I'm not sure where to cite the reference) Still, the student must gauge the tone of the evaluative statements made by each critic. |
||
| Activity 8: Choosing the right verb
(cloze)
I wrote this passage which I suppose makes it pretty inauthentic. Nonetheless, it focuses on the verbs used in the chapter and provides the student with extra practice. Perhaps I should try to locate an authentic text that includes many of the same words and replace my original passage. |
||
| Acitivity 9: Logical connectors (crossword)
I found the information provided on p. 141 to be helpful and enlightening. Although I often use logical connectors (and usually correctly), I'm not able to give concise definitions and reasons for each one. This activity requires the learner to examine those definitions/criteria carefully. I think I may need to work on the clarity of the instructions given. |
||
| Activity 10: -of Noun phrases(multiple
choice)
I actually think this activity is difficult - I hope my answers are correct! Anyways, in this activity students must classify the noun phrases according to their meaning. The statements are taken from the 2nd reading about Italian-American. As before, this activity combines the content/grammar goals outlined at the beginning of the chapter. I need to work on this activity in order to include a more diverse set of examples in order to have each potential meaning represented. |
||
| Activity 11: Ch. 4 overview (crossword)
This activity was somewhat of an afterthought. It combines grammar topics from the entire chapter, and is nice review for the end of the chapter. Although it doesn't integrate the grammar with the content, I still like it and would like to incorporate more terms from the chapter. |
||
| Activity 12: Statement of judgment
(scrambled sentence)
So I just need to use the mix option in Hot Potatoes, and honestly I'm not crazy about it. I think it could be a much better option if I could figure out how to put in more than just one scrambled sentence |
||
| Activity 13: Saturday Night Fever
(short answer)
I'm proud of this idea but I need some better questions! Since Reading 2 brought up the issue of Italian-American stereotypes I decided to include some movie reviews of the films mentioned in the reading (also Godfather). Nevertheless, I need to work on my reading comprehension questions, but it's difficult in a short answer format. |
||
| Activity 14: Expanding Vocabulary
(matching)
This activity is similar to Activity 1, but in this activity they are looking for synonyms to replace with alternate verbs. Once again, however, the students get practice with the same set of verbs that are useful in evaluative writing. |
||
| Activity 15: Gone with the Wind (cloze)
This activity is in need of some immediate attention. It was the first one I sketched out and the last one to receive any improvement. The premise remains: the reader is given a passage taken directly from reading 1 and must then use the information to fill in the blanks. I've included a link to for a trailer just for fun. I'd really like to incorporate it into the activity but I'm not sure how. Any suggestions? |
||
| To my HOMEPAGE | ||
| To my ACTIVITIES PAGE |