Monday

Everybody's Changing

"Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they're finished."
Dan Gilbert shares recent research on a phenomenon he calls the "end of history illusion," where we somehow imagine that the person we are right now is the person we'll be for the rest of time. Listen to Dan Gilbert in his TED Talk: The psychology of your future self.
Also, think about Information Literacy and the ability to conduct effective Internet research.
  • You must understand what you need to find.
  • Choose effective search terms, and
  • Evaluate the results and refine your search if necessary
Wikipedia in its article on Information Literacy states: The United States National Forum on Information Literacy defines information literacy as " ... the ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively use that information for the issue or problem at hand."
Other definitions incorporate aspects of "skepticism, judgement, free thinking, questioning, and understanding..." or incorporate competencies that an informed citizen of an information society ought to possess to participate intelligently and actively in that society.
A number of efforts have been made to better define the concept and its relationship to other skills and forms of literacy.
Although other educational goals, including traditional literacy, computer literacy, library skills, and critical thinking skills, are related to information literacy and important foundations for its development, information literacy itself is emerging as a distinct skill set and a necessary key to one's social and economic well-being in an increasingly complex information society.
Remember, you are never going to learn all you need to know in your external life inside a classroom, any classroom. But what you get from school is guidance in where to start looking for information and people to help you in developing skills of your own, to start you on your way to becoming a lifelong learner who always knows where to look.

Here's a little song to get you going:

Wednesday

Individual and Social Identity

Follow this link: Social Identity Theory to an article by Saul McLeod and use the information you find to help you create a digital narrative on the topic. Follow this link: Digital Storytelling to help you discover what that is and how to go about making them up.
I suggest you begin by using PowerPoint, but you are free to use whichever application or software you feel comfortable with.
Remember, for our purposes you need at least six slides including a title card with your name and the name of your narrative. And do your best so this work can become part of your portfolio.

Tuesday

Ekphrasis - What Is It?

Breughel painted his version of the myth of Daedalus and Icarus, which is known as Landscape with the Fall of Icarus. Much later, the poet William Carlos Williams interpreted Breughel's painting in his own words. Can you do something similar? Blog your own ekphrasis. Use lots of adjectives throughout, and be careful of the Order of Adjectives.

Tuesday

Get Blogging

ASSIGNMENT:
[ ] Humberto [ ] Paula [ ] Eddie [ ] Fabián [ ] Emilio
[ ] Brenda [ ] Jesús [ ] Paloma [ ] Carlos [ ] Amado
[ ] María José
[ ] María Inés
[ ] Juan Carlos [ ] José Gabriel [ ] Andres


On your own blog, pose a question like one of the following [from ESL Partyland]:
Can you do anything creative? For example, can you sing, dance, play a musical instrument, paint, draw, or write poetry?
Name three things you may not do in your language class.
What could the opposite sex do to make your life easier?
Should gay/lesbian couples be allowed to adopt children? Why or why not?
Should marijuana be legalized? Why or why not?
In your country, what might happen to someone who loses their job?
What are some things you should have done last week, but didn't do?
What must you do in your country to obtain a driver's license?
What could you do to make your life more exciting? Why don't you do it?
Name two things that you couldn't do last year that you can do this year.
How would your parents punish you when you misbehaved as a child?
What could you be doing right now (instead of studying English)?
What more could you be doing to practice your English?
How would you recommend treating a cold?

Then, visit a classmate's blog and respond to their question in the comments space.
For a minimum grade (70), pose your question and answer at least three others by 10:30 am, Friday, 21 March.
To get more, do more (5 pts for each additional response you make to other classmates - up to 6 for 30 more pts).

Friday

Love in the Supermarket

Complete this story please:
_______ and _______ met in the ________ supermarket next to the laundry detergent, where he asked her if she needed any help. By the vegetables, he told her that he was falling in love with her...

Don't forget, when you report things that happened and what people have said, you must take care to move the verbs back one tense (unless they are already in the past perfect); mark time expressions correctly; switch pronouns to reflect the person speaking and the person(s) spoken to, and also be careful with the reporting verb you're using - check if it's like SAY or TELL. Remember reporting verbs like SAY require a preposition between the verb and the object if they have an object (examples: ...said to me..., ...discussed with me...) and verbs like TELL do not need a preposition but do require an object (examples: ...told me..., ...advised me...). Of course, SAY or TELL may be followed by a clause (...said that I was kind. / ...told me (that) I was kind.), but that's a topic for another lesson.

Tuesday

Write to each other please

[ ] Georgina
[ ] Carlos
[ ] Citlaly
[ ] Aurora
[ ] Karla
[ ] Isaac
and ask me a question about some year before you were born.

Saturday

Extra! Extra! Read all about...

from the Wikipedia article:
Arts & Letters Daily's layout, designed in July 1998 by Denis Dutton,...[has] three columns of links [which] dominate the site: Articles of Note, Book Reviews, and Essays/Opinions.
To the left of the main columns is a series of links to other online content providers [including most of the world's major newspapers and popular magazines], as well as a section titled “Nota Bene" (the Latin for “mark well"), which is the site's fourth and final collection of daily links to articles deemed to be of particular interest.

Included in PC Magazine's 2007 list of "Top 100 Classic Web Sites," this excellent site has proven a mainstay as a source of global news and ideas for over fifteen years.

Monday

Listen to the classics

The World's Greatest Audio Books
30 audio/videos (so far) by Eric Masters
Including:
Homer: The Iliad
Homer: The Odyssey
Virgil: The Aeneid
Anonymous: Beowulf
Dante Alighieri: The Divine Comedy
Marco Polo: The Travels of Marco Polo
Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales
Miguel de Cervantes: Don Quixote
...and many others
This audio collection contains a treasury of classic books and includes info on the life and times of the author, the theme of the book, the characters, the story outline, a concise yet detailed abridgement of the story and a discussion of the values that make each book one of the great classical works of literature. Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.