Activity Description
Maintaining a Daily Journal
Activity Purpose (What result are you looking for?)
Practicing sentence construction; looking for steady improvement in writing skills to include improvment in grammar and length of sentences, ultimately building paragraphs.
Class Description (Level and Demographics)
ELL 2. 95% female, 99% Asian, ages 20 - 75 (70% between 30 - 50)
Resources Needed
Individual notebooks, dictionary
Evaluation (How will you gauge the impact of the activity on your students?)
Comparing work from week 1 to week 2 should identify which students are repeating the same errors and will need added attention. The class will be divided into two or three groups by week three and students will be assigned to a particular group based on an assessment of their writings. By week three, the lead group will progress to doing oral presentations from their journal
Communicating with Students (how will they know if their performance has improved?)
By setting up the separate groups, the students will be well aware of their progress in addition to individual council as needed.
Comments
Hi Philip,
I've often used journals as a way to get students comfortable with writing. The passages can be short and I have asked students to address prompts like: What news stories did you see today? What goals do you have today?
What prompts do you use to get students writing?
Sincerly,
Kathy
Hello Kathy, Today marked the start of the summer session and first subject at hand is alway to cover what is expected. This would include on-time/ perfect attendance, working on overcoming their natural inhibitions and tendency to not speak up when called upon. My grade level is ELL-2 and most of the students have more difficulty with writing so I tell them to imagine they are having a conversation on the phone with a friend or family member and just put that same conversation on paper. Surely you all can rattle off a paragraph in a two minute conversation. So I just informed them of the journal exercise theyʻll be required to do. I though Iʻd start off with "What is the most important activity you need to tend to today after class?" I thought thatʻs a simple subject and they all should have something to do besides getting up and coming here to listen to me. But Iʻm going to try to tie in an exercise to work on their verbal skills. At the end of the week, each will have to tell the class whatʻs in store for their weekend...again keeping it to the three most important or fun activities. Class sizes are usually smaller for the summer sessions so I think this is a good time to put this format to test. I forgot to mention that I also tell them up front, if they really feel they cannot or do not want to speak up, they please go to the office and request to switch to another instructor. Too not speak is not an option. So far I havenʻt had many leave. Aloha...wish me luck! Phil