How do colors make you feel?

Colors! How do they make you feel? What do you think of? How do we use color? How do animals use color? These are all questions you should feel comfortable discussing after last week. 

Last week we talked about how certain colors make us feel. For example, we looked at a color, like green, and thought about these questions. 

What do you think of? Why?

I think of (thing, place, event, etc.)…

2. Who do you think of? Why?

I think of (person…..)

3. How does it make you feel?

It makes me feel…(emotion(happy, sad, hungry))

4. What memories does it evoke?

It reminds me of… 

Colors can make me feel an emotion, remind me of a person or memory and even make me think of a smell. What do colors do for you? What does green make you feel? 

We also discussed how businesses use color. Red-LG, blue-Hyundai. But no one uses color like Apple. They make their products look cool and fun with color. For me, the own white. Check out this video. See you next class!

What color are you?

Hello class!

First be prepared to tell me about your weekend plans.

What will you do this weekend?
This weekend I will hang out with my friends and drink!

Remember use the future tense!

Today we will mostly be discussing colors. We will talk about how colors remind us of something. A mood, a class, a person, a smell, a season or even a memory. Be prepared to think about how you would express your feelings about the color pink for example.

What does pink remind you of?
"Pink makes me think of candy. It reminds me of a sweet smell. I think about the lollipops that I used to get from the store." 

We will also listen to an audio track about colors and animals. This will prepare us for the listening exam. Do not forget to finish your vocabulary log. You will hear many of these words today in our listening exercise!

Here are today's goals!

1.What are your weekend plans?

2.Speaking- Discussing colors with your partner.

3.Listening- video on colors

4.Speaking- vocabulary discussion and review

5.Listening- "The Colors of Nature"

6.Speaking- What color are you?

How can colors be useful?

Today we started class with a review on fashion. We discussed why people might agree with school uniforms and why others disagree. I wanted you to see the debate from both perspectives. 

Do you understand irony?

Those who supported school uniforms talked about how uniforms are cheaper, make life easier, allow students to focus on school work and how uniforms create a sense of school community. 

Those who were opposed to school uniforms talked about how students did not have freedom, independence and how uniforms were uncomfortable. 

See what other people think here.

As it says on page 15, "consider the ideas." Be sure that you feel comfortable talking about both positions (agree and disagree). You might be asked to debate this issue on the midterm speaking exam. 

Finally, we started Unit 2. The main question here is "How can colors be useful?" We talked about how colors can be symbolic, affect our mood, organize our lives, help animals blend in and can attract attention to important things. We then familiarized ourselves with the vocabulary on page 23 by doing the exercise and then starting a vocabulary record. Please be prepared to show the teacher your record next class.

What animal do you see?

I look forward to seeing you at the next class!!

What is your favorite social networking site?

In our second class this week we interviewed our partners on their personal fashion.

Describe your favorite item of clothing?

What kind of haircut would you never have? 

We got comfortable talking about our fashion and our opinions of fashion. By now you should easily be able to talk for 2 minutes about fashion.

Next, we started writing. We talked about main ideas of paragraphs.

*Remember: main ideas are the main thing the writer wants to get across to the reader.*

We looked at 6 paragraphs and figured out what the main idea was for each paragraph. Sometimes the main idea is the first sentence of the paragraph, but sometimes you have to read more of the paragraph to understand the main idea.

In our writing we want the first sentence of our paragraph to state the main idea plus two subtopics. For example:

Yeungnam University is a great university because of its excellent opportunities and fantastic teachers. 

From the beginning, I know this paragraph is going to be about how the opportunities and teachers make YU a great university.

Another example:

I love my mother because she is kind and a great cook.

From this sentence I know you are going to talk about how you love your mother because she is nice and cooks well.

Next week we will look at our outlines you did for homework and try to start organizing our paragraph about our favorite social networking site.

Until then...have a great weekend!!!

Topic Sentences

In our next class we will take a look at writing the first sentence of a paragraph. This sentence(usually the first or second) is called a topic sentence. This sentence is made of two parts: a topic and a controlling idea.

The topic sentence has two parts: the topic and the controlling idea.

The topic should be the subject of your paper. The controlling idea should be what you are going to focus on about your topic. Let's look at some examples.

TOPIC                                    CONTROLLING IDEA

         Whit teacher                                                            keeps a blog.

Topic sentence= Whit teacher keeps a blog.

I am the main topic: Whit teacher. The controlling idea is my blog. The rest of the paragraph will be about my blog.

Let's look at another example:

          TOPIC                                    CONTROLLING IDEA

             Daegu                                                                      is a great city.

Topic sentence= Daegu is a great city.

Daegu is the main topic. The controlling idea is "a great city." The rest of the paragraph will be about why Daegu is a great city.

Make sure that the rest of the paragraph supports the controlling idea.

Acceptable sentences for: Whit teacher keeps a blog.

His blog is helpful because it helps us review our classwork.  

The blog has a nice design and is fun to read. 

These sentences above are good because it stays on the topic and the controlling idea: my blog.

Unacceptable sentences for: Whit teacher keeps a blog.

Whit teacher is from America.

English class is difficult for me. 

These sentences above are not good because they do not say anything about my blog.

Can you think of two examples of acceptable sentences and two examples of unacceptable sentences for "Daegu is a great city."??? If you can, write them in your notebook and I will give you 7 extra points for reading this blog and doing the assignment!

Be prepared to do some writing in class tomorrow. Bring your READING AND WRITING BOOK and your JOURNAL/NOTEBOOK!

Still not clear? Try watching this explanation. Only 3 minutes!

The Popularity of Social Networks

What a beautiful Monday afternoon! It was great to see so many smiling and warm faces. Here is a recap of our class yesterday.

Yesterday in class, we started with talking about our weekend. Many of you told me all about what you did last weekend.

"I ate at a restaurant with my friends."
"I slept."
"I watched T.V."

See the previous blogpost for more tips on how to answer this question!

"Are you studying for English class tonight?"

We also reviewed present continuous with a mingling activity where we had to find someone that was doing something "around now" and you were to ask some follow up questions.

1-"Are you watching T.V. this weekend?"
2-"Yes, I am watching T.V. this weekend."
1-"What are you going to watch?"
2-"I am going to watch Criminal Minds."
1-"What time are you planning to watch it?"
2-"I am going to watch it around 9PM."

After we mingled we began looking at Unit 1 in our Reading and Writing books called, "Why does something become popular." We brainstormed about why social networking sites are popular. We decided that they are convenient, cheap, help us keep in touch, see our friend's lives and experiences and allow us to share our own lives.

"Psst, Hae Sik, what's the answer to number 3???"

Finally, we read an article titled, "The Popularity of Social Networks" and answered questions on a practice reading exam about the article. Remember we must answer the short answer questions in full sentences and make any false statement true! DO NOT FORGET TO BRING THIS SHEET BACK TO CLASS COMPLETED!

Read the next blogpost for a preview of the next class!

What did you do this weekend?

One thing you can always plan for on Monday is that I (Mr. Whit) will ask you what you did over the weekend. It is a very common question on Monday in any culture. So how should you answer? In simple past.

I hiked with my family this weekend.

Whit: What did you do this weekend?

You:

I slept. *yawn*

I exercised.
I hiked.

I ate.

I watched a movie.

I drank.

These are all acceptable answers. But remember, I always ask a follow up question. Generally, I want to know where you went, who you went with and what exactly you did.

For example: 

Whit: What did you do this weekend?

You: I slept.

Whit: Really? All weekend? Like a hibernating bear? What else did you do?

You: I ate.

Whit: Okay. What did you eat?

You: Samgyeopsal.

Whit: Yum! My favorite. Who did you go with?

You: My family.

Whit: Where did you go?

You: Downtown.

Always be prepared for the who, what, when, where, why, how questions. Here's a tip. If you want me to not ask too many questions then offer information.

That might look like this.

Whit: What did you do this weekend.

You: I slept and ate samgyopsal with my family downtown. 

Whit: Oh. Great! 

FINISHED!

*And remember* you are in college now, you would say "I hung out with my friends." Only rarely would you "play" with your friends. You'd play games with your friends. But coffee, drinking, chatting, etc...now you call that "hanging out."

Want to know what I did this weekend?

I hung out with my family, ate samgyeopsal in Orange Town and rode my bike on Sunday. It was great!