Dead Poet's Society Recap

I appreciated all of your discussion yesterday about Dead Poet's Society. I am especially impressed by all of your willingness to speak English all of the time. That is really amazing and I appreciate your challenging yourself to speak only in English when in my classroom. Great job!

Roger Ebert wanted to "throw up," but I wanted to cry. I'm a sucker for the dramatic.

Yesterday we talked a lot about Welton Academy, Mr. Keating and our feelings on the movie.

We found that there were many similarities between Welton Academy and Korean schools. Both have a strict atmosphere and place a lot of pressure on their students.

Most of us also really like Mr. Keating for his passion, progressive thinking and his compassion.

A lot of us really liked the movie because it was interesting and inspirational.

Interestingly, we read a movie review that felt the opposite. Roger Ebert said he was "so moved, I wanted to throw up." And "the story is also old stuff, recycled.." He found Dead Poet's Society to be unoriginal and disingenuous.

That is the beauty of movies. You might love it, someone else might hate it. We're all entitled to our opinions!

Thanks for joining in the conversation.

Remember: We will discuss Little Miss Sunshine in the next class at 1PM on Monday! ;)

Dead Poet's Society Review

Have you watched Dead Poet's Society yet? Me neither. But I have plans to re-watch it this weekend after not seeing it for years.

I went back in the news archives and found this old movie review by one of America's most famous movie critics, Roger Ebert. Take a look here. Does he like it or not? Why? After you watch the movie, read it again. Do you agree with him or disagree? Why or why not?

Roger Ebert started as a print journalist, but then became famous on television for his movie-review show. 

Movies are great because we all have a different experience when we watch them. We also relate to them on different levels.

So think hard about how you felt during this movie. What was your experience? How did you relate to it? Or did you?

Happy watching!  

Welcome to Movie and Drama class!

Hello class!

So we have the unique pleasure to enjoy and discuss films and television shows with each other for the next 5 weeks. I want us to take advantage of that opportunity and enjoy it!

It has been years since I've watched this movie. It is one of my all-time favorites. I hope you enjoy it too.

Think of this class as a movie club with your friends where anything you say will be heard and respected. Do not be afraid to speak your mind in my classroom. Most importantly do not be afraid to make mistakes. Learning a new language is about making mistakes. All of you are speaking English as your second language, mistakes are inevitable. Do not worry! I will always be proud of you for trying!

Remember that this week we will watch Dead Poet's Society at home and discuss it next Monday in class (June 7). I ask that you try to write a brief synopsis of the movie and prepare yourself for the questions at the end of the worksheet. Be sure to find some words or phrases that you do not understand from the movie. Finally, prepare a question or two that you think will create a class discussion.

If that seems too hard, just decide if you liked the movie or didn't like it and tell us why.

This class is to help you learn and enjoy learning English. How much you learn and enjoy it is entirely up to you!

Comment below if you have any questions!

Final Exam Review

Hello class!

By now you should have a good idea of what to expect on your final exam. We have covered units 4 and 5 since our midterm exam and we have spent a lot of time discussing games and family.

SPEAKING

The best thing you can do for the speaking exam is study the speaking exam game we played on Monday. Many of those questions will help prepare you for the speaking exam. If you can comfortably speak for 2 minutes beginning with each question then you should do fine. Also, check the book, worksheets and your notes for any questions we have discussed over the last few weeks. Remember to not feel trapped by the topic. Let your conversation flow naturally.

LISTENING
If you look in the back of the listening book you will find a website called www.Qonlinepractice.com. If you register and use your access code you can do some listening exercises. Please let me know if you have any questions. We have done lots of listening over the semester, but doing more is always helpful.

WRITING
By now you should know the structure of the paragraph. Be sure to use this structure and use transition words and phrases at the beginning of each sentences. Try not to begin your sentences with "because" or "and." Also, make sure you feel comfortable writing a conclusion sentence without writing the exact same sentence as your topic sentence.

Good luck! Please ask me questions on Thursday if you don't know how to do something.

What does family mean to you?

For the past week we've been talking about family. We've watched "Modern Family" and we've talked about our own families. In America, family is loosely defined. We think of our nuclear family as family and our friends as family.

Family has a different definition for everyone. What I think is a family, you might not think is a family.

So what does "family" mean to you?

Creating a game

I loved the games you all invented. It was a lot of fun to see how creative you could get. I'm not sure which one was my favorite. They all seemed to follow the theme, "win or get hit in the head!"

"Roll a 3 or get hit in the head!"

The most important thing to remember from this class was how to explain how do to something. 

Think about these things. 

What is the object? 

What are the rules? 

What do you do first? 

Then? 

After that? 

Finally?

The object of the game should explain the overall gist. What do you do and how do you win?

The rules should explain any restrictions that the game has. 

Then the sequence should explain how to play the game. 

This formula can be used to explain lots of activities that follow a sequence. Cooking, building or performing an action. 

For example:

The object of this blog is to help you review for the exam. 

There are no specific rules for accessing this blog. You should just have a curiosity to learn.

First, go to www.whitsclassroomcommunity.blogspot.com

Then, find the blog that covers the class you want to review.

After that, read the blog and try to remember all of the points we talked about.

Finally, review your book or worksheets to help you get a full picture of the material.

This should help you prepare for the final exam!

How do you play? -Monday preview

Hey class! 

I hope you had a nice weekend. I did. I relaxed on Saturday and took a day trip to Pohang on Sunday! It was fun.

As you know, we are talking about games in Unit 4. On Monday, you will be asked to make up a new game. So we will need to focus on imperatives and giving instructions. 

IMPERATIVES

Imperatives are sentences that start with the verb and give a sharp order. "Get me a drink." "Write this down." Sometimes it can sound quite rude, but it depends on the situation.  Check out this website to get some extra help on imperatives.  

INSTRUCTIONS

For giving instructions (or directions) think about using these words: 

Here are instructions on starting your own webpage.:

First, open a text editor or word processor.
Then. choose File > New to create a new, blank document.
Next. create the HTML content as explained in the rest of this book.
When you've done that, choose File > Save As.
In the dialog box that appears, choose Text Only (or ASCII) for the format.
Next, give the document the .htm or html extension.
Then. Choose the folder in which to save the Web page.
Finally. Click Save.

So be ready to do a lot of listening and speaking in class on Monday. 

First, we will warm up. 

Then, we will play a game. 

Next, we will do a listening activity.

Finally, we will create our own game.

See you Monday!