INTRODUCTION TO ACADEMIC WRITING. How can we improve the activities?

I checked all the pages of this book, and I decided not to change the activities, because I thing they are enough easy to use all the contents that are taught in each unit.
BUT I created an activity at the end of the units. COMPOSITION OF A PARAGRAPH. It sounds boring and traditional, but the idea is that each student has to compose a paragraph about a topic given by the teacher.
How does the teacher manage this actity? He/she has to give a topic, and students have to use ALL the things that have learnt through the text, and finally they have to gain all the paragraphs and try to compose an history. If the paragraphs do not fit, they have to take the decision of what they want to change.
The end of this is to post it in the classroom, and check that every content from the book is in the history.
I think that this can take a lot of time (time-consuming), but it is a very useful way for checking advance of the studens about what they have learnt. It could be funny, and the topic is about something that students are interested in (LTC).
So, I have made something about the book, and I also have used one of the theories.

Learning though content

To involve students in what they are interested is very important, and an excellent way for them to learn.

That is the objective of this theory, and the text ESL/EFL TEACHING explains how use it and how it can be used effectively.

In the kind of students that I want to teach (highschool) this is important and useful. To keep motivated students is difficult, but not impossible, and I consider that students want to talk about what affects their lives everyday, but we have to consider that teacher have to be sensitive about what they consider appropiate to teach through content, and that the "issue" has to be interesting for all the students.

My classmates and I had to expose about this topic, and the activity we created was about something that all of us consider interesting, and a big deal: FOOD. Fortunately this activity created an enviroment of debate and opinion... and that was the idea.

But I want to ask something about this topic: HOW CAN WE FIND THE ISSUES THAT STUDENTS ARE INTERESTED IN?

PASCO!

We stayed in Pasco for 3 days, and we had the possibility to see different schools, and the same time we realized about the different methods that teachers use with their students.

I think that learning in those schools is very effective, and the results that they have got are ver significant.

First we visited an elementary school. It was special because three different languages are spoken: English, Spanish and Russian. There was intactive classrooms, computers and resources for creating different things in the class.

The next 2 days, we visited Pasco High School, and we had the possibilty to stay in a class. In my case, I stayed in Biology class. I felt very comfortable, the teacher explained my about the system of the school, how teachers work together for creating a good school. Besides, we could see the different resources and how they manage the biggest school in Washington State. it is a evry hard work, but at the moment it has been very effective, and the results also have been very good. Congratulations to all the staff in Pasco High School. I must mention that they were very nica, we felt very comfortable in that school. Thanks!!

Language through interaction... N°1

“Learning English is all about deciding to join the English-speaking club.” Explain what this mean and defend the statement.
It is very helpful to be part of one of this group because interaction is the most important thing to improve fluency and to gain accuracy, but not only you can learn English by doing this, you also can learn by practicing on your own in terms of writing and speaking, in order to develop the different skills. One of the things that you should consider is the level that students have in terms of English because having big gaps between the learners could produce differences in the learning process. We consider that as human being we need to get across what we think and also to share our thoughts.

Gina's social and psychological distance to Spanish language, culture and speakers

Considering the theory of Schumann

Social distance: Whose social groups is more dominant?
-I think that Gina is involved in a dominant group of English Native Speakers, but she has the possibility to share thoughts and ideas with Spanish native speakers.

Integration pattern: How much do learners integrate, or do they do most things apart from the mainstream?
- Gina shares most of the time with american people, but she looks ready to learn with Spanish native speakers.

Enclosure: To what extend does the learner's group have their own resources for interaction, such as church, publications, clubs?
-

Size: How large is the group?
- ...

Cohesiveness: How much does the group "stick together"?
- ...

Cultural congruence: How are the cultural patterns and customs of the home cultural and the target culture alike or different?
- Culture are different in some way, but similar in other ones. I think this would not be a big issue for teaching and learning Spanish, because the ways of teaching are similar.

Attitude: What attitudes do the home and target cultural groups have toward one another?
- Gina has good attitudes to the culture that use the language she wants to learn. Good relationships between chilean studends have been established.

Intended length of residence: How long does the learner intended to stay in the new country?
- She is in US.
Native language: English.
Target language: Spanish (Language spoken in Chile)

Psychological Distance

Motivation: Does the learner want to learn the new language?
- Yes. She really wants to learn, and the goal is to learn Spanish before the students live US in december

Attitude: How does the learner feel toward the target-culture group?
- As I said before, good relationships between Gina and the Spanish native speakers.

Culture shock: Is the learner suffering culture shock?
- I do not know