ESL L5: A Great Job with the Speeches!

Wednesday, October 28, 2010

The Joys of Public Speaking

You all did a really nice job with your Wuthering Heights speeches yesterday. On Friday I will give you your grades and your feedback from your peers. I was really pleased to see that so many of you want to try giving a speech again before the end of the semester. I will plan another speaking project for sometime after Thanksgiving.

The Joys of Learning

I know your paper grades for Wuthering Heights are a lot lower than what you are accustomed to receiving. I decided to 'raise the bar' and grade them with the expectations of a sheltered (EFL only) English Rhetoric course. We only have about five and a half weeks left in L5, so it is very important that I start transitioning you into a sheltered or more likely native speaker English course and with this comes the expectations of such a class. (There is a sheltered ESL only ENG 085 course offered on campus. When you are ready to register for your courses, come see me and I will let you know which section this is in the English department.)

Thus, don't be upset by your low scores. As I explained yesterday, in class essays -- most especially ones written under exam conditions -- are first drafts. First drafts are messy. This is why I am giving you the option of writing a final draft. For your final draft, I will base it on the points you missed. (e.g. if you received a 56% on your essay, you final draft is worth a possible 44 points. You can only improve your score!) The point is to completely rewrite your essay. You start with all new brainstorming and of course, a new outline. Spend a lot of time with these two components before you even think about rewriting your essay.

Points don't really matter. At the end of the day, what is a 92% vs. an 88%? Besides, your course is 'Pass' or 'Fail'. My goal for you is that you feel comfortable with your writing skills. So comfortable in fact, that in the 'real world' if you boss or teacher asks you to write a report, you smile to yourself and think "I know how to do that." This is the point of all the writing we have been doing for the last ten weeks. Repetition builds confidence. You really don't think about the simple present tense anymore do you? Exactly. Soon, you will feel the same way about writing paragraphs and five paragraph essays. They will just come to you naturally.

Homework for October 27, 2010

1. Work on your Vocabulary Notebook
2. Study the Past Perfect
3. Optional: Rewrite your Wuthering Heights essay. Due: November 3, 2010. You must turn in: 1) new brainstorming, 2) a new outline (review your notes on outlining), 3) your final essay (typed or hand written)

~Happy Studying~