Blog Posts

Week 2 - Monday

4/15/2024

Hello,

Today we talked about introverts and extroverts in connection to small talk (PDF attached). I loved your thoughtful contributions and your eagerness to practice the new things you learned.

We also practiced some of the common irregular verbs.

Please complete the first page of the irregular verb handout I gave you today.

Don't forget that our class is on Zoom tomorrow.

Have a great evening.

Week 1 - Thursday

4/11/2024

Hello,

Today we began class with our regular morning past-tense routine and then you learned about small talk. We discussed appropriate and inappropriate topics and places for small talk and practiced engaging in small talk.

By popular demand, we also discussed one interesting topic for small talk - the zodiac. You learned what horoscopes are and where we can find them. You also learned the names of the star signs and read a table to find the dates, colors, and numbers attributed to these signs.

You learned some new adjectives that describe the characteristics (positive and negative) commonly ascribed to each sign. You had the opportunity to talk about your star signs and your spouses' star signs and agree or disagree with their descriptions. We'll continue the topic on Monday.

For homework: in Google Classroom, please write your thoughts on this topic: why do you think most zodiac signs are animals? I have created individual Docs for each one of you to write in. I have also attached a PDF of my presentation.

Have a great weekend and see you all on Monday.

P.S. Vesa and Jule, as per our conversation today, I've created a personalized assignment for you. You'll receive it in a minute.

Week 1 - Wednesday

4/10/2024

Hello,

Today we began work by discussing the paragraphs you wrote for homework. It was great to learn about the traditional celebrations you have in your countries. Thank you!

We then discussed good and bad habits, your study habits, and possible strategies that could help you with your language learning this term.

We also began our tense review. We focused on the past simple tense and the three ways of pronouncing the -ed ending. We reviewed some high-frequency irregular verbs through a question-answer game. We finished class with a fun matching game.

There is no homework for tomorrow. If you haven't written yesterday's homework assignment yet, do so today. If you are celebrating Eid/Bayram, do your homework for Monday.

Have a great day and see you tomorrow online.

Week 1 - Tuesday

4/9/2024

Hello,

Today we talked about ways people around the world celebrate the spring season. The text we read and discussed is in Google Classroom. In addition to learning some new words and phrases, we practiced a new grammatical structure (the + comparative adjective ..., the + comparative adjective ...). You can find it in paragraph three of the text.

We also discussed some questions based on the text (see in Google Classroom).

Your homework is to choose one of these questions and write a paragraph (4-5 sentences) about it. Use some of the vocabulary we learned today. I have created a Doc for each one of you. Just click on it and write your ideas.

Don't forget that we switched the online day for this week because of Bayram (Eid al-Fitr). We had an in-person day today, but we'll have an online class tomorrow, so I'll see you tomorrow on Zoom.

Have a great day!
P.S. See a PDF of my presentation in Google Classroom.

Week 1 - Monday

4/8/2024

Today was our first day together. It was fun playing a game with you and learning about you. I am positive we have a great term ahead of us.
A PDF of my presentation and a Jamboard with some of the activities we did in class are in Google Classroom.

Have a great evening and see you tomorrow in person again.

Welcome Level 4 Spring 2024!

4/7/2024

Hello dear students!

Welcome to our Spring term! I'm excited to learn more about you and honored to be a part of your English language journey.

Week 5 - Thursday

2/8/2024

Hello,

Today we read and discussed an article about multiple intelligences. We learned how to skim and predict when reading and how to recognize the meaning of suffixes and roots.

Your homework is on pp.12 - 13 of the workbook.

Week 5 - Wednesday

2/7/2024

Hello,

Our Wednesday class started with a board game that practiced two-clause sentence formation and the usage of past simple tense. You can find a screenshot of the game in Google Classroom. Please write answers to the 18 game questions in your notebooks.

We also discussed the usage of already, just, yet, since, and for in connection to the present perfect tense (summary attached in GC). We watched a short cartoon and described the actions of the characters in order to understand the differences between already, just, and yet (video attached in GC too).

We'll continue practicing these concepts in our Thursday class.

Week 5 - Tuesday

2/6/2024

Hello,

Today was our field trip to the Chicago History Museum. I hope you enjoyed it and learned new things; I know I did.

You can find the handouts from today in Google Classroom.

Don't forget that our class will be online tomorrow.

Have a great evening.

Week 5 - Monday

2/5/2024

Hello,

Today we read a book review and tried to understand the Present Perfect forms used in it.

For homework, (1) please read the book review again and (2) complete the exercises we couldn't finish in class today. Both the book review and the exercises are in Google Classroom.

Don't forget about the field trip tomorrow. See you at the 2838 W. Peterson building at 9:00 AM. The buses leave at 9:30.