Week 7 Topics: Due Tuesday 4/22

1. Assess your progress: Where have you made the most improvements in your writing and reading? What can you do for the last two weeks to continue improving? Where do you think you need extra help with your reading and writing (from your teachers, from the writing center, from a tutor, from using online websites for practicing...)? Select 1 problem that you have with reading OR writing. Make a 7 day plan for Wednesday 4/23-Tuesday 4/29). What will you do each day to work on this problem?

Example:
My biggest problem with reading is that I don't understand difficult passages in the novel. To improve, I will follow this plan for the next 7 days:
Wednesday 4/23: Read Chapter 21. I will time myself while I read it to see how long it takes me. I will not stop to look up words in the dictionary, but I will only circle the words that I do not understand.
Thursday 4/24: I will give myself 10 minutes to review chapter 21 and then write a short summary of the chapter. I will choose 10 words that I think are important to learn and make flashcards.
Friday...
Saturday...
Sunday...
Monday...
Tuesday...

Each day, write about whether you followed your plan or not. 20-50 words. Due Tuesday 4/29.

2 Blog Topics for Week 5: Thursday 4/10-Monday 4/14

There are only two topics for this week:

1. Reading reflection: Choose an article from TIME magazine or an American newspaper such as The New Yorker or the local Greensboro newspaper, News and Record. Write your response (opinions, reactions, thoughts, connections that you made between this article and other articles that you’ve previously read). Please paste the link for the article in your journal as well.
2. Choose a proverb (either an English proverb or one from your country). Explain what the proverb means and explain how it relates to your life. Some English examples are: "the early bird gets the worm", "an idle mind is the devil's playground", or "a rolling stone gathers no moss". Do not use these proverbs/sayings that I used as examples!

As always, these should be a minimum of 200 words. Grammar is not so important but I suggest you use this as a chance to practice checking your work for the common grammar mistakes that we spoke about during the writing conferences.

Only 2 Blog Topics for Week 4: 4/2-4/7

Blog Topics for 4/2-4/7:

*Grammar journal: find a bit of grammar that gives you trouble.  Answer one or more of these questions: Why does it give you trouble?  How could you explain it to a friend?  How could you use it several times in a paragraph?

*Learning reflection: overall, how did you feel about class this week?  What did you learn, and how did you learn it? What activities were helpful, or not? Do you have any concerns? What are you having the most trouble with?

Blog Topics Week 3: Tuesday 3/25-Monday 3/31

Thank you to the students who put extra time and effort in to their blog posts! I've enjoyed reading your blog posts and comments very much. I hope that you continue to improve your writing fluency and typing abilities.

As always, there is a 200 word minimum for each post. All 3 blogs must be complete by Sunday night.

For the next week, your blog post topics are:

1. What is an action that you have taken that you think made a positive, big (or small) difference in somebody's life? Explain what you did and what impact your action had on this person. Has anybody done anything positive for you that made a big difference in your life? Explain.

2. What are some stereotypes that you had of U.S. American people before you came to the United States? Are any of these stereotypes proving to be false? Are any of these stereotypes proving to be accurate? Give a few examples from your personal experiences.

3. Write about your writing conference meeting with your instructor. What advice did she give? How will you improve your writing next time? What have you done recently to reach the goals that you told us about in Week 2? Be specific.

Example of Personal Goals Blog Post

My Personal Goals for RW 3 Spring 3

1. My first goal is to get, use and understand more vocabulary. To achieve this, 

I’m going to try reading more than we do in class, including homework and the 

novel book. First, I need to choose another novel to read by myself and read 

three times or more the newspaper every week. 

2. My second goal is to write with more fluency and start to think in English when 

I’m doing that. I do mistakes when I’m writing and I think in my own language. 

To achieve this, my first goal can help me because when you know more words 

you can express your ideas and write better. Also, another good recourse is to 

go to the Speaking and Writing Center because they can help me to improve my 

essays in general and I can practice more writing. 

3. My third goal is to improve my typing. I have never practiced this skill, so I 

have always typed with two fingers. I need to learn and practice to write with 

correct typing. To achieve this, I want to practice with the online typing program 

and try to use as much as possible the correct fingers on the keyboard, for 

example when I chat with my friends online, doing homework, etc.,

Week 2 (March 17-21) Blog Post Topics

Write about ALL three topics below. Each topic should be in a separate blog post, posted on different days.  You have 1 week to complete all three posts. This means that you can post one on Monday, one on Wednesday, and one on Saturday, for example. All three posts must be completed by Monday Please write a minimum of 200 words. In addition, you must write a response to two blog posts each week. If somebody already has two comments on a post, you cannot add another comment.

1. Tell me about your goals for after Interlink, to help me get to know you a little better. Also, when do you need to finish the Interlink program? What are the consequences for you, your education, or your scholarships if you do not pass this class? See example.

2. Plagiarism: What’s the big deal? What is it? What can the consequences of plagiarism be? Is this different or the same from your academic experiences in your own country?

3. Cultural reflection: choose an aspect of American culture that surprises, delights, angers, or confuses you.  Where did you observe this?  Describe the event. What can you learn from it? Include a picture!

RW3 Spring 2 2014 Blog

You will see the blog topics posted here each week. If you have any questions, you can comment here, though it is better to send an email if you want a quick response. Enjoy!