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Tuesday, October 11, 2005
why, o why is my blogger in Japanese????sigh....
This morning was vocabulary work, so I began the class greeting everyone and reminding them that the English prompts on the vocab sheet are useful in discussion, and so to please use English, and to work with someone new. I spent a little time explaining to the two newcomers, (they had both not done the work, although they have successfully joined the group...so much for my explanation last week....but I think they get the message now they've worked marking a peer).
Almost none had done the homework, so I explained again that it was important to think about criteria, first because it was going to be how we mark their grade, and second as an economist, to get outside a model and look critically at the criteria on which it is based. I suggested they hand in the homework later, and then introduced Chapter 9 of Economics and Language, entitled "Money Talks" by Charles Bazerman, which gives you a new perspective on Adam Smith and his ideas. I explained it is a reserved book in the library...it may be a bit of a hard read, but for the interested and dedicated!
After that I explained about going to the computer room D, and that we would be researching next week, and that with each presentation we would be focussing on new techniques, and that today we would focus on structure. I then asked students to make groups, and to choose a topic of the five: Accounting, LBOs, Exchange Rates, Bonds, Annual General Meetings. (These were chosen from Financial English (ian mackenzie; Thomson) for their Q&A format to suggest to students how to best employ the different team voices in their presentations.) Having recieved the papers with their team members names and topic, we moved onto the worksheet which I distributed.
I read the presentation beginning and ending, modelling various high and low voices, and students wrote the number of the various moves in the box above. Before calling on single students to answer, I gave time for team consulting. Then we took a five minute break, and came back to finish the worksheet, with how to avoid answering questions or respond with flair to questions, matching up a question on the left and jumbled answers on the right. I asked students to check their answers in the group again, and to try saying the responses, as an initial practice for speaking. Then I asked a question, and everyone chorused the answer, and we practiced chorusing twice odd while I also explained the meanings in Japanese.
In the break I went round asking people if they thought the worksheet was useful, and got positive replies from about five or six people dotted around the room, so I am pleased. While students were working on the jumbled Q&A I handed out the topic worksheets from "Financial English", and once we'd finished the worksheet i explained how to make a new folder for your team in the yahoo group to share files, in Day 3, and that we needed vocabulary prepared, and to check out wikipedia, and various more links.
Then I wandered round supporting initial preparation, supporting delegating roles, as students began to decide who would do what and got on to the worksheets. I realize I left the answers at home, so I'll need to make them available for students to check.
I think all went smoothly, I have a slew of people who have forgotten passwords and want to be accepted as members again with a new id. I feel pretty satisfied with the class today, and now it is up to students to be getting on with applying the things we have noticed so far.
Renata 3:13 pm
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