This page provides explanations for and feedback on my students' ten most recent online assignments.

In addition, I will enumerate the ten most recent writing assignments on Brenda's blog. and Belo's blog. My comments on Brenda's writing can be found in the comments section of the blog. For Belo's comments, please refer to his CBox in the sidebar to the right on his blog - update: please refer to his comments section.

May 17, 2008

We SCAMPER ered through the unit nine reading passage, focusing on substitute, modify, and eliminate. And now, in your blog, rewrite one of the articles. Highlight each of the following:

• too statement;
• enough statement;
• relative pronoun;
• substitute
• modify
• eliminate (if possible)

May 3, 2008

Fill in the grammar wiki; credit yourself and you shall receive extra credit!

I wanted my students to begin preparing for their final exams so I created a wiki Webpage where they could explain grammar items that they've been taught this year.

Moreover, in conjunction with the 1R class visit to Fuk Lam Church on Reading Day, the students were given this assignment:

Each group must compose one reflective piece on the afternoon's event. Indeed, because the boys and girls also have English homework for which they need to add something to their learning portfolio, it would behoove them all to write a composition on their reading day experience. The discipleship leader at Fuk Lam, Joseph, would also like feedback so I will take the comments and forward it to him so we can all learn from this most blessed experience. My school's relationship with the church can only grow stronger.

This was my general feedback:

Almost half of the class wrote a reflection in their blog, and included it in their portfolio - that's good. However, that more than half of the class did not complete any required writing assignment this weekend, whether it was the Fuk Lam reflection or whether it was the article response letter, doesn't surprise me in fact, especially after digesting today's class character scandal. It is my hope that you will continue to speak with those friends whom you met on that Friday; they can assist you, in doing homework, I think! And if you want to attend the church, as many of you wrote, join on Sunday mornings at eleven, or Tuesday evenings at 7:30 to distribute food - I'll be at both!

February 22, 2008 to April 20, 2008

For several weeks, my students had been given the freedom to determine what to read, and what to write; all they had to do was document their progress in their portfolios. Students had to follow a set of constantly revised portfolio guidelines.

Students at times wrote in their blogs, while at others, they listed the texts that they were reading in their portfolio. Their original instructions were:

Put something in your portfolio; share a book, an article or free writing; you should include one new item per week; I'll inspect your portfolio every month!

Brenda's portfolio


Belo's portfolio


This was my general feedback on April 3, 2008:

I sampled half of the class, and these are my comments. I'll explain changes to the portfolio assignments next week.

General

• The number of writing and reading submissions should be more balanced; and they must be written in English. Carrie balanced her portfolio well.
  
• All books and compositions that are included in the portfolio must be finished. Drafts and chapters are unacceptable.
  
• Work done in our class, and in other classes can be used.
  
• Include Web links.
  

Reading

• The reading descriptions should demonstrate some learning, rather than record banal comments such as, "wonderful!"
  
• The links so far are interesting; students share Wikipedia knowledge; book pictures; and videos. Of course, you could always link the book you've read to Amazon.com.
• You can share articles on the Internet that you have read. Erik has shared readings on Rubik's cubes.
• You can also share articles from the newspaper; you do get a newspaper which is full of articles every Tuesday.
  

Writing

• The use of Xanga is good, but Xanga lock must be disabled; and the writing must be in English.
• Poetry is a nice touch. Arnold shared some of his finest lyrical words.

I discontinued the use of portfolios in May, 2008. I consider it a promising experiment which failed.

February 2, 2008

The students had the following assignment, a continuation of their creative writing, for the Lunar New Year.

Write five paragraphs summarizing what happens in the story of Axl, Stephanie and Slash. You are not writing the scenes; simply describe what you think happens in the five stages of a plot - exposition; rising action; climax; falling action; resolution.

In your summary, please include at least one "too" statement, one contrasting ideas adverb or conjunction (but, however, despite, in spite of, although, though), and one cause/effect conjunction (because, since, as). Each time you use one of these grammar items, underline it!

This will count as a composition. The aforesaid grammar items will count towards the language component, and the rich, creative ideas and descriptions you present will be a part of your content mark, of course.

This was my general feedback:

What is the most important event in the story? Obviously, for many of you, it was the murder or suicide, of Stephanie; then, why was this event placed in the falling action or the end of many of your stories? This is the high point of the story, the climax! Everything that builds towards her death should be a part of the rising action; everything that happens after the event, no matter how small, can be the falling action.

We need to use the past tense when telling stories; read your tenses when checking your work.

You guys have used adverbs and conjunctions of contrast and reason quite well. The use of "too" too was superb.

January 27, 2008

For our creative writing project, we had been discussing themes. We had just finished reading the Ugly Duckling, one of whose themes is bullying, when we tackled another story, in musical form, which also addresses this issue but in a markedly different way! Jeremy certainly responds to adversity in a manner which shocks, as his classmates unfortunately discovered at the end of the video. To capture the different, depressing thematic elements in this tale, the students imagined themselves as characters in Jeremy, writing letters to other characters in the story. The letters had to use one of Jeremy's themes. For homework, students chose a theme on which to write for their letters, as well as the characters to both write and receive the letter.

This was their actual assignment:

We'll finish the letters on Monday; remember, each letter should have a theme and a purpose; furthermore, try using the adverb "too" in your writing. This letter will count as a composition so write well - too little effort results in scores of sad faces!

A bully is someone who bullies others; bullies bully others; those poor people are bullied. Bully is a noun and a verb; bullied is an adjective.

Revenge is a noun. People can take revenge on each other. Revenge is usually not used as a verb.

Lovelessness is more or less a pretend word, while helplessness is a word. Loneliness perhaps is a better word to use than lovelessness; they more or less mean the same thing. Lonely, loveless and helpless are adjectives, and we can use them to describe Jeremy!

• You will write a story soon. We will work on it together. Before you write, of course you will need to plan. So, choose a theme, any theme that you can possibly imagine. But make sure you want to write about that theme because it will become yours! As a reminder, if we haven't covered it enough already in class, a theme is an abstract (invisible) noun. It is an idea that we can't touch, but of which we can see examples. Simply write the theme of your story in your blog. This should take less than 20 minutes.
  

I can't touch or taste loneliness, but I can certainly see examples of it in my life.

This was my general feedback:

We're deciding on themes for our stories - and not our letters; we have finished those already. Many students chose the usual suspects - love and bullying - while others were a bit more daring in selecting a conceptual theme - jealousy; greed; and trust, for example. We'll work on the plot this week and hopefully, we'll be ready to draft a story over the holidays.

January 18, 2008

The students had the following assignment.

We've finished reading the Ugly Duckling. Now let's talk about some of the big ideas featured in the story; we've already discussed one - bullying - and know of examples in the story where characters say or do things that relate to bullying; can you think of another big idea (theme) in the story? Provide at least one example from the story of a character saying or doing something that relates to the theme. Please complete this in your blog.

In case you are still confused about what a theme is, a theme is the author's message or main point. The theme is usually an abstract noun (something you can't actually see, but you can see examples of) like "love," "jealousy" and "courage."

December 25, 2007

The students had this assignment over the Christmas break:

Flickr Assigment - (2 hours) For a little fun with morphemic analysis, you'll go around Hong Kong and find a word or phrase that isn't quite correct, that requires just a little morphemic analysis to understand; then, upload the picture to Flickr; the title of your picture should be what the word or phrase actually means; in your description, share where you found the photo; join our Flickr group; and send your photo to our group. We'll present when we start class again in January.