Post 6: Week 8 (23 - 30 October)

Dear All,

I've commented on all your posts about stereotypes and would like to ask you to comment back if there is smth else to add. I really like the way you've been working and hope you will keep your enthusiam and positive attitude to writing throughout the whole year.

For the next week I'm suggesting discussing one more issue from the book Taboos and Issues that was on the list of your preferred topics for discussion. Let it be "Anxiety & Depression", which is not a joyful topic to discuss, but I think it is necessary to know more about the causes and consequences of depression to be able to withstand it.

I'll share the materials with you later tonight.

Have a great week!

PS: I would like to share with you the information about the Combinatory Dictionary of English one more time as a reminder, though I've checked I shared it with you before in the post What to consider when writing: https://acwr17827.blogspot.com/2018/10/things-to-consider-when-writing.html
It'd be great if you saved it in your bookmarks and started using it.

Students' Blogs List

Dear All,

below you can see a list of all the blogs of your peers. What we are going to do throughout the course among many other things is read and discuss what your peers have written about. To do this you'll need to have access to the blogs of your peers, so below is their list:
                                         Attendance  4.09 18 25.09 2.10 9 16 23 30.10 6.11 13 27 4.12 11  18 25.12 
1. Volokhovich Yulia: 1mylittlepony1.blogspot.com
+ (6.11) abs (20.11)
2. Oshchepkova Yana:  yanaoshchepkova.blogspot.com
abs  (6.11)abs (20.11)
3. Zhamkotsyan Tereza: tereza05.blogspot.com
+ (6.11) 20.11 +
4. Vakarina Anastasya: a-vakarina.blogspot.com
 abs (6.11) 20.11 abs
5. Lobanova Anastasya: anastasialobanova.blogspot.com
+ (6.11) 20.11 +
6. Ignatova Alyona: 65alyona65.blogspot.com
abs (6.11) 20.11 abs
7. Fedorova Darya: daryafedorovansu.blogspot.com
+ (6.11) abs 20.11
8. Petukhova Nastya: nstpetukhova.blogspot.com
abs (6.11) 20.11 +
9. Banaev Roman: roman-shaedee-banaev.blogspot.com
abs (6.11) 20.11+
10. Bazikova Rimma: rimmabazikova.blogspot.com
abs (6.11)20.11+
11. Zavarin Maksim: bringmethememes.blogspot.com
abs (6.11) no posts abs (20.11)
12. Sophia Chernigovets: sophiachernigovets.blogspot.com
abs (6.11) no posts 20.11 abs
13. Ushkova Alexandra: alexushkova.blogspot.com
+ (6.11) no posts
14. Ufintseva Yulia: https://unicornspoops.blogspot.com/
+ (6.11) 20.11+
15. Vins Anastasia: http://anastasiavins.blogspot.com
+ (6.11) 20.11+
16. Polina Shvachko: https://polinashvachko.blogspot.com/
+ (6.11) 20.11+
17. Mamatova Azia: https://amamatova.blogspot.com/
+  (6.11) + 20.11

Post 5: Taboos and Issues

Dear All,

I'm sorry I did not share a new task with you earlier because I had an urgent situation to tackle. I really want this course to be useful and interesting for you and will try to make my best to organise it the way that you will be able to benefit from it the most.

For our today's class I am suggesting you to choose from a list of several topics from the book "Taboos and Issues" by R. MacAndrew and R. Martines. Some of the topics discused in it include the following:

1. Sex for Sale
2. Children who kill
3. Abortion

to name just a few 

and below you can see the full list of topics for discussion from the book's back cover. So I'm suggesting you to do the following in class today:

1. Choose 3 topics from the list and first explain why you are interested in discussing them: publish your comment in the thread of the blog below.
2. Then read 2 comments published to have an idea about their choice.
3. Next we're going to choose 1 that will have been selected by the most number of students and this will be the issue we are going to discuss in more detail in class today too and do some exercises and activities from the corresponding unit.
4. After that I'll invite you to choose another article discussing one of the aspects of the problem we'll be discussing together and summarise it using the template I've shared with you. This last activity will be your home task for the next week.

One of the purposes of going through these steps is to help you articulate your interests and preferences better and be able to explore and then write about the issues of your choice relying on the resources devoted to the discussion of such issues.

Hope you'll find doing it this way beneficial for the development of a number of different skills.

Good luck!

Post 4 (25.09): Article summary template

Dear All,

I'd like to share a summary template with you which will help you to structure your summaries better. The main point about using this template is to help you with structuring your summaries better.

The article “___________” written by ___________ is devoted to the discussion of the problem of ___________. First, the author draws our/the readers'  attention to ___________. Then s/he analyzes the ___________. S/he gives an example of ___________. S/he also  emphasizes that ___________. The author suggests that ___________ and pays attention to ___________. Then s/he he argues that ___________. In addition, ___________. Finally, ___________/The author concludes that ___________/ In the end it is stated ___________.

Post 3 (18.09): Things to consider when writing

1. Content:
a) Is it interesting to read?
b) Are examples persuasive?
c) Are there enough example?
Sources of your examples:
-newspaper artices
-own examples
-from movies/television progs
-own experience
-smb else's
This is your primary set of questions to consider for now (9.10--...)
2. Organisation:
a) Is it logical: pattern of organisation
 -from general to specific
-from specific to general
-order of importance

3. Mechanics: grammar, punctuation, spelling
4. Language:
-choice of words
-how they combine

5. Style

I'd like to share this dictionary with you:

The BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English: I'm inviting you to use it to ensure you combine words correctly:)

 http://bbidict.narod.ru/ 

 

Post 2 (11.09): Something to share and discuss: reading articles from the Guardian

Dear All,

Are you fond of reading? Probably you are. Do you read something besides your textbooks in English regularly? I'd like to introduce you to the newspaper The Guardian, a souce of news from around Great Britain and the world.

Today I am inviting you to get acquinted with its Culture section. It contains a lot of interesting articles about different aspects of British culture as well as that from around the world. What you need to do is as follows:

1. Look through a couple of articles in the Culture section and choose one that you found interesting.
2. Read it and then share the following information about it with your peers and me:
a) The title
b) The author
c) The link to the article
d) Why you have chosen it
e) A brief explanation of somethng you learned from the article
f) A couple of things you would like to learn about after reading it
3. Publish this information in your blog.
4. Read 2 posts your peers have written
5. Think of 3 questions you have after reading your peers' posts and share them in your peers' threads. Ask WH-questions and if necessary a question to clarify smth your peer has written about.

Good luck!

Looking forward to reading your posts!

PS If you can't find something interesting in the Culture section, you can share something you will have discovered in some other sectiion. Just follow the same plan you can see above. Don't forget to read and react to your peers' posts.

PSS A friendly reminder: you should publish your posts 2 days before the lesson to give your peers enough time to give you some feedback and also give yours to them. You do not need to comment everybody's posts but those written by 2 of your peers. Can I ask you to make sure everybody gets some feedback?

Thanks for your cooperation!

Looking forward to reading your posts and comments!