Is today Thursday or Friday?

I am only getting around to posting my two Thursday classes today because yesterday, I was so busy that I hardly had time to eat let alone post two classes. However, today, things cooled down a bit, so I was able to complete the notes for all the classes, both yesterday and today. Here are the notes for my Thursday reading and writing class.

Today I started by talking to those who were absent last week. I got their names/photos and gave them the information to bring to my office.

I then had them review classroom English with a small quiz, which I collected to correct for next week.



Next, I started the capital letters. I wrote an incorrect sentence on the board and asked them what was wrong with it. I asked several students to come up and circle the mistakes. I then had students hand out a worksheet and I gave them 10 minutes to rewrite some sentences with capital letter mistakes; the sentences were based on my own personal history of coming to Japan as an exchange student many years ago. I then asked several students to write just those words that were incorrect on the board. I then had them think of the rules for capitals, which I wrote on the board.



Next, I did something different; I gave them the choice of reading/paragraph, or sentence correction. They chose reading (18 said reading, 10 said paragraph, 2 said sentence correction, which may mean that I should have clarified what that was with an example on the board). I then had students hand out the worksheets and reading and explained true or false using myself as an example. I gave them 10 minutes to complete the questions. When they had finished I collected them, and then I gave them another choice: Do you want the teacher to read the story? I collected votes, and although the difference in responses was not so big, the majority asked me to read which I did.



Finally, I told them to review capital letters for next week and then let them go. There were some students who stayed behind and they helped me put the desks back where they were (I have already mentioned in another post that I try to get my students to help me with the desks to create a more cooperative, community spirit; what is nice is that there are some students who don't even need to be asked to help, they just do! I love that!)

Well, I think that is it for this post. If you'd like to leave a comment, by all means please do!

Cheers,
eisensei