Version vom 18. Mai 2009, 07:24 Uhr

Proofreading

• Find out what your typical mistakes are! To do so, study your teachers' annotations and explanations on your tests. This will help you to concentrate on the mistakes you are most likely to make. More important, it will help you to avoid making them in the first place!
• Wait at least some minutes between writing and proofreading. This will make quite a difference and give you the necessary distance necessary to spot your mistakes.
• Proofreading needs time! So read slowly to find the mistakes you have made by being to quick.
• Reading aloud is helpful.
• Play the role of readers who hear your text for the first time. Would they understand what you mean? What questions would arise or remain unanswered?
• Ask someone else to read your text, too. They will read it more precisely as first-time readers and will find the mistakes you overlook because you know what is meant and intended anyway.

An excellent page by TheOnline WritingLab at Purdue University, which the steps given above are based on is:

• Proofreading

One Laptop per Child?-Ne(x)t Generation Learning?

Does the OLPC-Idea work? - Chances and Problems

Analyze the following sources and write the answers into your team blog (don't forget the date!)

• Teams 1 and 2:

• Answer the three questions on the two films (above)!

• Teams 3 and 4:

• $100 laptop too expensive?

• Teams 5 and 6:

• Too much for 3rd world countries?

• Teams 7 and 8:

• Criticism of OLPC Project

• Teams 9 and 10:

• Indian Minister's criticism Klick "Next" at end of article to read part2!

• Teams 11 and 12:

• NYTimes on schools stopping laptop program-1 Just do this page!

• Teams 13 and 14:

• NYTimes on schools stopping laptop program-2 Just do this page!

Questions on working with a laptop at school:

1. Would you like to have a laptop for yourself in class and at home? Say why (not)!
2. What do you think would be the best way to use it at/for school? Think of different subjects!
3. Do you think a laptop can help you to learn better / more effectively / faster ...? How would this work?
4. What disadvantages/problems do you see in working with your personal laptop at and for school?

• Work in teams of two!
• Write your answers to questions 1-4 down into this wiki in your team's blog!

blog team 01	blog team 02	Tobi & Pascal	blog team 04	blog team 05	Theresa & Sandra	Alex & Martin
blog team 08	Stephan & Eva	blog team 10	Felix²	Anka and Eva	Michi & Reyney	blog team 14

Testing Critera for a laptop at school:

Design/Durability/Usage/Limitations of Hardware:

• Powering up ....
• Typing
• Screen
• Battery + Charging (how long does it last, how long does charging take)
• Touchpad
• Lid
• Readability of internet pages
• "droptest"/durability of case and lid?
• enough RAM / disk-space for new pograms?

Use in Classroom - Transport in school

• special transport box?
• weight
• easy to charge/link to charging bay?

Working together - exchanging results/data ....

Opportunities/requirements/Limitations of Software:

• free software
• how to stop distraction/abuse ....
• how to protect data and installation

Price/Availability/Service?

• What price - what do you get compared to other netbooks?
• service? how fast/ 24 months guarantee or longer? / battery included in guarantee?

Translating

• Your Dictionary - online!

Homework for Thursday, 7th May:

• Translate the following text!
• Use an English, monolingual dictionary! DO NOT USE LEO etc. ....
• Try to create a good German text. Don't lose anthing, but neither add things that don't exist in the original.
• Make sure that the style of your version is similar to that in the original!

"The early humans in northerly areas had to survive during cold winters when there were no plant foods and were forced to hunt big game", he says. "And people in south-east Europe had less of the proteins, minerals and vitamins provided by meat, which are essential for brain development." The geographical differences in intelligence across Britain could be explained because "over the course of centuries many of the brightest have left the regions to seek their fortune in London. Once in the capital, they have settled and reared children, and these children have inherited their high intelligence and transmitted it to further generations."
Source: http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-381057/European-IQ-map-proves-Brits-brainy.html

The Hobbit

• It's over ... we've finished it, and thanks to all those who have participated so well. To all the others .... well, I don't care.
• If you want to see the project and results .... Klick here!

Looking at Narrative Texts

Setting

Basically the setting of a novel/story is the time, place and background that the narrator creates. The setting influences the readers' expectations, especially at the beginning of novels / chapters, and it helps to create a certain atmosphere (adjectives, characters, symbols, connotations of words that are used also contribute to atmosphere)

Characterization

Vocabulary and How-to ....

• Vocabulary for characterization: Physical features
• How to write a characterization

Flat vs. round characters

E.M. Forster. Aspects of the Novel, Harmondsworth 1976 (11927), pp. 72 and 80

"We may divide characters into flat and round. Flat characters … are sometimes called types, and sometimes caricatures. In their purest form, they are constructed round a single idea or quality: when there is more than one factor in them, we get the beginning of the curve towards the round. The real flat character can be expressed in one sentence …. The test of a round character is whether it is capable of surprising in a convincing way. "

This clearly shows the differences between

Flat Character:

• lack of a realistic personality
• description might be detailed, but reveals no complex personality
• "flat" is not negative, but simply says the character can be summed up in one sentence
• shows little or no development.

Round character:

• complex and realistic
• represents a fully developed, complex personality
• often shows good and bad traits, interior conflicts, may react unexpectedly
• usually true for main characters
• clear development throughout the story

To do list 11c 08/09: What is English good for?

The pupils collected the following list:

What will you need or would you like to use your English for after and outside school?

• English in everyday (German) language
• for travelling
• in the internet
• on the job / for my application
• necessary to speak it because it’s the world language.
• communication/understanding between cultures.
• movies/books in English.

What should you know / learn to do in English for the English Grundkurs, LK or Abitur in the next two years?

• vocabulary
• grammar
• text comprehension
• writing compositions / answer
• give talks / speak freely
• think in/ be fluent in English

Mr. T came up with these lists .... rather similar!

Programme English: 11c – 2009

1. What we will have to do … </span>

a) … for the Lk/Gk and the Abitur:

• reading, understanding texts (fictional done and non-fictional)
• describing and analyzing cartoons done
• working with a dictionary at it!
• characterization done
• building up topical vocabulary + techniques at it!
• writing comments (paragraph, introduction, argument) at it ...!
• explaining effect of rhetorical devices, point of view, plot done!
• translating (general skills, special difficulties)at it!
• presenting a short speech/talk in front of class done
• listening comprehension

b) … due to the curriculum

• read a complete novel done + a short story
• read some poems
• analyze some adverts

c) … due to school regulations:

• 1 x fictional text → novel "The Hobbit" done
• 1 x Test: translation E → G)

Possible Novels:

• Tolkien: The Hobbit done
• Hornby: About a boy
• McCourt: Angela's Ashes
• Orwell: 1984
• Golding: Lord of the Flies
• Lodge: Changing Places
• Haddon: The curious incident of the dog in the night
• Sachaar: Holes

US Politics

• Vocabulary MindMap "US-Politics

• Searching the internet
• Who votes for Obama and McCain
• Campaign 2008 in Cartoons - Now with vocabulary MindMap!
• The role of the media in the presidential campaign
• Lobbyism

Speeches

• Mindmap "A good speech"

Conditional Clauses

• Conditional - Information and Exercises I
• Conditional - Information and Exercises II