Sumários

Classes suspended (Covid-19). Discussion of two newspaper articles and two TED talks

20 Abril 2020, 10:00 • Isabel Maria Ferro Mealha

Zoom meeting: Discussion of the topics raised by the newspaper articles “India’s caste system is alive and kicking – and maiming and killing” (pp.84-86) and  “Child marriage in India finally meets its match as young brides turn to courts” (87-88) and the TED talks (p. 89): “How to make peace? Get angry” (Kailash Satyarthi, Nobel laureate)  & “Fighting forced marriages and honour based abuse” (Jasvinder Sanghera) by answering the questions sent by email.

REMINDER: Wednesday at 10 o’clock (probably five minutes before that) I will email you the second writing test and the  answer sheet where you should write your answers. The procedure will be the same as the one adopted for the first writing test.
Download both the test questions and the answer sheet onto your computer and  save the answer sheet as a Word document under your name before you start working.
The second writing test will have three parts:
Question 1 – about the short stories (“Tony’s Story” by Leslie Marmon Silko, “The Guilt” by Rayda Jacobs, and “Good Advice Is Rarer Than Rubies” by Salman Rushdie)
Question 2 – about The TED talks (Surviving disappearance, re-imagining and humanizing Native People (Matika Wilbur); My life in Apartheid South Africa (Tobie Openshaw); Mad at Mandela (Sisonke Msimang); How to make peace? Get angry (Kailash Satyarthi, Nobel laureate); Fighting forced marriages and honour based abuse (Jasvinder Sanghera) and the articles (“Bears Ears is sacred Native American. But heritage isn’t all equal for Trump”; “Soweto – Journey to freedom”; “South Africa unease plays out on campus”; “India’s caste system is alive and kicking – and maiming and killing”; “Child marriage in India finally meets its match as young brides turn to courts”)
Question 3 – a letter to the Editor (please go through the guidelines on pages 33-35 again)

You have two hours to do the test (from 10:00h to 12:00).

Read through the instructions carefully to make sure you understand what you have to do.

I will be available by email during the test to clear any doubts you may have. I will reply to you as soon as possible.

You must send your answers by email (saved as a Word file) 15 minutes after 12:00 at the latest. 

Tests submitted later than the appointed time shall not be marked, and the student will get a zero out of 20.

For practical reasons, could you please follow the following rules when you send your answer sheet:

1. Send a new email - do not reply to this email; it is very difficult to find emails in an email chain

 2. In the subject line please write B2.1 Second Test and your name 

 On a different note, about your oral presentations starting on 27th April, please do not hesitate to email me to clear any doubts you may have.

 

Goodbye Persuasive Writing...Hello Expository Writing

16 Abril 2020, 16:00 • Hilda Alexandra Prazeres Eusebio

Summary for the 9th April, 2020 (number of students = 9)
The remaining groups delivered their presentations on their analyses of their sections of the Barack Obama speech.
We then went on to learn about the basics of Expository Writing.
The class was informed that for their oral exam, they will be presenting (individually) an academic piece on the their choice of short story from Joyce Carol Oates' Small Avalanches and Other Stories.
Student have been informed by email that it is fundamental that they show up for all classes from now on as they will be preparing for their orals in class.  I will be modelling each stage of the process, and students will follow my example.  Classes will be recorded for those who are unable to attend, but the group work will not be filmed (this is not possible) and students who do not participate in the group work will encounter difficulties preparing for their oral.


Summary for April 14th, 2020 (number of students present = 10)
Today, we began to look at how to create an expository piece by deciding on a topic or idea that we are passionate about, and then freely brainstorming the arguments and ideas that will prove the thesis on a piece of paper.  Students were then taught how to rank the ideas from strongest to weakest, and then ordering them, ensuring that they begin their papers with the second-strongest idea, and ending with the strongest.  What happens in between these arguments is up to them; rules are meant to be broken intelligently.
We then analyzed an opinion piece (Wonder Woman: Carrying the Weight of the World) and identified: 1) the thesis statement (or, in this case, the essay question) embedded at the end of the first paragraph; 2) how each paragraph links from one to the next by linking ideas (a.ka. the flow of ideas); and 3) the thesis re-worded in the concluding paragraph + a little idea that has never been mentioned in the paper up to that point (a.k.a. a nice little kick); and 4) how quotes were embedded into the text, and the techniques/rules surrounding quotations, citations, bibliographies, etc.

Next class: we will finish looking at the opinion piece and then students will get into groups according to their story (e.g. all those who have chosen Bad Girls will work together in a group; all those who have chosen Shot will together, etc.) and they will identify the themes in their story together.  Each student will choose the theme/s that s/he is interested in to ensure that everyone in the group will present a completely different thesis/idea for that story (otherwise, we'll get bored hearing the same ideas over and over again).

Summary for April 16th, 2020 (number of students present = 11)
Today, the class and the teacher collectively worked together to identify the themes in the short story Small Avalanches and Other StoriesI (e.g. preadator vs. prey; coming-of-age; girl power; sexual abuse/rape; adolescence; etc.)  The students then got into their groups and did the same thing for their respective stories, and then chose for themselves which themes they wish to explore in their upcoming academic piece (i.e. their oral exam).  No two students can have the same theme.

(Covid-19) - Feedback on students' final essays (drafts).

16 Abril 2020, 14:00 • Maria Teresa Correia Casal

1. Feedback on students' final essays (drafts).

2. Submission of students' journal entry (by Saturday, 18).

Dear All,
I hope you are all doing well and adjusting the best way you can to these exceptional times. 
This is an update on the deadlines and procedures applying to Tasks 1 and 2.
Task #1Thank you for your final essay drafts. By now, you should all have received feedback on them; if that is not the case, please let me know.
You are now expected to send your  final essay by Tuesday, 5 May.
Task #2Thank you also for your latest journal entries - feedback will follow as soon as possible (priority was given to feedback on your essay drafts).
  • Your last journal entry is due on Thursday, 30 April; by then, you are all expected to have submitted at least 5 entries (comprising at least 3 pages), or 4 longer entries (if you have written page-long entries); journal entries come in different forms and shapes, some are longer, some are shorter, some are poems, others (no less eloquent) are a one-line outburst or epigram; when compiling all your entries for purposes of the final document, ideally you should have a minimum of 5 entries, or (if your entries tend to be long) 4 of them. In any case, the length mentioned in the instructions above applies to the final document containing ALL your entries, and not to any single entry;
  • As you received feedback, you should finalise each entry and compile them in a single Word document;
  • You are expected to send me the final version of your quarantine journal/blog, in a single document, by Thursday, 7 May;
  • Invitation: together with your quarantine journal / blog, you are invited to indicate ONE entry that you would like to share with the rest of the class. You've been putting so much creative energy into your writing (from thoughtfulness and gravitas to liveliness and humour) that I feel it would be a pity not to air your pieces among a wider readership; so, if each of you selects the entry they would like to share with the rest of the class, I will compile them into a pdf file and send it to all of you. You may share your piece either under your own name and/or under the name of the character you created - it's entirely up to you. This is not mandatory, it's an invitation only. 

Goodbye Persuasive Writing....Hello Expository Writing

16 Abril 2020, 12:00 • Hilda Alexandra Prazeres Eusebio

Summary for the 9th April, 2020 (number of students = 9)
The remaining groups delivered their presentations on their analyses of their sections of the Barack Obama speech.
We then went on to learn about the basics of Expository Writing.
The class was informed that for their oral exam, they will be presenting (individually) an academic piece on the their choice of short story from Joyce Carol Oates' Small Avalanches and Other Stories.
Student have been informed by email that it is fundamental that they show up for all classes from now on as they will be preparing for their orals in class.  I will be modelling each stage of the process, and students will follow my example.  Classes will be recorded for those who are unable to attend, but the group work will not be filmed (this is not possible) and students who do not participate in the group work will encounter difficulties preparing for their oral.

Summary for April 14th, 2020 (number of students present = 17)
Today, we began to look at how to create an explository piece by deciding on a topic or idea that we are passionate about, and then freely brainstorming the arguments and ideas that will prove the thesis on a piece of paper.  Students were then taught how to rank the ideas from strongest to weakest, and then ordering them, ensuring that they begin their papers with the second-strongest idea, and ending with the strongest.  What happens in between these arguments is up to them; rules are meant to be broken intelligently.

We then analyzed an opinion piece (Wonder Woman: Carrying the Weight of the World) and identified: 1) the thesis statement (or, in this case, the essay question) embedded at the end of the first paragraph; 2) how each paragraph links from one to the next by linking ideas (a.k.a. the flow of ideas); and 3) the thesis re-worded in the concluding paragraph + a little idea that has never been mentioned in the paper up to that point (a.k.a. a nice little kick); and 4) how quotes were embedded into the text, and the techniques/rules surrounding quotations, citations, bibliographies, etc.

Next class: we will finish looking at the opinion piece and then students will get into groups according to their story (e.g. all those who have chosen Bad Girls will work together in a group; all those who have chosen Shot will together, etc.) and they will identify the themes in their story together.  Each student will choose the theme/s that s/he is interested in to ensure that everyone in the group will present a completely different thesis/idea for that story (otherwise, we'll get bored hearing the same ideas over and over again).

Summary for April 16th, 2020 (number of students present = 18)
Today, the class and the teacher collectively worked together to identify the themes in the short story Small Avalanches and Other StoriesI (e.g. preadator vs. prey; coming-of-age; girl power; sexual abuse/rape; adolescence; etc.)  The students then got into their groups and did the same thing for their respective stories, and then chose for themselves which themes they wish to explore in their upcoming academic piece (i.e. their oral exam).  No two students can have the same theme.

Goodbye Persuasive Writing...Hello Expository Writing.

16 Abril 2020, 10:00 • Hilda Alexandra Prazeres Eusebio

Summary for the 9th April, 2020 (number of students = 15)
The remaining groups delivered their presentations on their analyses of their sections of the Barack Obama speech.
We then went on to learn about the basics of Expository Writing.
The class was informed that for their oral exam, they will be presenting (individually) an academic piece on the their choice of short story from Joyce Carol Oates' Small Avalanches and Other Stories.
Student have been informed by email that it is fundamental that they show up for all classes from now on as they will be preparing for their orals in class.  I will be modelling each stage of the process, and students will follow my example.  Classes will be recorded for those who are unable to attend, but the group work will not be filmed (this is not possible) and students who do not participate in the group work will encounter difficulties preparing for their oral.
Summary for April 14th, 2020 (number of students present = 20)
Today, we began to look at how to create an explository piece by deciding on a topic or idea that we are passionate about, and then freely brainstorming the arguments and ideas that will prove the thesis on a piece of paper.  Students were then taught how to rank the ideas from strongest to weakest, and then ordering them, ensuring that they begin their papers with the second-strongest idea, and ending with the strongest.  What happens in between these arguments is up to them; rules are meant to be broken intelligently.

We then analyzed an opinion piece (Wonder Woman: Carrying the Weight of the World) and identified: 1) the thesis statement (or, in this case, the essay question) embedded at the end of the first paragraph; 2) how each paragraph links from one to the next by linking ideas (a.ka. the flow of ideas); and 3) the thesis re-worded in the concluding paragraph + a little idea that has never been mentioned in the paper up to that point (a.k.a. a nice little kick); and 4) how quotes were embedded into the text, and the techniques/rules surrounding quotations, citations, bibliographies, etc.  

Next class: we will finish looking at the opinion piece and then students will get into groups according to their story (e.g. all those who have chosen Bad Girls will work together in a group; all those who have chosen Shot will together, etc.) and they will identify the themes in their story together.  Each student will choose the theme/s that s/he is interested in to ensure that everyone in the group will present a completely different thesis/idea for that story (otherwise, we'll get bored hearing the same ideas over and over again).
Summary for April 16th, 2020 (number of students present = 18)
Today, the class and the teacher collectively worked together to identify the themes in the short story Small Avalanches and Other StoriesI (e.g. preadator vs. prey; coming-of-age; girl power; sexual abuse/rape; adolescence; etc.)  The students then got into their groups and did the same thing for their respective stories, and then chose for themselves which themes they wish to explore in their upcoming academic piece (i.e. their oral exam).  No two students can have the same theme.