Five-minute Feud Debates
We will have one day of debates before break, and we are changing the time controls. We need to fit in two debates within one class period, so this should work:
Each of three speakers gets 2.5 minutes to speak
Thirty seconds between speakers
Each team gets 3 minutes of research time at class computer before debate
Total time per debate = 23 minutes
Topic 1: Should individuals be forced to receive vaccinations (e.g., against the measles), even if unwilling?
Topic 2: Homeschooling & non-traditional education should be encouraged.
Topic 5: The U.S. federal government should substantially increase its non-military exploration and/or development of the Earth's oceans.
Topic 6: The U.S. federal government should substantially curtail its domestic surveillance.
Go to the National Speech and Debate Association Web Site for more info on the above topics.
Five Beautiful Sentences assignment
Please find five sentences within your Book Group book, and email the following information:
1) The entire sentence and its page number
2) Underline the word for phrase that is "interesting" (see below)
3) Include a brief explanation about why you underlined it. Also helpful is explaining the context of the sentence within the story, or the importance of the sentence.
Underline words that are effectively, or well-written, but look for use of slang, idioms, vernacular (local language), difficult, or fresh.
Informational Speaking
Speak for at least two minutes about An Good Place to Visit in Taiwan. You may use your blog post as a source of ideas, but you may not read the speech from the blog or paper. It is recommended that a photo from online be prepared for the speech, perhaps attached to your blog post.
Keep in mind this is informational speaking, so include some facts and figures - things like describing the geography or location, population, economics, or some details. Avoid "selling," or persuading, and also avoid too many personal stories, or narratives.
Grammar Quiz
Our grammar quiz has been moved to Tuesday, March 10th. We will use the materials from "The Only Grammar Book You'll Ever Need" to explain the same topics below a bit better before the quiz.
Information includes the following three major points:
A) Verb Tenses - know form and use:
1) Simple Present: "Alvyn is a man." "If you heat ice it melts." "The sun rises in the East and sets in the West." "I brush my teeth every morning." "I usually/sometimes/always play piano at night.
2) Present Continuous: "I am writing now."
3) Future: a) "will" for willingness: "I will go with you to Paris." or determination: "Yes I will go see a movie with Arielle." b) "am going to V" for plans: "We are going to visit Italy next summer." c) using present tense to show future with schedules: "I fly tomorrow at 9 AM." d) using present continuous tense for future (probably for plans too): "I am visiting Italy next summer."
4) Present Perfect: a) for recently completed actions that still affect the present: "I have eaten lunch." b) for experience: "I have visited England before." c) for repeated actions happening from a point in the past, to now, and going into the future, using "for" or "since": "Book has studied Chinese for three years." or "Book has studied Chinese since 2012."
B) Verbals - words that look like verbs but are used as other parts of speech
1) gerunds - words that look like verbs but are used as nouns: "Wakeboarding is really my favorite sport. Swimming is boring."
2) participles - they look like verbs (ending in "-ing" or "-ed") but are used as adjectives: The girl sitting over there is my friend.
3) infinitives - the basic form of the verb with "to" in front of it, usually used as a noun, but may be used as adjective or adverb. We will come back to this later, but for more immediate info, try this link on infinitive use. For now you need to know that we use infinitives to explain why we do something: "Stephen attends university to learn about physical therapy." "Brandon came to Taiwan to study Chinese."
C) An understanding that English is changing and that a lot of what is "right" is that way because a lot of people have decided to speak that way: "I don't recommend having 2 beers with lunch." or "Hey, you are looking good today." Instead, a more formal or traditional way to say these would be: "I'd recommend drinking two bottles of beer on the first Saturday night after graduation." or "You look good today."
For more review, use this link to see the web site we used in class for those verb tenses.
