Gypsy children beg and thieve
This BBC news report tells about how Gypsy gangs use children to beg and steal money: How Gypsy gangs use child thieves It appears to be true. It is unfortunate because a common stereotype of Gypsies is as thieves. Here, for example, is part of the Wikipedia entry on Romani: Many fictional depictions of the [...]
Interactive Writing #14: July 24th, 2009
Exam. (70%) Write a book report about “Diddakoi”. Your report should be divided into four separate paragraphs. (30%) Write about either gypsies, or Rumer Godden I want to see proof that you have read the book quote from the book mention names, places, events in the story have done some reading and research about the [...]
Interactive Writing #12: July 10th, 2009
Returned old papers Individual conference with each student to discuss her summary of chapter 3 Homework: Report on chapters 4 & 5 Next week (July 17th): vocabulary test (same as the one in April) summary of chapters 6 & 7 Exam (July 24th): write a 300-500-word book report on “Diddakoi“. You must show me that [...]
Interactive Writing session #11: July 3rd, 2009
Image via Wikipedia IMPORTANT NOTICE There WILL be an examination – July 24th. (In today’s class, I said there would not be an examination: that was incorrect). I will tell you more about the examination next class – July 10th. It will be a reading and writing exam, based on the two textbooks we have [...]
Interactive Writing session #10: June 26th, 2009
Continued reading “Diddakoi“: p. 24 ~ p.37) Watched the first 15 minutes of the British movie Kes (in Japanese here). This movie was made in 1969, at about the same time that the book “Diddakoi” was published (1972), so you can see what Britain looked like at that time. Homework: Read the rest of chapter [...]
Ascot, Aintree, Grand National
Ascot (some photos here) Aintree (some photos here) Grand National (some photos here) Dublin Horse Show
Interactive Writing session #9: June 19th, 2009
Cover of The Gypsies (The Peoples of Europe) To study English at university, you need a note-taking system e.g. mind maps, developed by a British man, Tony Buzan. here is a Japanese system which I like and use, developed by “Hawk Express” (for photos, click here) a vocabulary-learning system (e.g. word-cards) a way to record [...]
Interactive Writing session #8: June 12th, 2009
Review: what are the main themes of “Diddakoi“? A theme is a big idea. There are many smaller ideas in each chapter of the book. For example: Why is Kizzy’s Gran found dead outside the wagon, not inside it? Because gypsies want to die outside under the open sky. Why do the other gypsies burn [...]
Interactive Writing session #7: June 5th, 2009
Image via Wikipedia Rules for email, blog entries, homework: name and date on everything spellcheck blog entries and email deadline – by Wednesday 13:00 one blog entry for each assignment Discussion: what are the merits and demerits of a blog? can edit any time classmates can read each other’s work can leave comments and receive [...]
Interactive Writing session #6: May 29th, 2009
Image via Wikipedia Look at the MLA Guidebook on how to reference a book (page 1) and a movie (page 3). Go back to your blog entry where you wrote about a movie and a book Add a reference to the book and the movie USING THE MLA FORMAT (i.e. exactly the same as in [...]
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