Homework

Prepare your book and movie presentation, if you have not done your presentation yet (today, Nov. 30th).  Dec. 7th class has been cancelled.  Makeup class will be on Saturday Dec. 15th (not Dec. 8th as I announced in class.) For presentation guidelines, see last week’s blog post here.

Everyone must do their book and movie presentation twice. If you did your book-and-movie presentation Nov 30th or earlier, please do it again on Dec. 14th.

• You must
  • include historical background and
  • say what readers can learn about American history from the movie or the book (or both).
  • Give the key points.
    • A point is “the important or essential thing”.
    • A key point is “the most important or essential thing” about the movie and the book.

Today’s class

Student “movie and book” presentations.

Homework

1. Write 3 paragraphs comparing Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” and Fred Astaire’s “Girl Hunt Ballet” music videos.  Use your own English. Don’t copy and paste.
   1. Paragraph 1 – introduce Michael Jackson.
   2. Paragraph 2 – introduce Fred Astaire
   3. Paragraph 3- compare the two music videos, focusing on the similar points.
2. Start preparing your book and movie presentation.  All presentations must be done by the next class, Nov. 30th. There is no class on Nov. 23rd, so Nov. 30th is the last chance.  For presentation guidelines, see last week’s blog post here.

Today’s class

• Presentation on chapter 1 question
• Reading and writing summaries about the following items:
  • Manifest Destiny (and in Japanese here)
  • Wall Street (Also a 1987 movie, famous for the line “Greed is good” said by Gordon Gecko.
  • the Appalachian Mountains
  • The Oregon Trail across the Rocky Mountains
  • The purchase of Manhattan: “Manhattan is historically documented to have been purchased by Dutch colonists from Native Americans in 1626 for 60 guilders, which equals roughly US$1050 in current terms.”
  • The murder of John Lennon outside the Dakota Apartment House.

Homework

1. Read chapter 2 for a quiz next time.
2. Start preparing your book and movie presentation. All presentations must be done by Nov. 30th. There is no class on Nov. 23rd.
3. All presentations should
   1. be 4-5 minutes long,
   2. use Powerpoint or handouts
   3. include 3-5 key points
   4. include a summary of the presentation contents (given at the end)
   5. include a glossary (Japanese explanation) of key words
   6. include a list of references
   7. include some sample scene(s) from the movie and sample quotes from the book.

Today’s class

• 2 book-and-movie presentations
• Textbook, chapter 2 and Comprehension questions on p. 24.
• Topics mentioned today:
  • Manifest Destiry (and in Japanese here)
  • Wall Street (Also a 1987 movie, famous for the line “Greed is good” said by Gordon Gecko.
  • the Appalachian Mountains
  • The Oregon Trail across the Rocky Mountains
  • The purchase of Manhattan: “Manhattan is historically documented to have been purchased by Dutch colonists from Native Americans in 1626 for 60 guilders, which equals roughly US$1050 in current terms.”
  • The murder of John Lennon outside the Dakota Apartment House.

Homework

1. Read chapter 2 for a quiz next time.
2. Start preparing your book and movie presentation. All presentations should
   1. be 4-5 minutes long,
   2. use Powerpoint or handouts
   3. include 3-5 key points
   4. include a summary of the presentation contents (given at the end)
   5. include a glossary (Japanese explanation) of key words
   6. include a list of references
   7. include some sample scene(s) from the movie and sample quotes from the book.

Today’s class

• Remaining presentations on questions about the textbook
• music videos and questions
  • Watch these two videos (These are different from the ones shown in class – better.) Write your impressions.
    • Video 1 Michael Jackson “Smooth Criminal”
    • Video 2 “Girl Hunt Ballet” — Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse, 1953
  • Now watch these videos and write the name of the artist(s) and the title of the song(s), then write your impressions.
    • Elizabeth Cotten “Freight Train”
    • Doc Watson-Deep River Blues
    • Leo Kottke – Deep River Blues
    • Deep River Blues [Feat. Jason Isbell] | Collaborations | Tommy Emmanuel
    • Richard Smith Japan Tour 2017 with Nishi Nishiyama at Yokohama [Jerry’s Breakdown]

Homework

• If you did NOT present today, choose one of your homework questions (about chapter 1) for a presentation next week (November 2nd)
  Presentation length: 1-2 minutes
• Choose one movie and one book from the lists and prepare a presentation about it for November. Presentations can be done anytime from Nov.  9th onwards.

Today’s class

• Student presentations on questions about chapter 1

 Homework

1. Choose one of your homework questions (about chapter 1) for a presentation next week (Oct. 26th)
   1. Presentation length: 1-2 minutes
2. Choose one movie and one book from the lists and prepare a presentation about it for November.

Today’s class

1. Sentence correction
2. Mini-lecture on
   1. The first Americans
      1. From Asia via the land bridge
      2. Different tribes had different lifestyles depending on the environment and climate
         1. Eskimos in the frozen north
         2. Iroquois in the forests and lakes of the East
         3. Navajo in the dry desert areas
         4. Aztecs and Mayas in what is now Mexico and Guatemala
         5. The Incas in what is now Peru and the Andes mountains
   2. The Viking colony
   3. Christopher Columbus
      1. Ponce de Leon
      2. Hernando de Soto
   4. The Virginian and Plymouth colonies

Homework

1. Choose one question from the list about each of the 3 sections below, research the answer and write it in one paragraph. Bring to class next week.
   1. Atlantic Coast
   2. The Midwest
   3. The Louisana Purchase
2. Write a summary in your own words of each of the sections of the textbook below:
   1. The Midwest
   2. The Louisana Purchase

Today’s class

1. Write and choose a question about the section “The Atlantic Coast”.
2. Map of the 13 Colonies: fill in the names.
3. Summarize the section “The Atlantic Coast” in your own words.

Hi, and welcome to Academic Skills second semester.

I hope you enjoyed the summer vacation.  I made a short trip to Lake Biwa and Nagano. How about you? You can let me know in the comments.

This semester, the theme is history of the USA, and the textbook is

This semester, we will also read some simple stories about the USA and discuss them.

There will be a presentation by all Academic Skills class representatives on Thursday December 20th  16:45 (5th period) in the Rakushinkan. We will choose one representative from this class on Friday December 14th.

Like last semester, students will do 2 presentations (before Dec. 14th) and 1 final essay (due Jan. 25th, 2019) on topics of American history.

Homework

1. The important thing about (2 from your American list) is that ….
   1. E.g. “The important thing about New York is the Statue of Liberty”, or “The important thing about Lincoln is that he was president during the Civil War, he ended slavery and he was assassinated.”
2. The important thing about academic writing is that…

Today’s class

• People
• Places
• Events

• In my British university, there was
  • No attendance taken
  • no credit system, instead, there was a test/exam system:
    • a test at the end of the first year
    • “finals” at the end of the 3rd (final) year
    • no graduation certificate, but instead a degree certificate
  • Therefore I don’t put much emphasis on attendance but rather on the work that you do.
  • If you miss a class find out what we did (see this blog) and do the work

• Plato’s academy
  • Not a school, more a community of learners, people who like to discuss and think about big questions, e.g. “what is a good person? How to live a good life?” etc.
• Scientific revolution (Europe, 16th/17th centuries
  • Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, etc.
  • Questioning: is the earth really the centre? If so, there must be objective, sensory evidence.
    • I.e. looking for more than religious belief

• Read
• Fill in the table
• What is the meaning of “the important thing”?
• Do you agree?

Today’s class (final)

1. Check your final report for formatting before handing it in.
   1. If you have not already done so, please email me your final report as soon as possible.
2. Answer these questions using the textbook chapters 3, 5 and the Dossier. If you were absent, please email me your answers as soon as possible.
   1. Who invented the telephone?
   2. Who invented nursing?
   3. who invented television?
   4. Who invented the World Wide Web?
   5. Who invented the steam engine?
   6. Who discovered penicillin?
   7. Who invented the theory of evolution (2 names)?
3. Answer these questions
   1. If conditions in the cities and factories were so bad, why did people work in them?
   2. If conditions for children in factories were so bad, why did children work there?
   3. Who paid for the cities to become safer and healthier, and how (where did the money come from)?
   4. Who paid for the ‘free’ education and how (where did the money come from)?