Welcome to Sheffner’s 2013 Writing Strategies I class blog. Thank you for visiting.
This blog will be updated weekly. Each week there will be a summary of the lesson and the homework details.
Click the images to see a bigger version.
Weeping cherry in Himuro Jinja, Nara city.
Homework
- Send me an email: what did we do in today’s class and your comment.
- Leave a comment here on this blog by clicking the words “Leave a comment” at the bottom of this post (投稿).
- The comment topic is: “Introduce yourself to your classmates: tell us about your experiences of reading books (both English and Japanese books) and/or tell us about your childhood memories, or both”
- For your privacy, when leaving a comment, use your family name only or use a nickname.
- If you use a nickname, please tell me your nickname when you send me your email.
- To leave a comment, you must first type in your email address. Please use your school email address.
- Homework deadline for #1 and #2 above: Tuesday (April 16th) midnight (23:59).
In today’s class, we
- introduced ourselves in English
- Received Sheffner’s contact information and blog address.
Textbooks:
- “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” (LWW) (Click the link to buy it on Amazon Japan. Save money! Buy the Kindle version here.) If you find this book difficult, I strongly recommend you also buy the Japanese translation to help you. Click here to see it on Amazon Japan.)
- A Guide to MLA Documentation
In this class this semester, we will
- read C.S. Lewis’ story
- learn something about C.S. Lewis himself
- learn about academic writing formats
- make 1 or 2 presentations
- write a final paper in English.
Why read “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” (LWW)?
- It is a very famous children’s story in the English-speaking world.
- You can learn about British culture and history (a little) by reading it
- You can learn about Christianity
- Christianity is an important part of Western culture
- It is a children’s story, so it is relatively easy to read
- It is not a textbook, but an original story written for native-speaking English children.




Hello. I am Sakurako. I commute between Osaka and Kyoto everyday. It takes me 2 hours to go to school. I have to get up at 5:30 am if I have a class at the first period. It is very hard for me to get up so early. However, I decided that I would attend as many class as possible. I want to make efforts to enhance my English skill in this class communicating all members in this class. I anticipate that I will enjoy this class.
Sorry, I’m late for leaving this comment.When I was a child, I was troublemaker.One day I went to hospital to have a injection with my mother,I escaped from hospital without shoes because I hate injections.Doctors,nurses, and my mother followed me.Finally,I was caught by my mother and took back to the hospital. This is the most impressive memory for me.
I’ll explain my childhood. I was born in Ehime. My elementary school was so small and there were only 18 students in my grade. So, we got along very well. I remember that I went camping with all classmates, our families and our teachers. We enjoyed having a barbecue, breaking watermelons and looking at the sunrise. This is one of the best memories.
I’ll leave a comment about me. I was born in Nara, 19th August in 1993. I have an older brother. When I was an elementary student, I played with him and his friends outside, played soccer ball, Onigokko and Kan-keri. Sometimes, we played inside, played cards-game and computer games. It seemed as if I was a boy. So I like my brother. we are good brother and sisiter, I think.
“Awaji Island is calm Island” … except when there’s an earthquake! I hope your family were not hurt.
I was born in Kagawa. I’ll introduce my memory of my childhood. When I was 5, went to sea with my family. I picked up a lot of shell. After I went back to home, my grandmother made straps by sticking a piece of cloth. They became my treasure.
When I was 11 years old, I went to New York to the siteseeing because my cousin lived in there then. My cousin speaks English very well, so I was helped by them. I can’t speak English but I thought it was experienced very much
and I’ll try to practice English very hard.And I was member of volleyball team when I was 17 to 18 years old. It was strict to practice and protect our rules, but, however, I thouht it was very good to play volleyball. And my favorite book is “Moshidora”. It’s very useful to spend my life.
I was born in Kochi. I lived in Tottori for three years when I’m in high school. So, I know about Tottori as well as Kochi.
My best memory is that I went to Spain with my friends in church. Seeing the pope I was impressed! I really want to go there again.
I have many books written by Japanese and translated. Now I’m trying to read “Harry Potter in chamber of secrets” in English. It’s so long story. But reading books is fun!
I talk about my childhood. I was born in east Osaka. When I was six teen years old, I moved to Nara. My best memory is that I bought a dog. Look at him on the shelf, I had a love at first sight. After I brought him to my house, I always played with him.So we were like a friend at all.
I remember the memory about my childhood a little.I was born in Chiba. And my family moved twice. So I live in Osaka now. When I was a child, I`ve been to Camp with my family many times.We had BBQ and play with my family. It was very fun. In there, nature is very beautiful! Now, I’m busy. But I want to go to Camp again. Thank you for reading.
*I have a painful memory which I have experienced when I was child.
It is the scar on my eyeblow.When I was about 4 years old I was playing with my sister.I was injured by the big scoop which she used.
*I recommend you “If the world were a village of 100 people”.It is the most impresse book which I have ever met.
This book is one of my treasures:-).
I’m from Awaji Island of Hyogo.Awaji Island is calm Island.
Thank you!
I was born in Tottori. I grew up in Kyoto. Memories of childhood is thhat I went to Hiroshima with my family. I remember that it was impressed very to go to see the atomic bomb dome. There are only memories of my time in elementtary school was playng outside. I was also very active child like this.
Nice to meet you. I am Takami. I don’t know most of you. I will get along well with you. My favorite things are listening to music, reading books, shopping clothes for refreshing. I often listen to music of UVER world, YUI, miwa, and so on. I listen as for anything despite genre of the music, if the melody is my preference.
The other day, I wrote about my childhood memories in this class. I experienced the play when I was 12 years-old. I must have spoken lines in English in the play. The play is “Snow White”. It was difficult to do it, because I didn’t learn English at the time. At first, I could not read lines. The others of my classmates could not too. We asked our teacher to many questions of pronunciation. I had a hard time, but The memory is my precious. Of course, the play was great success.
Hi! When I was six, I moved to Osaka from Tokyo. I would often visit my grandparents house in Tokyo after I live in Osaka. I have read Harry Potter in translation. Please get along with me 8:)
I’ll introduce my childhood memory.When I was 4 years old, I went to amusement park with my family for the first time. I enjoyed a Ferris wheel or a merry-go-round. After that,my mother let me ride the roller coaster. I was scared. Since then I can’t ride the roller coaster.
Hi! I am Urabe. I am from Wakayama. Nice to meet you.
I will write about a childfood memory. I went to Shirahama with my family and relatives when I was 5 years old. We went to Adventure world and saw pandas. I played with my cousin a lot. It was fun!