Immigration Reform

We will follow up from our immigration discussion last week, which stemmed from Javier's essay.
Today, we will be writing letters to our leaders regarding immigation reform. You will be using sentences from the handout to create your own letter.
To listen to a radio broadcast about yesterday's protest in Seattle:

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kplu/news.newsmain/article/1/0/1653080/KPLU.Local.News/Immigration.Reform.Rally.Incites.Passions..Not.Arrests">


Please write to at least one person from this list:
To write President Obama:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact"
To contact Washington State Governor Chris Gregoire:
http://www.governor.wa.gov/contact/"
To write Senator Patty Murray:
http://murray.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactMe"
To write Senator Maria Cantwell:
http://cantwell.senate.gov/contact/"

Then, to celebrate, you can put your photo from the slideshow on your blog!
1) Click on the slideshow. 2) Find the photo you want. 3) Click "download photo" 4) Save it to the desktop.
Then, at your blog, make a new post. Click the photo icon. Click "browse" and select the photo from the desktop. Click "upload". Click "done" and publish your post.

Immigration reform, Doing WIthout, and more....

GOOD JOB TODAY. Everyone is getting more relaxed and confident in their writing. I will be making comments on your blogs this weekend for you to read and respond to during the week. If you would like to upload your photo from the above slideshow onto your own blog let me know and we can do it next week. You can see all the photos by clicking on the slideshow.


Arturo and Cain: PLEASE POST your three topics with at least 3 sentences each (our in-class activity.)
THERE IS A NEW QUIA GRAMMAR ACTIVITY. Everyone do that this week. Don't forget to do your take-home page on comparisons, and also to find an example of different types of writing in the blogs.


Email me with questions or problems. Have a great week!

Control - C, Control V....

Good class today, from Lada Gaga to a little Mexican boy in Disneyland to The Official History of Ice Cream! Keep writing, writers!
IMPORTANT SHORTCUTS FOR WRITERS!

To move text around:

1. Select the text.

2. Hold down control with left hand, click the "c" with right hand. (C is for COPY.)

3. Go to the place you want to move it to.

4. Hold down control and click "V".(V is for VIEW) Your text should magically appear!

ALSO: If you want to delete a section of writing, you select it, and do Control-X. That takes it away. Whoops! I didn't want to delete that! Then hit Control-Z to bring it back!

PRACTICE it and see how it goes.

This week, write a short essay or paragraph. I will put some new grammar exercises up on Quia for you to practice as well.

Good luck.

Week Four

Here is the first paragraph we were arranging in class:

How to Write a Paragraph

Writing a paragraph starts with introducing a topic. Your topic can be anything, but it should be personally interesting to you, yet general enough that anyone can relate to it. For example, “Why I Hate Shopping” might be better than “Shopping.” Then you need to support the paragraph with supporting sentences and examples. Make sure that your support doesn’t stray too far from the main idea, and try to think of interesting examples. (You might feel stuck at this point. But keep opening and closing drawers in your mind until you find something to say.) Finally you need to think of a conclusion. The conclusion will often restate your topic, but it can also show your topic in a new light, leaving the reader with a refreshing thought.
For you, that last sentence is really a beginning; the beginning of proofreading what you have just written.

This week's assignment:
1)Everone: Do the written grammar assignment (paper) that I gave you at the end of class, and bring it to the next class.

2) Anatoliy, Vladimir, and Helene: Do the Quia assignment and practice typing. Please write 5 sentences on your blogs about what you like to do. (For example, "I like to go to the mall with my family. I like to watch movies.") Please practice typing as much as you can.

3) Lileana, Juventino, Javier: Please read my comments on your blogs from last week and make the changes. (Go to "Edit Post" to make the changes.) Let me know if you have problems doing this. Also do the essay assignment, below.

Everyone else: Please work on writing a short essay! Write about a topic of your choice (look at our list of topics. If you want to expand on a topic you used before, that is OK) Each paragraph should have at least 3 sentences.
First paragraph: Introduction, with the topic sentence at the bottom.
Paragraphs 2, 3, and 4: Examples and supporting ideas for the topic.
Paragraph 5: The conclusion
HELPFUL HINT: Make an outline first:
Main idea:
First support/examples:
Second support/examples:
Third support/examples:
Conclusion

Remember to open and close the drawers in your mind if you get stuck. And email me if you have questions or problems.

Writing an essay

Writing an essay: The topic sentence goes at the END of the first paragraph. Each paragraph supports it. (Three paragraphs is good.) Then conclusion restates the topic, often with a new idea.
For example:
My Favorite Place (By Maria. Edited by Liz)

Five years ago was my first time going to California and
while I was there I saw my sister. We went to California for three days and four nights.My partner drove for one day and half to get to California. My favorite place is California.

California is different from Washington. California
is hotter and things are less expensive. I got a tan and food is cheaper than here.

In California I had so much fun with my sister and my family. My granddaughter went too; she was 5 months. We went to the stores and bought new stuff. Also we took my sister to work in Toys R' Us .

When I was in California, I went to Disneyland with my family and we had so much fun. When I was in Disneyland I got in most of the rides. Our goal was to ride all rides but we didn't reach our goal. At 8:00 pm
a festival started. All the Disney characters were walking and taking
pictures with people. Around 10 pm, there were fireworks. We stayed
until 11 pm.

California is fantastic. When I got home I was telling all my friends about what I had experienced at California and I hope I go to California again. I will never forget that weekend.

Week Three

This is turning into a very interesting class! Everyone is moving forward, and the enthusiasm is great.
Today we worked on arranging the paragraph from the homework. The final product looks like this, using our support/example approach:

My Job: Teacher
I love my job.Every day I learn new things, and I am always challenged to find creative ways to teach so that my students enjoy learning. Both of these elements are very satisfying for me. Also, even though I am basically a shy person, I think my job helps me to be outgoing. When I am teaching I am thinking about communicating with my students, and I don’t feel shy. Finally, I love learning about other cultures, and I feel that my mind is more open to other ways of thinking because of my work. Learning about other cultures teaches me a lot about myself. All in all, I feel very lucky to have a job like this.

The second in-class activity looks like this:
My Favorite Dessert
My favorite dessert is lemon cheesecake. First of all, it is lovely to look at. The light yellow cake is simple and unadorned, as unpretentious as a glass of water. Secondly, the texture is out of this world. Soft and creamy, it melts in my mouth without resistance, and reassures me that not everything in life is difficult. Finally there is the taste. The tangy lemon flavor blends with the light cream cheese and makes a rich yet refreshing delight.Who needs chocolate when there is lemon cheesecake?

YOUR GOALS THIS WEEK:

1. Check the comments I have made on your posts, and edit any posts that need editing. Then publish them again!

2. Write a support/example paragraph like the ones above. Everyone please write about their favorite dessert or their favorite place. Use the handout to write it with, then type it into a new post.

3. Grammar/Quia site: EVERYONE please do the top activities: "Guess the useful Blog vocabulary" and "Correct Spacing with Punctuation and "Present to Past" and "A, An, Some Any" activities. Sergio, Javeir, Cain, Martha, Lily, Donna, Juventino, Kathryn and Myung: ALSO do the Finding the Main Idea"activity. Please log on to Quia with your username and passwords to do these before Friday.

4. Visit your blog partner's blog and make at least one comment.

5. Practice keyboarding and spelling. The links are on our class blog.

6. Advanced students and anyone else who is super-motivated: Write paragraphs choosing from our "Topics" list (see the link at the class blog.)

EMAIL me with any questions. I'll look forward to reading what you write.

Week Two

Friday in class we reviewed punctuation and talked about conjunctions.
We also talked about organizing a paragraph, and wrote one together.
Here is what we wrote:
TOPIC: DOGS
Topic sentence: Dogs are man's best friend.
Support #1: First of all, dogs help to protect us. One time, my dog chased a burglar away!

Support #2: Also, dogs are loyal. Example: Even if they are mistreated, they love their masters.

Support #3: Finally, dogs can be trained. Example: They can do everything from fetching a newspaper to helping handicapped people to working with police.

Conclusion: If you don't have a dog, go get one!


Here is how the paragraph looks:
DOGS
Dogs are man's best friend. First of all, dogs help to protect us. One time, my dog chased a burglar away! Also, dogs are loyal. Even if they are mistreated, they love their masters. Finally, dogs can be trained. They can do everything from fetching a newspaper to helping handicapped people, to working with police. If you don't have a dog, go get one!

YOUR HOMEWORK:
EVERYONE: Do the paragraph order page you took home. Also, do the Week One Review exercise on Quia. And don't forget to comment at your Blog Partner's blog!

JUVENTINO AND ANATOLIY: SEND ME AN EMAIL. I DON'T HAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESSES.

New Students who are starting blogs (Vladimir, Mary, Maria, Irina, Anatoliy, Helene) Click on your blog link, and sign in with your email address and password. Please write one paragraph about yourself in a "new post". Write where you are from, what you like to do in your free time, how long you have lived here, etc. Click the orange "publish post" tab at the bottom of the page. Then you can click "view blog" near the top of the page to see it. Then email me a greeting to let me know you have done that. Please do that by TUESDAY. I will email you what to do next.

All other students (including new students Martha, Jose and Juventino) This week you will write 3 different paragraphs, using the above support style. You can choose 3 different topics from our list, and use a different post for each one. (Javier: Please email me your blog address as soon as you create one!)

I will be reading all of your blogs and making suggestions and comments. Please check the "comments" after you have written something.