Today’s class

1. Today’s class • Hand back homework • Talk about class schedule • Comparison and Contrast Paragraphs

2. There are two museums, a history museum and a ceramics museum. • There is a history museum and a ceramics museum. • Congress is in session. • Congress are in session.

3. Notes from homework • Don’t repeat words too much • Things and stuff • It takes about less than __ hours • plan a trip vs. travel • Can vs could • If you went there you could see • When you go there you can see

4. Class schedule • Class on week 8 • I don’t want to change the schedule because of practicum students • If you don’t want to come you can email your homework • You’ll still be counted absent • No class week 14 (Memorial Day) • Week 13 – I go to Japan for a conference. • You chose to not have class. Thank you, but I feel bad for leaving you! • If you like, please schedule a meeting time with me between weeks 12-15 to edit your essay. Email me at jeanneabeck@yahoo.com. We can meet at the GSE’s Ediya or my office. • Portfolios are due in my box by Friday of week 14 (the week of Memorial Day). You are welcome to turn them in on week 13! My box is in the TESOL Community Room, first floor of the GSE, near the TESOL faculty office (room 106). If you can’t find it, please tell me!

5. Comparison and Contrast Paragraphs • Comparison • Draw attention to the similarities • Contrast • Focus only on differences • Two main patterns • Subjects presented one at a time • proceeds point-by-point • We will look at some random examples from books and from TED.com. TED is a great resource for inspiring videos. If you haven’t heard of it please check it out!

6. Subjects presented one at a time So Grant and Lee were in complete contrast, representing two diametrically opposed elements in American life. Grant was the modern man emerging; beyond him, reading to come on the stage, was the great age of steel and machinery, of crowded cities and a restless, burgeoning vitality. Lee might have ridden down from the old age of chivalry, lance in hand, silken banner fluttering over his head. Each man was the perfect champion of his cause, drawing both his strengths and his weaknesses from the people he led.

7. http://www.ted.com/talks/sheena_iyengar_on_the_art_of_choosing.html (Watch the TED video for 1 minute.) My failure to procure myself a cup of sweet, green tea was not due to a simple misunderstanding. From my American perspective, when a paying customer makes a reasonable request based on her preferences, she has every right to have that request met. The American way, to quote Burger King, is to "have it your way," because, as Starbucks says, "happiness is in your choices." But from the Japanese perspective, it's their duty to protect those who don't know any better – in this case, the ignorant foreigner - from making the wrong choice. Let's face it: the way I wanted my tea was inappropriate according to cultural standards, and they were doing their best to help me save face.

8. Point by point Strangely enough, instead of being academically inferior to my American high school, the Irish convent was superior. In my class at home, Love Story was considered pretty heavy reading, so imagine my surprise at finding Irish students who could recite passages from War and Peace. In high school we complained about having to study Romeo and Juliet in one semester, whereas in Ireland we simultaneously studied Macbeth and Dickens’s Hard Times, in addition to write a composition a day in English class. In high school, I didn’t even begin algebra until the 9th grade, while at the convent 7th graders (or their Irish equivalent) were doing calculus and trigonometry.

9. Point by Point The diversity of the ideas that constitute my adult view of the world can be summed up by looking at my two grandmothers. Grandma Beck, a 5th generation Missourian, came from a long line of German thinkers and doers, who set out to find a better life in America. Grandma Kyo, a Korean/Japanese mixed adoptee, came to the States with her American army husband after enduring the Korean War. Grandma Beck does a crossword puzzle a day and likes to debate, while Grandma Kyo can barely speak conversational English at times, and hates confrontation. Both love cooking, though one likes to make hearty beef stews, the other bulgogi and rice, and both really love their family.

10. Activity: Compare this! Contrast that • Each group gets two slips of papers • Please write a random noun on each paper • Now give them to me! • Please pick two slips of paper at random • Write 2-3 sentences comparing the two items • The groups’ items included: • Dogs and American Pizza • English and cats • Cell phones and Math • Galbi and mom • Cars and tea • Each group was able to think of several ways to compare and contrast the two! Good creative thinking!

11. Homework • Write a 5-7 sentence Comparison and Contrast paragraph. Any topic is fine, but here are some suggestions: • Compare two family members • 2 kinds of food • Something random (p30 1st paragraph’s 1st noun, p.60 2nd paragraph 5th noun, etc.)