Writing Ideas

Hi kevin,

I am from Brazil and I teach English as foreign language here. Writing is not that easy since we need to motivate our students to do that. One experience I had was that my students had to write about their daily routines and they just loved that.

This year I've started to do something similar to that, but they had to write more about their city and region too. I had some problems with the site of the school since we need somebody to help us in it and post everything they did and some students from other countries see their online book. But I didn't give up yet. Tomorrow we are starting our summsr vacations and I'll be back in the beginning of February, ok? We can share some projects and try to motivate our students too.

Claudia

Hello Kevin D:  I find it mind boggling at times that our youth as well as far too many adults believe everything they read or hear, to be the epitome of truth, especially in the hallowed walls of the newspaper industry.

The pundits seem to possess a magic wand blinding the reader's ability to think for themselves, let alone read in between the lines. 

It scares me to realize, how our American students lack the foresight to realize how important the English language is not only in the execution of their everyday living, but their understanding of its influences that can touch their lives from around the globe.  They appear to believe, because it is the written word of whomever or whatever they presume to be a credible source, or have been told is a credible source. 

Why do they believe?  What influences them?  Are we raising our youth so they are afraid to think for themselves?  On the reverse side of the coin I have found our youth to be street smart and possess a sophisticated form of cunning. 

"If it quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck . . . it is a duck?"  Or is it?

Hope this gives you some idea's.

Jane Doe Chronicles
(c) copyright 2005 - 2008
www.janedoechronicles.typepad.com 

hi kevin, I am a Chinese student and I'd like to help your students with anything they'd like to know about China,you can contact me if you are interested.

Kevin, hi from Serbia. Why don't your students join our school blog on the ePals site? That way they can find out something about our culture and, by contributing something, they can improve their writing and tell us something about yours. Or, they can simply join one of our forums. I think that would be helpful for both sides. If you're interested, please contact me at speakup@epals.com.

Mirjana

Have a class take one news story and research it on line by looking at other newspapers and radio station web sites and then compare the way the story is told. This could be an exercise in critical thinking and seeing how different cultures might portray the same event. Different media sources within a country could also be used to pick up biases and slants that come from different political viewpoints with emphasis on word usage to influence readers and listeners.

Kevin could use the French culture of Quebec Canada to  show how people who live so close have such a unique cultural perspective. Depending on distance this might lead into a school trip. The writing assignment might by on why the students might like to visit this area, their choice of  activities from skiing to culture and what their fears might be given the language is different.

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