This class gives students an opportunity think deeply and express themselves in written English.

• Write--At home OR in class students think about the assigned topic, and write up their own original story or essay (see essay topics below) ... so that they will have something interesting and relevant to share with the class.

• Read and Evaluate--Students bring the assigned writing to class to be read by other students. Groups compare student writings, discuss specific criteria for good and bad writing, and evaluate each piece numerically.

• Re-write--Then, in pairs they give and receive advice for improvement, ways to make their writing better. If time permits, they re-write and submit the new and improved writing.

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• SVO Sentence Practice--If students finish their discussion, they should then look for verbs among the next week's list of questions and practice making basic sentences about the new topic using the verbs that they find.

• Group Report--Each group is responsible for submitting at the end of class a report of their discussion. It should contain discussion questions that reflect the most interesting parts of the discussion. Write those questions after the discussion has actually taken place.

• Self-Evaluation--Each student is personally responsible to make sure that their name and self-evaluation score for effort is written at the top of the report, just below the heading (ex. Commerce ... Group M1 ... Title of the Day's Topic). Students that bring their homework and come on time will usually get the full 10 points. Students that do not bring their homework or haven't finished writing it must subtract one point for each student in their group that has not come with their finished homework. (1 student => 9; 2 =>8; 3 =>7; all 4 students =>6) This simply reflects the fact that cumulative individual preparation is important to the whole group's work--like cars with four cylinders or airplanes with four engines.

• Homework--Each student is personally responsible for turning in their homework at the end of class. Homework not received at that time is assumed to be late for purposes calculating self-evaluation scores. Do not write homework in class. Class time is for oral discussion. If you turn in your homework at least one day before the next class, your homework will evaluated without penalty.

  Homework turned in at the next class or later is too late. Such homework usually gets an evaluation of zero. The teacher will try to keep it for possible evaluation at the end of the term--if and only if the student would otherwise fail. Unlike homework turned in on time or a little late and returned to the student, there will be no opportunity for the student to see the evaluation or discuss it with the teacher. The student can only get a minimum passing grade (of 60).

Students need to pay attention, practice, and ask questions everyday. Here is a list of almost all of the topics we use, linked to lists of questions that may be useful to help students think about and discuss each topic.