Class on April 13th

http://samuraisam1.blogspot.com/2005/12/role-of-teacher-opinions-in-public.html

I posted this link to a blog that discusses the role of teachers' political opinions--which tend to be closely tied to one's views about what is right and what is wrong within our society--in the classroom. It was an interesting discussion that every teacher should consider.

So, class last night... I learned of a few new interesting activities. I'm going to have to file away the idea of the story recall. The activity is good for testing both listening and writing. An excellent way to teach students how to take notes as well.
The presentation at the start of class was interesting. I was reassured that I am teaching at about the right level of difficulty. When I surveyed my class 1/2 way through the semester, a few students said they were overwhelmed with all of the work, and a few of them said everything was too easy. Nobody else really said much. "It's fine."
I agreed that the ELL students in a mixed freshman comp class are not necessarily the worst on grammar. They usually have more subtle, or different types of errors, but the native speakers (in my limited experience) tend to have more pronounced and noticeable grammatical errors. I usually grade grammar based on how it affects meaning and distracts from the message.