Term Two Exam Musings

The Second Exam for the first semester is around the corner, so here are a few helps for all of you.  First, the Literature exam is on November 29^th, which is this coming Tuesday. Your announcement said either Tuesday or Wednesday, because the Department of Foreign Languages could not confirm the exact date for me before I printed out the announcement. However, I did find out that Tuesday is your day, so from now until then we should focus only on the exam and not on improving homework scores or the classroom grade.

Recall that the exam makes up half of your overall grade, and the classroom grade makes up the other half. Out of the classroom grade, homework is worth 40%, quizzes are worth 40%, and participation is worth 20%. The exam grade is divided into two parts. The multiple choice exam is worth 50% and the writing exam is worth 50%. The multiple choice test has 50 questions this time, with 25 questions on vocab, 15 on grammar, and 10 on reading. The writing test has 3 parts. The first has 5 pictures from Quizlet vocabulary, and you need to write 5 sentences using 2 or 3 vocabulary words from the stories. The second part is a short answer question based on one of your readings, and you should respond with 3 sentences. The third part is a longer opinion essay for which you write 160 words comparing two of your reading selections and use one of the literary terms.

I suggest you make use of the links near your student blogs. There is the list of topics on the exam, which has the exact vocabulary words on the exam. A student asked me about the Quizlet 1 and Quizlet 2 vocab lists that I put there for some of the readings. The Quizlet 2 list was only to help you read the story, and not for testing! Those will not be on the test! Also, Ender’s Game will not be on the writing test this time except that it IS tested for vocabulary. That means the first part where there are five sentences will include Ender’s vocabulary. The multiple choice test will include Ender’s vocabulary too, both within the 25 vocab questions and as one of the reading selections. The reading excerpt for Ender’s Game tests literary terms related to that passage. Don’t forget to study the Reading Challenge readings you had in your grammar book as they will be tested too for your multiple choice reading section. Otherwise, both the stories and poetry will be tested in the reading section.

OK, a comment about your classroom grade. I will be putting in a participation and effort score this weekend. I think your class has been splendid when it comes to the effort you have put in, so congratulations! The other thing is improving your notebook grade, writing, or blogs. I think right now just focus on exams. But I will be using the blog 3 rubric today to check up on everyone’s blogs, and if something needs correcting, there should be time for you to fix it after exams and before I need to enter in grades with the school. Let’s not leave a lot of things like this, however, or expect that it can be done, because officially once exams start that is the end of the classroom stuff, and the day after exams the next term begins. After exams, there is more I want to say to you about future readings, but let’s not talk about it right now. Enjoy your preparations and the rest of the weekend!

A surprising result

Recently I heard Donald Duck was elected President of the United States, but that was not the only surprising result I found out about recently...

Dr. Strange, a comic book figure, was made into a pretty good movie, or so I thought. I was expecting another disappointing superhero movie, but this was a visually stunning and interesting movie to me. Perhaps "Donald" will be surprisingly good hero as well, and much better than I expect. It was the first time I got an election wrong since 1984, but now that I have been out of the USA since 1993 perhaps I have to ask about how people feel back there.

And thank you for answering some questions I asked you in a recent survey. They helped me to think of some questions I want to ask for this blog assignment. I have given you some sample answers.

Please write between 2 sentences and one paragraph for each question from A to E, and then leave one comment on another student's blog before the second exam.

A Write about a recent movie you have seen that you enjoyed, and why you liked it. For example, I saw Dr. Strange with Benedict Cumberbatch, and thought he did a great job showing the change of attitude of a doctor and scientist to someone who is disabled and learning to overcome his limitations. However, I know some people were disappointed that there were not more Chinese people cast as actors in the movie, but since I had no background with the comics, I had no feeling about this. I will be interested to read the comics in the future because I saw the movie, and am considering seeing it in 3D.

B Write about a learning goal you have for yourself over the next year. For me, I would like to improve my own reading speed and comprehension in English. So I have some books to help me and a friend who is better at reading who can help me. One web site he recommended is called Spreeder, and that helps you read faster.

C What effect do you think playing sports has on learning? How much do you think the mind and body work together? The Western idea is that the mind and body work together, so if you have a strong body it can really help your mind perform better. In sports like chess or martial arts you can see mind and body working together, I believe, but what is your opinion?

D What effect do you think playing a musical instrument has on learning a foreign language? What are some things you have noticed about good language learners? My personal opinion is that learning to play a musical instrument is not only fun, but has a positive influence on both language learning and math. It also can develop patience and persistence, not to mention creativity. Playing piano was one of the best things I did when I was younger, and I really want to get back into it again when I find a little more time every day. I have noticed that about half of our class members are musicians, so don’t you agree? Oh, another thing is that people who already know a second language have an easier time learning a third. So if you already know Mandarin and Taiwanese, for example, learning English is a bit easier than if you only had known one language before. Do you agree?

E Would you be willing to use an audio book plus a PDF file to read any of the following books next semester?

To Kill a Mockingbird

Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Rings

   It would be easier if we did not have to order the physical books, or could buy them ourselves in Taiwan at a book shop if we wanted them, or print out key pages if we needed them. We could probably have just one or two copies and it would be enough along with the classroom computer where there would be a PDF and a recording. Some classes do more reading or listening independently, or just read key pages instead of the whole book together. I would like to consider it. Or we could possibly read different books, meaning two or three people would read the same book and not the whole class one book. Do you have any opinions?