2016/10/26

Lesson Plan- 'Greek Self-Government'


GREEK SELF-GOVERNMENT 

THE GREEKS WERE THE FIRST PEOPLE TO TRY THE DIFFICULT EXPERIMENT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT

from The Story of Mankind by H. Van Loon

Lesson Plan

1. Listen to the audiobook track corresponding to this passage and read along the passage.

2. Give an oral summary of what you understand about this passage from your first reading.

3. Collect the words and phrases that are unfamiliar to you.

4. Look up those unfamiliar words and phrases in your favorite dictionary.

5. Choose some of them to make sentences.

6. Discuss the main points and line of thought.

7. Write a brief summary of this passage.

8. Think of a topic related to self-government and write an essay.

IN the beginning, all the Greeks had been equally rich and equally poor. Every man had owned a certain number of cows and sheep. His mud-hut had been his castle. He had been free to come and go as he wished. Whenever it was necessary to discuss matters of public importance, all the citizens had gathered in the market-place. One of the older men of the village was elected chairman and it was his duty to see that everybody had a chance to express his views. In case of war, a particularly energetic and self-confident villager was chosen commander-in-chief, but the same people who had voluntarily given this man the right to be their leader, claimed an equal right to deprive him of his job, once the danger had been averted.

But gradually the village had grown into a city. Some people had worked hard and others had been lazy. A few had been unlucky and still others had been just plain dishonest in dealing with their neighbours and had gathered wealth. As a result, the city no longer consisted of a number of men who were equally well-off. On the contrary it was inhabited by a small class of very rich people and a large class of very poor ones.

There had been another change. The old commander-in- chief who had been willingly recognised as ``headman'' or ``King'' because he knew how to lead his men to victory, had disappeared from the scene. His place had been taken by the nobles--a class of rich people who during the course of time had got hold of an undue share of the farms and estates.

These nobles enjoyed many advantages over the common crowd of freemen. They were able to buy the best weapons which were to be found on the market of the eastern Mediterranean. They had much spare time in which they could practise the art of fighting. They lived in strongly built houses and they could hire soldiers to fight for them. They were constantly quarrelling among each other to decide who should rule the city. The victorious nobleman then assumed a sort of Kingship over all his neighbours and governed the town until he in turn was killed or driven away by still another ambitious nobleman.

Such a King, by the grace of his soldiers, was called a ``Tyrant'' and during the seventh and sixth centuries before our era every Greek city was for a time ruled by such Tyrants, many of whom, by the way, happened to be exceedingly capable men. But in the long run, this state of affairs became unbearable. Then attempts were made to bring about reforms and out of these reforms grew the first democratic government of which the world has a record.

It was early in the seventh century that the people of Athens decided to do some housecleaning and give the large number of freemen once more a voice in the government as they were supposed to have had in the days of their Achaean ancestors. They asked a man by the name of Draco to provide them with a set of laws that would protect the poor against the aggressions of the rich. Draco set to work. Unfortunately he was a professional lawyer and very much out of touch with ordinary life. In his eyes a crime was a crime and when he had finished his code, the people of Athens discovered that these Draconian laws were so severe that they could not possibly be put into effect. There would not have been rope enough to hang all the criminals under their new system of jurisprudence which made the stealing of an apple a capital offence.

The Athenians looked about for a more humane reformer. At last they found some one who could do that sort of thing better than anybody else. His name was Solon. He belonged to a noble family and he had travelled all over the world and had studied the forms of government of many other countries. After a careful study of the subject, Solon gave Athens a set of laws which bore testimony to that wonderful principle of moderation which was part of the Greek character. He tried to improve the condition of the peasant without however destroying the prosperity of the nobles who were (or rather who could be) of such great service to the state as soldiers. To protect the poorer classes against abuse on the part of the judges (who were always elected from the class of the nobles because they received no salary) Solon made a provision whereby a citizen with a grievance had the right to state his case before a jury of thirty of his fellow Athenians.

Most important of all, Solon forced the average freeman to take a direct and personal interest in the affairs of the city. No longer could he stay at home and say ``oh, I am too busy today'' or ``it is raining and I had better stay indoors.'' He was expected to do his share; to be at the meeting of the town council; and carry part of the responsibility for the safety and the prosperity of the state.

This government by the ``demos,'' the people, was often far from successful. There was too much idle talk. There were too many hateful and spiteful scenes between rivals for official honor. But it taught the Greek people to be independent and to rely upon themselves for their salvation and that was a very good thing.


2016/10/15

College-Ready Writing, October Week 3 and 4, lesson plan outline

Principle
Good writing is based on acute sense of speech sound.

Warm-up
- words from sound in the head. Use them to create sentences
- words with /th/ sound in the end

Check homework from last week
- Discuss literal and interpretative translations for Mark 5:1-17
- Discuss voices in the head and 'hearing voices'. What are the differences?
- Talk about voice of narrator.

Adjective noun and adverb adjective sentence, time: 20-40 minutes
1) Listen to Ann Cook CD 1, track 38. Echo exercise.
It's a short nail. It's really short. ...

2) Now write your own adjective noun and adverb adjective sentences.
It's a sweet cake. The cake is amazingly sweet.


Descriptive Writing, 'David Goes to School'
- Who is talking?
- Fill the gap with words in what is communicated by the images.
- Choose your favorite character as the voice of narrator.

Insightful Writing
What toy has given me a sense of growing-up, changed me or opened a new world to me?


Homework
Preview 'Story of Mankind- Mesopotamia'
Ready to write a summary.
Ready to talk about the differences between historical and biblical accounts.

高中生出國留學英語班 October Week 3- lesson plan outline

Leg 1: accent exercise warm-up, 10 min


Leg 2: weak-strong syllable pattern, 40 min
- echoing Ann Cook Track 32 segment
- write words and phrases with weak-strong stress pattern
- create sentences from those words and phrases
- talk about what iambic is

goal: re-organization of personal vocabulary by stress and syllable


Leg 3: check homework, 40 min
- one from last week and a week before
- individual discussion


Leg 4: American culture
- Daily Drill social studies, 30 min
- 'David Goes to School': reading and descriptive writing exercise, 30 min


Homework for this week:
- Preview TOEFL exercise - task 1, opinion about a familiar topic, listen, write and tell

2016/10/12

我喜歡的英語歌曲- Nina Simone, "Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair"

'Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair' 據說原來是蘇格蘭民謠 (folk song), 傳入美國後, 流行開來。Nina Simone 有兩個 cover (打譜版本)。我很喜歡這一個版本, 她的鋼琴彈著一些旋律線, 在男歌手的歌聲和節奏吉他之間穿梭, 非常耐聽。


Black is the color of my true love's hair
His face so soft and wondrous fair
The purest eyes
And the strongest hands
I love the ground on where he stands
I love the ground on where he stands

Black is the color of my true love's hair
Of my true love's hair
Of my true love's hair

Oh I love my lover
And well he knows
Yes, I love the ground on where he goes
And still I hope
That the time will come
When he and I will be as one
When he and I will be as one

So black is the color of my true love's hair
Black is the color of my true love's hair
Black is the color of my true love's hair

2016/10/08

dash 二三事

— em dash 最長
– en dash  次長
- hyphen  最短

em dash 可被     ;   :   ,     其中一個取代
Mary hates Jim—everyone hates him.
= Mary hates Jim; everyone hates him.
= Mary hates Jim and everyone else hates him as well.

Mary hates Jim—she hates everyone.
= Mary hates Jim; she hates everyone.
= Mary hates Jim but she hates everyone.
= Mary hates Jim—oh, but she hates everyone.

Mary hates three men—Jim, Sam and Tom.
= Mary hates three men: Jim, Sam and Tom.

Mary hates her boy friend—Jim—kindly.
= Mary hates her boy friend, Jim, kindly.

range, distance  用 en dash
1–9
March–October
Taipei–Manila flight

compound words 用 hyphen
non-applicable
mid-October
yes-no question

Notes:
以上 em dash, en dash 的電腦輸入, 我用 Microsoft Office New Phonetic IME 2010 輸入法。 全形中打hyphen - , 會跳出選單, 可選長短兩種 dash。

2016/10/06

TOEFL 口說, 台灣學生的普遍弱點

TOEFL Speaking 評分, 看三個部分。台灣學生比較常出現的弱點如下:
I) 發音部分
  • 講話太小聲
  • 嘴巴離麥克風太遠
  • 語調太平板
  • 長母音發得太短
  • 學術性單字發音錯誤

II) 文法部分
  • 不完整的句子。例如 'I think that he should' 講一半就結束, 又換下一個新句子。
  • 有子句的句子, 講得很不順或錯誤
  • he, she 分不清

III) 論述部分
  • 時間管理不好。尤其後面的問題, 有三段結構的,沒有時間講最重要的重點。
  • 搞混題目要你闡述的角色
  • 閱讀或聽力能力太弱
論述部分的問題需要大篇幅解說, 今天先提三個主要弱點就好。

每個人口說有每個人獨特的弱點和障礙, 建議你根據上述三大部分, 找出自己減分的原因, 想想那種 discourse type (話語類型) 覺得特別困難, 分析原因, 再針對原因去突破。以上是我批改模擬考口說部分的心得, 希望有助於學生提升這部分的分數。

2016/10/04

我常用的英英字典 The English dictionaries I am using

學習英語不能只用一本英語字典, 必須根據不同使用目的和程度, 而使用不同字典。 底下是我目前自用和教學比較常用到的幾本。

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (iPad App)
我買 iPad 版 (約 900 台幣)。這是我最常用的字典,優點很多。
- 幾乎所有單字都有英國腔和美國腔兩種發音。
- 很多例句也有音檔, 也是英腔和美腔並列。
- 可片語搜尋, * 搜尋, 等數位搜尋技術。
- 軟體設計善用了平板電腦的優點。
- 沒有字彙遊戲, 有點可惜。

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (online)
朗文當代英語字典,我以前當學生時, 用朗文的紙本字典, 很喜歡。它的免費線上版有廣告干擾。 例句豐富, 文法講解也不錯, 非常適合英語學習者。App 版 沒用過, 不曉得軟體設計的品質如何。對我而言, 朗文的例句甚至比牛津還生動, 因為牛津的例句,主詞傾向用代名詞, 少掉了一些情境資訊。而朗文沒有使用代名詞的傾向。

New Buryhouse Dictionary of American English (online)
初學者友善字典。這是我會推薦給我學習英語寫作的學生用的字典。
- 單字定義簡潔易懂。
- 例句的文法結構不複雜, 很適合學造句。
- 它的網頁有時候會當掉。

Scholastic First Dictionary (Print 紙本)
擔心英語程度不好看不懂英英字典的人, 可從這本開始。這也是我會推薦給我學習英語寫作的學生用的字典。
- 單字解釋簡單生動, 我自己讀起來都覺得很有趣。
- 很適合學習如何用英語解釋英語。
- 例句的文法結構簡潔清楚, 非常適合學習造句。
- 音標重音節用粗體字標明, 真是令人讚賞。

Webster (Android App)
免費 App 板, 我裝在 Android 手機上, 沒帶平板時, 應急之用。有字彙遊戲。