後学期の期末作文/2nd semester final writing assignment

Hello and Happy New Year!

How are you? I hope you had a great New Year's break! In this blogpost, I'll tell you about our final writing assignment for the fall semester (後学期).

Project
You have two (2) choices about your final writing project. Choose one (1) of them:

1. Write about a real unique, interesting, or special experience (経験) that happened to you. 

In the 6th writing assignment (作文6), you wrote about imaginary (想像上の) unique, interesting, or special experiences. In this topic, write about a unique, interesting, or special experience you really had, like a school trip or a holiday. It can be about any time of your life - it could be when you were a child, or it could be from when you were in high school - or even something that happened to you this year. 

I am gathering writing on this topic into a book called Places and Traces.  

2. Write about a unique, interesting, or special song, album, movie, or TV show. 

In this topic, write about a unique, interesting, or special song, album, movie, or TV show. It can be about any kind of music, movie or TV program. Write about something that means a lot to you. 

For music, I am gathering writing on this topic into a book called Words on Music, and for movies and TV shows, I am thinking of a new book to gather them into - one I don't have a title for yet! 

How much to write
How much do you write? I would like you to write as much as you can, because your work may be published (出版した) on both this blog and in the books I talked about in class. 

I would like to see 3-4 paragraphs - and I would like to see you try to write the most that you can. Try to make your paragraphs longer - make each paragraph as long as you can. I will also look for topic sentences and concluding sentences too!

Deadline (締め切り)
Next week (1/20). Today, you can get to work on it in class, and keep working on it outside of class. 

Print it out and hand it in. I will look at it. After I have looked at it, I may ask you to send it to me as a file attachment (添付ファイル) to an email. 

IMPORTANT NOTE
I want your file correctly formatted! Please see the handout I gave you about formatting your writing. Please check about formatting your Word file here. 

Good luck with this! I hope you can have fun with this, and enjoy writing!

Images: "Iron bars, Shakujiikouen" (personal image)/Musician: "On The Stage" (courtesy of George Stojkovic)/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

作文6サポート「語り物の節」/6th writing assignment support: narrative paragraphs

Hello!

How are you? Today you will be working on your 6th writing assignment - your strange, interesting, unique, or funny stories to your partners. But as some extra support for all of you, here's  a little practice for you about narrative paragraph writing (語り物節の書き). 

I saw from my homework check that some of you still have trouble putting parts of a story in the right order. So here is some practice for you if you need it. 

First, I will help you by giving you the background information at the beginning.

Activity

Background information

Let me tell you about a time I flew to Hong Kong on a business trip.

Now - which order should these next parts go in? Which parts are they? Which parts are the beginning of the story, the middle, and the end? They are all mixed up. Decide with your partner what the right order should be, and number the order (2 - beginning of story; 3, 4, & 5 - middle of story; 6 - end of story). 

Please remember that there are three (3) parts to the middle of the story!

So when the flight attendant came to take my dinner tray away, I immediately got out of my seat and went to check the noise from the bathroom. No-one seemed to notice the noise, but I could hear it. 

Before dinner was served by the flight attendant, I heard a strange sound coming from the bathroom behind me. I didn't think anything of it while I was eating because it stopped, but it started again after I finished. 

Suddenly a beautiful woman came and put her arm behind her head. She looked at me and said, "you know you can't get him out." After she said that I turned to see the door with the man, but he had stopped. When I saw this I turned to where she had stood, but she was gone. 

After I noticed this, I felt someone shaking my shoulder and hearing "wake up, sir. Wake up, sir." I had been asleep and had been dreaming. I was so glad! But then I looked up to see the flight attendant. She was the same woman who had been in my dream!

I pushed it open and inside was a man's hands up against another, clear door, but with a strong green light behind him. He was beating the door with his hands trying to get out, but he couldn't open it. 

When I got to the door, I could hear that it sounded like a man crying and screaming to get out. I saw a green light coming through the bottom of the door. 

Good luck! Have fun with this!

Image: "Floor with Hand" (courtesy of luigi diamanti)/FreeDigitalPhotos.net 
Answer to activity:

作文6/6th writing assignment

Hello!

How are you? Today I will show you the 6th writing assignment (作文6) - writing about interesting, strange or unique experiences (面白い、不思議、ユニークな経験)! 

Activity 1
Look at these pictures. Can you make the beginning of an interesting, strange or unique story with these pictures? You can put these pictures in any order you like (イメージの順番がなんでもいい). 

But you also have to follow this rule: use at least 6 of the pictures (you can use the picture at the top too) in one (1) paragraph! 

Activity 2/Homework
Now make your story longer! Write 2-3 more paragraphs to it, with characters and a situation. Use time expressions such as before, after, or when in your story.

Have fun!

Photo credits: Top photo - "Sunset Holiday" (courtesy of imagerymajestic)/Roofs - "Hiyama Tatsuno Hyogo Prefecture" (courtesy of 663highland)/ 

Images: Top (train cables) - "Silhouette Of Wires And Cables" (courtesy of papaija2008)/sunset - "Beautiful Sunset" (courtesy of Photokanok)/curtains - "Curtain Black With Texture" (courtesy of antpkr)/wedding - "The Exit" (courtesy of Elwood W. McKay III)/hand silhouettes - "Silhouette Of Man Asking For Help" (courtesy of foto76)/plane - "Take Off At Sunset" (courtesy of Time Beach)/woman - "Asian Model Woman" (courtesy of posterize)/door - "Empty Wall With Closed Door" (courtesy of master isolated images)/tiger - "White Bengal Tiger Face" (courtesy of anankkml)/All photos from FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

特別ポスト: 隠喩/metaphor

Hello!

How are you? These are the videos to go with the worksheets for today's special lesson.

Here is the first video - "Blank Space," by Taylor Swift:



Here is the second video - "Torn," by Natalie Imbruglia:



Here is the third video -  "Clarity," by Zedd featuring Foxes. (I could not upload the video from YouTube directly to this post, so click on this link and go directly to YouTube.) 

So please listen to these, and do the worksheets!

See you next time!

Image: personal photograph. All rights reserved.

Videos uploaded from YouTube. Uploaded for classroom purposes only. I do not own the rights to the videos or the musical compositions. All rights reserved to the copyright holders.

作文5/5th writing assignment

Hello!

How are you? Today I will show you the 5th writing assignment (作文5).

You have already done the first part of your writing - selecting one (1) of the pieces of music to write about. Now here is what you do:

If you have written it in your notebooks - please type it up (with correct formatting!)

If you have already typed it up - look it over and check to see if you have correct formatting!

Now here is the next step: 
1. Review all the paragraphs you wrote about each piece of music you listened to. Now do a comparison and contrast (比較対照) with two (2) of the pieces of music, in 1-2 paragraphs. 

Begin with a topic sentence. 

例えば：
Of all the different pieces of music, I thought the first and fourth ones were the most interesting.

2. From here, compare (比べる) and contrast (対照する) what you thought of the two pieces of music with however and whereas. Write a little about the feeling or image you got from them. You can use things from what you wrote about them before. 

例えば：
Of all the different pieces of music, I thought the first and fourth ones were the most interesting. Both of these pieces had something unique. (入ってに比べ) The first one had a very moving feeling, and I had the idea that something sad had happened. I saw a older man walking slowly, along a path in a park, and he was thinking about his past life but feeling strongly that he did not have a future. (…)

(入ってに対照し) However, the fourth piece of music was very different. It was like a carnival or circus, where there were many things happening all at once. (…) 

3. Now finish your writing with a concluding sentence (終わり文書). 

例えば：
Of all the different pieces of music, I thought the first and fourth ones were the most interesting. Both of these pieces had something unique. The first one had a very moving feeling, and I had the idea that something sad had happened. I saw a older man walking slowly, along a path in a park, and he was thinking about his past life but feeling strongly that he did not have a future. (…)

However, the fourth piece of music was very different. It was like a carnival or circus, where there were many things happening all at once. (…) 

(入ってに終わり部分) I liked the first one. However, I liked the fourth one more because it was…, whereas the first one was…

Do this on a separate page, then print out. Now you have finished the 5th writing assignment!  

Good luck! See you next week!

Image: "Pink Lotus" (courtesy of seaskylab)/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

音楽を書いている (Part 2)/writing about music (Part 2)

Hello!

How are you? Here is Part 2 on writing about music.

Here's more on the other two pieces of music I played for you in class. First, here's a video file for the third piece of music I played for you - "Stop," by Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield:

If you would like to learn more about these artists, click here and here. 

Now, here's a video file for the last piece of music for you - Frank Zappa's "Little Umbrellas":

If you want to learn more about Frank Zappa, click on this link to read the Wikipedia article (in Japanese) about him.

This may be very different music for you, but I hope you enjoyed these.

See you next time!

Image: "Electric Guitar" (courtesy of dan)/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Videos uploaded from YouTube. Videos uploaded strictly for classroom use. I do not own the rights to the musical compositions or videos. All rights reserved to the copyright holder(s). 

音楽を書いてる (Part 1)/writing about music (Part 1)

Hello,

How are you? Do you remember the four pieces of music I played for you in class? We'll do something more with them now! This is a Part 1 post - Part 2 will follow.

I would like you to go through your paragraphs about those pieces of music, and listen to the first two pieces of music again - and this time to click on some videos of the first two artists whose pieces of music I played. I also have information links you can click on about these artists. 

Would these video images, and reading about these musicians, change your ideas about what you wrote? 

First - below is a video sound file of the first piece of music you heard - Jacques Loussier and his version of J.S. Bach's "Siciliano in G Minor."  

If you want to know more about Jacques Loussier, click here for a Wikipedia article (in Japanese) about him. 

Next - here is the second piece of music you heard - Moondog's "Dog Trot."

Here is a video file of this piece of music:

If you would like to learn more about Moondog, click here for the Wikipedia article (日本語) about him. 

What do you think of these artists? Does seeing the artists' pictures or some image connected to the music, or reading about them on Wikipedia, change your own images of the music? Write comments on this blog post about what you think!

Hope you enjoyed listening to them again.

See you next time!

Image: "Old Piano Keyboard" (courtesy of Sura Nualpradid)/FreeDigitalPhotos.net