Manila Internship: catching up (w7)

Co'musta Readers,

This week was all about catching up.  I've been busy trying to establish connections ( getting the ball to roll trying to gain momentum ) that I deviated/digressed from the "plan" ( being flexible kasi, diba? ).  Nonetheless, I did marathon blogging ( 4 articles in a day ) and marathon reading ( a book of poems, several "sudden fictions," 6 journal articles, and 3 Bulosan essays ) during the 3-day weekend.

It's awesome to see the students' progress every Quick Speak Mondays.  I also had a revelation: the Quick Speak activity doesn't just fulfill the macro skills of "speaking," it also keeps alive the oral tradition of storytelling here in the Philippines.  Even if the stories are told in English, they are a form of personal narrative told in speech form.  Listening to them was entertaining and informative.

We also reviewed reading strategies ( close-reading and study-reading ), while reviewing summary and outline formats.  The pattern ( guiding this English class et. al. ), which makes sense, follows: Quick Speak Mondays that introduce lesson/module topic ( while employing "listening" and "speaking" skills ); topic is related to reading ( employing "reading" skill ) that informs Writing Wednesdays ( employing "writing" skill); since the pedagogy undercurrent in class uses a recursive process, it goes back to reading et. al. ( halo-halo style ) for Reading Fridays ending with DEAR ( employing pleasure reading skill that promotes "learning for life" ).

Comparing Director N's approach of teaching English to International students and First year students, I'm slowly understanding English for a Specific Purpose (ESP).  In the case of the International students, foundation, grammar, "proper" usage, and strategy are emphasized.  However, for the First year students, who have been learning and practicing English since elementary school, English is contextualized in culture ( exploring the implication of the politics of a [foreign] language in order to make aware of what's lost and/or gained ) 

Runner J informed me that he needed to turn in a more formal copy of his thesis for grading purposes, so we focused on surface-level editing.  He already passed his defense, but he needed to turn in a hard copy for formality's sake.  After he gets his grade, we'll resume content-level revision.  I also started working with Tutee B, who's highly motivated to seek EXTRA help in English.  I'm planning to give him a 6 weeks crash course on persuasive writing using Aristotle's Rhetorical Triangle.

In the office, I did shelving creating a journal section, a "special collection" section, and a "no call number" section ( the Library Project ).  Secretary V and I discussed the interplay between protocol and flexibility in an administrative context.  I attended a cooking demo, and by the end of the informal workshop ( about not mixing objectives of lessons: either focus on the Language aspect [Grammar and Usage/Functions] or the Skills aspect [macro skills] first ), I became a member of the British Council's Teacher Club ( patronized by Director N ).  Lastly, I discussed with Writer A revision ideas for her UbD article ( content first before style ).