Kulturraumstudien USA, Homework for December 7th

 For homework, please: 

- read pp. 168-173 of These Truths and answer the following questions: 

1. Why did Jefferson consider farmers to be the best citizens?

2. How did the States benefit from Haiti's independence?

3. Why did the Louisiana Purchase divide Federalists and Republicans?

4. Why did the United States declare war on Britain in 1812? Which states supported this move and why?

5. What is the three-fifths clause of the Constitution?

- have a look at the Thanksgiving cartoons posted on Ilias and see what categories we addressed today from the cartoonist's toolkit you can apply to the images (if you need a reminder, consult my article here: Political Cartoons in the EFL and American Studies Classroom | American Studies Journal (asjournal.org)

Topics from class: 

- the following page gives you an overview of the voting rights of felons (people convicted of a felony crime) and demonstrates how state laws can dramatically differ: Felon Voting Rights (ncsl.org)

- Puerto Ricans can vote in presidential primaries (meaning which candidate will represent each party in the general election), but can only vote in the general election if they have residency in a US state. Thank you for mentioning this, J.G.!

Interesting links: 

- an interesting documentary on how the Whitney Plantation (located in Louisiana) has been made into a museum about slavery: America's First Museum Dedicated to Telling the Story of Slavery | The New Yorker - YouTube

- article "What We Learn from the Big Bad Wolf" referenced in today's class: ic-lippi-green-1997-teaching-children-how-to-discriminate.pdf (wordpress.com)

- YouTube channel for the Jim Crow Museum: Jim Crow Museum - YouTube

Kompetenzerweiterung I (Monday/Wednesday Group), Homework for December 2nd

 For homework, please: 

- complete exercises A-J for Unit 7 in Destination. Self-check your answers and bring any questions with you to class. 

- read the sheet "verbs commonly used with the passive explanation" in the Grammar for  CAE and CPE folder on Ilias and complete the accompanying exercises (this is a separate file entitled "verbs commonly used with the passive exercises"). Look up any verbs you don't know (there are quite a few advanced ones here). 

- self-check your answers to the future tenses sheet that we started correcting in class here: 

2) 1. supposed/due/required/obliged, 2. just 3. point 4. unless 5. be 6. to 7. left/gone 8. leaving /going/off 9. be 10. move

3) 1. the point of, 2. would do his/was doing his 3. as we've paid, 4. is going to have (or: will have) an, 5. will have been studying, 6. to be taken/being taken/going to be taken 

4) 1. on, 2. OK, 3. now, 4. zone, 5. the, 6. OK, 7. been, 8. course, 9. OK, 10. the, 11. and, 12. OK, 13. will, 14. OK

The notes from today's class appear under the file name "Notes from November 30th" under Ilias Inhalt.

Kompetenzerweiterung I (Tuesday/Thursday Group), Homework for December 1st

  **Please be advised that we will not have class during the project week. Our next Zoom session will take place on December 1st. Have a lovely project week!**

For homework, please: 

- complete exercises G-K on pp. 42-43 of Destination (Unit 5). Self-check your answers with the key. 

- complete both pages entitled "future" in the Grammar for CAE and CPE folder on Ilias 

- learn the topic vocabulary and the word formation words for Unit 6 on pp. 44-45 and complete exercises A-E and M-O on pp. 46-47 and 50-51, respectively (see what I did there?)

- read through the article posted under the file name "martin scorsese" on Ilias (the director celebrated his birthday on November 17th). What is the thesis of the article? In your opinion, does the director successfully defend it? (Notice that I did not ask whether you agree with him or not.)

Optional essay (due Sunday, November 29th by 5 pm, send your essay to my email address as a .docx file)

In an essay of 250-300 words (please stick to these word limits), answer one of the following questions: 

1. Has the pandemic affected your career goals? (Bear in mind that for this essay, your thesis statement would need to be something along the lines of "Yes, it has because..." or "No, my goals remain unchanged because..." with details/examples to support this thesis.)

2. Are Marvel movies cinema? (You're welcome to reference the Scorsese article when responding to this, but please don't restrict your line of argumentation to points mentioned in his article.)

Kompetenzerweiterung I (Monday/Wednesday Group), Homework for November 30th

 **Please be advised that we will not have class during the project week. Our next Zoom session will take place on November 30th. Have a lovely project week!**

For homework, please: 

- complete exercises G-K on pp. 42-43 of Destination (Unit 5). Self-check your answers with the key. 

- complete both pages entitled "future" in the Grammar for CAE and CPE folder on Ilias 

- learn the topic vocabulary and the word formation words for Unit 6 on pp. 44-45 and complete exercises A-E and M-O on pp. 46-47 and 50-51, respectively (see what I did there?)

- read through the article posted under the file name "martin scorsese" on Ilias (the director celebrated his birthday on November 17th). What is the thesis of the article? In your opinion, does the director successfully defend it? (Notice that I did not ask whether you agree with him or not.)

Optional essay (due Sunday, November 29th by 5 pm, send your essay to my email address as a .docx file)

In an essay of 250-300 words (please stick to these word limits), answer one of the following questions: 

1. Has the pandemic affected your career goals? (Bear in mind that for this essay, your thesis statement would need to be something along the lines of "Yes, it has because..." or "No, my goals remain unchanged because..." with details/examples to support this thesis.)

2. Are Marvel movies cinema? (You're welcome to reference the Scorsese article when responding to this, but please don't restrict your line of argumentation to points mentioned in his article.)

Kompetenzerweiterung III (Wednesday Group), Homework for December 2nd

  ***Please be advised that, due to Project Week, there will be no class on November 25th. Our next meeting will be on December 2nd.***

For our next session, please prepare the following:

- hopefully, many of you will have found your partners for the exam by now. If not, please make this a priority in the next couple of class sessions. Even if you don't have a partner yet, have a look at this site and browse the topics on the right-hand side of the page: https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate. (If had me for Komp I/II, you will be familiar with this page. For these students, I encourage you to look at new topics. The site is huge.) Write down three questions (or create ones inspired by the questions you see on the page) that you can see yourself using as a prepared debate question. 

- if you have a partner already, try to videoconference with them during the Project Week and practice two debate questions of your choice.

- read through the pro/con debate "Should there be billionaires?" posted on the Ilias Inhalt page out loud and answer the following questions: which points mentioned in the article are reminiscent of the points one could use for if celebrities deserve high paychecks (a debate from this past Tuesday's class)? Which points from the article are not relevant?

- read through the pro/con debate "Should there be a meat tax?" Who argued their position more strongly? (Note: the question is not which side do you agree with) Why?

- now develop a question that takes the structure/template of "Should there be a/n ______________ tax?" (you can insert many things into the slot, such as sugar, inheritance, luxury) and prepare this debate for our next session. 

Kompetenzerweiterung III (Tuesday Group), Homework for December 1st

 ***Please be advised that, due to Project Week, there will be no class on November 24th. Our next meeting will be on December 1st.***

For our next session, please prepare the following:

- hopefully, many of you will have found your partners for the exam by now. If not, please make this a priority in the next couple of class sessions. Even if you don't have a partner yet, have a look at this site and browse the topics on the right-hand side of the page: https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate. (If had me for Komp I/II, you will be familiar with this page. For these students, I encourage you to look at new topics. The site is huge.) Write down three questions (or create ones inspired by the questions you see on the page) that you can see yourself using as a prepared debate question. 

- if you have a partner already, try to videoconference with them during the Project Week and practice two debate questions of your choice.

- read through the pro/con debate "Should there be billionaires?" posted on the Ilias Inhalt page out loud and answer the following questions: which points mentioned in the article are reminiscent of the points one could use for if celebrities deserve high paychecks (a debate from this past Tuesday's class)? Which points from the article are not relevant?

- read through the pro/con debate "Should there be a meat tax?" Who argued their position more strongly? (Note: the question is not which side do you agree with) Why?

- now develop a question that takes the structure/template of "Should there be a/n ______________ tax?" (you can insert many things into the slot, such as sugar, inheritance, luxury) and prepare this debate for our next session. 

Kompetenzerweiterung I (Tuesday/Thursday Group), Homework for November 19th

 For Thursday's session, please prepare the following: 

- read the grammar descriptions for future time on pp. 38-39 of Destination (first two pages of Unit 5). Bring any questions with you to class. 

- complete exercises A-E on pp. 40-41 of Unit 5. Check your answers using the key and bring any questions with you to class. 

- bring a list of 10 false friends between English and either Spanish or French to Wednesday's session (whichever you study at the TH) 

- make an additional list of 5-10 of your favorite false friends between English and German or another language you speak (other than Spanish or French).

I encourage you to have a look at some of the resources I posted under the "future tenses" folder on the Inhalt page to visualize the difference between "will" future and "going to" future. More on this on Thursday. 

For auditory learners, the BBC Learning English channel has video explanations of all of the grammar topics we've addressed and will address this semester, so it might be worth checking out for review: https://www.youtube.com/user/bbclearningenglish

Student questions:

"When does one use the word substitution?"

In the following cases: 

- in mathematics (as in substituting a value for x in algebra)

- in restaurants ("no substitutions" means if your burger comes with fries, you can't get onion rings instead)

- in sports (one player replaced by another)

- in chemistry and psychology to describe distinct processes

- in legal language/legalese (substitution of one party for another)

Kulturraumstudien USA, Homework for November 30th

**Please be advised that we will NOT have class on November 23rd (which is Monday of the project week). Our next session will be on November 30th.**

For homework, please: 

- read pp. 154-157 (stopping at "The evolutions of state government and federalism in the USA"), which is posted on Ilias under the folder "reading for November 30th" and answer the following questions:

1. At the beginning of the reading, a comparison is made between the US and the EU. In what ways are these entities similar and at what point is a comparison between the two no longer possible?

2. Why would Puerto Rico be interested in statehood?

3. What are states prohibited from doing?

4. List three powers "reserved" for states and the implications of states having these powers themselves.

5. What is meant by "concurrent powers"?

6. What is noteworthy about the wording of the 14th Amendment?

- have a look at one or two of the biographies in the "copies from Founding Fathers" folder on Ilias. These biographies come from a National Geographic magazine publication entitled Founding Fathers. Pay attention to the language used to portray these men. What stands out to you in the way that they are presented? (What I want you to do here is pay less attention to the content of the article and more to the language used to convey that content. This is a skill to hone in this course: examining content on a meta-level as well as gleaning information from it, if there is any to be had.)

- find the document on Ilias entitled "Greek crisis cartoons" and examine the German cartoon and the US cartoon. What evidence of their being created by a German artist and a US artist, respectively, is embedded in the cartoon? 

You'll also find our NASA hoodie notes and a file with some paintings by Norman Rockwell posted on Ilias.

Interesting links:

History of the Library of Congress (minutes 3-4 show you its gorgeous and European-inspired interior): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63Ze_bpATac

TED Talk with Cartoonist KAL Kallaugher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO_4RfH-_h4 

Digital collection of political cartoonist Herbert L. Block's work from the Library of Congress (a site worth investigating/bookmarking; they have hundreds of digital collections): https://www.loc.gov/collections/herblock-cartoon-drawings/about-this-collection/

Quotes attributed to Benjamin Franklin, some of which were featured in Poor Richard's Almanack: https://www.fi.edu/benjamin-franklin/famous-quotes

Thomas Jefferson's home in Montecello (now a museum): https://www.monticello.org/

Complete Federalist Papers: https://guides.loc.gov/federalist-papers/full-text

Kompetenzerweiterung I (Monday/Wednesday Group), Homework for November 18th

 For Wednesday's session, please prepare the following: 

- read the grammar descriptions for future time on pp. 38-39 of Destination (first two pages of Unit 5). Bring any questions with you to class. 

- complete exercises A-E on pp. 40-41 of Unit 5. Check your answers using the key and bring any questions with you to class. 

-  learn the topic vocabulary and the word formation words for Unit 4 and complete exercises A-E (pp. 30-31) and M + N (p 35; in task N, feel free to replace the noun in #9 with something else...you'll encounter narrow-minded sample sentences in textbooks, unfortunately). Self-check your answers and bring any questions with you to class.

- bring a list of 10 false friends between English and either Spanish or French to Wednesday's session (whichever you study at the TH) 

- make an additional list of 5-10 of your favorite false friends between English and German or another language you speak (other than Spanish or French).

The notes from Monday's session have been posted as "Notes from class on November 16th" on the Inhalt page. 

I encourage you to have a look at some of the resources I posted under the "future tenses" folder on the Inhalt page to visualize the difference between "will" future and "going to" future. More on this on Wednesday. 

For auditory learners, the BBC Learning English channel has video explanations of all of the grammar topics we've addressed and will address this semester, so it might be worth checking out for review: https://www.youtube.com/user/bbclearningenglish

Answers to the Grammar for CAE and CPE Collocationspage, exercise 3: gaining, dead, dying, dim, peak, minute, broken

Kompetenzerweiterung I (Tuesday/Thursday Group), Homework for November 17th

 For homework, please prepare the following:

- complete both sheets uploaded to Ilias on continuous forms in the "Grammar for CAE and CPE" folder. Bring your answers with you to class. 

- complete exercises F-J of Unit 3 (pp. 26-27, posted on Ilias) and self-check your answers. Bring any questions regarding these exercises with you to class.

- learn the topic vocabulary and the word formation words for Unit 4 and complete exercises A-E (pp. 30-31) and M + N (p 35). Self-check your answers and bring any questions with you to class.

- in the spirit of learning words pertaining to science and tech, visit Wired magazine's YouTube page and watch two tech-related videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/WIRED/featured Write down the new/interesting/noteworthy vocabulary you hear in these videos. 

- on that same main page, find the "5 levels" playlist and watch one of its videos. Then pick a new topic that you know a thing or two about and prepare some notes for explaining it to a 1) fifth grader and 2) a college student. 

Here is a nice resource on when nouns are singular or plural (based on the examples of police, government, etc. referenced in today's session): https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv358.shtml

Answers: 

Collocations, exercise 3: gaining, dead, dying, dim, peak, minute, broken

Unit 4, Exercise N: changeable, maturity, modernized, persistently, endurance, processed, persistently, endurance, processed, rearrange, renewable, conversion, irreplaceable

Kompetenzerweiterung I (Monday/Wednesday Group), Homework for November 16th

For homework, please prepare the following: 

- complete exercises M-O of Unit 2 (featured on pp. 18-19, posted on Ilias) and self-check your answers. Bring any questions with you to class. 

- complete exercises F-J of Unit 3 (pp. 26-27, posted on Ilias) and self-check your answers. Bring any questions regarding these exercises with you to class.

- read through the sheet on collocation (pg. 28) in the Grammar for CAE and CPE folder on Ilias and complete exercises A-C on the accompanying exercise sheet (pg. 29)

(If you want to do the two other exercises on the Present Perfect page, the answers have been uploaded to the folder.)

A note on the answer to number 8 from exercise number 3 on the Present Perfect page: I mistakenly read this answer out incorrectly in Wednesday's class: answers can include "that's torn/done it" but not"cracked/made". The latter are options for number 9. My apologies for this. 

- read the remaining responses to the question "What's the best sense?" (listed on Ilias Inhalt as "best sense other responses"). Write down 10 words that you learned and decide on which text you find to be the strongest (this might not correspond with the text whose answer you agree with most). (Bonus question: who painted the painting featured on page 2 of the file?)

This is a fantastic resource concerning the various collocations in English with have/take/make/do: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Collocations_of_do,_have,_make,_and_take

Student questions: 

Here is a nice resource on when nouns are singular or plural (based on the examples of police, government, etc. referenced in today's session): https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv358.shtml

Kompetenzerweiterung III (Wednesday Group), Homework for November 18th

 For next week's session, please prepare the following:

- watch the Guardian debate on slang in the classroom and come to class with additional arguments in favor of banning slang in the classroom: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2013/dec/09/should-schools-ban-slang-video-debate

- watch at least 10 minutes of a political debate between politicians and/or people running for political office. (This can be a modern debate, such as any debates in the 2020 presidential election in the US, a debate on the floor of the House of Commons (UK) or the House of Representatives (US), or a famous debate from the past (e.g. Kennedy vs. Nixon). Who was the stronger debater in the section of the debate you watched and why?

- read the following article: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200527-coronavirus-how-covid-19-could-redesign-our-world out loud and be ready to debate the following question at Tuesday's session (you should mention detail not found in the article; the article is meant to be used as a springboard for ideas/discussion/debate): What is the future of cities after the pandemic?

- please consider the following debate questions in advance of next week's session:

1. Do celebrities deserve high paychecks?

2. Does privacy exist anymore?

Kompetenzerweiterung III (Tuesday Group), Homework for November 17th

 For next week's session, please prepare the following:

- we'll start next week's session discussing the Guardian debate questions, so if you didn't do last week's homework, please prepare that for next Tuesday's session.

- watch at least 10 minutes of a political debate between politicians and/or people running for political office. (This can be a modern debate, such as any debates in the 2020 presidential election in the US, a debate on the floor of the House of Commons (UK) or the House of Representatives (US), or a famous debate from the past (e.g. Kennedy vs. Nixon). Who was the stronger debater in the section of the debate you watched and why?

- read the following article: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200527-coronavirus-how-covid-19-could-redesign-our-world out loud and be ready to debate the following question at Tuesday's session (you should mention detail not found in the article; the article is meant to be used as a springboard for ideas/discussion/debate): What is the future of cities after the pandemic?

- please consider the following debate questions in advance of next week's session:

1. Do celebrities deserve high paychecks?

2. Does privacy exist anymore?

Kompetenzerweiterung I (Tuesday/Thursday Group), Homework for November 12th

 For homework, please prepare the following: 

- complete exercises M-O of Unit 2 (featured on pp. 18-19, posted on Ilias) and self-check your answers. Bring any questions with you to class. 

- read through pp. 22 and 23 of Unit 3 on past time (posted on Ilias) and bring any questions you have about these tenses to class. 

- complete exercises A-E (pp. 24 and 25 of Unit 3, also posted on Ilias) and self-check with the answer key (in the back of your book/posted as a separate file on Ilias). Bring any questions you have to class.

- read through the sheet on collocation (pg. 28) in the Grammar for CAE and CPE folder on Ilias and complete exercises A-C on the accompanying exercise sheet (pg. 29)

Optional assignment: You can submit a 250-300 word essay that addresses one of the following questions to me via email for feedback and correction:

1. What is the best sense?

2. If you could change one thing about your school in your home country, what would it be?

Make sure that you send me your essay as a .docx file (no PDFs, which I cannot edit) and that it reaches me via email by Tuesday, November 17th at 5 pm. Late submissions will not be read. 

Kulturraumstudien USA, Homework for November 16th

 For homework, please prepare the following:

- as part of your notes for the year, I recommend printing a list of the US presidents as well as a map of the United States (with major cities, rivers, and mountain ranges) for reference

- read pp. 153-157 from These Truths and answer the following questions:

1. Who were the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists?

2. How did John Adams and Thomas Jefferson differ in their views towards the role of government?

3. What was the Constitutional Crisis?

4. What "balance" was John Adams concerned about and how did Thomas Jefferson differ in his opinion?

5. Explain how the Electoral College came to be established. 

- have a look at the diagram featured on this page which summarizes the checks and balances of the three branches of US government (the executive, judicial, and legislative branches): https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38881119

Answers to some student questions:

1. Does the vice president have to be born in the United States (just like the president has to be, a stipulation which is outlined in Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5 of the US Constitution)? 

Yes, by nature of the fact that the vice president assumes the office of president should the incumbent (meaning active) president be incapacitated. 

2. If the president dies, who assumes his/her position? 

The presidential line of succession is enshrined in Article 2, Section 1, Clause 6 of the US Constitution. Should the president be incapacitated the line proceeds as follows: 

Vice President, Speaker of the House, Senate president pro temporae, Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Defense, Attorney General (continuing with other members of the Cabinet)

Some interesting links: 

National Archives: https://museum.archives.gov/

Smithsonian Museums main site: https://www.si.edu/museums

Kompetenzerweiterung I (Monday/Wednesday Group), Homework for November 11th

 ***Yes, there is class on November 11th (for anyone new to the Rhineland, the Carnival season starts on November 11th at 11:11 am)! Feel free to come to your Zoom window in costume; I know I'm going to! Please also try to be in the Zoom waiting room by 1:50 pm, so that we can start promptly at 2 pm. Thank you!!!***

For our next session, please prepare the following:

- read through pp. 22 and 23 of Unit 3 (also posted on Ilias) and bring any questions you have about these tenses to class. 

- complete exercises B-E (pp. 24 and 25 of Unit 3, also posted on Ilias) and self-check with the answer key (in the back of your book/posted as a separate file on Ilias). Bring any questions you have to class.

- complete exercises 2 and 3 from the sheet "Grammar for CAE and CPE Present Perfect p 19" in the Grammar for CAE and CPE folder on Ilias. 

- read the handout posted on Ilias entitled "Participle clauses" and complete the exercises included on it. 

Optional assignment: You can submit a 250-300 word essay that addresses one of the following questions to me via email for feedback and correction:

1. What is the best sense?

2. If you could change one thing about your school in your home country, what would it be?

Make sure that you send me your essay as a .docx file (no PDFs, which I cannot edit) and that it reaches me via email by Sunday, November 15th at 5 pm. Late submissions will not be read. 

Kompetenzerweiterung I (Tuesday/Thursday Group), Homework for November 10th

 For our next session, please prepare the following:

- read the remaining responses to the question "What's the best sense?" (listed on Ilias Inhalt as "best sense other responses"). Write down 10 words that you learned and decide on which text you find to be the strongest (this might not correspond with the text whose answer you agree with most). (Bonus question: who painted the painting featured on page 2 of the file?)

- read through the topic vocabulary boxes on p 12 of Unit 2 (Unit 2 has been uploaded in its entirety as scans on Ilias) and make sure you know the meanings of all of these words, i.e. that you can use them correctly in English sentences 

- complete exercises A-D on pp. 14-15 of Unit 2 (as mentioned previously, this has been scanned and uploaded to Ilias)

- compare your country's school system with that of an anglophone country of your choice. What are three differences between these two school systems? (This will require outside research. Please do not just rely on Wikipedia for information.)

You will also find the files "by and until as translations of bis in German" and "notes from questionnaire questions using present time" under the "Inhalt" page on Ilias. 

Kompetenzerweiterung I (Monday/Wednesday Group), Homework for November 9th

 For our next session, please prepare the following:

- read the text on Ilias "best sense touch" which was written in response to the question "What's the best sense?" and highlight all of the instances of "-ing" in the text. See if you can define the four functions that "-ing" has in English. 

- read through the topic vocabulary boxes on p 12 of Unit 2 (Unit 2 has been uploaded in its entirety as scans on Ilias) and make sure you know the meanings of all of these words, i.e. that you can use them correctly in English sentences 

- complete exercises A-D on pp. 14-15 of Unit 2 (as mentioned previously, this has been scanned and uploaded to Ilias)

- compare your country's school system with that of an anglophone country of your choice. What are three differences between these two school systems? (This will require outside research. Please do not just rely on Wikipedia for information.)

Kompetenzerweiterung III (Wednesday Group), Homework for November 11th

 **Please be advised that, yes, we will be having a Zoom session on November 11th! Please keep all carnival activities digital, but feel free to show up to your Zoom window in costume (I will be, so you won't be alone :-).)**

For homework, please read the article posted on Ilias under "Inhalt" and in the folder "Readings for Week One" entitled "Financial Advice for Brother":
1) read "Financial Advice for Brother"out loud and bring any questions you might have regarding pronunciation to class.
2) look up the meanings of all unknown words.
3) jot down notes concerning how you would respond to the writer's problem BEFORE you read Ms. Barbieri's response
4) now read Ms. Barbieri's response out loud and a) write down the good vocabulary you find in and b) decide what points you agree with her on and which ones you don't. Bring these notes with you to next week's session. 

Watch two of the 5-minute debates on this site https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/series/five-minute-debates and be prepared to debate one of the questions with your partner in class.

Prepare responses to the following debate questions (bring these notes to our next session):

1. Are people ruder today than they were 10 years ago?

2. Is it better to grow up without social media than not?

3. Should we do away with grades and assess performance in all courses on a pass/fail basis?

Kompetenzerweiterung III (Tuesday Group), Homework for November 10th

For homework, please read the article posted on Ilias under "Inhalt" and in the folder "Readings for Week One" entitled "Financial Advice for Brother":
1) read "Financial Advice for Brother"out loud and bring any questions you might have regarding pronunciation to class.
2) look up the meanings of all unknown words.
3) jot down notes concerning how you would respond to the writer's problem BEFORE you read Ms. Barbieri's response
4) now read Ms. Barbieri's response out loud and a) write down the good vocabulary you find in and b) decide what points you agree with her on and which ones you don't. Bring these notes with you to next week's session. 

Watch two of the 5-minute debates on this site https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/series/five-minute-debates and be prepared to debate one of the questions with your partner in class.

Prepare responses to the following debate questions (bring these notes to our next session):

1. Are people ruder today than they were 10 years ago?

2. Is it better to grow up without social media than not?

3. Should we do away with grades and assess performance in all courses on a pass/fail basis?

Kompetenzerweiterung I (Tuesday/Thursday Group), Homework for November 5th

 Welcome to the course! 

In preparation of Wednesday's session, please do following:

Purchase the textbook (Destination C1 & C2, ISBN 978-0230035409) and bring it with you to each class session as soon as you get it.

Please complete the exercises (i.e. A-J) for Unit 1 that have been posted on Ilias and read through the grammar details for Unit 1. I have posted an answer key for these exercises to the Unit 1 folder and would like you to consult this key to check your work AFTER you have given the exercises a go on your own. Bring any questions you have regarding rules/these solutions with you to Thursday's session. 

Since we are working with present perfect in Unit 1, it is essential that you review the irregular past participles for irregular verbs in English. This list is not included in the book, so I encourage you to consult previous texts you've used or use this list available here: https://speakspeak.com/resources/vocabulary-general-english/english-irregular-verbs

Kulturraumstudien USA, Homework for November 9th

**If you had difficulty accessing the class on Monday/were not allowed into the session, please send me an email. In some cases, this had to do with not being on my list. I only accept people into the session whose names appear on my list, so please contact me via email so that we can sort out any issues.**

Welcome to the course! For homework, please do the following in advance of next week's session: 

- purchase the text These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore (ISBN: 978-0-393-35742-4) and bring it with you to each class session (we will be using this text for the entire academic year)

- as soon as you get the text, read the entire chapter entitled "Introduction: The Question Stated". This is a total of 10 pages and represents academic-style English, so it might be a challenging read at first. Don't be discouraged and do the best you can. As you read, consider and write down notes in response to the following questions: 

1. How did the general public gain access to the text of the Constitution in its earliest days?

2. (This requires some outside research) Where is the Constitution housed today?

3. Page xiv features the expression "the American experiment." What do you think is meant by this expression and what is this experiment, exactly?

4. Page xv features as a distinction being made between "sacred & undeniable" and "self-evident." Why was this distinction made and what spirit of its times does this distinction reflect?

5. How does this chapter define "history"? 

- this isn't required, but I encourage you to explore the text of the US Constitution available here: https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/the-constitution

- follow the election coverage of this week (bear in mind, it's not just the president who is being elected this week!) and bring in one interesting finding from it to class next week (examples include how the way a state voted surprised you, how a media outlet covered the election, reactions to the election both in the US and abroad, etc.)

Kompetenzerweiterung I (Monday/Wednesday Group), Homework for November 4th

Welcome to the course! My sincere apologies for the technical difficulties experienced in our sessions today. As I wrote in the email sent via Ilias, I will be zooming from another location and on a different machine in the future to prevent such interruptions. 

In preparation of Wednesday's session, please do thing following:

Purchase the textbook (Destination C1 & C2, ISBN 978-0230035409) and bring it with you to each class session as soon as you get it.

Please complete the exercises (i.e. A-J) for Unit 1 that have been posted on Ilias and read through the grammar details for Unit 1. I have posted an answer key for these exercises to the Unit 1 folder and would like you to consult this key to check your work AFTER you have given the exercises a go on your own. Bring any questions you have regarding rules/these solutions with you to Wednesday's session. 

In addition to this please, read through the file posted as "Grammar for CAE and CPE present perfect p 18" which has also been posted to Ilias. 

Since we are working with present perfect in Unit 1, it is essential that you review the irregular past participles for irregular verbs in English. This list is not included in the book, so I encourage you to consult previous texts you've used or use this list available here: https://speakspeak.com/resources/vocabulary-general-english/english-irregular-verbs