Editing ESL/ESL class summaries and lesson plans (section)

== Sun Dec 8 ==
We opened class with the Our Father prayer

* discussed "thy" the "thee"
** the best explanation for Spanish speakers is that it's like using the language of Cervantes
** relating it, then to the language Shakespeare used
** our student recognized that there are different translations of "trespasses" in Spanish versions

Thanksgiving Day exercise (worksheet here: [[ESL/ESL handouts and worksheets#Thanksgiving Day vocab & conversation practice|ESL/ESL handouts and worksheets]]

* we spent most of the entire session working through the Thanksgiving vocabular and conversation exercise worksheets

* we realized how amazing it is that words like "bake" and "dish" have multiple connotations that are hard to recognize
** Michael note to self: that's what English-language dictionaries are good for, so get them!!
* this exercise was very powerful since it related directly to a recent personal experience
** ex. what do you call the sister and brother-in-law of your fiancé?
*** turns out it's easier to use the possessive instead of the genitive prepositional form (of...)
*** i.e., "my fiancé's sister and brother-in-law" rather than "the sister and husband/brother-in-law of my fiancé"
** brings up the utility of the English possessive form (the "zz" sound for possessives is an Anglo-Saxon remnant)

* we reviewed the vocabulary first, adding many new words form each person's personal experience
* then we applied the vocabulary to conversational practice

Pronunciation of consonants

* we worked on speaking the final consonant of words, as it greatly assists listener comprehension 
** one way to think of this is that when reading words, our brains generally process the first and last sounds and assume those in the middle
*** for ex., the word "mediation" is easily confused with "meditation" as both begin and end the same
** in spoken words, it helps to avoid any confusion by enunciating the consonants, especially the final one, if any

Beginner speaker question/ answer help

* we noticed again that our beginner learnings do not understand our instructions
* so we need to introduce to them basic dialog practice for our classes, especially with questions or instructions using
** "do" 
** "say"
** "repeat" etc.

Next: Christmas vocabulary and dialog