TO ALL MY ESL STUDENTS and TODAY, to YOU, someone NEW! !

You are all invited to join in and be pro-active! This blog also belongs to you.

Here are some of the ways you can participate:

* COMMENT (even if you make mistakes) C'est pas grave!
You will get better and better! You cannot GO BACK!
PLEASE leave a COMMENT (click on comment at the bottom of post and follow instructions)

* SHARE INFORMATION with your classmates, they will surely appreciate your findings:
New ESL sites, stories, anecdotes, jokes, games ...
* WRITE what's on your mind! How you feel about your learning process.
You are not alone! Group 'therapy'!!!

HAVE a dose of FUN!!!
* LET me KNOW that you are there to encourage... ME TOO (inside joke)!

LISTEN to this INTRODUCTION VIDEO:

NOTE TO THE READER:
- CLICK on Ctrl and +++ to enlarge TEXT
- anything UNDERLINED ia a link to click on



Monday, February 28, 2011

BEAUTIFUL MINDS ...The 'beauty' in AUTISM * (click here for definition)


Do you remember the movie in which Russel Crowe characterized the real life story of a brilliant but asocial mathematician and university professor who was diagnosed with skitsofrenia? It is called A Beautiful Mind (Un homme d'exception). Another movie is Rain Man played by Dustin Hoffman about a savant, another word  used for people with autism which expresses their exceptional talents. (savant from the French word, savant).
Well here is a short film or documentary about another exceptional person. It depicts the amazing talents of Stephen Wiltshire. He is British and he is autistic. He possesses an amazing visual memory and a great aptitude for drawing.

TAKE ACTION CHALLENGE:
What I would like you to do as an exercise and as a listening activity is: 
FIRST, NOTE the KEY words or the ones that you recognize while listening
THEN, listen again and add a few more words
THIRD, use these key words to retell the story to someone. 
It could be your partner or daughter or neighbour 
or even your dog or cat if everyone else is too busy to listen.


OUT LOUD resume the story with the essential elements. 
For a movie we call it a SYNOPSIS. 
IF you do this correctly, you will not need to TRANSLATE.


Marie-Denise sent me this video which appears on an internet site called STUMBLE UPON *. Here is the link for the video:

By the way (BTW) I love this site. 
It is very educational. For all the curious,
 you will learn something eveytime you visit. 
It is also a great source of TOPICS 
which we can choose from to use 
as the basis of a discussion in class. 
TAKE A LOOK!!

SUZANNE

* NOTE: This phrasal verb is: to stumble upon. 
             Enter this expression in Wiktionary  
             (tools on the right column) for a full definition
             OR, Meaning of Prasal Expressions.