Workshops: Portuguese and English

Throughout their time at Notre Dame, the Brazilian teachers had the extreme luck and privilege to spend some time each week with Stew Markel, from Notre Dame's Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures (CSLC). Stew taught a course on academic English that the teachers found really useful in improving their own English and pronunciation, as well as in learning way they would approach teaching English in the classroom.

The teachers also had the delight of spending the first week in the classroom with Anne Bolster in her Portuguese and English Analysis course. The teachers spent the mornings describing the differences between the Portuguese and English languages, and they were able to share a little about their home states in Brazil. Anne did a great job of merging cultural practices of the United States into her language class, giving a new depth to her instruction. Anne's participation with the Brazil group both in and out of the classroom was such a joy!

Click here for links to:

• Materials use in Anne's Class
• Additional materials provided by Anne

Additionally, Jennifer Dees and Patrick Clauss visited the classroom to offer a Power of Writing (POW) Workshop. As the snow fell outside, Jennifer explained the importance of learning how to attack writing prompts. She then demonstrated the Simple 6 writing traits:

• Stick to the topic
• Check for logical order
• Include interesting words 
• Use different sentence patterns
• Write descriptive sentences
• Write for an audience

Jennifer used a popular children's book series by Laura Numeroff to exhibit teaching students how to identify the beginning, middle, and end of stories.