10 Years From Now Essay

Ten Years from Now
By Zsofi Teleki

Blue Ridge Community College

Topic: My future
Level: My mixed intermediate class has some students at a low level and some at a higher level.
Time: Our class meets for three hours three times a week.   We originally spent about one hour on this topic, followed by about a half hour later to recopy.

Background:   Original expression is an important part of my classes: I frequently give my students writing assignments that they must compose.   Since we write opinions or paragraphs or reports with some regularity, it is usually easy for me to begin by leading students into a discussion on a topic that I have pre-selected.

Approach:   In this case, I started out on an altogether different topic from the one shown here.   I wanted the students to talk about the differences between their preconceived ideas of the U.S. and the reality that they found.

However, the concept proved too difficult for this mixed-intermediate level group, so I used the part about ideas and reality to springboard into a conversation about the future:   We talked about our dreams, both possible and improbable.

I used a silly fantasy I always told my children about how I will be when I am an old lady:   When I am old I will wear purple.   I will have a long white braid and scarlet fingernails, and I will ride a motorcycle!   The students were then able to share their own hopes and desires while we were in this discussion stage.

Writing and Corrections:   When we finished our discussion, the students wrote their original versions in class while I walked among them to answer questions and make recommendations.   They later made a clean copy of their written, corrected draft, and one student did artwork.

Selected samples of student work are included at the end of this lesson plan, typed to reflect the spelling, punctuation, and paragraphing that the students used.   The pictures were taken randomly when I had a camera, but some individuals were shy of...