How to Teach the Past Continuous to ESL Students

The main concept to relay when teaching the past continuous is the idea that the past continuous expresses an interrupted action. In other words, the past continuous speaks about what was going on when something important happened. The past continuous can be used by itself to express what happened at a precise moment in the past. However, the most common use is together with the past simple  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹(when something happened). You might want to consider teaching the past simple together with the past continuous for intermediate level classes, as the past simple will be review for students. Introduction Start by speaking about what was interrupted. Describe an important past event and then fill in the details as a painter would fill in background details by using the past continuous form. This immediately illustrates the idea that the past continuous is used to set the context of what was happening at that moment in time. Id like to tell you about the day I met my wife. I was walking through the park, the birds were singing and it was raining just a little bit when I saw her! She was sitting on the bench and reading a book at that moment. Ill never be the same. This example is exaggerated for a reason. It boldly conveys the point. Continue introducing the past continuous by asking students simple questions in the past simple about events. Follow up these questions with a question asking what was happening when the event occurred. When did you leave home this morning - At nine oclock.What was your sister doing when you left home?Where did you meet your girlfriend? - At school.What were you doing when you met her? The next step in teaching the past continuous is to include simultaneous actions using while. Explain that while is used when two actions happen at the same time in the past. Its a good idea to point out the difference between while and during, to help avoid confusion. Practice Explaining the Past Continuous on the Board Use a past continuous timeline to illustrate interrupted action. Contrasting this timeline with the past continuous for something happening at a specific point in the past may help illustrate the difference between the two uses. Make sure that students understand the use of time clauses with when and while to help them use the past continuous in context. Comprehension Activities Comprehension activities such as using photos in magazines will help with the past continuous. In this case, make it clear to students that they are to describe the event in the past. You can model this by using a photo in a magazine to describe such an event. Dialogues beginning with What were you doing? will help students practice. A creative writing exercise on the past continuous will also help students build their ability to integrate the past continuous into more advanced structures. Challenges The single greatest challenge to learning the past continuous is deciding which action is the main event: in other words, which event interrupted the action in progress in the past moment in time? Other challenges can include the use of the past continuous to express an activity that happened over a period of time. Its crucial for students to understand that the past continuous describes a particular moment in time, and not a completed event. Here are examples of this type of issue: I was studying science yesterday.She was cooking dinner last night. In other words, the past continuous needs the context of another event when stopped the action in progress at the time.

Sex Trafficking Within The United States - 1355 Words

Between 14,500 and 17,500 victims are trafficked into the United States annually, and often, the average age of entry is thirteen to fourteen years old (Hodge, 2008). One victim recalls that her pimp, a man who controls sex workers and keeps the earnings, would take her and two other girls from the ninth grade out of school during lunchtime, have them do calls, and bring them back. She explains, â€Å"He knew how to read each girl—this one likes to party, that one needs a job, this one wants drugs.† By doing this he could coerce the girls into doing anything he wanted or needed them to (Collins, 2011). According to the Department of Justice, 300,000 children may become victims of sex trafficking each year (Bessler Greenwood, 2014). However, under federal law, anyone under 18 years of age persuaded into commercial sex is a victim of sex trafficking, regardless of whether the trafficker uses force, fraud, or coercion (Coorlim Ford, 2015). Despite these statistics, the n umbers reported on trafficking are inaccurate. Deirdre Bialo-Padin, the Brooklyn D.A.’S Chief of Domestic Violence explains â€Å"They’re too low. It’s an underreported crime. Who is going to raise her hand and say, ‘Hi, I’m a trafficking victim!’† When people think of human trafficking they immediately think of things such as drugs and confinement (Collins, 2011). However, most traffickers use subtle approaches to make victims feel helpless and alone so they can eventually trick them into entering into the sexShow MoreRelatedChild Sex Trafficking And Human Trafficking1096 Words   |  5 PagesChild Sex Trafficking Have you ever walked into Wal-Mart and taken the time to look at the numerous pictures of missing youth that is plastered on the wall? When looking at how long they have been missing, it ranges anywhere from months to years. Looking at their age, both boys and girls, it’s hard not to wonder if they have been kidnapped and are being trafficked. 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Media and eating disorders Essay Example For Students

Media and eating disorders Essay Eating Disorders and the Media’s Role. It is not surprising that eating disorders are on the increase due to the value society places on being thin. In modern Western culture, women are given the message at a very young age that in order to be happy and successful, they must be thin. Every time you walk into a store you are surrounded by the images of emaciated models that appear on the front cover of fashion magazines. Women are constantly bombarded with advertisements catering to what is considered desirable.Thousands of women and girls are starving themselves this very minute trying to attain what the fashion industry considers to be the ideal waif-like figure. During this paper I will mainly be discussing the effects on females, though males are afflicted with eating disorders, the causes are different than those in the opposite sex. The average model weighs 23% less than the average woman. Maintaining a weight that is 15% below your expected body weight fits the criteria for anorexia, so most models, according to med ical standards, fit into the category of being anorexic (Brumberg 205). Women must realize that societys ideal body image may in fact be achievable, but at a detrimental price to one’s body. The photos we see in magazines are not a clear image of reality. Adolescents and women striving to attain societys unattainable ideal more often than not, increase their feelings of inadequacy. In contemporary society young women easily cling to dieting precisely because it is widely practiced and an admired form of cultural expression. In the twentieth century, the body—not the face—became the focus of female beauty. As a consequence of this media portrayal of beauty, dieting has moved from the periphery to the center of women’s lives and culture. Dieting has manifested in two noticeable and important ways that have consequences for eating disorders. First, upon comparing physical appearances throughout the twentieth century, the female body size has become significantly slimmer. According to Joan Jacobs Brumberg, author of â€Å"Fasting Girls: The History of Anorexia Nervosa,† (1988) society experienced a â€Å"brief flirtation with full-breasted, curvaceous female figures during 1950s, our collective taste returned to an ideal of extreme thinness and an androgynous, if not childlike, figure.† Our cultural tolerance for body fat has dimi nished over the years, causing an infiltration of these feelings to adolescents and young women, the group most afflicted with eating disorders. Second, society projects an image that being thin is tied to attractiveness, popularity with the opposite sex, and self esteem—all primary ingredients in adolescent culture. Nearly 50% of all women are on a diet at any given time (Bordo 140). The fact that women have such strong concerns about attractiveness is compelling evidence for the power of dieting message. Given western culture’s longstanding admiration of thinness, it is no wonder that so many young women resort to dieting and that eating disorders have become part of the psychopathology of females. Diet commercials are constantly appearing on our television screens telling us that once we lose the weight, we will be happy, content, and successful. You stand in the check out line at the grocery store surrounded by magazines claiming to have the newest and best diet. Each month another new diet appears claiming to be the diet to end all diets. Whatever happened to last months diets that claimed the same thing? Dieting has become an obsession in modern western culture. Many of the diets on the market right now are unhealthy. They deprive you of the proper nutrition your body needs to survive and can lead to health problems. The diet and fashion industries are not totally to blame for societys obsession with thinness. We are the ones keeping them in business. We buy into the ideal body image. We allow ourselves to believe the lies being thrown at us constantly. We buy their magazines, diet books and products, hoping that this time they will work. We are throwing away our hard earned money trying to live up to the standards that society has set for us. Be prepared to spend lots of money on your quest for the perfect diet and be prepared to never find it, because there isnt one. Eating disorders were first diagnosed in the 1950s or early 1960s and have spread rapidly over the following decades (Brumberg 3). Anorexia nervosa and Bulimia nervosa, the two officially recognized eating disorders, have become major focuses of attention among the public due to rapid increases in occurrences. Both of these diseases are associated with one overriding desire: all encompassing drive to be thin. (Chernin 28). The causes of these disorders are numerous. Some are biological, but the strongest causes are due to sociocultural factors. There are several sociocultural causes of eating disorders. For instance, an improvement of the economic conditions of woman, family characteristics, and visual exposure to ideal image of the female body in the media would influence eating disorders (Bordo 52). Guns on Campus EssaySociety is brainwashing young people into believing that being thin is important and necessary. Its unfortunate, but in todays society, people have forgotten that its whats inside a person that counts, not whats on the outside. We need to start loving and accepting each other for who we are not what we look like. Next time you decide that you are going to start another diet because you feel you are too fat, stop; sign up for a self-esteem class instead. That would be money well spent. If we learn to love and accept ourselves, we will also begin to love our bodies, no matter what size we are. We also need to teach our children to be proud of whom they are. We need to remind them that people come in all shapes and sizes, and we need to teach them to accept everyone for who they are. Parents need to also teach their children the value of healthy eating and not send the message that being thin is important. Many children, under the age of 10, are becoming obsessed with dieting and their bodies. They are afraid of becoming fat. They dont just learn this from the media; they also learn this from their parents. If their mothers are constantly dieting and expressing their desire to be thin, these young children will start to believe they also need to be thin. We need to encourage and support our children, especially teenagers. They need to feel good about themselves and their accomplishments, they need your approval and they need to know that you are proud of them. If a child is raised to love and accept who they are and what they look like, they will be less likely to strive to fit into societys unattainable standards. Bibliography:

Recommendations to the Wallace Group free essay sample

Mr. Wallace, I have concluded my interviews with your team and have a list of recommendations based on priorities. The recommendations are unbiased and not intended to be personal attacks on the current management; they are based on the sound management principles and intended to maximize your company’s potential. a. Realign the corporate structure. Begin by recruiting a new board of directors using outside directors, â€Å"executives of other firms but are not employees of the board’s corporation†1, in addition to a limited number of management directors from inside the company. This combination of three companies working as independent entities is not working, they must be integrated and a different management organizational structure must be implemented. This group will be able to accomplish the next recommendation. b. Develop a mission statement and goals. The company must embark upon strategic management planning. This will include: †¢Clearer sense of strategic vision for the firm †¢Sharper focus on what is strategically important Improved understanding of a rapidly changing environment1 The Wallace group lacks vision and goals for its divisions and this leads to a lack of direction for the management team. We will write a custom essay sample on Recommendations to the Wallace Group or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page A mission statement â€Å"defines the fundamental, unique purpose that sets a company apart from other firms of its type and identifies the scope of the company’s operations in terms of products offered and markets served†1. This business must develop a corporate wide strategic management plan to set a direction for the company and its shareholders. A part of this management planning would consist of SWOT analysis, strategy formulation, implementation and evaluation. This process is often referred to as Plan – Do – Act – Check or PDAC and is a continuous process. Making a profit today is not enough; there has to be an evaluation of where the company is now, where will it be in 2, 5, 10 years and how the company will attain those goals. c. Change the organizational chart: There needs to be an in-depth evaluation of the personnel currently in place. The current chart is one of vertical structure and should be revamped to be more horizontal. This accomplishes the goals of empowerment and coordination between the divisions. A glaring problem is the VP of the chemical division, J. Luskics, as he was the former owner that guided the company into foreclosure and appears to not be running the division efficiently now. The chemical division is not even internally competitive for the plastics or electronics divisions. Mr. Luskics should either be bought out of the company or reassigned to a position that he might be successful. There also is a redundancy among positions in the company, for example there are three directors of industrial relations, these positions should either be combined or incentivized to cooperate in the best interest of the company. d. Personnel development. There is no apparent leadership development in place and the company has relied on promoting technical staff to management positions which many are not equipped to handle. There needs to be a leadership development series initiated, leadership retreats to communicate and encourage relations amongst the teams, and perhaps some Management Assessment of Proficiency (MAP) testing to asses the current management team. Management development and succession planning must be implemented to ensure long term success. Job responsibilities need to be developed and implemented for all positions but specifically for the management team; including specific goals, budgeting, forecasting (long range planning), training, and staff satisfaction. . Communication. The lack of clear strategies, long term plans, goals and objectives has led to the recent revolt at the stockholders meeting. This is a clear indication of the frustration felt from the staff level up and the new direction of the company must be clearly communicated to all staff. Enthusiasm is contagious and the presentation of a new course for the company will be very exciting for staff. Employee surveys, sugges tion boxes and an engaging of the front line staff will do much to improve morale and spark improvements. I would like to commend you sir for creating a successful company but I do believe there are concrete steps that you can take to improve the future of this company. Mr. Wallace I believe the development of a vision will produce great results, with this vision you will attract personnel that want to be a part of a great company and profits for all involved will naturally follow. Remember â€Å"Visionary companies make some of their best moves by experimentation, trial and error, opportunism, and – quite literally – accident†2. I estimate that this plan of action will initially cost $1. 5 million but there will be cost savings realized in personnel reassignments, recruitment and retention, productivity, and a renewed sense of commitment that will be reflected in profits far surpassing the costs.