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Category Archives: Social Issues

A Non-Speaking Valedictorian Makes Powerful Statements

“She didn’t say a word — and that only made her message resonate more powerfully. Valedictorian Elizabeth Bonker recently delivered the commencement speech at Rollins College in Florida, urging her classmates to serve others and embrace the power of sharing.” B. Chappell, NPR, May 12, 2022

ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post with Answer Key

Valedictorian Elizabeth Bonker delivers the commencement speech at Rollins College in Florida

Excerpt: A nonspeaking valedictorian with autism gives her college’s commencement speech, Bill Chappell, NPR, May 12, 2022

“Bonker, who is affected by nonspeaking autism, hasn’t spoken since she was 15 months old. But thanks to an accepting attitude from her peers and teachers and help from technology, she has overcome many challenges and graduated at the top of her class at the Orlando-area school.

Elizabeth Bonker | CREDIT- ROLLINS COLLEGE

‘God gave you a voice. Use it,’ Bonker told her fellow graduates. ‘And no, the irony of a nonspeaking autistic encouraging you to use your voice is not lost on me. Because if you can see the worth in me, then you can see the worth in everyone you meet.’

Bonker used text-to-speech software to deliver the commencement address — an honor for which she was chosen by her fellow valedictorians.. .’I have typed this speech with one finger with a communication partner holding a keyboard,’ she said… ‘That one critical intervention unlocked my mind from its silent cage, enabling me to communicate and to be educated like my hero Helen Keller.’

In her speech, Bonker also evoked another hero: Fred Rogers, the Florida college’s most famous alumnus…After graduating, Bonker plans to use what she has learned to help people who face situations like hers.”

CREDIT- ELIZABETH BONKER:COMMUNICATION 4 ALL:TWITTER

To Watch the Valedictorian Speech Presented by Ms. Elizabeth Bonker visit:

Be the Light: Elizabeth Bonker’s 2022 Valedictorian Speech at Rollins College Commencement

ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post

NOTE: Lessons can also be used with native English speakers.

Level: Intermediate – Advanced

Language Skills: Reading, writing, and speaking. Vocabulary and grammar activities are included.

Time: Approximately 60 minutes.

Materials: Student handout (from this lesson) and access to news article.

Objective: Students will read and discuss the article with a focus on improving reading comprehension and improving oral skills. At the end of the lesson students will express their personal views on the topic through group work and writing.

I. Pre-Reading Activities

Predictions: Using a Pre-reading Organizer

Directions: Examine the title of the post and of the actual article. Next examine any photos. Write a paragraph describing what you think this article will discuss. A pre-reading organizer may be used.

II. While Reading Activities

Word Inference

Directions: Try to infer the meanings of the words in bold taken from the article. You use a dictionary, thesaurus, and Word Chart for assistance.

A nonspeaking valedictorian with autism gives her college’s commencement speech.
She didn’t say a word — and that only made her message resonate more powerfully.
Elizabeth Bonker was the valedictorian at her graduation.
She delivered the commencement speech at Rollins College in Florida.
But thanks to an accepting attitude from her peers and teachers she has overcome many challenges.
Elizabeth stated that “the irony of a nonspeaking autistic encouraging you to use your voice is not lost on me.”
Elizabeth named Helen Keller as her hero.
In her speech, Bonker also evoked another hero: Fred Rogers.
Fred Rogers is the Florida college’s most famous alumnus.
“We are all called to serve, as an everyday act of humility.”

Grammar Focus: Structure and Usage

Directions: The following groups of sentences are from the article. One of the sentences in each group contains a grammatical error. Identify the sentence (1, 2, or 3 ) from each group that contains the grammatical error.

Bonker, who is affected by nonspeaking autism, haven’t spoken since she was 15 months old.
Bonker used text-to-speech software to deliver the commencement address.
She was chosen by her fellow valedictorians to deliver her speech.

She didn’t say a word — and that only made her message resonate more powerfully.
She have overcome many challenges and graduated at the top of her class.
In her speech, Bonker also evoked another hero: Fred Rogers.

III

Last year, the school unveiled a statue of the man widely known as Mister Rogers.
Bonker recently launched a nonprofit organization.
She’ll also work to educate the public about the millions of people affected bye nonspeaking autism.

Reading ComprehensionFill-ins

Directions: Place students in groups and after they have read the entire article, have them complete the following sentencestaken from the article. They can use the words and terms from the list provided, or provide their own terms. They are to find the meanings of any new vocabulary.

She’ll also ___to ___the ___about the millions of people ___by nonspeaking___. As she has___ in the past,it is not a cognitive or intellectual___.

An estimated 25–30% of___with ___disorder are ___or minimally speaking, according to recent___.

WORD LIST: studies, nonspeaking, children, autism spectrum, disorder, stressed, autism, affected, work, educate, public,

Discussion Questions for Comprehension /Writing

Directions: Have students discuss the following questions/statements. Afterwards, students share their thoughts as a class. To reinforce the ideas, students can write an essay on one of the topics mentioned.

Have you ever been valedictorian for your graduating class? If yes, describe your experience.
From which college did Elizabeth graduate?
How long has it been since Elizabeth has spoken?
How has Elizabeth been able to speak at her graduation?
What type of software did Elizabeth use to deliver her speech?
During her speech, which people did Ms. Bonker name as her heroes?
What did the school do to honor Mr. Fred Rogers?
What was found in Mr. Roger’s wallet after he died?
What did Ms. Bonker ask each of her classmates to do during her speech?
What are Elizabeth’s plans after graduating?
List three new ideas that you’ve learned about the topic from the reading, two things that you did not understand in the reading, and one thing you would like to know that the article did not mention. Share your responses with your class.

ANSWER KEY

Category: Autism, Education, Social Issues

The Rewards of Shopping for Fashion From A Dump

“I used to be ashamed of my secret. But I’m ready to come clean…When I was a fledgling fashion editor, living broke in New York, the dump was my secret.” V. Hyland, The New York Times, May 4, 2022

ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post with Answer Key

Credit- Illustration by Dana Robinson

Excerpt: I’m a Fashion Editor, and I Shop at the Dump, By Véronique Hyland, The New York Times, May 4, 2022

“Or at least, it was a secret in New York. On the summer trips I made to small-town Massachusetts, the dump there was an agora of junk, a festival of refuse — the local newspaper listed what was new and hot, and people gathered just to gossip and shoot the breeze. I’ve never been bold enough to fish directly from the dump’s central piles of rusted castoffs.

But its Swap Shop — a tiny cottage — had come to serve as a free boutique of sorts, and there I discovered many items of weird delight, including a pair of sky blue clogs that could pass for Rachel Comey, and a circa-1970s Gucci scarf, patterned with leaping zebras, that earned me compliments at Paris Fashion Week…I loved the Swap Shop, and not only because everything was free. When I walked into curated, antiseptic boutiques, I felt starved for novelty…As the years went by, and the 1 percent inched closer to making up 100 percent of the town’s population, the summer people began to drop off some jarringly pristine items. I’ve dug out perfectly wearable A.P.C. sweaters and COS shirts, and a family friend told me about finding a Ferragamo bag with leftover cash inside it…Making new things out of others’ castoffs is something small-town America has done for decades, in a sort of municipal precursor to Free cycle or Buy Nothing groups. The importance of sharing resources became increasingly clear as the Covid-19 pandemic raged. For more and more people, getting free stuff from neighbors went from being a quirk, or a fun excuse for a day’s outing, to being a necessary form of mutual aid.”

ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post

NOTE: Lessons can also be used with native English speakers.

Level: Intermediate – Advanced

Language Skills: Reading, writing, and speaking. Vocabulary and grammar activities are included.

Time: Approximately 60 minutes.

Materials: Student handout (from this lesson) and access to news article.

Predictions: Using a Pre-reading Organizer

Pre-reading chart by J. Swann

II. While Reading Activities

Word Inference

Directions: Try to infer the meanings of the words in bold taken from the article. You use a dictionary, thesaurus, and Word Chart for assistance.

I used to be ashamed of my secret. But I’m ready to come clean.
The tag dated the garment to the last millennium.
Extravagantly sturdy, it had the air of what magazines might call an investment piece.
My friend sitting next to me at a New York Fashion Week event inquired about its provenance.
My coat was from the dump.
When I was a fledgling fashion editor, the dump was my secret.
I’ve never been bold enough to fish directly from the dump’s central piles of rusted castoffs.
Luxury brands that once destroyed unsold merchandise are now thinking of ways to reinvent it.
I began thrifting and scrounging my way to some semblance of personal style.
Salvage and resale have become antidotes to the conveyor belt of fast fashion.

Grammar Focus: Word -Recognition

Directions: Students choose the correct word to complete the sentences taken from the article. They are to choose from the options presented.

When I began thrifting/thrift and scrounging mine/my way to some semblance of personnel/personal style, there/their was/were still something shameful about admit/admitting that your/you’re clothes has/had a past/pass, unknowable-to-you life. Ive/I’ve spent/spend a decade and a half covering fashion.

Reading Comprehension Fill-ins

Directions: Place students in groups and after they have read the entire article, have them complete the following sentences taken from the article. They can use the words and terms from the list provided, or provide their own terms. They are to find the meanings of any new vocabulary.

(I’m Elle’s fashion features ___now), and ___that time I’ve seen the___ awakening to sustainability and reuse. ___brands that once ___and even___unsold ___are now thinking of ways to ___it.

WORD LIST: reinvent, merchandise, burned, destroyed, Luxury, over, industry, director

Discussion Questions for Comprehension /Writing

Have you ever looked for clothes in a dumpster? If yes, did you find any good items?
Make a list of questions that you would like to ask the author.
List three new ideas that you’ve learned about the topic from the reading, two things that you did not understand in the reading, and one thing you would like to know that the article did not mention. Share your responses with your class.

ANSWER KEY

Category: Culture, Economy, Environmental, Social Issues | Tags: Fashion in a garbage Dump

Back at Work After the Pandemic: How to Handle Annoying Office Colleagues

“After two years of working from home during the pandemic, and plenty of false starts, employees are officially heading back to work…The gossip, the loud talker and the nosy colleague are all manageable with the right mind-set.”J. Dunn, The New York Times, April 24, 2022

ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post with Answer Key

image The New York Times

Excerpt: Your Office Is More Annoying Than You Remembered. Here’s How to Handle It. By Jancee Dunn, The New York Times, April 24, 2022

“Roughly 60 percent of U.S. workers who could work from home were still signing in remotely as of January, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center, as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus set back [return to office] R.T.O. plans.

But now companies like Google are insisting that their workers return to the office on hybrid work schedules.

For many workers, the commuter train has already left the station. And after controlling our own environment at home, returning to work means we’ll be faced with annoying behaviors among our colleagues again: loud talkers, nosy cubicle mates, the olfactory emanations of the shared microwave.

Image: The New York Times

How do we confront these people — and how do we check our emotions, which may be in overdrive after working in relative isolation, to keep ourselves from snapping?

Consider this a fresh start for everybody, said Darian Lewis, who, with his wife, Monica, founded the Monica Lewis School of Etiquette in Houston. ‘You know all those things you wanted to change in your workplace prior to the pandemic, but you just couldn’t figure out how to do it?’ he said. “Well, seize the opportunity right now.’

Here’s how to deal quickly and effectively with some of the most irritating workplace habits.

The Loud Talker If your attention is consistently being pulled away by a colleague’s loud chatter, Mr. Lewis said, take a deep breath and approach the person, using what he calls the ‘S.E.C.’rule: smile, maintain eye contact and remain calm… The Gossip ‘Gossip is what we would call ‘harmful speech,’ said Mr. Miglioli, the Buddhist priest… The Nosy Cubicle Mate When your overly inquisitive co-worker begins to dig, ‘find a mantra, and then be a broken record,’ suggested Ms. Pollak, the workplace expert…One of the takeaways of the pandemic is that communities survive better than individuals.

Image- The New York Times

As we all return to the workplace, Mr. Miglioli said, we have two choices. ‘One way is to disconnect as soon as possible with all that has happened and get back to your life’…“The other is to embrace the pandemic as a great teacher.”

ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post

NOTE: Lessons can also be used with native English speakers.

Level: Intermediate – Advanced

Language Skills: Reading, writing, and speaking. Vocabulary and grammar activities are included.

Time: Approximately 60 minutes.

Materials: Student handout (from this lesson) and access to news article.

I. Pre-Reading Activities

Predictions: Analyzing headings and photos

Directions: Examine the titles of the post and of the actual article. Examine any photos, then create a list of words and ideas that you and your group members think might be related to this article.

II. While Reading Activities

Word Inference

Directions: Try to infer the meanings of the words in bold taken from the article. You use a dictionary, thesaurus, and Word Chart for assistance.

Workers return to the loud talkers, nosy cubicle mates and the olfactory emanations of the shared microwave.
How do we confront these annoying people?
More importantly, how do we check our emotions, which may be in overdrive after working in isolation?
The article teaches you how to handle unpleasant situations at work.
The gossip, the loud talker and the nosy colleague are all manageable.
There are three things to keep in mind when you’re getting back in the groove.
There’s actually a big difference between responding and reaction.
That pause will give you a chance to choose your battles.
Try to exercise tolerance.
One of the takeaways of the pandemic is that communities survive better than individuals.

Grammar Focus: Word -Recognition

Directions: Students choose the correct word to complete the sentences taken from the article. They are to choose from the options presented.

For many worker/workers, the commuter train/trainshas/have already leave/left the station. And after controlling our own/owner environment in/at home, returning too/to work means/meanwe’ll/well be faced with annoy/annoying behaviors among our colleague/colleagues again: loud talkers, nosy cubicle mates, the olfactory emanations of/off the shared microwave.

Reading Comprehension

Reading Comprehension: Identify The Speakers

Directions: Read the following quotes from the speakers in the article. Then identify the speakers.

“You know all those things you wanted to change in your workplace prior to the pandemic, but you just couldn’t figure out how to do it? Well, seize the opportunity right now.”
“There are three things to keep in mind when you’re getting back in the groove. Acknowledge that we are out of shape dealing with other people. Lower your expectations and assume that you’re going to have some annoyances. And really give thought to the new habits that you want to create from Day 1, and be deliberate about making changes now.”
“There’s actually a big difference between responding and reaction. What I do is pause, breathe and connect with the present moment.”

Discussion Questions for Comprehension /Writing

Have you been back to work since the pandemic ended?
Describe your reactions on the first day in the office.
If you don’t work in an office, how did you feel on your first day back at school?
What advice does author Lindsey Pollack offer for those going back to work?
What are some of the characteristics listed as being annoying? Give a brief description of each.
How does Mr. Lewis advise handling a person who talks loudly?
What is an important lesson concerning communities that we’ve learned from the pandemic?
List three new ideas that you’ve learned about the topic from the reading, two things that you did not understand in the reading, and one thing you would like to know that the article did not mention. Share your responses with your class.

ANSWER KEY

Category: Business, Culture, People, Social Issues | Tags: Handling annoying colleagues at work

How To Raise A Resilient Child

“Never has resilience — be it physical, mental, emotional or financial — been more important to our society than in the past year and a half, and never have I been so determined to pass it on to my son.” E. VanceThe New York Times, September 21, 2021

ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post with Answer Key

Raising Resilient Kids Who Are Prepared for the Future-Child Mind Institute

Excerpt: The Secret to Raising a Resilient Kid, By Erik Vance, The New York Times, Sept. 14, 2021

Credit- Joao Fazenda NYT

“In my early teens, my dad took myself, my best friend and our neighbor on a grueling backpacking trip connecting California’s Yosemite Valley to Half Dome to nearby Clouds Rest mountain and back again. By the second day — halfway up Clouds Rest, on wobbly legs and besieged by mosquitoes — we finally mutinied. The three of us made it clear to my father that we were done. Nobody had heard of Clouds Rest and nobody had the juice to see the top.

‘OK, I understand,’ I remember Dad saying. ‘You guys stay here. Erik, let’s go.’

There was no point arguing. Even today, my only memory of the top of Clouds Rest is the blue sky I saw flat on my back, panting and praying for a speedy death.

Later, of course, I described the hike as an epic victory of teenager over nature. Which, I suspect, is why my dad pushed me to do it. Whether he knew it or not, Dad was a big believer in the concept of resilience, the ability to engage with a challenge, risk or impediment, and come out the other side with some measure of success…Thankfully, most experts say resiliency is something that can be fostered, nurtured and developed in children from a very young age. You just have to build a safe foundation, find challenges and watch kids thrive.

Credit-schoolbag.edu.sg

Build a stable, safe foundation… “Having a relationship with a caring parent is far and away the most powerful protective factor for children,” said Ann Masten, a psychology professor at the University of Minnesotaand a pioneer in the study of resiliency in children.

Once a kid feels safe, supported and has a good model of resilience, it’s time to challenge her a little…’One of the great skills of parenting is knowing how to challenge, when to challenge, how much to challenge,’ Dr. Masten said. ‘There’s no one right way to foster resilience, just like there’s no one right way to parent.’

If you put the word “resilience” on a poster, it would probably be under a photo of someone climbing a mountain, fighting a forest fire or perhaps tending to patients in a Covid ward. But, in fact, it’s the small disappointments or frustrating moments that truly build resilience.”

ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post

NOTE: Lessons can also be used with native English speakers.

Level: Intermediate – Advanced

Language Skills: Reading, writing, and speaking. Vocabulary and grammar activities are included.

Time: Approximately 60 minutes.

Materials: Student handout (from this lesson) and access to news article.

I. Pre-Reading Activities

Predictions: Using a Pre-reading Organizer

II. While Reading Activities

Word Inference

Directions: Try to infer the meanings of the words in bold taken from the article. You use a dictionary, thesaurus, and Word Chart for assistance.

Raising a resilient kid might be challenging.
In my early teens, my dad took myself, my best friend and our neighbor on a grueling backpacking trip.
By the second day we were besieged by mosquitoes.
We finally mutinied.
Later, of course, I described the hike as an epic victory of teenager over nature.
It’s a psychological principle blending optimism, flexibility, and problem-solving.
It is about the ability to bounce back even when times get tough.
You just have to build a safe foundation, find challenges and watch kids thrive.
Children need to feel they have a stable home base before they can take risks and learn to bounce back.
When we arrived, we learned that the next 48 hours would be plagued with thunderstorms, downpours and even a flood warning.

Grammar Focus: Identifying Prepositions

Directions: The following sentences are from the news article.For each sentence choose the correct preposition from the choices listed. Note that not all prepositions listed are in the article.

Make the most of small challenges. If you put the word “resilience” on a poster, it would probably be under a photo of someone climbing a mountain, fighting a forest fire or perhaps tending to patients in a Covid ward. But, in fact, it’s the small disappointments or frustrating moments that truly build resilience.

When teaching canoeing, for instance, he starts by putting a kid into a boat to see if she can figure it out. Then, after a little frustration, he gives some instruction and lets her try again.

Reading Comprehension: Identify The Speakers

Directions: Read the following quotes from the speakers in the article. Then identify the speakers.

“Whether he knew it or not, Dad was a big believer in the concept of resilience, the ability to engage with a challenge, risk or impediment, and come out the other side with some measure of success.”
“Resilient people not only bounce back, but also thrive in the best of times.”
“Creating resilience in children isn’t just chucking them into the deep end of a pool to see if they can swim, it’s about the bedrock of support you give them every day. Having a relationship with a caring parent is far and away the most powerful protective factor for children,”
“It’s not just about being tough — that’s not resiliency. It’s about doing things that you’re not sure you can do. And with other people.”

Discussion Questions for Comprehension /Writing

According to experts, how is resiliency acquired?
How does Dr. Masten, describe resilience?
What must parents do before attempting to teach resilience to their children?
Why is it important to ‘regulate’ your own emotions around your children?
The article states that if some people place the word ‘resilience’ under a poster, it would probably be under a photo of someone climbing a mountain, fighting a forest fire or perhaps tending to patients in a Covid ward. The article continues to state, “But, in fact, it’s the small disappointments or frustrating moments that truly build resilience.” What photo or image would you place under the word ‘resilience’?
Explain ’cause and effect’ as applied to a child coming home with an F in math.
According to Dr. Masten what is one great parenting skill?
List three new ideas that you’ve learned about the topic from the reading, two things that you did not understand in the reading, and one thing you would like to know that the article did not mention. Share your responses with your class.
List 3 questions that you would like to ask any person mentioned in the article. Share questions as a class.

Photo Activity for speaking or Writing

Place students in groups and have the cut out or take pictures describing what they think resilience means. Share pictures as a class.

ANSWER KEY

Category: Children/Teens, Culture, Education, Psychology, Social Issues | Tags: Raising Resilient Kids

This Student Gave Up English for Lent!

“Last year, I gave up English for Lent. For 40 days, with the exception of conversations, my own activities — the books I read, the television I watched, the podcasts I heard — had to be in one of the non-English languages I could understand, which included Spanish, Portuguese, Korean and Chinese…” J. Kang, The New York Times, March 1, 2022

ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post with Answer Key

Credit- Paige Vickers, NYT

Excerpt: I Gave Up English for Lent, By Jimin Kang, The New York Times, March 1, 2022

“As a college senior living in New Jersey at the time, I also made an exception for school; I had to graduate, after all, from a university in a country where English is a necessary part of getting by. This was a challenge that had been years in the making. Although I speak Korean with my parents at home, English — which I first learned at the age of 4 — is my strongest language. Growing up in Hong Kong, I spent 14 years at international schools with many classmates who, like me, spoke better English than they did their parents’ native tongues. I knew Korean, Chinese and English by the age of 10, but I couldn’t speak all of these languages in the breezy, cosmopolitan way I wanted…As someone who was approaching Lent after a long hiatus from faith, I wanted to give up a precious thing whose absence would make room for something revelatory. I wondered: What if I gave up language?At first, the idea terrified me. But my apprehension convinced me that this would be a good test both of who I was and what I could do… I challenged myself to broach difficult topics with my parents for the first time: What it meant to be a person of color in America, how it felt to endure heartbreak and how I had returned to a faith that they, having moved back to Korea, had begun to relinquish...All of us, no matter what languages we are born speaking and which ones we later adopt, are constantly coming to terms with parts of our identities that simultaneously define and confound us.”

* Ms. Kang is a graduate student in comparative literature and critical translation at the University of Oxford

To Learn More about Jimin and her experience, Visit Her beautiful website

ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post

NOTE: Lessons can also be used with native English speakers.

Level: Intermediate – Advanced

Language Skills: Reading, writing, and speaking. Vocabulary and grammar activities are included.

Time: Approximately 60 minutes.

Materials: Student handout (from this lesson) and access to news article.

Predictions: Using a Pre-reading Organizer

Pre-reading chart by J. Swann

Word Inference

Directions: Try to infer the meanings of the words in bold taken from the article. You use a dictionary, thesaurus, and Word Chart for assistance.

Last year, I gave up English for Lent.
The books I read, the television I watched, the podcasts I heard — had to be in one of the non-English languages.
I made an exception for school.
This was a challenge that had been years in the making.
The three languages asserted a hierarchy in which English became dominant.
This was a challenge to my relationships with people and traditions closest to my heart.
By combining intentional sacrifices with prayer and reflection, Lent offers a consistent space to inspect one’s life.
Sacrifices can range from giving up common indulgences to adopting new habits.
Nonbelievers too, have increasingly adopted the secular elements of Lenten practice.
This student had taken a long hiatus from faith.

Vocabulary Cluster By Learnnc.org

Grammar Focus: Structure and Usage

Sacrifices can range from giving up common indulgences to adopting new habits.
At first, the idea terrified mine.
And so the 40 days began.

In lieu of podcasts, I would wake up and listen to 10-minute newsreels from Brazil.
The frigid New Jersey winter slowly turned to spring.
I would make my way threw Spanish-language Netflix shows.

III

One morning, I wrote in my journal about a dream I’d had.
Writing in a foreign language can be frustrate.
You could listen to music from another country, even if it is in a language you do not understand.

Reading ComprehensionFill-ins

Directions: Place students in groups and after they have read the entire article, have them complete the following sentences taken from the article. They can use the words and terms from the list provided, or provide their own terms. They are to find the meanings of any new vocabulary.

I ___myself to broach difficult___with my ___for the first time: What it meant to be a person of___in America, how it felt to endure ___and how I had returned to a___ that they, having moved back to___, had begun to___. In the process, I became a better___, writer, friend and a___of faith, if faith is ___linked to the___that one is but a small part in a greater ___of things.

WORD LIST: cosmos, intrinsically, person, daughter, relinquish, topics, heartbreak, Korea, faith, color, parents, challenged, belief,

Discussion Questions for Comprehension /Writing

After reading the article, why did the author decide to give up English for Lent?
What is the author’s native language?
What did the author learn after this experience? How was the knowledge helpful to her?
How many languages can you speak?
Which language would you choose to give up for Lent? Why?
List three new ideas that you’ve learned about the topic from the reading, two things that you did not understand in the reading, and one thing you would like to know that the article did not mention. Share your responses with your class.

ANSWER KEY

Category: Education, Religion, Social Issues | Tags: Lent