Classroom notes

	Students in Ruth Jackson's Advanced English for Academic Purposes class learn self-examination techniques from a representative of the American Cancer Society.

Barbara Gillette’s News class students participated in a university vigil to commemorate the second anniversary of the September 11 attacks. They also conducted a weeklong survey on how America had changed in the two years since those attacks. As reported by the News class journalists, many Americans have become both better informed about the world around them and more afraid of it as well. Along with feeling more cautious and less invincible, the Americans surveyed also seemed strongly divided on how to meet the new threats of the post-September 11 world.

The English for Academic Purposes Listening/Speaking classes taught by Ruth Jackson hosted several guest speakers throughout the year. Pat Job and Peachy Reese, cancer survivors and spokeswomen for the American Cancer Society, shared their experiences on two occasions. Nan Marcus and Paula Peterson gave students insight into their employer, DuPont, and discussed their careers in litigation and electrical engineering, respectively. All four speakers served as role models of what American women have achieved with the opportunities open to them, while providing a valuable chance for real-life academic listening and speaking.

Imagination took the leading role this year in graduation performances. Grant Wolf’s and Susan Coakley’s English through Broadway Musicals classes performed an original rendition of “English of the Night,” inspired by having seen a Broadway production of “Phantom of the Opera.” Wolf’s Listening/Speaking Level IV class expressed their aspirations for mastering the English language through a video commercial for “Magic Drink,” a beverage guaranteed to provide instant English fluency and put all ELI teachers out of work!

Russ Mason’s 1960s class celebrated Banned Books Week by discussing censorship issues in the United States during the ’50s, when books like J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye” were prohibited by local school boards. Members of the 1960s class then participated in UD’s Read-out during which passages from banned books were read out loud to a gathering of students and faculty on campus.

Mary Beth Worrilow's Oral Business class took a field trip to QVC, the Home Shopping Network, in Wilmington

Lisa Grimsley and her third and fourth grade LEP students at Brookside Elementary School watched the Disney movie “Stuart Little” and wrote a play based on the movie. They enthusiastically created background scenes, practiced and memorized their lines, and proudly presented the show to their parents. “The parents thoroughly enjoyed watching their children perform the play so naturally in English,” said Grimsley.

Students in Mary Beth Worrilow’s Oral Business class had the opportunity to experience American business, trade and commerce first hand with corporate visits to Astro Power, Herr’s Food and QVC. Professional speakers invited to the class included a multi-lingual actuary from AIG, a Delawarean entrepreneur who designs and manufactures handware for the military and an advertising executive from a regional appliance retailer. All these on-site and classroom experiences enabled students to test out their new business vocabulary in real question and answer sessions.