Unit Nine: Blog Post

Topic One:

1) Last winter, his brother bought land, but he sold it to his neighbor when the economy crashed.  John loves fishing but wants to be more successful. When John felt sad, he painted his boat, “Troubled Waters,” blue and shined it up.  John asked his brother if he liked the new look.  John’s brother laughed at him and said, “You’re always looking for compliments.”

John did not argue with his brother because he was too tired.  Instead, he made more nets. He hoped to catch more fish the next day.

2) ELLS might find certain parts of this story confusing such as: “the economy crashed, longs to be more successful, feeling down, fishing for compliments, increasing his catch, and “Troubled Waters”

• ·      ELL students would need an understanding of the word “economy” and what it means for it to “crash”. Their understanding of something “crashing” would most likely be of something falling off of a table and breaking into a million pieces. 
• ·      ELL students might think of the term “long” as in length.  They would need to understand the word in a different context such as “to want”.
• ·      ELL students might not understand the term “feeling down”.  They would need to build knowledge of how the term “down” can be used in different contexts.
• ·      “Fishing for compliments” could be taken literally by an ELL student.  They might think that it literally means “fishing for words in the ocean.”
• ·      “Catch” is another word that would need to be explained because ELL students might only know it as a verb whereas here it is being used as a noun.
• ·      Also, the term “troubled waters” would need to be reviewed so students understand its true meaning.  They might take this term literally and think that the water is in trouble.