Reflection1

Some of the students started late and we had a somewhat stuttering start to the semester.
 
We started with two practice summaries, one about North African bustards and the other about Emirati police night patrols. Both passages provided information which was new to me and, so the students tell me, them too. This made both tasks interesting.
 
I emphasised that when summarising one should eliminate all examples and most facts and figures, unless of critical importance. The important thing is to convey the general message of a passage. Read the passage and then ask yourself what it was about and what its main purpose/message is. Then write this down in simple terms.
 
Our two assessed summaries were about desert milk and desert survival. Again we were lucky that both passages provided new and interesting information. The students showed in their summaries that they had taken on board my advice and the standard of summarisation was surprisingly high.
 
We ended the session before Eid Al Adha by looking at BibMe which I ran through with the students to explain the importance of accurate referencing prior to their upcoming personal assignments.

 The general opinion of the students was that they have made progress in learning summary skills and in using BibMe.

 
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