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Mid-term. Hawk. Saber rattling. To drag one's feet on something. These are a few of the terms my ESOL class asked about in our discussion of an op-ed last night. The article was about whether Obama's reluctance to rush into yet another war in the Middle East indicates weakness or a strategy of calculated delay. The author drew no firm conclusions, and we decided his aim was merely to bring up the idea for consideration. Once the article's fodder for discussion was exhausted, we turned to the upcoming election. My husband, Dave, joined us to help outline an overview of the political parties and how our election system works. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep my personal opinions out of a conversation about political parties for long, and I wanted this to be as unbiased as possible. One of my students is a new citizen, two are visiting students, and one has been a citizen for twenty years. So their experience and attitudes about the American political system ...

"Distinguish between the preposition to and the infinitive marker to . If to is a preposition, it should be followed by a noun or a gerund." This appeared as part of a chapter in Diana Hacker's A Writer's Reference, Sixth Edition , the textbook I was using to help my ESOL students tackle preposition use. The chapter was aimed specifically at ESOL learners and had much helpful information. Prepositions—words that have to do with spatial relationships, like with, from, by, at, for and on —pose particular difficulties for new learners of English. There are few hard-and-fast rules for prepositions in English, but using the wrong one can vastly change the meaning of a sentence. My favorite example of this malleability is the verb to get , which drastically changes meaning depending on which preposition one adds to it. One can get up in the morning, get in a car, get on board with an idea, get over something or someone, get out of a responsibility, get on with o...

I leaned back and gazed up at pinpoints of white against a velvety azure sky. Constellations rotated slowly, almost imperceptibly, above a baroque edifice ensconced with alabaster sculptures. The seat under me creaked, reminding me that this nighttime scene was an illusion, a theatrical imitation of a Moorish castle on a Mediterranean coast.   Forgive me if I wax poetic today. I spent yesterday evening at the Akron Civic Theater with my ESOL students and a crowd of other teachers, students, administrators, and supporters of Project Learn of Summit County. Rita Dove—Akron native, Poet Laureate, and natural storyteller—entertained us for almost two hours with the story of her life punctuated by her poetry. How can one woman, standing alone in front of a black curtain and behind a simple music stand, keep over a hundred people rapt in silence, but for the occasional gasp or reflexive laugh or burst of applause, for such a period of time? I'll tell you how: On that plain b...

For my sweet sixteenth birthday, a handful of friends came to my house and went on a scavenger hunt. One of those friends was Simon, a 17-year-old on whom I had a wicked crush. When we all dispersed to hunt for our list of items, Simon suggested we get in his car and go to another neighborhood to have a better chance of finding more items on the list. I hadn't ridden in many cars with boys that I liked, so I was thrilled to go with him. We were gone less than half an hour, but when we returned my father was furious with me. Dad had always been defined by his fears, and not knowing where his kids were or what they were doing was one of his biggest. He told me I had ruined the event by turning it into a joyride, instead of the innocent game it was supposed to be. Nevermind the fact that Simon and I hadn't so much as held hands yet. When I suggested to my Advanced Conversation class that we do a scavenger hunt at the library, they mostly laughed nervously. Yuwei's eyes gr...

I have made a new friend. I'll call her Ruth. She is from Nigeria, here in Akron to study engineering and get her college degree. We connected right away when she came to the writing lab for some help with her English and Public Speaking assignments. She has poise and calmness that make her seem older than her 26 years, but smooth, chocolaty skin that makes her look very young. Yesterday I took Ruth shopping at the Goodwill store. Thrifting is my favorite kind of shopping; it feels like a treasure hunt, yet maintains a reasonable budget. Ruth's host mother had taken her to a Target store a couple of weeks earlier to get black pants and shoes for Ruth's on-campus job with catering services. For nearly the same amount of money she paid for one pair of pants and one pair of shoes at Target, Ruth purchased three large bags full of tops, pants, jeans, dresses and sweaters. While we worked our way through rack after rack of clothes, Ruth asked me about Halloween. Scatter...