1.12: Writing Passages

Model Paragraphs

Who I Am

       My name is Donald Bissonnette, and I am an ESL teacher in South Seattle College.  I have taught at this college for half my life.  I am 70 years old and I have taught here for 36 years.  I think that next year will be my final year of teaching here as a full time teacher.  After that, I might become a part time teacher, but maybe I will just stop teaching.  Twenty hours of teaching is a lot of work for someone my age because, besides teaching, I also have to do a lot of homework, write reports, and attend many meetings every week.  I will need to relax more and do less work as I get older.  However, I am very happy now as a full time teacher.

To Students: Write a paragraph about yourself, please.

Every Weekday Activities

       Every morning I wake up at 6:00 o’clock in the morning.  After I get up, I get dressed, go to the toilet, make my coffee and breakfast, brush my beard and teeth, and leave home for school.  I pick up my friends Roger and Sara, and we get to school around 7:35.  I begin classes at 8:00 and finish classes at noon.  After that, I have office hours from Monday to Wednesday from noon till 1:00.  From 1:00 till 3:00, I prepare my lessons for the next day and correct homework papers.  Roger, Sara, and I usually leave the college at 3:00 almost every day.  Sometimes Roger and I stop at the Park Pub for one or two glasses of beer.  We never drink more than two glasses.  I get home around 4:00 o’clock and immediately finish my school work.  Usually I work in my garden until it gets dark outside.  After that, I eat dinner with my family, read or watch television, and then I go to bed between 10:00 and 11:00 o’clock.

To Students: Tell me about your weekday activities, please.

Weekend Activities

       My weekends are very different from my weekdays.  On weekends I don’t get up at 6:00 AM because I don’t have to go to school.  I usually get up around 8:30.  My first activity is to make and drink a pot of espresso coffee.  While I am drinking the coffee, I read the newspaper and listen to music on the radio.  Eventually, I make some brunch and take my time eating it.    After that, I almost always then go outside to work in my garden or around my yard.  If my wife has a job she wants me to do, then I must do as she says because she is the boss of the house.  (My sons and I are actually my wife’s servants around the house.)  Usually I come in from my garden when it gets dark.  Then we have dinner and relax for the rest of the evening.  I usually go to bed around midnight on weekends.

To Students: Tell me about your weekend activities, please.

Free Time

       Everyone needs to have something to do in their free time so that they can relax and enjoy themselves.  Relaxing doesn’t mean doing nothing or doing easy work, however.  For example, I work in my garden to relax.  Working in the garden can mean doing very hard work, but for me it makes me feel good and relaxes my mind.  The physical work in the garden is different from my usual work as a college teacher.  As a teacher, most of my work is mentally hard but physically easy.  I don’t usually sweat too much at work, but I often sweat while relaxing in my garden.  Some people consider working in the garden as “work.”  I don’t consider it as work; I consider it as pleasure.  There is an old saying in English:  “Different strokes for different folks.”  What it means is that people are all different in what they like and don’t like.

To Students: Tell me what you do to relax when you have free time, please.

My Boyhood Days

       My life was very different when I was a boy.  For one thing, I didn’t have many “real” responsibilities.  Basically, all I had to do was feed our animals every day and clean their cages when they got dirty.  Also, on Saturdays I had to wash the floors and stairs in the house.  Of course, I also had to do all of my school responsibilities, too.  In addition, in winter I had to shovel the snow and clear the ice off the sidewalks.  After that, though, all I had to do was have fun.  In spring and summer, I swam in the pond near my house and played baseball in an open field near my house.  In fall and winter, I played football and went ice skating.  Often, my friends and I hung out and did nothing because we had a lot of free time.  Life was really very easy then.

To Students: Tell me what you did when you were a young boy or girl, please.

School Days

       My school days when I was a boy were different from.  Every morning my mother woke me up around 7:00 AM.  I hated to get out of bed, especially in winter.  My mother made breakfast for my brother, sister, and me.  After that, we caught the school bus and spent all day in school.  I enjoyed school although I always told my friends that I hated school.  Most boys “hated” school although I think that most boys really enjoyed school.  We all just said we hated school because it was only girls who loved school and boys didn’t want to be like girls.  Yuk!  My favorite subjects were history and English.  Of course, all the boys “hated” English class.  At least that is what we said. I loved it, though, and I especially loved grammar class.  I never admitted that I loved grammar class, but I did.  Maybe that is why I love teaching grammar now.  I believe that I know grammar well now because I paid attention and loved it in school as a boy.

To Students: Tell me about your school days as a boy or girl, please.