2016.12.21 - Class 10

Happy Holidays

Today we reviewed your homework and then talked about the importance of maintaining contact with English over the holidays.

Films, videos and music are great ways to do this. Many of you have told me you've watched some episodes of The Walking Dead after the activity we did in class 8, for example, but anything you're interested in watching is going to be helpful. My favorite series as of late is Stranger Things - if you don't know what else to watch, check it out!

If you enjoyed the game we did in Class 8 (50 Ways to Be Killed by Zombies), then you could play that one and that would be great contact with English as well. Or see the list of Interactive fiction games I posted below for other games, many of which are a bit less gory.

We also played a few games before and after finishing The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Homework

• Maintain contact with English. Write three short texts about three different times you had contact with English (see example below), or, if you didn't have contact with English, just write three short texts where you explain to me something you did that day.

Example

I watched Captain Fantastic, a film about a father and his children who live in the wilderness. Years earlier, the father and his wife decided to take their kids to bring them up in the wilderness. The kids were educated with the books they had in their library, but they also learned how to live in the forest as well as lots of practical physical skills such as hunting, rock climbing, etc. After a short time, we learn that the children's mother, who has been in a hospital, has died, and they want to go to her funeral. The father is reluctant to go because he knows his wife's parents are going to make things difficult for them, but the kids insist and they go. The biggest part of the movie is about the adventures they have and what happens when these kids experience the 'normal' world that the rest of us live in. Will they stay with their grandparents? Will their father be arrested for child abuse? Can these kids adapt to the life that the rest of us lead? Watch the film and find out.

2016.12.14 - Class 9

Regrouping after the long weekend

I asked you about the kind of contact you had over the long weekend and you discussed this in small groups, also thinking ahead to the winter holidays, when you'll have another long break but should not let up on your contact with English.

Vocabulary/pronunciation, Use of English and more

Among other things, we reviewed some vocabulary from Unit 2 (pp.21-24) using letters and a phonemic chart.

We also did the Use of English exercises (on part 2) on p.28 and practice for Speaking part 2 on p.27.

Preparation for The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Over the next couple of classes, we are going to watch an American film from 2012 called The Perks of Being a Wallflower. To begin, I gave you a handout with:

• information about the film
• an introduction to the story
• an explanation of the title
• teasers about two scenes in the first half that help understand the story 

Homework

• Write a short text (approx 100 words, or more is OK) about the film. You can either 
• 1) write a reaction to the film, that is, describe what you thought about something you saw in it or 
• 2) write a summary of what happened in the part we saw in class today.
• p.32 in your book (Vocab and Grammar Review)

2016.12.06 - Reply from Michael Lewin

Today I got the following response from Michael Lewin. Thanks to all of you who wrote comments for him!

Hi Kirk,
Thank you for writing to me and telling me a bit about how The Hand That Feeds Me is being used. And special thanks to the five students who've posted their comments - in English! - on the blog. I'm delighted that they like the story and it's interesting that it seems to have worked in different ways for each of them.  Not much more to say, but thanks to you all.
Mike Lewin

2016.11.30 - Class 8

Work in our book

Riding through the urban landscape of the Walking Dead

We worked through a few pages of the book today, namely pp.21-24, which included:

1. vocabulary (p.21, p.23 (phrasal verbs), p.24)
2. listening
3. speaking
4. reading

We also watched a few clips from films and TV that had to do with this vocabulary and the theme of survival, which we began last class.

After the break, we used went to the computer room, where you became members of our Quizlet class and added a new list with some new vocabulary.

You then tried an interactive fiction game called 50 Ways to Be Killed by Zombies. In the 20 minutes or so that you played, no one managed to survive, but I encourage you to keep trying!

Homework

• Continue with the goal of having 75 minutes of contact with English per week. You can do this however you wish, but here are some suggestions given that you will have more time than usual next week:
• Continue with 50 Ways to Be Killed by Zombies - try to survive! It might be useful to keep track of how you do it. If you really want to go crazy, you could write your own walkthrough for the game. If you do, please share it with me.
• You could also try some other similar game/stories (Interactive Fiction). See the blog entry below (Interactive Fiction - a list) for more possibilities.
• Watch a film or a few episodes of a television series in English. Especially if you don't already do this, this would be a great thing to do next week when you have a bit more time.
• Read a short story. If you can't find one, there are quite a few at COMMONLIT. Or, if you prefer, read a few poems at the Poetry Foundation.
• Whether you read or watch a video of some sort, write a short reaction to what you read or watched. I'll post an example below to give you an idea of how to do this - though use your own ideas!

Example of reaction to a film

I watched Captain Fantastic, a film about a father and his children who live in the wilderness. Years ago, the father and his wife decided to take their kids to bring them up in the wilderness. The kids were educated with the books they had in their library, but they also learned how to live in the forest as well as lots of practical physical skills such as hunting, rock climbing, etc. After a short time, we learn that the children's mother, who has been in a hospital, has died, and they want to go to her funeral. The father is reluctant to go because he knows his wife's parents are going to make things difficult for them, but the kids insist and they go. The biggest part of the movie is about the adventures they have and what happens when these kids experience the 'normal' world that the rest of us live in. Will they stay with their grandparents? Will their father be arrested for child abuse? Can these kids adapt to the life that the rest of us lead? Watch the film and find out.

Interactive fiction - a list

Free online interactive fiction

1. 50 Ways to Be Killed by Zombies (P. R. O'Leary)
2. Zork
3. http://textadventures.co.uk/
4. http://chooseyourstory.com/
5. http://www.web-adventures.org/

2016.11.30 - Your comments on the story

Your comments on the story

The Hand That Feeds Me, by Michael Lewin. For more information on the author and his work, see his website.

CaR: I think it's and interesting reading for a English class, but also for having fun just as entretaining. Is not a typical boring story, where nothing happens and the end has a bad taste. I had really enjoyed reading this short story at class. Maybe there are some difficult words, but with a dictionary next to you, is not a problem.

MoG: "The hand that feeds me" begins when an old man gives meat to a dog which lives in the streets, then three guys murder the old man and the dog does everything to catch them: he takes a jacket and cans of beer from them to give an evidence of the crime, and brings them next to the body. Finally, he sits next to him and waits for justice to happen.
From my point of view, "The hand that feeds me" it's a story about justice and loyalty. It's not said in the text, but we all know that the narrator is a dog. I love dogs and I think that the phrase "Dog is a man's best friend" is absolutly true, dog is an exemple of loyalty so I think this character is the most important. In my opinion, this story has a beautiful point; the first time I read it I felt very sad, it is obviously very emotional, but then when I started thinking about it, I realised it has an important message of loyalty and justice which humans should learn.

HeR: First of all, I would like to say that I enjoyed the reading. I liked because of the dog and how does he act in front of the criminals and what does he did for the police for caught them. I also like how the story is wrote because the writer doesn't tell you that the main character is a dog but he give you some information in some sentences so you can deduce it. (I would never thought that the main character it could be an animal).

MiG: I liked this story, especially the trick it has. While I was reading the first paragraph I noticed the narrator was an animal although I couldn’t figure out which until the third and fourth paragraph. I really loved the idea the narrator had to write from the dog's perspective and how it sees the world.

DaC: I reckon that the entire story makes itself great in the clever way the events take place. If it is hard to put yourself in someone else's shoes', with a dog seems even harder. It is how it replaces situations of our life as in a metaphorical form or using expressions referred to animals. But what I enjoyed most was the revenge resolution; instead of killing or hurting somenone, the narrator just takes all the proves and leaves the crime scene for the police to solve it.
Again, great story!

2016.11.23 - Class 7

Short class - Parent meetings

Puffins

Today we had a short class since I had meetings with your parents from 16.00.

We first talked a bit about the story from last class. We already discussed what was strange about the story at the end of our last class, but continued with this a bit. We also looked at vocabulary from the text. In a future class, I'll show you how to add these words to the Quizlet list that I have started.

We also did two Listening paper tasks from a First for Schools exam, specifically parts 2 and 3. This is in part because we've not done any official Listening exam task and I wanted you to get a sense for their difficulty, and also so that I have marks to share with your parents during our meetings. This will give a more complete picture of your preparedness for the exam.

Homework

• Write a comment on last week's class as if you were writing to the author of the story (Michael Lewin). Explain what you noticed most in the story, what you found compelling (or not). Please send me your comment via email to the address I gave in class. I will add them to the blog and then contact the author to see if he responds. The more insightful your comments are, the more likely he will be to respond, I suspect.
• the worksheet on verb patterns I gave you. Important: use p.167 in your book to help choose the correct forms.
• Count both of your homewo as part of your 75 minutes/week of contact with English.

2016.11.23 - Resources for contact with English outside of class

Goal: 75 minutes of contact with English per week

Today in class I gave you a chart that you can use to record the kind of contact you have with English each week. Any kind of purposeful contact or exposure to English counts. I've organized the chart by the five papers in the First Certificate so that you can be sure you're getting different kinds of exposure.

Here is a list of some of the many websites you can use to have contact with English:

• Flo-Joe Reading **
• LETeens Reading skills (choose B2)
• LE Teens Read UK
• LETeens Magazine
• Exam English Listening **
• LETeens Video Zone
• LETeens Listening Skills (choose B2)
• LETeens Music UK
• Flo-Joe Use of English **
• Exam English Use of English **
• LETeens Grammar & Vocabulary
• Exam English Writing **
• LETeens Writing skills
• FCE Speaking videos in YouTube **

2016.11.16 - Class 6

Unit 2 - Wild

To start off class today, we reviewed your homework, which included some grammar exercises inside a text about survival on p.25. I also asked you to tell your parents that next week (23 November) I'll be available to meet with them from 16:00 to 17:15 at school. I'd be happy to meet them and answer any questions they may have. This means that next week we will have a short class, until 15:00 only.

Continuing with the theme of survival, we talked about the topic a bit and then did a listening exercise based on a short video featuring survival expert Bear Grylls:


This exercise was similar to Listening part 2 of the FCE, but actually a bit harder because of the vocabulary and Bear's way of enunciation.

Then, expanding on the topic of survival a bit, we talked about other possible situations that we might have to survive in and did a short quiz at the New York Times, based on research on how people react in natural disasters or similar situations in the US.


Finally, before the break, we looked at a few words to prepare for a story that we started after the break.

Story: The Hand That Feeds Me

We read through part 1 of the story together, working on pronunciation and vocabulary. If you lose your copy of the story, you can also get it here.

Homework

• Finish reading The Hand That Feeds Me.
• Select vocabulary in the story that you think you need to learn. You can also study the vocabulary list in Quizlet that I already created for the story. We'll add some of your vocabulary to it later on.
• Find the trick in the story, which has to do with the narrator. Find a few sentences in the story that struck you as odd or revealing.

2016.11.09 - Class 5

US Presidential election - report and victory speech

We spend a good part of the first half of class talking about the US Presidential election results. We also watched a video report on CNN Student News and discussed different aspects of it, including vocabulary such as:

• concede / concession speech - victory speech
• projections - projections holding up (or not)
• polls
• ballot
• Congress: House of Representatives and Senate

We also reviewed your homework (p.12) and continued working with adjectives to describe character and personality, looking especially at some often used to described teenagers. Here's the list you came up with:

Positive		negative
Social Mature Friendly Open-minded Creative Trustworthy Empathetic Easy-going Responsible	sensitive	Antisocial Immature Unfriendly Narrow-minded Uncreative Untrustworthy Cruel / selfish Bad behavior (n) Irresponsible Bad-tempered Moody Violent Liar (n)

We then watched a short film on Vimeo about one teenager and discussed it using those adjectives.

The Present from Jacob Frey on Vimeo.

Concession speech

After the break, we watched CNN a bit longer in hopes of hearing Clinton's concession speech, which was scheduled for 10:30 EST. In the end, the speech didn't start until after class was already over.

Homework

• p.20 ex 1-5 (review of Chapter 1)
• p.25 ex 1-5 (Chapter 2 grammar)

2016.11.02 - Class 4

Homework and exam review

We reviewed your homework from the last class and I gave you a few minutes to copy the vocabulary in p.17 ex 2-3 into your vocabulary notebooks. For example, for ex2 a), write 'asteroid belt', for b) write 'pallid (pálido)' (or something similar). For ex 3 a) 'belt up (in CA/ES)'. If anyone wants to make a Quizlet list out of these, please ask me for the password.

We also reviewed a couple sections from the Use of English exam you did in the last class and talked in general about your marks. I asked you to record your marks somewhere in your notebook. Every time you get a mark, you should add it to that page so that you can see your progress. This is really important, as otherwise, it's difficult to see improvement sometimes.

Speaking exam part 1

We discussed the video you had for homework. I'd particularly recommend:

• use less common verbs and adjectives to show off your vocabulary and include details
• use connectors like 'because', 'although', 'on the other hand' to make longer, more natural sentences
• use fillers to give yourself time to think (e.g. 'That's a good question.' or 'Let me see...')
• be ready to answer 'Where are you from?' and 'What do you like about living there?'

We then did some of the exercises on p.15. We also watched a video of two young women taking the FCE Speaking exam and evaluated it:

Afterwards, you practiced speaking part 1 in pairs.

Revision of your email writing tasks

To start off, we looked at an email that a real student wrote on an FCE exam. I also showed you how candidates' writing is marked and you marked the sample email in small groups. Then I showed you the marks the examiners gave.

Here are some general remarks on your answers.

1. In the question, where Chloe writes to you, she asks you if you plan to work and travel abroad. I'd recommend you answer these questions very directly. The people marking your email will be looking to see if you answered these questions - the easier you make it for them, the better. Most of you, for example, mentioned being busy with other activities and said you needed a rest. This is good, but I'd recommend adding that you don't plan to get a job, as you're busy with those other things. Also, some of you mentioned travel, even travel to other countries, which is great, but I'd recommend using the word 'abroad' in your email as well to make it very clear, e.g. 'Last summer I was abroad quite a lot, so this summer I'm staying near home'.
2. You are expected to react to the input and to finish your email (see the boxes on p.19). It's also critical that you address your message to Chloe (not me or another person).
3. Be careful with the verb tenses you use to talk about the future. To speak about your plans and intentions, you're best of using 'be going to', present continuous or future continuous. See p.165 or ask me if you're not sure about this.

You then marked your own emails in pairs. Later I showed you my marks. Your homework is to re-write your emails.

Homework

• Using my remarks above, your book and the comments I wrote on your email and which you got from classmates, write a final draft of your email. (If you don't have your corrected email yet, just do the following work from your book.)
• p.12 ex1 - write translations of these words in Spanish or Catalan, whatever you prefer. The important thing, of course, is to learn what these English words mean.
• Study (or at least read a couple of times) parts 3 and 4 of the Use of English practice exam you did last week. 

2016.10.26 - Class 3

Evie and Edie?

Today we began with a vocabulary quiz based on Two Peas in a Pod.

After that, you did a real Reading and Use of English paper from the First For Schools exam. All of you finished the exam and we corrected it after the break

In the next class I will return your exams to you and we will correct all four Use of English parts in detail. It's really important to study the Use of English exercises we do in class, and especially those from practice tests. Improving your mark in the Use of English is a matter of learning combinations of grammar and vocabulary. The best place to find these is in readings. The next best place is in practice exams and textbooks, so I will be encouraging you to take advantage of this (i.e. expect quizzes)!

We also watched a couple of video segments from Game of Thrones. Whoever knew Stannis Baratheon was a grammar nerd.

Remember: Less love and fewer fingers!

Homework:

• Watch the video below on how to do part 1 of the speaking exam
• pp.10-11 (Reading part 5, pay attention especially to vocabulary)
• p.17 ex 2-3
• If you want to, leave a comment below. It'd be great to know that you were here. Please just don't use your full names - it's important your privacy is protected.

2016.10.19 - Class 2

Today we agreed that next week you'll do a sample Reading and Use of English paper from a real FCE exam. It will be a First for Schools exam. I don't expect you to necessarily pass the first practice exam you take. This is normal. I just want to see how you do and want you to see how you do. Anyway, we'll discuss your results in more detail when we have them.

We then revised your homework (Two Peas in a Pod). I told you to learn the vocabulary from the first exercise, which is also in Quizlet. There will be a quick quiz on it at the beginning of Class 3.

We then worked in the book, doing a bit of grammar (on verb forms to talk about the future): exercises 1, 4, 5 and 6 on pp.12-13. I encouraged you to try to use the future continuous more often, as it is very common in spoken English. Next we worked on the Use of English Part 4 using exercises 1 and 3 on p.16.

After the break, we looked at the sample writing (an email) on p.18 and you did exercises 1 and 3. We ended class by doing a gap-fill exercise based on Bob Dylan's The times they are a-changing.

Homework:

1. Study for the vocabulary quiz. Here's a quizlet list if you want to use it.
2. Write an email for the prompt on p.19 (140-190 words). Remember to:
1. come up with 2-3 ideas for summer plans
2. respond to the questions about work and travel abroad
3. write a proper informal email (with beginning, ending, etc.)

2016.10.05 - Class 1

After finding out that many if not all of you want to take the FCE by summer 2017, we agreed to work towards that goal as quickly as possible in class.

You all then learned a bit about me by asking me questions and wrote up paragraphs that you shared with other groups. I then gave you a letter and explained that part 1 of your homework is to write a similar letter back to me.

We finished class by describing this photo and inventing stories about the people in it.

We then looked at an infographic about marriage and you matched the figures with the facts.

Finally, I handed out a story, Two Peas in a Pod, that you should read for next class. You should also learn the vocabulary in it.

Homework:

1. Write a letter back to me
2. Read Two Peas in a Pod and do the exercises. You can study the vocabulary in Quizlet or just below.

Quizlet and Dictionaries for vocabulary

Vocabulary is extremely important for the First Certificate. You need to know a lot of basic words and also their most frequent collocations, i.e. words that go with them.

For example, why do we say 'a tall woman' but 'a high mountain' (both 'tall' and 'high' are 'alto/a' in Spanish, right?)? The reason is that 'tall' collocates with people, whereas 'high' does not. Why? That's just the way it is - it's how people speak.

Here are a few fundamental resources that we will be using and which I encourage you to explore.

1. Dictionaries

Cambridge Dictionaries Online - best for looking up phrases and expressions. Also has Spanish definitions.
WordReference - has more phrases and expressions, but they are more difficult to find

2. Flashcards, etc.

quizlet.com which also has a free app, is great for studying vocabulary. There are loads of sets already online and you can also create your own lists. We will be using quizlet, so please install the app on your phone.

The link to our classroom (2016-17: Casp FCE1) is: https://quizlet.com/class/3450786/