This is it -- today is our last class together this year. It's been a great year and I wish you all the best on the FCE, whenever you take it.
Flo-Joe
I'd encourage you to keep up the FJWB habit over the summer. And if you move on to the CAE, there is a similar word bank for the CAE. Most people underestimate the jump in level that CAE involves, so give yourself a nice head start by using Flo Joe over the summer.
Exam practice
We did a bit of exam practice based on what all of you most wanted to work on.
Survey
At some point we are going to the computer room so that you can complete a survey about our class at this link: http://bit.ly/valoracioculturals1617
Besides the Flo-Joe Word bank, there are other free resources at Flo-Joe. So if you want to do a little extra work before the exam over the next few days, or want to spend some time on the FCE or the CAE over the summer, you can use these links.
Remember also that there's a list of useful resources from Class 23.
Today's word bank -- copy down the words and sentences into your notebooks, even if you already know them!
Speaking parts 1 and 2
Remember:
Answer the question!
Compare the pictures -- don't waste time describing them!
Writing part 2 - Review
Arrange the following sentences into a review of the film Iron Man 3. The review has a title and four paragraphs. The third paragraph has three sentences in it.
Iron Man 3
Overall, Iron Man 3 is highly entertaining.
I'm not a great fan of action films so I wasn't expecting to
enjoy Iron Man 3.
The acting is first-rate, as you would expect from starts like
Downey Jr, Kingsley and Gwyneth Paltrow, and they are well supported by the
rest of the cast.
I can wholeheartedly recommend it to almost anybody.
The plot isn't particularly sophisticated.
However, I was pleasantly surprised by this action-packed
follow-up to the first two Iron Man films.
It revolves around an attempt by the shadowy villain Mandarin
(Ben Kingsley) to launch terror attacks on the United States, and Iron Man's
(Robert Downey Junior) superhuman efforts to foil his plans.
Visually the film is superb, with spectacular special effects
that are a hallmark of the Iron Man movies.
It isn't a deep or complex film, but as a two-hour action movie,
I can't fault it.
The script is witty and clever, with lots of snappy dialogue and
many amusing moments.
Do exercises 5 and 6 on pp.54-55 of your books and then write the review under exercise 7 on p.55.
Then we did today's Word Bank at Flo-Joe, which is a free website that all of you should be using between now and 10 June.
Challenge
Do the Word Bank activity three days a week -- once in our class and two other times at home.
Copy all the words into your notebook and study them.
Writing articles for the First
Comparative and superlative adjectives in Tibetan!
We practiced writing articles for the FCE. First we did an activity to get you thinking and talking about a topic, and then we used that topic to write an article in class.
The topic: Learning how to do something
1) With a partner, talk about a skill you have learned (e.g. to play the guitar) and describe how you learned it (e.g. taking a class).
Note that you learn to do something and that you can learn it (by) taking a class.
2) I told you about a time I learned to do something.
Note the use of the narrative tenses (past simple, past continuous, past perfect) in my description. Why are they appropriate here?
3) With a different partner, take turns describing how you learned your skill. Ask each other questions, give suggestions and give each other constructive feedback.
4) We watched a video in which a new skill is being learned. Did they use any of the methods from 1) above?
5) We looked at this vocabulary (p.2) from the video and matched the words in circles (○) to words in a diamond (◊) to make collocations.
First - Articles
1) Look at the model article on p.160 of your book. With your partner:
Describe the style and tone of the article.
Where does the article speak directly to the reader? Do you like this?
2) Now let's look at an article from a real student and exam and see how it was marked. This is on p.27 of the FCE Teacher's Handbook. With your partner, consider:
How does this article compare with the first one? What strengths does it have? What weaknesses? What marks would you give it?
Content (follows the instructions)
Communicative Achievement (style of an article, clarity of ideas)
Organisation (paragraphing, linking words)
Language (grammar & vocab)
3) Here's a summary of some Key tips for writing an article:
Plan your article based on the instructions
Give it a creative title
Try to interest the readers using language like 'Have you ever wondered ...?', 'How would you feel if ...?', etc.
Make each paragraph about a different point
Give reasons for your opinions and, if time allows, examples of them
When you finish, check that:
it has a title and 3+ paragraphs
it answers the questions in the instructions
4) Write an article based on the following exam prompt. Can you use any of the collocations from the video?
The most useful thing I have ever learned.
What is the most useful thing you have learned?
Who did you learn it from? Why is it useful?
Write an article answering these questions.
We will publish the best articles on our website.
Plan your article with a partner:
What skills do you consider important?
Choose one and think about who you learned it from and why you learned it.
Why is it useful? (be creative)
Think about which paragraphs these ideas will go in.
Think of a title.
Then write your articles individually. Remember to follow the rest of the Key tipsin 2) above.
After reviewing your homework, you did a few review exercises based on the Use of English parts 1 and 4 that you did last week.
You also did some work with the Reading part 1 that you did last week.
Then you completed parts from a Listening paper.
We continued practicing for Speaking part 2. This time you spoke about the sameset of pictures with two different classmates and then wrote out your answer a third time. The idea is to improve on what you say each time so that by the third time you have a very good answer.
Music
We also did a listening exercise based on some music from a television series.:
We also watched a few scenes from Modern Family series 2 episode 6 that play on the fact that Gloria has a Colombian Spanish accent in English. Why did Jay get a package of Jesus figurines?
We have 8 more classes before our last class (7 June) and some of you take the exam (on 10 June).
We will also do games and non-exam focused work in class from time to time, but in general for the next 8 weeks we'll be doing a lot exam-focused exercises and activities.
I'm giving extra homework to some of you, though anyone is welcome to do it. It will consist mostly of work in the Student Book (I will give you the answers so you can correct your own work).
The plan
Every class do 1-2 Reading & Use of English tasks
Every class do 1-2 Listening and Speaking tasks
Write a Review
Write an Article
Today
UoE1, UoE4 and R1 tasks -- also corrected and analyzed them for nuggets.
S2 activity
Back to the screen activity -- speaking task with this video
Today we talked about the story you read and then watched the film you read a review of last week. It also talked to each one of you about taking the exam in June or not.
The exam will be 10 June here at the school.
In the short extra time we had after the break, we played a few FCE-related games: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
Homework
Spend as much time as you can, at least two hours, with English over the holidays. Focus on your weak areas (e.g. Reading, Use of English, vocabulary).
Next week (29 March) we will have class from 14.45-15.45.
16.00-17.30 I will be available to meet with your parents. Please remind them!
On 5 April, DON'T TAKE the British Council level test here at the school. It is not for you, and would be a waste of your time! If anyone tells you that you should take the test, please tell them to talk to me.
Classwork
Today we began class by reviewing the Unit 8 Progress Test that you had for homework. You were also supposed to study the vocabulary in our class in Quizlet.
Following up on the vocabulary about achievement, we thought about success and watched a TED talk (thanks to Debra Josephson Abrams for the idea).
1) What is success? (we brainstormed this)
2) How do we become successful?
What
inspired the speaker to investigate the secrets that lead to success?
How did
he investigate?
What are
the eight secrets that lead to success? What is the difference
between "secrets to success" or "steps to success" and
"steps that lead to success?"
What are
some problems that stop people from success?
What
vocabulary did you hear with which you’re unfamiliar? What does
"workafrolic" mean?
This time, however, I asked you to copy 10 vocabulary units into an email as you worked -- I explained a specific method I wanted you to use.
As you read, copy and paste words and phrases (especially phrases) into an email in another window.
Copy the whole sentence they are found in.
You should copy at least 3 per page that you read.
After about 30 minutes of reading, you will have time to choose the 12-15 that you think are most important.
Then use one of the dictionaries (see the links on the top right of the blog) to define the phrases. Use the sentence you found it in as an example.
Email me your list with the names of your and your partner.
Example:
'Your father had already woken you up in the middle of the night to meet some creepy old man that claimed he was an old friend of the family, despite the fact you'd never seen him before in your life.'
despite the fact (that) - even though, a pesar de que, aunque
'I still enjoyed the week despite the weather.'
'He managed to eat a big lunch despite having eaten an enormous breakfast.'
Book / FCE exercise preparation
We reviewed the word pairs you studied last week, plus some others.
We also worked on some of the Review exercises on p.104 in your book.
We then began Unit 12 Make a difference by listening to and thinking about a true story told by an American man named Julio Díaz, who lives in the Bronx (New York City).
His story was gathered as a part of the StoryCorps project, in which ordinary people are asked questions about their life.
Before we listened to his story, I asked you to imagine what you would do in the situation he found himself in:
'You are coming home after a hard day when you are held up at knifepoint by a teenager.'
Where was Julio?
What did he offer the other guy?
Where did they go?
Who came to talk to Julio?
What did Julio and the teenager exchange?
After listening to his story, comparing what you understood and talking about what was unusual about his reaction, we watched an animated version of it available on vimeo to help understand it better.
We talked about the TED talk that you were to watch for homework:
And also reviewed some of the vocabulary that you are supposed to be studying.
Finally, we worked with the sentences that you wrote using collocations from Sleeping. You exchanged papers and shared ideas.
Book/First Certificate work
We then turned to your book, pp.100-101 to work on Use of English part 3 (Word formation) and Word pairs and did several exercises with those.
Story
We also looked at the first page of a story called The Price of Freedom that we continued in the computer room after break. I asked you to pay attention to vocabulary and especially collocations as you read the story.
After the break
After the break, we went to the computer room to work through more of The Price of Freedom: Innocence lost from chooseyourstory.com . Press Play and then New Game. And remember to pay attention for vocabulary and collocations -- copy and paste sentences from the story into your email and send it to yourself to keep track.
Homework
Spend at least 30 minutes more reading The Price of Freedom and collect 10 or more collocations or phrases. Write them down or print them on a piece of paper.
We talked about the stories you wrote last week, which were really good.
I reminded you that it's important to use the narrative tenses well, to use specific and more advanced vocabulary, and, perhaps most of all, to write a story with a satisfying ending that makes sense within the narrative, i.e. that gives some sense of resolution. It's also of course essential include the required details -- in this case, an address and a surprise.
If you don't have a creative idea for the story prompt that they give you on the exam, then you might just want to do a different kind of writing.
Short story from homework ('Sleeping')
We then turned to the story you had for homework. I asked you to read it again right then in class. After you read it again, I asked you to search through the first two paragraphs for vocabulary that you thought might be important to learn.
Choosing vocabulary to study is a difficult thing to learn and so we'll be working on in class over the rest of our time together this year.
Here's some vocabulary that I chose from the first two paragraphs. Some of it you already understand, but this doesn't mean that you recall it and use it. In class, you copied these items into your notebooks and underlined them in the text. Note that many of them are phrases or combinations of words - at the level of the First, it's important to remember words together.
Write 5 sentences using the vocabulary from Sleeping above. Your sentences should be similar to the ones in the exercise above. Write them on a sheet of paper that you can hand in (i.e. not in your notebook).
Work through this Quizlet list at least once, which will prepare you for the TED talk below.
Watch this TED talk by Jamie Oliver. Use English subtitles if you need them.
Study the vocabulary above (Vocabulary sets to study)
Last week I returned your marked emails (Writing part 2 from the exam), but we didn't look at them together. Today I made a few points about the emails that you wrote that should help many of you:
'receive' is a bit formal for an email to a friend - what could you use instead?
After 'Hi Sam,' there should be1-2 sentences saying 'how are you?', 'thanks for your letter', 'I'm excited for you' or something similar. This is true of any email or letter you write for the First.
Give specific as well as general advice. For example, instead of just saying 'try to meet people after school', you could suggest joining a sports team, the photography club (since Sam take such good pictures), etc.
Before you say goodbye, there should always be 1-2 sentences where you close the message. Here it's often a good idea to express a wish you have for yourself or for your friend. For example: 'I look forward to hearing from you soon' (a wish for yourself), 'I hope you enjoy your new home', 'I hope you make lots of friends in Montenegro' (wishes for your friend).
Similar to what you did last week with the Reading and Use of English papers, I asked you to write down 5 errors or suggestions you can learn from.
Stories
Last week you also finished the story that was begun in ex5 on p.37 in your book. Today, we talked about the story as an option in Writing part 2 on the First for Schools (not the First Certificate).
We then watched this brief video with some important points on how to do it well. It's especially important to use the narrative tenses well.
Begin your story with: 'Tom got off the train and as the train left, he realised he was holding the wrong suitcase.'
Your story must include: 1) an address and 2) a surprise
Listening
We did a listening exercise based on this video of a gym class in Sweden.
Homework
Read the story ('Sleeping') that I handed out and answer the questions about it as best as you can.
Post-Testing Syndrome
Today we spent the first half of class analyzing the exams that you did over the last two class sessions. We corrected the Use of English paper in detail and went through the answers to the Reading paper, and I also returned your Listening and Writing 2 papers.
I also gave you some time to:
Record your grades in your notebook (so you can see your progress).
Look for weak spots and write a short explanation of them to me.
Record 8 grammatical structures, vocabulary words or collocations that you got wrong in the Use of English and Writing 2 parts of the exam. You should study these of course.
Moving on
After the break, we went back to the book, specifically exercises 1-2 and 4-5 on pp.36-7. You handed in the endings of the stories that you wrote to me, and we will continue to work with them in the next class.
Today we continued with the Practice exam. You did the Listening paper and also did Writing part 2. If you missed class today, next week you should expect to make up the Listening exam. You can do the writing part for homework - I will post the instructions below on Thursday.
I also returned your Reading and Use of English papers, as well as the essays (Writing part 1) that you wrote in class in Class 12. Some of you did not follow the instructions very carefully and so got lower marks than you were able to. This is a real shame!
Homework
If you didn't do Writing part 2 in class today or didn't give me you essay in class 12, bring them to the next class to hand in to me.
N.B.: 'fantastic' is an extreme adjective - 'absolutely' is OK.
Homework and Vocabulary
We reviewed your homework from the last class (you might not have known about it if you didn't remember to check the blog for your homework) and you had the vocabulary quiz you begged me for and which I begrudgingly promised to give you.
Practice exam
Today you did part of a practice exam, more specifically the Reading & Use of English sections. Next week we'll continue with it.
Review this Quizlet list , which has vocabulary from the story you have for homework (below).
Read 'Sleeping', by Katharine Weber, which I gave to you in class. If you missed class, you can also read it at CommonLit. Answer the questions on the back of the paper.
We talked about how you will be doing parts of the next practice exam over the next couple of weeks depending on your attendance and other factors. You might want to bring a snack to eat during our break time for the next few classes if you think that will help you.
We also quickly reviewed your homework. You can find the answers to p.36 ex1 in this Quizlet list. I also encourage you to study this list if you need to. The answers for p.36 ex3 are: a) totally, b) extremely, c) absolutely, d) quite, e) very.
I also returned your texts about the photos from 2016, which I really enjoyed! I was not able to finish marking your essays and will return them to you next week.
¿De qué estarán riendo? - translate into English
Speculating or making a supposition
The last time we looked at some photographs, we more or less knew what was happening in them. But often on the First Certificate (and in life) you often have to guess what his happening.
We looked at some ways to do this and considered the following from Spanish grammar:
Especulación o suposición sobre un hecho en el presente:
Tendrá muchos deberes, será por eso que está tan estresada.
Debe tener muchos deberes...
Es posible que tiene muchos deberes...
We translated these three sentences into English using the modal verbs 'must' and 'might'. We also talked about similar forms such as:
modal + V (e.g. 'She might have a problem')
modal + be + adjective (e.g. 'She might be upset because ...')
modal + be + V-ing (e.g. 'She might be sleeping now')
What about when we want to speculate about what happened, i.e. the past?
Especulación o suposición sobre un hecho en el pasado:
Habrá tenido una avería, por eso no ha llegado.
Debió tener una avería...
Es posible que tuviera una avería...
We also translated these into English (using 'must have' and 'might have') and
We also considered how to pronounce them in reduced forms:
must have -> must've -> 'musta' (must of)
might have ->
could have ->
must be ->
might be ->
Finally, we also used the Grammar section on p.96 in your book to work on the grammar for this a bit more and used the images on p.123 for Speaking part 2 practice.
Whodunnit
On the piece of paper I gave you, write short answers to these three questions:
What did you do on Saturday night?
What is one of your favorite books or films?
What was the last thing you ate before now?
I'll explain what to do after this. Pay attention to your pronunciation - practice using reduced forms.
John Lewis Christmas ad
First, some vocabulary for talking about the video:
I'll explain what we're going to do with this - just putting the links here so we can find them easily.
Last week we agreed that today we would start a practice test. In the end, what we did today is a writing task (more specifically, an essay, which is required in part 1 of all FCE exams).
You've all done a lot of essay writing at school and in your English classes. Nevertheless, we reviewed the basic structure of an FCE-style essay and how to prepare for writing one using pp.30-1 of your book.
Then we reviewed the question you wrote about (p.44 of this pdf) and you planned your response. You compared your plans with each other and then wrote your essays.
After reviewing one of the sample essays written for the same question as you wrote about ('Teenagers are too young to teach other people about anything'. 1. Technology, 2. The environment, 3. Your own idea), you exchanged essays and gave feedback and marks to each other.
I will also read and mark your papers. The marks you get will count towards the mock exam we'll be doing over the next few weeks.
We ended class with a couple of songs in Lyricstraining.
Today you wrote to each other about your holidays and the contact you had with English.
We then looked ahead to what's coming up this term. In the next few weeks, we'll be doing another practice exam. We'll do part of it in the next class (Class 12, 18 January) and then the rest on a date that works best for the majority, keeping in mind retreats, exams, trips, etc. It will be one of the following.
25 January
1 February
8 February
Photographs
We did an activity based on this photo listening to what the photographer said about it in this audio. Some vocabulary that came up form this was:
We talked about why each one could be considered influential and then you wrote short texts explaining which of the six you think is the most influential. You also commented on your classmates' choices in writing.
Textbook
After the break, we did a quick review of Unit 2 and corrected it.
Homework
You have a choice - choose only 1 or 2 (don't do both).
Choose one of the images from Time Magazine's 10 Best Photos of 2016. Which one would say is the most important or influential? Why? Explain why and what you think about the photograph in 75-150 words. You don't need to describe it - explain why it is significant.
What image of yours from 2016 is the most meaningful for you? Why? Explain the story behind it and what it means to you. Print a copy of your picture with a 75-150 word text explaining it.
