2017.02.22 - Class 17

Writing part 2: Emails/letters and Stories

Emails/informal letters

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 be 1-2 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.


Afterwards you wrote a story based on this official Cambridge prompt:

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.

2017.02.15 - Class 16

Unfortunate witnesses of a 1962 nuclear test

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:

1. Record your grades in your notebook (so you can see your progress).
2. Look for weak spots and write a short explanation of them to me.
3. 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.

Homework

No homework for next week.

2017.02.08 - Class 15

Practice exam

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.

2017.02.01 - Class 14

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.

Post Scriptum

After the exam and break, we watched the 'the Netherlands second' video (see homework from the last class) and did this trivia/review quiz.

Homework

• 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.