2017.06.07 - Class 31

This is it!

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

Interactive fiction

Choose a story from this menu and enjoy!

Film

We reviewed and previewed some vocabulary from the film and then finished Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.

From now on

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.

2017.05.24 - Class 29

Focus?

What do you want to focus on in our last two classes (next week and the week after!)?

Flo Joe Word Bank

Writing the words and sentences in your notebook is a way to study, but also remember to study them at home.

Corrections of exam practice

Study especially the corrections of the Use of English. Even just reading through them once a day is something, though of course you should do more.

Speaking

Part 3

Listening

I thought we'd do something a bit different for listening practice today.

Homework

Democratic

• p.116 Review
• p.125 Vocabulary

Extra

• p.117 Vocabulary
• p.118 Reading
• p.120 Vocabulary and Grammar
• p.124 Use of English 3

2017.05.03 - Class 26

https://sandymillin.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/
when-i-teach-fce-again/

Flo-Joe showcase

Six weeks left till the exam!

First, you set aside 12 pages in your notebooks:

• 4 pages for Phrasal verbs
• 4 for Word formation and 
• 4 for Collocations. 

An example is on the right:

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 tips in 2) above.

After the break

We played a few games in class to take a break from exam tasks.

We did a listening exercise based on this video.

Sentence auction

1. It is typical knowledge that many immigrants want to settle to Germany. 
2. I had rather you didn’t tell anyone my secret. 
3. She couldn’t understand the message he left here -- it didn’t have sense. 
4. I recommended a book to him and I hope he finds it interesting. 
5. Iran denied claims that it is manufacturing nuclear weapons. 
6. Thunder results when lightning causes sudden changes in the air around it. 
7. Dr Gregory House would probably say that dreams have no real purpose. 
8. My maths exam went well except for two specific problems, which I had no idea how to solve.

Homework

Democratic homework

• p.68 Review
• p.77 Vocab
• Read the model article on LE Teens

Extra homework

• p.70 Reading 1
• p.72 Vocab and Grammar
• p.76 Use of English 4
• https://www.memrise.com/course/71431/advanced-english-b2c1c2-spanish-speakersaudio/

2017.04.26 - Class 25

Exam prep

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 same set 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.:

What do you hear? Think of:

1. the instruments
2. the place (city, country)
3. the occasion (event)
4. the time period
5. what it reminds you of

Afterwards, we watched the full video.

Pronunciation

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?

Showcase

LearnEnglish Teens: http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/exams

Homework

Democratic homework:

• p.56 review
• p.65 vocabulary

Extra homework:

• p.58 Reading 3
• p.60 Vocab and Grammar
• p.64 Use of English 3

2017.04.19 - Class 24

Countdown

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

1. Every class do 1-2 Reading & Use of English tasks
2. Every class do 1-2 Listening and Speaking tasks
3. Write a Review
4. Write an Article

Today

1. UoE1, UoE4 and R1 tasks -- also corrected and analyzed them for nuggets.
2. S2 activity
3. Back to the screen activity -- speaking task with this video
4. L1 -- also corrected them.

Homework

The democratic homework is:

• p.44 review
• p.53 vocabulary

The extra homework is:

• p44 review (same as democratic homework)
• p45 vocab
• p46 reading 2
• p48 vocab & grammar
• p52 use of English 2
• p53 vocab (same as democratic homework)

Check your own answers.

2017.03.22 - Class 21

Reminders

A reminder from the 1930s.

1. Next week (29 March) we will have class from 14.45-15.45.
    
2. 16.00-17.30 I will be available to meet with your parents. Please remind them!
3. 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.

Then we worked in the book a bit:

1. Reading part 7 (pp.142-3)

2. Vocabulary - collocations (p.144)

3. Grammar - Causative verbs (pp.144-5). This grammar is very common in Use of English part 4, so it's important to understand it. 1   2   3   4

4. Listening parts 1, 2, 3 (this was from a real FFS test, not from our book)

5. Speaking part 2 (p.147)


all ali

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?

1. What inspired the speaker to investigate the secrets that lead to success?
2. How did he investigate?
3. 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?"
4. What are some problems that stop people from success?
5. What vocabulary did you hear with which you’re unfamiliar? What does "workafrolic" mean? 

Homework

Look here on Thursday for your homework.

2017.03.08 - Class 19

Homework review

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.

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.

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)