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

2017.03.01 - Class 18

Specific details can be memorable!

Stories

Writing part 2 from last week

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. 

1	change a diaper
2	in fact
3	be out at (the movies)
4	sound sleeper
5	no need (for someone to do something)
6	have a bottle
7	the door squeaked
8	a brief moment
9	when she was about six
10	bestowed on her (the tight little bundle)
11	her arms began to ache from the tension
12	by the time (something happened)

I then asked you to do the following exercise.

Fill in the gaps in the sentences below with vocabulary from the first two paragraphs of the story. Sometimes you need to use more than one word.

1. By __ Luca finished my homework, it was too late to do anything but go to bed.
2. For __ moment, Fernando had no idea where he was. Then he recognized his bedroom and realized he’d had a nightmare.
3. There was no __ you to bring your textbooks to class today - we’re having an exam. __, you don’t need them next week either.
4. One of the first things new parents must learn to do is to __ a diaper.
5. Jordi’s baby sister was __ asleep - not even the squeak of the __ woke her.
6. When I __ eight, we moved from Virginia to Vermont.
7. By the time he got to km 35 of the marathon, Carles’ legs __ from the effort of running.
8. Next week the director of the school will be __ on Mònica an award.
9. Judit’s baby brother was __ a bottle when she got home from school.
10. Marc was out __ on Saturday. I know because I saw him there.

Course book Unit 8 - Food

We worked through various pages and exercises in the coursebook in Unit 8, with a focus on Vocabulary, Grammar and Speaking:

1. p.93 ex 2 and 3
2. p.96 Vocab ex 1-3 - here's a Quizlet list of this vocab for you to study
3. p.97 ex 5

We then watched Chef Jamie Oliver show a group of young kids how to make chicken nuggets. Will you go home and make some?



We ended by doing the speaking exercises on p.98 (preparation for Speaking parts 3 and 4).

Vocabulary sets to study

1. Sleeping
2. Unit 8 Food
3. Jamie Oliver TED Talk vocab

Homework

1. 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).
2. Work through this Quizlet list at least once, which will prepare you for the TED talk below.
3. Watch this TED talk by Jamie Oliver. Use English subtitles if you need them.
4. Study the vocabulary above (Vocabulary sets to study) 

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.

2017.01.18 - Class 12

From Practice exam to Writing workshop

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.

Homework

1. pp.34-5 (Reading part 6): ex 3 (the exam task)
2. p.36 Vocabulary: ex 1 and 3

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!

2016.11.02 - 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. 

2016.10.19 - 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.)