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

2017.04.25 - Exam and workshop dates

FCE Workshops at the British Council Bonanova

Date	Time	Focus
Monday 24th April	19:00 – 20:30	Reading
Thursday 27thApril	19:00 – 20:30	Use of English
Tuesday 2ndMay	19:00 – 20:30	Listening
Thursday 4thMay	19:00 – 20:30	Writing
Monday 8th May	19:00 – 20:30	Speaking

https://www.britishcouncil.es/en/exam/fce-first-certificate

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.

2017.04.05 - Class 23

Film

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

1. 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).
1. Exam English
2. Tiny TEFL Teacher
3. LearnEnglish Teens (exams section)
4. LearnEnglish Teens (reading - be sure to choose 'B2' level)
5. English revealed
6. Today school Use of English tests
7. VirtuAule (grammar and reading)
8. ESL lounge
9. flo-joe.com
10. memrise.com
2. Read the story at the link below, where lots of the more difficult vocabulary is defined for you: http://vocabkitchen.com/learn/student/#/startsession/592 .

2017.03.29 - Class 22

Short class

Today we had just one hour of class due to my meetings with your parents 16.00-17.30.

Sentence auction

We reviewed some vocabulary from the past few months in a sentence auction.

• 'auction' = subasta (or subastar) -- 'Famous paintings are often sold in an auction.'
• 'bet' = apostar (or apuesta) -- 'I'll bet you 100€ that I'm right.'
• 'bid' = pujar (or puja), hacer una oferta (or oferta) -- 'I start the bidding at $40 million.'

Sentences for auction

1. Some women say that David Henrie is a fox, in other words, that he's really attractive.
2. Tyler's room reeks of dirty socks.
3. The main entrance to the Corte Inglés in downtown Barcelona is located on an alley.
4. At 19 degrees, the weather has been sultry today.
5. Chips, pretzels, peanuts and other nuts are considered savoury snacks.
6. My neighbour nevers throws away his stale bread -- he takes it to Plaça Catalunya and feeds the birds.
7. That mustn't be Michael Jackson -- he passed away years ago!
8. I was sound asleep until the door squeeked when you opened it!
9. We are all really tired and in desperate need of a break -- it's a good thing Easter break is coming up soon.
10. She was thinking about Charlie, asking herself what he looked like.
11. I first changed a diaper when I was about 35.
12. Stop badgering me! I'm sick and ill of your complaints!

A film review

We then did a jigsaw activity with a review of the film that we're going to watch in the next class.

Homework

Read the pages from the story I gave you in class -- or if you weren't in class you can read Clarke's story here.

Mark vocabulary that you want to learn. Remember:

• Don't mark all unknown vocabulary -- only vocabulary you think is important.
• Vocabulary is not just words, but also combinations of words.

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.

2017.03.15 - Class 20

Reading and vocabulary work (continued)

We began class by continuing with The Price of Freedom interactive fiction piece at chooseyourstory.com . Or, if you preferred, you could read 50 Ways to be killed by zombies, which we read once a couple months ago.

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

http://www.wordreference.com/es/translation.asp?tranword=despite%20the%20fact%20that

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/despite

'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.

Julio Diaz from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

Homework

• Spend 20 minutes studying vocabulary from our class in Quizlet.
• Finish the Unit 8 Test paper we started in class.