ESL NewsPaper 2013

ESL students in the 4th year write news reports from photo prompts in groups and this is the result: the third edition of ESL NewsPaper.

Well done, everyone!

4º ESO: A DISCUSSION ESSAY

Notice that Discussion Essays follow a fixed structure. The following example can help you organize your essay.

Discussion Essays 

Try the wheel game to practise connectors to improve your writing skills.

Choose one of the following topics and write a discussion essay about it (100-120 words) here.
DO NOT COPY FROM THE INTERNET OR USE A TRANSLATOR.

Deadline: Friday 18th


1. Are we too dependent on computers?
2. Are actors and professional athletes paid too much?
3. Are there benefits to attending a single-sex school?
4. Is the Internet a better invention than books?

A KISS BEFORE DYING

I hope you are enjoying the book assigned to you this year.
It is an exciting and powerful thriller of murder and suspense.
You are going to start working on a document divided into the three parts of the book. You have to make some kind of contribution in the document. You don't have to answer all the questions, but all of you have to take part in some way. You can answer the questions already asked by me, or you can ask some yourselves. You can give your opinion, write new words you have learnt...







Below you can find the document where you will all be typing your comments. I hope this comes useful as writing practice and to help you understand the book better. Don't forget to write your name after your contribution.



                                                                       
                                                                      PART 1

                                                    Click here to download document 1

                                                      Deadline: Saturday 28th

A Kiss Before Dying: Contributions 1

                                                                         PART 2

Clipped from: galileogalilei.titanpad.com (share this clip) 

                                                  Click here to download document 2

                                                        Deadline: Monday 6th


                                                                     PART 3 

Clipped from: galileogalilei.titanpad.com (share this clip)

                                                 Click here to download document 3
          
                                                    Deadline Monday 13th

Reading Test: February 20th

WRITING 4th ESO

Being writing one of the most difficult skills for students to master, you are going to start writing short texts about the topic suggested on a regular basis.

Being short does not mean making less effort. You need to be creative and write well-crafted paragraphs in correct English. Try to make use of the vocabulary and structures studied so far according to your level.

I have created a collaborative document where you will all type your essays and where I will make my corrections and feedback. Type your essay here.

The pictures below are the first writing task for you to accomplish along the week. You have been studying modals in the course book, so I hope you can use them in your writings. Do not write more than two paragraphs on the whole. Choose the picture that inspires you more.

Deadline: Saturday 21st







As the firewall won't let us access the online document, you can see your mistakes and corrections here

ENGLISH CENTRAL 2012

Happy 2012! Welcome back after the Christmas break to practise your listening and speaking skills. This term we are going to use English Central for this purpose.

English Central offers a unique speech recognition platform which allows you to practice SPEAKING with any video you choose and then get INSTANT FEEDBACK on how well you are doing. This year it comes with new features which include phonetics and vocabulary study.


First of all, enroll my class (http://class.englishcentral.com/amef) by clicking here.
You need to register with your full name, email address and password. Now you are part of my group of students.


If you are already familiar with English Central, you just need to login using the nickname and password you registered with last year and go straight into videos to start adding points to your account.

I will set different goals for you to reach along the term. The goals are based on videos, words and points. Each new goal will be set weekly. 

English Central will be part of your final marks this term.

GOALS


WEEK 1: from Saturday 14th January to Friday 20th January.


3rd ESO: 2,000 POINTS

4th ESO: 3,000 POINTS


WEEK 2: from Saturday 21st to Friday 27th January.

3rd ESO: 4,000 POINTS + 5 VIDEOS MINIMUM 

4th ESO: 5,000 POINTS + 6 VIDEOS MINIMUM

WEEK 3: from Saturday 28th to Friday 3th February.


 3rd ESO: 5,000 POINTS + 6 VIDEOS MINIMUM

4th ESO: 6,000 POINTS + 7 VIDEOS MINIMUM

WEEK 4: from Saturday 4th to Friday 10th February.


 3rd ESO: 6,000 POINTS + 6 VIDEOS MINIMUM

4th ESO: 7,000 POINTS + 7 VIDEOS MINIMUM

WEEK 5 and LAST: from Saturday 11th to Friday 17th February.


 3rd ESO: 7,000 POINTS + 6 VIDEOS MINIMUM

4th ESO:  8,000 POINTS + 7 VIDEOS MINIMUM

DESCRIBING PICTURES

As you know, next week we will start with the oral tests where you will have to describe a photo. Let's hear some examples and do some practise to help you with the task a bit more.

1.- Watch the following video which teaches you how to describe a photo together with some useful vocabulary and expressions.

Now write a comment with the words you remember for each picture. Do not worry if you can't remember all the words, just write down those words you remember.

2.- Go the site below and listen to the sample descriptions and the key words.

Clipped from: www.autoenglish.org (share this clip)

3.- Fill in the gaps with the expressions studied. You can click on ? for clues.

4.- The words studied so far may be useful to describe your photo. Revise the vocabulary in units 1 & 2 by doing the activities in the site below:

Clipped from: www.spellingcity.com (share this clip)

PRESENT PERFECT

It is time to revise the main uses of the Present Perfect. We need it to express important things about our lives.

• Complete the 9 activities on the site below.

Clipped from: www.english-grammar-lessons.com (share this clip)

In the following presentation you have all the uses and more practice

Pay attention to the video to understand the different uses of AGO, SINCE and FOR and try the challenge below the video

Clipped from: www.quia.com (share this clip)

Check the use of FOR and SINCE in the following activities.


1.- For / Since
2.- For / Since
3.- For / Since
 

Now have fun with the following games.

Clipped from: elt.oup.com (share this clip)

You can keep playing lots of different games here.

Finally, watch the following cartoons where Present Perfect has been used.

STEVE JOBS: THINK DIFFERENT

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” Steve Jobs, as quoted in The Wall Street Journal (Summer 1993). 
And indeed he did many wonderful things. As U.S. President Barack Obama said, Mr Jobs was “bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it”.
Let's pay tribute to him by watching this video where we can learn a bit more about his life and his life philosophy:
- The first story is about connecting the dots.
- The second story is about love and loss.
- The third story is about death.





Try to answer the following questions:

-WHY DO YOU THINK HIS MOTHER DECIDED TO PUT HIM UP FOR ADOPTION?
-WHERE DID HE START WORKING WITH APLE?
-HOW MANY EMPLOYEES DID APLE GET TO HAVE IN JUST TWO YEARS?
-WHAT HAPPENED WHEN HE WAS 30?
-DID THAT MAKE HIM ANY GOOD? WHY?
-WHY DID HE RETURN TO APPLE?
-WHAT KEPT HIM GOING WHEN THINGS GOT ROUGH?
-HOW DOES KNOWING HE’S GOING TO DIE HELP HIM?
-WHY IS DEATH HEALTHY?
-WHAT WILL MAKE THE DIFFERENCE IN YOUR LIFE?


Here is the first Think Different Apple commercial that never aired, narrated by Steve Jobs: "Here's to the Crazy Ones". What makes great people great?

 "Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square  holes, the ones who see things differently. They are not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo.

You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things, they push the human race forward. 

While some may have seen them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do."

There are 17 great people in the commercial. How many did you recognize?

Writing Task for 2ºBTO

1. Write an essay describing the kind of company you would like to start.
2. Write an essay in which you compare Bill Gates of Microsoft and Steve Jobs of Apple.
3. In his comment speech at Stanford University, Jobs spoke about how he used the idea that we could die at any time as a way of motivating himself to work hard. Write an essay in which you either agree with this idea and provide reasons, or why you disagree with this idea.
4. Today is the last day of your life. Write an essay describing what things you would do with your time.

4th ESO: FINAL ORAL ASSIGNMENT

In the VoiceThread below you have to answer 10 questions orally. The questions are related to the topics studied in the student's book along the year. They are divided into three different sections and you must answer at least two questions in each section to complete a total of 10 questions.
Try to anwer the questions in correct English. Try to speak as much as possible using the structures and the vocabulary studied this year. Speak slowly and clearly. Be careful with your pronunciation and don't get nervous!!! It will be me just listening to you...!




Deadline: June 9th

FINAL VOICETHREAD FEEDBACK

ENGLISH ATTACK! GIVE IT A GO!

English Attack is a new online resource for helping students of English improve their competence in the language. It provides an online entertainment platform which offers interesting video clips on a wide variety of topics. All the videos come with interactive activities and vocabulary games. You just need to sign in and choose a video according to your interests or level of English. Watch the video and do the exercises that follow. They are called video boosters and are based on music videos and short clips from movies, hit TV series and news channels. Don't miss the vocabulary games.

The video below presents this innovating site to learn English. I hope that you will continue improving your English when you finish your BTO, and I wish all the tools I've been presenting you with prove to be useful in your future individual learning. This site will definetely be one of them.

WILL AND OTHER MODALS

Try to fill the gaps in this song and pay attention to the use of will in the song

Do the following activities to learn about COULD, CAN, WILL BE ABLE TO.

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3 

Now play the following games to practise the use of CAN, COULD AND WILL BE ABLE TO




Try again with this other game:




Try the following quiz

DISASTER IN JAPAN

Today we're going to read and listen about the earthquake and the tsunami that devastated the north-east coast of Japan and their immediate consequences. Learning a bit more about their tragedy will not help to even imagine what they must be going through, but we might become more aware of the seriousness of the situation.

1.- Go to Sean Banville's lesson on Japan's Nuclear Crisis  and put the sentences in the correct order to create a logical text


2.- Now listen to the news and try to fill in the blanks in Sean Banville's cloze activity. Send me the screenshot with your results.

3.- Now go to this section and try any of the Play activities there to learn more vocabulary.

Now have a look at some striking satellite images taken before and after the accidents and compare by yourselves.

You can watch this video from CNN Students News and read the script at the same time here

4th YEAR REVISION

Let's get ready for next week's exam. Take the following challenges and tell me how you did in a comment.

 

Now revise the vocabulary with the help of the following flashcards. Follow this order: Flashcards, Scatter and Learn

Choose a Study ModeScatterLearnFlashcards

Study these flash cards

Finally, try the following games starting by the FlashCard game.

Click here for larger version


Revise modal verbs with the following "Who wants to be a millionaire?"

2ND TERM ORAL ASSIGNMENT

Make a 1-2 minute comment on the topic suggested in the VoiceThread below. 
Deadline for your comments: March 5th







You can see feedback on your voicethreads in the documents below. Please have a look at the mistakes and not only at the marks. Remember how important it is to learn from your mistakes to improve your English.

Marks for 3rd ESO STUDENTS

Marks for 4th ESO STUDENTS

2nd TERM ORAL ASSIGNMENT: PRONUNCIATION

You have to pronounce the verbs in the VoiceThread below, but before make sure you revise the -ed pronunciation rules in the following video.











DEADLINE 3rd AB: Friday 16th December

1BTO: TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF ENGLISH

Take the challenge and check how well you're doing in English.

Now check your vocabulary on the following game.

Choose a Study ModeScatterLearnFlashcards

Study these flash cards

Finally, a bit of fun while revising grammar and vocabulary. Please start with the FlashCards Game.

Click here for larger version

And another challenge:

SLAM by Nick Hornby

I hope you are enjoying the book assigned to you this year. The simple fact of reading an unabridged book in English will be quite a feat for you and surely I will acknowledge it.
As agreed, you are going to think of some questions for each of the chapters of  "Slam" and we will discuss them in class.
In order to help you collaborate and make this task more interesting, I have created a document where you will type out your questions and you will all be sharing. In this way, all of you will know the questions your classmates have asked.
The final test will be based on these questions. So take good notice!
If you click on the image below you will be taken straight to the document with the questions. I have typed the first one as an example.

Clipped from: titanpad.com (share this clip)

Also in the document below, you can type difficult words or expressions and I'm sure somebody else will help you, or I will, in the last resort. But remember that you mustn't understand every single word in the book. If you come across a difficult word, don't stop, keep reading and only if you think you're losing track of the story, you should check a dictionary or type your word in the document.
You can also help your classmates by translating the word or expression.

Clipped from: typewith.me (share this clip)

You should also know that I will always know who is collaborating in one or another document.

Here you can find the mistakes you made in the Slam exam

TED WILLIAMS: THE GOLDEN VOICE

I don't know if you've heard of this man, Ted Williams, but he has actually become a star thanks to Internet and YouTube. The site has once again proved itself to be a king maker, as the most anonymous people can become massive stars.

Watch the following video to know about his story and answer the questions below.
When you finish answering the questions, scroll down and fill in the grids with your full name, my teacher code "galileogalilei" and the class ID: "none". That way, I will be able to see your results.

ENGLISH CENTRAL CHALLENGE

I'm back after the Christmas break with new projects and ideas to help you improve your English. This term you are going to work on your listening and speaking skills with English Central 




English Central offers a unique speech recognition platform which allows you to practice SPEAKING with any video you choose and then get INSTANT FEEDBACK on how well you are doing. This year it comes with new features which include phonetics and vocabulary study.

If you have never used English Central, first of all you'll need to register with your nickname (use your whole name as nickname),  mail account and password. Now you are part of my group of students. Go to Videos and click on Ana Mendez (Galileo Galilei) Channel. 

If you are already familiar with English Central, you just need to login using the nickname and password you registered with last year and go straight into videos to start adding points to your account.

Check the FAQ section to learn about rankings and scoreboard.

GOALS:

Week 1: from Saturday 15th January to Friday 21st January

APLE2: 6,000 points
4th ESO: 3,000 points
3rd ESO: 2,000 points

WELL DONE! MOST OF YOU REACHED THE GOAL

Week 2: from Sunday 23rd January to Saturday 29th January

APLE2: 7,000 points

4th ESO: 4,000 points

3rd ESO: 3,000 points

CONGRATULATIONS TO THOSE WHO REACHED THE GOAL THIS WEEK!!!

Week 3: from Monday 31st January to Sunday 6th February

APLE2: 8,000 points

4th ESO: 5,000 points

3rd ESO: 4,000 points 

Week 4: from Tuesday 8th February to Monday 14th February

APLE2: 9,000 points

4th ESO: 6,000 points

3rd ESO: 5,000 points

                                  
                                                            

Week 5 and LAST: from Friday18th February to Friday 25th February

APLE2: 10,000 points

4th ESO: 7,000 points

3rd ESO: 6,000 points

                                                                       

LIFE STORIES

I'd like to invite you to visit the Life Stories created by students in 4th ESO and vote for the cutest, the best, the greatest book, the one you like best.










WHICH IS YOUR FAVOURITE LIFE STORY MIXBOOK?... at AnswerGarden.ch.