READING BOOKS 2011-12

These are the titles of the books you will be reading along this school year. Look at your course and level to know a little more about it.  Have fun!


1º ESO 

"Girl on a Motorbike" Ed. Oxford (Starter Level) 1ºESO. LOWER LEVELS

'Give me the money,' says the robber to the Los Angeles security guard. The guard looks at the gun and hands over the money. The robber has long blond hair and rides a motorcycle - and a girl with long blond hair arrives at Kenny's motel - on a motorcycle. Is she the robber?




 
3º ESO

"K's First Case" Ed. Longman. 3ºESO. UPPER LEVEL

 Sir Michael Gray is the victim of a murder and he was very rich. Katrina Kirby - or K as she is called - is a detective and she wants to find out who the murderer is. But there are lots of suspects.This is K’s first case. Can you help her find the murderer?










"A Sherlock Holmes Collection" Ed. Burlington Books. 3ºESO. MEDIUM LEVEL

A masked man seeks protection from a political scandal; a nephew wants to find the truth behind his uncle's dark past; and a young woman fears for her life. All three como to the famous detective, Sherlock Holmes for help. Will he solve the three mysteries before it is too late? 







  
4º ESO

"A Kiss Before Dying" Ed. Burlington Books. 4ºESO. UPPER LEVELS

A powerful, hard-hitting adult story of murder and suspense by one of America's foremost novelists, which since its publication in 1954, has been made into several very successful feature films.










"The Short Cut" Ed. Stanley. (Level 1) 4º ESO DIVERSIFICACIÓN

 
In this thrilling story set in an African country devastated by war, a youn girl fights for her father's life taking a [shortcut = atajo] to maturity. Topics for reflection and discussion: family arguments, generational gap, therealization of what really matters in life.









2º BTO

 One choice can transform you. Pass initiation. Do not fail! Thrilling urban dystopian fiction debut from exciting young author. In sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior's world, society is divided into five factions -- Abnegation (the selfless), Candor (the honest), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent) -- each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue, in the attempt to form a "perfect society." At the age of sixteen, teens must choose the faction to which they will devote their lives.



 

MODAL VERBS

Last week you didn't have enough time to work on modal verbs, so today I hope you will.

1.- If you didn't become a millinaire last week, start by taking the Millionaire Quiz Challenge 

2.-Then do the two activities below the image.

3.- Now watch the following movie segment from Premonition and guess what might have happened to the characters. Check the options you believe are possible explanations for the characters’ current situation.








4.- Now try the following 4 rephrasing exercises.

5.- Finally, if you've finished all the above, you can listen to the following song by Abba, The Day Before You Came, where there are lots of examples of modals for deduction.

Lyrics | Abba lyrics - The Day Before You Came lyrics

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)

HOW DID YOUR CAMP EXPERIENCE GO?

Now that the week at Pueyo de Jaca's camp is about to finish, we would like to know your opinion about the experience you have lived through the following questionnaire:

2ºESO: GALILEO GALILEI'S GREEN TEAM

 

As you all know, 25 students have been selected to take part in the inmersion project organized by the Ministry of Education. As a result, you will be spending a week in Jaca, the town where this programme will be carried out. There you will be tutored by two of your English teachers and by several Canadian and English-speaking instructors, who will develop different activities regarding the environment, all of them in English. Remember your goal is to improve your English, so you have to use English at all times.

As part of this inmersion project, you will also be doing some activities designed by your teachers everyday.

DAY 1

Warming up

Watch the following playlist with ads about enviormental issues.

In groups, discuss which one you like best and why and then cast your vote below:



Now listen to the song and try to fill in the blanks

Now take the following Can it be recycled? challenge

Can it be_recycled_challenge

View more presentations from amef0011

Your task for the next days is do some research on the topic and in groups you must create an awareness campaing we can take to our school by doing some posters on Glogster, designing some ads and and performing a play.

DAYS 2, 4 & 5

You will be working in groups to create the material mentioned above.
The videos and sites below may be useful if you need inspiration.

• Learn how to make your school greener in the following website.

Clipped from: www.epa.gov (share this clip)

• Watch this video to learn how to save energy:

• Click on the image below to download the script for your play.

• Fancy a game?

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.

FAME AND CELEBRITIES

Let's do some revision and extension on the topic of fame and celebrities.

Lots of people seem to be willing to do anything as long as they get their "fifteen minutes of fame", as Andy Warhol said in 1968. As things have turned out, the rise of celebrity culture and reality television in the Western world since then has shown Warhol to be quite prophetic.




1.- Dictation. Listen to the MP3 file below and complete the blanks

2.- Vocabulary: Revise some of the words studied so far by doing some of the free activities on the site below:

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

3.- Now take the following quiz and find out which celebrity you would be. Share your results with us in a comment. Tell us who you are and something about you.

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

4.- Think of a celebrity and challenge Akinator to guess the identity.

Clipped from: en.akinator.com (share this clip)

WHAT ARE WE LIKE?

Let's keep revising and learning more adjectives you can use to describe someone's personality.


Complete the following activities and you will learn all the vocabulary.




1.- QUIZZLET
First learn the adjectives in the following flashcards.

Choose a Study ModeScatterLearnFlashcards

Study these flash cards

Now complete all the activities below

2.- WHAT ARE THE SIMPSONS LIKE?
Read about the Simpsons characters and choose the correct adjectives

3.- DESCRIBING PEOPLE
Watch the video below and answer the questions on the left.

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

Listen to the song by Christina Aguilera and write a post with the personality adjectives she mentions in her song.




Finally in pairs create your own word cloud in worldle with as many adjectives as you remember. The more times you type a word, the bigger it will appear on your wordle. When you are done, save it to the public gallery and send me the url. Check a sample here.

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.

LETTERS TO ESPERANZA AGUIRRE

After reading some articles published on the international press about the cuts on education, BTO students from a non-bilingual school have written letters in English to Esperanza Aguirre, stating their own opinions about the situation. They are published below with their consent. English still exists beyond bilingual schools; I just wonder how long for.

Dear Esperanza Aguirre,

With this letter we want to protest for the staff-cutting measures, because it's bad for our education and future generations. With this staff-cutting measures some teachers hace to teach other subjets that they didn't study.
Also there are more students in the classroom. If the education is bad , now with these measures it will be worse. You mustn't give financial help to private education, but you must give this help to the public education.
On the other hand, with these measures the unemployment rate will grow.
Esperanza, we know that you want to privatize public education.

Victor Tíscar, Sergio Pérez, Héctor Jiménez, Roberto Secayán. 2º Bach A T



Dear Mrs Esperanza Aguirre,

The students at Galileo Galilei high school want to write this letter to you in answer to your education policy.
The consequences of the staff-cutting measures are varied. One of them is the rallies that teachers and students have prepared and will prepare in response to the government, because all students need a good education. These measures mean fewer lessons and it causes worse learning. Moreover, it's a problem for Bachillerato students, because they are going to do an exam to access University, and it's very important for the future of the country and for their own future.
For these reasons, we think that it is better to take money away from other less important things than education. For example, we can save energy and water. We hope that you think about our request, because if education is very good, the future of the country will be better than now.

Fátima Arrogante, Raquel Flores, Raúl Pérez and Alejandro Sánchez 2ºBACH.A 

 
Dear Esperanza Aguirre,

We want to tell you about our disagreement with the changes you have made in public education. This year we are a lot of students in the same class and we don't have enough teachers. Every year in the ESO we have been divided into levels, but this year it hasn't been possible. Due to the cuts, the students have fewer lessons in laboratories or computer classes.
We ask for classes with fewer students. We want the money to go to public education, and not so much to private schools. We also want more aids for books and school material for needed people.
We have been studying in public schools all our life and we don't want to leave public education because of worse quality.
We hope you consider our opinions and change something in favor of public education.

Artem Hrytsay, Aarón Alonso, Irene Ortiz, Sandra Pérez


Dear Esperanza,

We are five students from a public high-school, and we are writing a letter to express our worries about the stuff-cutting measures which the government has made.
Some of these problems are :
- Withdrawal of direct tutoring with students and this is essential to be ok in the high-school.
- There are more students in each class and less personal attention and for this reason the school quality is worse.
- Teachers won't have time to plan extra-activities.
To finish we would like you to change this law because it's very bad for public education and we haven't got the same chances as those in privte education.
Thank you for your time and we hope you to listen to our request and try to make our education better because we are the future of this country and its development depends on us.


Marta Souto, Elena Pascual , Andrea Baguena ; Sofia Morales y Ana Garcia



Dear Esperanza Aguirre,

We are sending you this letter because of the steps you have taken against public education since we are students from a public school in Alcorcon.
What encourages us to write this letter is our disagreement with your educational policy.
The strike is causing serious consequences on students, especially on the students of 2nd of bachillerato, who are missing many lessons in the year on which they are asked to face the University Entrance test. Due to the cuts, teachers and school are not able to provide basic services like library, back up teachers and sets.
Now that we've explained what's going on in the school itself, we're going to talk about the teachers' behavior.Students are cooperating and joining the teachers' movement. Protests and demostrations are being carried out around certain points in the cities according to their strategy, which is based on catching everyone's attention howards the complainers, so the protests are taking place in places like city halls.
We hope this letter will make you think about our poor situation.


Juan David, Cristian, Daniel and Ruben


Dear Mrs Aguirre,

This year I have been a really good boy. I have studied a lot at my public school to get good marks. I have helped my parents at home and I have looked after my little sister. I have even gone to see the Pope.
After all this good behaviour, I want to ask you for something. You should remove the cuts that you have made in public education since I hvae been such a good boy.
I don't deserve this treatment. I can't afford a private school but I'd love to have a good education. With your cuts in public education, that would be imposible for me.
For this reason I won't rest until you remove the cuts.
Good night! I'll prepare you biscuits with milk for you and your camels.
Enrique Bala, Raul Ortis, Isidoro Gonzalez, Javier Miguel 2º Bach A

PERSONAL PRONOUNS

Watch the following presentation to understand Personal Pronouns and Possessive Adjectives in English.

A1 U1 Possessive Adje

View more presentations from crisholm

Now, if you are in 1ºESO you can do the activities in your Virtual Course



Look at the chart below with all the Personal Pronouns in English.

Let's revise personal pronouns by retelling "Little Red Riding Hood" tale.
Part 1 
Part 2

MADRID TEACHERS ON THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

On the second day of the strikes against the cuts on public education, Madrid teachers have been echoed today, September 21st, by The Wall Street Journal. You can read the article here.
It seems our voice is being heard. Will they hear it too where it matters most?
There is also a video. Your teachers are becoming international!!

CUTTING ON YOUR FUTURE

Most Secondary Education teachers in Madrid are feeling quite demoralized at the beginning of this school year due to the budget cuts imposed by the regional government. We sadly see how all the hard work and sacrificices made in the past years have been crushed into mere dust thanks to the miscalculation of those in power. It's not the two-extra hours that we're complaining about but the fewer teachers and the more students per class. Having students grouped into different sets according to their competence in English enabled teachers to attend diversity among students. However, this year's cuts will make them impossible.
The situation is not better in other countries, such as Chile or even USA, where they risk losing some good teachers. Nonetheless, there will always be people who speak up for teachers in public education. Matt Damon, whose mother is a teacher, made a speech in favour of public education in USA.

Wath the video and try to answer the questions below:



1. How many children did Matt Damon's mother have?
2. Why is Matt bald?
3. How did Matt get to the rally?
4. What did he learn at school?
5. What does he think about tests?
6. Why didn't he take standard tests?
7. What should teachers do rather than test students' knowledge?
8. What does he appreciate more now that he's older?
9. Who is behind teachers, thanking them?

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

3ºESO: ORAL FINAL 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.
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: Friday 3rd June

3º AB FEEDBACK 

3º CD FEEDBACK

AND THE OSCAR GOES TO...

Here are the results for the Best Actor, Best English and Best Video Awards awarded by APLE2 students and teacher. A new award has been added to acknowledge the Best Edition job. CONGRATULATIONS!!

BEST ACTOR

 

BEST ENGLISH

 BEST EDITION

 

BEST VIDEO

 

You can watch more videos in the wiki

NURSERY RHYMES

These are the nursery rhymes you need to learn for your sketch. Start listening to them and learning the lyrics.

One Two, Buckle My Shoe


Hush Little Baby, Don't Say a Word


London Bridge


Once I caught a Fish Alive


Jack Be Nimble


The Mulberry Bush


Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes


Jack and Jill

SENIORS' FAREWELL LETTERS

Here is the collection of farewell letters written by students who are graduating this year. It might be interesting to read them and see how they are feeling now that are about to graduate. Good luck to you all!

Open publication - Free publishing

1ºBTO: SPEAKING ASSIGNMENT

For your speaking marks this term you need to comment on the following VoiceThread about honesty. There are five different slides with five different statements about honesty which you must agree or disagree about. Give reasons for your answers or give examples to clarify your point of view.




Deadline: May 31st

FEEDBACK ON YOUR VOICETHREAD

sk8r boi

Listen to the song by Avril Lavigne and try to fill in the blanks. I promise this time it's easier than the last one.
Try to understand the lyrics and tell me about the story. Write a post with the story of the song and the results you got in the cloze test. 

  

TIME FOR FAREWELLS

Time is coming to say good-bye to students in APLE2 since the school year will soon be over for you and you will be starting a much more exciting and real period in your lives. You will step into the world to forge your own paths in life, which I am sure you will find, however difficult you might find it now. 
I wouldn't like to see you off without letting you know you've been a special group of students who I've really enjoyed teaching. Unlike the ordinary English subject, not being subjected to a text book has given me the chance to deal with a wide variety of topics and current affairs which I hope you found interesting. Your suggestions and initiative have undoubtedly made the task easier. I would also like to acknowledge your willingness to take part in all the activities, although some of them were quite embarrassing for some of you - I'm thinking of last year's sketches. I hope that you feel your English has improved after these two years in APLE. 
However, I won't let you go without setting your last assignment. This time I would like you to WRITE, something I haven't asked you to do in these two years, except for some commentaries in the blog. I would like you to write farewell letters leaving your testimony about what the years spent at Galileo Galilei have meant to you. You could think of how you felt when you were the new freshmen at the school and how you feel now that you are about to leave. You could write about any anecdotes or memories you have of all these years and give advice to the newcomers who will read your letters. Write them in the wiki and I will post them in the blog later on. Show them how good you really are!

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.

YOUR IDEAL JOB

As preparation for your job interview I would like you to make your comments about the suggested topic in the Voicethread below .
Needless to say, all these final assignments are really important for your final marks, so try to do your best.
Deadline: May 4th










Check the feedback here.

These are most of the questions you will be asked at the interview. You can think about the answers while waiting to be interviewed.

LISTENING PRACTICE FOR APLE 2

Since you're about to take the first of the last two listening tests in the year, today you'll be doing some listening practice in the following sites:

1. - Take the following test after listening to a conversation between a customer and a shop assistant.


2.- Try one first certificate listening test here.

3.- Select the level you feel more at ease and choose one dictation.


4.- Finally you're going to choose at least three senior students who were asked about their 10-year plans and write a comment with the details.

EARTH HOUR DAY

Earth Hour Day was celebrated last Saturday 26th March all around the world. Did you know about it? Did you take part?
 
Go to Qwiki  and learn a bit more about the origins of the event.

Then watch the following video about Earth Hour 2011



Listen to the following piece of news from Breaking News English and fill in the gaps below:

  
Have a look at some pictures from different sites in the world before and after the event

A JOB INTERVIEW

You are going to learn how to prepare for and have a successful job interview.
Being prepared promotes confidence!
Most interviewers make their decision within the first three minutes, so make a terrific first impression.

TASK 1:
Let's start by listening to a job interview and answer the question that follow.


Watch the following video giving you some advice about what it is expected from you at a job interview:






TASK 2:
In teams you will find out information about one of the questions asked in the wiki webquest. Then, you will present it to the other class members in a 5-10-minute PowerPoint presentation or role play.

TASK 3:
You will make up your own interview questions and then interview each other. Click here to dowload the questionnaire. Here you have more information on interview questions. Have a look at more sample questions here. You can read about some suggested answer to those questions here, too.

TASK 4: 

Step 1: Now, individually, you are going to download a job application and fill it in, you can get it by clicking here

 

Step 2: You will hand in your application form to your teacher; and later you will have an interview with her. You should dress as if you were going to apply for a real job interview. The way you are dressed will add up to your final grades; your teacher will set up the date for your interview.

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

Bombay TV

We are facing the last term and we need to get to work before you become all stressed out with your final exams.
I would like to remind those of you who couldn't complete their 2nd or 1st term tasks, to do so for this 3rd term, as you're having a continuous assessment.
As you know, the final project has already been devised and you should start working on it. Check the instructions and guidelines in the wiki.
To get you in the right mood for the project, we are going to watch some Bollywood clips.



Click on the image below to go to the page and follow the instructions:

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

1. Choose one clip from a Bollywood film. Watch the clip several times.
2. In pairs, write your script for the clip and assign the roles. 
3. Once everything is set, it is time to dub the clip. On the top right hand corner, choose "microphone" and when everybody is ready, click on "record". Remember you will all be using the same microphone, so hold in in your hands. 
Try to convey your character's personality through your voice. (If it is a woman and you are a man, you will have to simulate a woman's voice)
4. When you finish recording, click on stop, listen to the clip with your audio and if you are happy with it, fill in the information at the bottom. Give the clip a title, write your names, your email address, my email address and send it.


I'm sure we will spend a good time listening to them in the next lesson!!!

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

APLE2: HOLIDAYS AROUND THE WORLD

During this term you've been making oral presentations of holiday celebrations that take place in different countries and cultures all over the world. I think most of you have worked hard on your projects but now it's time to know how much you have learnt about them. 

Click on this link to take the test. Don't forget to register with your full name and surname, please.

Also remember to upload your presentations to the wiki by March 11th.

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?"