VALEDICTORIAN OR GRADUATION SPEECHES

The end of the school year is getting closer for you and hopefully your time as secondary students is also coming to an end. From now on you will be starting a much more exciting 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.

However, before that, I would like to set one final assignment, which definitely will have an important weight in your final grades.


You have to write and give your Valedictorian or Graduation Speeches! 

The term Valedictorian is an anglicized derivation of the Latin vale dicere ("to say farewell"), which is basically what you will be doing.


Let me give you a few hints to make the task easier.


A Valedictorian or Graduation Speech is a closing or farewell statement or address delivered at a graduation ceremony. Its aim is to thank, exalt, stimulate to action, motivate, to affect and touch, even to raise to a higher emotional level, and finally to say farewell. You do most of these by reflecting on the past years and putting special emphasis on some events, especially meaningful for 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.


As you see, writing your speech is not difficult. I am sure ideas will start flowing in easily. Be sharp and short: no more than 3-6 minutes is enough for delivering your valedictorian speech topics.


Anyway, here is a skeleton and structure to use.


DEADLINES

• You will upload your first drafts in the wiki by April 16th.

• Redrafting will be possible until April 20th.

• Speeches will be given on April 27th and May 4th.

Remember to use rich language and structures, be yourselves and most of all, do not use a translator or copy from the Internet.

Surprise everyone by dressing up for the occassion. It will add up to your marks. "Suit up!"

You can watch and listen to some speeches delivered by some well-known people.

Here is the speech given by Shakira at Oxford University.

Here you have Lady Gaga and Oprah Winfrey at Harvard University.



And last Bill Gates also at Harvard.



I hope these examples come in useful for your assignment.

WRITING PROMPT FOR 2º BTO

You are in the third term now and it's time to try and do your best in the school year. Being the writing the most difficult part in the university entrance exam and the heaviest weighed, you need to do some more practice to improve your written skills. 

This time I want you to choose one of the following prompts and write 100-120 words about it. Do not use translators, do not copy your writing from the Internet; by now you should have enough vocabulary and no grammar obstacles to make your writing flow. Try to impress the reader, that is, me, by making a good job out of it.

You'll be doing this assignment during Easter holidays, so you need to type your essays in this pad

Deadline: Sunday 8th April

FIRST STEPS ON PRESENT PERFECT

 

 

Let's learn the basics of this important tense in English!

 

 

 

 

 

Present Perfect Tense

More PowerPoint presentations from Demet Matyar

It's time to practise to master the Present Perfect Tense.

Have or Has
Participles
Participles?
Present Perfect & Participles Hangman Game

Have + Past Participle  
Negative 

Question
What have you done?

There are some words which are typically used with Present Perfect.

Already and Yet

Just

Just, yet or Already
 

Been to or Gone to?


Listen to the song
Song with blanks



Present Perfect or Simple Past?
Present Perfect vs Simple Past Game

Who is Daniel Seddiqui? What has he done?

REPORTED SPEECH

Telling someone what another said is called reported speech.
How often do you have to report what someone else said? Really often. We do this every day. Children tell parents what teachers and classmates said at school. Friends tell one another about events from their day, including what co-workers, classmates, neighbours, and relatives said. Because reported speech does not use the speaker’s exact words, it’s also called indirect speech. It’s different from quoted or direct speech, which uses the speaker’s original words.

What did they say?

The following presentation tries to sum up the main changes that take place when we report what somebody previously said:

Reported Speech Theory And Changes

Practice on Reported Speech
Reported Speech Worksheet

Online Practice

STATEMENTS	QUESTIONS	COMMANDS
Statements1	Questions1	Commands1 (Affirmative)
Statements2(time expressions)	Questions2	Commands2 (Negative)
Statements3 (gap-filling)	Questions3 (time expressions)	Commands3

Revise Reporting Verbs with this useful video:




The following video gives further and modre detailed explanation on reporting verbs.




The following presentation sums up the different reporting verbs and their patterns. 

Reporting verbs

View more PowerPoint from amef0011

Now it's time to practice them by doing the activities below.

Reporting Verbs 1
Reporting Verbs 2
Reporting Verbs 3
 
Quizz 1
Miscellaneous
Report the text

Game on reporting verbs

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

THE PASSIVE VOICE

We often use the passive to describe things, especially when we don’t know -- or aren’t interested in -- who is doing the action. In order to sound natural in English you will need to use the passive sometimes, so let’s practise it!

Passive voice-

View more presentations from amef0011.



Make sure you do some of the activities below:

Passive 1                                                     -Have something done 1

Passive 2                                                     -Have something done 2



Passive 3

Passive 4

For those of you who are still struggling with Passive Voice, try these exercises to revise the basics.


Now complete the passage with the correct active or passive form of the verbs in brackets.

Finally try playing this game. You can play alone or in pairs.

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

Passive (advanced.1)
Passive (advanced.2)