Second term, Second week

Hello eveyone,

Last week we were doing our first evaluation tests. I hope the results are good (I am actually finishing the corrections)

On Thursday, we started with physical descriptions and learning the differences between "look" and "look like". I gave you one page in Harry Potter and the Philosofer's Stone to illustrate their use. Here you can download the complete book in pdf. The page I gave you was number 12.

For homework, you had to read the text on page 40 in the student's book and do the activities.
To practice and revise descriptions, CLICK HERE. It is a funny listening activity.

Next week we will start our oral productions. Download this document where you can find the links to the topis we are going to talk about in each class. You can choose the best for you. Remember it doesn't have to be a very long exposition. JUST 5 MINUTES. (OK, or 7)

Everybody has to read the information planned for every day. If the person assigned for one day cannot come to class, I will choose a different student to speak about that topic that day.

IMPORTANT: if you prefer to speak about a particular topic but you find an article which is more interesting than the article you find in the schedule, email everybody with the link to the article you are going to comment because we have to read it BEFORE you speak about it in class.

This is going to be very exciting!!

Ninth week

Hello everyone,

Last week we had Chanelle with us. She was talking about the evolution of families in Canada, which is similar to the rest of the developped countries, I think. She talked about blended families, single parent families, common law couples, half-brothers, half-sisters, same sex marriages, divorces, etc. She gave us some figures and statistics about this in Canada.

For extension, click here.

We finished unit 5B talking about gender stereotypes to continue talking about families and relatives. What is the real difference between these two words? It is quite cultural. "Family" is included in "Relatives", which is a wider term used by anybody sharing a blood relationship. You can read in the previous link what other people think about it.

Then, on Thursday, we were talking about how to convey promises, predictions (with and without evidence), offers, plans or intentions and arrangements, as well as the difference between reciprocal and reflexive pronouns.

Here you have the key to handouts 11 (future tenses), 12 (personality adjectives and modern living) and 13 (reflexive and reciprocal pronouns.

Next week we will finish with the unit about the family and start talking about our work-life balance, free time, obligations... our lifestyle in general, so you should do "Modern living" in handout 12.


On Thursday, we will compare the pace of life in London with the pace of life in Granada, so you have to click HERE to listen to a text about it. (You can read ONLY after listening twice or three times. But... how will we organise this activity?


1. First, you have to click on the link above.
2. Second, you should learn the new expressions (to rush, he can't cut it, I make it part of my daily schedule, the pace, at a snail's pace, "me time", it's all too much for me, or any others)
3. Then, listen to the text two or three times.
4. Listen again and read at the same time. Learn any other new words which you think will be useful.
5. Compare the way people live in London with our lifestyle in Granada paying attention to the things they do that we do as well, or that we don't do. Give real examples from your daily life. You can answer some of the journalist's questions, for example:
- Is life in the capital really too fast?
- Do you ever find yourself trying to slow down?


You can also add some suggestions to slow down. If you click here, you will find some tips.
6. Think that your speech should take 3 or 4 minutes only. Organise it around 3 or 4 ideas.


7. Make sure you use new language: new vocabulary from this text and from handout 12 as well as quantifiers (we will revise them on Tuesday).

On Thursday I will choose two or three people to come to the front of the classroom and talk about the pace of Life in Granada as compared to London. You all have to prepare it.

For those who did not come on Thursday or arrived late, I recommended two readers.

Stories of Suspense, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Black Cat- Vicens Vives.

The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer. Black Cat - Vicens Vives.

The first one will be discussed after Christmas and the second one after Easter. They are not compulsory. If you don't like them, you could always choose other two. And of course, you can read more than two! I recommend you to use the Virtual Library.

Enjoy the rest of the evening!

Seventeenth Week

Hi there!

This week we did the exams. Next Tuesday you will have the oportunity to see them, but I would prefer to meet in tutorials if you want me to explain some aspects in more detail.

On Thursday we started unit 3A and we spoke about the general features of Modal Verbs. We were also learning some vocabulary related to mobile phones and phone calls. Don't forget to revise it and do the activities in the workbook and the Multi Rom.

As homework you had to do the reading activity on page 38.
In this website you can read some rules of etiquette related to the use of mobile phones. You can have a look at it and write your opinions in a comment, if you agree or disagree.

You also have a reading activity related to Mobile Phones in our School Virtual Library. Its code is 0000000229, and its title is Mobile Phones.
Aren't you a member of the Virtual Library yet? What are you waiting for?

Next week we will finish studying obligation and start deduction. You will find out how useful and easy to use modal verbs are.

Now you have here some cartoons. Enjoy them and see you in class!

Sixteenth Week

Hi everyone,

This week we have been revising how to make requests and ask for permission.
Taran also helped us to revise. Do not forget to finish the activity you were doing when he left.

We also revised how to do a for and against essay, vocabulary about travel and journeys, and Gracia spoke about the benefits of tea and coffee regarding diabetes.

Now I am going to paste here two of your compositions, one by Felipe and the other by Verónica. I liked them very much. Thank you guys!

(I must make clear that Felipe invented everything. Don't believe what he says; they are fictitious problems, so don't worry about him!)

A FORMAL EMAIL
From: felipegonzalez@terra.es
To: healthlifemagazine@hotmail.com
Subject: sharing my problems


Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to ask for some advice about my nervous problem. I am suffering from anxiety. I got married in the summer of 2008. My wife and I have been very happy since that day. But now she is not in love with me. She says I am fatter than when she met me. She strongly believes that the problem is that I have forgotten to do exercise. The problem is that I only earn six hundred and fifty euros: I use a half to pay the rent, forty percent to pay the food and ten percent to pay transport. I have no money to go to the gym to get fit. This situation promotes anxiety.

I honestly feel that my wife is right. I have had too many awful habits so far. I would like to change myself, buy I cannot. For example: During this year I have eaten too many sausages, oyster and lobster. In this time I have been eating fried eggs once a day. Frequently I have eaten duck and pork. Definitely I have been eating fattening food.

I ought to change my awful habits. I will be able to feel the happiest man in the world like two years ago. I cannot change myself because I am lazier than a bear, more whimsical than a king, more selfish than a bank robber, and I cannot wait any longer.

I need to improve quickly or my wife leaves me definitely. I have looked at your website, but I would like some advice about my problem. I would also like to learn another way to spend less money than I am spending at this moment. If possible, I would like you to write your advice next week. I am going to buy your magazine at this moment.

I look forward to hearing from you

Yours faithfully

Felipe Fernández González



AN ANECDOTE

I couldn’t choose the best day of my life, but I can say that last Saturday was one of them. Now, I’m going to explain why.

Last weekend, on Friday evening, my boyfriend told me that the next day we had to go to a place at eight o’clock. I asked him why, and he said to me that to do one thing that only happened once every 22 years and I couldn’t ask him questions. When I went to sleep that night, I couldn´t forget what we were going to do next day. And really, I wouldn’t have ever imagined what awaited me.

Luckily, the next day came. I woke up at quarter to seven. I was very sleepy, but I was sure that day would be very special! My boyfriend and I took the bus to go to that place. It was on the outskirts of Granada, near Hermitage of “San Miguel Alto”, which is located west of the city. When we arrived there, there wasn’t anybody. I was scared because it was dark and I didn’t know what we were doing there.

Later, at quarter past eight more or less, we saw a family that were arriving by taxi and other couples by car. Just then, a big car with trailer came there. The trailer was carrying a big basket! So soon, I understood what we were doing there. We were going for a balloon ride!! At that moment, I was in shock! I couldn’t believe that it was happening to me. My boyfriend knew that I wanted to ride in a balloon once in my life and he wanted to give me a surprise. Of course, he got it!

When the balloon was prepared to take off…, we, six people more and the pilot got into the balloon and little later we started rising into Granada’s sky. Just off, to get some height we could admire the Sacromonte, the old town of Albayzin, the Cathedral and, of course, the Alhambra and the metropolitan area of Granada. What a lovely view! Moreover, we met people who were in the ride with us. There was a married couple to which their children had given them the ride. All of them were very nice! Finally, the drift, always subject to the wind’s direction, led us to the Vega of this city where we landed.

In the end, the flight organizers invited us to have breakfast and they gave us a funny flight’s certificate. At that moment, it was about half past eleven. I felt the happiest person on Earth because I had made my dream come true.

Fifteenth week... first week after Christmas

Hello everyone,

Last Thursday, first we were talking about our Christmas holidays, our new year's wills, and we revised what we had been studying before Christmas.

Then we learnt how to make requests, to ask for permission, and to respond to them in Practical English in the student book unit 2.

We also revised the structure of narrative texts.

For homework you have to finish unit 2 and Practical English in the workbook, and of course, you need to revise for the exam, which is next Thursday (oral exam) and on the 19th (written part). You should also read Gracia's text, which you can find at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8411605.stm, as she will make her oral presentation next Tuesday.


Next Tuesday we will also finish the split crossword and we will start unit 3 in the book. We will start talking about mobile phones. If you have already logged in at our School Virtual Library, find the activity "Mobile phones" with code 0000000229 to start learning new vocabulary.

You can also read and listen to an article related to mobile phones here

I hope you enjoy it!

Jane Eyre

Hi everyone,

Here you have a reading extension to Jane Eyre.
You will find more detailed information about the author, the time when the book was written, some facts about the implications of the book at the time, etc.

I am sure you will enjoy this book much more if you step forward into a more detailed reading and analysis.

You can write here or by email your comments on the topics for discussion that you will find on the last page.

This week we have been revising Present Perfect Simple, Continuous, and Simple Past.
We were also talking about how misleading translations from Spanish can be.
We did a listening activity about a news bulletin, and another about a woman who took a year out in Beirut. I think they were quite easy!!

Here you have a bbbeeeeaaauuuuutiful song which contains the present perfect continuous:

We also talked about recent activities which we have been doing and for how long.
We learnt the differences between for and during (we will practice more about this next week).

We gave our opinions about some "myths" related to money.
We learnt to stress certain words in a sentence (content words) to emphasize them.

And now... homework for next Thursday:
- Grammar on page 133
- Reading on page 26
- Update the Workbook
- Write an email to a health magazine. This is your problem: "I am stressed, I suffer from anxiety and I spend too much money" .

Don't forget to take into accout the structure and register of formal emails.

Paragraph 1. Introduction: who you are and what your problem is.

Paragraph 2: Your background: your habits so far.

Paragraph 3: What you want to get, how you would like to change.

Paragraph 4: Conclusion and asking for advice.


Here you have a list of Health Magazines in case you want to have a look. Some of them even include podcasts.
http://www.world-newspapers.com/health.html



Changing topic, on Saturday night Antena 3 is broadcasing Jane Eyre. It would be a good idea if you can watch or record it so that you can compare it with the book later!!

Don't forget to use your TDT option to watch it in English. You can add Spanish Subtitles on teletext page 888.

Have a nice bank holiday!!

Eleventh Week

Hello everyone,

Last week we talked with Verónica about Sunbeds. Here you have a link to the activity.

We were also talking about Violence Against Women, analysing its causes, proposing solutions and giving our opinions. Thank you everybody for your contributions.

We also checked the reading on page 22 in your book and were talking about the possibility of living without money.

On Thursday, we did a Listening Test (which was a bit complicated, I know), we learnt some complicated numbers and figures and WE CELEBRATED THANKSGIVING!! Thank you, Taran, for your explanations and everything. It was a pity we had some technical problems, but in the end I think we had a good time together.

Here you have a video that Taran wanted to show. It is from the film the Addam's Family Values, and it shows a play about Thanksgiving.



Here you have the script in case you don't understand something:

Amanda/Sarah Miller: I am so glad we invited the Chippewas to join us for our holiday meal. Remember, these savages are our guests.
Amanda/Sarah Miller: We must not be surprised at any of their strange customs. After all, they have not had our advantages, such as fine schools, libraries full of books, shampoo…
Wednesday/Pocahontas:: How! I am Pocahontas, a Chippewa maiden.
Mr. Buckman: An Indian.
Mrs. Buckman: Enough said.
Joel/Running Bear: And I am Running Bear, betrothed to Pocahontas. Only in the play.
Stella: Twenty grand for summer camp, he’s Mr. Woo-woo.
Wednesday/Pocahontas:: We have brought a special gift for this holiday feast.
Pugsley/Turkey:: I am a turkey. Kill me!
Amanda/Sarah Miller: What a thoughtful gift! Why, you are as civilized as we, except we wear shoes and have last names.
Amanda/Sarah Miller: Welcome, to our table, our new primitive friends!
Wednesday/Pocahontas:: Thank you, Sarah Miller! You are the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen. Your hair is the color of the sun, your skin is the color of fresh milk, and everyone loves you.
Amanda/Sarah Miller: Stop! Sit!
Wednesday/Pocahontas (losing her smile and suddenly changing to her old voice): Wait.
Amanda: What?
Wednesday/Pocahontas:: We cannot break bread with you.
Amanda: Huh? Becky, what’s going on?
Becky (whispering): Wednesday!
Wednesday/Pocahontas:: You have taken the land which is rightfully ours. Years from now, my people will be forced to live in mobile homes on reservations. Your people will wear cardigans and drink highballs. We will sell our bracelets by the roadsides. You will play golf, and enjoy hot hors d’oeurves. My people will have pain and degradation. Your people will have stick shifts. The gods of my tribe have spoken. They have said, “Do not trust the Pilgrims – especially Sarah Miller.”
Amanda: Gary, she’s changing the words.
Wednesday/Pocahontas:: And for all these reasons, I have decided to scalp you, and burn your village to the ground.
The Indians yell battle cries, and two on each side swing down on ropes. They grab Amanda while the others run around stage, setting fire to the Pilgrim houses.
Becky: Children! Campers!
Gary: Stop it! You’re destroying my text!
They pay no attention. They continue to burn houses, shooting flaming arrows into the roofs. The parents look at each other, wondering what’s going on. The Indians tie Amanda to a stake. In the audience, Joel’s parents discuss him.




My special thanks to Tíscar, whose pie was delicious. Tíscar, you are an extraordinary cook!

As homework, you have to continue studying the Present Perfect Tense with handouts 15 and 16 and with the activities in unit 2A in the workbook. You can also do the activities on page 133 (2A). Try to write your own rules which explain the difference between present perfect and past simple tenses.

See you on Tuesday!

Tenth week

Hi there again,

Last week we were revising quantifiers.We were talking about ways to improve our city, and we made four different political parties in class. You made political campaings. Congratulations to Auxi and Verónica, who will be excellent mayoresses. They promised to soundproof all pubs and bars in the city among other measures.

We finished unit 5A, so now you can finish all the activities in the workbook.
We also started unit 2A in the book. We revised vocabulary related to money as well as the phonetic transcriptions of some words (Book, page 147).

We introduced the differences between the Present Perfect Tense and the Past Simple tense.

Homework: - handouts 15 and 16 to practise present perfect.
- reading on page 22.

Next week, on Thursday, we will celebrate Thanksgiving. If you like history, here you can read about the origins of this celebration at the beginning of the 17th century. It is about the relationship between the Puritans and the native Americans. I recommend you to read it, as it is quite interesting!

See you in class next Tuesday!

Fifth week

Hello everyone,

How is it going?

Last week we were revising the different ways to convey past actions adn the use of the article "the". We were also talking about football and hinted ways to improve our narrations and our opinion essays. In phonetics, we learnt how to produce and identify the vowel sounds in "horse" and "bird". I think you should practice saying them in different sentences.

Next week we will improve these two types of texts, we will continue talking about sport (you had to do the exercises on Vocabulary and Reading in unit 1B, don't forget to do that. We will also start speaking about the future using vocabulary related to families.

Here you have some more exercises on sports so that you can widen your knowledge and vocabulay about them.

Football
Answers to "Football"

Tennis
Answers to "Tennis"
Tennis" Glossary

Third week

Hi there,

This week we have been talking about food...(yummm) and our linguistic focus was on phonetic transcriptions and on the present simple and continuous.

We also met our language assistant, Paul, who showed us what Afternoon Tea is.

As for homework, you can click on the numbers to get the key to handouts 2 and 3.

Here you have an extra reading activity to practice True/False sentences. Thanks to my colleague Laura Jiménez, who recommended it.

See you in class!

Last keys and... HOLIDAYS!!

Hello everyone,

We have finished our course now.It has really been a great teaching experience for me and I have met really nice people, so thank you everyone. I hope we can work together next year too!

Here you have some recommendations for the summer, as some of you asked:

To read, I think the best thing you can do is to have a look at this site and click on READERS CATALOGUE on the left. There you can choose any level (I recommend you start reading INTERMEDIATE), and once you have chosen your level, you can also click on any book to read a brief summary and check that you like it.

So here is the link: http://www.macmillanenglish.com/readers/resources.htm

I also like this site: http://www.blackcat.vicensvives.es/ . It is the same editor as Sherlock Holmes' Stories that you have already read.

I hope this is useful...

If you want to practice Grammar, I specially like R. Murphy's English Grammar in Use (with answers). The editor is Cambridge.

There is a similar one on Vocabulary (Redman's English Vocabulary in Use) by Cambridge as well.

Intermediate English Practice (MacMillan) is also very good, and it contains both vocabulary units and grammar units.

They are very complete reference and self-study books. Sometimes I chose some handouts from them as homework for you.

By the way! Here you have the key to our last handout on -ing and -ed adjectives.


Good luck with the exams. The grades will be published on the school notice board on Monday 22nd of June at 16.00.

Well, that's all from me by now.

Have a nice holiday and I hope to see you next October!

Two songs using the second conditional

Hello everyone,

As I promised, here you have two more songs using the second conditional structure. There are plenty of them, as imaginary situations are a very apt topic to write a song, imagining a better world, something we wish...

The first one is Eric Clapton's Tears in Heaven. Wikipedia says:

"Tears in Heaven" is a ballad written by Eric Clapton and Will Jennings about the pain he felt following the 20 March 1991 death of his four-year-old son, Conor, who fell out of a 53rd-story window in his Mother's [Lori] New York City condominium. By all accounts, the death was simply a tragic accident, and Clapton was distraught for months afterwards. This song is one of Clapton's most successful, reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the U.S. The song also spent three weeks at #1 on the American adult contemporary chart in 1992.



The second song, I must confess, is one of my favourites. It is Alanis Morissette's Utopia. Please, read the lyrics and think about them... the message is so deep. She is imagining a "Utopia", a perfect world. So the song pre-sentence should be: "If this world was a Utopia, we'd..."

Here you have some interesting facts about it:

The song was partly inspired by Morissette's experiences during her trips across the world and in particular her stay at a Navajo reservation.
Originally, the song's final pre-chorus was to repeat the lyrics from the first pre-chorus. Morissette said however, that after 9/11, she felt inspired to write another pre-chorus. Given the context of that it was written, that verse stands strongly as arguably the most moving part of the song.

In late September 2001, in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Morissette previewed "Utopia" on her website. She said she wanted the song to comfort the people who were grieving; according to her, it "sheds light on the willingness to understand" and "the passionate desire to stand up and show a self-care and self-respect."



There may be vocabulary that you don't undestand as Alanis normally uses complicated words, but I invite you to read it more slowly and think about it.

I hope you enjoy the songs!

Granada

THE PLACE WHERE I LIVE


by Aída Velasco Fernández (2nd A EOI de Granada)



I live in Granada, which is a city in the south-east of Andalucía. It has a population of 260.000 people, and it’s the fourth most populated province in Andalucía.

Granada is a lovely city, it’s smart, although it has a lot of places to visit. Muslims founded Granada in the 7th century. The most famous monument in the city is La Alhambra; it’s the most visited monument in Spain. In this monument we can see La Puerta de la Justicia, El Patio de los Arrayanes, Los Jardines del Generalife…it’s wonderful. Other places to visit are El Corral del Carbón, La Capilla Real…The food isn’t a problem in this city, because there are “tapas” areas, some streets where people drink beer or “cañas”, wine or “tinto de verano” and we can eat “tapas", free food. Granada is interesting for walking around; the most interesting areas are El Albaicin, La Alcaicería, El Paseo de los Tristes…

The weather in Granada is perfect because the winter is cold and the summer is hot. The weather in Granada is hotter than in Galicia, Asturias…because Granada is in the south-east of Spain. In the winter it rains and it snows, so people can go to Sierra Nevada. The summer is very hot so people go to the beach, to Motril, Almuñecar…

Granada is famous for the Alhambra, the most famous monument in Spain. It’s famous for Albayzín district too, where houses are called “carmenes”. Sierra Nevada is very important because thousands people go there. The Semana Santa Granadina is famous too, the “penitents” are typical. People wear purple clothes and women wear “mantillas”. Granada is also famous for the “piononos”, which are small very sweet cakes and for the “tapas”.

The best thing about Granada, I think it’s its weather because this is ideal, and this gives happiness to people. And the best is that Granada has mountain, beach, a beautiful city centre; it’s a very complete city. I love living in Granada.

Our second reader

Hello everyone,

This is our second reader. I hope you can enjoy reading it!

Here you have a reading diary that you can fill in. It will help you learn more and you can send it back to me. You can repeat page two as many times as you want.

Did you know that the author of these two stories is Washington Irving, the man who also wrote Tales of the Alhambra? He knew Granada very well.

Here you can find more information about this author.

Review of tenses and "Restaurant problems"

Hello everyone,

This week we have been revising the tenses to refer to the future as well as to the past and present.

We were also studying a typical situation at the restaurant and how to cope with restaurant problems.

Don't forget to finish your writing tasks and the handouts.

In unit 4 we will study a new tense: the present perfect tense, and the first text is about Zara. Here you can download another document with some activities to learn something more about this company and the key.

I recommend you to read it and do the exercises. If anyone wants to make a similar presentation in class, he/she is welcome.

Our first Graded Reader

Hello everyone,





As many of you know from my e-mail, it would be good if you can start (or finish :-) ) reading our first reader Sherlock Holmes Stories.

You can visit the Sherlock Holmes Museum if you click HERE.

If you like mystery... you will enjoy this reader!!