25th November. STOP DOMESTIC VIOLENCE!

I cound't insert the following video, but click on the link, please. It is worth it.

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!

Aung Sang Suu Kyi RELEASED!!

Hello everyone,

Yesterday Aung Sang Suu Kyi was released. What great news!!

Here you can find more information about it, WATCHING a documentary. You can also download the mp3 file and listen to it when you find some free time.

Eighth week

Hiya!

I hope you are having a nice weekend!
What I remember best from last Tuesday is that we had the great oportunity to taste red pepper jam with cheese spread over toasts... Thank you Ana!!

Then, we revised the narrative structure and you did peer corrections of your partners' stories. They were quite funny, I must admit!

Later, we were talking about spas and health farms, and we did the listening activity on unit 5B. We also checked a great deal of homework!! and learnt how to pronounce "how words work (in the world)" (sounds /3:/ and /o:/) and the different phonetic realisations of the article "the".

We also talked about "men things" and "women things"... We drew the conclusion that maybe they are all stereotypes, but sometimes they are true! Click here to listen to a "6 Minutes English" article entitled "Men are the weaker sex".

Then on Thursday we recorded your stories and did a listening activity about "Friends reunited".
We were using "used to" in the after-listening activities, and we will check it next Tuesday. You had handout 9 to practice it, and here you can download its key. Of course, you have more grammar activities on the grammar bank, workbook and Multi-ROM.

If you click here, you will listen to an article from BBC Learning English about Friends Reunited, which you can also read (I highly recommend this activity, but remember: first, listen twice or three times before you give up to read).

And, as homework, you had to do some activities on page 63 (how words work and opinions)

See you on Tuesday!

Remember, remember the 5th of November...

Tonight is Bonfire Night!!

Watch this:



And on this video, we have an American's point of view on what happens in Lewes (the most famous city for their celebrations on the 5th of November)

Seventh week

Hello everyone,

This week we have been learning how to use the article and revising how to give opinions. We will be doing this all throughout the year, so that is why it is so important.

We also revised how to pronounce the final -ed. If you need some more practice, click here.

Remember the importance of reading aloud. If you feel like no-one is correcting you, play the audio CDs that come with the readers. Read aloud,then listen to the same text and correct yourselves.

We were also revising the use of narrative tenses. Here you have the key to handouts 7 and 8.

And the key to handout 10 (use of the article)

Next Tuesday you will have to read your stories about Daniel, the mutant cockroach and another extra-character. Remember the strategies you have to use (The grammar, the vocabulary, the textual structure, and sequencing adverbs).

Now the "dark" news: Homework:
- Complete your workbook units 1B and 5B
- Pages 144-145 in the student's book
- Grammar units 1B and 5B in the student's book (pages 130 and 138).
- Listen to some stories from the link I wrote in last week's entry.
- Practice pronunciation reading aloud and revising phonetics symbols using your CD Rom.

Finally, you can see here our Halloween party, with Daniel,our winner!!
I hope this will be soon published on the School Youtube channel.


eoi granada halloween from maribel alvarez on Vimeo.

Sixth week

Hi there!

Are you enjoying your bank holiday? I really hope so.

I have been reading your recipes and I am just waiting for you to send them back so that I can publish them in the blog are create a book in isuu.

I found a site in BBC Learning English were people are sending their recipes. Maybe you could also participate and send them!! Click here to have a look at some of the recipes and send yours if you like. I want to thank Jessyka, as she was the only one who sent a picture of herself cooking paella... I would like to have a picture of all of you to include in our cookbook, please!!

Last Tuesday we were revising the narrative structure and narrative tenses. You had to re-tell a sport anecdote following the given structure.
We were also revising the uses of past simple, past continuous, past perfect and the use of the gerund after "after" and "before".
Next day we will continue practicing this.

Here you have the Power Point Presentation that we used in class to study the uses of the narrative tenses. The extracts were taken from The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Times:

Narrative tenses

View more presentations from mariaelenatapia.

As we are learning the narrative structure, you can listen to one story every week on this site: http://storynory.com/ They are stories for children, so very easy to understand. I specially recommned the three last horror stories.


As homework, you had to do some handouts, especially 7 and 8 for next day. Next week we will work on handouts 9 and 10.


On Thursday, we celebrated Halloween. I am a bit disappointed because only Daniel came, but I am REALLY HAPPY for him, as he won the FIRS PRIZE!!! Congratulations Daniel!!