Second term, third week

Hi there,

Last week we were learing how to make guesses, either when we are pretty sure from the evidence we can see or when we are not so sure.
We have been making guesses about people's personality from their appearance. But don't forget that looks can be deceiving!

Why don't you add a comment below and say what you think about your next teacher? Imagine this is a picture of him: :-P

Don't forget to use modal verbs...






Do you like Oasis? Here is a song by them. Do you understand the title? Why do they use "might"?

Click here for the lyrics

We were also introducing modal verbs which can be used to speak about our ability, not only present ability, but also past, future, "always/never in my life", etc. and you had to think about examples of your past, present, future and ever-in-your-lives abilities.

As homework, you had to read the text on page 43, and I recommend you to complete unit 3B in the workbook.

You also had to read the links to understand Young Goodman Brown better. On Thursday we will have an oral presentation about it.

See you!

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!!

Happy New Year!!

Hello everyone,

I hope you are having the most splendid holiday!!

If you click here you can listen to this week Six Minute English, which is about families. You will be able to revise what we learnt. It should be a good idea if you subscribe to this podcast.

We have to get down to work soon, so here you have the key to handout 21.

In our first week after holidays, we are going to revise speaking. We will revise these topics:

• Stress
• Money and banking
• Families and relationships 
• Changing your city 
• Stereotypes (men and women) 
• Money, jobs, quality of life, happiness 
• Ordering at a restaurant 
• Travelling, visiting a new city 
• Life experiences 
• Comparing cities (means of transport, facilities…) 
• Food, eating habits 
• Road safety

 You could start thinking about what you know about them, what you can ASK about them, as well as about your opinions regarding some aspects of them. Don't forget you are expected to use new grammar and vocabulary, so we will start planning all this next week.

As Xmas has not ended yet,click here to do two listening activities (OUP).

Then, watch and sing along (I recommend you to watch till the end; it is worth it)




By the way, how is "Stories of Suspense" going? :-)

See you in a week.

Cookbook

There it is!!


At last!!


Congratulations all of you!!

Open publication - Free publishing - More food

Hmm... I can't choose a title

Tenth week

Hello again,

Last week there was only one lesson.

We were mainly solving problems about present perfect and present perfect continuous, checking some homework and speaking about the importance of money. We also checked a reading activity and practiced saying figures and listening to four pieces of news containing some. For extension, Click here. It is interesing! You can also have a look at the wikipedia entry, which is rather complete.

Next Tuesday we will start a new unit, so I recommend you to ask me any questions about previous units and get any exercises up to date if you have not finished them yet, either handouts or the workbook.

Here you have the key to handout 19: Vocabulary on Eating and Health, Money and Banking, Free Time and Travel.

As homework, you have to do a new writing activity (handout 20) for next Thursday: Write a comment in reply to this article focusing on whether money brings happiness and the relationship between money, lifestyle and social habits. Give your point of view and support it with evidence (figures, examples, etc.). Write around 200 words

You also have to read the text on page 30 and do the activities on page 29.

By the way, have you ever had a look at the right-hand side in the blog? There are a lot of useful links. I have to point out the BBC learning English widget. You can click on any link you are interested in. 6 minutes English always contains a listening activity.


Hmm... and if you want to have a good time learning idioms, click here for a crossword! (You will have help from "the teacher". Do you remember him? If you don't know him, you can't miss this link)
See you on Tuesday!

Eleventh week

Hello everybody,

This week we have been talking about what we have been doing recently, learning Present Perfect, Past Simple and the uses of for, since, just, already and yet.

I think you have already understood the difference between past simple and present perfect, but, if you haven't, you have some activities in the book and workbook (unit 5A and 2A) as well as handout 18 to do. Click here for the key.

We were also giving our opinions about some measures to improve our city on page 71. It will be a good idea if you revise that vocabulary and the different ways to introduce our opinion, as it will be one of the topics you will have to speak about.

On Thursday, we were revising again the difference between Past Simple and Present Perfect and the uses of for, since, just, already and yet. We checked grammar 2A. After that, we started talking about happiness, but we could not listen to the activity on handout 16 because there were some problems with the computer... Log in the School Virtual Library and download the material with code 0000000274. You will find this activity WITH KEY and AUDIO FILE. You can also Click here to listen. It is the first one. The title is "Happiness". You won't find the answer to the questions in this website, as I designed them myself, so I recommend you to find the activity in the Virtual Library.

For homework, you have to do the reading activities on unit 2A and 2B as well as start (or finish)the corresponding workbook units. You also have a handout to practice and revise vocabulary, but I will give you the key next week.

Next week, on the 14th of December, we will start speaking about means of transport and travelling. Click here to start reading and listening about the topic.

I hope you are all having a very nice long weekend!!