2015.12.16 Class 11

Today I was not able to come to class – sorry to have missed you. In any case, I wish you happy holidays and look forward to seeing you in the new year.

At the least, you should have taken the quiz on The Hand That Feeds Me and then done part or all of an FCE Listening test. The rest of class was up to the substitute teacher.

Homework

1. Read the story handed out in Class 10. If you can, read it twice.
2. Make a list of at least 20 words or phrases from the story that you think are important to learn with their definitions and which page and paragraph you found them on. Then create a username (it's free) at Quizlet and add to the list I've started (password = kaspfirst).

2015.12.09 Class 10

Today you did a quiz on UE 2 and 4 from the practice exam you did in class 7 and we talked about the last part of class 9, when we investigated kahoot and lyricstraining (based on your feedback).

Stories
You gave each other feedback on the stories you had written for homework, commenting on:

1. the plot of the story and how well you could understand it
2. the presence or absence of higher-level vocabulary, with suggestions

Crime & detective work
Many of you reported that The Hand that Feeds Me had confused you a bit. Like the narrator of the story looked for clues, I asked you to consider the following:

• Underline the following words or phrases in Section 1:
1. para.1, 'human beings'
2. para.3, 'was grazing too' and 'he threw me a piece of meat'
3. para.4, 'take meat from strange men'
4. para.6, 'inviting me to sleep too'
5. para.10, 'I licked one of the wounds'
6. para.11, 'I picked up the scents'
• What do these clues about the identity of the narrator suggest to you?
• Find 4 similar clues in Sections 3 and 4 (there are at least 6).

We also took a look at the vocabulary I put in Quizlet (contributed by Au, Po and Cs last week) and I showed you how to add to the list. You should all do this and I will be assigning it as homework in the future.

We then watched a video on a famous investigator at https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/word-street/sherlock-holmes and did a kahoot quiz based on it.

Finally, we watched a short video at TED.com (How to start a movement) and I showed you how the site works. We finished class by beginning a short game of Jeopardy.

Homework:

1. Study the vocabulary on Quizlet for The Hand That Feeds Me – there will be a quiz on this at the beginning of the next class.
2. Browse TED.com. Look for a video that's at least 5 minutes long and then watch it three times: first in English with no subtitles, then with English subtitles and then one more time, either with no subtitles (if you already understand it well) or with Spanish or Catalan (or Chinese) subtitles if it's still a difficult to understand. Write down the name of the speaker and the title of the talk on a piece of paper and write a brief summary of the talk to hand in to me in Class 11.
3. (If you didn't hand in your story (homework due today), then write it and send it to me at rkirkm44 at GmaiL dot com)

2015.12.02 Class 9

Today we talked about the story from last class and revised most of the Use of English section from the practice exam in class 7.

In the class 8 homework, I put links to Quizlet lists to help you study parts 1 and 3 of the Use of English from the exam. Today we reviewed parts 2 and 4. I won't be creating Quizlet lists for these two parts, but you need to study them - see the homework below for the reason why.

We reviewed the vocabulary that you chose from The Hand that Feeds Me (homework from class 8) and then we discussed the story. The narrator is a bit unusual, and although his/her identity is not directly stated, there are several places in the text where we get significant clues about it. We'll discuss this more next class.

Next I asked you for some feedback on what we were doing in class. Thanks for that!

We also looked at some considerations when writing a story for the FCE on pp.20-1 in the SB. We did a couple of exercises there as well.


Homework:

1. Study all parts of the Use of English paper from the practice exam. There will be a quiz on parts 2 and 4 in Class 10. Remember that you can use Quizlet to help you study parts 1, 2 and 3.
2. Also study the vocabulary from The Hand That Feeds Me in Quizlet. One day you will have a quiz on this as well. If you didn't find 8 words or phrases (which was the homework for today), then you must do this for Class 10.
3. Write a story (140-90 words) with this as the first line:
   'I had always thought that my new life in the city would be exciting, but nothing could be further from the truth.'
   Be sure to mention:
   1) meeting someone new,
   2) disappointment.
   You can write the story that happens in Signs if you want, or you can create your own.
   Be sure to write an outline, be careful with past verb tenses, use high-level vocabulary and to count the number of words.
   Please write your story on a piece of paper to hand in to me next class.

2015.11.25 Class 8

Today's class was short due to my meetings with your parents from 16:00. We revised and corrected the exam you did in Class 7. It is very important to keep this exam, as you are going to need to study it. The results were mixed.

In general at this point, to be ready for the exam next summer, it's best to be getting about 45% and above in the Use of English and around 50% in the Reading. If you got lower than that, it's still possible you'll be ready, as often students perform poorly on their first exam, but you definitely need to take your work seriously. In February, we'll be doing a full mock exam and I will use your marks on that and this most recent practice test to assess whether you should register for the exam in the summer.

In the meetings with your parents, I'll be talking about your grades. FYI (='For Your Information') I also had an email sent to them with some general points about the class. Below the homework you can see what it said.

Homework:

1. Review what I explained about 'say' and 'tell' in class 6 and then check your understanding of by doing this quiz: http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/say-or-tell-exercise-1.html . If you get less than 16 correct, you need to study this more.
2. Begin to study Parts 1 and 3 from the Use of English practice exam you did. Even if you missed class, you can start studying in Quizlet - look for the lists with 'UE1' and 'UE3' in the title.
3. The Hand that Feeds Me (a short story I handed out in class or which you can get here)
1. Read the story twice (on two different days).
2. Underline 8 different lexical items (i.e. words or expressions) that you think are important for you to learn. Copy them into your notebook (I'd recommend you use the Vocabulary section in the back) and onto a piece of paper you can hand in to me. 
3. Look up the lexical item (in a dictionary, in google, however you want) to understand what it means. Make some notes on the meanings on the piece of paper that you can hand in to me.

This is the email that was sent to your parents:

Queridos padres,

Soy el profesor del Instituto Británico de la clase que está cursando su hijo/hija. El miércoles 25 (16:00-17:30), estaré a su disposición para comentar las notas que ha sacado su hijo/hija hasta ahora y mi impresión de su progreso.

Por si no pueden venir el miércoles, a continuación tienen otros cuatro temas que mencionaré el miércoles:

1. Hay un blog de la clase en: http://kaspfirst.blogspot.com.es/ . Están más que bienvenidos a mirarlo y quería mencionárselo más que nada para que sepan que su hijo/hija lo pueda consultar para saber los deberes cuando falta a clase. 

2. Deberes - es que hay varios estudiantes que no están tomando en serio los deberes. Entiendo que van muy cargados, pero con solo asistir a clase, no es nada seguro que estén preparados para el examen para el verano del 2016 - para la gran mayoría, hay que trabajar fuera de clase también.

3. Su hijo/hija tiene una carpeta azul donde guardar sus redacciones. Para el 25 de noviembre, debe haber como mínimo cuatro redacciones. Algunas de estas se han realizado en clase, pero, relacionado con el tema 2, es muy importante que no salten los deberes, sobre todo cuando se tratan de redacciones.

4. En general, es imprescindible que su hijo/hija tenga contacto con el inglés fuera de clase y fuera del cole. Lo mejor sin duda es leer - las lecturas no tienen que ser literatura, lo mejor es que se trate de un tema que les interese - pero también va bien que miren la tele o películas en inglés. Propongo una hora a la semana. Si les pudieran facilitar el acceso a oportunidades para tener este contacto, estaría muy bien.

Gracias por su colaboración.

Cordialmente - Kirk Moore

2015.11.18 Class 7

Today we started class by revising the homework from Class 6. You then did a practice Reading & Use of English paper from the First For Schools (FCE) exam. There are a few things to remember about this exam:

• This exam is diagnostic in purpose, i.e. it will give us an idea of how prepared or not you are for the full exam next year.
• Although this is only one of four parts of the exam, it counts for 40% of your exam grade. It's also the part of the exam which I think best predicts your preparedness for the exam.

After talking about how the exam went, we watched a couple of very short clips that showed the use of 'highly unlikely' and 'get out'. 

Homework:

1. Remind your parents to come see me next week between 16.00 and 17.30 in the auditorium in the basement. They should get a phone call for an appointment time.
2. Study the vocabulary in Quizlet.
3. Write a summary (150-200 words) of Signs (see Class 6 to watch Signs) on paper to hand in to me.

2015.11.11 Class 6

Reminders:

• In Class 7 (18 Nov), there will be a practice test (Reading & Use of English) in the first half of class – please be sure to attend!
• In Class 8 (25 Nov), there will be class from 15:00–16:00. After that, I will be available to speak with your parents in the basement auditorium. Please ask your parents to attend.

After reviewing the homework (see answers at the end of this pdf and this new Quizlet vocabulary list) and your summaries of Tick Tock (from the last class), you did a Vocabulary Quiz on Miscellaneous - Classes 4&5.

The most important point I mentioned from your summaries of Tick Tock is the difference between 'say' and 'tell'. There's a good summary of this on this Cambridge Dictionary page or this BBC page, or you can also remember:

tell + somebody (+something) e.g. I told them (the story of my trip to Tibet).
say + something (to somebody) e.g. I said 'thanks' (to the waitress).

Brackets () indicate something optional. The important point is that 'tell' always needs an indirect object and that 'say' does not. Please ask me about this if you don't understand it well; it's an important point for the FCE.

We then turned to the SB to continue preparing for the FCE, especially the Reading & Use of English paper, as that is what you will find in the practice test next week. We worked on SB p.16 and also looked at Part 4 Transformations on flo-joe, which is a great practice and reference site for you.

We then talked about the topic of cities and what it's like to live in one. Next we watched a short film called Signs and discussed it briefly afterwards. In the next class, you'll write a narrative (i.e. story) of the film as practice for Writing part 2.



Homework:

1. Study the Two Peas in a Pod vocabulary list on Quizlet
2. WB p.8, p.10 and p.11
3. If you haven't watched Signs, watch it before the next class.

Model essay (SB p.13)

This is a quick model answer I wrote in response to the question on p.13 of the SB, which was assigned as homework for Class 5. It's a bit longer (227 words) than the recommended length of 140-190 words.

It is often said that the elderly can teach the young valuable lessons based on their experience. I agree with this idea, though I think the young must also be sure to think for themselves.

Older people certainly know the history of their time period better than the young and also have the benefit of a longer life experience. This often enables them to see the present more clearly than the young and they can tell us how they dealt with similar situations in the past. When I tell my grandfather about the things I'm worried about, his advice is almost always good.

Many people say that the older generation doesn't know anything about technology, but this is completely false. They may not know about the latest digital technologies, but my grandfather never took his car to the garage - he always repaired it myself. And my best friend's grandfather built the house my friend lives in, without anyone else's help!

Finally, we can also learn from the older generation's mistakes. In their time, for example, sexism and racism were normal and caused a great deal of suffering to many people. We can learn about the ill effects of these attitudes and better avoid them ourselves.

It is therefore abundantly clear that the elderly can pass on valuable knowledge and perspectives that will help today's young people.

2015.11.04 Class 5

1) To start off class today, we revised your summaries of Mind the Gap, which you wrote in class last week and which I made a few corrections on. I suggested the following as a model summary and we considered the fact that sometimes you have to summarise when writing, for example, a review for Writing part 2.

This short film is about an elderly woman who visits an underground station every day. At first, we don't know why. Then, one day, when the voice of the announcer that says 'Mind the gap' changes, she begins to cry. We discover at the end that the woman went to the station every day to listen to the announcement, which had been recorded by her late husband.

2) We then watched Tick Tock again, but not backwards:



I asked you to think about Emit's regrets and/or the regrets the palliative nurse found among the terminally ill (in the article we read in Class 4). We use forms such as the following to express regrets:

Emit wishes he had done X.
He was sorry he had called his mother stupid (or: for calling his mother stupid.)
Many older men regret having done Y (or: doing Y).

You then wrote summaries of Tick Tock, mentioning some of his regrets.

3) You did a quick vocabulary quiz on the Miscellaneous - Classes 1, 2, 3 list. Those who studied did well; those who did not, didn't.

4) I then announced that we'll be having a Practice Test (Reading & Use of English part only) on 18 November (=Class 7).

So as to be familiar with all the parts in the R&UE, we continued working in the book on pp.14-15 (R&UE Part 6) and p.17 (R&UE Part 3).

5) We ended class with an informal speaking task about traveling.

Homework:

1. Study the Miscellaneous - Classes 4 & 5 (regrets) vocabulary list for another quiz in Class 6.
2. Read and do the exercises on the short story Two Peas in a Pod. (If you missed class, click on the link to get the story.) You can also listen to the story.

2015.10.28 Class 4

Today we began class by discussing the short film assigned for homework (Mind the gap) and revising the homework from the WB.

We then revised the homework from the SB (on writing essays) and looked at the essays you wrote for homework for Class 2. You then worked in small groups to prepare the 'Exam Task 'essay on SB p.13 and began writing it.

Later we read a short article from the Guardian about the top five regrets of dying people. The vocabulary we talked about from the article will be in Quizlet (Miscellaneous - Class 4 (regrets)) and you should learn it. We then watched a short film on the topic of regrets called Tick Tock.


Tick Tock - short film by Ien Chi from Ien Chi on Vimeo.

• What things did Emit regret (or not regret) doing?
• What does he wish he had (or hadn't) done?

Homework:

1. Finish the essay (SB p.13)
2. Study the vocabulary on Quizlet, especially Miscellaneous - Classes 1, 2, 3. There will be a quiz on this list in Class 5.

2015.10.21 Class 3

Today we began by reviewing the homework from the last class. There were several words from it that will be added to Quizlet.

We then looked at a reading comprehension text, RUE part 5, on pp.10-11, and S parts 1 and 2, on pp.8-9. There were also several new vocabulary words in the reading text, also added to Quizlet.

Homework:
1) WB p.5
2) SB p.12: - read the essay question at the top of the right column
                    - read text A
    SB p.13: - read text B
                    - complete the chart below text B (about texts A and B)
                    - do exercise 7
                    - read the Exam Task (in the column on the right) and create a chart similar to the chart for texts A and B
3) Watch a short (7min) film called Mind the gap:


Mind The Gap from Luke Flanagan on Vimeo.

4) I didn't mention this in class, but it would be a good idea to download the Quizlet app onto your phone, to join our class and to begin studying the Miscellaneous vocabulary list.

Writing essays

Here are a couple of good resources for writing essays:

LearnEnglishTeens opinion essay
LearnEnglishTeens for and against essay

Writing - miscellaneous resources

Run-on sentences and comma splices

Here are some links to useful resources on run-on sentences, comma splices and sentence fragments – all of which you must avoid in any neutral or formal writing for the FCE.

• Comma splices: definition, example and two good exercises (links at the bottom of the page) https://depts.dyc.edu/learningcenter/owl/comma_splices.htm
• Run-on sentences: definition, example and two good exercises (links at the bottom of the page) https://depts.dyc.edu/learningcenter/owl/run-ons.htm

2015.10.14 Class 2

Today we began in the textbook. We did the listening comprehension exercises on p.6 and the vocabulary and Use of English exercises on p.7 (Winter Holidays). We also did a reading and speaking activity about Celebrations from different countries and cultures.

Homework:
WB p.4 Grammar
WB p.6
WB p.7 Use of English

2015.10.07 Class 1

Today we reviewed the course materials and the content of the FCE exam. Students filled out a questionnaire and the class played a game to get to know the teacher a bit. Finally, we read and evaluated an essay written for an FCE Writing task 1.

Homework: Write an essay based on the same prompt for the essay examined in class:

"Life is better today than it was 100 years ago."
Do you agree?
Notes
1. health
2. entertainment
3. (interview someone for their idea)

Quizlet for vocabulary

Use quizlet.com which also has a free app, to study vocabulary from the book and class. You can also create your own lists there if you want.

The link to our classroom is: https://quizlet.com/class/1994344/ or you can search for Kasp First on quizlet.com.