2016.01.27 Class 14

Today the first thing we did was review the results from the Reading and Use of English practice exam from last week. Most people did much better in the Use of English, but a little bit worse in the Reading paper. We reviewed the answers to parts 1 and 2 of the Use of English, and will do the rest next week.

Later we continued with the practice exam – you did the full Listening test. We also played a game related to the Speaking paper.

After the break, you did re-ordered sentences to make a book review and then we continued with The Way Way Back.

Homework:

• Do Writing part 2 – I strongly prefer you do the Review, as we looked briefly at that in class.

2016.01.20 Class 13

Today we warmed up by doing a speaking activity designed to help you prepare for Speaking part 2 and then quickly moved on to doing a mock Reading & Use of English exam.

The average results for the Use of English were 49% and for the Reading 57%. That is a good improvement over the results in November, though still a bit shy of where you ought to be before taking the exam.

After the break, you finished the exam and then recapped The Way Way Back, the film we began in class last week – we reviewed the names of the main characters, what the relationships between them are and how they seemed to be as people. We then continued with the film, watching about 20 minutes more.

By the way, I also added the words that some of you handed in from the Winter holiday reading homework to the list in Quizlet.

Homework:

• Writing part 1 (essay) of the mock exam I gave you. Please review pp.88-89 in the SB, as well as my comments on the essays you wrote in term 1, before writing your essay. But once you start writing, don't consult any other materials.

2016.01.13 Class 12

To get back into things in the new year, we did a Post-holiday activity at one point in which you had to come up with the questions to some answers.

We also discussed the mid-year Assessment, which is essentially a nearly complete FCE exam that you'll be completing in the next few classes. Your grade on this will give us a sense for how ready you are to take a real exam or not. Remember that it's essential for you to have contact with English and to study outside of class - just coming to class is no guarantee that you'll be ready for the exam by the summer.

Writing - stories
We went over some general comments on the stories that you handed in to me in Class 10:

1. The first line of the story should be integrated into the story, not separate in any way.
2. Paragraphs are essential! You will almost certainly get a mark lower than 3 for a story with inappropriate paragraphing.
3. A story that takes place over years is probably more difficult than a shorter-term one.
4. Be specific! Use examples and descriptive words. For example, instead of saying 'She was beautiful and kind', you could say 'She turned heads wherever she went, yet she treated everyone with kindness.'
5. Beware of run-on sentences and comma splices. Look under Useful links on the right side of this page for explanations and exercises.

Reading (homework over the holidays)

We talked about the story you were assigned to read for homework, as well as the vocabulary that you found when you read it. You should study the vocabulary from the reading, which we'll put into Quizlet soon.

FCE Speaking

We also talked about Speaking parts 1 and 2, practiced some questions from part 1 in class and watched a video of an exam on Youtube.

We also watched the first 12 minutes of The Way Way Back, the film which we'll be watching in short segments over the next several weeks.

Some vocabulary to note from the beginning of the film:

• on a scale of 1 to 10
• This is it!
• to fall off the wagon
• my ride
• She's a walking mood.
• a lazy eye
• Screw that!

Homework: none - enjoy! Just be ready for an exam in the first part of class in the next two weeks.

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