WEEK 18 21ST - 27TH APRIL 2014

Hi,

Did you enjoy your holidays? I hope so.

We had a class to improve vocabulary through video.

We looked at a lot of vocabulary related to going to the dentist. We watched Mr. Bean at the dentist, we checked vocabulary related to everyday life too.

There were different questions after the videos. We talked about going to the dentist: how often do you go? Do you like going to the dentist?

We also reviewed pronunciation of third person singular in present and also regular past verbs. We described the scenes in English using the vocabulary we have just learned.

All our classes were aimed at improving your conversational and communicative skills.

During the lessons:

• We have used the video to learn more vocabulary and use it when describing the video clips.
• We have worked a lot on vocabulary and structures. 
• We have focused on improving our pronunciation.
• We have discussed topics as "travelling" and "learning a language".
• We have had listenings related to the topics in the syllabus.
• We have learnt vocabulary related to those areas.
• We have used conversation as a means of improving your speaking abilities.
• We have worked collaboratively as a way of learning from peers.

Sonia

WEEK 17 7TH - 13TH ABRIL 2014

Hello students,

How are you doing?

On Monday we had our last session about learning a foreign language. As we had a lesson on learning online the previous class, we continued creating more ideas on the topic. You wrote questions about learning online and you had to interview all your classmates and write their answers, then we checked them on the board. After that, we had a multiple choice quiz which everybody answered quickly.

Sergio had to describe a picture and the rest drew the picture according to Sergio’s directions. It was fun and the best part was to see what everybody had drawn!!!

Then we moved on to our next topic: health and fitness. We started a mind map with the following tags:

• ·      Doctors
• ·      Illnesses
• ·      Parts of the body
• ·      Administration
• ·      Places

We started with parts of the body, we saw more vocabulary related to body parts. We also had a look at vocabulary for symptoms.

HOMEWORK

Read and complete the handout about symptoms for next class.

We will continue working on the topic next class after Easter. Class starts on 21^st. Since then have a great time, enjoy yourselves, relax and review please.

Have a great holiday!!!

Sonia

WEEK 16 31st March - 6th April 2014

Hello students,

How are you doing?

On Monday we had a look at several ideas about learning online. We had a bit of talking about online learning. All of you preferred face-to-face classes, where you have teacher-centred environments.

We talked about different websites that can help you in your day-to-day learning like: KHANACADEMY where you can learn maths, science, etc.

Then we had a lesson plan centered on learning online and we listened to some teachers explaining their ideas about it. We had a jumbled-sentence exercise, a listening-gap exercise and we also had a role-play discussion in which you realised the difficulty to hold and defend positions.

This is the link to the lesson we saw on Monday: learning with technology 

HOMEWORK

There are a lot of documents but if you scroll down the page:

you will get to number 10: multiple choice quiz, please do it and we will correct it next Monday.

number 13: online learning discussion, please complete A and B and we can try to have a discussion about it on Monday.

Just to finish, please have a look at this dictionary:

visual.merriam-webster

If you have any problem, please contact me at my email address.

Have a nice week.

See you on Monday

Sonia

WEEK 15 24TH - 30TH MARCH 2014

Hello students,

How are you this week?

First, I want to welcome Jessi to our class. It was great to meet her!!!

We started with a game: silly sentence. It was fun, wasn´t it?

Then we moved to finish our handout about comparatives and superlatives: the more you study, the more you learn or the one we saw in class: the sooner, the better. To practise more please click on the following link:   

the more the more

Then we learned more vocabulary about learning and high school: to cram: are you cramming for the exam? and also verbs with exam: to pass, to fail, to sit for, to take an exam. We also learned

new phrasal verbs: get through, hand in, get on, get down to. 

education idioms: a piece of cake, as easy as ABC

idiomatic expressions: play hooky, learn by heart, teacher's pet and my favourite: you are the apple of my eyes!!!

vocabulary referring to people: cheater, eager beaver, bookworm, copycat.

Then we watched a video about high school rules and we answered true/false statements.

Then we talked more about learning a language through a game: snake and ladders.

OK, students, I hope you revise and take the exam I mentioned in the previous class!!

Have a nice week.

See you on Monday

Sonia

WEEK 14 17th March - 23rd March 2014

Hi dear students

How are you? Now that you have finished your exams, let’s focus on going on learning a little bit more. We are still on “learning a language”. In previous classes we discussed why it is important to learn a language. In this class we discussed how to learn a language:

going abroad was top-ranked answer, followed by talking, listening and watching films.

We had the continuation of the exercise on word formation. We will go on working more on that.

We did a long listening full of new words about British people learning languages. Do you remember the second most spoken one? Yes, exactly, Polish. I´m posting the link for you to listen to it again. If you click on the link below it will take you to the BBC Learning English page, to see the script and to listen to the audio click on the top right-hand corner (downloads: audio and text). Then you will be able to listen to it again, which I recommend you.

Learn 1000 words

Then we had a quiz: how good are you at language learning ?. All of you had high marks so let’s practise the idea of learning a language and review vocabulary.

HOMEWORK:

1. FINISH THE EXERCISES ON THE EXAM. BRING THEM TO NEXT CLASS.
2. RECORD YOURSELF ON YOUR MOBILE: PRACTISE SAYING THE VERBS IN PAST FROM LAST POST.
3. GO THROUGH THE LISTENING WE HAD IN CLASS, REVIEW NEW VOCABULARY AND EXPRESSIONS.
4. TWO EXERCISES ON WORD FORMATION, CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK.

WORD FORMATION EXERCISES

WEEK 13 10th - 16th March 2014

Hello students,

How are you?

Today we have missed Samuel, I hope to see you in next session. Good luck with your exams, guys.

Let’s review what we have seen in the class today.

We have seen the tests and I hope you have learned from them. As homework we have to take the test again and see if we can understand the difference between future continuous, perfect and perfect continuous.

We went on with the topic: “learning a foreign language”, we read some quotations and decided which was the one we agree most and we discussed them. We have some micromoments in which you, students, built on each other’s responses, I loved and love that, it was really interesting how you defended your opinions. Well done.

We have talked about the reasons of learning a foreign language: we have to decide about the order of some statements given. Sergio and Mario did it pretty quick. You agree with each other’s order of importance. We talked about the difference between being “knowledgeable” and “wise”. It was an interesting discussion.

We also had a look on word formation, doing an exercise in which you had to decide which word was the correct one and how to form it from the roots given. We will have to do more exercises on word formation, it will help you to enrich your vocabulary.

I pointed out the importance of phonetics and we have seen in detail how to pronounce the /t/, /d/ /id/ in past. We saw the difference between voiced and unvoiced consonants and we had a pronouncing session of past regular verbs. We also did the exercise I posted on the last blog. We also saw some common verbs and their difference in pronunciation: “walk”, “work”; “love”, “laugh”.

I’m posting you a link in which you can actually listen to the correct sound and link it to the phoneme: 

phonemic chart

We end up with a game in which you have to pick the correct ending to a given starter to review some modals: ought to, need to, should, shouldn’t and structures like “want to”

I hope you have a good week, good luck with your exams. See you next Monday.

WEEK 12 3rd - 9th March 2014

Hello students,

How are you? 

Today we have seen some new traveling compounds and also “normal” adjective with extreme ones:

Hot-boiling

Big-enormous, gigantic

Nice-delicious

Small-tiny

Tired-exhausted

Cold-freezing

Bad-awful

Dirty-filthy

Old-ancient

And some more, then we had the opposites, just to review some vocabulary.

We corrected homework: rephrasing sentences with comparatives. We stopped at the structure: the more you pay attention in class, the more you should learn. We will see this structure next class.

Then, we have a test to review what we have learned through last month, in February and also I wanted to make sure you went through all we have seen in class.

We have started a new lesson: “learning a foreign language” we talked about “why it is important to learn a foreign language?” and we have seen how to express purpose through an infinitive: “You learn a language to communicate with others.”

We had some examples with /-t/, /-d/ and /-id/ in past simple. We pronounced some regular verbs and you will have some exercises to practise: 

FIRST EXERCISE.

Place these verbs in the right column and bring it to next class:

helped, stuffed, laughed, missed, fished, marched, objected, looked, fixed, diced, stayed, grabbed, exited, hugged, saved, oozed, pleased, lied, freed, honored, peeled, signed, resumed, breathed, massaged, decided, tasted,

/-t/,                                                            /-d/                                                              /-id/

SECOND EXERCISE.

Record yourself in your mobile phone. The topic today is your everyday life in past to practise the regular endings.

THIRD EXERCISE

Try the exercise on word formation on the page about “learning a foreign language”.

FOURTH EXERCISE

Check this video on the pronunciation of regular verbs in past simple: regular past simple and please pronounce the verbs with the video.

Hope you have a nice week!!!, see you on Monday!!!!

Sonia

WEEK 11 24th February - 2nd March 2014

Hello students,

How are you doing?

We reviewed the chart I last gave you in which you had 24 character strengths and you had to mark them from 1-24 in order of importance for you. And you were right!!! Some of them should be number 1. It was great to see you attempt the exercise. We link the nouns and the adjectives too, so we broadened our vocabulary a bit more:

grit-gritty;

resilience-resilient

open-mindedness- open-minded vs. narrow-minded;

bravery-brave

creativity-creative

curiosity-curious

fairness-fair

gratitude-grateful

hope-hopeful

humility-humble

We went through your homework and corrected them.

We corrected and reviewed vocabulary about travelling. We had a look at collocations: to go on/to be on/ to take a holiday and some more vocabulary: package holidays, to book a flight, a long-haul flight. You did great work. Well done.

We had some listenings and we focused on stress of compound nouns.

Then we have a game “easy ride” in which you have to ask and answer some questions about travelling.

I really love your recordings, it was great to listen to them. I want to congratulate you on your work. Well done!!! For next Monday I think perhaps it could be an idea to record yourself on your daily activities to practise the endings of past simple, for example: On Monday, I got up at 7, I had breakfast, I had a shower, I put on my clothes, I kissed my mother goodbye, … etc. So you practise the ending of regular past simple and review the irregular past simple.

Also as homework you have the exercise on sentences for checking-in; on the page of rephrasing you have to do sentences 12 to 18 included; and on the page about travelling you should do the first exercise and try to do the second on adjectives.

Please, review everything we have seen in class, on Monday we will have an exercise to assess your progress.

Have a nice week. See you on Monday.

WEEK 10 17th - 23rd February 2014

Hello dear students,
How are you doing?

It was great to see that Sergio brought the assignment to class this week and draw what he has in his head and what he is passionate about. Samuel and Mario also did it well in class. We spend quite a long time making questions and asking about your interests. I learnt lots of new facts about your daily life and the things you are interested in. I really enjoyed listening to you all. It's nice to see when we talk about something we like, structures seem to be easier. Thanks for your participation in class. You all did it great!!!!!! I love it when you try your best. Here are your masterpieces, very interesting choices!!!!

Then we practiced again the structure: "How long does it take you to do something?" not only in questions but in answers using all the tenses: present simple, past simple, present perfect, future, etc.

We went on reviewing future tenses. We wrote sentences in all the futures and we realised that: When we use the future perfect or future perfect continuous we use have+past participle after will: I will have finished the book by the end of the month.

We also had some rephrasing to do, which involves changing the structure of the sentence in order to have the same meaning as the sentence given. As we had seen comparatives and superlatives the previous lessons, this rephrasing was to practice that. We did 5 sentences in class. For homework we go on with sentences 6 to 11. Don´t forget to do it, it´s just a review and it won´t take long.

I pointed out (phrasal verb, another one!!!! meaning draw attention to, observe, remark on) the difference between later and latter not only in phonetics but in usage. Check this link and try to do the exercise and bring it to class next Monday, we will be correcting the exercise on Monday in class, OK?

later vs. latter

Here it´s a link to distinguish between : late, last, later, latter, latest:

late, last, later, latter, latest

As we also have learnt the difference between former and latter, I have included a link:

former vs. latter


As required here you have a great variety of future perfect and future continuous:

future perfect vs. future continuous

Remember for homework:

1. photocopy rephrasing: 6 to 11. 
2. do the exercises of phrasal verbs : put up, put off, put out, put on, put aside.... 
3. vocabulary travel exercise 7
4. preposition and vocabulary for traveling 8 and 9
5. Record yourself practicing sentences like: how long does it take you to do something? in different tenses (remember endings in pronunciation -ed, -s)

We are finishing traveling and going into the next topic: how we learn a foreign language. As we have talked about the importance of learning I think the next link is going to be to your liking. It's a questionnaire about your type of learning. I have already done mine, we will talk about that next class.

how do I learn best?

Ok students, that's all for now. Have a nice week, enjoy yourselves and review. Bye.

WEEK 9 10th - 16th February 2014

Hello dear students,
How are you today?

Today we have reviewed more vocabulary about traveling and we have seen it in context: double-decker, sliding doors, rack, escalator, fare, meter and the difference between conductor, inspector and driver. You did it well, because you looked them up and you knew the meaning of the words, even when most of them were new. Well done!!! 

We also had a look at prepositions referring to travelling: on a platform, in a lift, at a bus stop. We saw "get into/get out of a car" and "get on/off a bus", "set off". 

Then we had a look at compound nouns about traveling: petrol station, traffic lights, seat belts, rush hour, parking fine, pedestrian area, cycle lane, taxi rank, buffet car, baggage claim,etc.

Then I have showed you some pictures from a project called:"What´s in my head?" to talk about the things we enjoy best. You have to bring it to class next Monday. Please don´t forget to do it. It will be very interesting, I´m sure.

We have had an activity to review comparatives and we have constructed: fewer + countable nouns, and less+uncountable nouns with the help of some images. I was particularly happy because all of you tried to make sentences using the pictures I brought in and the sentences were really good: You racked your brains out!!

We have reviewed the future tense: 

• present simple in future for timetables or scheduled events We have a lesson next Monday.
• present continuous for arrangements I´m playing football tomorrow.
• to be going to for intentions and when something is likely to happen Be careful. You´re going to fall!
• future simple for sudden decisions
• future continuous/ progressive for actions that will be happening in a given time or for emphasis when we are talking about plans, arrangements and intentions: "They´ll be coming to see us next week"
• future perfect for actions that will have finished in a given time (by+time; in 5 year's time): Do you think you will have finished your assignment by next Monday?
• future perfect continuous for actions that will continue up until a particular event or time in the future. They will have been talking for over an hour by the time Thomas arrives.

As we have talked and given examples of the tenses orally I´m going to post some links for you to practice your grammar, in the first one you have to write the correct tense and then you can check online:

future progressive and future perfect

and the following is for future perfect and future perfect continuous:

 

future perfect vs. future perfect continuous

At the end of the class I have given you a piece of paper to mark your character strengths to talk about them in our next class, you have to mark them from 1 to 24: I´m sure you will find the results interesting.

Don´t forget to check the previous blog and have a look at the links. If there is any problem, please let me know and write on the comment area,  I´ll be checking the blog!!! 

Have a nice week. See you on Monday. 

WEEK 8 3rd - 9th February 2014

Hello students,
How are you?

It has been my first class in Learn & Enjoy. I´m glad to have met you all. You did it well. I´m happy all of you tried your best and hope you will go on trying. We have lots and lots of new things to do in class!!!

Today we have reviewed how to make sentences given an open or closed answer. This has helped to know more things about your new teacher!!! Don´t worry, next day it will be your turn.

We have learnt a new structure : how does it take you to ....? which we have practised with different tenses. Then we have had a look at the mind map about travelling. Great work!!! you did it well!!! We went through a lot of vocabulary, some you already know some the first time you come across. We also make questions about travelling, next day we will go on making and answering questions about this subject.

I was curious about your staying in Ireland and you told me lots of interesting things you did during your summer in Dublin!

We also talked about the Trinity exam, remember it's 10 minutes with an English-speaker examiner, 5 minutes you have to develop a speech and the other 5 minutes the examiner will ask you questions about 2 topics out of 6 possible topics you have in this level.  I´m going to post an interview for this level C6:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLQ1zGWkcko

Pay special attention to the way she interacts with the examiner (he´s  very encouraging, helping her to talk) and she is really fluent and accurate when using grammar and her pronunciation is really good. Which questions does he make?

In the C6 Trinity exam the topics are: travel, money, fashion, rules & regulations, health & fitness, learning a foreign language.

We also had a quick review of comparisons and superlatives. And we have a game for next class about comparisons.

You have some homework to do: exercises 3 and 4 and watch the following video: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb15vFdJL9I

and say whether or not the sentences are true or false: 

a. The Oz-Bus tour lasts two months.
b. The travelers are aged 18 to 60.
c. The participants of the tour only travel by coach.
d. The participants can make lifelong friends during the journey.

Ok students. Hope you enjoy the videos. See you on Monday, have a nice week!!!

Week 7 20th - 26th January 2014

Hello class!

This week we watched a video on the GESE exam, stated the aim and the steps to follow to be able to sit the exam confidently,  and studied new vocabulary on travel and tourism. Students have been given a mind map and asked to do a personal one at home to extend the vocabulary on the topic. These mind maps prepared at home will be used during the next lesson.

Thank you for your participation. Well done!

Week 6 16th - 22nd December 2013

This week we have studied how to form conditional sentences type 0, 1, 2 and 3 and practised the new learning through writing, listening and speaking.

This is a link you may find useful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-Np7dmvw0U

Thank you for your participation and effort. You did very well!