Week 7: October 31st, 2018- Halloween!

Before telling you anything else, have a look at this poster of a Book Club in the school, just in case you're interested! It's C1 level but also suitable for experienced and courageous readers!
This term we'll be reading Love, Nina, by Nina Stibbe.
    I'll be also telling you about the possibility of coming to the theatre together in January: Wednesday 23rd, 19.30 Teatro José María Rodero.

- Today we told each other about the celebration of this  day in various cultures.
- We did a speaking exercise with vocabulary around the topic of Halloween, we told a nightmare on Halloween. This is the vocabulary we revised.
- We saw how to listen for detail in a video on Halloween, on how it became a holiday.
- We saw an episode of IT Crowd: The Haunting of Bill Crouse. We tried to identify chunks of language that we understood, never used but wanted to start using. You received this handout.
If you missed it, the episode is here on streaming.
Homework:
- Having a look at the handout on TV series, think about a TV series you liked, you are following or one you're interested in and prepare something to tell your classmates at the beginning of the class.

Week 6: October 24th- Moving into unit 2: expression of future with cinema and artistic expression

taken from Pinterest

- We told each other about our imagined ending to Jack's story.
- We corrected the exercise with adverbs in sentences from the story.
- We saw the different components of a good story.
- We practised another way of telling stories with dramatic present (simple present) by telling the jokes we had been given.
- We saw some structures to talk about repetitive actions in the past and practised by talking about our childhoods (used to/ would/ were always -ing)
- We saw and explained to each other two very creepy tv ads:

• Bite Size Horror Snickers Commercial.
• Bite Size Horror Skittles Commercial.

- We saw a quick brush of how to talk about the future, about predictions based on clues and plans (going to/ present continuous)

Homework:

- Complete the exercises of the photocopied handout.

- Do some research about how different countries celebrate Halloween or any celebration of the dead. Those students present in class have already chosen one of these; if you were not here yesterday, choose any and I'll pair you up with a different country: USA, UK, any country of the Commonwealth, Australia, Spain, any country in South America.

Week 5: October 17th, 2018- Telling stories

text giraffe logo

- We saw collocations with STORY and practised talking about tall stories.
- We got the outline of Jack's story and tried to fit the rest of the sentences paying attention to already mentioned things and verb tenses.
- We got a reading about a summer story and a listening to know the end of a story. We got to revise the different parts of a story.

Homework:
- Devise a suitable ending for Jacks's story to exchange at the beginning of the class.

- You listened to the first part of the Halloween story that we have to do together. I've already recorded the first sentence, which is already on the virtual wall Our Halloween Story.
- Each of you is going to continue the story.

• You need to go and listen to all the parts that have already been recorded and continue them. 
• Try to speak for some paragraphs to make the story develop a bit.
• You'll probably have to try recording quite a few times until you're happy with the final result, that's part of the process! And try to work on your pronunciation a little!
• I'm working on a video to show you how to record your part of the story, step by step, I'll try to have it done this weekend! Here it is!! Please find HERE the video with help with the recording.
• Anyway, if, after the video and all, it turns out to be too difficult just record it and send it over to me, via email.
• If you can do it as my example, add a creepy photo that matches your story!!!
• This has to be fun, don't get stressed!

Try Vocaroo, an online voice recorder to work on your Halloween Story. Our Halloween story is HERE.

Week 4: October 10th, 2018- Film and music

news.av.club

- We told each other about our research on our chosen actor.
- We practised pronunciation of letter e: /ɪ/, /e/, /ɜː/  
- We did a listening about the childhood dreams of two girls.
- You received the feedback from your recorded productions and the diagnostic listening.
- We practised the difference between /j/ and /dʒ/
- We filled in the gaps of the lyrics of Carly Simon's You're so vain given in phonetic transcription.
Homework:
- Go to NPR's page (National Public Radio) of StoryCorps.
- Pick up a story you find interesting and listen to it until you understand it. I know the recordings have the transcription but you should read it only after you've listened to it at least two or three times. Then listen while reading and listen again without reading to see if it unfolds clearer than the first times,
- Take notes, NOT sentences to follow the story so that you can later remember it.
- Write down three words whose pronunciation you needed to practise.
- Write down two structures from the listening  that you understand, you never use but you'd like to start using.
- Bring everything to class and share!

Week 3: October 3rd- Phonetics and cinema!!

elpais

- We revised the passive structure: I was told about/He was/She was told about...
- We revised the pronunciation of:         -diphthong /əʊ/ (as in told, home, mole, Rome or bone)
     -/ð/ as in the.
     -long and short vowels as in sheep/ship, work, car,
     -/ed/ endings as /t/, /d/ or / ɪd/
- We read aloud the text with past verb forms.
- We did a diagnostic listening that I collected.
Homework:
- You have to choose a Hollywood star that made films in Samuel Bronston's film company when it was established in Las Rozas.
- You have to read a little bit online about the star's life and experience in Spain, and pick photos or words to use to tell the story to a classmate at the beginning of next day's class. All the students in the class already chose a star but there are some left unpicked from the list: Debbie Reynolds/ Grace Kelly/ Bing Crosby.
- You can have a look at the place's web and its photos.