Week 18: February 22nd, 2023- Carnival and friends

 

Carnival celebration in La Palma

- Yesterday we started talking a little bit about the Carnival in different places.-

- We saw a video about friendship and talked about the subject while revising some vocabulary related.

- We interviewed each other about a Friendship questionnaire.

- We did an exercise on Somebody I Used to Know, by Gotye and Kimbra.

Homework:

- You can write about the woman scientists you read on this virtual wall and I'll give you feedback on it.

- I have the calendar for you to choose the day you want to give your presentation.

- Read about somehing interesting about foreign news and we'll start the class talking about that next day... all but Tomás!!! who will give his presentation next March 1st!! on the topic of his choice.

Week 17: February 15th, 2023- Women scientists and your questions for the video.

 

- We told each other about the woman scientist we had chosen and explained a little bit about her life and work. I talked about Elisabeth Blackburn and her work with telomeres connected to CNIO.

- We completed the exercise we had started last week with Laura Trice's TED Talk. You saw the video again to revise your questions and to answer your classmates' questions.

- You got the copy for the video on friendship we're going to work with next week.

- You also got a blind date from the library.

Homework:

- For homework I suggest we can read about carnival celebrations around the world. You can pick up any place in Spain or abroad and read a little bit about it so you can tell us in class. Here you have a link, but you can use any!!

Week 16: February 8th, 2023- Love songs and Remember to say thank you

- We started the class with all your love songs and the stories behind them that you told us. It was really great that ALL OF YOU had prepared yours. I want to thank you with a little present: this is the playlist of all your songs in the order you presented them in class. I'm sorry Spotify does not have Hey in English Toñi! I leave it here.

- We corrected exercises A and B of our handout on modal verbs and explained all the first page.

- We saw a video by Dr Laura Trice, Remember to Say Thank You. We did the first three questions and you thought of two more questions for your classmates.

Homework: 

On 11 February we celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.  For homework I'd like you to read about one woman scientist and tell us about her work and contribution. Remember: read and take notes so that you tell us about it with your own words, avoiding reading aloud. 

You can read about any scientist you want or check the UN website on Women scientists or the CNIO webpage (website with English version) which is an extraordinary Spanish research centre with a special care for female contributions and a woman director, María Blasco, who is a leading resercher in her field herself.

Week 15: February 1st, 2023- Future perfect and continuous and songs!!

 

This is a photo by Isabel Muñoz, the Spanish photographer whose exhibition I saw a few years ago, the one I told you I liked so much. Just for you to know. If you follow the link, you can see more photos of that project.

- We started the class with your little presentations about the research you had done on the scientific topics I had given you.

- We revised the use of the future perfect and the future continuous with the two diaries of our exercise. We also talked about ourselves at the end of the year, for practice.

- We discussed the follwing questions with two songs by two different artists: Sesión 53 by Shakira and BZRP and Flowers by Miley Cyrus. We discussed these questions, plus other aspects you brought up: 

1. What's the story behind the song?
2. What is the singer complaining about?
3. What other people are mentioned in it?
4. In your opinion, why did the artist write this particular song?

Homework:

For homework you have to look for one love song, it doesn't have to be about break-up, with a story behind and read about it so that you're able to tell us about it at the beginning of next day's class.

Week 14: January 25th, 2023- Centenarians, regrets and a resignation

- We reviewed the course together and explained how you found it so that our new classmate could form an idea.

- We discussed the questions I had set for homework, the ones related to the video on centenarian people. 

- We practised the most usual grammar structure for regrets, should have, in a speaking exercise.

- We did a listening exercise about New Zealand's prime minister Lucinda Arden.

Homework:

For homework I'd like you to do some more research about some striking scientific discoveries that are hitting the headlines these days. 

As usual, the way I suggest you prepare for this is to read extensively about the topic while taking notes from which you'd be able to tell the rest of the class about it. It's always very interesting and useful for improvement that you pick up structures or vocabulary you are familiar with but you never use and try to use it when you tell us. Avoid reading from your notes, you only check them.

The topics and people are the following:

• Nacho, Alba B and Gema: Earth's core appears to have reversed its spin and could have consequences.
• Sarai, Jaqueline and Toñi: Humans seem to be able to understand apes better than thought.
• Sonia, Rosa and Alba H: Newly found asteroid, 2023BU, is passing very close to the Earth
• Mario, Fernando and Azucena: Doomsday clock is at 90 seconds to midnight.
• Roberto, María Luisa and Tomás: What is Chat GPT and the controversy about it.

For your reading, you can check these sites or any other you rely on: The Guardian science,  New York Times

Week 13: January 18th, 2023- Year 2022 in a quizz and the future perfect and continuous

 

- We warmed up writing up post-its with the best of last year and wishes for 2023 that we're going to have in a poster.

- We did the quizz of news from 2022 in two groups and both got 12 correct answers!!

- We did a listening about Blue Monday.

- We revised the use of Future Perfect and Future Continuous and practised with an activity with a conversation between a photographer and a manager.

Homework:

- Watch this video about three centenarians. The topic connects to our exercise on advice from old people from last week. Write down notes on the following, to start speaking next day:

1- What are the reasons they give for their long lives?
2. What regrets do they have?
3. What advice do they give?

From your personal opinion, what are the reasons these three people have had such a long life?

Week 12: January 11th, 2023- Happy New Year and New Year's Resolutions

 

- We wished each other a very happy new year and told the class about the good news we had read about over the holidays.

- We shared our New Year's Resolutions in a Mentimeter exercise.

- We read about Resolutions and how to stick to them.

- We saw New Year Resolutions in a Friends' episode.

- We read and discussed about life advice from very old people, taken from a Sahil Bloom's tweet.

Homework:

- Choose one of the ideas on the handout I gave you to organise a short presentation and record it for me. Try to use some of the vocabulary and phrases from the text we revised together:

A: Think back to a successful resolution you made. What was it? What steps did you take to achieve it?

B: Make a resolution for 2023. What steps will you take to successfully achieve it?