Week 3: October 19th, 2022- Telling stories

 

- We exchanged in pairs the telling of the three jokes we had prepared.

- Here we have a video on Dramatic present, if you want to know more.
- Revision of the dictation activity we did the last class.

- Some of you told us about BBC news you had listened to.

- We did a reading and listening exercise on a Holiday Story. It gave us ideas to organise and give interest to any story.

Homework:

- I gave you a handout on vocabulary related to stories and telling stories.

- You are going to choose a story or anecdote to tell your partners, with a beginning, a middle/development and an ending. Don't write it out but have some notes prepared instead.

- You got a Halloween card to do some research about how that words connects to the celebration of Halloween.

IMPORTANT!!!

Next class is online via a link you'll receive five minutes prior to our usual time. Please check your spam just in case!

- Please have with you the handouts I gave you. We'll be using them.

Week 2: 5th October, 2022- Revising verb tenses for narration

- We got to know each other a little bit by drawing the information in a circle.
- We exchanged information about our hobbies.

- We saw a short film about learning a language and discussed our best learning strategies.

- We did a speaking exercise to revise the verb system.

- We started the dictation of a story about neighbours.

Homework:

- Record and send a bit of the photocopy I gave you. You can use Vocaroo and send it to gema.mazon@educa.madrid.org

- Prepare the telling of a joke I gave you. Remember: use dramatic present!!

Here you have the photocopy for the recording and the jokes: choose one of the boxes of the reading and a joke.

Week 1: 28th September, 2022- First day of our Skills Course!

 

Welcome to this year's Skills Group!! 

This is the third year we have organised this course intended for those of you mainly interested in improving your speaking and listening skills, and those who want to do so in a less intensive way than regular courses do. I hope you enjoy it and also find it interesting.

I'll be writing a weekly entry with a summary of the class and the links and work we have done and the one we are preparing for the following class. Remember to follow the site if you want to keep track of all the entries.

- Today, we got to know each other a little bit:
1. We had a look at the organisation of the school and we browsed the student information on the web.
2. We also had an overview of the structure of the course and were given the course description.
3. You started interviewing each other with a profile sheet.

Homework:
- Prepare some ideas about a hobby you have: what you like to do, frequency, why you find it so interesting, when you took it up, who you do it with... Write them in note form. With those notes, you'll be telling a classmate about it.

- Read aloud and record the part of the reading on learning a language I gave you and send it to me to: gema.mazon@educa.madrid.org

You can use the online recording Vocaroo to do so.

Week 34: May 27th, 2020- Reviewing the year

thegirlcreative.com

- Dear students,
    Today we said goodbye to the most extraordinary course.
    We have gone through moments we couldn't even imagine before. We've survived condemned  routers and creepy connections and we're now stronger and wiser: we're capable of finding some good and humour in the darkest moment, so to say ;-))
    I'm so happy and grateful for having shared these weeks with you, you've made me better. I'm very proud of your work, but even prouder of the atmosphere we've had in our classes, thanks a lot.
    Today we discussed about a future design for our courses and revised the year with a questionnaire. You remembered many things!
     I wanted to have finished with a song, but we spoke a bit over the hour, which is also fine, so nevermind. I want to give you the song I had prepared. We may open next year with the exercise I already have ;-)) It's a beautiful voice hoping for a rainbow, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole.  Google even designed a doodle to mark what would have been his 61st birthday, had he been alive.

Take lots of care and really hope to see you soon.

howtosurviveinparis

Week 33: May 20th, 2020- Board games galore!

- We learnt many things about board games with Miguel Ángel's presentation. We also have a vocabulary handout to know how to talk about them and now have an idea of the history of board games too.
- We saw a little clip of an episode of The Big Bang Theory in which they are playing a board game and had a look at some vocabulary and structures with the exercise.
- We practised the pronunciation of schwa with Tim's workshop of the BBC Learning English website.

Homework:
- Have a look at this article to practise reading and vocabulary from the news. It's about a man aged 101 that was asked for his parents to confirm his ID.
- You can also send me a recording about how you imagine the next few months, in terms of the many things that may be transformed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Week 32: May 14th- Emboldened animals and more

goat.co.au

- I like this image on the left  ;-) it appeared when I wrote "emboldened animals" in my search engine.
- I reminded you about the video we sent you and the survey we would love you to complete.
- We started talking a little bit about these events in which some animals have been seen away from their usual surroundings and into human domain.
- We then analized structures to react to news. We also practised how to pronounce consonant clusters in isolation and inside sentences.
- We also saw how Sheldon Cooper reacts to news and did a listening comprehension about the video clip.

Homework:
- We didn't have time for the listening news report on bicycles but we may next day and I found this file on the same topic, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Have a look at it, crammed with interesting vocabulary as always. And with the key.
- Besides, if you want to record a short presentation, it could be about the future now: what have we learnt because of the confinement and pandemic? how should we change after this? what future would we like to work for? Or also, as Mar told us today, how should we live our present to make the future we want? I'm looking forward to your ideas!

This photo also appeared when I wrote "emboldened animals", and it's like just the opposite! I love it.

dailymail.co.uk

Week 31: May 6th, 2020- We will survive! With a new router!

Independent.co.uk

- We had one class with no freezing problems. I couldn't be happier!
- We talked about the organisation of distance learning and our own experience.
- We also talked about positive outcomes of the coronavirus crisis.
- We met Captain Tom, a charity hero in the UK these days that just turned 100 years old a few days ago. We saw this video, examined some expressions of this handout and listened to his nº1 hit in the charts. You have some more information about him here.
- Video poem: we saw a poem written by Darren James Smith that deals with racism and fear in the coronavirus crisis: You clap for me now.
- We revised coronavirus pronunciation with Pronunciation studio, a great site.

Homework:
- There's the possibility to send me a recording of what you've read about positive outcomes of the coronavirus crisis. Organised and trying to use new words so that you can expand your vocabulary.
- You can also work your reading skills and vocabulary building with a news report on Emboldened animals in the coronavirus time. Have a look at the key to the exercises.