Activity 14. Essay

We are still working on it! ;)

Activity 13. Create your own blog.

Here we are at the end of the course.
Our last project was to create our own blog that enclose a single web page with all our activities already completed in this course.
The result of this our latest project is just what you are seeing now.
Creating a blog is really fun.
Even if you are not very practical with the computer, creating a blog is not difficult, simply connect to the site and register, then gradually introduce in your blog your post and finally you can have fun choosing the wallpaper that you like among the many which are suggest.
Finally, you can also customize your blog with the colors that you like and adding gadgets that will adorn your blog.

Chiara,Laura & Gerard.

Activity 13. Blogs in education

We suggest you some blogs!

What is a blog?





It is a type of website. Blogs usually have regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. Most blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites.


Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; the following suggestions are blogs about education.


*Chiara's suggestions:

1. El blog de tu profesor de Inglés
Perfect blog for students of 4º ESO and Bachillerato.
You can find many exercise like listening activity,grammar exercise, buta also articles about Easter, Easter food..etc..
The Blog is in Castilian but all the activities are in English.

http://elblogdetuprofesor.blogspot.com/



2. English 1º ESO
Excellent Blog for students of 1º ESO.
The Blog is in English language and have a lot of grammar exercises( irregular verbs,spellingand vocabulary).
You can find in the Blog many interesting links about dictionary,other websites,etc..

http://angles1rlamitjana.blogspot.com/



3. Some like it English
Good Blog for students of 1º 2º,3º ESO and 1º Bachillerato.
Very interesting blog, there are some general activities, addressed to whomever wants to do them, ando others will be aimed at a certain group of students,
basically, listening skills, speaking skills, webquests, etc..

http://somelikeitenglish.blogspot.com/



*Gerard's suggestions:


1. Ensenyar llengua a l'alumnat no romànic
I like this blog because its main goal is to put in connection two different cultures. It's not only about chinese students learning our language,
it's also teachers learning about their culture.

http://ensenyarllengualumnatnoromanic.blogspot.com/



2. Algo suena en la Fuencisla
A blog of a school, based on music. I like it because they post constantly. Its posts are related with what they do in class of music, and the blog itself is also visually atractive.

http://www.algosuenaenlafuencisla.blogspot.com/



3. Oui, je parle Français!
A blog for learning french. There are posted some texts for reading, related with important events of the calendar. Also, there are some videos, as songs, with the lyrics

http://pourmesamis.jimdo.com/




*Laura's suggestions:


1. English is all around!
This is the perfect blog for those who are learning English as a second language.
You can find grammar and vocabulary resources, dicctionaries, useful links and interesting information about the American and English culture.

(Marisa Garcia; 2008)
http://englishisallaround.blogspot.com/


2. The Weekly Spin
Here you have a very interesting blog!
You can find interactive activities to practise English (1,2,3 grade of ESO)
You can also find interesting news and stories.

(Cristina Mato; 2007)
http://blog.educastur.es/thespin/



3. Learning English
This blog is an very useful tool.
You can find a list of webpages that can help you and a lot of resources to discover!"

(Laura Meseguer; 2008)
http://learningandteachingenglish.blogspot.com/

Activity 12. Hot Potatoes

We prepared some exercices with Hot Potatoes. They were made for our wiki, so the exercices are related with jobs. You can find them in our wiki "Great Job!".

http://gechilau.pbworks.com/w/page/39719873/Exercices

Goodbye To The Normals

Activity 11. Design a listening activity

Activity 11. Design a listening activity



Level: Intermediate (Batxillerat)

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFx755QeJME&feature=player_embedded

a) Warming up

Discuss in pairs. Did you ever think of running away from your home while being a child? How did you think that you would survive? Did you ever try it? What was the result? Do you think a child can survive alone in today’s world without the help of his/her parents?



b) Listening activity



1- First, watch the video and then write on a piece of paper what you have understood of what happens in it.

2- You can find the transcript of the video in section “e”. However, this transcript has some gaps. Try to fill them in while you watch or just listen to the video. Also, look up in the dictionary the words you don’t know and write them down with the definition.

3- Watch the video for the last time, but just as the first time, without reading the transcript, and check how much your comprehension has improved.



c) After listening

Discuss with the class. When we see the boy turning back, did you expect that ending? Why do you think the video is called “Goodbye To The Normals”? Did you know that “Magnus”, the boy’s name, means “big” in Latin? Do you think a child of his age can actually show this type of behaviour? What will happen to him now? Will he succeed in his attempt? Or do you think that he will have to come back with his parents? Imagine how different his life in both cases could be.



d) Extra activity

If you want more, we propose you a last activity to be done in pairs. Imagine that Magnus reaches America and he wants to stay in a hotel. One student can take the role of Magnus and the other can take the role of the receptionist. Recreate the conversation that they could have.





e) Transcript of the short film: Goodbye To The Normals (with gaps)



Dad: Hello, Magnus.

Magnus: Hello.

Dad: How are you?

Magnus: Fine. How are you?

Dad: Fine, thanks… You’re going on holiday? … No?

Magnus: I’m ______________ away.

Dad: Right, and... er… Where are you going?

Magnus: America.

Dad: Where about?

Magnus: ____________ _____________.

Dad: Why do you want to go there?

Magnus: I know it’s ____________ a bad ____________ recently but it’s the place that’s taken my ____________.

Dad: Right, well… fair enough.

Magnus: I’m all packed.

Dad: Good! Good… Will you be gone, ____________ _____________?

Magnus: For ever.

Dad: Oh. How about school? What about your… your bedroom? Huh? If you are not here, we ___________ ___________ to turn that into a… a brain ______________ ____________! Huh, huh.

Magnus: Don’t be ridiculous…

Dad: Right, hum… er ... Have.. Have you definitely ­­­___________ your ___________ up on this? No scope to reconsider? Anything else you want to add?

Magnus: No, that’s everything.

Dad: Great. It’s always worth ______________ these things _____________. Uh… Can I give you a ____________ to the airport?

Magnus: No, thank you.

Dad: How will you be…?

Magnus: I’m going _________ _____________.

Dad: Really? Well, I’ve _______________ him a ___________ to the airport, but apparently he’s fine, he’s going ___________ _____________.

Mum: Ok. Ah… Bologna sandwiches.

Magnus: Are they fair trade?

Mum: Oh, they’re _______________.

Magnus: Is that what I asked you?

Dad: Well, I think it’s time to say goodbye, Magnus.

Magnus: Thank you. Good luck!

Dad: Good luck to you too.

Mum: Bon voyage.

Magnus: ______________ my fucking passport!

Activity 10. Key Issues in Teaching Listenings

1) Write a list: "5 important things to remember when you're teaching listening."

a. Interesting topic
b. Adequate level and speed of the speaker
c. Encourage to practice out of the class (TV, Songs, radio...)
d. Knowledge of the vocabulary
e. Motivate the students

2) Check your list. Is there anything you would like to change?

a) Link the listening activities with speaking activities.
b) Correction of the listening test by explaining why the students got the answers wrong.
c) The teacher should check previously the vocabulary and prepare some activities before playing the listening.

Laura, Chiara & Gerard.

Activity 9. Comment on the wikis presented in the class.

Listkids.

Positive Points: Very funny wiki. Some exercise are included directly in the wiki.
Negative Points: Maybe they should write in some link for more informations.


English4kids

Positive Points: is very complete and include a lot of information.
Negative Points: maybe this wiki is not very funny and they should write in more exercises.

Clilsports

Positive Points: This wiki is very funny and complete.Here you can find all that you need: vocabulary,games video…all about sports.
Negative Points: none.

Informal English site

Positive Points: This wiki is vary good organized.There are many useful links and a chat room to practice all that you can find in the wiki.
Negative Points: Maybe they should include some videos.


Listenings and videos

Positive Points: This wiki is very good organized, include three different levels and have videos and listening related to them. Very interesting.
Negative Points: none.

Chiara, Gerard & Laura.

Activity 8. Read the article “New Trends in using Technology in the Language Classroom” and comment.

This article is truly interesting because it deals with the future of teaching languages. In our modern society, languages are very important, but sometimes we don’t have much time to study them, and then is when technology becomes so useful. Nowadays, we can study from home, without spending time on journeys. However, we think that it’s always better the presence of a teacher, because it’s him who will guide and motivate you. That’s why trainers exist in the world of sport. Next, we want to comment some points of the article that have been discussed in the forum.

The first discussion is about translating when the student doesn’t understand something. Well, when a student has a doubt or difficulties to understand or do something, the teacher should really help him. That is, sometimes, the teacher doesn’t understand well what the student is asking, and he answers him a different thing of what the student has asked. So, good communication is basic. That’s why we think it’s a good idea using the L1 for clarifying, because the best thing that it could happen in that situation is that the student resolves his problem. The teacher has the rest of the class to use L2.

The article says that sometimes online communication could be better than a face to face talk. Maybe this is related with the fact that we can remember better things when we write them down. Moreover, it’s a perfect opportunity to put oneself in contact with people all over the world and, so, with other cultures. However, a face to face talk gives you a lot of more information while listening to the tone and watching the gestures... it’s what we call nonverbal communication. By contrast, when you are chatting on the web, sometimes, you don’t understand completely the sense of some words.

As others have said, we think that both ways of learning languages have their pros and cons, and the best it would be to combine them, always trying to take the most advantage of their good points.

Gerard,Chiara & Laura.

Activity 7. Create a wiki.

Hi! Here you can find the link of our wiki:


                        GREAT JOB!


You will find a lot of interesting material to learn jobs vocabulary!


http://gechilau.pbworks.com/w/page/38156454/Great-Job!



Chiara, Laura & Gerard.

Activity 6. Evaluating websites

We searched some websites to study vocabulary about jobs. We find some that were useful, we punctuated them and we wrote positive and negative points about them. You can find them in our wiki "Great Job!":

http://gechilau.pbworks.com/w/page/38662953/List-of-Websites

Activity 5. Create an Acitivty.

Activity : Make an investigation on the earthquake in Japan.

Topic: Earthquake in Japan.

Aim : Writing,speaking and reading skills.

Age group: 20-25 years.

English level: B1-B2

Time : 2 hours.

Object of activity:

a) Prepare students for the knowledge of scientific technicalities, in which case the terms of the geography about the earthquake.


b) Prepare students to have a clear pattern on the knowledge of the earthquake.
Will assess the ability to synthesis and the ability to answer to specific questions about the research topic.


Procedure :

• Students will gather information on the earthquake in japan.
• Below will need to do a search on the characteristics and the causes of the earthquake an tsunami as a natural phenomena.
Fox example,what is an earthquake, what causes an earthquake, what are the stages of the earthquake ...etc..

• Make a summary of the carnage caused by these natural phenomena and see the solutions that can be used to defend ourselves better from earthquakes.
• Read up on the differences between the earthquake and tsunami.
• Make a vocabolary with the technical terms unknown.

In class read a text with the differences and similarities between the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and Sumatra in 2004 and will answer questions.


Students can refer to this page : http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3755883

Chiara,Gerard & Laura.

Activity 4. Changing educational paradigms

We absolutely agree with the ideas that Mr. Robinson expose in this video RSA Animate “Changing education paradigms”. Society has been changing during centuries but not the educational system (or not as fast as needed). Children have to many distractions (TV, mp3, computers, games...) and for this reason, they think that learning is boring. The most important thing is to show them that the act of learning is very important.

As Mr.Robinson shows in the video, They are said to have the ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) but it is a fictitious epidemic. Kids are unmotivated and if the educational system changes probably children’s knowledge would improve. Classes should be adapted according to the new interests of children because they would find their classes interesting. Teachers would also adapt the way of testing. Nowadays, kids do not believe that going to school will ensure a job when they finish their degree.Another issue to take into the account is the standardisation.

From our point of view, it is good for them to be grouped according to their age group but also according to their skills and interests. The most important thing is to reorganize the educational system in line with the necessities of the children of the 21st century.

Chiara, Gerard & Laura

Activity 3. Language learning strategies.

READING & VOCABULARY

READING 1 - Activities 1 and 2 are related to this reading.

Teenangers: earning money

In many countries, you can only get a proper, full-time job if you are 16 or 18 years old. But there are things that teenagers in some places can do to earn some pocket money. Here are a few ideas.

a) Parents with a small child want to go out for the evening for dinner, or to the cinema, but they don’t want to leave their child alone. So, they ask a teenager to stay in the house and look after him or her while they are out. And if the child’s asleep, you can do your homework and not waste time!
b) Some adults have a dog but they don’t have time to take it for a walk. Dogs need a lot of exercise! So some teenagers work on that. It’s a good idea- you earn money and you’re outside in the fresh air, getting some exercise too!
c) Teenagers can deliver newspapers – usually you ride a bike around a neighbourhood and leave the newspaper at each house. Normally you have to have your own bike – and you have to get up early too, because people want their newspaper to read with their breakfast!
d) Lots of older people are happy for teenagers to help them carry their shopping or do small things in their home, like washing or ironing or keeping them company. You earn money, and people in the neighbourhood get your help.
e) It’s crazy for adults to drive to an expensive car wash when they can get a teenager to do the job for less money. Wash the car well and carefully and people will want you to do it again. Then you’ve got customers!

They’re all great ideas. Just choose one of them to earn some money. Then you can spend it or save it! But don’t forget it’s important always to tell an adult where you’re going. Be safe! Don’t be stupid!

1. Match the following words with the paragraphs a-e. Then, Put the five jobs in order. 1= the job you would like to do most, 5= the job you would like to do least.
Washing cars _
Delivering newspapers _
Babysitting_
Dog-walking _
Helping elderly people _

2. Which job (or jobs) above involves:
Water?
Walking?
A bicycle?
Carrying things?
Going to another person’s house?
Animals?

3. Fill in the spaces: Complete the text with the following words:
Have has player job successful doctors dentist dream hours vet

Susan’s mother is a vet, her father is a ________ and her two brothers are studying to be ________. But Susan’s isn’t interested in getting a ________ in medicine – she wants to become a professional tennis ________, and her ________ is to play tennis for her country at the Olympic Games. At the moment, she’s in the girls’ under-18 national team. Top tennis players ________ to be very fit, so every morning Susan gets up at 6.30 and runs for an hour before breakfast. Before and after school, she goes to her tennis club – she has to practice for three ________ a day. But she also ________ to go to school and do her homework in the evening. It’s very hard work, but Susan is determined to be ________ in her sport.


4. Complete each sentence with a word from the box:
Saturday job earn spend waste full-time pocket money save part-time

a) She only works two hours every morning – it’s just a ________ job.
b) When I’ve got some money, I always put it in the bank and ________ it.
c) My sister works 9-4, five days a week, it’s a ________ job!
d) That film is really awful – so don’t ________ your money by going to see it!
e) I like to ________ my money on DVDs.
f) I don’t work at all because my grandparents give me ________ every week.
g) I go to bed early on a Friday because I’ve got a ________.
h) I work every Sunday to ________ some money for myself

5. Answer these questions. What’s the difference between:

a) A part-time job and a full-time job?
b) To earn money and to spend money?
c) To spend money and to save money?
d) To spend money and to waste money?


6. Choose the correct answer

a) ________ help people when they are in hospital.
Nurses Vets Dentists

b) ________ fly planes
Pilots Lawyers Drivers

c) Peter ________ money in the bank to buy a good computer
Saves Earns Works

d) To be a lawyer, you have to get very good ________ at school.
Exams Dreams Results

e) I took my dog to the ________ because he wasn’t well.
Engineer Firefighter Vet


READING 2 -

John: My uncle’s a vet and in the holidays I often help him. It’s great for me because I really love animals. Of course I know that you have to study hard and for a long time to be a vet, but that’s my dream and I’m sure I can do it.
Mary: My dream is to play professionally. I know I have to practice a lot, so I joined a club and I practice almost every day, and play matches at the weekend. One day I want to be as good as Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer.
Preston: I want to work in IT – information technology. You have to be really good to get the best jobs, and then you can earn a lot of money but that’s not my real interest. I just love computer programming.
Sarah: Well, a lot of my friends want to be flight attendants, and I know why- you get to travel to lots of great places! And that’s what I want to do too – but I don’t want to travel as a flight attendant, I want to be the pilot flying the plane! There are lots of women pilots, and I want to be one of them.


7. Read and write which job does each teenager want to do in the future:

John __________
Mary __________
Preston __________
Sarah __________

8. Let's practice!

A) What jobs do the people in your family do?
- My mother is a _____________.
- My father is a _____________.
- My grandmother is a _____________.
- My grandfather is a _____________.
-
-
B) Interview a member of your family about his or her job and then write about it.

Here are some questions you could ask him/her:

Where do you work?
What do you do?
What time do you start and finish?
Do you have to wear a uniform?
What do you like about your job?
What don’t you like about your job?
Would you like to work in another place?
When you were a child, what was your favorite job?


Laura & Chiara

NAME OF ACTIVITY: What’s Halloween about?

OBJECTIVE OF THE STRATEGY: To acquaint students with vocabulary related to the topic of the text. To teach them to make predictions about the text they are going to read and the basic vocabulary items they are going to encounter. To show them how they can work on their previous knowledge of the topic and thus improve, fasten and optimize the understanding of the text.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR TEACHERS: The teacher must encourage students to provide anything they come up with: there are no wrong or right answers. He or she should not solve any doubt related to the meaning of the words they are going to be working on until the moment of facing the text comes: only students can intervene in the pre-reading activities. During the reading, the teacher can pass around every group and answer any question related to the text. In the speaking post-reading activity, the teacher has to correct any error students have in expressing themselves so that the new vocabulary they are meant to learn is definitely stored.

AGE: 12 (Basic-Low intermediate level)

The origin of Halloween

1) Halloween is a great day for parties. Children dress up as witches, ghosts or vampires, and they go from house to house playing TRICK OR TREAT. But what’s the origin of this custom?

2) Halloween means Hallows’ Evening. It is the evening before All Hallows’ Day (now called All Saints Day), a Christian holiday, celebrated on the 1st of November. But that day was important already in ancient times. On the 1st of November, Celtic peoples celebrated the festival of Shamhuinn, which marked the beginning of winter and the Celtic New Year.

3) “How come a Christian and a pagan holiday are celebrated on the same day?” you might ask, “Is it just a coincident?” – No, it isn’t. When Christianity spread, the Church tried to disturb the pagan customs as little as possible, and so they merged their festivals with pagan ones.

4) It was widely believed that on Hallows’ Evening the dead would rise from their graves to roam the earth. Afraid of evil spirits, people therefore either wore ugly masks to frighten those spirits away, or they stayed at home saying prayers. Some would also go from house to house, begging for ‘soul cakes’, square pieces of bread with currants. In return they promised to pray for dead members of the donors’ families.

5) Going from house to house, begging for sweets – doesn’t that sound familiar? Indeed, that’s the origin of TRICK OR TREAT. Be aware, however, as the custom has changed! Nobody is going to pray for you nowadays. Instead, if you don’t have a TREAT for the children in front of your door (some sweets for example), they will most likely play a TRICK on you – that’s what TRICK OR TREAT is all about.

ANTICIPATION

1. Brainstorming: the class group is asked to say all those words they think a text about Halloween will contain. The teacher writes them all down on the blackboard in order to make them all known to them. These are read aloud by the teacher first and then repeated by the students.

2. The teacher asks the whole class what are their ideas about the origin of this tradition and to create a short paragraph that summarises this using the words that have been noted on the board.

3. The teacher shows another list of words that they will run into in reading the text. Students are asked to guess the meaning of those words which have not been mentioned up to then

READING

1. In small groups, the students are asked to read and comment together on what they have understood and to try to deduce the meaning of those words they do not know. The teacher must give them some tips on how to figure out the meaning of words they have never read before such as looking and the context and to use the information that the previous anticipation discussion has put forth.

POST-READING

1. Make the students give their impressions about the text and whether it has matched or not their expectations, what they have learnt and what has surprised them.

2. Invite the students to explain or to invent an experience of their own related to this festivity, so that they can draw on the new vocabulary they have learnt.

Suggestions / homework for further mastery of this vocabulary:

1. Classify the vocabulary according to the categories they choose themselves and share it with the ones of other students.

2. Write a short scary story (either invented or one that they know).

Gerard & Jose

Activity 2. Language Learning Strategies. Analyze a web site: Language Learning Advisor.

Module 1 presents a structured, clearly designed program in which all activities have been scheduled for the learner to work on his own with the tools provided by the Internet. Its main aim is to teach students how to improve their learning of the English language within a virtual framework.

In the LLTA article, instead, learners are given plenty of advice and options they can easily access in their daily life for learning to move forward. It does not stick to the virtual framework, but touches upon many areas of life where learning can be implemented, not only the Internet. In relation to this, we can also note that Module 1 is restricted to a less large audience because it requires used to handle, if basic, some knowledge of how the Internet is used.

 One of the fundamental points of Module 1 approach is that is concentrates on assessing what the learners’ level of English is in order to make them aware of the stage they are at. Contrary to this, LLTA supplies a wide range of language learning levels to be covered. It proposes activities of many sorts that can be much more helpful for a successful performance of the L2: real, natural, spontaneous language, also grammar books…

 Finally, it is worth mentioning that whereas Module 1 is actually academically oriented, as marks, time limitations and self-evaluation progress must be provided, LLTA prefers to give students a list of materials that can be used for them to learn their L2 as best as possible. 

Gerard & José

The web page language learning advisor is focused on autonomous learning in the sense of being oneself more conscious about the time he or she has to spend to study a language and how to study it. It encourages the learners to use the sources they feel more comfortable or more useful. While reading it, the student notices that there are different methodologies and the importance of choosing the correct one (depending on one’s learning style). Then, it is mentioned the importance of the daily contact, in order to review the new concepts every day.
The learning method in module 1 helps the learner to distinct the different learning processes. On the other hand, language learning advisor lists a set of advices and techniques. It also encourages the student to use an audio component, to talk to friends with the new language and so other interesting activities such as reading magazines or joining a language club.


Laura & Chiara.

Activity 1. Module 1

We think the general aspects of a virtual course are excellent.
This way of self-teaching is very good because it empowers the student who needs to develop various activities involved in the study of various web pages, creating real technological activities.
Another very important aspect is that the student is completely autonomous, and free to organize his study.
All that a student must have is to have a good level of language and internet skills.
For this reason, we think that this mode is not very suitable for students who are studying English for the first time, but it is great for those who need to improve their language skills.
Moreover, the possibility of being able to self assess is very important because this mechanism makes the student more and more autonomous and independent, considering the difficulties encountered in carrying out the task, and then, to be able to solve these problems.
However, the student can assess his level of English, starting from the beginning to the end, so he/she can see his/her improvements.
We believe that the self-teaching course is recommended for students who want practice their language and internet skills acquired during his/her learning of this language.

By Chiara, Laura & Gerard.

Voki Uncle Sam

Welcome :)

Here you have my voki!

Voki Pug

Great Job!

This is a wiki created for learning jobs vocabulary in English! Try it!

Great Job!

By Laura, Chiara & Gerard