Levels

Wednesday 31 October 2012

Fifth year - 5ºCAL - Monday 29 October 2012


Summary of the class:

- Correct exercises: used to / essay

- Listening: niche holiday

- Vocabulary: Locations

- Vocabulary. Travelling. Click here to see the worksheet.

- Speaking: holidays. Click here to read the questions.



Homework: 

- Write an essay on one of the suggested topics

- Complete the activities on vocabulary (travelling)

Tuesday 30 October 2012

Fifth year - 5ºA - Monday 29 October 2012


Summary of the class:

- Correct activities: reading

- Grammar: used to / would / be-get used to


- Speaking: used to / be-get used to

- Writing: essay. Click here to read the document.

- Vocabulary: travelling and holidays. Click here to access the worksheet.




Homework:

- Complete the activities on the podcast on page 18.


- Activities on page 133, 3.1

Sunday 28 October 2012

Fifth year - 5CAL - Thursday 25 October 2012


Summary of the class:

- Reading: correct activities

- Vocabulary: addictions

- Grammar: used to / would / be-get used to

- Speaking: used to / would / be-get used to

- Oral presentation: mathematics and video games


- Writing: opinion essay


Homework:

- Finish activities on the worksheet on opinion essays

- Choose a topic and write an opinion essay

- Complete the activities on page 133, 3.1

Thursday 25 October 2012

Fifth year - 5ºA - Wednesday 24 October 2012



Summary of the class:

- Brainstorming/vocabulary: free time activities

- Speaking: free time / computer games

- Vocabulary: behaviour

- Reading: Jade and Sam

- Vocabulary: addictions

- Grammar: used to / would / be-get used to




Homeowork:

- After reading the texts about Jade and Sam, answer the questions on page 32

- Watch the video podcast on your cd-rom that is on page 18 and do the exercises. Click here to access the worksheet.

Fifth year - 5CAL - Tuesday 23 October 2012


Summary of the class:

- Listening and speaking: a first encounter

- Listening: Podcast (Flatmates) Click here to see the worksheet


- Brainstorming/vocabulary: free time activities

- Speaking: free time / video games

- Reading: Jade and Sam



Homework:

- After reading the texts about Sam and Jade, answer the questions on page 32 (4A)

Tuesday 23 October 2012

Book Recommendation: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Yesterday we had our first book presentation, which was "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. If you want to give this book a chance, here's the plot:

Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs all its members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone harbouring an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations where the old, imperfect life still continues, may be the cure for his distress...

These are some quotes from the novel:

“Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly -- they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.”

"But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”

 “Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.”

 “I want to know what passion is. I want to feel something strongly.”

“All right then," said the savage defiantly, I'm claiming the right to be unhappy."
 "Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat, the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind."
There was a long silence. "I claim them all," said the Savage at last.”



 There is a book that deals with a similar topic. 1984 by George Orwell plays with the same idea as Brave New World. This is the plot:

Winston Smith works for the Ministry of Truth in London, chief city of Airstrip One. Big Brother stares out from every poster, the Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal. When Winston finds love with Julia, he discovers that life does not have to be dull and deadening, and awakens to new possibilities. Despite the police helicopters that hover and circle overhead, Winston and Julia begin to question the Party; they are drawn towards conspiracy. Yet Big Brother will not tolerate dissent - even in the mind. For those with original thoughts they invented Room 101. . . 

Fifth year - 5ºA - Monday 22 October 2012


Summary of the class:

- Listening: universities. This is the link on which you can listen to the podcast again and read the script: Universities


- Vocabulary: education


- Book review: Brave New World


- Listening: a first encounter


- Speaking: a first-time thing.








Homework:

Imagine you are a school/university student. Write an informal letter/email, telling your friend about an anecdote that happened to you at school/university. Try to use the vocabulary we have learnt in this lesson.

Sunday 21 October 2012

Fifth year - 5CAL - Thursday 18 October 2012


Summary of the class:

- Speaking: education

- Reading: examinations

- Vocabulary: education

- Speaking: exams and other ways of assessing students.

- Click here to read the document we worked on. 

- Listening: universities. This is the link on which you can listen to the podcast again and read the script: Universities




- Speaking: universities in Spain




Homework:

Imagine you are a school/university student. Write an informal letter/email, telling your friend about an anecdote that happened to you at school/university. Try to use the vocabulary we have learnt in this lesson.

Thursday 18 October 2012

Listening: Education in GB


Watch the video below and answer the questions:





 1. What is the average number of students at primary schools?

2. What is the aim of primary school?

3. How long do schools devote to literacy and numeracy?

4. How do schools get money to buy equipment such as computers?

 5. What does a school uniform usually consist of?

6. What percentage of students goes on to further education?

7. What do A-levels stand for?

8. What is a gap year?

 9. How many students go on to higher education?

10. How does teaching take place at university?

 11. Where do university students live?


Click here to check your answers.

Listening: Off the Hook

Here's the unedited version of the part we watched in class plus a few more minutes. Enjoy.

Fifth year - 5ºA - Wednesday 17 October 2012

Summary of the class:

- Listening: Off the Hook

- Speaking: education in your country

- Reading: examinations


- Speaking: exams

- Listening: anecdotes


Click here to read the document we worked on in class.

Fifth year - 5CAL - Tuesday 16 October 2012

Summary of the class:

- Speaking: enquiries

- Speaking: DVD review

- Reading: Off the Hook

- Listening: Off the Hook

- Speaking: The British Education system (powerpoint presentation)


- Speaking: education. Click here to see the worksheet.

Tuesday 16 October 2012

Listening: schools in Britain

Watch the following videos to learn more about the British education system:

Fifth year - 5ºA - Monday 15 October 2012

Summary of the class:

- Correct exercises (making enquiries)

- Speaking: enquiries

- Speaking: DVD preview

- Reading: Off the Hook

- Speaking: British education system

- Powerpoint: education in Britain


- Vocabulary. Education. Click here to read the document.


Homework:

- Write the dialogues you practised in class: enquiries

- Read the text in the worksheet we started yesterday.

Sunday 14 October 2012

Author recommendation: Daphne du Maurier


One of my favourite authors is Daphne du Maurier. I can say my favourite book is "Rebecca" but this author also has other compelling, gripping books. Let me recommend you a few:

- Rebecca: This is a great book, and a total page turner. It is one of the books I have read more than twice, and I've seen the film countless times. The film is good, but I prefer the book, and there is a very big difference between the novel and the movie. This is the plot:  


Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again . . . Working as a lady's companion, the heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Life begins to look very bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she meets Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise. She accepts, but whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to the ominous and brooding Manderley, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory of his dead wife Rebecca is forever kept alive by the forbidding Mrs Danvers . . .



- The Scapegoat: 

 
By chance, two men - one English, the other French - meet in a provincial railway station. Their physical resemblance is uncanny, and they spend the next few hours talking and drinking - until at last John, the Englishman, falls into a drunken stupour. It's to be his last carefree moment, for when he wakes, his French companion has stolen his identity and disappeared. So John steps into the Frenchman's shoes, and faces a variety of perplexing roles - as owner of a chateau, director of a failing business, head of a fractious family, and master of nothing.
- My Cousin Rachel


Orphaned at an early age, Philip Ashley is raised by his benevolent older cousin, Ambrose. Resolutely single, Ambrose delights in Philip as his heir, a man who will love his grand home as much as he does himself. But the cosy world the two construct is shattered when Ambrose sets off on a trip to Florence. There he falls in love and marries - and there he dies suddenly.
In almost no time at all, the new widow - Philip's cousin Rachel - turns up in England. Despite himself, Philip is drawn to this beautiful, sophisticated, mysterious woman like a moth to the flame. And yet . . . might she have had a hand in Ambrose's death?



Fifth year - 5CAL - Thursday 11 October 2012


Summary of the class:

- Correct activities (present perfect / past simple)

- Speaking: game

- Vocabulary: enquiries

- Listening: polite enquiries


- Speaking. making enquiries

Fifth year - 5ºA - Wednesday 10 October 2012

Summary of the class:

- Correct activities (present perfect / past simple)

- Speaking: game

- Vocabulary: enquiries


- Listening: polite enquiries



Homework:

- Enquiries (page 14, ex. 3A; page 15, ex 4A)

Wednesday 10 October 2012

Fifth year - 5CAL - Tuesday 9 October 2012


Summary of the class:


- Correct activities: reading


- Grammar: present perfect / past simple

- Pronunciation: present perfect

- Word formation: suffixes

- Speaking: questions on page 148

- Vocabulary: adverts

- Listening: making enquiries.

Homework:

- Activities on present perfect and past simple: 

Page 13, ex 9A

Page 129, ex 1.2 (A/B)

Tuesday 9 October 2012

Fifth year - 5ºA - Monday 8 October 2012

Summary of the class:

- Correct activities: reading

- Grammar: present perfect / past simple


- Pronunciation: present perfect

- Word formation: suffixes

- Speaking: questions on page 148

- Vocabulary: adverts


Homework:

- Activities on present perfect and past simple: 

Page 13, ex 9A

Page 129, ex 1.2 (A/B)

Fifth year - 5CAL - Thursday 3 October 2012

Summary of the class:

- Correct activities on letter writing

 - Listening: free time activities


- Pronunciation: adjectives

- Grammar: adjectives


- Speaking: Think of ordinary activities you have never done and out-of-ordinary activities you have done


- Reading: I've never seen Star Wars.


Homework: Complete the activities on the reading (I've Never Seen Star Wars)

Thursday 4 October 2012

Listening: I've Never Seen Star Wars


Watch a segment of the programme we discussed in class. The guest is a popular person in the UK, called John Humphries, and has been the host in several programmes.




Questions:

1. Why does John Humphreys say he usually tries new things?

2. What's the last new thing he has tried?


 3. What has he never done?

 4. What does the host help him with? What does John want? What do they ridicule?

5. What kind of music does John like?

 6. What does John think of Michael Jackson's video?


Click here to check your answers.

Fifth year - 5ºA - Wednesday 3 October 2012


Summary of the class:

- Correct activities on letter writing


- Listening: free time activities

- Grammar: adjectives

- Speaking: Think of ordinary activities you have never done and out-of-ordinary activities you have done

- Reading: I've never seen Star Wars.


Homework: 

Write a letter/email on one of the suggested topics.

Complete the reading comprehension activies on page 12


5th year - 5ºA - Monday 1 October 2012

Summary of the class:

- Correct activities (questions and vocabulary)

- Speaking: questions


- Vocabulary: personality

- Writing: informal emails and letters. Click here to read the document.



Homework: Activities on letter writing.