Week 10: December 21st- Last day before the Christmas break

dohanews.co

- We revised the use of structures with "it".
- We practised intonation and stress in speech  units.
- We saw positive and negative connotation in adjectives.
- We did a spoken crossword of adjectives.
- You received all your written productions revised with feedback and we saw some feedback together.
- We did the vocabulary exercise 1 on page 30.
- We rehearsed the Christmas carol.

Homework: -Ex. 1,2 and 3 from pages of 4A.
- The two reading comprehension handouts.
- Look for an item of news during the break or any day before January 11th and be prepared to present it to yout classmates on Monday January 11th.
- Read and assess the review from your classmate I gave you.
- Reading and writing portfolio 1 from the Workbook.

Week 9: December 14th&16th- Serious rehearsing of the Christmas carol ;-))

storybird.com

- We revised strategies to be tactful.

- We corrected a reading exercise with short extracts and headings.

- We practised participles in speaking with the story of Steven Callaghan.

- We saw and practised vocabulary to talk about character.

- We discussed and corrected the reading "Born to Lose" in 3A: Being confident.

- We explained and practised Patterns with it on page 28.

- We did a listening on The impostor syndrome.

- We wrote wishes for 2016.

- We rehearsed this year's Christmas carol.

Homework: - Correct and assess a review from another student. Consider the overall impression and adequation, cohesion, richness and correctness.

- Two reading exercises I gave you.

- Exercise 1 page 30.

Week 8: December 9th- We start the rehearsal of the winning Christmas carol

abcnotation.com

- We practised the use of adverbs.
- We did 3C It's the way you say it, where we saw and practised strategies to be tactful or less direct when giving opinions, criticising or complaining in English.
- We tried to understand British politeness with this table.
- We corrected the writing exercises on page 13.
- We distributed the photocopy on As/Like.
- We read and sang Deck the Halls, the Christmas carol for this year's competition.

Homework: - Reading pages 26 and 27 and exercises 1, 3 and 4.
- Reading handout of short texts.
- Exercises on As/Like

Week 7: November 30th & December 2nd - Finishing unit 2

Fishing in Cochin, Kerala- India Times

- We translated the film festival brochure and went through the film brochures, speaking about favourite aspects, characters, scenes and relevant vocabulary of both films we had seen last week.
- We saw film vocabulary and read aloud a model film review to write one for your fellow students.
- We saw feedback on the productions of Portfolio 2.
- We practised relatives with prepositions with speaking game The Brain Game.
- We saw the reading on Kerala on page 21 and saw the use of participles.
- We practised sentences with adverbs.
- We did 2B: Memorable places and saw how to use participle clauses.
- We saw the order of adjectives and strategies to use adjectives in positions other than previous to the noun.
- We revised the use of apostrophes and connecting words on page 23.

Homework: -Remember the recorded presentation on Portfolio 2 (see directions for my leave, posted before).
- Film review for your classmates.
- Reading on the handout distributed.

Week 6: Novembre 23rd & 25th- Film Festival

Peter Brookes, The Times

-We warmed up with recommendations about a place.
- We did the listening on China and revised The Times cartoon on Jeffrey Hill's blog and the NPR listening on China.
- We also did a listening on Tommy McHugh, a builder who became a painter and practised speech units.
- We saw the trailers of the films in the Film Festival.
Inside Out and What we did on our holiday.

Homework: Film handouts, ex.7 page 19 and ex.2 page 20

Week 5: November 18th- Back from leave and Kim Peek.

- We warmed up with an account of "what have you been doing in the last two weeks? (past simple and past perfect practice).
- We went through reading A Genius Explains on page 16-17 and its reading comprehension activities.
- We saw the first six minutes of documentary Kim Peek: The Real Rain Man, prepared/revised the questions for our classmates, made those questions for them and tried to answer theirs.
- We revised relative clauses and saw how to do more and less formal versions with prepositions.
- We practised with a Rain Man exercise on page 18.

Homework: - Prepare a recommendation with structures like on page 24 to explain to your classmate in Monday's warm-up. Avoid names of places so that we make it a guessing game too.
- Writing from reading and writing portfolio 2 (workbook)
- Recording of the presentation on the above writing.
- Class B: less formal version of exercise. Ex. 3b page 18.

Ideas for your teacher's leave

taringa.net

The following are ideas for you to do on your own because it seems you are not having a substitute teacher for the length of my leave.

For Wednesday 18th November I would like you to have written (and read all the rest) an entry in the Halloween padlet and the competition entry for  Reading and Writing Portfolio 2 of the Workbook (after having completed the exercises before it.). We'll also be asking each other the questions you prepare on Kim Peek's video and reading the paragraph to guess the place you're recommending.
See you then! Take care.

DAY 1: reading, listening and writing

• Here you have the KEY for the Student's Book Extra Practice 1, if you want to revise.
• Reading page 16: A Genius Explains. Practise reading comprehension. Ex. 1c
• Watch Kim Peek: The Real Rain Man. Watch the first six minutes and devise 5 questions to ask your partner.
• Do exercises 2 and 3 on page 13. You don't have to do the writing it suggests.
• Write an entry on the Halloween padlet.
• If you are very fed up try any part of this example exam of Advanced 2.

DAY 2: listening, speaking and reading

• Warm up your English; Go to Talk English.com and practise with a couple of the interactive lessons. Ex: Greeting Interactive Practice. Listen to Listen All and then choose Person A or B and say aloud the other part. The best practice would be to record yourself, listen to your recording and compare to the original.
• Read the competition entries in Reading and Writing Portfolio 2 page 57. Read about how to use a monolingual diactionary on page 58. Practise register on page 59. Take notes on the competition entry you are writing.
• Watch the video belonging to Unit 1 and do the exercises on page 124.

DAY 3: writing and speaking

• Write your competition entry (ex. 9 page 59). Make it of about 180 words. Revise.
• Read your entry again and take notes on the organisation and content. Prepare a four-minute presentation,  rehearse and record a file. Listen and find five words whose pronunciation and two aspects of the structure of the presentation you could improve.
• If you are very fed up try any part of this example exam of Advanced 2.

cnto.org

DAY 4: reading, listening and writing

• Go to Jeffrey Hill's Blog and read about the entry on October 23rd on China. What is the cartoon criticising?
• Listen to NPR's news on the Chinese President's visit to Britain. What danger is it talking about? Listen to it several times with and without the transcription.
• There is a reading on China on pages 24 and 25. It talks about different parts of China from a touristic point of view. Read and think about a place you know very well and make recommendations as the examples you have on page 24. Write a paragraph with them. Don't say the name of the place you're talking about: you'll be reading it to a classmate for them to guess.