We started the lesson saying the opposite adjective of a given one. Somebody did not know the meaning of crowded, nor its opposite, empty. Another interesting pair is reserved/outgoing.
Students read homework, which was about complaints. I enjoyed listening to them. Remember you can complain about + noun or gerund, complain that + clause. You can also complain of as in Complain of shortness of breath and a cough.
We studied some two-part verbs or phrasal verbs: turn down, turn off, tun on, put away, pick up, take out, take off, put on, clean up, hang up, put out.
Remember that in English you turn on or turn off a faucet or a tap.
For homework: write some short conversations - request and answer - using the phrasal verbs we are studying.
Example:
Please, take the groceries home and put them away, I need to park the car.
Ok, I´ll take them home and put the frozen things in the freezer, but I´ll wait for you to put away the other things.
Something else: please, look at your notes and make a list with 20 verbs, 20 nouns and 20 adjectives you have learned ( or at least intended to learn) during this term.
viernes, 13 de diciembre de 2013
jueves, 5 de diciembre de 2013
Homework: what advice would you give your child if he/she was moving away to go to university?
What advise would you give a new employee in the place where you work?Remember to use should, not must. You are giving advise, you are not giving orders.
We are still studying modal verbs. Today we started the class practicing the question Have you ever met anybody from...? That way we had the chance to practice the names of countries. But as usual we got a little lost talking about many different things.
Andrea read her homework, which was a conversation she had written between two friends who were preparing a trip together.
Then students read a couple of times the dialogue on page 32 New Headway and role played it. Interesting and useful expressions they had to use:
What do you think?
Should we...?
I think you´re right.
We did a matching exercise, making sentences starting either I think we should or I don´t think we should...
Finally Lorena read the fairy tale she had written about a month ago. Good job¡ I really enjoyed all your fairy tales.
jueves, 28 de noviembre de 2013
We are studying modal verbs.
Have to: in order to make questions and negative sentences we need the auxiliary verb do.
can, must, should: when followed by another verb, NEVER use to. They are auxiliary verbs, so when we put them in a question, we just change the order of the words: Can I? Should we? Must he? and if we have to make a negative sentence we add not: I cannot, I must not, I should not.
Can is sometimes similar in meaning to Being allowed. You can either say: We are not allowed to smoke here or We can´t smoke here.
In our lesson today we practiced those verbs. We also listened to a recording of 2 teenagers talking about things they have to do or don´t have to do and about things adults have to do as opposed to teenagers.
For homework:
Write about yourself as a teenager: What was your life like? What did you have to do at home and in school?
Have to: in order to make questions and negative sentences we need the auxiliary verb do.
can, must, should: when followed by another verb, NEVER use to. They are auxiliary verbs, so when we put them in a question, we just change the order of the words: Can I? Should we? Must he? and if we have to make a negative sentence we add not: I cannot, I must not, I should not.
Can is sometimes similar in meaning to Being allowed. You can either say: We are not allowed to smoke here or We can´t smoke here.
In our lesson today we practiced those verbs. We also listened to a recording of 2 teenagers talking about things they have to do or don´t have to do and about things adults have to do as opposed to teenagers.
For homework:
Write about yourself as a teenager: What was your life like? What did you have to do at home and in school?
jueves, 21 de noviembre de 2013
This week we finished working on the texts about Picasso and Hemingway. Students had to underlined all the verbs in passive voice that they found in the texts and write their own sentences with them. All of them were in the past tense because that´s what we are learning. We are learning the tenses we need to tell a story: past simple, past continuous and past perfect. We can find the same tenses, but in passive, like:
It was given to me.
The dogs were not being fed.
She had not been told about the earthquake.
In our last lesson we were talking about books and films that we had enjoyed. Each student had to think about a film or book and the other ones had to ask the following questions:
What´s it called?
Who wrote it?
Who directed it?
Who starred in it?
Who are the main characters?
What´s it about?
Where does it take place?
Why do you like it?
Firts we were practicing the pronunciation of those questions and then we were using them in context. Students were also allowed to make different questions if they wanted. It was quite interesting and I, myself, had the chance to learn a few things.
By the way, the film director I was talking about, the one whose name I couln´t remember, is Gracia Querejeta. Her father, the film producer who died last year, I believe, was Elias Querejeta.
Homework
Write a conversation between two friends or more about books or films. You should mention at least 2 works (books or films) and you can use the questions we were practicing during the lesson.
It was given to me.
The dogs were not being fed.
She had not been told about the earthquake.
In our last lesson we were talking about books and films that we had enjoyed. Each student had to think about a film or book and the other ones had to ask the following questions:
What´s it called?
Who wrote it?
Who directed it?
Who starred in it?
Who are the main characters?
What´s it about?
Where does it take place?
Why do you like it?
Firts we were practicing the pronunciation of those questions and then we were using them in context. Students were also allowed to make different questions if they wanted. It was quite interesting and I, myself, had the chance to learn a few things.
By the way, the film director I was talking about, the one whose name I couln´t remember, is Gracia Querejeta. Her father, the film producer who died last year, I believe, was Elias Querejeta.
Homework
Write a conversation between two friends or more about books or films. You should mention at least 2 works (books or films) and you can use the questions we were practicing during the lesson.
jueves, 14 de noviembre de 2013
The lesson today was a bit confusing because some students had already read Picasso´s biography and some hadn´t.
We started the class with some Are you good at questions: Are you good at writing?
Students answered some questions about Picasso´s text. We know that he was a spoiled child because we was allowed to do anything he wanted.
We know somebody´s features are: their eyes, mouth, nose, eyebraws, etc.
The Guernica represents the bombing of a town called Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.
Students read aloud Hemingway´s biography. New words they learned are: wounded, shotgun, eyesight.
They pronounced a list of difficult words extracted from the text.
Remember that when the ending consonant of a regular verb is dental, that is, t or d, we need to add a syllable when we use the past. Want - wanted, award - awarded and so on.
Homework:
Choose an artist, any kind of artist - musician, painter, dancer, actor, film director, etc. and do some research about him/her. Note down a few details of his/her biography. Please, don´t tell us his or her name, we want to guess who you are talking about by asking questions.
Read Hemingway´s text and underline all the verbs in passive voice.
Write 5 questions about the text.
We started the class with some Are you good at questions: Are you good at writing?
Students answered some questions about Picasso´s text. We know that he was a spoiled child because we was allowed to do anything he wanted.
We know somebody´s features are: their eyes, mouth, nose, eyebraws, etc.
The Guernica represents the bombing of a town called Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.
Students read aloud Hemingway´s biography. New words they learned are: wounded, shotgun, eyesight.
They pronounced a list of difficult words extracted from the text.
Remember that when the ending consonant of a regular verb is dental, that is, t or d, we need to add a syllable when we use the past. Want - wanted, award - awarded and so on.
Homework:
Choose an artist, any kind of artist - musician, painter, dancer, actor, film director, etc. and do some research about him/her. Note down a few details of his/her biography. Please, don´t tell us his or her name, we want to guess who you are talking about by asking questions.
Read Hemingway´s text and underline all the verbs in passive voice.
Write 5 questions about the text.
martes, 12 de noviembre de 2013
Our lesson today was about artists and authors. At the beginning of the lesson students read homework. A part of it were sentences about lthings they were allowed or not allowed to do when they were in school.
Remeber this is a passive construction and is followed by an infinitive:
I was not allowed to exchange clothes with my classmates.
We were allowed to sit anywhere we wanted.
Students reviewed article about Picasso and wrote 3 questions about it. Remember the Past tenses we are studying:
Past Simple:
Affirmative: I wrote Questions: did you write? ( You must always use the auxiliary did, whatever the beginning of the question. The only exception is when the question starts with Who and Who is the subject of the question: Who wrote that book?
Negative: I didn´t write.
Past Continuous: (The auxiliary verb is the past of the verb to be: was/were)
Affirmative: I was reading (The auxiliary verb is the past of the verb to be: was/were
Questions: Were you reading?
Negative: I wasn´t reading.
Past Perfect (The auxiliary verb is the past of the verb to have)
Affirmative: I had already read the book when I watched the film.
Questions: Had you already seen the film?
Negative: I hadn´t read the book.
Homework
Choose an artist, any kind of artist - musician, painter, dancer, actor, film director, etc. and do some research about him/her. Note down a few details of his/her biography.
I know there was something else but I just can´t remember, so, if either one of you, Beatriz or Veronica read this entry, please, add the other exercise I asked you to do. You can do it in the comments section.
Remeber this is a passive construction and is followed by an infinitive:
I was not allowed to exchange clothes with my classmates.
We were allowed to sit anywhere we wanted.
Students reviewed article about Picasso and wrote 3 questions about it. Remember the Past tenses we are studying:
Past Simple:
Affirmative: I wrote Questions: did you write? ( You must always use the auxiliary did, whatever the beginning of the question. The only exception is when the question starts with Who and Who is the subject of the question: Who wrote that book?
Negative: I didn´t write.
Past Continuous: (The auxiliary verb is the past of the verb to be: was/were)
Affirmative: I was reading (The auxiliary verb is the past of the verb to be: was/were
Questions: Were you reading?
Negative: I wasn´t reading.
Past Perfect (The auxiliary verb is the past of the verb to have)
Affirmative: I had already read the book when I watched the film.
Questions: Had you already seen the film?
Negative: I hadn´t read the book.
Homework
Choose an artist, any kind of artist - musician, painter, dancer, actor, film director, etc. and do some research about him/her. Note down a few details of his/her biography.
I know there was something else but I just can´t remember, so, if either one of you, Beatriz or Veronica read this entry, please, add the other exercise I asked you to do. You can do it in the comments section.
jueves, 7 de noviembre de 2013
As warming up students were asking each other questions like: Are you good at singing?
It was Veronica´s turn to read her fairy tale: The Little Match Seller. We really enjoyed but it was quite sad.
Students read homework: matching sentences to make a short conversation.
New vocabulary was introduced, words related to art: painter, author, poet, poem, sculpture, novel, picture, brush, palette, chapter, biography, exhibition, fairy tale, portrait, play, art gallery, masterpiece, novelist, sketch, act. Students read words aloud.
Students answered the question What kind of art do you enjoy? Later we were reading a short biography of Pablo Picasso, which we didn´t have time to finish.
Homework
Finish reading Picasso´s biography.
Write 3 questions starting with Do you believe that...(a detail about Picasso´s life as told in the short biography we are reading that you find hard to believe)?
Write 3 sentences saying things that you were not allowed to do in school and 3 sentences saying things you were allowed to do in school.
Enjoy your weekend!
martes, 5 de noviembre de 2013
We are trying really hard to learn how to speak using the correct past tenses.
So students started the lesson saying 3 things they did on the weekend. They were not allowed to use the verb to go. Next they ask their classmates about the first thing they had done in the morning.
Beatriz read her version of Snow White, the rest of the students will read their stories in future classes.
Looking at Judy´s schedule for yesterday students were asking each other questions in the past continuous: What was Judy doing at 8:30 in the evening? and answering: She was putting the baby to bed.
Later students made a list of things they had done yesterday, swapped their papers and asked one another questions like: Were you taking a nap at 4:00 in the afternoon? Yes, I was or No, I wasn´t. At 4 I was studying in the library.
Finally we listened to the very famous song by Otis Redding: Sitting on the dock of a bay. Here is the link, in case you feel like listening to it again.
So students started the lesson saying 3 things they did on the weekend. They were not allowed to use the verb to go. Next they ask their classmates about the first thing they had done in the morning.
Beatriz read her version of Snow White, the rest of the students will read their stories in future classes.
Looking at Judy´s schedule for yesterday students were asking each other questions in the past continuous: What was Judy doing at 8:30 in the evening? and answering: She was putting the baby to bed.
Later students made a list of things they had done yesterday, swapped their papers and asked one another questions like: Were you taking a nap at 4:00 in the afternoon? Yes, I was or No, I wasn´t. At 4 I was studying in the library.
Finally we listened to the very famous song by Otis Redding: Sitting on the dock of a bay. Here is the link, in case you feel like listening to it again.
jueves, 31 de octubre de 2013
To warm up today we were practising numbers and dates. Students also had to say something they are supposed to do today, so they don´t forget the passive. They said things like I´m supposed to do the laundry.
After that students read their homework, which was a very good exercise, because they had had to complete some simple questions and give answers. Because the sentences were fairly simple, they could think about the verb tense they were using. The questions were about sports the students practice at present or have practiced before. Remember: we use play for ball sports, do for sports like gymnastics , yoga o aerobics and go for things like swimming, running or cycling.
We started a new unit. In this unit we are studying the past tenses: past simple: I bought/ did you buy?/ I didn´t buy; past continuous: I was buying/ were you buying?/ I wasn´t buying; past perfect: I had bought / had you bought? / I hadn´t bought.
Students listened to a story and filled up the gaps with some given phrases. Some new or not so well known terms which are used in the story are: boast, scream, suck and fearless.
For homework remember to write a story. You don´t have to make it up, you can just retell a well known fairy tale, like Little Red Riding Hood. Try to include those 3 past tenses we have been talking about in the lesson.
After that students read their homework, which was a very good exercise, because they had had to complete some simple questions and give answers. Because the sentences were fairly simple, they could think about the verb tense they were using. The questions were about sports the students practice at present or have practiced before. Remember: we use play for ball sports, do for sports like gymnastics , yoga o aerobics and go for things like swimming, running or cycling.
We started a new unit. In this unit we are studying the past tenses: past simple: I bought/ did you buy?/ I didn´t buy; past continuous: I was buying/ were you buying?/ I wasn´t buying; past perfect: I had bought / had you bought? / I hadn´t bought.
Students listened to a story and filled up the gaps with some given phrases. Some new or not so well known terms which are used in the story are: boast, scream, suck and fearless.
For homework remember to write a story. You don´t have to make it up, you can just retell a well known fairy tale, like Little Red Riding Hood. Try to include those 3 past tenses we have been talking about in the lesson.
martes, 29 de octubre de 2013
We started the lesson saying what we had been doing before the English class. Then students remember words related to laughter: laugh, funny, joke, clown, comedy, comedian.
Students said what they knew about Halloween and then they answered a questionnaire so they could find out if they are witches.
We listened to a recording where 3 different people talked about sports they practiced or exercise they enjoyed doing. Students had to fill in a chart
Homework
Complete the questions and give the answers for Ex. 5, page 21, New Headway Inter.
Students said what they knew about Halloween and then they answered a questionnaire so they could find out if they are witches.
We listened to a recording where 3 different people talked about sports they practiced or exercise they enjoyed doing. Students had to fill in a chart
Homework
Complete the questions and give the answers for Ex. 5, page 21, New Headway Inter.
jueves, 24 de octubre de 2013
We started the class with a little conversation. Now we know that Beatriz has a five- years- old child and Veronica a fifteen- years- old dog. They are both loved.
Students read their homework: some sentences in passive voice and the answers to some questions.
Teacher explained how to make an impersonal passive sentence.
Example:
People know that she is a good swimmer.
She is known to be a good swimmer.
Students wrote questions for L.´s interview. Ex. 7 New Headway Intermediate, page 19. Then we listened to the interview to check the questions.
Finally students looked for strong adjectives to match the given ones. Tired- exhausted, bad-awful, good-fantastic, big-huge, difficult-impossible, frightened- terrified, surprised-amazed.
Homework:
Finish rewriting last day sentences.
Students read their homework: some sentences in passive voice and the answers to some questions.
Teacher explained how to make an impersonal passive sentence.
Example:
People know that she is a good swimmer.
She is known to be a good swimmer.
Students wrote questions for L.´s interview. Ex. 7 New Headway Intermediate, page 19. Then we listened to the interview to check the questions.
Finally students looked for strong adjectives to match the given ones. Tired- exhausted, bad-awful, good-fantastic, big-huge, difficult-impossible, frightened- terrified, surprised-amazed.
Homework:
Finish rewriting last day sentences.
What´s a typical day like for
L.?
What´s a typical day like for you?
Enjoy your weekend!
martes, 22 de octubre de 2013
We started the lesson talking about things we did on the weekend. A classmate had to ask an echo question and a following up question. Example: I went to the mountains on Saturday. Did you? And how was it?
We worked on a text called The Clown Doctor. First a student asked some questions about the text that she had written as homework. Students read it aloud. Remember to pay attention to the pronunciation of plural words like faces or nurses.
Students searched for sentences in the text that had a similar meaning to some given sentences. Now everybody knows that being useless is the same as being no help at all. Learned words like unwind, race, crash out, charity.
Students searched for verbs in the passive vooice: present simple and present continuous. Teacher explained how to build a sentence in the passive voice and we did some examples.
Homework
Rewrite the
sentences in passive voice.
- William will not repair the car. -
- Did Sue draw this circle? -
- Could you feed the dog? -
- People know that she is a good swimmer.
→ - They say that Francis is in hospital.
→ - They think that the children are in bed.
→ - People believe that the robber has worked in
the bank.
→ - People believe that nuclear power stations
are dangerous.
→ - His collegues thought that he was on holiday.
→ - People know that cars pollute the
environment.
→ - They suppose that the new product will come
out soon.
→ - They found that the mission was impossible.
→ - They believe that she will win a gold medal.
→
jueves, 17 de octubre de 2013
Today´s lesson
Some questions about the students´daily life.
Warming up: questions in the present simple. Simple answers. What does a fisherman do? A fisherman catches fish.
Reading homework: corrections.
Listening: interview of clown doctor. (only to become familiar with the story).
Vocabulary: professions. An architect, a rock musician, a research scientist, an artist, an actor, a web page designer, a journalist, a film director, a football player, a zookeeper. Pronunciation.
Reading aloud of text. Finding new terms an expressions, discussing them.
Grammar: Present simple, prsent continuous. Other points: the use of the article in English: a, an. some,
any.
Homework: writing some questions about the text we read during the lesson.
Some questions about the students´daily life.
Warming up: questions in the present simple. Simple answers. What does a fisherman do? A fisherman catches fish.
Reading homework: corrections.
Listening: interview of clown doctor. (only to become familiar with the story).
Vocabulary: professions. An architect, a rock musician, a research scientist, an artist, an actor, a web page designer, a journalist, a film director, a football player, a zookeeper. Pronunciation.
Reading aloud of text. Finding new terms an expressions, discussing them.
Grammar: Present simple, prsent continuous. Other points: the use of the article in English: a, an. some,
any.
Homework: writing some questions about the text we read during the lesson.
martes, 15 de octubre de 2013
Today we started by practicins short answers.
Lorena and Veronica read their homework. Veronica told us about her older´s sister daily life and Lorena about a friend o hers´.
We were listening to Jeff Norman telling us about her wonderful job and learned a few expressions from him like on top of that, paper boy ,marriage counsellor, it´s not much of a job.
The difference between action verbs and state verbs was explained.
Completed the sentences on page 16 New Headway Intermediate.
All through the lesson we had plenty of conversation. Students talked about their expectations for their future professional careers.
Homework
5 sentences using frequency adverbs ( present simple).
5 sentences with state verbs.
5 questions in the present continuous tense.
Lorena and Veronica read their homework. Veronica told us about her older´s sister daily life and Lorena about a friend o hers´.
We were listening to Jeff Norman telling us about her wonderful job and learned a few expressions from him like on top of that, paper boy ,marriage counsellor, it´s not much of a job.
The difference between action verbs and state verbs was explained.
Completed the sentences on page 16 New Headway Intermediate.
All through the lesson we had plenty of conversation. Students talked about their expectations for their future professional careers.
Homework
5 sentences using frequency adverbs ( present simple).
5 sentences with state verbs.
5 questions in the present continuous tense.
viernes, 4 de octubre de 2013
Hello again,
I have the feeling the homework I gave you may not be enough for hardworking students. So if you don´t know what to do with your time write about 3 different inventions that have really meant better conditions of living for you or for mankind in general.
If you need it for writing I recommend the Oxford Spanish Dictionary: www. wordreference.com. That one includes the Collins too. On top of the page you can see the picture of a loudspeaker. You can click on US or UK and listen to the way the word is pronounced in either place.
See you next Tuesday. I think the weather will be sunny tomorrow so enjoy the day.
I have the feeling the homework I gave you may not be enough for hardworking students. So if you don´t know what to do with your time write about 3 different inventions that have really meant better conditions of living for you or for mankind in general.
If you need it for writing I recommend the Oxford Spanish Dictionary: www. wordreference.com. That one includes the Collins too. On top of the page you can see the picture of a loudspeaker. You can click on US or UK and listen to the way the word is pronounced in either place.
See you next Tuesday. I think the weather will be sunny tomorrow so enjoy the day.
martes, 1 de octubre de 2013
We have just finished the first lesson of the month.
I mention it because we have been practising the Present Perfect tense, and that is one of the cases we have seen.
I really enjoyed Lorena´s quiz and I think Andrea did too. Great job!
For next day remember to write 10 statements that can be argued, something like this:
A. The lights were on when we came in.
and a sentence correcting it.
B. No, they weren´t, I turned them on.
See you Thursday.
jueves, 26 de septiembre de 2013
Questions to remember:
How long does it take you to get to...?
What does VIP (or WASP, or USA or www) stand for?
Use of Passive
Did Sue draw this circle?
William will not repair the car.
He can cut out the picture.
Remember the Quiz you have to make up.
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!
How long does it take you to get to...?
What does VIP (or WASP, or USA or www) stand for?
Use of Passive
How would you say the same thing using the verb in a passive form?
Did Sue draw this circle?
William will not repair the car.
He can cut out the picture.
Remember the Quiz you have to make up.
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!
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