Your Portfolio

Let me remind you that your portfolio is due till the end of this week. It should have:
- Cover
- Who am I?
- All Learning Journal entries (this term at least 5)
- Workplan
- Texts (description + letter +  script + your fable)
- Vocabulary Section- e.g. Phrasal Verbs, Word Formation, idioms ...
- Grammar Section - (this term: reported speech, modal verbs, your own  focus)
- your presentations (if any)
- any other feature of your initiative

Remember: you can include drawings and photos to go with your LJ entries (for example, the ones you took at Casa das Histórias), recordings (I hope you practice reading aloud...), any other materials that you enjoyed and helped with your English.

Your FABLES

Here is João Moreira's FABLE, The Pigeons on the Road. João was the first to send me his fable. As soon as I have other fables I'll publish them here. Remember, in your test, all of you wrote fables that are well worth publishing. Improve them if you must, but do send them to me :)

And here is The Fox that didn't want to go to the mall', by João Casimiro.
Afonso wrote about Two Monkeys that .. well find out by yourself :)

Modal Verbs

Here is a worksheet that will help you revise the MODAL VERBS. Soon enough, I'll post the KEY, but only after you've had the time to do it on your own.

New UNIT - Language and culture

Tomorrow we'll start a new unit. It's about Language and Culture but also about Learning English.
We'll have lots of photos and videos and texts, one of which is a poem and of course grammar and language building. As usual there will be speaking and writing tasks, and I'm sure you don't think you could possibly escape the Learning Journal :)

These are(some of) the questions you asked at the beginning of the school year. (Remember the unit Making sense of the syllabus?)

- How many countries have English as their first language?
- Why is English spoken by so many people all over the world?
- Are there other Englishes besides the British and American varieties?
- What is culture? How does it relate to language, history, religion, lifstyle, ...?

Well, I hope that by the end of this unit everybody will be able to discuss these questions.

For your reference, here is an overview of the unit.

Still about the test... and your Work Plan

First, about the test -- > Click here for the KEY.

And now, my advice for your Work Plan:

1 - Use of Past Simple, Past Continuous and Past Perfect - Pick a grammar and do the exercises and/or follow the links.

2 - Read, read and read. There are many sites that you can use to read, listen and watch but keep to the BBCLearning or the British Council to be on the safe side.

3 -  Keep writing your Learning Journal entries. You can write just about everything, for example about the stories you read. 

I'm sure Diogo A. won't mind if I just copy-paste his Work Plan as an example. So here it is:

Work Plan:

- I'm going to watch some BBC videos and try to pronounce words better. (26-11-10) |Done|

- I'm going to do exercises in the work book.                                           (28-11-10) |Done|

- I'm going to watch an English news channel. (23-12-10) |Done|

- I'm going to do a research about propaganda and its influence in history. (17-01-11) |Done|

- I'm going to learn a little bit more about Paula Rego |Not Done|

Still about the test

Some of you asked which part(s) of the test you'll be sitting on Tuesday and Friday. Well, here it is:
Tuesday - Reading 1 + Writing 1 + Use of English (parts 1 & 2)
Friday - Reading 2 + Writing 2 + Use of English (parts 3 & 4) + Listening

Don't worry:
if your portfolio is updated..
if you've done some work on your own (reading, listening, grammar and vocabulary)...
if you use your TB and WB, a grammar, this blog(!) on a regular basis ...
if you feel you've made the most of your GW and learned with your colleagues...
... then it is not really important which part of the test is first because you'll be ready :)

Learning Journal entry - assessing work

Here are the questions that will guide you through your next LEARNING JOURNAL entry.

1- The fable I liked best was ....  (explain)
2- The performance I liked best was ... (explain)

3- How well did you work together? (briefly describe what you did inside and outside class:
Everybody helped? Everybody did their best? Was everybody paying attention to their colleagues' needs? Was work evenly distributed? Did you manage time efficiently? Did you rehearse to make sure everything was right?...)

4- I find it easy/difficult to work in a group...
Focus on skills such as: being concise, listening to the others, rephrasing, waiting for my turn, speaking quietly, make the most of my time, ...
Say if in your group there was an ORGANISER and a WRITER and if (i) they did their job well, (ii) you helped them do their job well.

5- All in all, I´m confident I did my best / I'm afraid I did not do my best and ....

I'm sorry, I know this is quite a lot to write... but how can we improve if we don't reflect on what we do?

Remember: you should hand it in on Friday.

Fables and scripts

I could see you enjoyed the performances last lesson. The scripts were quite good, all of them, and dramatisations went pretty well. Of course, there is room for  improvement, and I think we should try again soon :)

You can read the fables if you click HERE, and the scripts if you click HERE.

As a downside I would say not all groups worked collaboratively. Script has to be written by all, taking turns and clearing out doubts in the process. Performance must be prepared in such a way that each one shows that he/she has made progress as a result of the group's commitment. That's why you are given time in class.
Well, I'm sure eventually this will become crystal clear for everyone.
In the meantime, keep up the good work :)

Note: you may note that there are only 6 scripts, instead of seven. This means that all groups handed in their work, except one.