Progress Check

Last week you had your second PROGRESS CHECK test of this year:
- Parts A, B and C -  Use of English, reading and writing skills;
- Part D-  Listening skills 

You can find the test here (as you know it was an actual exam paper - 2010) together with  correction and criteria.

As for the listening component here is the link to the story: Learning English - Words in the news - Naked photo shoot to save the environment. 

It seems many of you found it difficult. Try again at home. Here are the headings for your notes.

PURPOSE of this action:
PROMOTERS:
WHERE (country)
ARTIST:
No of VOLUNTEERS
WHY this action works (according to the promoter)
OPPOSING VIEW
THE GLACIER -The Aletsch: FACTS
Why Mr Worthington did it

DEBATE

This week - besides watching your videos which is obviously the activity everybody is looking forward to :) - we'll start preparing the DEBATE. Let me remind you that it will be the SPEAKING component of our progress check test.

The DEBATE will be organised like this:
A - Preparation (21 November)
In pairs or groups you'll choose a dilemma and together you will:
(i) list different arguments and
(ii) prepare to defend the opposing points of view.
Here is the link to the different topics: Nuclear Energy; GM Foods, Development vs Degradation, (Over)population.  Which do you find more interesting or more challenging?
As you can see in the file, there are some rules you should follow while discussing. Please, keep them in mind...
B - Staging the DEBATE (28 November)
There will be a Chairperson (to moderate each debate) and a Secretary (to write the minutes, so to say)
Then, of course, we'll have some 'experts' (at least 2 in ceach side) defending their views and trying to persuade the audience. In order to do so, they'll put forward their arguments and try to illustrate and support them (building scenarios, showing some data, ...)

We can have a vote at the end to see which side has won, but we'll also have a panel assessing the different performances. Click here to see how.
I hope you will enjoy this activity :)

Connectors

Just a quick note about the connectors, as we saw last lesson:

The question was: CAN I USE OTHER CONNECTORS?

SENTENCE 1:

Problems can be solved IF there is a will to do so.

Other connectors that can be used instead of IF:
- AS LONG AS / PROVIDED / PROVIDING / ON CONDITION THAT ....

SENTENCE 2:
Cars are expensive to maintain. MOREOVER, they are harmful to the environment.
Other connectors that can be used instead of MOREOVER:
- FURTHERMORE / WHAT'S MORE / IN ADDITION TO (THIS) / APART FROM THIS / BESIDES (THIS)

You could also say:
NOT ONLY are cars expensive to maintain, BUT they are ALSO harmful to the environment.
Cars are BOTH expensive to maintain and harmful to the environment.

YOUR VIDEO / ADVERT

Main objective:
Raise awareness on environmental issues
[You can/should define other objectives/add some detail]

Specific Topic
Your choice of topic (e.g. Overpopulation, Carbon Footprint)

Minimum requirements
Clear objectives / Objectives achieved
Organization and sequence appropriate to the stated objectives and type of text*
Evidence of vocabulary learned (choice of words)
Use of paragraph/sentence connectors
Accuracy and fluency
Pronunciation, stress and intonation

* Advert – AIDA principles followed (Attention – Interest – Desire – Action);
Narrative/story – ‘the plot’ - setting/characters/sequence of events/conclusion
Documentary (exposition) – introduction/body/conclusion; choice of images

Length: about 3 minutes

Participation in the video (voice-over, acting/roles) should be balanced.
As a group you should coach/help one another so everybody can act/read the best possible way.

Please remember you should send me the text and/or storyboard before recording.

YOUR PORTFOLIO

Now that we've reached half-term, it's time we had our ideas very clear as for what the portfolio is about, and what it should already contain.

Well, first of all, the portfolio is about autonomy. This means I won't be telling you to write this or that. I can suggest, I can answer (all) your questions, I can guide you ... but it's your portfolio, you decide what to write.

Well, yes, I concede there are some constraints. Your portfolio must have:
- Introductory text about YOU
- Learning Journal (1 entry a week would be perfect, fewer than 2 entries in a month is definitely poor)
- All TEXTS we write during the year (essays, articles, poems, scripts, stories, etc)

The backbone of your portfolio is the LEARNING JOURNAL that is, a reflexive journal. I strongly believe it will help you a lot if you keep to it. I'll write a bit more about it later.

What should be clear in your minds is that, by the end of the year, your portfolio should bear testimony of the topics we've discussed and the things you've learned. Since you don't need school to learn :)) and having in mind that this is your portfolio as a student/learner of English you can write as much as you like about anything inside/outside the class that does the trick ...

To sum up, the question is - what should I already have in my portfolio? Here you are:
1- WHO AM I?
2- (minimum) 3 Learning Journal (LJ) entries. They could be about:
-- Your Carbon Footprint;
-- The Great Pacific Garbage Patch - was it news to you?
-- The 7 billionth inhabitant of planet Earth;
-- Whether you agree with the solutions put forward by Leonard diCaprio in the video we watched in class;
-- the video/advert you are preparing;
-- whether note taking is useful (your views) and if you've already improved your 'technique' (this has been one of our focus so you might as well write about it)
-- whether you feel you're really building up vocabulary (another focus)
-- some grammar point you feel you should focus on (you can also include some exercises in another section of your portfolio);
-- how difficult it was to be the ORGANISER in your group, what you could have done better, what you expect from your colleagues...
-- what you can do to improve ... (whatever you need to improve)
-- do you really want me to go on ? :)

3- Essay suggesting solutions to problems

I hope this has been helpful :)

Young Masters Programme

Young Masters Programme? What is that, you are probably asking.
Well, that is the next challenge I would like to propose to you.
View the promotional video and then we'll talk: