Last lesson before Christmas

Today is our class before the Christmas holiday.

We will start off by listening to the last presentation and then we will move on to look at what we have done during the term.

One thing which needs to be done by everyone is the 5 day diary.

Many students  still have not sent it in. Deadline Friday.

Today we will justtry to get into the Christmas spirit as we prepare to finish off the "Looking for Alaska" group discussions.

While we are doing that there will be two activities:-

1. A film with Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) how he celebrated Christmas






After that there will be a written assessment for all the students.

For those who are missing here is the link to the assessment.
Make sure it gets sent to me.

Hope you have a good holiday...

See you all in 2016!

Looking for Alaska and other activities

Today we have two activities.

1. Discussion about "Looking for Alaska"



2. Activities in the classroom- crosswords and word knowledge

One presentation and then working on Looking for Alaska

Hopefully we will have one presentation today.

After that we spend the rest of the lesson working on the book "Looking for Alaska".

I asked you to read up to page 218 by today.

By Friday please make sure you have read the whole book.

We will be doing an oral discussion in groups of four..

Here are some questions to prepare:

Which of Alaska's friends took her death the hardest and why?

How did Alaska's death affect the atmosphere in the school?

How did Miles' attitude to his studies change after Alaska died?

What things make people believe that Alaska maybe took her own life?

Quotations from the book
In pairs I want you to read through the quotes which readers have chosen.

You can choose five quotes which you think are important or relevant to the story ( only 1 oneliner).

Then translate your quotes into Swedish.

That's it for today.

Use the rest of the lesson to read the remaining pages of the book!

Presentations

Today are the presentations.

Here is a list of the groups:-

Group 1:  Andreas, Linnea
Group 2:  Bella, Cornelia, Klara
Group 3: Tove, Trolle, Alfred, Samuel
(Group 4: Carl, Abdal) Need more time?
Group 5: Pontus, Fanny, Lukas
Group 6: Anna, Josefina, Viola
Group 7: Elin, Maja, Sophia
Group 8: Celina, Alva, Nellie
Group 9: Oliver, Patricia, Smårs

Do an assessment of the group after you.

We will draw lots to see the running order.

I will film the presentations in order to do a proper assessment afterwards.

Last chance café

Today is the last chance for you to prepare for your presentations.

On Friday we will draw lots to see who starts.

Each presentation should be about 5 minutes long.

It will be assessed according to the document on the blog.

If anyone has not discussed the "Growing Up" essay with me then you have the chance today.

Together try to get 10 new words about your project.

Send them to me on Vklass

Next week we will continue to talk about "Looking for Alaska"

A big question is why do you think Alaska died?

Read up to page 218 by next Tuesday

Working for your presentation/Going through the essays

Today you will have the opportunity to continue (or start) to work on your presentation.

Linnea and Andreas maybe you can do something together.

The presentations will be next Friday. 

So you have the whole lesson today to work on the information part and then next Tuesday to prepare the  actual presentation.

The rest of the time today I will be going through the esays with you individually.

Use your time wisely.

I will read through the order in which I  will talk to you.

Make sure you're around at the appropriate time.

Don't forget- music students- keep out of the CELLAR

Going through your essays

Today you will be working on your own and I will be going through the essays with half the class.

sorry I haven't had a challenge to look at your Mike challenge questions. Hopefully by Friday!

To start off- what about learning vocabulary. Here is some good advice from Alex rawlings





This is one of the most important aspects of learning a language and you need to find good strategies for this.

Today we start preparing for the PRESENTATION I want you to do at the end of term. 

Work in groups of 2-3. Choose your topic, mail me who is in your group and your choice of topic and start working!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You need to use the Tuesday lessons VERY EFFECTIVELY since part of the Friday lessons  will  continue to go to "Looking for Alaska"

By this Friday EVERYONE needs to have read up to page 172 of the novel.
there will be a compulsory exercise and quiz about this part of the book (136-172) at the start of Friday's lesson.

Finally, the people whose names I READ OUT need to be around at the times stated to go through your essay.

For the music students- the Estetkällare is OUT OF BOUNDS DURING OUR LESSONS.

GOOD LUCK!

Welcome to the celebrations!

Today we celebrate the fact that the school is twenty years old.

So at 11 a.m. we will go down to the cafeteria to join in the celebrations.

Until then we need to continue to work with our English.

1. Looking for Alaska
Today I want you to do the Mike challenge based on your reading of page 100-136 in the book.

Basically I want you to write five questions where the answers are in the text (between pages 100 and 136).

Send in your questions as a message to Vklass.
Any unanswered questions will be rewarded with a small prize.

2. Working on your own
You now have three possibilities for the rest of the time until 11 a.m.

1.Looking for Alaska
Continue reading 
136- 172
These pages bring us from TWO DAYS BEFORE until TWO DAYS AFTER the most important happening in the book

2.Echo short stories
Continue (or start) on one of the short stories 2,3,4 or 5 according to last Tuesday's blog.

3. Your diary
Those who haven't written their diary will have the chance to do it or complete it today  (see term planner)

Finallllllllllllllllllllllllly................. those who missed the essay last Friday will have a chance to write it next Wednesday at 2 p.m. (14.00) here on the language corridor.

Now enjoy the celebrations and have a good weekend

On your own-boot camp!

First of all don't forget the homework for Friday:-
( From last Friday's blog)....



Your homework by Friday is to write about the way in which Miles changes after he comes to Culver Creek (based on your reading up to page 100)

In your view what changes are positive and what changes are negative?

Send in your document to the course page on Vklass- Miles

By Friday read up to page 136.

Secondly. It is time to remind you about what is written on our term planner- your diary in English for a week ( 5 days)


Not so many weeks left now until Christmas!!!

Today we start a series of lessons where you get to choose which texts to work on and how you will work with them. This week that means working from the Echo Short Stories book

Choose a story (2,3,4 or 5)
LISTEN to it and then work on it either with exercises from the book or making up your own:

Example- A summary of the story; a character study; learning new words;  etc.

The alternative for this week is to work from "Looking for Alaska" in class.

TODAY AND FRIDAY YOU WILL WORK ON YOUR OWN (NEXT WEEK IN GROUPS OF 2-3)

We will go through your essay on Growing Up next week during the lessons

Working on your own requires MATURITY 
AND TRUST. If I see that people are wasting their time then I will give you exercises to do instead. You choose!

Growing Up!

The theme for the essay has been a major theme for us this term.

(Growing Up)

All of the texts we have studied have dealt with the theme of growing up:

In Context 1- Panic not mother is a text about young people facing challenges as they go off on their gap year

In Echo Short Stories  the text Zelda was also about growing up.
It even says:

"growing up is like waking up" (page 11)

The film Billy Elliot" is about Billy's experiences of growing up in a male orientated society with all the traditional values and prejudices.

Finally, our book "Looking for Alaska" is about Miles and the changes he faces when he goes to Culver Creek and how he grows up.

Your homework by next Friday is to write about the way in which Miles changes after he comes to Culver Creek (based on your reading up to page 100)

In your view what changes are positive and what changes are negative?

Answers to Vklass- inlämning MILES

By next Friday read up to page 136.

Have a good week-end

WRITING

This Friday, as you can read on the planner, we will be doing the mock writing exercise.


You are not given the theme in advance

In the national test at English 6 level you will receive preparation materials a week before the test- to get you thinking.. 

But not at English 5 level

So planning is very important..

Today there will be "Improve your writing" booklets to remind you about some important issues. You can borrow them during the lesson and hand them back at the end..

Here are five key words you need to think about:-

1. Organization  (paragraphs/intro/linking)
2. Structure (beginning/midddle/end)
3. Style (something to work on !!)
4. Clarity (grammar/spelling/ swenglish)
5. Register (informal/neutral/formal)

There are really good materials in the context book to help you (see page 251-253)

The last thing I want to go through with you is the Writing skills  the checklist!

Here is some great advice the English teacher Pernilla gave to one of her classes last year on her blog

http://sa14es14.blogspot.se/2014/11/week-47.html

On her blog are excellent net resources such as EngVid

Here is a good starting point

Now use your time wisely.

Assessment and "Looking for Alaska"

We start off today by doing an assessment of the course. You need to open the document and save your own copy before you can send it back to me as a message on Vklass.

Then we move on to "Looking for Alaska"- page 58-76.


Today I want you to work on your own...

Here are the questions:-

1. Who are the Culver Creek Nothings?

2. Why do they play basketball and not soccer at Culver Creek?

3. What does the Colonel do at every home match?

4. How many times has he been kicked out of the gym?

5. Why does Mr. Hyde ask Pudge to stay behind after class?

6. Why do the friends decide to study at McDonalds one day?

7. Who is Lara? Why is she different from the rest of the group?

8. How did Alaska get her own name?

9. In what way is it hard to predict how Alaska is going to behave?

10. How did she do when the friends were busted for smoking?

11. What was the Jury and how did it work?

12. Who fixed up Pudge's date with Lara? What did he feel about this?



Finally, if you have any time over continue working with the text from Context 1 (chapters 10,11 or 14)
Here are two ways of working:-

Texts 1

Texts 2

Next week we are going to work on the "Writing" ssection of the National Test.

However, I want you to continue reading " Looking for Alaska"-
up to page 99 by next Friday, please!

Welcome back!

Hope you had a good mid-term break.

Here are some simple questions to use in an interview with someone sitting behind/in front of you.

1. Where did you spend your break?

2. Did you travel anywhere? If so, where?

3. What was the best thing about your break /holiday?

4. Choose 3 things from the list which you did. Talk about them in the CORRECT tense (past tense)

Go to the cinema
Buy clothes
Watch a game/film
Take pictures (photos)
Go to a party
Eat...............
Work
Study
Play..............

5. What does it feel like to be back at school?

Now we are going to study the first 57 pages of "Looking for Alaska"
Work in pairs and send in your answers on Vklass
Looking for Alaska 1

1. Who is Miles Halter? Describe him? (At least three facts)

2. Why does he decide to go to Culver Creek? Give three reasons.

3. Who is the "Colonel"? Write down 5 things you find out about him.

4. When does Miles meet Alaska the first time? What does he notice about her?

5. Miles's parents told him not to mix with the "wrong people". Does Miles listen to them?

6. What do Miles, Alaska, the Colonel and Takumi have in common?

7. Takumi is really excellent at one thing. What is it?

8. Why do some students almost kill Miles?

9. Dr. Hyde is a teacher who impresses Miles? Why do you think that is?

10. Which of the characters have you found the most interesting so far? Why is that?

After you have finished the work on the book you can continue to read (up to page 76 by Friday) or work on a free choice chapter in Context 1 (chapter 10, 11 or 14)
Here are some ideas to use working with the text

Billy Elliott (part 2) and results of the test

Today we will look at the second half of the Billy Elliott film and during that time get the results of the test... (Are you on the banana or not?)

Afterwards I want you to discuss the following questions:

1. Why do you think that Billy chooses ballet dancing instead of boxing?

2. How important are good role models to help you achieve your dreams (Mrs. Wilkinson in the film)?

3. When Billy is at the audition- in spite of all his failures- he manages to explain what dancing means to him.

NOW YOU

Discuss in a small group the following:

1. Where do you have your identity?
(In an image/ in a group of friends/ in yourself?)

2. Who are your role models and what are your dreams?

3. What are you good at and what can you develop as a positive image for yourself?

Finally Don't forget to read up to page 57 of "Looking for Alaska" by the start of week 45 ( directly after the holiday)

Country presentations and film

Today we finish off the country presentations and the oral assessments.

We start with the USA and then go on to India

After that we are going to watch a film on the theme of gender and identity- namely Billy Elliot.

The film examines norms to do with gender.

It also has a fantastic music soundtrack with artists such as TRex, the Clash, the Jam, Eagle Eye Cherry and Stephen Gately.

On Friday we will see the end of the film and discuss some of the issues raised by it

Country presentations

Here is the order for the presentations:

1. South Africa

2. Canada

3. India

4. Australia

5. Ireland

6. UK

7. New Zealand

8. USA

Do a peer assessment of the group after you.

Grade A-F

Template for assessment of oral communikation

Name:______________________________________________________________________

Audience adaptation		Right kind of language? Your level?
Audience contact		Eye contact or reading?
Script management		An aid or a crutch?
Use of technology		Smooth or not? Clear or not?
Mastery of subject matter		Do they SEEM to know what they are talking about?
Structure/outline/clarity		A line of thought ?  (rödtråd)
Variation		Pictures/ text/ clip
Use of time		5-10 minutes
Overall impression

USA do the first assessment of South Africa

If there is time over at the end we will look at the test results.

If we run out of time we will continue on the Tuesday lesson

Back on track!

Today we are going to finalize the country projects so that you can do your presentations on Friday.

These will be filmed... Just so you know!

Those (music students) who missed out on getting a copy of "Looking for Alaska" will go down to Björn at the beginning of the lesson today and get a copy.

You need to start reading it and by the end of week 44 you should have read up to page 57 ( One hundred and nine days  before)

Last chance café

We start off today with a bingo using words from the text.

Here it is

Listening
We will listen to the text once again and discuss the words and content

False friends
Exercise F, page 14
Say what the word should be in English /Swedish instead of the false friend

Finally let us do some work from the context web to round off the chapter

make/do
false friends


Practise the past tense
agendaweb.org
http://www.agendaweb.org/exercises/verbs/simple-past-irregular-1
http://www.agendaweb.org/exercises/verbs/simple-past-irregular-2

Have a good week-end!

Revision today

Today we will revise the work we have done as preparation for the test..

We will be using the context web and the text book

Role plays grammar and gleerups web

Today we want to start off with some admin.

Make sure you send in your assignments to the right place and with the right name.  (Look at the wordlist)

A file should always have your name and what it is.

Those of you with mac computers PLEASE don't send in things in pages format- I can't open them in my computer!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Role plays
First work in pairs:
1. Refugee arriving in Sweden from Syria/ volunteer at a reception centre

2. Parent/child discussing excess use of mobile phone/computer

3. Star interview

Groups of four
1. Leaders for Sweden, Germany, Finland and Denmark discussing present situation.  Generous attitude and Restrictive attitude

2. In the train compartment- soldier, housewife, Kamprad and alcoholic discussing life etc.

Grammar
Here is the key for the grammar exercises in the book.

Today we are doing Workout 17, 18 and 19 on page 282.

Workout 19 will be in the test in week 39.

Finally today you will work on your gleerups web.

Exercises 1,2,3 for chapter 1

Don't forget to make a note of which words are used.

Diagnosis

  First of all make sure that things end up in the right place when sending to Vklass .
Meddelande is used for short exercises done in the classroom- listening, grammar etc.

All hand-ins- like wordlists, homework and pieces of writing need to be handed in as a " digitalt inlämnade uppgift"

Today we are going to through the diagnosis with you.

Here is the link to the document.

Afterwards we continue with Chapter 1 and try to finish it off.

We will do a listening (discuss the answers with your neighbour)

and speaking "exercise G". Start with the examples and then make some of your own:-
(Kräftskiva, påskkäringar etc).

Finally we will look at the mini-test we will be doing in two weeks' time

To web or not to web?

Today I am going to try to get you tooled up for the Context 1 web.

You need to log in and create a user profile.

www.gleerupsportal.se

I will hand out the materials.

Hopefully by the end of today you will all be conversant with Vklass and how it works...'

Quiz
I only received two answers for the quiz and neither of them were correct.

So there is still some sweets to be won!

The easiest way will be to send your answers on Vklass
as a regular "message"

Left overs
Vocabulary
1.False friends exercise F page 14



 2. Extra listening exercise- from web

Today
Go off and record the conversation with a new person. Today's subject is "My hobbies"

We will finish at 11.15 today

New week- new challenges

How about your words???? 

 I want you to start off today by speaking to your neighbour about your week-end.
What did you do?
What was good about your week-end?
What was not so good?
Try to ask each other questions practising the use of the Past tense and DID.

Then we will start off with our first text in Context 1

"Panic not mother!"

Write down any new words and their translation.

You will have time at the end of the class to make your sentences..

Today we will have a regular English lesson.

1.Listen to the texts
Answer comprehension questions

2. Speak Choose one of the messages
Do a role play. You are the young person from the gap year.

You come home and discuss the incident with your mother/father.

Now change roles

3. Write a letter of reply to your daughter/son after you have received one of the letters/emails

4. Reading- Read as you listen

5. Vocabulary
False friends exercise F page 14

6. Extra listening exercise- from web

Ready for action!

We will start off today by briefly going through the curriculum (kursplan) and grade guidelines for the course.

As you can see the following activities need to be included in the course:

Reception
Listening (Watching)

• Films
• Lectures (Ted Talks)
• Information (videojug)  
• Youtube clips

• Text book texts (Context web)

Reading

• Text book (Context 1)
• Echo Short Stories
• Literature (1 books- novel or play) 
• Internet- ezines; newspapers(net versions); official sites

Production
Speaking 

• Oral presentations 
• Pair discussions
• Group discussions
• Conversation topics
• Dialogues 
• Debates
• Role plays

Writing

• Assessments
• Stories
• Summaries
• comments
• Opinions
• "Regular" exercises from text book
• presenting a case/argument
• Informal writing (emails etc)
• WORD LISTS

Focus areas

• Chosen area (social sciences/music)
• International perspectives
• Comparison with Sweden
• English-speaking world 

Regular activities

•   Word lists- Every other week (check out Context word list)
• Conversations - Every other week. Here is the document 
• Oral presentations (once or twice a term)
• Literature (one book per term)
• Grammar (when needed but intensively using your computers)

 The rest of today's lesson we shall try to get you record your first conversation.  (Number 15- How I spent my Summer holidays)  Send it to one of my email addresses for the moment.

Once we get going with Vklass ALL hand-ins will be done there
(www.vklass.se) on the course web page.

Next Tuesday I will go through the Diagnostic test with you and we will be starting on the text book.


Don't forget your wordlist! ( Tuesday week 37)

I will give you time to work on that at the end of the class

NOW let's look at the planner

By the way have you seen the first quiz.

First correct answer to michael.hegarty@leksand.se
wins some candy!!

Finally you have a reading assignment for next Tuesday.