Simple past 3

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In this unit we are talking about the past, what has happened to people in their lives, we are writing biographies, singing songs about the past, learning the past simple and past participle of irregular verbs...
To continue with that practise, I strongly recommend this worksheet by Cambridge University Press. You can have a look at the answers too.

Jane Austen's biography.

Wikipedia

We are starting to write short biographies in our 2nd of ESO classes and the two examples we have in our course book are male. That is the reason why I am giving you the model and the information to write about this woman called JANE AUSTEN.

Model:

v  Jane Austen was a _____________________________.   She wrote _____________. v  She was born in  _______________________________. Ø  When she was a child, ______________________________. Ø  When she was older, _______________________. v  In ______________________, she _______________________________. Ø  The next year, she ______________________________. She died in ____________.

Information to fill the biography:

Simple past and Shrek

In order to practice the simple past, we are going to listen to and sing this song which appears in the film Shrek. It is a very good song because you see many past forms and also the past of can, the modal verb could. 

I am going to write here the lyrics to have them at hand and work with them in class, but the best part of this lesson is that you get to sing a very funny song:

I thought love was

Only true in fairy tales
Meant for someone else
But not for me
Love was out to get to me
That's the way it seems
Disappointment haunted
All my dreams

Simple past: Irregular verbs 2.

Anglais-facile.com

This is the last part of the entry of 10.2.2013. In this post, we find the charts of the three words verbs.

The first chart is that of three different words for the infinitive (in this case base form), the simple past and the past participle are different, the last form always ends in the suffix -en:

Spanish	Infinitive	Simple past	Past participle
Ser, estar	Be	Was/were	Been
Romper	Break	Broke	Broken
Elegir	Choose	Chose	Chosen
Hablar	Speak	Spoke	Spoken
Robar	Steal	Stole	Stolen
Despertarse	Wake	Woke	Woken
Morder	Bite	Bit	Bitten
Esconderse	Hide	Hid	Hidden
Conducir	Drive	Drove	Driven
Montar	Ride	Rode	Ridden
Escribir	Write	Wrote	Written
Caerse	Fall	Fell	Fallen
Olvidar	Forget	Forgot	Forgotten
Comer	Eat	Ate	Eaten
Dar	Give	Gave	Given
Coger	Take	Took	Taken
Ver	See	Saw	Seen
Helarse	Freeze	Froze	Frozen

Look well for your Valentine!!!

Tomorrow is the 14th February, Saint Valentine's Day. I like to use this date to remind my students how important it is to recognise if our love mates and us make a healthy couple. Since many of them are starting to be in relationships, I would like them to think about what roles each of them have and how this affects the couple and will affect their future lives.

There is a very good guide by an expert called Juan Ignacio Paz Rodríguez called Relaciones y Parejas Saludables. 

I hope you all have a Happy Valentine Day!!!

Simple Past: irregular verbs.

anglais-facile.com

In this unit, in 2nd ESO, we are starting to learn about the past. One of the most difficult things about the past is the endless list of irregular verbs that we have to learn becuase they are the most common verbs (you can check this at the Red Words game at MacMillan Dictionary Blog). In order to learn them, we are going to try and make it easier for our brains to learn them by splitting them into different groups, as you can see in this great mindmap.
Irregular verbs are irregular because they do not follow a rule, as the adding of the suffix -ed at the end of the verb as explained in this other post.

We are following the classification of the mindmap above to make different groups to learn these verbs, we start with one word irregular verbs, that is, the infinitive, simple past and past participle are the same:

Spanish	Infinitive	Simple past	Past participle
Costar	Cost	Cost	Cost
Cortar	Cut	Cut	Cut
Golpear	Hit	Hit	Hit
Herir	Hurt	Hurt	Hurt
Dejar, permitir	Let	Let	Let
Poner	Put	Put	Put
Cerrar	Shut	Shut	Shut

Twitter addict

As you know, I have just recently created my Twitter account (@AnaGarciaTeacha) which I use mainly for professional purposes. As you also know, you can only write up to 140 characters on Twitter tweets (if you want to know more about Twitter, have a look at this post in this blog). This has developed a new language made of unpronounceable acronyms and shortenings of words that users of this network use and know as their ABCs (basic things).
This language is also used in other new communication media such as text messages or messages via Whatsapp (pun on what's up and app - short for application) because they are faster to write than complete messages. I have taken the ones you see from the Macmillan Dictionary blog which has a section on buzzwords and also from Harley Hahn's website.

Is there such a list in the Spanish language?
Do you know what the tweet means? 
Write it in a comment!!!

Past simple: the beginning.

This week we are starting with the past. We use the simple past mainly to talk about things that happened in the past and are finished, that is, for narratives. We will  only be working on the affirmative form of the simple past of both regular and irregular verbs. When talking about the simple past in English, it is important to highlight the fact that there is only one form, no matter what the subject is.

Students find it more complicated to learn the irregular form of verbs, but for me, it is also important to be able to learn how to pronounce the regular verbs' suffix  -ed (or other spelling counterparts such as -ied - for words ending in consonant+y, -d -for words ending already in -e, or double consonant+ed - in words mostly of one syllable ending in short vowel and consonant). I like this video very much because it explains it very well.
At the MacMillan dictionary website, you can find their brilliant MacMillan irregular verbs learning wheel, to practise all irregular verbs in all their forms.
You can also practise them at Verbbusters, choosing your own level.
This is a nice game which we will play in the class, if you want to pratice it at home, you will win when the time comes. This one is a domino: Kubbu.
If you have any questions, I hope you leave a comment!!

Future tenses for Bachillerato

What will the future bring?

As I see it, the present and the past belong to the level of reality, whereas the future is a much more diverse and loose time as it has never happened, that is, it does not belong to reality. This is the reason why I think Spanish speakers find it so hard to speak properly about the future in English, because it depends on what the speaker thinks and not a given time, with its corresponding time expression.

I'm going to try and simplify the different uses we see in 1st of Bachillerato with the corresponding tenses or modals used: 

Uses	Tense/Modal/Periphrasis	Form
Timetables&schedules	Present simple	V/Vs
Long-term predictions            Spontaneous decisions            Offers            Promises	Will	Will+infinitive (V)
Closed plans	Present continuous	To be+gerund (Ving)
Short-term predictions            Intentions	Be going to	Be going to+infinitive (V)
Action happening at a given time in the future	Future continuous	Will be+gerund (Ving)
Action finished at a given time in future	Future perfect	Will have+past participle (Ved)

If you want more practice on these uses, you can visit the following pages:

• Mixed future at English Exercises
• Future perfect at Englisch-Hilfen.
• Will vs. be going to at English Page.
•  Or many others at this blog by an English Teacher: El blog de Isabel Carballo

I hope this is helpful for you! 

Have a nice weekend!!