Don't be afraid of being who you are!

Today I am presenting you with a  new blog which will be written by my 1st Bachillerato students.
In your entries you have to look for one thing you are very good at or you think you may be good at and use that as a blog entry answering the question:

  What are you an expert in?

The blog post should be from 100 to 120 words, not longer and it should include:

1. When and how you discovered you were good at what you are talking about.
2. What you are doing now to get more experience in that field.
3. If you think you will be able to work on that and how do you see yourself in the future (relating to your expertise, not other things).

In this way, you will be able to use all of the issues that we have been working in class throughout the year, besides all your knowledge about editing a text in a blog. You should post it before the end of May and make use of an image or video which is appropriate with the topic you are dealing.

As always, you can ask me as many questions as you like via Twitter or leaving comments here or asking me in class. I hope we all like this experience!!

Don't be afraid of telling what you are good at!!

Describing photos: New image of the blog

Photo and composition by Ana García

I wanted to change the looks of the blog and I decided to use this photo I took last summer at the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) Art Lab in New York. In this museum, there is a place for families in which people are allowed to touch things and, in this particular one, they had some things displayed so that you could choose and make a composition. This was my own composition in which both New York and Paris are represented, we also see shells and butterflies, which represent elements of nature that I like.

In some official oral tests, you are given a photograph you have to describe, I think this one would be a difficult one to describe. We should try to develop the skill of describing a photo with our students. There are some expressions we should use, such as "at the top, at the bottom, in the middle, on the right side, on the left side" to place our discourse of the description. Other useful expressions are: "we can see, we perceive, we distinguish..." We must always remember to use as many modifiers as possible, like adjectives, prepositional phrases, noun phrases, nouns, relative sentences and so on...Always remember to add your personal opinion in the end, if you like it or not and why.

So, do you feel like describing this one? 

Give it a try! Leave it in a comment!

How would you travel around the world?

Forbes

These days we are reviewing the different means of transport. My mind flew back to the book Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne. In this novel, Phileas Fogg takes a bet on travelling around the world in only 80 days at the end of the 19th century. Have you read this book?
I was wondering, how would this English gentleman do his trip nowadays? What countries would he visit? What forms of transport would he choose? How long would it take him to do this trip?
 I have a challenge for you: Imagine what his travelling plan would be and present it with a PowerPoint or Prezi presentation or, if you prefer, an infographic (you can do one with Piktochart) When you have done it, link it to Twitter and write my name @AnaGarciaTeacha in the tweet. I will choose the best and present them here in the blog. Remember to use the preposition "by"to introduce the means of transport and the different verbs that express movement in any of these transports.
 If you have any questions, do ask in the comments or in class. This hard work will be gratified in the final marks, of course.

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:

How to write a composition (basic guidelines)

The first draft of this post (Ph. by Ana García)

When writing a composition, we may feel scared of the blank paper, that is, a white paper in front of us which we have to fill with 100, probably 120 words. That is the reason why I always tell my students to write a draft beforehand. There are some questions that can help us get started on our composition:

• What is the composition about? What vocabulary will I need?  Do not hesitate, write down all the words or expressions you may remember on that topic, maybe you won't need them all, but you will be able to choose and have a more varied vocabulary.
• What time-line should I follow? Is it present, past or future, or maybe a mixture of all?  Try to figure out what the real time of the composition is, for instance, if you have to narrate something that has already happened, it will be in the past (past simple and continuous, past and present perfect, used to...); however, in the conclusion we may use a future (to say that we will never do something again because we have learnt from it). If possible, draw the time-line and remember the verb tenses and expressions used.
• How many paragraphs should I write? What should each one contain?   Depending on the type of text we are dealing with, we may use three or four paragraphs (probably not more if we have to write only 100-120 words). Normally texts have an introduction (1st paragraph), a body (1 or 2 paragraphs- like in "for and against" compositions) and a conclusion (last paragraph). In the introduction, the topic -person, action, setting- is presented. In the body, we find the more specific information, in "biographies" we normally find different events in a chronological order; in "for and against" compositions, we find one paragraph with reasons for the main topic and another one for reasons against the topic and so on. In the conclusion, you should support a decision for or against the topic or say why you have chosen a particular person, so as to round up the text. Take notes.

Now you have something on the paper, it is time to put it all together and start writing, that will be your first draft, once you have finished, I recommend you to:

• Read your composition slowly and look for grammar or vocabulary mistakes.
• Revise repetitions or redundancies, that is, you do not want to get less marks because you have repeated the same word once and again, look for a different one, you probably know it. Besides, if you have said the same thing twice, try to take it out, it will make your composition redundant and you will miss words to talk about something else which will make your composition richer.
• Try to add connectors, now that you have finished, see if you can make your composition more coherent with the help of connectors of addition, of sequence, of contrast, of reason, of result, of example, of purpose...

Now you are ready to rewrite it in a clean way and hand it in. Was this useful for you?

How to organize your work to pass in September

ClipartPal

Well, we have finished evaluating just this morning and you will see the results of your work of the year tomorrow. Some of you have passed and will rest a little; some have failed some school subjects and will have to work further during the summer. 
For those of you who are in the first or second course of ESO, have failed English and have a 3 or 4 in June you have many chances to pass in September if you work hard during the summer, I wanted to give you some recommendations that I hope you will follow:

• Ask someone who has passed English (with a 7 at least) for their notebooks and complete yours.
• The exam is mainly based on Grammar and Vocabulary, so I recommend you to take out these parts to study them in depth.
• Review your grammar and redo the exercises we have done in class from the book, workbook or even the exams you have copied in class.
• After studying the vocabulary, try to make associations or meaning related groups and write sentences with the new vocabulary; try not to learn them English-Spanish or viceversa!!
• Read the texts we have worked in class from the book or workbook and review the wh-words or question words so that you know exactly what we are asking you. Besides, you can read my blog, this will also increase your reading competence.
• You know this blog is an open channel with my students or other learners of English, therefore, feel free to ask in your comments whatever you want, I will try to answer as soon as possible, but remember that I am on holidays!!

For those of you who are in 1st of Bachillerato, you know already what you have to do; this blog is also open to you if you want to leave any comments, questions or doubts.

Good summer to you all!!

If I were president, I would...

This week we have had our local elections in the class of 4th of ESO. First, all my students wrote a composition with the title "If I were president, I would..." Then, I corrected them; all of my students had very good ideas to overcome the crisis we are in, a bit populist and inmature but very well organised. We set a date for the election and they prepared themselves to give a speech and persuade the rest of their mates to vote for them.

Picture of Manuel's poster.

Many rhetorical devices were used, such as repetition and parallelisms, just like in real political speeches!!! They enjoyed very much their mates oral expositions and I really liked this activity because it fosters speaking in public and, as they were really into getting the votes, they became less anxious about their English and more aware of what communication is all about.

Montse's presentation.

All of them had great ideas and exposed them in a fantastic way, that is why I wanted to thank them, not only for this activity, but for the amazing course that we have had together. I hope next year we are together again. So thank you: Marina, Antonio, María José, Miguel, Ana, Anabel, Francisco Javier, Ángela, Alba, Beatriz, Montse, Javier and Manuel.
If you want to see how I have treated the conditionals in the blog in other ways, check the following:

• What if...?
• What would happen if bees disappeared?
• What a wonderful world.

You can also leave your comments, you know I love them!!!

International Women's Day 2012

Public Local  Clothes Sink at Belalcázar, Córdoba (Spain)
photo taken by Ana García.

I wish...

I wish we did not have to celebrate this day, that is,

 I wish it wasn't necessary. 

Unfortunately, and I see it every day, 

there are many people who still think that women should do certain things and men other certain things; 

these ideas push society backwards, 

they make  it continue the same,

follow in the same mood.

I saw these sinks and thought how hard it was to be a woman not so long ago...

I wish society will move forward,

I wish we don't need to celebrate this day.

What are your wishes?

Leave them in a comment!!

If you want to know more about International Women's Day, why it is celebrated today and so on, have a look at the Wikipedia.

Organising a fashion show (Learning clothes vocabulary)

Clothing Kid

One of the funniest ways to learn vocabulary is to use it in combination with the present continuous form of the verb "to wear" as if the students  in the class were in a fashion show, parents can also do this at home.

In this way , we would have a presenter or two who would say what their mates are wearing, "s/he is wearing..." or only presenting the models and have the models say: "I am wearing..." Remember to use the colours before the clothes items and, for higher levels, the clothes patterns.

It is also fun to prepare this fashion show; they have to decide what clothes would they wear, what the order of the models is, how long do these models have to be on stage... in this way, they use the second language for a communicative purpose and also develop other competences such as learning to learn, social competence, mathematical competence...

You can also find many worksheets and activities on the internet, I leave you some examples I have found which I think suit my students, but there are many more:

• Boggles Worl ESL to download directly in your computer.
• 
  
• Kids in English
• 
  
• My English Printables

Those of my students who send me a commentary describing the children in the picture, will get a reward, so leave your comments!!