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:

Learning vocabulary: Animals' descriptions

Knuthenborg Safaripark, Denmark

In order to improve our vocabulary, one of the best ways is to use new words or expressions in context. There are many activities to do so, I am going to present you one I like doing in my classes.

 When talking about animals, we can teach all the vocabulary related to where they live (geographical features, countries, continents...), what they eat (smaller animals, plants, insects...), the parts of their bodies (beak, tail, wings, legs, arms, feathers, fur, colours...), what they can or can not do (swim, jump, crawl, fly...), their colours and special features (endangered species, use for humans, superlatives ...) and then make our students use it in context.

 I really like to play guessing games with short descriptions of animals; that is, first you give them a model to write a short description of an animal. It is important to let them choose the animals. Then you give them some minutes to choose an animal and write down a short description following the model, then students read out loud and the rest guess the animals.

 

Model composition for oral expression game:

It is a/an (amphibian, mammal, bird, reptile, fish).

It is (colours) and it has got (parts of the body).

It lives in (place).

It can/ can not (verbs).

 

Do you know what is the name of the animal in the photo? Can you make a short description of it? Please try and send your description in a comment!!

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?

MODEL COMPOSITION: Describing a place - SEVILLA

sevilla.org

We are starting to make compositions in 1st of Bachillerato classes and, one of  the first things we do, is organising the information into paragraphs. In order to write a composition describing a place, we have said that we are going to use three paragraphs: introduction, body and conclusion. 

In the introduction, we are going to include the information related to the name of the place, its location and its population, besides from saying why we have chosen to write about that place if we have been given the opportunity to choose. In the body, we can write about many things, mainly the history of its people, their way of life, sightseeing highlights, activities that can be done  particularly in that place and any other thing that we would like to write about. In the last paragraph, we should write about our personal opinion and we could also add a recommendation to visit the place with the reasons to do so.

An example composition about Seville, our city:

Seville is one of the biggest cities in Andalucia, the south of Spain. Its population is of about 700,000 inhabitants.

Seville has been a city for a long time, and many different peoples have lived here, such as the Phoenicians, the Romans and the Moors among others. All these peoples have left many remains of their living here, so we have a great historic city centre with the Cathedral and  the Alcázar, which are part of UNESCO's World Heritage.  Seville is also famous for its impressive Holy Week processions and fantastic April's Fair. Sevillians are people who are used to enjoying life and love doing so in the streets of their magnificent city.

Seville is a great city to visit and walk all year long except for the summer, come and enjoy it.

This composition has got 133 words, which is 13 words more than what we usually ask for (100-120 words); this can be used as a model for you (both students and teachers). Try to get some information about the place before writing and do not copy directly from the source (internet, books...), allow yourself a little time between the reading and the actual writing.

I hope this is helpful for you. Please write comments if it is!!!

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!!!

Model composition: What did you do last weekend?

Helping and motivating our students to write is part of our work as teachers of a language, it is hard work because it implies correcting and assessing lots of compositions...

A good way to make it easy is to give them  a model composition, and then, ask them to follow the model with their own information. Here follows an example that answers (in part) the question in the title:

Last weekend I had a great time. On Saturday morning, I went to Córdoba with my family by train. First, we went to the train station and bought the tickets. Then, we got on the train and arrived at Córdoba very quickly. After that,we visited the Mezquita. Next, we went to a very famous restaurant and ate very well. Finally, we took the train back to Seville. It was a fun and interesting day!

Depending on the level of our students, we can give them the model taking out more or less information; we can give them the verbs they would need or the sequence connectors and so on. Thanks to the Digital Interactive Whiteboards we have in our classes nowadays, we can directly erase the information in class, in this way, it is more visual for our students and therefore, easier to rememember what information  they need to complete their compositions.

Students usually like to write about real, personal topics, it is easier for them because they do not have to imagine anything. In addition to this, they get to know and respect  their mates when they are allowed to read or listen to their mates' compositions.

There is a nice story-maker at the British Council for kids.

So, what did you do last weekend?
Leave your comments and tell us!!!

School Holidays, a "For and Against Composition"

Many people think that students have too many vacations. It even seems that in Spain they are longer than in the rest of the world. But, should we have less holidays? Is it that the reason why our academic results are so bad in comparison to the rest of Europe?

On the one hand, we have 175 (secondary) to 180 (primary) school days, whereas in Finland, one of the countries that gets better academic results,or the United Kingdom, they only have ten more days. In France or the USA, the number is the same. However, there are countries where the number is much higher such as Germany (220) or Japan (240). 

On the other hand, I do think that, as a result of our climate and the underdeveloped infrastructures in our schools, we do not get a well-balanced calendar having too much time of recess in the summer because of high temperatures and very short periods of holidays during the course. Our  students are very tired  throughout the school year and tend to forget all they have learnt  in summer time.

Some people think that our educational system has to be changed, I agree with that. Nevertheless, I do not think it necessary to get more school days, I think it would be enough if we could just get a proportioned calendar.

What do you think? Leave your comments!!