Using your mobile phone when driving or riding a vehicle is dangerous. If you’re caught using a hand-held phone while driving, you could be prosecuted.
Therefore, use modal verbs (should, mustn't, have to, must) to make sentences about using hand-held phones while you are driving.
Be careful when you are driving, you must pay attention to the road and never get distracted!
Find out why using your phone when driving is distracting, what the penalties are and when it is safe to use your phone. Click on hand-held phones to get more information about it.
As some of you already know, the EOI Carlota Remfry is launching a Christmas Charity Campaign to help local charity LINARES ACOGE and community groups. The campaign, which will run until the 2nd December, is all about encouraging students to help out and donate non-perishable food that will benefit Linares Acoge's food bank.
As I told you in class the photocopier didn't work at the school. So, I decided to upload your homework for Wednesday.
Go to DOCS section, A2 folder, and you'll find it. It the document called Will_Won't (Predictions). And, you have to do the reading exercise 1 on page 32 (Student's Book), sections a, b and c.
As Christmas is approaching, I'm wiritng to inform you about the activities the EOI has scheduled to fit the season!!! First of all, I already told you about the Xmas Cards Contest. Here you are all you have to know about the rules and the prize!!!
As for the Xmas Cooking Contest, here are the rules! To celebrate Xmas at the EOI, we're giving you the chance to win a prize too! Simply cook or bake a delicious Xmas recipe and show it off to the EOI world! Describe what you have made. The most creative recipe will win the prize.
Finally, I want to add here the information about the Xmas Party itself!!! We will also sing Xmas Carol, of course!!!! And we will celebrate the best Xmas Card and the best Xmas dishes!!!
Last week we travelled from the UK (London) to France (Avignon) by three different means of transport: plane, train and car. The reading and listening exercises let us know some important phrasal verbs dealing with travelling such as set off, take off, fill up with, look forward to, get on/off, etc. This was a warm-up exercise to revise and talk about comparatives and superlatives. We also learnt how to express the amount of time needed to complete a particular journey with How long does it take... (+ verb)? It takes (me) half an hour to get... .
As for vocabulary, we learnt some specific words such as rush hour, traffic jam, seat, service station, etc. but you had some homework about transport and travel vocabulary (page 148) for the weekend that we are going to correct this week.
Then, we also talked about the 25th November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Individually or in groups, you wrote sentences in English against domestic violence with Jeanette because the slogan this year is "Please, don't punch my mum" and we created a poster with all your sentences. If you want to see the final result, go to the EOI Coeducation Blog. I also told some of you to write your sentence on the virtual Koowall on the Coeducation Blog.
We also talked about domestic violence and saw and comment an ad about it. For those of you who didn't come to class, here is the video to make you think about the problem.
I told you that I was going to upload the video and you could translate it, but I have to synchronize first the video. So, I'll upload it with the subtitles during the week and you'll be able to translate it then.
Hope this time you participate more than you did on Koowall!!
Last week we learnt how to express future in English with be going to and the present continuous tense in an airport context. It was a bit difficult to understand the tiny difference between the uses of both structures but you finally grasped it! We listened to a girl from Lithuania who came to London six months ealier to check if she had fullfill her plans. We also learnt three phrasal verbs with look, i.e. look for, look after and look forward to (+ ing).
As for pronunciation, we focused on sentence stress. In English we stress (pronounce strongly) the words in a sentence which are the most important for communication, and we say the other words more lightly.
We also revised the expression of future with be going to and the present continuous tense with a worksheet. However, I also promised you some extra information about how to differenciate the uses of both structures.
PRESENT CONTINUOUS FOR THE FUTURE
BE GOING TO FOR THE FUTURE
Then, we also talked about the 25th November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. In pairs, you wrote sentences in English against domestic violence because the slogan this year is "Please, don't punch my mum" and we created a poster with all your sentences. If you want to see the final result, go to the EOI Coeducation Blog.
We also talked about child abuse and we saw and comment a video. For those of you who didn't come to class, here is the video to make you think about the problem.
I told you that I was going to upload the video and you could translate it, but I have to synchronize first the video. So, I'll upload it with the subtitles during the week and you'll be able to translate it then.
Finally, you have some homework for the weekend: vocabulary exercise 2 about opposite verbs (unit 3B) and the vocabulary bank about it on page 149.
The annual Thanksgiving tradition in the United States traces back to the 17thcentury. In 1621, after a hard and devastating first year in the New World, the English Pilgrims had a very successful and plentiful fall harvest. The Pilgrims soon made peace with the local Native American tribe, the Wampanoag. To celebrate the harvest, the Pilgrims and the Native Americans joined together to feast. Since then, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November.
A traditional Thanksgiving dinner includes: roasted turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and rolls. No Thanksgiving dinner is complete without a pumpkin pie for dessert!
Other Thanksgiving Day traditions include the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade through New York City. Macy's, a famous department store, sponsors the parade. The parade include floats, Santa Claus, and the Radio City Rockettes. Another Thanksgiving tradition includes watching the professional football games that are played in the afternoon. Two teams, the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys, host games every year.
Finally, I include here the Pumpkin Pie Recipe to test your cookery skills! Please, post some comments to share your results in the kitchen!!!
Pumpkin Pie Recipe
Ingredients
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 cups pumpkin purée
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups evaporated milk
1 9-inch pie shell
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 425° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. In a large bowl, combine brown sugar, cornstarch, salt, ginger, cinnamon, pumpkin purée and 3 eggs. Beat well. Add evaporated milk and combine. Set aside.
2. Fill pie shell with pumpkin mixture. Transfer to prepared baking sheet.
3. Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350° F and continue baking for 30 more minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
Here I am again!!! I'm writing to inform you about some new resources where you can practise English @ home. I'm going to include them in the Support Material section so that you can access them easily. Well, the first one is a web page where you can solve some grammar doubts: http://www.drgrammar.org/frequently-asked-questions. I though you would find it quite interesting for your writing and oral skills.
If you enjoy reading the newspaper, here is a web page where you can also learn English apart from reading the news across the USA: The Voice of America. It also provides mp3 files if you want to listen to the texts.
On the other hand, if you prefer listening to the radio, here it is BBC Radio 4. It is full of amazing podcasts and articles to help you follow the speech.
Did you think I had no dictation for you? Bad mistake! :) Here it is! Just five sentences about how to book a hotel room. Wait for the audio file to finish loading before listening to it. I also found a web page about hotel vocabulary: At the hotel. You can also do an exercise about it and listen to some of those sentences, but you need to download a programme. Up to you!
I've just found this dictation and thought it would be great if you did it at home! It's a news radio programme. You have to listen to it first and then click on "pulsa aquí para el STEP 2". Please, post some comments to tell your classmates your impression about it!
Here it is what we've done this week in class. We started a new section on the book dealing with changes in our lives. We listened to a woman who took a year off to follow her husband, an English teacher in Beirut. This let us introduce the present perfect continuous tense and we practised it with some grammar exercises and a speaking exercise. As for pronunciation, we learnt about sentence stress with a dictation.
We also had a great speaking exercise with Jeanette where people had 1-minute conversations with most of classmates. We corrected a reading exercise about two brave women who decided to change their lives too. Grammar aspects dealt with strong adjectives e.g. tiny, delicious, furious, terrible, starving, etc.
Finally, we watched the film Precious on Friday afternoon as a preliminary to the celebration of the International Day of the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
This week we corrected the writing section on your book and you handed in your compositions describing a photo and the story behind it. You also practise this with Jeanette. We also had a look at some important vocabulary about hotels, receptions and problems involving calling reception.
We also had fun with a revise and check contest dealing with vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation taught in Unit 2. It was great seeing how fast you learn and how competitive you are! ;)
Finally, we revised past simple and past continuous on Friday, listened to some situations at the hotel and played a kind of "telephone game" using linking words but, although, because and so.
Armistice Day is on November the 11th every year. It commemorates the end of World War I on the 11th of November 1918. It was on this day that the Allies and Germany signed a ceasefire that was the beginning of the end of the Great War.
Armistice Day is observed all over the world. In many countries, people stop what they are doing for a two-minute moment of silence at 11:00 a.m. This is a sign of respect for those who died. In Britain, there is another name for Armistice Day - Remembrance Sunday. In 1939, the British government moved Armistice Day to the Sunday nearest November 11. In America, the day is also called Veterans Day. Children in Commonwealth countries know these days by another name – Poppy Day. People wear poppies and donate money to charities for soldiers injured in wars. Poppies are a symbol of the blood that filled the trenches.
Click on here to learn more about Armistice Day and do some extra reading, listening and vocabulary activities
Click on BBC video to watch a clip about Remembrance poppy maker.
First of all, sorry I haven't published this weekly summary earlier, but I've been increadibly busy with work at the weekend. Anyway, better late than never!
Last weekwe started and finished unit 2A on your books. We listened to Shania Twain's song Ka-Ching! and we learnt some useful vocabulary about money both in the song and in the Vocabulary Bank, such as afford, loan, mortgage, broke, currency, take out, invest, inherit, owe, etc. We also revised the most common uses of the present perfect and contrasted this tense with the past simple.
You also revise money vocabulary with Jeanette by taking a quiz. Then you read a text about a woman called Heidemarie, who has a particular attitud towards money. You also learnt some phrasal verbs, i. e., turn up, give away and set up.
Then, we had a look at numbers (figures) and how to pronounce them, specially decimals and fractions. To consolidate the point, we listened to a news bulletin full of figures and you had to recognise them according to the news items.
Finally, as homework, you had to correct the mistakes on your compositions according to the correction symbols I explained to you. You also had to complete a worksheet with the present perfect and the past simple and take the Are you experienced? quiz.
To start with, sorry for not publishing this weekly summary earlier, but I've been extremely busy with work during the weekend. Anyway, better late than never!
Last week we corrected the reading exercise to finish unit 2C on the book and we listened to John Lennon's song Imagine. We also revised grammar with a photocopy about making questions with and without auxiliaries. Jeanette also taught you things about how to describe things in terms of colour, positions, etc. in a painting or a photograph.
Then, we started unit 2D and we learnt some useful linking words to tell or summarise a story: because, so, but, although. We also revise past simple and past continuous by reading the short story of Hannah and Jamie, a story with a twist at the end. We could learn interesting verb phrases such as invite somebody to dinner, knock on the door, wait for somebody, take somebody to a restaurant, be in a hurry, etc.
As for pronunciation, we revise schwa and learnt the five most common sound produced by letter a in English. Here you are the clip about schwa if you want to practise it at home, right?
I also posted two useful worksheet for your own benefit: one about extra linking words and another one about useful vocabulary to describe a photograph or a painting.
Finally, as homework, I asked you to write a similar composition to that in the writing section of the book. However, you also had to write an extra paragraph describing what you could see in the picture.
What about practising listening at home? This is an incredibly useful website to do it: www.cuevana.tv. There are lots of films and tv series in original version, and most of them allow for the possibility of both English and/or Spanish subtitles. The website is tremendously updated; you can watch films that haven't even been released in Spain!!
It is very good practice to watch films with subtitles because it helps to associate English spelling and pronunciation. As you know, pronunciation doesn't usually match the spelling. At this level, the ideal thing would be to watch a film or a tv series that you know or like with Spanish subtitles. When you feel ready, change the subtitles into English!
Finally, it would be a very good idea to leave a short comment on the films/tv series you've watched in original version recommending them (or not) to your classmates.
Here you are an interesting video about voiced and unvoiced sounds in Past Simple regular verb endings: -ed. It helps you to identify the right pronunciation of -ed endings.
I've unexpectedly come across a very interesting resource to help you hear, repeat and learn the sounds of English. It's the new British Council interactive phonemic chart. Click on the sound itself to listen how it is pronounced or click on the top right hand corner of each symbol to hear sample words including the sounds.
Click here to access the interactive phonemic chart
According to our last lesson, you still found it difficult to distinguish between questions with or without auxiliaries. Here you are a short explanation about subject and object questions and a worksheet about it. Try to do the exercises without looking at the answers ;)
This is the blog for my A2 and B1 students. I intend it to be a living space where we can communicate and share ideas, impressions and materials that may be useful for all of us. It will also help to keep a record of what we do in class every week.
