Thursday, 26 January 2012

What happened last week. Did anything exciting or special happen to you? We talked about the four films that are mentioned at the beginning of unit 3B Crime stories. You prepared for this at home by googling for information on these movies. I have added the story lines for each of them here. They are all from IMBb or the Internet Movie Database, an excellent site to find information about most films ever made: 
Plot summary Witness
Plot summary for Catch Me If You Can
Plot summary for Ocean's Eleven
Plot summary for Fargo
I also handed out short summaries of these four films. For next week prepare activity 2C. Choose at least one assignment to which you answer the questions. 
We finished by answering the comprehension questions with stave 2 of A Christmas Carol. Please read stave 3 for next week and again answer the questions that go with it.

Thursday, 19 January 2012

Last week we talked about crimes and punishment. Quite a few of you have had experiences with being a victim of crime. We kicked off this session with you telling us your stories in English. This involved using the past tense, giving descriptions and expressing emotions and feelings.
We finished the unit on Breaking the law with activity 3 and we will start unit 3B Crime stories next week. We rounded off our weekly meeting with discussing stave 1 of A Christmas Carol by answering the comprehension questions with it that are on the list I handed out last week. We agreed to read and discuss one stave a week in this fashion.

Thursday, 12 January 2012

I handed out the vocabulary lists to Let's Talk 3, unit 2, Expressing yourself. Once again it can also be found here. You can import this list, and the other Let's Talk vocabulary lists I created before, to your own account at wrts. Once imported you can add your own words and use the 'extra' option to listen to the correct pronunciation. How to import lists to your own account can be seen here.
We finished unit 2 by having a look at page 97 and we started unit 3 on Crime and punishment. Unit 3A deals with crime and criminals. We talked about how we personally judge the severity of different crimes and we talked about suitable punishment. Activity 3A and 3B should be prepared at home for next session.
We ended by talking a bit more about A Christmas Carol. I handed out a list with comprehension questions with each stave of the book and we agreed to discuss staves 1 and 2 next week.

Happy 2012!

Stave 4, the penultimate chapter to Charles Dickens' classic story as retold by Kieran McGovern:

Stave 5, the final installment of A Christmas Carol: