Questions, Questions ..."Who Hit Who?"

Wednesday 22^nd October, 2014

Hello boys and girls!

We started our class yesterday sorting out who hit who at break time!

It seems that John hit Dave and Simon; but George hit John!

Mark hit Andrew and Paul; but George and Dave hit him!

To sum up: everybody hit everybody! Boys and fighting!

After that, we commented on the following information by making questions for the given answers.

“A woman was murdered”

·         Where was she murdered?

·         Who discovered the body?

·         Where did they discover the body?

·         Who are the police looking for?

·         Why are the police looking for him?

·         What time did he leave the hotel?

·         What did he take?

·         What was the dead woman’s name?

We matched some pieces of scripts from different languages to the language we thought they belonged to. Then, we went on (continued) talking about languages. We read a piece of information about Esperanto and asked and answered questions about it.

Can you tell me where these languages are spoken?

Urdu, Hindi, Thai

We brainstormed ideas for our “Flipped Class” that will take place (will happen) next Wednesday. On that day, we’ll swap (exchange).You will become the teachers and you will give class to younger students. Remember that your homework consists in looking for materials related to Halloween for teaching this class to younger students.

Apart from this, don’t forget to do the exercise on questions and answers that I gave you. And, finally, Noelia will start writing a story on our blog. Rodrigo will continue the story next week.

Paula, although you didn’t come to class, you also have to collaborate searching for material for next class. And of course, do your homework. GL for your exam!

We finished the class with a made-up story (invented) using the pictures from the dice of a game.

GAME 4                       

Player 1	8
Player 2	8
Player 3	7
Player 4	11
Player 5	---
Player 6	9
Player 7	9

Enjoy the week!

C.U.!

"Hi! How's ur weekend going? RUOK?"

Wednesday 15 th October

What did we do last Wednesday?

We started the class speaking about languages. You had interesting opinions. But you aren’t much of debating people! Debates consist in exchanging points of view and defend your opinions. It’s not only saying “yes, I agree”. “OK”.

And of course, you don’t have to limit yourselves to read what you wrote and …that’s it! Come on! Start speaking English!

The good thing was that you did homework and found answers for the questions I made you. Well done!

We asked and answer questions to find out (discover) if you have ever been abroad (to a foreign country) and what languages you spoke there.

Apart from the languages spoken all over the world, there is a new language developing no matter which country we talk about; it is ‘the internet language’. I’m sure you don’t use proper (common) Spanish when you text your friends, do you? The same happens with English. People use abbreviations and acronyms. We talked about them in our previous class. On Wednesday we watched a couple of videos on this subject. And then, we wrote messages for our classmates to decipher.

 You can watch the videos here:

 

We did a quiz in teams. The winners were Natalia and Jorge.

The quiz was called “50 years of pop”. I know you hadn’t been born yet! Neither was I and I’m much older! But it’s history! We weren’t born in the Middle Ages and we study the kings, queens and lifestyle; don’t we?

With this quiz we learnt about questions with and without auxiliaries.

·      When did Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen, die?

·      Whose husband was the film director Guy Ritchie?

·      What happened to Mick Jagger in 2004?

·      Which band included Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel?

·      Where did the Eagles stay in their 1976 song?

·         When the subject is the question word, we don’t use the auxiliary verb.

Who wrote ‘Hamlet’? Shakespeare.

(The subject is “who”)

·         In the other cases we follow the order in questions:

Question Word            Auxiliary verb   Subject            Infinitive?

Which famous play      did                 Shakespeare      write? ‘Hamlet’

We will continue with our topic “Languages” and explaining questions without auxiliary verbs. Don’t forget to do the exercise on the ‘melee’ at break time! “Who hit who?” this is homework!!!

GAME 3                 I gave you 2 points for homework,+ the points you got in the quiz game.

Player 1	6
Player 2	6
Player 3	6
Player 4	7
Player 5	7
Player 6	5
Player 7	6

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

C.U. !

A Game: Out of Context, Acronyms & Abbreviations

Wednesday 8^th October, 2014

Hi guys! How’s everything? Are you OK?

I hope Rodrigo passes his exam as he didn’t come to class because he had to study. Good Luck!

What did we do in class?

We learnt – at least tried to – to express possibility and uncertainty. We played a guessing game called “out of context”. We had cards with pictures of people. The background (the rest of the details) has been removed. The aim (objective) of the game was deducing what the man was doing from his facial expression, gestures and posture. If they guess at the first try, they get 4 points. For every clue (there are three) a point is deduced.

Then, we learnt how to spell letters and symbols that don’t exist in English. How? Explaining how to write that letter or describing what it looks like. Last week we learnt that “ñ” is called “Spanish n” or “an ‘n’ with a curly line above it” So, how do you spell: ¿(¡*ñ©ü)?

One thing led to another and we talked about signs in email address and printed symbols. And we also talked about internet acronyms and abbreviations.

Do you remember what these acronyms and abbreviations mean?

GL   NM   IOW   JAS   GFY   HF   AOB

CU   IC   W8   4U   RUOK?

Watch this video and learn more:

Acronyms & Abbreviations

And we finished the class talking about languages.

For homework – yes, I know it’s Fiestas; but I think you may make an effort and write a short paragraph about languages. These are the questions you have to answer in your essay:

·         What languages do you think are the most important or useful in the world?

·         What language would you like to learn? Why?

·         Would it be a good idea that an only language was spoken all over the world? Why?

This is the result of our 2^nd Games

Player 1	9
Player 2	5
Player 3	8
Player 4	9
Player 5	5
Player 6	----
Player 7	9

See you next Wednesday!!

Have a nice weekend despite of the rain!

Maybe, perhaps, I've Got No Idea...

Wednesday 1^st October, 2014

Hello again!

We revised countries and nationalities so as to talk about the origin of products and produce. But, what’s the difference between these two words?

Look at these dictionary entries:

product LISTEN:USUK  /ˈprɒdʌkt/ n. [countable]

1. a thing produced by labor:farm products.
2. all the goods or services that a company produces:the gross national product.

produce LISTEN:USUK  /ˈprɒdjuːs/ n. prod•uce ,[uncountable]

1.    agricultural products thought of as a group, esp. vegetables and fruits: The farmers sell produce from the back of their trucks.

2.       anything that is produced; product

brand LISTEN:USUK   /brænd/ n. [countable]

1.    make or version of a product, as indicated by a trademark or the like: the best brand of coffee.

2.    a particular product or a characteristic that serves to identify a particular product

make LISTEN:USUK  /meɪk/ n. [countable]

1.    the style in which something is made;

2.    form, brand:a foreign make of car.

Do you remember where these products come from?

Where does maple syrup come from?	It comes from Canada.
Where do tulips come from?	They come from Holland.
Where’s caviar from?	It is from Iran.
Where are kiwis from?	They are from New Zealand.

Where + do /does + …+come from?

Where + is/are+ … + from?

But sometimes we aren’t sure about things. That’s why we use expressions of possibility and uncertainty.

    1.        We can use – may / could / might + infinitive.

What time is it?

I don’t know. It may be seven o’clock. (You are a bit surer)

I don’t know. It could /might be seven o’clock. (You are less sure)

    2.        Maybe, perhaps

Perhaps it is seven o’clock. Maybe, it’s seven o´clock.

    3.        Other Expressions of uncertainty.

Uncertain	I’m not sure
	I’m not certain
	I’m not completely sure
	I’m really not sure
	I’ve got no idea
More uncertain	He doesn’t have a clue!

We listened to some people using these expressions and then we practised them with a game. And you got points for it.

For homework, write sentences using the following expressions of uncertainty: may, might, could, I’ve got no idea, I’m not sure, I’m not certain.

Exercise on possibility /probability verbs

We started our games competition. This is the score for the first games:

GAME 1

Player 1	5
Player 2	5
Player 3	5
Player 4	7
Player 5	4
Player 6	5
Player 7	8

See you next Wednesday!!

Have a nice week!

Don’t forget to do homework if you want 2 extra points!

 Exercises on possibility /probability